Time for a big change

 Hi all,

Just over a year ago, Whitesnake and I decided to sell our house and move from Auckland to The Bay of Plenty. 

It wasn't a decision we took lightly. Whitesnake's side of the family live in Australia and my parents live about a three hour drive away in The Bay of Plenty. My parents are retired now and Whitesnake and his family suffered the devastating loss of a brother. Unfortunately, due to covid, we were unable to travel to Australia to attend Whitesnake's brother's funeral or visit my parents in their retirement village. As you can image, this took quite a toll on us. 

So, out of curiosity, Whitesnake organised a house appraisal from out local real estate agent and to our surprise, the value of our house had more than doubled since we purchased it about eight years ago. That was all the encouragement we needed to put our house on the market.   

More about our journey soon.

Love KB

xxx

I tawt I taw a puddy tat... and a bunny?

I thought I saw a pussy cat and a bunny on my neighbours' steps and I was right. How strange. At first, I believed they were unusual friends but it turns out the bunny was on the run and never to be seen again. Safe travels little bunny!

Photo source: KB

In other news, my Dad and I have both been in the wars this week. My Dad is a keen cyclist but crashed with another cyclist a couple of days ago. He's broken his collarbone so he'll need to take it easy for a while. Easier said than done for an active man in his seventies.

I was exhausted yesterday and spent the majority of the day in bed. Could be hormones (or lack of them), or maybe too much sun. Feeling less tired today but lacking energy. Luckily for me, my wonderful husband has been looking after me and we don't have any plans for this weekend.


I'm sharing this post with Saturday's Critters

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love KB
x

Keeping up with KB

I can't believe I haven't blogged since May. Not for any particular reason I can think of really. So here's a post to catch you up with KB.

One stormy night, Whitesnake (hubby), cut his hand while trying to close a jammed window. He needed stitches at the time but it all healed up now. Scary stuff.

Photo source: KB

Recently we had family visiting from Australia, a lovely time was had by all. During their stay we visited a local restaurant for lunch. Whitesnake and I had heard great things about the restaurant from a friend. Unfortunately, Whitesnake had to send his meal back twice so we were extremely disappointed.

Whitesnake's brother and sister-in-law

After sending an email regarding our experience to the restaurant, we were happy to receive a phone call, an apology and a voucher for a free meal. Earlier this week we went back to the restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal.

Photo sources: KB


That's all from me today.

Have a great weekend.

Love KB
x

Happy Anniversary Day, Auckland

Hi my friends,

Whitesnake and I are enjoying a relaxing long weekend as Auckland celebrates Anniversary Day. The actual Auckland Anniversary Day is tomorrow - 29th January,  but today is a public holiday so Auckland can enjoy a long weekend. 

Auckland Harbour - Photo Source KB

I've been thankful to have the day off every year since I moved to New Zealand, without really knowing much about it . As I moved here in 1984, I decided it was long overdue that I  I learned about what I was celebrating. So here goes...

Explorer and first governor of New Zealand - William Hobson arrived in New Zealand in 1840 and signed a treaty with the Maori people, which led to New Zealand becoming a new British colony. Hobson founded Auckland later the same year and named it the capital of New Zealand. A small regatta was held in Auckland that year and by the following year, the regatta and Auckland Anniversary Day, (the date Hobson first spotted New Zealand) was established. 

Apparently,  'the regatta is the largest one-day event of its kind in the world and is the central attraction of Auckland Anniversary Day.'  I found very interesting as I live in Auckland and don't remember hearing anything about this large event but Goggle informs me of these facts, so it must be true! 

So instead of attending the regatta with our fellow Aucklanders, Whitesnake and I made our own fun. Drinks, home made pizza and laughs were shared with a friend on Friday night.  I knew I'd had a fabulous night the following morning when it took me a few seconds to remember how to drive my car.

Last night didn't go as well, I drank too much wine and yelled at my husband for no reason. My husband is the kindest, most generous. loving person on the planet so as you can imagine, I'm feeling incredibly guilty and have vowed to never drink the evil red wine again.  

I intend to spend the rest of the long weekend grovelling, relaxing and NOT touching a drop of red wine. 

Happy Anniversary Day, Auckland!

Love KB

x

Shared with Our World Tuesday

An Emotional Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas or if you don't celebrate Christmas, a happy holiday.

Our Christmas has been a mixed bag of emotions. My sister's partner passed away after a long illness about a week before Christmas. At least he is no longer in pain.

Here's a pic of the family celebrating Christmas before he became ill. Left to right - Whitesnake, KB, Sister, Sister's partner, Dad. Mum took the photo.

A couple of day's later was the first anniversary of our sweet dog's passing. She was my baby and I miss the little angel dearly.

Coco: Photo source - KB

Our Christmas was full of love, good food, wine, Christmas movies and presents. Luckily for me, my husband loves to cook.

Orange And Lemon Cake Recipe

Love KB
x

Catching Up With The Parents

My parents recently moved to Tauranga, which is about three hours drive from where Whitesnake and I live. 

They are going on holiday tomorrow, making a perfect opportunity to catch up as we live near the International Airport.

We had originally organised to go out for lunch, but my parents were quite tired after their drive. They requested some of Whitesnake’s delicious sandwiches instead. I have the best husband ever!

A good time was had by all and we will see them again when they return from their holiday. A lovely day.

Love KB

x

A Fun Visit With Whitesnake's Brother

Whitesnake's brother came to stay with us for week from Australia. We had a lot of fun and of course the time went too quickly.

As you can see from the photo, the diet went out the window for the week.

Photo is my own.

A Fun Weekend

Hi all,

Whitesnake and I had a fun filled weekend. On Saturday we headed out to our neighbours' home for Christmas drinks. We believed we'd stay for about an hour, but ended up staying for four. It was good to get to know our neighbours better and we had a great chat and a few laughs.

The next day we visited my parents for coffee and a catch up and that was fun too.

Hope you are well.

KB
x

Photo Source: KB's Room

Rest In Peace, Linda

I'm sorry to say that my auntie passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. She survived it once before, but it wasn't to be this time.

Linda, Mum, Me and Steve 2009

She had a wicked sense of humour and lived life to the full.

Rest In Peace, Linda.

xxx

Photo Source: KB's Room

Family Time

Whitesnake and I were invited to a family bbq while we were in Adelaide. I'd already met some of his family, but it was fantastic to meet some more and they made me feel right at home. There are too many pics to post here so I'll just share some of the pics of us oldies :)

Last of the holiday pics tomorrow.

Love KB
xxx

Meeting up at the Midway Tavern

Whitesnake's brother picked us up and took us out for the day. Whitesnake is a big supporter of the Adelaide Crows and it was fun to visit their home ground.

 

We took a tour around Whitesnake's old neighbourhood and visited his Mum and Dad at the cemetery.

 

 

I've heard many stories or Whitesnake's time at the Midway Tavern so it was a real treat for me to visit and share a meal with friends and family. I even tasted the legendary Chicken Schnitzel with Diane Sauce.

 

 

 

One of the things I've loved about visiting Whitesnake's former home is meeting the people in person I have known via facebook. I feel like I know some of them so well already but it was wonderful to talk to them and see them face to face.

 

 



A fun day.

 

More pics tomorrow.

 

Love KB

xxx



 

 



Out and About In Glenelg

Now that Whitesnake and I are all settled in at home, I thought it was time to share some more pics from our holiday.

What I loved about where we stayed was how close we were to everything. Just walk out the door and you have a huge variety of places to eat, shops to browse through and the beach to enjoy. We spent most of the morning exploring Glenelg and enjoying the sunshine.

Followed by a delicious roast dinner with family.

More pics tomorrow.

Love KB
xxx

This post has been shared with Our World Tuesday.

Keeping Up With KB

What a week! NZ has just had 2 minutes silence to remember the Quake victims. I've seen many pics on the news over the years of natural disasters and felt terrible sorrow for the people involved but it's not the same as seeing a tragedy like this in your own country. I see places on the news where I've visited and imagine how I could quite easily have been there when it happened. Thankfully, I was not but some of Whitesnake's family where. They arrived back here the next day, shocked but OK. I'm happy to say that everyone I know in Christchurch is safe but my thoughts are with those that were not so lucky.  I can't imagine how it must have felt to experience what they have. There have been many deaths and there are still people missing. It will take NZ a long time to recover from this.


Whitesnake's family are safe and sound back in Australia. We had a relaxing time catching up with friends and family while they were here.

Our recipe for this week is Chicken, Pumkin and Bok Choy Noodle Salad and you can find Whitesnake's take on events and his story for the week over on his blog.

That's all from me today,
Stay safe.
See you tomorrow.
Love KB
xxx

Keeping Up With KB

Hi all,

I'm feeling great, Whitesnake and I had a wonderful weekend. Whitesnake's brother and sis-in-law arrived from Australia on Friday. I was a little nervous as I've never met any of his family before. I shouldn't have worried, they are both lovely people and we had a relaxing, fun time together.

We visited one of our favourite beaches, had a few bbqs, a yummy lunch at the pub and we invited G round to meet them, which led to Sing Star (of course), hehe!

Are they here yet?

Are they here yet?

Yay, they are here.

                                                                               




They've headed off on their travels again and we'll be catching up with them before they head home. They'll probably be relieved that they won't have to watch any more cooking programmes for a while. Whitesnake and I are addicted to cooking shows :) Coco enjoyed all the extra cuddles and playing catch, she'll probably sleep for a week after all the excitement.

Had a lovely Valentines with my man. Actually, it started off a little rocky but we will blame some crappy service from Vodafone and the heat. The rest of the day was fab and Whitesnake cooked me a delicious Valantine's Day dinner.

That's all from me today. I'll be posting more pics later.

Have a great day/night.
Love KB
xxx