Giedre tyttö Ozista

Good Living

There must be something written in the stars... Or did we enter an ascending moon phase? I can't really explain, why everything all of a sudden goes so well! (knock on wood!) I think ever since we moved to the new place, our life goes wonderfully. We're happy!

The weather could get a bit warmer and the westerly winds could stop so that we could enjoy some less messy seas on the West Coast. But other than that? Couldn't ask for more!

Last weekend we went for an unplanned trip to Raglan. The weather was great, the surf so so, but still ok, cafes and lazy holiday town atmposphere didn't fail us again! We've been thinking about the freedom that owning a car gives you. We never really had that before. Any time on the weekend, you can just pack up and go as far as your fancy. Throw as much of stuff in the trunk as you wish, pack up as many surf boards as you have... Stop for a coffee break whenever you please... Its not worth owning a car to sit in traffic, but nothing can beat getting out of town whenever you please!

Talking about surfboards... since last weekend, I guess, we'll be travelling with 2 of them. Have a look. Kaj is a proud owner of 2 boards now and it is good news for me, because I won't have to worry about board rentals and (hopefully) will get to ride the lovely Mickey T shaped Bear!!! You wouldn't believe how fast that board is and how easy it is to catch waves on it!!!

The Raglan trip is to blame for a long delay with blog updates. Sorry about that. Ever since moving to our current house we have so much other stuff to do in the evenings that I rarely get my hands on Internet anymore. The latest project is washing the windows. Its fun, but time consuming, especially as my hand inevitably reaches out to brush a couple of house weatherboards and once you start, you can't stop as other boards look very dirty compared with clean ones, so last week I've been more or less scrubbing a large part of the exterior of the house with a handkerchief. Hence the delay with my blog... :)

I'll have more time for projects like this over Christmas. Its a major holiday period and my school will close for almost 3 weeks. As Kaj doesn't get much holiday then, I guess, I'll spend most of the time on home improvement, cooking, reading, etc. Once you live in a house, you'll always find things to improve on. The downside of living in a 3 bedroom house is that cleaning it takes forever! I don't even want to know how OWNING a house would be compared with renting!

And yet more good news is that my mother will be coming for a visit in January!!! And thats pretty official, tickets bought, itinerary being planned, etc. I'm sure it will be great fun, we with Kaj find ourselves always putting a note: this would be fun to do when my mother comes, that also... we should send her there... It'll be a pretty intense experience, I'm afraid (considering the jetlag after 30 hour flight!) and a lot of indulgence planned - winery trips, thermal pools, etc. There's not much history and culture here, but plenty of good living!!!

Talking about indulgence... Kaj cracked the recipe for mussles in creamy lemongrass/caffir lime-leaf sauce! Nam! You can basically pick your mussles on the beach, or you could buy a fresh bunch for some 2.5 dollars (a bit over 1 euro!) and whip up an amazingly delicious feast! Come here, if you want us to show you what good living is! (Come while its summer, the winter is plain misery!!!:)

And today we walked on the Bethel's beach. The sea was raging wild, pumping massive amounts of water up the beach. We saw a couple of surfers out there, but they must have been plain mad. It looked painful just watching from the shore - its a washing machine out there!!

I hope I'll be able to write something more insightful sometime soon (once the window cleaning project is over). Right now, I'm just lazy... And happy... :) Cheers!!!