Gosh, how does one blog after nearly 2 weeks. Life is unbelievable hectic but, at least on the work front, I think I'm coming up for a bit of a lull. By that I mean I won't be rushed off my feet 40 plus hours a week.

Big news here has been the Foot n Mouth scare. It looks like a hoax but someone sent the PM (Helen Clark as you probably won't know that if you live outside NZ) a letter saying they had released FnM on Waihike Island (off Auckland). MAF went into action and if nothing else it will have been a good disaster management practice run. Scared the living daylights out of people here I can tell you, and bought back unpleasant memories for us. Alice goes to a school where 80% of the children come from farms, mainly dairy. Can you imagine the impact FnM would have on this community alone, farms in self imposed isolation, schools almost empty, Eric would probably be called on to slaughter herds (no funny comments Thank you!!), our livestock would probably have to go, especially the pigs etc etc. It was bad enough in the UK but would be 10 times worse here.

I have been roped in to managing Alice's netball team!! They had no volunteers and while I was moaning to the teacher/coach about the dresses being too small for Alice (and 1 or 2 other girls) I somehow ended up agreeing to manage a team! Now I had not volunteered originally for 2 reasons. The first and foremost being that, I know nothing about netball, as opposed to all the local mums who grew up with this stuff, and the second being time. I think I said something along these lines but phrased the time bit saying I had no time in the week. Turns out I'm only needed on Saturday mornings. So, here I am managing the Hinuera Hornets (Harriette's idea for a name after the debacle at camp when heaps of the kids got stung by wasps). Apparently I have to warm the kids up and make sure they are where they're meant to be, when they're meant to be. Now over supper Alice tells me the warm up exercises they do and apparently it involves me throwing and catching a ball. I knew this was a bad idea. I have ball skills of an ox. Ask Eric, he tried to play badminton with me once and spent the whole time laughing at my sheer incompetence. Tomorrow could be interesting!!

This week I have finished a jigsaw puzzle. I started it before Bridget left (no Bridget not the Wally one) and it has been the hardest one I've ever done. I love jigsaws, don't panic I don't think I'm a nerd, I do one each winter on average. This one has me jigsawed out though and it may be some time before I embark on one again!

I've had a bitty day today. I wanted to try and get on top of the paperwork as I have so much to do but had to 1)do sausage sizzle at lunchtime at Alice's school (then turns out I'd got mixed up and didn't need to be there!!!), 2)parcel up some big boxes that have been cluttering up the kitchen and take them to the Post Shop in Matamata for return to Auckland Uni, 3)go to Waharoa (a mainly Maori township outside Matamata) to collect a trailer load of horse poo for the veg plot,4)collect a netball stand I'd had made for the girls (found one for half the price just after I'd ordered this one but don't tell Eric!!) and 5)rush wholemeal flour into school for Harriette as she forgot to take some in and needed it 'next period' for some medieval bread making. Needless to say I was out if the stuff and had to go to the supermarket first. On the subject of supermarkets we have a new one. It is very exciting!!! (I'm sounding very sad aren't I, jigsaws, supermarkets). When I first went to the supermarkets in Matamata (Yes we have 2!) I thought I'd been transported back 30 years. Somehow I got used to this primitive form of shopping but you can see why I am excited over a new one. Anyway, my paperwork didn't get done but I have another 'office day' on Monday and have no distractions planned.

Must make some phone calls. I'm sure I've missed out heaps but can catch up in the next week.