Hello

We have tracked down a computer in the library for todays blog....we have now signed up for phone/internet at home and should be connected in the next week.

Things here are fab, we're both very happy and settling into our new abode. We haven't really seen it in daylight yet as we have to leave the house before the sun comes up at 7.30 and get back at 5.30 once its dark, but this morning it looked lovely! We have our first 2 guests booked in, Andrea and Agustin, who we met in the hostel in chch a few weeks ago. They have now bought a car and are making the trip down this coming weekend. We shall start defrosting your bedroom guys!!!

Work is good, i am settling in really well and enjoying it lots. Most of my time i am doing sales and marketing support to Andy and Grant which mostly involves putting quotes and marketing materials together and creating presentational documents for submitting tenders for government projects. It's something i'm really starting to get my teeth into and i am using the graphics design software that i had training on in chch last week, plus they've pretty much said it's up to me how my job expands etc which is very cool. Rich has started valeting at the compnay where we bought our car. He is on a month to month basis through the winter, it's not what he wants to do in the long term but having done it in the UK at Richard Nash he knows what he's doing and can just let it tick over until he comes back to the UK.

On that note...we heard yesterday that our expression of interest was selected from the pool on 20 June and is now being assessed by immigration. It should be anything between 1-5 weeks now before we hear from immigration as to whether they are going to invite us to apply for residency. So fingers crossed. I think we'll just try and forget about it until we hear something, so we'll let you know as soon as we hear.

We had a fab weekend up in chch last weekend with Sara and Ish. We spent the Friday night in Lyttelton where they had their midwinters lights festival. Bit like earlham park fireworks but without radio broadland (thank god) and fewer people! Mind you, there were still lots of people there and we felt a bit crowded! I think we are starting to reap the benefits of living in a town of only 20k people, empty spaces, lovely. On the Saturday we had xmas day with roast chicken and all the trimmings followed by xmas pud. We also did presents and Rich and I were given a slow cooker which is going to have its maiden voyage tomorrow while we go on our monthly pilgrimage to Lake Tekapo (yey). It felt strangley right having xmas at this time of the year bearing in mind it was freezing, so we may well do this twice a year now!!

We also bought tickets for the All Blacks game against the Springboks in the Tri-Nations on 14 July up in chch. Neither of us have been to a game of rugby before so we thought we'd start with a goodun. On a sporting note, the Americas Cup is huge here at the moment - talking to Dad the other night it seems that this isn't even a footnote on the news in the UK. So you all know, it's happening in Valencia and is between NZ and Switzerland (i know they should beat a landlocked country at yachting-but they are the holders!), so keep an eyeout.

Please keep all your news coming, and I shall try and get back into the habit of doing this once a week, and getting some photos online once we're connected at home.

Take care, Debs and Rich xx