We’re back! It’s Sunday morning, no it isn’t!! It just feels like it. It’s Tuesday morning but a public holiday and I was off yesterday so it feels like Sunday. It’s Anzac Day, NZ’s day of remembrance. I am afraid that for us 11th November still holds more significance. You can’t do that date for 40 odd years then suddenly change. I probably would attend the services here if they didn’t hold them at dawn, just doesn’t feel right. Remembrance Sunday is not widely marked here but Cambridge (about 15mins drive away) does a large event with all the services represented and activities all weekend. NZ is experiencing a resurgence in interest in their war fallen, similar to that in the UK over our last few years there and this morning the news reports are of much larger remembrance gatherings this year, despite appalling weather. Long may that continue.
As to the weather, NIWA, our met office, predicted a long, wet warm autumn and for once they seem to have got it right. We are still dealing with fly strike as a result (maggots on sheep prevalent in wet warm weather, I know enough…) and everything in the garden is still growing – including the weeds – rampantly. It has rained ALL night, HEAVILY. As a result, rather than leaping up and continuing my assault on the veg plot, I am sitting in bed writing this while Eric is studying next to me. Harriette is on a computer ban so she was not up MSN-ing at 6am and has only just got up (it’s 9am) and Alice is still asleep.
So why have I not blogged. Basically I have been feeling pretty low over the finances. I am very depressed at the lack of pay rise from IMAC that we expected in December and they have made it clear that when the new contract comes (we are still on contract roll overs) there will be no increase. This will last until April 2007. As a result I am job-hunting, which in itself is depressing because I don’t want to leave this job. Working from home is a huge advantage and I am initially trying for jobs that would accommodate at least some home working. Otherwise it will mean about a 40-minute drive to get to a job, with the financial and time implications of that. Anyway enough of that!
The above seems to have dominated the last 4 – 6 weeks and not a lot else has happened. A few weekends ago the Hamilton Parent and Child Show was on and IMAC did a stand there so most of the weekend was taken up manning that. This year is the 50 anniversary of the introduction of the polio vaccine into NZ and we had an iron lung on the stand to highlight this. I love doing these shows as they are a rare opportunity for us to speak directly to parents and dispel their concerns about immunisation. In my day-to-day role I talk to, and teach, the nurses who vaccinate but have little to do with the parents themselves. I was busy the weeks both sides of this weekend so by Easter weekend I was pooped. We were busy, in the nicest of ways, over the Easter and for the first time in ages didn’t get to church. I didn’t have to cook at all over the weekend, which was great. We were out every day except Saturday when Harriette made pizzas. The girls are on Easter hols and we arranged for them to stay with Mom and Daddy overnight on Tuesday night as I was going to be in Auckland for 2 days. We ended up going to Mom and Daddy Easter Monday for lunch and so we left the girls there for 2 nights. They had trips on the train from Karangahake to Waihi (a bit disappointing by all accounts, including Mom and Dad’s) and went to the water gardens at Ngatea, which the girls really enjoyed. Unfortunately Harriette remained true to her ‘Kevin’ teenage form and made it clear she didn’t want to be there (Mom and Dad’s). I was totally embarrassed and had serious words with her when we got home on the Wednesday. I truly believe (hope) she realised the error of her ways. Harriette objects to being anywhere other than home on most occasions but she has got to learn that at least once in a while she can’t always have what she wants.
After the weekend, as I mentioned, I had Tuesday and Wednesday in Auckland. As a team we had written to formally mark our grievances over the handling of our contracts, lack of pay rise etc and had been called up to Auckland so that UniServices, our employer, could address these. As it was ‘the letter’ they referred to when convening the meeting, was not ‘our’ one and we went to the meeting under a misconception. Our fault entirely - we didn’t read the email properly. Anyway, we went to a meeting to be told exactly the same thing I had been told in a telephone conversation I had had the previous week with UniServices, then had a day of training on report writing in which I learnt absolutely nothing. In effect the 2 days were a complete waste of time. On the Thursday and Friday I was running a vaccinator training course in Hamilton which meant leaving home at 7am and getting back around 6pm. The days being full on teaching and totally exhausting so having this trip up to Auckland immediately prior to this, and in the middle of school holidays added to my discontent even further!! I staggered into Friday on my knees with exhaustion and relished Saturday in a way that only a hectic week can allow you to. It was made all the better knowing that I had my second 4 day weekend in 2 weeks! I can assure you that this is the last time I intend to exhaust myself for this employer!
Eric has been very anxious about some recent assignments he put in. The usual “no but this one I really think I did badly in” but has passed them all, some scraped and an outstandingly good mark in one. He has managed to take a little time off these last 2 weekends and has even read a (non law) book. 2 actually, both Dan Brown’s that Richard and Robyn lent him. I think I may be reading them before they are returned, Eric found them unputdownable. Less than a month until he finishes and neither of us can wait. The ‘To Do’ list that has grown over these last 18 months of full on studying, is by now pages long and he is going to enjoy finishing work at 1pm and being able to think about something other than studying when he gets home. Hopefully that won’t last for too long, as he would like to be working full time in a law office. It will be very depressing if he still has free afternoons come the spring! He was not short listed for the council legal position as they had several applicants with 2 and 3 years experience. He was disappointed but you can’t argue with that can you. He is applying for the odd job that comes up and will knuckle down to cold calling and letter writing seriously when the course is finished and he has the time. Cold calling is apparently the way it is done here, something you’d almost never do in the UK I think.
Now writing this Tuesday pm, the battery died. Richard and Robyn came for a late lunch and we all ate far too much. Eric BBQ’d (I know it was raining, he put the braai in the carport) steak, lamb borewors and sausages, and I did jacket pots, mixed roasted vegetable, whole butternut pumpkin with a green curry and coconut sauce and courgettes from the garden. Robyn also bought a lovely vegetable quiche. For pudding we had a pear and almond pudding (Hugh’s recipe and very scrummy), rice pudding and a sweet slice of Robyn’s. We were all so full we couldn’t even fit in coffee!! Sarah has stayed on and the girls are now watching the latest HP movie on DVD. Poor Alice and Katherine have to go back to school tomorrow whereas H and S don’t have to go back until next Monday!
What else has been going on? The changes next door have been completed with a few accidents on the way. One of the contractors came flying up to the house late one afternoon saying that another guy had lost his thumb. They were using a post rammer, a contraption on the back of a tractor that rams posts into the ground from a height of about 2-3 metres using a 50kg weight. They are scary to watch as it only takes a few whacks to sink a full round a metre plus into the ground. Well someone leaned over to do something and inadvertently pushed the drop lever whist the post was being positioned. The thumb caught in the way disintegrated. The poor guy was in shock, cursing and swearing. The middle aged, female paramedic seemed more concerned with his bad language rather than getting some pain relief into him! A few days later the guy whose had caused this accident was knocked out in another accident!! I think that’s called justice! Anyway I think Ian was relieved when the job was finished and they all left. We have since used their yards to drench our cows and they are seriously impressive! Thank you Ian!
We have had a few meals out of late. Eric’s line manager invited everyone who reports directly to him, for a meal at his place. There were about 8 couples and, although I was unsure as to how the evening would pan out we actually had a good time. We met a very interesting couple from South Africa and hope to see them again. She was an industrial psychologist and I spent much of the evening talking to her. We have promised them a sample of Eric’s borewors and biltong. Another meal was at our GP’s. Andy and Elaine have been in NZ for 11 years I think and have heaps of children, well 4 at least, the eldest Alice’s age. Connie and Alice do Guides together. Such a nice, laid back family. I wish I could be that relaxed with my children.
So, I think that brings blog up to date. We are thrilled that Briggsy and Milky are planning to spend December in NZ, with Mark, Donna, Angus and Jonty here also for a part of that time. I love having a houseful for Christmas. Maybe our lives will be a bit more settled by then, I do hope so!
Signing off now with promises that it will definitely NOT be 6 weeks before I blog again.
PS Carol haven't forgotten about a photo of Nelson
