Overdue

Undoubtedly my few loyal readers are itching to ask me what exactly I've been up to in the last month that's sooo important I completely ignored this blog...?? Well, this time I actually have a valid excuse because life has been racing by at 200 miles an hour and I've barely had a moment to take a breath and contemplate things, let alone write about them! In the past 4 weeks I've visited Palmerston North to waive 'sayonara' to our good friend Brett (now living in Nagoya, Japan), made a sad trip to New Plymouth for the funeral of Vaughan's grandmother :-(, attempted to kick-start our social life (mission 75% accomplished), wrote an article in Dutch for my high school alumni magazine, became sustainability crusader at work ("You shall recycle!"), and - biggest task of all- completed the RMS Refugee Resettlement training course and prepared for the arrival of 'our' Iraqi refugees. After being inundated with theoretical and practical information for 6 weeks, each volunteer team had around 10 days to gather up enough donated furniture and household items to fill the family's house, which seemed a very daunting challenge at the time. To our pleasant surprise generous Wellingtonians appeared everywhere and offered us sofa lounges, beds, tv's, microwaves, washing machines, towels etc., and I have to say that witnessing their kindness was really heartwarming :-). Coordinating the delivery of all these goods and preparing the house in time is the next hurdle to overcome - will keep you posted on the outcome!