It's a big week for us! After months of being segregated from our workmates, we're all back together again in our newly-renovated building.
Since October last year, we've been the only ones left working in our building on the corner of Dalton and Dickens streets Napier.
We lived through weeks of demolition, months of no running water or toilets and many more weeks of rebuilding to get to this point.
We are survivors of the great renovation 2015-16. During the demolition phase we feared the building was going to collapse due to the many earthquake simulations caused by big guys with even bigger sledgehammers.
During the rebuild phase I feared our toilet would never look the same again after so much use by different tradesmen.who should not, judging by their aiming abilities, ever be allowed to fire a gun. But through it all, there was one thing that kept our hope alive.
It wasn't that we would eventually be re-joined by our lovely workmates, or even the prospect of one day being able to freely move through the building without fear of tripping over bits of wood, hitting our heads on rogue nails protruding from the walls or getting covered in Gib dust.
No, what kept us going was the lift. And it is just as glorious as we thought it would be. Some would say it's just plain lazy to take a lift one storey up to reception instead of using the stairs.
But we are quick to point out that although it's only one flight of stairs, our top storey is actually the equivalent of three storeys high. So in the interest of not over exerting ourselves (something that poses a real threat to the wellbeing of radio announcers) we choose to ride instead of walk.
And it saves time. In a very scientific experiment, we concluded that it is quicker to take the lift than the stairs. By one second.
Time is money people! We've not only welcomed back our old workmates, but some new ones as well with the folk from Hawke's Bay Today Napier office joining us. I'm not sure they know what they're in for.
We're over bearing, a little obnoxious and don't know the meaning of the words "inside voice".
I'm hoping some of their skills will brush off on me, particularly in the proofreading department after a little mishap over the weekend. Posting a link on our Facebook page about a very serious story, I meant to write "poor woman" but accidentally typed "poo woman" instead. Whoops. Let's hope our "skills" don't brush off on them too much.