Moving.....

In some of the very first posts of this blog I expressed my loathing when it comes to moving. So I'm very happy to say that WE ARE NOT MOVING. However, this past week we worked our very last SPCA shifts at their current location. Now they are making the shift to a new facility that once upon a time was a hospital (for people). Their current building, let's just say, was never meant to be an animal facility. A couple weeks ago Tim and I visited the new place and we are over the moon because, even though the building was erected in 1919, it will make a fantastic home for animals in the care of the SPCA. More than anything we will have more space in a facility that was made for taking care of wards. It recently struck me that the perfect place for any SPCA is a human hospital that is no longer in use. Specifically, they have proper surgical suites where the vets have real scrub sinks, enough space to prep animals and a place to perform sterile surgery when it is needed. I can't tell you how incredible this will be - and I'm not even an vet! :) To be fair the SPCA has done incredible work with very little resources and so this move is a huge shot in the arm and will allow the group to continue their campaign to advocate for animals of every shape and size. It's such an wonderful cause and we are thrilled to be a part of it!

Anticipation....

Over the last few months I've been skating on the weekends, taking a beginner's skating course mid week and attending "Freshmeat Clinics" hosted by the Richter City Rollerderby league. But now my class has ended and there will be no more clinics before they begin the "Freshmeat Course" in January. At the last clinic they told us that they would be sending individual invites to the "freshies" who would be participating in the upcoming course. Truth is, I've improved my skating more than I ever imagined possible, however, I still have so much to learn with regards to skating in addition to everything derby. So now I wait in anxious anticipation, hoping they will decide that I've progressed enough to be inducted. Herein lies the issue; I'm torn between worrying that they won't take me and agonizing over how unskilled I am if they do. Bah!

Electric....

When we arrived in Wellington almost two years ago we secured a little apartment and soon realized that the electric bill would be taking a considerable chunk out of our take home pay each month. Or at least it seemed like more than what it should cost to run a teeny, tiny studio. We did look into the matter and had our bill adjusted a couple times. Admittedly, we wondered if they were trying to pull something over on us - like adding some of a previous tenants unpaid bill. In short, we weren't sure what was happening and had bills fluctuating wildly over the months we lived there. 

Then, a little over a year ago we moved to a slightly larger studio in the same complex. And what do you know? Our electric bill skyrocketed and we contacted the power company. Sure enough they said an error had been made and our bill was adjusted. We even requested that an electrician come out and turn out hot water heater down. Not even halfway up the dial you'd get scalded if you weren't paying attention when you jumped in the shower. However, even after these adjustments we continued to have a power bill that just seemed too high. This all came to a head when we left for our month long Europe trip this past September. Before we left we turned off all the outlet switches and even emptied and unplugged the fridge. We also switched everything off at the breaker and you would guess that this would take the subsequent bill down to almost nothing. Wrong again! After returning home I remember seeing the bill come through in an email and opening it anxiously to see a tiny sum due. Yeah. I kid you not, the bill was higher than any bill we had received since we moved in. What?! We then went on to send several incredulous email inquires to figure out what was happening. It was several weeks later that we received a response to the effect that they had not received earlier messages because they had changed their esoteric "contact us" section of the website. Sigh. We were less than thrilled. Then our account was put on hold so they could look into the matter. But not that week because, you know, they were in the middle of a billing period and it would have to wait. 

A couple weeks later I was sitting in the office when I received an email to say that when the electrician went to visit our apartment and check the meter wires had been crossed and our unit had been hooked up to S107 (we are S107A, the studio next door)!!! In the end we had been getting their bill and they had been getting ours. And since their unit is a significantly larger one bedroom it's no wonder that our bill had been so high.

I am happy to say that a few days later we received our next bill with the corrected rates for the entire 16 months we have lived in S107A. We weren't sure how it would all shake out but I was ecstatic to see that we had a $700+ credit which is no surprise as we had overpaid for over a year. So here's to not having to pay a power bill for a few months. :)

Book love.....

Heads in Beds.

New Zealand Holiday Preparations

We'll get to it later...