This has been a less than stellar week.  

The house we rent in the city has been a harrowing and unpleasant experience from the very start and we now need to uproot the kids again and find a new place.  The landords want to move back in after assuring us that was not the case and refusing to let us out of the lease after chaos ensued while we were away getting married in Raro. Long story. I won’t get into it.

Anyway.

We found options for two lovely potential homes to rent. One is owned by family friends, another in a super central location with two distinct living areas so the kids could roam free-ish, but we could accept neither offer because of the incredibly difficult landlords wouldn’t let us out if the lease at the time. It’s been humbling and stressful and I needed to see what so many people are putting up with for myself. The injustice of it all and the power deficit between landlord and tenant has me spitting tacks!

Some landlords are fabulous, some are not. Renting is stressful and we have found it almost dehumanizing as we’ve been made to feel powerless concerning unpleasant and abusive neighbours. It’s all so strange as we generally adore our neighbours and have become close with several households on the street, yet the mouldy slum under the house we rent is clearly not fit for human habitation, has no soundproofing and the couple renting it has a yappy stressed out dog and when that isn’t barking (it NEVER stops barking) they are arguing and we can hear every single word of it from almost any room in the house. Not ideal.

Second serious stress this week was a cancelation.

Our trip to Austalia has been cancelled as I got a faint positive Covid test after being exposed at a visit to my beloved in laws on Friday night.  I have had three subsequent negative tests but my goodie two shoes approach to life lately means I am still following the isolation protocols and am out of covid jail early next week.  But the SEWF conference we’d been looking forward to for months is not on the cards for us as I was absolutely unable to reschedule flights.

That’s the bad stuff… There’s far FAR more magic and bright side and the grace and gratitude of so many people must be mentioned.

Our new Glamp product is going OFF and the reviews have warmed the cockles of our hearts.  The bananas are looking great.  We have an enthusiastic and communicative new local cleaner.  Our Gardener Gabe is coming up with his digger next week.  The cats are great. The kids are great.  The wedding is coming together and we are scaling it down so we can fully cater the event and feed and water our beloved guests rather than having a cash bar.  Husband and I are thick in the throws of the honeymoon phase.  

The last guests at the tent were in hot on the heels of the professional videography team (who RAVED about the product). While weekends are pretty packed at both our sites, we are keen to encourage mid week guests and happy to strike a deal to get people up the hill on Sunday-Thursday nights. So we had an enquiry from a lovely couple who could only afford one night (we have a two night minimum policy). She works in mental health, he is an up and coming artist, and it was her birthday. Did we give them a free night? OF COURSE we did. We won’t make a habit of it, but they melted our hearts with their story and she is clearly a bit burned out and needed a win. Anyway. They came in Sunday, fell madly in Love with the tent ant the village and roasted marshmallows under the stars together and had a bath in serene isolation on the hill they had all to themselves. They posted an epic review and sent us a long and lovely private message of gratitude, grace that was dappled with joy that brought tears to my eyes.

There were countless other wins this week too. The women I met at a minister’s luncheon in Wellington last week (before exposure event that may or may not have landed me with another case of the covid) are fierce, fabulous goddesses and I will touch base with them all soon and together we will implement our plans to take over the world. You’re welcome to join us, we are starting a club. No mean people allowed.

So that’s it.  Life’s tough and full of stuff but there are also sparkly magic bits and I am so glad to see and celebrate those.

Have a great rest of the week!

XXOO