10 years
Today, 5 January 2012 marks my 10th year in New Zealand.
There were days when it felt like it was yesterday that I arrived in this country excited to spend my married life with MrG. And then there were days when I felt like I’ve been here too long.
So much has happened in those 10 years. They weren’t all happy memories. Some experiences were awful that I’d rather not to dwell on them. Truth be told, there were more good days than bad.
I followed my heart. I followed my man.
I have no regrets 
Here’s to the next 50 summers, New Zealand.
Thank you!
Paradise
Philippines will always be my home. I know that in my heart.
But New Zealand (especially the South Island) has captured my heart in more ways than one.
Lake Dunstan in Cromwell has been witness to many a summer family holiday over the years. This is where Ms14 and her cousins have spent lazy summer days biscuiting.
Can’t imagine living anywhere else now. How lucky am I to be living in a country like New Zealand?
2012 – end of the world?
2011 was a very eventful year for us in Christchurch.
Here’s hoping that 2012 will be a better year for us albeit in a more positive way
I hope it’s NOT the end of the world as predicted by the 2012 movie I haven’t turned 40 yet!!
Four countries and three weeks later..
….,we are back to where we started.
At home. In Christchurch.
It has been an incredible experience for Simon and I to go on holiday.
Night Safari, Singapore
Yes, just the two of us!
Club Med, Bintan, Indonesia
Our 10th Year
(Please leave a comment if you want me to email you the password)
Who knew that a chance meeting in the late 1990′s would lead us down the aisle in 2001?
An #eqnz gift from ‘Feel at Home’
I’m not into handmade soaps and all but after meeting Leanne of ‘Feel at Home’ via Twitter and following her soap making adventures through her Facebook Page, I’m hooked.
After hearing that Christchurch yet again was shaken by twin quakes on 13 June, she published a shout out on her FB page asking her Christchurch-based fans to email her their home addresses as she’d like to send a little something to make us feel better.
My new ‘normal’ post-Christchurch Earthquake
This is where I spend half of my work week now:
I commandeered a small section of our lounge/living room as my ‘work area’ away from our temporary HQ in Harewood.
This is where I worked prior to the 22 Feb earthquake.
So many things have changed since Christchurch was shaken, rattled and rolled last year. After the September 2010 Mag 7.1 earthquake, we couldn’t access our office building in Victoria St for close to two weeks and the months that followed were a series of interruptions at work as our landlord began repairing internal walls in our building.
CHRISTCHURCH: Should we stay or leave?
So this has been playing on my mind for the last week since having not one but two major earthquakes (a mag 5.7 and 6.3 all within a span of an hour and a half) on 13 June, Monday.
Christchurch earthquake damage in Central City. Taken on 19 June 2011
You would think that after having 2 rounds of major earthquakes in the past 9 months, Mother Nature would leave Christchurch alone for the next 600 hundred years or so.
To be honest, when the 2 quakes struck Monday last week, I was frightened, yes. But more than that, I was overwhelmingly over the whole tremor thing.
We’ve been extremely lucky that in the last 3 major earthquakes we’ve had since September 2010, our house survived it virtually unscathed (we had very minor damage to our property), our little street free from liquefaction of any kind but the emotional and mental stress borne from these quakes are finally taking their toll.
On me at least.
