She came and went.

I haven’t blogged properly for a week really. I have had the time but it’s the usual, if you’ve got the time it means that nothing much is happening. We didn’t get to Hobbiton as the weather was, and still is, awful. It was raining and windy. The rain has since abated but the wind has not and it’s getting everyone down. I did manage to garden on Saturday but Sunday was a doss around indoors day. Eric cut the big shelves for Harriette’s room to go on the new wall which is part of my office. I finally got them up yesterday. She has that wall painted seriously bright lime green. I really like it, Bridget and Eric don’t! It’s a real teenage bedroom as the other walls are 2 shades of purple, and you can’t see the floor or surface for the rubbish all over the place. She had to tidy it last night as Sarah and Katherine (spelt properly Sarah?) are staying overnight and we needed to put a bed in there.

On Monday Carol was due back however the winds and cancelled ferry crossing from the South Island played havoc with her travel plans. For details click on the quest4aragorn link. She ended up hiring a car and driving back, arriving here in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Her timing was terrible. I had been working flat out when she was here at the start of her holiday and hardly saw her, whilst she has been away I have had lots of time at home and was here all day Monday. Tuesday was her only day here and I was in Hamilton all day. In fact she walked into the house about 30 seconds before I was due to leave. When she returned to the UK I felt that we had not had chance to have a proper chat at all. (I am typing this in Word and the grammar check tells me that was a badly constructed sentence. I know but it’s my blog and it stays!) I had lots to ask and seemed to constantly be bombarding her with questions. She said it was like having her mother around, or words to that effect. Eric had a thought before she left about making her a gift from the charred wood remaining from the fire she famously caused when she first got here (her blog again about Sept 2003 – exact date Carol?). He came up with the idea of carving a fish hook (classic Maori design). I’ll try and get a photo put here (Stan have you got time to do that? Please.)





I was so impressed. He is such a clever badger. So now she has gone and if she keeps returning every 6 months she will never be able to afford to return here in 2 – 3 years to live, as is her grand plan!

Work is now focused on these cold chain accreditations that every GP practice has to have. I am waiting for the practices to return there self-assessment forms, then I go and do a review and accredit them. The forms are just beginning to trickle in and I have done my first 2. They took about 40 minutes each which is better than the 1hr 20 min we were told to allow to start with. I only have another 62 practices to do.

Harriette is being even more foul than ever at the moment so I am force feeding her Evening Primrose Oil. She has her end of year piano concert this afternoon. We all cram into the living room at her teachers and listen to about 30 children play 2 pieces of music. Of course the only ones you want to hear are your child’s and the pieces played by the senior students. Before that, we drop off Sarah and Katherine at their separate destinations, and afterwards we are off to a colleagues in Tauranga for a housewarming BBQ. Tomorrow we are doing the Hobbiton thing that we didn’t do last Sunday. I will pick Sarh up from her sleepover first as she is keen to go but Katherine will give it a miss. Finally we have Christmas on Broadway (Broadway being one of the main streets in Matamata) in which Alice is playing recorder again. Last Sunday she played in tiny church opposite her school. It seated about 50 and had an old organ, the size of a piano, that the lady playing had to pump foot pedals frantically as she played. Harriette was most impressed and was chuffed to have a go playing afterwards.

At 9.30am I had better get up. I wonder if Richard is still in bed? He was so looking forward to a lie in as he has been getting up at 4.30 (or some similar ohmygod hour) 7 days a week since about August. Yes I know you have as well Robyn but not for quite so long. I asked Richard on Thursday if, if he had his time again, would he go into dairy farming? He considered and said Yes but that he’d like to be able to drop the pm milking (I mean this man is mad, he’s happy getting up at ohmygod hour every day?!). I must say though having to be back at the farm for 3.30pm every day is quite restricting. Anyway I MUST get up. I’ll try not to leave it a week before I write.