Tuesday 5 August 2008

Overheating Gardening and Rehearsals


It's been an interesting few days! Friday we took the day off to do some gardening and apart from some severe thunderstorms, pelting rain and Nick getting stuck on Gulf to Bay as the car overheated, we managed to get quite a lot done. It was cloudy all day though which was great as it meant that it was much cooler. By 4pm we were exhausted and filthy and a shower had never felt so good.
That evening we were meant to study our WT but instead we practiced our part for the rehearsal the following day. Both of us were quite nervous really, so goodness knows how it will be on the day!
So there we were standing outside the Holiday KH at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon all dressed up in 90 deg heat. The three brothers all togged out in suits and nobody turned up! Guess what... we had the wrong place it was another half hour North which meant that we arrived at the rehearsal 30 minutes late, which meant that instead of being first we got to do our part last...argh!! Three hours later, when we should have been finishing off the garden and cleaning the house for our visitors coming the next day we were still just leaving some booney town an hour North of where we live.
To make matters worse the car overheated again on the way home which delayed us another hour. So there was Nick in his suit leaning over the engine and wondering how we would get home. Some really nice guys at an auto discount store kindly lent him some tools and we managed to limp home.
So no meeting the next morning though, as the car needed to be fixed. While Nick laboured over the engine (yet again!) and finished off the garden, Lara and I spring cleaned the house, which was long overdue.
We have decided to sell the Land rover in England so that we can get a more reliable and economical car here. It's a tough decision as we will lose quite a bit of money on it. Nick rebuilt the whole engine and did loads of upgrades, so he is a bit sad. It's no use to us there though. We are just praying that we get a decent price as it's not a vehicle that sells well at the moment.
I have been reading this awesome book called Gorgeously Green.
It gives you some great ideas on how to live greener and some real eyeopeners on what chemicals are in our cosmetics and cleaning products, even stuff I though was ok. So yesterday I went through all my toiletries and looked at the labels more closely. Most of it I won't be buying again. I had already switched to greener cleaning products a while ago though, so I was ok there. It really bugs me how little people recycle here. Having lived in Dunedin and now Clearwater, our neighbours really don't bother much.
Now that the garden is tidy Nick is going to put a washing line up so we don't have to use the dryer as much. Much more eco!!
I have ordered some soapnuts to try out instead of laundry detergent, as although I buy the Seventh Generation stuff, it is rather expensive. Apparently these nuts work great and are much more economical.
Mum is coming in just over a week, so we are all excited about seeing her. We have thought of some great places to go while she is here and of course there is the convention which will be very special.

2 comments:

Heather said...

Ooo, let me know how the soap nuts work--I have been seriously onsidering them since my oldest has such a eaction to all dyes and preservatives!

Oh and thanks for stopping by and saying hi, very nice to meet you, added you to my feed reader. :)

candace said...

i cant believe you put this picture up here.....i look...like rupret.