A new home

Decision made: I moved in with Bex a couple of nights ago and I now have a 'home' again. I have my own room. I can put some photos and bits and pieces on the wall. I can keep my toothbrush and toothpaste and soap and shampoo in the bathroom. I can cook myself dinner from a well-stocked cupboard and have dinner parties. Very strange. It's not that I haven't had any of this at all in the past 9 months, I have. It's more that this is the longest I'll have been in one place for a while. And it's nice.

Although very very very cold. A lot of buildings in New Zealand, including those at high altitude that get extremely cold winters, do not have proper insulation or central heating of any description. This is one of them. The log fire gets a good blaze going, but bedtime is nippy.

A new thing for me is looking after a car in sub-zero temperatures. I've managed to twist a car key in a frozen lock already. My morning routine now has 'boil kettle to pour around door to get car running and heating up' in there right after 'get dressed as FAST AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN'. You can't say this travel malarkey isn't a learning experience!