Lots has happened

I'm getting worse at keeping this up to date. Blame facebook!
Johan is in a new job and finding it much better. The dynamics in managemnet are much nicer, he also gets to do project managing as well as tendering, so gets out of the office a bit more and it gives him more variety.
I have changed jobs. I am now in disability and loving it. In a day centre where clients come in for the day to be kept busy. I went in very part time and there were lots of staffing issues but after a month I am now working 4 days a week ( I refused to do 5) starting at 7.30 and finsihing 3.30. The old staff have been fazed out and we are building a great new and improved team. We are getting plans in place so we now have jewerly , sewing, art and hip hop classes going on, rather than colouring in pics all day which was in the past. Takes me about 40 min to get to work each day, much the same, but in the opposite direction, for Johan.
reubs is still doing his catalogue deliveries but still hopeful that he will be asked to go back to do the same Christmas job we did last year.
Fie came and stayed for 2 weeks. Her friend also came over and joined her and stayed with us for a week. It was awesome having her here, we managed to fit in quite a few trips to show her around. She had 9 weeks in Australia in all and certainly made the most of it :) She's an awesome girl.

We have put our tauranga property on the market, with the mortgages going up it was just not economical to keep it. Here's hoping for a quick sale before the tenants decide to up and leave. http://www.ljhooker.co.nz/17KUGG5/3-bedroom-townhouse-for-sale-hairini
Our lovely Lei is due to produce our 2nd grandchild in November. I've been having fun knitting baby things :) Our little Alexi turns 2 next month, she's as cute as ever, just wished we lived closer.

We finally got a much wanted marine tank :) Now Reubs not only cooks us dinner most nights but also has the job of maintaining our marine tank which is no easy task, he must spend an hour a day on it. It looks good :)
Think that's about it from here for now, we are still getting out and about - Tweed for a weekend with friends, Sea World, the beach, new markets :)...

Hi

I haven't been keeping this up to date sorry.
Nearly everyone is on Facebook so keeps up with us.
For those who aren't...
All is well in our world.
I (Tanya) have a job with All About Living  http://www.allaboutliving.com.au/  as a support worker. I get given a weekly job list and go out in the community visiting elders and help them with whatever is necessary for them to stay in their own home rather than go into care.
Johan is still same ol same ol, but always looking for something else.
Reubs has a delivery job where he is out walking the streets at least a couple of days during the week, pays peanuts but is better than nothing :)
Our beautiful 'daughter' from Belgium is arriving on Saturday to stay with us for a few weeks. She lived with us for a year in Kerikeri as an exchange student. We three are off to the airport on Saturday morning to collect her. Can't wait.
We have had Ankie and the boys here from South Africa. Everyone had a great time. The 3 boys - Reubs, Paul and Clive did some 'fishing' and helped stock our marine tank with an assortment of corals and fish caught in the rock pools. :) I will try get some photos of the tank and put them up tomorrow. ( I have put a link up to photos :)
Other than that we are all ticking along.

Cruise photos

I have just put up some cruise photos on our facebook. For those who don't have facebook you can click on the link on the right of the page under 'Photos' 'Vanuatu Cruise'
We had a lovely time away and even as we were driving back home after the cruise we said to each other how fortunate we were to be living in such a lovely place that it felt we were still on holiday and many people would consider where we live to be a holiday :)

Family pic

toooo looong

On the boarder of NSW and Queensland ( 2 hours south of where we live)

Sorry, we have been really busy and haven't got onto here for ages.
We've had Jacques, Sarah and Alexi come and stay, we've been back to NZ for a week to see Mum and Dad, I've just about finished my course as an assistant in nursing - I've finished the practical which was 3 weeks of 6.30am to 2.30pm shifts in an old age home, we have been out exploring most weekends and on Tuesday Johan and I sail off on a cruise for 11 days.
Here's a link to the live camera on board our ship.
 http://www.pocruises.com.au/OurShips/Pages/PacificDawnCam.aspx
When we get back we have Ankie and the boys coming at the end of June and then our Fie from Belgium coming to stay :) so lots of exciting things have happened and are still to look forward to.
What a great year.
Here's a bit of a dump of photos and videos that I have on my camera from the last few months.

 Alexi and Opa

 Me and my lil brother

 Opa nap on the balcony

 Miss Alexi

A snake skin that we found shed on the grass verge.

Bats in a park near our place.

February that was

Well the month has come and gone.. the eyar is picking up speed.
Good news - Fie (our Belgium student ) has booked her tickets and will be arriving in Australia in July for 3 months :) We won't be able to keep her the whole time, but will get to have some time with her. Very exciting!
Most weekends Johan and I have gone off for a day trip exploring.
We went to Old Petrie which is inland about 40 min from home, everywhere we go Johan looks like a tourist with his camera round his neck, and he is taking some awesome shots.
We have had friends from within the apartment block over for a meal and on my birthday weekend we went to the local pub with them to listen to the awesome blind guy singing and playing his guitar.
We have had my ex boss - Carol (from gifts to a door) and her hubby over for a meal ( Reuben always does the cooking and Johan and I get to sit sup and chat :)

We have also spent a lot of time up in the Sunshine coast looking at apartments to possibly buy as an investment/ holiday let but we have put that to one side now for a while.

Last weekend we went to discover Redlands which is like here only on the other side of Brisbane. Carol had told us about an British fish and chip shop with mushy peas and curry sauce, so we tried that (it was yummy, and yes vinegar on the chips), we also drove around to see what the place was like and then went to an awesome marine fish/ coral shop where we oohed and ahhed over all the lovely fish. They also had a plant nursery there which made us a little sad that we don't have our own place and garden, but really on the whole we still love apartment living and the safety and freedom it brings.
One Saturday Johan and I drove nearer to Brisbane and parked the car, then caught a ferry up the Brisbane river ( they run every 15 min) and into the city centre, we went for a wander around southbank, went to a travel expo, a market, had lunch and caught the ferry back to the car.

This is a man made beach in the middle of town, it even comes with white sand and life guards!

Last week I started my  aged care course, the jury is out on whether I will go into that line of work when I have completed the course. The learning is really interesting and quite involved but I think I may have done my time working with disability for years and am not sure I want to go into that type of institution setting again. Also here with the law that allows people to sue it feels a bit scarey. I will complete the course and then decide and in the meantime I will keep an eye out for other jobs.
This weekend Johan has organised a suprise night away for us :)
Next weekend we have Jacques coming up from Adelaide and Sarah and Alexi coming down from Darwin and all coming to stay here for the week. We are so looking forward to seeing them, I have never met Sarah or Alexi, we've 'spoken' heaps on facebook but not face to face. It's Sarah's birthday on the Tuesday so its nice they can be together for her special day.
And just a few more photos.. my car has grown eyelashes and gets lots of smiles...

And here's one at our local beach ...

So busy busy and happy happy here.

Melbourne

We have been away again.
Last year we got an invite in the mail to a surprise 50th Birthday party for Sharon. They live about 3 hours inland from Melbourne. The 3 of us decided to go and take an extra few days to discover Melbourne. Saturday morning we were up with the sun at 5 am  and Reubs went to feed his marine tank only to find the water had gone all milky and his corals were closing up, so he made the decision to stay home and save hundreds of $'s of fish and loose his airtickets and time away. So Johan and I set off, me with my valium pills for the flight, and Johan with all the tickets :)
We had a good flight to Melbourne, just over 2 hours. Arriving in Melbourne who has daylight savings meant that we got out of the airport at lunch time so we collected our hire car and set off in the 40 degree heat. All our planning for the time away and when we got out of our car in Brisbane we forgot to take our GPS so we went to Kmart and bought one which turned out to be pretty useless and we returned at the end of our trip! The country is soooo dry.

We stopped in to our booked motel in Shepperton (which is the closest town, probably similar to size to Cambridge...) , dropped off our bags, got changed and headed another 20 min north to Monique's boyfriends farm where the surprise party was held. Shraon and a few others were sitting around when we arrived. Sharon had one leg in plaster and the other in a moon boot. Having ripped tendons and ligaments in both her legs (chasing a cow and falling in a hole) she has had one operated on and later will have the second one done. She got lots of suprises as people started turning up. Her best friend (who she met at primary sch at Mangikino!) and hubby now living in Perth, friends from Pahiatua, Teresa ( her daughter) from Invercargill and lots of others from around the country. The family had told Sharon that she was going to NZ to stay with Teresa in the morning so she was all ready to have a quick bbq with Monique and co and then get home for an early night ready for a early morning flight off to see teresa - it was the only way they could think of to put her off the scent of the surprise party. Poor woman took a while to find out she wasn't flying in the morning and could enjoy a glass of wine! A guy from the local newspaper was there and got a group photo which will be great to see. There must have been at least 60 people, although hard to tell when everyone is wandering around outside.

So a good night was had by all. Monique did an awesome job organising it all.
The following morning we went up to Sharon and Maarten's farm. Again driving out there and seeing how dry everything is. Maarten irrigates but still....

After lunch we drove down to stay with my cuzzie Marty and his wife Nicole who live in a suburb of Melbourne. We had a great evening with them. We were lucky to catch Marty at home as he spends lots of time overseas with work.
Monday morning we used the useless GPS and set off into the city. I wanted to try and track down a Somali family( Leilo) that I'd worked with in Hamilton years ago when they arrived as refugees. I had heard they had moved to Melbourne. Marty had found me some useful contacts and told us which area was the 'African area' of Melbourne so we went for a ticky tour. Sadly I didn't spot her on the streets ;) but I have got a couple of organisations working on finding her for me. Then it was off to find our apartment which was right in the city in Flinders st. A great spot we could walk everywhere, plus there was the free city curcit train for when we got too tired. Melbourne is an awesome city of old and new and all cultures. Lots of little laneways, eating places everywhere!

 The bridge with all the cultures represnted.

 Little Italy

Melbourne has lots of different areas... chinatown, little italy,  etc. Love it!

They also have a seaside but there's no surf beach. The water was amazingly clear.

They certainly acknowledge all the cultures, there was a bridge we walked over that had a panel for each culture that had come into Australia, it said what areas of that country the people had come from and what years, it was interesting reading.

So we walked and walked, took lots of photos ( I bought Johan a good dslr camera for his birthday) and ate lots and had some amazing coffees. We went to the Immigration museum, (mum did your cabin look like this when you first came to NZ?!) this was in the museum they said it was how many came to Australia in the 1950's

We had a lovely time. Would love to go back for another holiday but would still rather live where we are - can't beat the beaches ;) and the tempertures Melbourne has- in the 40's in summer and yet very cold in the winter wouldn't be so great!
We got home Wednesday evening to a lovely tidy apartment and ready for a short week of work for Johan.