The Grandsons

We are home for awhile now and it's school holidays so time to have the grandsons to stay. First up was Cole who stayed for two nights and is now home before flying down to Wellington for a week.  We get Charlie later in the week for a couple of nights.

F has bought a new car and collects it tomorrow.  He has been saving really hard for a long time now so this is a major purchase for him.  He now has to sell his current car but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Cole has spent his time with us out riding on my ebike with Stu.  He absolutely loves it and I think he wore his Poppa out... they went on four long rides over two days.  It was lovely having him here and he was pretty well behaved for a 13 year old who is growing fast.

We have to hang around home now for awhile—I have a hair appointment, we have gardening to do and basically can't go away as we are expecting our credit cards to be posted soon.  Sadly we suffer from mail theft (as do many people in our area) so we need to be there to check the mail.  Apparently the only way we could get the cards delivered to the bank is to block and cancel them and request new cards but that would leave us with no way to pay for anything. 

Anyway hopefully all will be well and they will arrive in the next week or two. The bank can't even give us a timeframe!

No matter, we need to be home to appreciate going away even more.

~ Lynda

F out test driving the car he has now bought.

Breakfast bun on day one.

Out riding with his Poppa on my ebike.

Dinner day two - making up his chicken wraps, on of his favourite meals.

Out riding day two.  He loved riding down those steps but not sure my bike liked it!

We've been away...

Just a rather boring update to say I'm still here.  We've been away for a week in the motorhome having a great time.  We started in Cambridge for two nights before heading to Matata (north of Whakatane) for three nights.  The weather was stunning and we loved our time there.

Yesterday we travelled to Tauranga to visit with some friends who I have known since the 1980s back when I lived in Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.  We have kept in close contact over the years and chatting to them was like nothing had changed other than we are all older.  Friendship is like that :)

We are now on our way home because the boys 'need' us.  F is looking at a car to buy and wants Stu to go with him.  Cole just likes us to be at home and I'm sure he's angling to come and stay the night. He is flying to Wellington next week (school holidays) to stay with this grandfather so I'm sure we'll have Charlie for a few nights next week.

We looked at some houses and sections today in Morrinsville and we were really impressed.  So far our thoughts are to one day sell up in Auckland and move to the Waikato region.  The homes and area we looked at today suited us well and the town is big enough to have nearly everything we need with Hamilton just 30 minutes away for everything else.  We are not doing anything yet, just looking at options for the future.

~ Lynda

We stayed at the Cambridge Racecourse and the night trotting was on!

It was a fun night watching the horses but we didn't make any bets.

Matata Beach - mid winter!

All three days here were like this.

A little update

When we went around to our rental this morning we found the property manager was there.  He was with the new tenants there while they were measuring up for furniture.  They seem to be very nice people so we are very relaxed about renting it to them.

I asked our property manager again about the previous tenants and he was as angry as we are.  He has tried to contact them the they are 'ghosting' him.  Oh well, all the shit they have left at the flat will be disposed of and not at our cost.  Apparently it's not so easy to claim against the bond that is lodged but it's not our problem.  The property manager had sent them detailed instructions on how to leave a property etc but clearly they just didn't care.  The irony of this situation is that the tenant is actually a property manager himself! He manages properties for Kaianga Ora (NZ Government rental homes).  Perhaps he's used to seeing rubbish left for the landlord to clear?  

Another irony is that the previous tenants are both devout Christians and spout their faith continually on their Instagram page.  A little hypocrisy there given the cleaning up I've had to do for them.

Anyway we are very happy with the work we've done on the property over the last two days and it is now looking really good.  I wouldn't have been happy at all letting our new tenants go into the place the way it was.

We are off again tomorrow in the motorhome... headed south but not sure where.  Poor Cole is upset that we are going and he can't come and stay with us.  He can phone us though and facetime.  We'll see hi soon enough.

~ Lynda

The kitchen at our rental... all nice and clean.

The bathroom is now spotless... that shower was left in an awful state!

The lounge with kitchen to the left - I touched up lots of the paint, cleaned and vacuumed.  I'm very happy with how it looks now.

Outside - Stu worked so hard getting it all clean and tidy. 

Our Rental

Stu and I have been busy this week getting our rental property ready for it's new tenants. Our property manager has found a lovely couple with a 10 year old daughter who love our place so we are happy about that.  They are originally from the Phillipines but have been living in Qatar.  The daughter already attends the local school.

I have been really disappointed with our previous tenants though - I know they are not short of a dollar but haven't bothered to get an exit clean.  Apparently they locked all of their keys inside before finishing?  Well if that was their excuse (they could have been given replacement keys at the time) it's now three days later and they have still not moved a pile of their rubbish.

Stu and I have been working there now for two days and it's looking really good again.  We've cleaned everything plus I have repainted many parts that needed a tickle up.  I have emailed our property manager and expressed my disappointment at how the place was left.  Stu is all 'oh it doesn't matter' but I'm like 'hell no... that's why we pay a property manager!'

Anyway, it's all looking ready for it's next family and I can relax again and feel happy about it.

We will be off away again soon in the motorhome for a couple of weeks - I'm missing it!

How cute is this? Two brothers who don't get on but when we took them to the Reduced to Clear store to get some goodies they sure looked close :)

This and that

We are currently trying to get tenants for our rental property.  The current tenants leave today so we'll have to cover the cost of the mortgage etc until we find new people.  Our property manager is very good but there doesn't seem to be the same demand now.  I wish we'd sold the bloody place years ago but the market isn't good at the moment and Stu wants to keep it for now.  

Winter has set in.  It's wet most of the time outside in the garden and I'm now wearing winter clothes.  The only different to my summer wardrobe to winter is long pants and long sleeve tops.  It's not cold most days but just that damp, winter feel. 

I was trying to remember something the other day (while reminiscing with my daughter) so I hauled out all of my diaries from when I was 13... yes I have kept a diary since then and only stopped when I got married then restarted when single again.  I have really enjoyed reading my life as a 14 to 17 year old and found myself sometimes feeling sorry for that girl but could also remember the joy of that time.  It's like I'm reading someone else's life—who knew that back then I used the word 'neat' all the time? Who knew that I was constantly sewing and knitting? I remember being boy crazy but can now see that was out of loneliness. I often wrote some parts in shorthand and luckily I can still read those parts :)

We made the decision yesterday to cancel our plans to travel to Europe next year. I just wasn't 'feeling it' and if I'm no excited about such a big holiday then it's just not right.  The way the world is right now I'd rather just stay in our corner of the world for awhile.  We have so much to do here and we're planning on a big trip to the South Island now new March/April.  We will do another big overseas trip at some stage.

We are also looking into the future possibilities of where we want to live.  Both of us want to eventually leave Auckland and downsize into a lock and leave, easy care type of place.  We don't want to go to a retirement village as such but there are some places out there for over 50s that we might look into.  No rush but we might check a few places out while travelling around.  

The sun is shining and I might get out into the garden... the weeds are taking over!

~ Lynda

Home for awhile

We ended our last little break away sooner than anticipated due to finding a bloody mouse in our motorhome. Of course I didn't sleep ALL night after knowing it was in there and we didn't have any mouse traps onboard.  We hot footed it home, cleaned up all the visible mouse droppings and then set traps everywhere.  No mouse to be found.  We think it must have jumped out somewhere on the journey home because there has been no evidence of a mouse since then.

We took out every drawer and cleaned out all the cupboards etc.  My goodness a little mouse can get into all kinds of places! On the positive note though, we have a really clean motorhome now and added a few additions to make the drawers even more tidy :)

We had the two boys on Saturday night because we miss them and love having them.  Cole has turned into a typical 13 year old though and has started back chatting, giving cheek and generally being a complete sod especially to his brother.  We put up with this for awhile and I gave him several warnings which he scoffed at so mid morning on Sunday I said to him 'pack up, I'm taking you home right now'. Just him. He didn't say a word other than 'good I want to go home'.  I'm so glad I did that because otherwise my threats would have meant nothing.

Charlie stayed here all day and had a wonderful time out with Stu.

Now to a fun story about my daughter.  Because we had the boys for the night she went shopping with her husband.  They ended up having a meal out and thought 'why not go into the city'?  We have no kids tonight... Off they went, had some drinks and then decided 'why not stay the night?'. So funny... they went to the Hilton Hotel and checked in for the night.  

My daughter was worried that they'd think they were people having an affair so she told them it was their anniversary! The hotel upgraded their room to a suite and delivered a bottle of wine to their room (as if they needed more to drink). Anyway they had a lovely, spontaneous night and arrived home in an Uber just as I was dropping Cole off.  I love this :) It shows their marriage is still strong and the fact that they felt 'naughty' was hilarious.  My daughter said she felt like a hooker pretending to be married... it must have been so funny (especially when they asked if they had any luggage).

Anyway we are home for awhile now waiting to see if we can get some decent tenants for our rental property.  There are jobs around here that need doing as well so a good time to catch up with everything.

~ Lynda

Charlie made up a bed under the hallway desk and decided he'd sleep there.  I let him and he loved it.

Sunday morning just before I took Cole home.  He is so awful sometimes and I can only hope that he'll grow out of it and end up being a lovely adult.

Wild weather

We went away to Whitianga for Stu's father's get together for his birthday and it went well.  Stu's sister still seems to be a bit odd with us though—she's annoyed at Stu for some reason, stupid stuff and we really don't care.

All the family were there for the weekend except the sister (she was working) but she was there for lunch out on Monday.  It's all a bit weird though because apparently she's organising a birthday for her grandson in Taupo but we've not been invited or had it even mentioned in our presence! She has asked other family members who's going though so it's all a bit strange... again we don't care.

After leaving Whitianga we have travelled up to Waikawau Bay again for a few nights.  It's free on our DOC camp pass and we love it here.  We knew the weather would be bad last night but it didn't bother us as we were tucked up safe and warm in the motorhome.  One poor guy did get stuck in mud though and thankfully the DOC ranger towed him out this morning.  

The weather is lovely today and we have had another walk along the beach and up a hill track behind the camp. There is only one other camper here in this massive camp but we love the peace and quiet... just the sound of the waves and the birds.  We have one more night here.

My daughter phones me quite often these days for long chats which is lovely.  She puts her headphones on and chats while out on a walk or doing housework etc.  I talk for as long as she wants and never say I'm too busy because I take it as a compliment that she wants to call me!  We gossip, talk politics and TV shows.  Of course we also discuss the boys :) When we get back I'll be sure to go shopping with her and out for lunch etc.  We both miss doing that.

We still don't know how the property manager is getting on with renting out our flat.  Hopefully he finds us a good tenant soon... we'll deal with that when we get back home.

OK that's all I've got for now, back to the sound birdsong, waves and wind in the trees :)

~ Lynda

Family time

Monday lunch at the pub - left to right.. Stu's sister, Stu, his Dad and brother.

On one of our many walks at Waikawau Bay.

Pikelets on a very rainy day yesterday.

The sun is out again today so we were off on another beach walk.

Up the track behind the camp - we would have gone further up but the track got too muddy.