Daily Life

Our house is quite comfortable with three bedrooms, one bath, eat-in kitchen, sitting room (with TV – eight channels via antennae), sunroom, laundry room (with washer and dryer), and huge two car garage (with no extra stuff stored in it). It is a typical kiwi house with single pane windows, no central heating, and no insulation. There are electric space heaters in each room which we do not use. There is a nightstore heater in the central hallway. Electrical rates are very high during the day but low at night so the hall heater is on and warmed at night and then slowly releases heat during the day. We use that to heat the kitchen/eating area and keep all the other doors closed. The temps in the closed rooms are about 10° C. The heated towel rack in the bathroom is on all the time so the bathroom is not quite as cold. There is a pellet stove in the sitting room which we use in the evenings while reading or watching TV. When the sun is out the sitting room is solar heated nicely. Then we close the drapes at night. Doug wears his ski pants and fleece and uses a quilt to sit in the evening. I wear my Jay Peak fleece vest, a sweatshirt, and my sleeping bag to watch TV. We have a heating pad on our bed which we turn on about 2 hours before going to bed and then off when we get in bed. Warm flannel sheets are great to get into when the air temp is cold. Our visitor will get hot water bottles in her bed when she is here. We are trying to be very energy conscious at home even drying clothes on a rack in the hall.

My days are generally relaxed with mornings starting with reading in bed where it is still warm. The University of Canterbury has a great library with a good selection of fiction. The University also has a wonderful newcomers group that alternates coffee at someone’s house or a walking trip each Wed. morning. There is also a craft group every other Th., so I am going to crochet some baby gifts. I also walk to the grocery store or mall. Shopping in metric is fun to figure out how much of something to buy. The lamb roast I got for dinner tonight was $9.99/kg and 1.6 kg. Is that a good price and how long do I cook it for and at what temperature (the stove is in °C)?. I either take lunch to Doug in his office or he comes home. Afternoons I check email in Doug’s office and play online blogging etc. until he needs to get his lectures done. He teaches T, W, and Th. mornings. He is writing a new course on materials selection so he is spending a lot of time preparing lectures. He will have to tell you more about his students. We got a computer on loan from the Mech. Engineering Dept. to use at home so I can download pictures from my camera, play games, charge my ipod, and write blogs. We do not have internet at home so I transfer everything I need by memory stick to Doug’s office. I rolled the computer and huge old monitor across campus in my suitcase. It only took two trips. I also check out all the guide books and pamphlets at the house to plan places to go over the weekends. Evenings we generally watch TV but we have been out a few times to lectures etc. Last Th. we went out to dinner and then to a concert. One of his colleagues, Susan, sings in an early music group and they were part of an informal get together at the Music Centre. In addition to several vocal groups there were several recorder groups. The student recorder group was fabulous and amazing to watch and listen to. I joined in on the sing-a-long at the end. It was a lot of fun. We then went to Susan’s house for tea and her 17 year-old son pumped us for information about Bunker Hill for a school project.

On clear nights, we have done a little stargazing and love to see the Southern Cross at about 45° above horizon since we are at about 45° south latitude. The moon is also cool to watch as the light moves left to right as it is waxing. Think about looking at the moon upside down from where you are in the Northern hemisphere