A new episode in the adventures of Tick & Vin

It's been a while, a long while actually since I've felt the inclination to do any updates, but here it is over halfway through 2014 & so far it's been a big year of changes for us.

Back in November last year Tick suggested it would be a great idea if we finally did the deed and got married. After being engaged since 2006 I think we both decided it was time & although we hadn't at that point saved a red cent towards the wedding it was a now or never kind of decision.
 Initially we were looking at a date before christmas but we then discovered that we had a minimum waiting period of 28 days for the marriage license to be approved so we set the date for Feb 8 instead.
  Everything went well & we had the most perfect day. Now we just have to wait another 8 years before we finally get around to the honeymoon ;)

So apart from our relationship status on facebook nothing really changed for us. Tick went back to working 5 nights a week at the Club in Sydney (including weekends) while I was still working 4 days a week on the Central Coast. Due to health reasons Tick wasn't installing blinds & awnings but he was still coming up to work to do some blind repair jobs on the days he wasn't working at the club.
His long hours combined with my long commute meant we still weren't spending a lot of time together.

Fast forward a couple of months and Tick was having a few issues that didn't make his job at the club quite as enjoyable, so when friends offered to rent us a property they owned up near Newcastle we didn't hesitate to jump at the chance for a total change of lifestyle. We knew that with Tick giving up the club work it would severely affect our income, however we were never serious contenders to knock Gina Rinehart off her pedestal in the richest person in Australia stakes anyway.

There were too many advantages to moving to NOT go for it...
For starters my commute reduces to 90 minutes from 3 1/2 - 4 hours, each way, or  just under an hour if I get a ride with Tickers.
 We now live a mere 14 minute drive from Lee's cousin Kate, whom we love spending time with.
Instead of a town house adjoining 4 others we now have privacy,a front & decent sized backyard, double garage, enough room for a veggie garden & room for a dog.
We live less than a 5 minute walk from beautiful Lake Macquarie (fun fact: It is the largest coastal salt water lake in the Southern Hemisphere)

The map shows the distance to work at Long Jetty from our original address and now from the new place.
Here are a couple of pics of our local area

It's been an adjustment moving to a small community of 5,500 residents but so far there have been more positives than negatives & I am loving having Tick home weekends and nights!!!
Time to sign off, we are heading off for a walk down to the lake on this beautiful sunny winter afternoon :)