I’ve had a lovely weekend hanging out with Courtney and her family, not doing much but getting out for walks and sitting around drinking coffee and talking, it’s been very relaxing. Scarlet, their cat mashed her presence known from time to time. It was warm enough tonight to have dinner out on the deck. I…

Talking with Courtney this morning I learned a lot about tax responsibilities of US citizens living abroad. Taxation is based on citizenship not residency in the US (apparently Eritrea is the only other country that does this) and children of US citizens are automatically considered citizens for this purpose (even if there have never lived…

I’ve been keeping my eyes out for funiculars!  The Wellington cable car is the most famous funicular here, but there are literally hundreds of privately owned ones that people use to get to their houses that are up steep hills. The cars are very small and the rail they go on is often very steep! When…

I am heading on the train to Auckland tomorrow, so spent a good part of the day doing laundry and pulling together what I needed for the next week and putting everything else in bags to go to Annemarie’s while I’m gone.  I did manage to get out for a little bit as I wanted…

The day started with the sound of tuis calling as dawn was breaking. I left the window open last night because it was so warm, and when I looked out, I could see a light rain was falling. Since it was still quite warm outside, I opened the door and enjoyed the scent and sound…

Today I went for a wander around Victoria University, otherwise known as Vic Uni. I got there via the cable car from Lambton Quay, the upscale shopping district in Wellington. We went through several tunnels that had lights flashing different colors on and off, it was pretty cool (the kids on the cable car agreed…

Today is December 12, one of the 12 days of the year that the US and most other countries write the date the same way. I’m getting used to saying and writing the date with the day first then the month, which actually makes a lot of sense and leads me to wonder why the…

Had a bit of a lie in this morning after my late night at the Symphony. It was relatively mild outside, so I made myself some coffee and sat outside to journal and read. At 9 o’clock Mary and I headed out, picked up her friends Bronwyn and Kelda, and went to Princess Bay to…

It started out as a very cloudy, damp morning, I couldn’t see further than a few houses down the street. It was a great time to get out for a walk as very few people were out (it was also 6am on a Saturday so there is that!). I met a very friendly and beautiful…

It rained on and off pretty much all day today. I did manage to get out for a quick hike in the bush before the rain started. Mary has Fridays off from work and she offered to take Verena and I out somewhere that wasn’t easy to get to via public transport. It turned out…