A start

It has taken me six months to feel at home in my new city and to start writing.

We moved to Auckland in July last year. I think. I can't remember the date. It was not one of our easiest moves. We're lucky, professionals do all the packing and paperwork for us but I was wrong to think that experience would make it easy. A bout of swine flu the day before moving day was the icing on the cake. Got to love Tamiflu.

We moved to New Zealand from Sydney. Quite out of the blue but a better option for the family than Asia or back to Europe. My husband broke the news almost a year ago by bringing home a lovely bottle of NZ pinot (more on that later) and making me drink a glass or two to soften the blow.

My first impressions of my new home. Well, it rains in Auckland. A lot. It's not that cold here but it rains.

Here's the proof.

Coromandel Peninsula

It doesn't get that green without water. Buckets of it.

Now though after a pretty long six months we are happy. My five year old has started Big School (it is always spoken in capital letters in our house as it is a Very Big Deal). My youngest is nearly two and very happy although I think he'd be happy anywhere. And I'm happy. I wasn't for a while - blamed the rain mostly - but I knew it would just take time to find a friend or two and a couple of places that made me feel like it was home.

So what am I doing here? I have had a lot of time to myself as a new stay-at-home mother and blogs have become a way to connect with an amazing array of interesting people, artists, craftspeople, designers and thinkers so I thought I'd join in. I don't really belong in that list but I like lovely things. Is that enough? We'll see.