When we left New Zealand we said we were going for “a couple of years.” Fair enough. It’s a turn of phrase, not always meant to be taken literally.

Now that a couple of years have passed (almost), the more pedantic of you (or perhaps those who care the most) have been asking when we are going to be back.

It’s a good question and one we have been pondering ourselves.

On the one hand we’ve been in Cork for a lot longer than we planned and we really do miss New Zealand, our friends and family especially. With a new addition to the extended family back home there’s even more reason to head for home. The weather here is, frankly, crap. There has been little sign of summer being on its way and each day greets us with cloud, drizzle and temperatures in the low teens. It’s just like a wet July in Palmerston North, only this is what passes for summer. The thought of spending another winter here is a little unappealing right now.

On the other hand there’s still so much to see, do and to tell you wonderful folk all about. Holidays have been booked and plans have been made so we’re not leaving here in the next few months anyhow. We’ve made good friends here and feel very fortunate when we look at how things have turned out.

 

We’ve hit a bit of a purple patch here too. In the last few days we watched Munster lift the Heineken Cup making them champions of European Rugby. We had to rush from the resulting parade the other night as we had tickets to see The Editors, a fantastic band with a front-man who would appear to be possessed by the ghosts of both Ian Curtis and Joe Strummer. Then my shop won third prize in the Support Munster window competition, thanks in part to an old guitar and a can of red spray paint. We cheered as Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest with a slice of ridiculously OTT theatrical metal. It  helped that we were at a Finnish friend’s house at the time.

So it’s fair to say there have been some good vibes lately and long may they continue.

 

We want to travel further afield, to see and do more. We’ve talked about moving somewhere else before returning to New Zealand. We’ve talked about visiting New Zealand early next year then coming back here. Both my boss and my bank think it would be a great idea if we bought a house here but I’m really not sure about that one.

So at the end of the day we honestly don’t know what we’re doing. We’ll review the situation at the end of summer (if it ever arrives), then we’ll either decide, or decide not to decide.

That means some of you are unfortunately stuck with our plants, fridge, CD collection, house, bed etc. for a little bit longer.

In the meantime, you can help by logging onto our guest-book and telling us what you think we should do. We were considering a Big Brother style vote off - “if you want to send Jon home, text...” but we’d rather you just left us a message.

 

Come to think of it, would the person with our CD collection let themselves be known to us because we don’t have the foggiest...

Love J&J