It's now 2013

So, somehow it's now 2013. 

I've moved into an apartment...

I moved in with my boyfriend, Dan...

I've been unemployed over summer - it sort of sucks, but doesn't (more about that later). 

The old flat was too hard to me to keep going financially.... And my sister ended up moving back home after a period of working full time in a restaurant. Dan and I decided to move in together last year. We flat hunted like crazy and I viewed so many places. Apartments in Wellington city are mostly tiny! The first place I dragged Dan into he fell in love with. So here we are! 

Some photos from the past few months or so...

 The old place, this was the tiles around the fire place...

 

The view out from the lounge at the old place... I do miss having full sunshine streaming in. Oh well.

 The Owl drawers came with me! (Got a cheap set of drawers at a Salvation Army store before I moved to Wellington, back in 2009... then in 2012 I painted them as a giant owl.)

 The day we moved in, Dan got snapped! He had to climb in/under/around the bed base to set it up. Note it's a King sized bed and our room isn't huge!

 The owl drawers, and the bed base - coming along nicely!

 The "before" of the lounge/ kitchen/ dining area.  (the day we moved in, the movers just "dumped" everything in a pile.) The kitchen took me an hour to sort everything out... while Dan had a nap. Apparently bed making is hard work!

 A sneaky picture of Dan, playing around with his laptop (This was from the day when we made Sushi with our friends, at my old place)...

 Another sneaky picture of Dan...Wearing my wolf hat.

 An "after" image of the bed... And yes, there's a great view out the window - in one direction anyway.

 Another view, yes, more owls! (And my dressing table, covered in my soft toys)... Looking towards the car parking building!

 Dan's couch, It's pretty awesome, it's foam and folds out to make a double bed. My sister Ash came and stayed for her last week in Wellington and slept on it. (Didn't hear her complain so it can't be too bad to sleep on!)
I'm still half decided on using the all green or striped green pillows as the cushions on it.
Out of shot, on the opposite wall is the "office" area, it's currently a desk with laptop and other computer gear on it. The glass on the left of the couch is one side of an amazing glass ranch-slider door. (The whole wall on one end is all glass, made up of 2 large windows and glass doors).

 The kitchen and dining area (shown from the lounge end). There's a washer/drier all in one machine in one cupboard and a fridge in the one that looks like a pantry.

Looking at the kitchen, another view... The microwave that Dan just 'had' to have. hehe. Plus the stove in use.  And Dan's heater makes an appearance.

I guess the place is looking a bit more like a 'show home' that you'd see in a magazine, but it's coming along. There's still a lot to sort out and stuff, but it's early days yet. 

It's also got a 2nd bedroom, but I won't take a picture of the flatmates room out of privacy for her. :) 

And of course we have a bathroom it's shared with a loo too.......

 but no image as it's a bit too weird, even for me.

Unemployed over summer: Oh yes, good to have heaps of time...

 but not so good for trying to save or anything like that! 

So over summer time I don't work at my usual job (as an ESOL tutor) because the kids go back home (to Korea) over Christmas and New Years. Besides of which school in NZ doesn't restart until the start of February. Just waiting to hear back from the boss at the school, emailed a while ago, hope it's good news. :)
I also clean at someone's house, so I have a little income coming in. Just sucks being without a regular income.
I am heading back to school in a little over 6 weeks. Back to studying English Literature.

Apartment living has it's quirks, mostly good. A bit bad too, like the constant noises and being able to hear people and sirens constantly is taking a bit of getting used to. But on the whole, it's pretty awesome.

Signing off, write more later,
 Lisa.