I firstly have to just make it clear that the only thing that stops Eric from going to OB's is money. I'd be happy for him to go every year if the airfare alone did not equate to 3 weeks income. Or even if it did but we could spare it. As it is the purchase of a tractor is a much higher priority!
Well I have come back from Rotorua to find that the girls tied their calves up this morning after feeding them (Eric had said he was going to put a rubber band on them today - you can work out where, I'll give you a clue, we are talking bull calves!) and at 5.30pm have not been back to them. Alice's one could not even get to the water! Luckily Eric had been down this morning, done the deed and let them loose but H and A did not know that. I have told them that they cannot do calf club (ie show their calves at school) and they are gutted. I HATE doing this. Alice has sobbed and begged, got cross, hugged me and begged more. I feel absolutely wicked but they just don't learn. Every single day we have to hassle the girls to get the calves fed and they do nothing with them unless we nag, and I do enough of that during calf free times!!!! Anyway I am persona non grata at the moment and Eric is convinced I am going to give in.
The Conference. It was the bi-annual Immunisation Conference that NZ has and is organised by IMAC. This years co-incided with the launch of the MeNZB (NZ specific strain of Meningococcal B vaccine) and was pretty full on. I have mixed feelings about how good it was. The venue however was excellent, we were in one of Rotorua's nicest hotels. The food was great, lots of fresh fruit (melon and pineapple) at every feeding session and lots of variety of nice food. The hotel had a pool (hot mineral of course) and both evenings saw us in it after dark. I got up on Friday morning and went for a walk down footpaths that took me round lots of hot pools. Imagine doing a riverside bush walk but the river has hot water and steam fumaroles everywhere emitting very sulphurous smelling steam. I didn't say it was nice, but it was different. I went down on Thursday for a day of training which was rather dis-jointed but probably because they took advantage of the overseas speakers here for the conference and had them addressing us on different subjects. Thursday night I went out to an Italian restaurant for a lovely rissoto with a few colleagues. You remember a few months ago I talked about a colleague who had made my life a misery one week when we shared a room in Auckland. She seemed to have been at the point of breakdown (not because of sharing with me I hasten to add) and subsequently went on to have 2 months off work. We had had a conversation about her behavior and she had apologised profusely some time ago. Well she has recently returned to work and this week was the first time I'd seen her. WHAT a difference!! She was a pleasure and very appreciative of my 'forgiving approach'. It is so nice when such mis-understandings can be cleared away. I am also so pleased for her that she has managed to sort her problems. On Friday I phoned Eric and told him that we were attending a Maori Cultural evening which included a hangi (food cooked in a pit) and did he want to bring the kids. I knew they would be so disappointed to have missed. I think it was the realisation that he would not have to cook supper that swung it for him. Alice totally embraces Maori culture but Harriette is a bit resistant (nothing to do with her father you appreciate) and had had a bellyful of it at school that day so she did not enjoy it so much. She did enjoy the buffet style meal though and watching her father up on stage being taught how to do the haka! He had the misfortune to be the only male on our table and was volunteered.
For some reason "I can't squat" comes to mind!!!
After this we all swam in the pool and lounged around in the spa chatting with some colleagues. A very pleasant evening.
Today was seriously full on. We started late, the 30 minutes of Maori greetings and singing was not not included in the timetable and consequently we did 4 hours straight off. I was told this was the Pacific way to do things but that doesn't mean I had to agree with it!! I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to pull into my drive and see the sheep, cows and piglets after being away! Eric has just walked in with 2 perfect looking pizzas and Alice has put the second HP video on so I will finish. A 'proper' Sat evening!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment