We have had more car dramas than needed in the past month and so we are finally getting serious about buying a new car. We took the car in for its warrant (inspection) and had to get two new tires. Three days later, the driver's door got stuck shut. It took awhile to be able to get it back to the mechanic and once we did it took them about 5 days to fix it. The day we got it back the starter motor died on Sean when he was across town and we ended up having to tow it back home and back to the mechanic. The mechanics felt so bad for us (and probably know me too well now) that they left chocolates in the car for us when I picked it up.
A bit over two weeks ago Sean got the news that his grandfather wasn't doing well. He has recently had his one remaining leg amputated due to diabetes and was not a fan of his quality of life. He basically decided he was done and went on a food strike. All of his family went to visit him and they had a good weekend of goodbyes. He passed away the following Tuesday. The weirdest part of it was that the car that Sean and I drive was gifted to Sean by his grandfather. The car died on Sean when he found out that his grandfather had passed, so we have decided the car wanted to go with him.
Last weekend we went down to Mt. Maunganui for the funeral. The weather was stunning and Sean actually had shorts on. His grandfather didn't want a funeral, so there was just a viewing. It was a sad event, but everyone knew he wasn't suffering anymore and was where he wanted to be. It was great to meet his other side of the family and get out of Auckland for a bit. The day of the funeral his aunt on the other side of the family had a baby, so we visited them in the hospital on the way home. Its a true circle of life.
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| View from our hotel room |
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| Waterfall at a pitstop on the way home |
Soccer season ends this weekend and my big project at work finally wrapped up. It was an absolute disaster but we were able to complete the project and it works. I definitely learned a lot of lessons through this. I'm excited to see how my next projects work out.
My residency application is in the works and Sean and I just booked flights to go to Canada at the end of February to meet up with my family and then some friends of his who are living there for a year. We will stop in Seattle and spend a night in Hawaii as well.
That's about all the excitement over here.
