Lying in bed on a cold Sunday morning. I was woken by bright sunshine earlier but there are a few white clouds outside now. Looks like a lovely day but........ I'll just have another hour in bed! I did get up early yesterday (another nice day) and was amazed at how much extra time I had in the morning. On the subject of clouds I drove back from Hamilton on Friday on one of those days were there was lots of sunshine and downpours. Now I have mentioned before a fabulous view along Taotaoroa Road coming this way, anyone who has been here know's where I mean. It's a 200 degree view that goes on for miles. As I came round the bend on this day the sky was amazing. To the left over the Kaimais was bright sunshine with a few cumulus clouds and so clear, to the right and in front of of me storm clouds every shade of grey and dark blue with rain falling in patches at 2 opposing angles. But above to either side of these clouds bright sunshine. It was very dramatic.
Nothing to report from the end of the week apart from Alice sustaining a minor head injury on Thursday. We were in the middle of the usual 'feeding the calves and trying to get the girls on the school bus in time' routine when Alice was spotted walking up the drive crying. Now Alice is always crying so I just ignored her figuring I'd find out soon enough what the problem was. She walked into the kitchen and I could see this was probably quite genuine. Apparently she had bent down and one of the calves head bunted her against the top of her head. Now I know we think calves, 'baby's oh how sweet' but they are pretty strong and you only need to ask the likes of Robyn or Bridget how many bruises they sustain during each calving season to know what I mean. Anyway, it was obvious that she wasn't going to catch the bus and after giving her cuddles, love, a paracetomol and putting her to bed she fell asleep. I phoned school and explained the situation saying I'd bring her in later. Now I was in a bit of a dilema with the head injury and sleeping thing but was convinced she was actually sleeping because she was tired from all these early mornings and had exhausted herself crying. I did check on her every 10 minutes though and was torn between checking pupillary reaction and not wanting to wake her!! Needless to say she was fine and fit as a fiddle (well fit by Alice's standards!) after 3 hours sleep. No long lasting effects, except you won't find Alice bending over nears calves again!
I went up to Huntly last week, north of Hamilton to visit a GP where standards were suspected of being below par. They were worse than that but I won't go into detail as a) this would not be an appropriate forum and b) I would not want to give the wrong impression of the NZ GP service which is equal to if not better than the UK's. This guy was unbelievably bad though. Being in the area I popped in on Juliet and Kev. Things are not good there since Kev lost his job 3 weeks ago and I left feeling depressed and frustrated. Depressed for them (and I know that what I felt was not a touch on how they feel) and frustrated that Kev, an intelligent, well qualified, hard working person has for the last year been unable to get a job suitable to his level of qualification and salary expectations (which are what I would call realistic, not pie in the sky). It is a common problem among immigrants both recognised by the NZIS and anecdotally from what I have seen. I have a great belief that out of this things will be much better for them, and I think Juliet feels that in her heart but that doesn't detract from the enormous worry of how the bills will be paid when the money runs out. They are coming down next weekend so I think we will need plenty of gin on tap. A friend of Juliets brother, Chloe, arrived on Thursday and was very interesting. She is doing the big OE and had spent 2 months in S.Africa working on a private game reserve before 'doing' Asia. She is in NZ for a year and I presume will be down next w/e as well.
Yesterday we went to our first NPC match of this season in Hamilton. By God it was cold. I went with 2 jumpers and fleece on and Eric laughed at me when I took my coat as well. Just as well I did. Harriette, who has refused to take a fleece, was blue with cold and I ended up giving her mine and even with the coat I froze. We were on the shady side of the stadium. I reckon those in the sun probably cooked as it was so hot - in the sun that is. When we got back to the car it was like an oven which was wonderful! We thrashed Auckland 59-11. Shame that wasn' t the scoreline when we last met as it was the NPC final last year. Sivivatu (an AB) has signed with Waikato and he scored 5 tries. It actually may have been 6 as a try was scored in the last minute of the game but we left a few minutes early as I wanted to get away because Helen and Phil were coming for supper. Apart from the scoreline it wasn't a brilliant match though. We have watched an enormous amount of rugby on TV what with the World Cup, England tour, TriNations and Super 12 and it was very strange watching a match live after so long. Harriette even asked where the commentry was, she was convinced we had commentry at live matches last season!!
We got back and dashed around to get the place vaguely tidy for the evening (luckily they were last!). Helen and Phil had planned to come to the rugby with us but it clashed with the rugby presentations for their 6 yr old George. He arrived here with a bag of awards and certificates, including best try scorer of the season so was well pleased with himself. We had a very relaxing evening and I thoroughly enjoyed the lasagne I'd made, I was starving by the time we sat down for supper. Mom and Daddy phoned between courses and somewhere along the way the Harriette went to bed. I noted how tired George was looking and asked if he wanted to go and lay down and listen to a Harry Potter story. Alice went and sorted him out and after realising she hadn't come back I went to investigate to find her and George top and tail asleep in the bed. Don't know what Michael would have to say about that!!!
Oh well I suppose I should drag myself out of the sack. I plan to wrap up warm, plant some seedlings and continue to try and tidy up the garden today. More bonfires I guess. We are sadly lacking in emails lately. I must go through my Inbox and check I have replied to everybody. I know I owe Vanessa one and I must write to Eddie. We had the wonderful news, via Ann, that Eddie was now driving. You may remember Eddie was involved in a house fire that nearly cost her her life and did Alan her husband. We think of them both often and I feel very guilty at my lack of correspondance. TTFN.
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