Hello Herne Bay

This is our second week of living in Herne Bay.  I love our new house, its light clean look, its soft warm brown carpet, its spaciousness. 

The  move itself was gruelling on a very wet day and had to be completed the following Monday after five hours on the Saturday.  Had a few sleepless nights, before, during and after but now that the furniture is in place, the majority of the boxes unpacked (with more than a little help from our friends) we feel at home here in our new abode, street and suburb,much as I remember feeling when we first moved to Ponsonby 36 years ago. The villa was smaller but it had the same light walls and brown carpet, come to think of it.

It takes just that bit longer getting to and from places but so far so good.  When we miss the connecting bus from Ponsonby to Herne Bay there is a convenient taxi rank at Three Lamps which I availed myself on my long trip home from a meeting in Epsom yesterday. 

Today on my home from the gym walked down Hobson St to Wah Lee's to get some rice paper light shades for the last remaining naked dangling lightbulbs and look forward to fossicking about in there again. 

 Conscious of the amount of stuff we unpacked and put away I resisted today but weakened further down the road at the City Mission op shop where  I popped in to have a look around and found things half price.   Got a cute little clock radio to set on the Concert Program in the mornings seeing our old one has yet to be found.  

Saw two lovely Royal Doulton soup plates with a lovely leaf pattern which I couldn't resist and bought them to use for our Mr Wattie's Extra Special pea soup today and many other soup days to come.  Over recent years we have used my mother's old Noritake Vine Yard Burgundy design dinner set and no doubt will get as much pleasure out of these 2 new plates as out of the Noritake version of the 1960s.  

Bye bye Ponsonby

We shift to Herne Bay soon so taking the time to visit our favourite places before doing so, while it is still easy to do so.  Have just got home from attending Mass at the spacious Sacred Heart Church in Vermont Street.  Our Parish Priest Father Rory Morrissey always gives a good sermon though I don't always agree with his views.  

Got nabbed outside Nosh by people from the local Commmunity Board with a questionnaire as to what we would like to see in the new park to be designed in that spot.  If we were still living in Ponsonby I would have preferred the shop to stay there as there are fewer and fewer food shops, just cafes and restaurants. 

A lovely new Countdown did open last week at the Ponsonby Road end of Williamson Ave where we shopped on our way home from our gym session at the Y.  Got lovely fresh mandarins for $2 a kilo and tomatoes for the same price if I remember rightly.

Coffee'd this morning at old favourite Dizzengoff.  The poppyseed, sultana and orange muffins are superb and we enjoyed a whole one each with butter with our pipping hot latte in a glass. Got a table near the window where we could people and dog watch the world go by.  Just as well as the noise level of people chatting prohibits conversation on my part as I find it hard to make myself hear and be heard.

Our final port of call was Nosh for some meat and fresh vegetables for our evening meal, appetising dark red meaty mince with minimal fat, just perfect for a lasagne if I leave time to prepare it.  

We are in the throes of packing for our imminent shift to Herne Bay in a couple of weeks.