An update for you all

Hi all,

Those of you who check our blog regularly will notice we've been falling behind on our blogging.

We decided a while ago to return to New Zealand. The date is now fixed. We depart from Edinburgh on the 4th September, and travel home via London and Los Angeles, arriving back in Wellington on 10th September.

As a result, life is a blur at the moment. We had our trip to Italy,which was just fantastic, then came home via London where we picked up my Dad. He's come over to stay for a few weeks in Edinburgh. Helen and I are now working our last month in our jobs, both of us finish around end of August just days before we depart.

We have to plan vacating and cleaning our flat, packing and shipping belongings home, along with taking weekend trips away with Dad.

We've also been job hunting for positions in NZ. Helen's applying for a few jobs, and I've now secured a job at Housing NZ Corporation which I start one week after arriving home.

We hoped to have a last month to enjoy Edinburgh; to see a few local attractions we've not yet seen, and revisit our favourite haunts one last time. Unfortunately, this has coincided with the Edinburgh Festival. The town is packed with tourists. Bus timetables are worthless, buses are running so late. The rubbish collectors have been on strike too in Edinburgh, so rubbish bins are overflowing everywhere and the city is under siege from large numbers of seagulls.

So all in all, Helen and I are feeling a little bit like we would just like to get all this over with, and return home now.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon. In the meantime, please keep an eye on the blog, on postings older than this one, as we back-fill the remainder of our Italy trip, and tell you all about our trip down to Gretna Green!

Mike.