Happy homemaking

Last Friday, we took possession of our new apartment. It was a momentous occasion for us, after having lived in a hotel room for about a month! Photo #1, above, is the view of the city from our place.

Our place is off Ghuznee Street, on the edge of the Wellington central business district and bordering a neighborhood called Te Aro. We are just one block away from a very fun street called Cuba (photo 2), a pedestrian throughfare that is known for it's funky shops, cafes, street art (both living and non) and colorful locals. The people watching is very good on Cuba, for certain. For you Atlantans, think Little Five Points, but much bigger and busier. We have already sampled a number of interesting restaurants on the street, including such fun places as Fidel's, the Goblin Cafe, and Midnight Espresso.

The proximity to Cuba, along with the fact it's within walking distance of just about anything in the CBD, was one of the things that attracted us to the apartment. The other factor was that this apartment was quite spacious compared to others we had seen, particularly those in converted old houses. Some were outright tiny. And many were quite old and run-down, which made it difficult for them to compete with a new apartment like the one we chose. Even with the larger place, when our shipment arrived on Monday from the United States, we could not believe how little room we had, and were thankful we had scaled back so severely. HECK, we could not even believe how much stuff we had managed to gather over at the hotel!

There are a few amusing things to note, and perhaps the best one is my LEDGE. This is my less-than-affectionate descriptive term for our patio (laugh!). You see, it seems NZ has followed the recent United States trend of giving people patios that serve no purpose other than to hang just off the edge and smoke a cigarette. At 600mm deep, it's not large enough for much else. But, I am determined to have at least some greenery on my patio and therefore will still attempt to do some potted plants. I am still clueless about what the weather is REALLY going to be like in Wellington, so time will tell if anything grows, but it will be fun nonetheless.

At any rate, we're working hard this week to get it fixed up and presentable, hoping to have a few people over sometime in the future. Also, I personally want my home office in order so I can get back into job-hunt mode, which has taken a backseat this week, but will come back with a vengeance on Monday.

Will try to do better on some regular entries here, too. Now that we have DSL working, it should be easier. Some good ones coming up, too, including my promised discussion of the Chemist, a quick look at my weight management strategy in New Zealand, some concern over frozen pizza that does not contain meat and pineapple...and lastly, ZOMBIES walking the streets of Wellington. Yes, stay tuned, it's getting weirder and weirder.