Jordandchan

Well Australia are the Cricket World Champions again (still?) and we are both more than a little sleep deprived. With no tv, and no free to air broadcast over here anyway, I scoured the web till I found a place that was streaming the game. Of course rain delayed the telecast until about 3:30am local time here, and I woke up about 12 overs into the game.

Australia only very briefly looked like losing. After Gilchrist’s fantastic 149 off 104 balls it was always going to be a mammoth target to overhaul, and Sri Lanka only kept up the pace in the early stages of their innings. With 3 overs to go Sri Lanka were offered to go off the field due to bad light, and Australia celebrated World Cup Victory.

What followed was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen in international sport. As Australia was celebrating, the umpires informed them the game was not yet over. After a few minutes of confusion, and once the stumps had been replaced the game started again. The game finished off in near darkness until 3 overs later Australia could celebrate for real.

Despite the hassles, it was a fitting send off for McGrath (UPDATE: He’s man of the series as well, fantastic) and Buchanan.
Now, Im off to bed…

today we had the best experience i think we have had here. we found a place that does $10 haircuts - but every second one is $8 so we both got haircuts for $18. although i felt a bit bad about that so i tipped her $10 bringing our total to $28.
sounds dubious i know - and i can hear kel cringe from here - an outstanding haircut without even taking into consideration the price. ive never had a cut throat razor used on my hair before but it makes for good layers.
jordans however was less interesting - although the shaving length is different here so he is sporting a number 1 - but looks more like a 2 from home - so dont worry mums and nanas - its all good :) although i did need to get him a beanie for when it was finished, complete with skull and crossbones - quite the pirate thug.
it was chilly today - 10 with a wind chill of 8 - and you could feel it in your bones… now where did i put those gloves???
oh and P.S - it got dark at 6.10pm tonight.… hello winter-ish

so - my first day alone in Chch - well with the exception of Jaxon who is asleep perched on my shoulder - and i feel more than slightly liberated. i drove jordan to work for his first day (he didnt really want me to, but being as directionally challenged as myself - i figured i needed to know how to get there and if he was with me and NOT talking i might remember) ans yes i have driven there twice already but i dont take notice of such things unless i am forced to… but anyway.
so i dropped him off and had to do a few things at the bank which i decided to do on the way home - and what could could have been a disasterous detour - turned out surprisingly ok… and i even managed to find a park outside, remember to put money in the meter (stupid NZ) and get a coffee all before 9am and i recommend Esquires coffee house - i dont usually take recommendations from people who dont drink coffee but - she was right - and it was/is good - im still going on it an hour later - ive been busy. sort of.
anyhow - with that behind me - the possibilities are endless - although in reality i will probably vacuum the floor upstairs (thanks sarah) to get rid of the flanellette pilling and put away the dishes and maybe clean something.
i cant say that i love the time difference at the moment but im dealing with it - and thats all for now.

I’d just like to take this chance to say an official hello to all those who have started reading this blog since we headed over the pond. We love it when people comment on our posts, it gives us an idea of who we are keeping in touch with. Even if it is a quick hello, it would be excellent if you could spare the 3o seconds or so to let us know you’ve read about what we’ve been up to.

Also, we’re starting to get settled in our house and thinking about things to put up on the walls. when we left, one of our plans was to cover a wall in photos of people from back home to remind us of them all. We have a handful that we’re going to get printed, but we would like your help. We’ve set up an email address, and we would love for you to email us a photo of you and/or your family for us to stick up. The address is photos@jordesign.com and it would be great if they are relatively good quality (high file size, 1-2mb) as that means we will be able to print them out. If you know of anyone who might not have access to email, or this site, we would love it if you would organise with them to get a photo of theirs to us as well. So thank you, and let the emailing (and commenting) begin.
P.S. if you have a hard copy photo you would like to mail us, leave a comment or drop us an email and we can send you our postal address.

We would like to announce the newest member of the Gillman family. Jaxon was born 9 weeks ago yesterday. He is a lovely tabby male cat who loves his new mummy and daddy. We spent a long time thinking through getting him and as there is a catflap in the unit - we were approved by the owner to get him. He loves to sleep so far and loves cuddles. and we love him… a lot

We have decided to add an extra category for quick little review of places we eat as we try and get to know a few places around the city.

We were on our way home from church this morning, planning on sandwiches for lunch when we drove past an Indian place called Tulsi. We had spotted this place a couple of times, mostly due to it’s boast of “Lunch From $6 including Rice and Naan, so we decided to stop.

As expected, it was a little more than $6 if you wanted something other than a vegetarian dish, but the prices were low nonetheless. We had a Lamb Korma and a Lamb Badan Pasala both of which were fantastic, and had a little bit of bite without being too hot. The portions were perfect, just large enough (including a shared bowl of rice) to be filling without gorging ourselves, and the naan was delicious.

The service was speedy and friendly, and they seem to cater for everything from large groups through to single diners, there were even a few families with young children there. A short, delicious lunch for under $20 for the two of us. And we have marked it out to visit again.

The Cabbage Tree is a tree native to NZ. It stands tall and has fronds that sprout off various branches up its entire height.

Early missionaries “brewed a tolerable beer from it”. The commercial value remains to be fully examined. Possibilities are as a low-calorie sweetener (because it is twice as sweet as sugar) and as an ethanol source.

Its also the name of the company where I will be working while we are over here. I have yet to confirm the details, but I accepted the position on friday and will be starting probably sometime in the coming week. Cabbage Tree Creative specialise in websites for tourism companies in NZ, and do it very well. I will be working with another web designer, and a team of developers on their upcoming sites.

Its very exciting, and once again God has been incredibly gracious in his provision for us.

ok so the job wasnt exactly great but at least im out there and have interviewed. i have a few other things in the pipeline and am not overly worried
things here are progressively good and we have continued to see God at work in both of our lives - its seems more obvious being away from home.
i am loving our new house - even with its little wierd bits - like the lack of hot water pressure - the neighbours appaling taste in music and demented range hood.
having all our whiteware now is a blessing and we are loving that they dryer and the oven are substituting as heaters
the nightime temp while we have been up is about 4-6 degrees but our little house is so well insulated you can hardly tell - brrrrr
we will be braving the weather tonight to go and watch the anzac test rugby league match with our friends (one of the 2 couples we know) so that should be good - especially if australia doesnt win… if they do we might get to see our first fight :) but lets hope not.
feel free to email us whenever you like - we love to hear from you all.

That it would be so exciting to be able to do a load of washing.

The washing machine for the unit got delivered today, and so we say farewell to trips to the landromat (as exciting as they were). There is a load on at the moment, and its lovely and convinient to just be able to do a load when we need to.
On a side note, we have figured out why the unit came with a dryer installed. Our washing line gets a total of about 5 minutes sun a day, and when it is a cold and windy day, everything stays wet, unless you put it through the drier. So lucky we have one.

well lets hope so
i have an interview at 2.30 tomorrow
will keep you posted