Mission 041: Where Susan adds some necessary accessories

It is a cold, grey, rainy winter's day here in Auckland. It's one of those days when the most appealing things in life have cushions or pillows. (Hello DVDs and sofa. Hello books in bed.) The sky outside is a cool monochrome London sort of grey - the kind that permeates all other colours, so even a lush green garden looks somehow less alive.

You'd think that in this house, we might not notice the extra grey so much, or bother about it. The Buckwell after all is an architect, with a strong leaning towards minimalism. (Colours are for accents.) Sometimes, I think if he had his way, even the sofa would be made of concrete.

We have a blue-grey dog.
A charcoal-grey sofa.
An elephant-grey throw on the end of the bed.
A teeny tiny hallway painted a deep shade of Dulux Maraetai grey.
Our steel-grey and black Mini Cooper S sits on the grey concrete driveway.
I am wearing a long cowl-neck jumper, striped with shades of grey and white.
The bathroom is bedecked with mouse-grey towels, and a bathmat the same shade as the dog.
Even our black and white cat - who just now came in sodden from the rain, stalked past me and jumped on the bed, putting brown muddy footprints on the white, grey and and green duvet cover - would look grey if you mixed his fur up better.

I am not complaining about the grey. But today's grey is precisely noticeable because until now, we have had weeks of gorgeous winter weather: lots of blue sky days, crisp frosty mornings and clear chilly evenings - perfect for sitting by the fire with a glass of pinot noir.

In fact, even my blog looks kind of grey today. And it's easy to see why - there are no pictures!
So tis born my new mission. More pics for the kids!

Just like the bright pink and orange cushions on the grey sofa, and the white, purple and red Danish light shade in the grey hallway, a few slapdash photos are necessary accessories to brighten my blog.

So here is today's. Our grey dog. And what a handsome chap he is.




Ah, what the hell, while I'm at it, have another one. This is the cat, posing on the grey sofa. Note all the fur he has kindly rubbed all over it because it's just after I vacuumed.

Mission 038: Where Susan has a clear-out

10 signs that autumn has officially arrived at our house:

We have used the fire (twice)
We are (mostly) wearing socks inside instead of bare feet (must buy slippers).
The leaves have fallen off the peach tree and the fruit is ripening on the mandarin tree
We are no longer drinking sauvignon blanc, but are preferring hearty reds, such as shiraz voigners and cabernet sauvignons.
Instead of talking about going to Waiheke Island for the weekend, we are talking about buying snowboards and going to Ruapehu.
We had a chorizo sausage casserole thingy last night for dinner.
The barbecue is gathering dust.
My tan has faded.
In last night's shopping we bought two Ponsonby pies and bunged them in the freezer, anticipating that they might become a warming Saturday lunch.
Quinces and pumpkins are really cheap at the moment.

Can't complain. After all, it will officially be winter here in three weeks, and some days it still feels as if it could be summer in London. However, although the coat cupboard has started seeing some action, there are lots of clothes that need to be banished, because in our teeny tiny house, there's only enough room for one season at a time. So I present to you - the autumn spring clean. Deadline: 18 May.

Mission 032: Where Susan stops larking about

Aha. I knew these months of wandering the world and filling my brain with all kinds of curious cultural facts was bound to come to an end sometime. The money had to run out, and did. The line of travel had to finish somewhere, and has.
Now I am in Auckland, it is raining, and all around me the city is working, eating and...windsurfing, it would appear. Although I'm not really into windsurfing, I would like to be eating, and for that, I need to start... working. My mission is simple: to become gainfully employed.
I checked the paper on the weekend for jobs: nothing doing there in the advertising, media or publishing world. But the field of adult entertainment had lots of openings. (No pun intended!) I also found plenty of other unappealing jobs: cafe staff (no thanks), taxi driving (no chance) and childminding (no patience).
So tomorrow I will start looking seriously - with recruitment agents, friends of friends, job sites and, then, cold-contacting design and advertising agencies. Susan M Wills, copywriter and editor, words in waiting. Here I go, on the other side of the world, off to work.
Wish me luck. And some fine weather.