I picked up Dad and Sandra from the airport on Monday night. Monday night was perfect because it's the only day this week that I have to work. Tuesday I took off as a day in lieu because of the work I did a couple of weekends ago. So I went and picked them up from the airport, no hassles though it took a while for them to get processed through customs. Of course, after about 20 days of nothing but sun they picked the one day to arrive when it was bucketing, totally bucketing down with rain. I drove them back home in the little Tiida and Sarah cooked us all a lovely chicken that went into wraps. Very tasty.

Tuesday poor Sarah had to go to work, so I drove her into work and dropped her off. I then came back home and grabbed Tui, she's gone to...

We purchased some new couches on the weekend. Finally we found ones we agreed we both liked and weren't super expensive. Hopefully they arrive in the next couple of weeks so we can be super comfortable.

Saturday I got interrupted while we were still shopping, there was a fairly major fault at work so I had to go in and help sort that out. Thankfully didn't take too long to get it all sussed out, had to get a card in a chassis replaced and that seemed to fix everything.

I also got outside and started working on the windows, sanding and stripping them back and repainting them. Took quite a while to strip them back and get them prepped ready for painting, the painting bit itself only took 40 minutes. The first one is looking good, though it's only got undercoat on it at the moment. I'm also thinking...

We went couch shopping on Saturday, trying to find that perfect couch. It's hard. Harvey Normal have OK couches but not very nice fabric, at least on the display model ones. It's hard to tell what the other, slightly nicer fabrics might be like.

We went around Harvey Norman, Freedom Furniture and Living Edge. We found some that we liked, two that we nearly purchased and came away in the end with none. It's a hard decision.

I went for a couple of runs on Saturday and Sunday morning. Trying to increase speed, which is sort of going OK. Not great though, but I've still got time to train before the next half Marathon.

Pretty quiet weekend otherwise, just took it easy, did some chores around the house, that sort of thing.

Tim

Ugh it's been so hot the last couple of days. The sun beats down and the house heats up like a sauna. It's not too bad when all the doors and windows are open, but of course as soon as you do that all the flies come in. And I mean all the flies, there's hundreds of them it seems. The bug zapper that Sarah got me for Christmas comes in really handy though, I went into our bedroom last night before we went to bed and came out with 14 dead, some still just buzzing, fly bodies. It's very satisfying when you hit them and the swatter gives off a huge CRACK!.

The heat doesn't help when it comes to getting to sleep though. Ugh. We put the fan on and that's OK, but it's hot and muggy. Not to mention it's very noisy.

We went out to...

Signed up for the Rotorua half marathon. Adrian texted me a few days ago and suggested we should do it, as a way to keep motivated to exercise. Sounded like a good idea to me, so signed up we have!

It's not until May, so 4 months to get back up to fitness and speed. Have to beat my previous time!

Tim

I've been meaning to write this entry for ages and it just keeps piling up and I put it off and put it off! Finally I've dedicated some time to write it. This covers the 2 weeks we were away over Christmas and also the first few days of being back at work. Diary entires will resume much more normal updates once again...

My last day of work was Thursday the 20th, because I'm a smart little chicken and I took the Friday off. It was a great last day at work, everyone was winding down, I put my stupid Christmas Hat that I'd bought on, the one with the leopard print sparkles.

Photos from the last 3 weeks.

Friday being my day off I spent at home packing. I also took Tui out to the cattery I'd managed to organise with only 6 weeks before Christmas. I asked to...

Happy New Year 2013! We've just got back from 3 days down at a place called Akitio. There's not much there, no cell coverage. There's just beach, diving and a neat little shack. This is the view we've had for the last three days.

I'm just writing up a big "What we've been up to" story which I'll post in the next few days. But Happy New Year everyone!

Tim

Last quiz of the year last night! We came second, to Annies Boobs AGAIN. Those bastards, they won by 3 points this time. Not like it matters, it's still fun though last night was very hard! Ben of course saved us for most of it, without him I think we'd be down around the bottom area.

Looking forward to next year!

We went to the Sandringham Farmers Market on the weekend. It was the first one, we'd seen lots of fliers and promotions for it so we thought we'd better get along to check it out. Boy was it popular, they're going to have to do something to give it bit more space if it keeps up because there were lots of people! It was really nice though, there was coffee and lots of tasty snacks, fresh meat, BBQ sausages (good ones). Not quite on par with say the French Market, but given it was the first week!! We loved it, a really nice market and we'll be sure to head along to the next ones.

After the market, we drove out to spotlight to buy some new blinds, which we then installed in the lounge. I say we, I really mean Sarah though I helped a little bit. But I...