Settling into Desmond Street

It's now Thursday 9th July. We've been in Christchurch for just over a week - it feels like a lot longer.

Desmond St was ready for us on Monday so we moved in a day earlier than was originally expected. It's a million times better than the temporary digs we had for the first week (slight exaggeration - but certainly a step change).

We are perched on the banks of the Avon - the house name is Avonbank - effectively with our own access for canoing, punting, etc! Across the river is Hagley Park - seemingly a Mecca for all things jogging from dawn to dusk. I've been out a few time already and we even had a "family jog" on Wednesday afternoon!

Maria has had 2 interviews for a job at Heinz Watties, the last one was this morning and included maths psychometric testing - so you can guess how she felt about that one! Fortunately she's not applied for the frozen-pea counting role and so is still hopeful of a positive result - we should get to hear in the next few days.

Chris has enrolled on a few short-term, part-time courses at the Polytechnic with a view to them helping him get a job before starting a full-time course in Feb 2010. One of the courses is as a trainee Barista - so anyone visiting us in the future should look forward to some top class coffee. He has decided on an diploma in Architecture for his full-time study - which sounds very positive. He's also chuffed with himself as he passed his NZ driving theory test today - so he's now mithering me to get him a car to learn to drive in!

We still haven't got round to buying a car yet - though we did go for a test drive in a Nissan X-trail yesterday. The verdict was not good, though - box on wheels was the general concensus! I think we may be sticking to a low-slung model (probably Jap!) but possibly with 4WD. A newer model of the Subaru Legacy we are currently borrowing from Matt and Lou would probably be ideal?

As it's Thursday, I'm off to the local pub with the neighbours! I've got in touch with Steve Frodsham - an old pal from my early days in RR who works at the P&W overhaul base here in Chch - only to discover he lives around the corner. So he's going to introduce me to a couple of watering holes in Merivale. We are creatures of habit, don't you know!

And the socialising will continue full-on over the next few days as we host Matt and Lou tomorrow for dinner and then welcome Mike, Fiona, Issy and Flos Guyomar for a weeks skiing, site-seeing, eating, drinking and general merry-making down here in the sunny south.

Oh, did I forget to mention that the weather has turned and it's absolutely gorgeous! Clear blue skies and sunny days. Feels like April in the UK and yet it's the middle of winter here.