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Well lets see, my last diary post was in January. Since then some significant things have happened starting with D. moving down from Wellington to live "Christchurch adjacent". This has meant spending a lot more time actually together and less on the phone, and planning for longer term relationship things like moving in together.
One of the pre-requisites to this is having enough space to host D's kids when they come to visit. Practically speaking this means buying or building as I don't have quite enough rooms even if I were to kick C. out, which I have no intention of doing. Buying in the current Chch property market is fraught with risk and stress, so I have gone with the second option; putting internal renovations on hold to move ahead with a combination of two other major long-term plans: putting a unit down the back and replacing the garage. The bank has agreed to extend the limit on my mortgage sufficiently and yesterday I signed the building contract for demolition of my current double-length single-width garage + lean-to and erection of a double-width, extra-length (for storage/dryer/freezer) garage with attached rear self-contained two-bedroom unit. C. will move to a room in the new unit and what is now my office will return to being a bedroom when needed.
Next significant hurdle is getting the building consents, but the building company will handle most of that.
Mortgage wise I am now still going to have over 50% equity in the property (even before the increase in value), but also am probably going to spend the next 30 years paying the 6 digits + interest on this one off like a real "homeowner" :(
D's kids have already visited her once, for a week of the school holidays (which will be a regular thing). We mostly got along, they met my parents and E at least kind of adopted them, we visited a number of the local attractions like a beach with sand, Willowbank Wildlife Reserve and the Margaret Mahy playground. Also the local annual? quilting exhibition which was on and in which D. had two quilts, one local and one as part of an internationallly touring exhibition which was on the Christchurch part of its New Zealand leg. (Obviosusly very good that circumstances and timing allowed the kids to visit this /with/ D.)
Other things D & I have done together include
- two trips to the theatre (local productions of The Woman in Black and Wicked),
- movies: at the theatre we saw Black Panther and Infinity War is planned for this week. We also watched Victoria and Abdul via a streaming freebie which might also come under...
- media: Mythica series of movies (ongoing), the Underworld series of movies, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Tarzan, Star Wars Rebels (ongoing)
~~~
It has not all been happy days though. At the beginning of March an uptick in warning signs such as inability to focus and constant irritation led me to re-up the antidepressant which I had slowly been decreasing. Through March/April I was struck by a chesty flu or virus of some description. I have generally been feeling borderline overwhelnmed and exhausted, even tough my social calendar has been light: KAOS suffering an under-supply of party-capable flats and by Broken Kingdoms moving to Tuesday plus often working late on Thursday usually being prioritised over SAGA attendance.
Household chores, thorough game prep and writing have as usual all been casualties as I attempt to keep on top of work, Hall commitments (also mercifully quiet but not non-existent), game commitments and other demands for my time and assitance, which at present I find myself less and less able or even willing to give.
I am actually writing this post from a motel room in Dunedin. D. was booked to come down to Cerberus, so I took Friday off work and we drove down via a series of quilting shops and cheeseries. While she is out at the con site gaming I am using the quiet time to focus on writing, catching up on some reading and advance-prepping for the next arc of my Broken Kingdoms game (actually series of micro-arcs, the sequence of which is being chosen by the players); away from the proximity to other tasks which are crying out to be got around to. Of course I am also taking the opportunity to catch up with some friends down here, as I don't travel to Dunedin anywhere near as often as I used to.
