New Life, New Zealand

So it's been quite a while since I last posted, understatement of the last two years ! However at the insistence of a good friend of mine I have made the momentous decision to give it another go. Oman became a bit samey and so blogging became, well boring to be honest. I wasn't really crafting all that much, no need really, I wasn't really doing much of anything really. A great number of our friends had left Oman and we were ready to move on ourselves and so life really was not worth blogging about. Now however it's all change. We are starting our new life in New Zealand and I am hoping we aren't as mad as a box of frogs for giving it a go. 

New Zealand is gorgeous, it is beautiful, the people are lovely, the food and wool are fabulous, the people are outstandingly friendly and the weather is seasonal, which is a massive bonus, however, it is real life, we have left behind the excess of expat life and are now going to have to manage on a real salary, pay real tax and shop in very expensive shops. Can we do it ? I don't know, stay tuned to find out, worst case scenario, we are back in the Middle East next year having been unable to adjust to the real world ! Let's hope it doesn't happen !! 

I recently saw a post on Facebook from someone I vaguely know living in the Middle East, showing off purchase of hugely expensive and frankly massively excessive items and I thought, that is one huge reason to get out of the Middle East, the shows of wealth by many are disgusting, the holidays, the cars, the shopping, it all looks wonderful if you aren't living it, it isn't real and i honestly can't stand it. Anyway I won't go on suffice it to say, we decided that we wanted something else for our family, a more down to earth life experience where it is more about supporting your rugby team than buying a 60 inch TV. We want to give real life a go and let the children have a crack at it, maybe we'll hate it, or maybe we won't, but we will never know either way if we don't try. So we are trying and hopefully I will be able to keep you updated here about how it is going and what we are up to as well as touching of course, on crafting, cooking, cleaning and by necessity loosing weight - yes this dreadful year has taken it's toll and having lost lots of weight before Christmas 2013, I now am back to square one, well minus one really and have to loose three stone. I don't ever weigh myself but I had to go for a medical for my NZ visa and let us just say that the numbers on the scale shocked me - not enough to stop me eating my way through our fabulous three week holiday in the UK, but enough to make me realise that it really is time to do something about it - so do something about it I must. 

So NZ wise, so far so good, the boys have declared Auckland awesome and I am keen to get a house, get school sorted and start living our life - it should be fun, hopefully.