Saturday, January 08, 2005

39 today. That means the big 40 approaches.

Back again.

Happy Birthday Devon (it's still the 7th there). I hope you've had a brilliant day. Will try and catch you on the phone when you get in.

I had previously been telling you about our Jan 2nd trip to Coromandel. After that walk back from Cathedral Cove we drove through to Hot Water Beach to dig a hot pool at low tide. Obviously all the rest of the Coromandel holidaymakers had the same idea!!


Harder boys, dig harder!

There is only a very small area where to water comes up hot so you dig a little and put your foot in to feel the temperature. The hot water is boiling and a bucket is required to ferry in sea water, unless, like us, you are so close to the waves they are rushing into your pool!

It was really too busy to do the job properly so Eric and I decided we would go back in the winter.


Back at the car park we saw this camper. Either they had reversed too far or gone off without applying the handbrake. Luckily old tractors to tow boats in and out of the water are abundant in all NZ coastal areas.


Bugger

After a cup of tea at Ann and Mikes camper us girls formed the advance party to go back to the house for a BBQ. Unfortunately there was a bit of a miscommunication over directions and I ended up on the long route back. As Ann, Juliet and I were going ahead leaving Mike, Kev and Eric with the kids in the camper (we're not daft!), we obviously had the happy one with us. All the way back we (3) chatted away. She did not say a word! Thank heavens I didn't say anything derogatory about her as I really did forget she was there! At Ann and Mike's 3 neighbours also came to eat and we had a good evening. The happy one left the table as soon as she could and sat with the children. She then went to bed without saying a word of Goodbye to us. No 'Thank you for feeding us on 2 occassions and thank you for Stephanies present' etc. In fact when Juliet said Goodbye to her when she left NZ she had to say 'I hope you had a good holiday' in order to a prompt a Thank you. This is one visitor who won't be invited back in a hurry. Juliet said next time she can send Stephanie alone!!!

We got home at 2.30am. Amazingly the girls did not sleep on the trip back being glued to an audiobook I had playing set in WW2 Singapore!

On the 6th we took Xmas decs down. I am very superstitous about taking them down on that day, and with all the bad luck so many of our friends seem to be having at the moment I don't want to tempt fate. Eric swore that the hole into the attic got smaller during the Xmas period!!!

Yesterday Bridget came over after her few days in Pahia with Stan. Well there is no progress on the romance front yet but it's early days. No hat buying just yet but I think I might start looking - just in case you know! D Man, how could you suggest Ninja for a baby. That would require a Social Services referral!!

Now on the subject of names our dolphin needs one. Thank you for your ideas. I think it is down to Sixpence or HEMA (not Ninja -sorry). Any final thought before we make the decision?

This morning Harriette, with a bit of hinting from me, cooked Eric a scrambled eggs and smoked salmon breakfast. She needed a bit of reminding that cooking breakfast didn't just mean doing the main dish, that toast, OJ and laying the table was usually included! I would have liked a cappacino as well but didn't want to push my luck. I'll get one after blogging. Eric has now gone to collect strawberries from Pippins. His life is one long saga of collecting barrel loads of the things to feed to the pigs. Strawberry waste is at ridiculously high levels due to the wet and humid weather at the moment. It seems that everytime he goes there there is even more and yesterday he had to dump a load on my compost heap as there was more than the (16) pigs could eat. Roll on apple season, at least they keep a bit.

Well I plan to phone Devon shortly and then we will make our way over to the Mount. Going out to eat with the Scotts and Hannah SM who we are having overnight tonight. Wherever you are have a good day.


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