SNOW!

 It has certainly been a bit of an odd month keeping ourselves occupied mainly about the house with the occasional walk in our local area. Sadly no more National Trust visits and I haven't been able to see any of my friends to say goodbye which has been hard. With less than two weeks to go until my flight, we have cut all unnecessary trips out of the house. Today we had a very necessary trip out to the local downs for today's exercise of ... TOBOGGANING! It snowed this morning and we have been out having an absolute ball - fun and games trying to keep my camera dry while taking photos too. While most of the neighbourhood seemed to be out (more people than we have seen for months), everyone was very good about social distancing and not staying near the same group of people for too long. Snowball fights are banned because of the covid risk so we just waited till we got home to the safety of our own backyard. Chris throws a mean snowball! It was really nice to just be so excited and live in the present for a couple of hours and to have so much fun together as a house.

Jo

Mel with Chris giving her a push

Jo

My first attempt didn't go so well!

Chris and I doubled up on the toboggan to take a video....I may have put the phone directly in his eyeline....

I'm ticking things off my to do list very quickly now with mostly little things left to do. I still need to sell my car and the moving company needs to come and pick up my two boxes - one going by air and one by sea. Singapore confirmed my flight two days ago which was a massive relief and I just need to try and get a negative PCR test 72 hours before I fly. I have been struggling with feeling very anxious and stressed about things and some prayer around this, especially for the flight, would be much appreciated. As well as packing and sorting things out, Jo and I have been learning to paint. We've been following online tutorials and have been learning loads as well as having a lot of fun (though I get frustrated in the middle of the process >_<). Here is our first attempt and our latest attempt!

Attempt 1: Mine on the left

Attempt 5: Mine on the right

It seems very strange to think that I will be back in NZ in quite a short space of time now. It is quite hard to visualise and I suspect is going to be a difficult transition. It is going to be very hard to say goodbye to my amazing housemates but I am looking forward to being able to hug my family in the not too distant future!