Cats and furniture - and a job

Fortunately our belongings turned up two days before the cats were due home.  We were horrified by how much stuff there was; considering we have moved a few times now since our adventures began and tried to whittle things down each time, the number of boxes was horrendous!  However,the sight of our sofa (very comfy and not seen since we moved out of Longniddry at the beginning of May) was extremely welcome, not to mention the bed, and being able to sit on a sofa and sleep on a bed - instead of bean bag chairs and a blow up mattress - made the chaos worthwhile.

Due to the sheer stupidity of one of the intial packers we had a number of glass and crockery casualties so we probably don't have a full set of anything anymore, but never mind.  It makes us even more part of the Christchurch scene - there can't be many sets of crockery that survived the earthquakes intact!

Then came the day of the cats homecoming.  We had managed to get the sitting room and bedroom pretty much sorted in time, despite Andy preparing for a second interview in the meantime.  He was at the interview while Chris went to fetch the cats.  Thankfully they were glad to see her and just did their usual new home thing of walking around the house miaowing constantly for a while before going to bed!  They don't seem to be holding any sort of grudge and settled in so quickly it seems like they have always lived here.  What a relief!

Andy's sterling efforts at cleaning the bikes and outdoor gear back in Scotland made the mud splattered all around the bathroom as he did so worthwhile (yes, the bikes were taken apart and cleaned in the bath) as the quarantine folk had simply poked a small hole in the packaging of one of the bikes and just opened a couple of gardening boxes before seeing they were so spanking clean there was no need to look any further.  Unfortunately, as were originally going to be tight for space in the container we had taken the pedals off the bikes so they could be stacked more easily.  Chris had (half) joked about the chances of not being able to find the pedals at this end - which of course turned out to be the case!  Thankfully they did turn up eventually and are now back where they should be - on the bikes :o)

Then earlier this week Andy was out checking out the beginning and end of a (completely nuts - Ed) run he is doing this weekend when he got a call to say he had been offered the job he had had two interviews for.  What a clever boy!  One job application, two interviews, and a job offer within two and a half weeks of landing - fantastic!  Needless to say we went out to our favourite pub (only the second visit this trip as it isn't exactly nearby) to celebrate :o)

This weekend sees Andy doing his (nuts - Ed) run while Chris enjoys the Great Kiwi Beer Festival, which just happens to be held in the park less than 10 minutes walk from the house.  Chances are neither of us will be able to move on Sunday :o)