Holiday in Wellington

Straight after Christmas, Martin and I headed down for two weeks holiday in Wellington :-)

We were really pleased to discover that the airline allows disabled people to bring two mobility aids with them (not one as we previously thought), so I was able to bring my walker as well as my wheelchair.  We also worked out we could just fit my 'travel' bed lever and my brand new 'travel' shower stool into the standard baggage allowance, so they came along in a custom-built cardboard box Anna and Martin put together.  It all added up to a stupendous amount of stuff, but it was very nice not to have the hassle and expense of hiring everything down there :-)

Me with my mum at the airport - everything you see (except the airport's trolley) traveled on the plane with us!

Finding a National Radio programme you heard

From time to time, people ask me to find a programme on the Radio New Zealand website - perhaps a programme that they caught part of live but would like to hear in its entirety, or something they heard advertised but didn't catch live.  I've just put together a guide to explain how I go about finding those programmes on the website, so people can do it themselves if they want.

If that sounds like something that may be of interest to you, you can download it here.  It's a pdf.  And if you have any feedback on it, I'd love to hear from you :-)

Christmas is coming

There's not much energy to spare at the moment, but I did find some time to put up a few decorations in our room over the last few days.

When I lie in bed, I'm now looking straight at this:

The 'hope' bears are from Martin's Aunty Elspeth and the holly tablecloth was a wedding present from friends from my church in Switzerland.  The broom flowers are in honour of our wedding anniversary - when we got married, Mummy made bouquets of them for our flower girls :-)

Settling in at my parents' place

On Saturday we moved to my parents' place, where we expect to spend the rest of the year.  We're here to help them sort their belongings and downsize prior to moving to a smaller place in the New Year.

We've stayed here for a long period of time once before, but this is the first time we've arrived expecting to stay many weeks.  To help make that work for us, my parents kindly agreed to let Martin and some friends largely clear the room we're staying in before we arrived.  This means it's easier for me to navigate the room than usual, which I'm really enjoying.  We also brought a few pictures for the walls and even pot plants and have set ourselves up very nicely :-)

I'm really happy with the setup and have posted a number of photos below.

Looking in through the main door - spot my moth orchid and bleeding heart vine in the corner and a picture by the window :-)

Wildness Chocolate

I recently heard about a really cool chocolate company - Wildness Chocolate.  I was really impressed by the founder, Marie Monmont, when she was interviewed on Nine to Noon on Radio NZ National.  Kathryn Ryan asked her what she looked for in her suppliers and she said:

• number one: no child labour
• number two: environmental sustainability
• number three: quality

I pricked my ears up, as that's pretty much my priority order, too!

Some cool things I've been watching

I'm continuing to enjoy spending a lot of time watching the bear cam: it's such an amazing opportunity to be able to watch what's going on all the way over in Alaska in real time!

There aren't many salmon jumping any more and the bear numbers have definitely thinned out.  The bears that remain are super-fat: it's delightful to watch the way their bellies roll when they shake themselves!  However, I seem to be noticing more other species there now.   This morning I spent about half an hour watching this amazing bald eagle.

Just chilling.

Happy Birthday to me :-)

It was my birthday on Friday and both Martin's parents and my parents came over for dinner to celebrate.

sticky rice meal laid out ready to go

 

Sarah and Mummy

Daddy, Dad and Mum

Martin

Me