Busy Busy

Hello from the cottage! I am enjoying some quiet time to myself this morning...I've been up for a while, have done some wedding emails, and am now enjoying my coffee and looking out at the St. Lawrence River.

Lots of things have been happening lately, so here we go!

Our friend Phil from New Zealand got a 1 year working holiday Visa so he's in Canada now and came for a visit last week. It was so nice to see him again! We mostly relaxed at the cottage, but also did a 1000 Islands boat cruise from Rockport, went up to Ottawa and did a Parliament tour, and took him to see our new place in Aylmer.

Speaking of that, we signed a lease on an apartment! It feels good to have that done. Gavin and I went up for the day on Sunday and puttied the walls and sanded them down. This weekend and a couple days next week we'll go back up to tape and paint. That way, after our wedding, we'll be able to move in and set up. So exciting! We decided on a paint colour for the living room, dining room, kitchen and hallways (it's called "toasted cashew") but we're still undecided on what colour(s) to paint our bedroom and the guest room/office. So many choices!

We love love love our new car. Although, when we were out to dinner in Ottawa with Phil last week, someone hit us (just the plastic bumper) but they left a plate number or something on our windshield (they wrote it in the rain) so we've emailed our insurance guy to ask what to do. The damage is extremely minimal but better safe than sorry! Anyways, it's a great car and very comfortable and it drives beautifully. The sport suspension is a bit much at times, but I think that can be fixed.

Our wedding is in 11 days so we're really busy with trying to do last minute things for that. It's going well though, and we're just doing a bit at a time. My mum and sister are going to help me with some things this afternoon so we can tick more more things off the list - it feels good to get things done!

Gavin has been working at his sister's clinic and I've been working at my dad's office. It's nice to get some extra money (okay, money period!). I'm definitely looking forward to being back on salary, though! I start work on August 25th and I am pretty excited to be back. However, I know that when I'm back at work I'll wish it were still summer vacation, so I'm trying to enjoy each day for what it is!

I'll post some pictures of our new car and apartment soon :)

Lots of errands...

Well the past few days have been pretty busy! We bought phones, registered at Sears, and bought a car!

We bought a 2006 Mazda 6 GT Sport. It was a good price and fully loaded - grey with black leather interior, sunroof, lots of space, and a CD changer. We registered at Sears and have an appointment to register at The Bay on Sunday. There are a more things that we could use in our future home than we thought, but still not as much as usual. We also got phones - I don't even know what Gavin got but I got a Blackberry, which I have no idea how to use, so tomorrow will entail relaxing, lounging, and learning how to navigate our way through our phones!

Needless to say, we're looking forward to Canada Day tomorrow and the long weekend so we can relax at the cottage and take a breath.

Wedding plans are coming along. We met with the caterers yesterday and taste-tested the salmon (delicious!) and talked about the menu. We have been getting reply cards and are figuring out center pieces and decorations. We have our band all set up and are really looking forward to August 7th - 38 days!!

I went into work on Monday and got my workload - I am teaching two grade 10 English groups and three grade 9 History groups. I start work again on August 25th and am looking forward to it. It'll be good to get back into a routine.

That's it for us - until next time...

More Canadian Soil

Good morning from Vancouver! It’s not yet 7am and I’m sitting on the couch at Bryce and Chantelle’s house, overlooking Vancouver and waiting for my coffee to be ready. Gavin woke up a little while ago and has gone for a walk – I think he likes having quiet time, especially in the midst of all the busyness! Vancouver has been great, but it’s definitely more grandiose than Christchurch…or any other city we’ve spent any amount of time in this last year! The skyscrapers are insanely high, and there are so many of them. There are people everywhere, and they’ve all got somewhere to be. It’s never quiet. It’s a real change of pace here, and that’s been a huge shock to our systems, for sure. Cities in New Zealand had a few 10-15 story skyscrapers, if any, really, most people were tourists so they were doop-de-dooing along, and it was generally peaceful and relaxed. This is my first time here, but between the “culture shock” and jet leg, I’m definitely looking forward to another visit in the future when my head is a bit clearer!

Yesterday Gavin and Bryce went out to finalize their “outfits” for our wedding. I don’t get to know what they are wearing. Gavin says that my dress is a surprise so his outfit is a surprise, too. Fair enough! We met his friend Tom for lunch and then we headed out to UBC to walk around campus. Not in stark contrast to New Zealand and Vancouver, the UBC campus is insanely huge compared to Bishop’s! It is definitely a pretty campus, though, especially the rose gardens with the ocean in the background. The sun even came out for a while as we were sitting on the bench, having a coffee and a cookie (two coffees and a cookie for under $5 – amazing!) enjoying the view.

Last night we went to Erik and Sara’s for dinner and games. It was a good night, but we didn’t get into bed until after 11pm and we were up at 6:15. Not as much sleep as I thought our bodies would need…I’m sure the flights, time differences, and overall exhaustion will set in soon enough! We figure when we get back to Ontario…that weekend will be busy but tiring. That’s the name of the game, I suppose!

Today we need to tidy up our room here. We arrived on Sunday and literally plunked our bags down, and instead of being alert enough to realize we should have some semblance of organization, we have been throwing things everywhere trying to find that top or those shorts or a clean pair of underwear. After that and some breakfast, we are going to check out Stanley Park and Granville Island (didn’t make it yesterday) before meeting my friend John Horn, hopefully his wife-to-be (11 days!) Michelle, and Gavin’s friend Newman for a drink late this afternoon.

Gavin is back from his walk, so we’re going to have breakfast and start our day. More when we return to Ontario…

Back On Canadian Soil

Hello all,

Just a very quick blog entry to say that we made it back to Canada, safe and sound! We are in Vancouver, visiting some friends and checking out the city before heading to Ottawa on Thursday, June 24th.

Our flight was good...very, very long but good! There were a lot of movie, TV and game choices to keep us somewhat occupied for the 3.5 hour flight from Christchurch-Sydney and the 14.5 hour flight from Sydney-Vancouver.

Today we walked around Vancouver a bit and then Chantelle (Gavin's best man's wife) and I went to the spa for facials. It was so relaxing - I fell asleep a few times! Then we played some cards, ordered pizza for dinner, and we're just about ready for bed. Neither of us slept much on the plane (I don't think Gav slept at all!) we made it to 10:15pm Vancouver time - hopefully we sleep well!

Until our next posting...

Love, E&G

Last Weekend...and Week!

As I write this, we have 7 more sleeps left until we are Vancouver-bound…but by the time I post this, it’ll be down to 6! I won’t say what I usually say about time, but know I’m thinking of it! (Actually, I didn’t make it to the library until today, Wednesday, so it’s only 4 more days until we leave for Vancouver!)

Friday night we celebrated Gavin’s birthday with a big party celebrated by about 30 of the friends we’ve met here at Speight’s Ale House. Then we headed down to Vespa Bar on Poplar Lane for a true night out – surprisingly, our first trip “downtown” since we’ve been here! Saturday morning (Gavin’s actual birthday, he’s 29 now!) we went out for breakfast, picked up our rental car and drove up highway 1 to the Brew Moon. It’s an extremely small microbrewery that we’ve passed tons of times but have never had time to stop at, so we made a point to make that our “ultimately destination” this weekend. We had a great meal there and taste-tested all 4 of their beers (delicious!) and then decided to extend our weekend and kept heading north towards Hanmer. We stayed in a really quaint lodge and spent a bit of time in the hot pools relaxing. The All Blacks played Ireland last night and kicked butt so we also took in that game! Just what we needed before our hectic week! Sunday we had dinner at our Korean family’s house and relaxed back at home.

This week will be pretty busy for us – we have a huge list of things to do, including packing, some last minute shopping, cleaning our flat from top to bottom, school and work, saying our good bye’s (or “see you later”’s to some!) and, of course, quiz night on Tuesday! Our landlord is coming for our bond inspection on Saturday morning and then we’re staying in a hotel by the airport that night. Besides the fact that we will be homeless as soon as the bond is taken care of and we hand over our keys, it’ll be easier to stay as close to the airport as possible as we have to be there Sunday morning around 5 o’clock. We are really looking forward to being home!!

Long Weekend

This weekend is the Queen’s birthday, so New Zealanders celebrate it by giving everyone (well, mostly everyone!) the day off, which means we had a long weekend!

And a great weekend it was. Friday night was date night. When I got home from work Gavin had dinner all ready – it was warm enough to BBQ! Afterwards we went to Coffee Culture for a hot drink and dessert, and then we saw “Sex and the City 2” – it was hilarious! Mum was right – “Lawrence of my labia” was a classic Samantha line. There were lots of funny moments and we both laughed a lot. (For the record, any boys who are reading this, the weekend before we went to see “Iron Man 2” – it’s a give and take!)

Saturday was a gorgeous day – a bit chilly, but it is wintertime. The sun was shining so we took the bus out to New Brighton to watch our friend play rugby. Afterwards we walked along the pier, took some photos and then headed back to Riccarton. We celebrated our anniversary (engaged for 1 year!) by going out for wine, brushetta and antipasto. Then our friend Tom came over to play Scrabble and have some drinks. We had a really nice night.

Sunday we had a big breakfast and then went bowling with Tom and our Korean family. I won the second game! It turned out to be a rainy day so afterwards we just came home and relaxed – I read and hung out, Gavin did some work. We had dinner with our roommate Brad and watched some TV in the evening.

Yesterday, Monday, was the holiday. All major stores were open and offering big deals on most of their items; we skipped out on buying anything and instead cleaned the house (partially because it needed it, but also because someone was coming through to take a look at it). Then Gavin and Brad went to the gym and I went to Divine to buy Gavin’s birthday cake and then headed to Starbucks to go online. (It was too cold, rainy and windy to make the trek downtown to free Internet at the library!) Last night our Korean family had us over for a birthday celebration dinner at their house. It was delicious! Lewis and Ashley each made Gav a really cute card and Sophia made us a great meal. And may I say – the signature chocolate Divine cake was to die for! (I’m trying to not sneak a piece for breakfast…)

Today is back to school and work – and getting back into the “real world” this week also means the return of insane amounts of rain! Our walkway is already half flooded and it’s just 9am. Hopefully there is no more major flooding as the last downpour was pretty devastating.

On a completely different note – wedding planning is going well and we’re looking forward to being back in Canada and face-to-face with our parents to finish the smaller details in the planning stages! We get married in 2 months…it’s very exciting!

Relaxing Weekend at Home

(This picture is when we were in the Coromandels! Our only day of sunshine...)

Gavin and I had an amazing weekend of doing…nothing! (It really was exactly what we’ve needed after basically 10 months of traveling. I think during our Auckland trip it really hit us that we’re tired from being on the road so much!) Friday night we made dinner at home and then went down to our local pub and watched the rugby game (Auckland Warriors vs. the Leicester Tigers - an English team, I believe) but it was a waste of time. The final score was something like 50-6 – not much of a game. Saturday Gavin made pancakes for breakfast, and during the day we started sanding down paua shells that I picked on the beach in Kaikoura (it takes forever!!). We played Scrabble and then our roommate, Brad (yes – our 5th one!), made a delicious chicken dinner with all the fixings – even gravy! Gav and I went to see Iron Man 2. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a lot better than the first one! Today we went to the library to do some e-mail and wedding stuff and then watched the first playoff game at the Holy Grail. It’s a sports bar downtown that is set up like an field or stadium with actual stadium seating and a gigantic screen. Brad made soup with the leftover chicken so we had that for dinner. We played some cards and another came of Scrabble and watched Bones. Now I am writing in the blog and Gavin has a map of New Zealand out, outlining all of the routes we’ve taken on road trips since we’ve been here. Earlier in the week Brad spilled an oversized glass of wine on the carpet, so we’ve just put some cleaner on it (I hope we didn’t leave it too late…) and we’re waiting to vacuum it up before calling it a night.

The next three weeks are going to be insanely busy, between finalizing things here before leaving and organizing some more wedding details. Three full weeks in Christchurch isn’t really a lot of time so we’ll have to make sure we’re really organized in terms of laying out what we have to do and close off so we don’t forget anything! I was talking to my Aunt Karen today and she mentioned she’d bought a new outfit for our wedding, and it made me think of everyone getting all dolled up…I’m excited! Speaking of being all dolled up, I should really get on having my dress shipped to my parents house. I had a nightmare a couple months ago that it was the week before the wedding and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off doing all the last minute things we had to do, and all of a sudden it hit me that I had forgotten to ask my cousin to send my dress and I had nothing to wear! It’s an omen – I need to take care of this!

The weather is getting colder here and all I keep thinking of is getting back to Canada, and especially back to our cottage and enjoying the renovations mum and dad just had done. Despite all the wedding craziness, we’re definitely going to have to find time to relax on the deck, swim in the St. Lawrence, have a cold drink, and BBQ up a good feed…