Well, I would have liked to have the chance to drive down from Auckland to Wellington; but based on the realities of flying for 34 hours I have decided this is a trip I will do after I am settled. The visa is sorted, the flight is booked - AND I have sorted out a 46KG Allowance! How cool is that?! With some of the books I will be taking I think I will need it.

So, flight itinery is roughly the following:-

26th September 10.30hrs am from Manchester to London Heathrow - 11.15hrs. FIVE HOUR WAIT At least I can just chill
26th September 16:15hrs (ish) from Heathrow to Los Angeles, USA - 18:30hrs STILL on 26th September!! “technically” 3 hours after I leave London….

Finally 26th September 21:00hrs (ish) from Los Angeles to Auckland New Zealand 07:00hrs 28th September!!

Where did that day go…?

In other news I am continuing to empty my house since it was put on the market, and dad will help with the white, and magnolia on Sunday, to create a blank canvas for any potential buyer/investor (fingers crossed); I’m still waiting a quote off the council to empty my garage of junk -I may have to leave this aspect with dad to deal. Oh well.

OMG!!!? This really IS happening isn’t it!

Since I managed to rip the laminate floor when replacing my washing machine, I have been faced with the daunting (I thought) task of replacing my kitchen floor.  I ripped up the remaining flooring and this is what I found underneath >>

Now the red terracota tiles looked really nice but only cover half the kitchen floor, and since I don’t have time or money on my side (despite getting 4 numbers on the lotto on Wed!!!) I had to replace the laminate flooring as best I could, I decided to go for a budget slate effect self adhesive laminate tile, which I have nearly completed, I just have all the fiddly bits left to do, but the progress looks somthing like this >>

In this picture you can clearly see the old tiling halfway across the kitchen, this is most likley left over from when the last occupiers extended the kitchen back in 1997, which (shock!!) was ten years ago…

Anyways, the washing machine is everything I hoped for and more, and at last I have some clean clothes to wear!  Oh and it lives up to it’s ultra silent name too!  As you hardly know it’s on, even when it’s at full spin?!

..I looked at my old washer today, although truth be told I had to rip up half the kitchen (cheap B&Q Laminate) floor to get at it properly to take the back off.  What I found wasn’t surprising.  The belt had indeed come off, as you can see from the picture here…

Now then, I was able to replace the belt which was not snapped out broken - but unfortunatley there does not seem to be a lot of play in the drum, so my guess here is there is more wrong than simply the belt - and each time I successfuly fitted the belt - it was off just as quick.

Anyways long story short I decide to listen to some advice and go shopping, whilst a Meile would be one of the few that are built for the long term invester; since I am a mortgage payer and one that is typically skint three days after payday I figured I would compromise - I set a strict budget of no more than £400 and I stuck to this; since you are looking at around £460 and upwards for a Meile this was discounted straight away. 

So, what I ended up with in the end, was a Hotpoint “Ultima” - It had all the typical factors of many of the washer on offer, including the tripal “A”s for efficiency and “Greenness”…plus one more very important factor, the fact it is an extremly quiet washer. 

Here’s what it looks like >>

The proof of the pudding will be in trying it out when if it arrives ontime this coming Saturday in approximatley one week, at least they agreed to take away my old washer at no extra cost

I intended to get my hallway finished, by stripping all of the rest of the wallpaper off.  Well, my excuse is, I spend loads of time cleaning out bubble, and attempting to cut his nails, still no succeeding with the front one’s despite Raych distracting him with Cucumber…it works for a little while; but bubbles a whiley pig! …He should have been a Guinea-Fox! for the cunning he displays

Anyways, my hall is still in the planning stages I guess so - I’m going to use that as my second excuse for not finishing off the stripping of the wallpaper.

In other news…?  I officially start my diet today, no more pastry or outcakes from the “Butty Wagon” at work, and more fruit, veg and crucially water - because I clearly don’t drink enough.  I need to get back into the early morning gym routine too.   Otherwise Fitness Fist will be laughing all the way to the bank with my money.

Finally on a more embarressing note, I popped into B&Q at lunchtime for some bits for my hallway, and get to the checkout….fumble for “mister wallet”…ooops can’t find it, fumbles through loose change….eeek not enough….yikes!  I had to rush home grab my wallet and go back.  TRES EMBARRESSING!! I guess it happens to most of us at least once in our lives eh?