What a week. Regarding the packing and holiday I was actually quite organised but a few crises over the last 48 hours have made life very stressful. Not least thinking I had lost/had stolen, my handbag.
I have had a really busy week at work, mainly just trying to catch up and leave being well organised. It didn’t really happen. I got everything done that absolutely needed doing but my monthly report only had the bare basics and I had to work on Friday, a day I was planning to take of for time in lieu. I ended up working until mid-day! My Thursday evening plan was to run the hoover round and have a final tidy up just didn’t happen because of the handbag saga. During the day on Thursday I went to about 11 different places.I’ll start at the beginning. I got up early and made chocolate brownies for tea break at band practice in the evening. I burnt my finger tips taking them out the oven which made typing for the next 2 days very difficult. I then went to Matamata, Te Awamutu and Hamilton with work finishing up doing a teaching session on the paediatric wards at the hospital. As I pulled up to the hospital it occurred to me that I had left my file with all my band stuff (ie management things) at home and I did not recall seeing the keys in my car. I figured the keys were in my music folder box (which of course, I’d left at home). I quickly phoned the school but could not get anyone so I did my teaching session then flew out the hospital preoccupied with keys. If I could not get another set I would have 25 kids turning up to a locked building. I dashed to the school (quite near the hospital) and borrowed the music teacher’s keys. I then finished my work stuff, which meant trekking across Hamilton from one furthest point to another and finally got back to the school for 5.30pm. (Robyn was bringing the girls in.) However, on the way there I called into the dairy to get milk so we could have coffee during practice and could not find my handbag. Thinking I had left it in the Mistral when I swapped cars with Eric earlier in the day I did not worry too much… until I got home. No handbag anywhere!!! So, instead of housework I spent the evening searching, then fretting and trying to backtrack on my days movements. I just could not come up with where it could be and worried that in locking my car with the bleeper thing I had inadvertently left it unlocked and someone had stolen my handbag. I left it until the morning then phoned everywhere I had been, including the police in 3 towns. No handbag. Now I had, the previous night, put in the UK credit cards that we will be using for the holiday and it had my drivers licence which we need when we pick the hire car up on Monday. No licence, no driving! I therefore cancelled my drivers licence so I could get a temporary one issued and was about to start phoning credit card companies to cancel all my cards when I had a phone call, about 11am. The paediatric ward at the hospital “Did I want to pick up my handbag before I went away!!!!!!” I could not believe it. I never take my handbag in to practices or the hospital when I am working! That’s why I ddn’t phone them. I must have been preoccupied, or planning to go through it looking for music block keys. Anyway…. we picked it up on our way to the airport and I un-cancelled my drivers licence. What a relief, and a waste of hours phoning and searching. Oh, and I’d put the music block keys in the Mistral presumably thinking that if I left them in there I would not forget to take them to band (good plan until I take a different car!)
We left Auckland in pouring rain amd 14 degrees and found out that London is 13 degrees and raining with more rain predicted. I am sitting here in a vest and shorts as I was just too hot in jeans in Singapore, so hope it’s not too cold in London!
Both flights have been jam packed so not terribly comfortable. 2 very nice meals on the first flight though. We had a bit of a dash to the plane in Singapore after going for a, very welcome, swim not anticipating it would take 20 minutes to get from the pool to our departure gate. We arrived there and joined a queue but did cut it a bit fine (in true Tanner form!)
So now, we are tired, have headaches and are sooo looking forward to sitting in Ava’s house with a cup of tea within 8 hours. So, from above Afghanastan (miles and miles of brown nothing) I say ‘Adieu’, for now.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
So close now!
Gosh I’m managing to fit in another blog. Actually my theory is that I have been better at this lately because I am not walking in the morning. My hip has been a real problem, it is the joint itself and, because it is interfering with my fitness efforts, I took myself off to the physio. It is much better and I can start walking again but I have not been feeling too good this week after a GA on Wednesday, dizzy, wobbly and just ‘not right’. Yesterday I wanted to pressure wash all the cobwebs off the outside of the window frames, and of course got carried away and did almost the whole house. I really suffered afterwards and was fit for nothing. Planning to take things easy today.
Only 5 sleeps!! We went to Mom and Daddy yesterday to borrow some suitcases. I have also bought 2 new ones as ours were looking very sad. We picked up the tickets on Wednesday on the way into hospital. It was quite weird as, as Eric went into the travel agents to get tickets to take us off to warmer climes (I know it’s raining in the UK and set to do so all week), I went into PostiePlus to buy thermal vests for the girls. It suddenly got very cold this week and we woke up to frosts on 3 consecutive mornings. It then got warmer but very windy.
The girls went out to clean the cottage yesterday (well sort of) and found the bathroom flooded. The toilet cistern had been leaking. Not sure if it will be an insurance job yet. Actually we are notching up claims. We have only ever made an insurance claim once when I smashed a box of Royal Doulton china in the UK. However recently, Harriette dropped a Le Creuset pot in the butler sink taking a chunk out of it and Alice smashed the screen on the older laptop.
Have just been sorting photo’s and have this one of Alice
She represented her school in a Model UN competition. They competed with college kids, ie 2 years older than them. They only got in because their teacher is involved in the competition organisation. Amazingly they won against 13 other teams. What made it better was that they were voted winners by the other teams. They were so shocked when the results were announced. Alice was told she was a budding Helen Clark!!
Only 5 sleeps!! We went to Mom and Daddy yesterday to borrow some suitcases. I have also bought 2 new ones as ours were looking very sad. We picked up the tickets on Wednesday on the way into hospital. It was quite weird as, as Eric went into the travel agents to get tickets to take us off to warmer climes (I know it’s raining in the UK and set to do so all week), I went into PostiePlus to buy thermal vests for the girls. It suddenly got very cold this week and we woke up to frosts on 3 consecutive mornings. It then got warmer but very windy.
The girls went out to clean the cottage yesterday (well sort of) and found the bathroom flooded. The toilet cistern had been leaking. Not sure if it will be an insurance job yet. Actually we are notching up claims. We have only ever made an insurance claim once when I smashed a box of Royal Doulton china in the UK. However recently, Harriette dropped a Le Creuset pot in the butler sink taking a chunk out of it and Alice smashed the screen on the older laptop.
Have just been sorting photo’s and have this one of Alice
She represented her school in a Model UN competition. They competed with college kids, ie 2 years older than them. They only got in because their teacher is involved in the competition organisation. Amazingly they won against 13 other teams. What made it better was that they were voted winners by the other teams. They were so shocked when the results were announced. Alice was told she was a budding Helen Clark!!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Not long now!
I did a bit of a blog last weekend but can’t find it. As we are now using 3 laptops in this house and have 2 USB sticks, finding it may still yet happen (in which case I will publish it!).
Sitting in bed listening to Chris Laidlaw, H and A in living room on computers (where else) and Eric has gone (trout) fishing. He went to watch the AB’s vs Canada at Hamilton last night, a complimentary ticket to the firm. Terry couldn’t go so Eric was volunteered to represent them. While there he saw to our accountant who told Eric he had heard good things about him. Apparently, he said, the firm are delighted with him. But I knew that!!! Still, it was good for Eric to hear such a thing. Despite generally feeling he’s doing good, he still sometimes has his doubts. He has had a terribly busy few weeks, not only is it that time of year but he had a case go very belly up this week with ridiculous timelines but he is also trying to wade through his 100 + lots, cases to leave them handoverable for his month off.
Excitement is building up as we only have 12 sleeps until we fly. And not a moment too soon. It has suddenly got cold here, a southerly blowing in from Antarctica. We still have heaps of sunshine. At the weekend this week and the much needed rain during the week. The fire is lit permanently now. A. Because of the cold. B. Because the more wood we burn now, the less we’ll have to move when we pull the garage down and put up the 12m x 6.5m workshop we have just ordered.
I think we are all organised on the travel front. H, A and I went down to the barn and got suitcases and arranged with Mom and Daddy to borrow some of theirs yesterday. I keep meaning to pop into the travel agents to pay for our insurance but it just isn’t happening. I have had an unbelievably busy few weeks at work, for no good reason really. I guess I should just pop a check in the post.
I took H and A off to the doctors on Friday with a list of niggly things to get sorted before we travel. Amongst other things he gave me a course of antibiotics for Harriette (just in case) and I needed to use them 3 days later! She has also had lots of nosebleeds of late, averaging 3-4 a week and some of them quite prolonged. So she had that cauterised. You should have seen her face as Andy came at her with a range of instruments in his hand, one of which, she said, she thought was a blow torch!!! Poor Alice bruised her coccyx months and months ago. It seems she has only stopped being sore this last 2 weeks, until some child pulled her chair out as she sat down in school last week and she is in a lot of pain again. Now Alice being Alice this means we all know about it!! Doesn’t make the prospect of 24 hours in an aeroplane much fun for her. Anyway we discussed pain management options for her, renewed prescriptions for Eric and I, got advice on me having a GA 9 days before flying… you get the picture. Left with a handful of scripts and substantial bill!
Mom is now much better. She spent 8 days in hospital last month with abdo pain after 2 trips to ED in the wee small hours of the morning. I felt bad as this happened when I was so busy (work and home), and even working on a Saturday that weekend. Mom did say not to come up but it was a month that I went without seeing her and I have never done that since they emigrated. She was not right for weeks after discharge and lived a miserable, hermit-like existence for awhile. She is not 100% but certainly well on the road to recovery with treatment for a hiatus hernia. They came down for a coffee yesterday and dropped Eric off at the rugby club on their way home (I collected him at midnight but it was only from Hinuera 7km away.) They also bought their lawn mower down as ours has died and we just haven’t got round to replacing it. Having spent 5 years struggling on the financial front I am now realising the long list of things that have worn out in that time. We need to: replace the sofa suite, buy a lawnmower, replace the mattress on our bed, and get another outdoor garden set (I’d like a big round tale for the pool deck). At the moment we move the table from the house deck to the pool deck each spring but it is not really big enough. Our microwave was not replaced when it died. Juliet took sympathy on us and bought a small one to tide us over but I’d like a bigger one and put that one in the cottage. Eric’s walk in fridge/freezer died this year and motor replacement was going to cost thousands so he is going to build a new one from scratch. And that’s what I can think of off the top of my head. I just hope he gets a reasonable pay rise when he has his review on our return!
On the money front, there was a graph in the Waikato Times Business Supplement this week showing the dollar exchange rate since 1982. The dollar was at its very lowest in late 2001 (ie when we emigrated). We scored incredibly as a result. We would never have been able to afford this place at an average dollar exchange rate. Daddy said they calculated the difference in exchanging their money at the point when they first visited NZ and when they actually came. They were $180,000 worse off!! I knew we had done well but seeing this graph showed me just how lucky we were. It probably contributed to my misconception at how far Eric’s pension should have been going. The dollar has been so high lately it is causing big problems for exporters. The bank devalued the NZ$ by 2 cents last week in an unprecedented move here. Shows how bad it is.
Among other things I have been up to recently is a trip to Devonport Naval Base hospital to do some teaching. It is experiences like this that remind me how small NZ is. I was expecting, well something like Woolwich. (Well Woowich Hospital when I was last there after Eric got shot, I believe it’s closed since). I left with the impression that I had visited a large medical centre! My arrival was not without its drama. Now it is on Auckland’s North Shore which I am not familiar with, so I wrote the instructions out in big letters (eyesight is a real problem these days) and put them in the middle of my desk so I would not forget them. I did. Travelled up in very showery weather, you know bright sunshine alternating with seriously heavy downpours. Went over the Harbour Bridge and took the wrong exit. Not realising this I remembered the next bit. Get into the Right hand lane and turn right into Lake Rd. Which I did. At this point I pulled over to find instructions (which obviously I couldn’t as they were on my desk!). Got out my Auckland map to find that not only had I taken the wrong exit but turning right after both exits takes you into a Lake Rd, just different Lake Rds. Anyway, got over to the other side of the highway and managed to find the place. I then parked in the visitor’s carpark, just inside the perimeter from the road, but could not see any obvious main entrance. I therefore, loaded up like a packhorse at this stage, headed for the front of the long ‘old hospital looking’ building to my left. I took 20 paces and someone threw a bucket of water at me. Well that’s what it felt like. A huge downpour came out of nowhere. Not a drop of rain to announce it’s immanency. I was instantly soaked as I dashed to the ‘entrance’. The sign said ‘’staff only next to the card swipe box! I was directed to the building next to the hyperbaric unit (at least I knew I was in the right place!). I waited for the rain to ease and ran, needless to say after I took 5 steps the rain ramped up. I stopped as I passed my car to grab my brolly, ran round the building into the wind, and down some steps to the entrance. As the electric doors opened the doors directly across the entrance where open and an instant wind tunnel was created. I was sucked into the building as my brolly blew inside out. I stood soaked, trying to correct my brolly with soaking wet hands and heard one woman say to another ‘That’s the sort of thing that normally happens to me’ to which I replied ‘Well it’s my turn today’! I was not helped by the sight of such smart, dry people drifting around me. No-one here had stepped outside in the last 90 seconds obviously. To crown it all when I put my red file box on to the reception desk my white fronted cardigan was red. The ink had run!
I am so looking forward to getting the work on the house done. As I mentioned we have ordered the workshop. We are extending Harriette's bedroom to join our bedroom outside wall to make 2 rooms. Our bedroom is soooo cold and we had intended pulling down all the plasterboard to put Pink Batts in the walls but as we will be building in that area we are going to get the builder to take all the cladding off and put the batts in from the outside rather then the inside. We are in for a busy spring when we get back.
My morning exercise routine is on hold at the moment and I am beginning to miss it. Mind you I am looking forward to getting up and walking in warmer climes in a few weeks! I have a problem with my hip which has gone on for a week now. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t bother about it but as it is interfering with my training I have made an appointment with the physio for Monday.
It was my birthday last Sunday. I had a nice day. Eric treated me to a bottle of Chanel No5, (I haven’t had any for ages!!), Alice bought me a black wrap, Harriette a huge pot which I will plant the Kaffir Lime tree in that Alice bought me for Mother’s Day last month, Feral some gardening gloves and Rust and Inca some replacement gummies (my Red Bands have a hole in). We went to Ironique in Te Aroha. It is quite hard to find a place open for food outside Hamilton on a Sunday and Te Aroha is between us and Paeroa (where Mom and Daddy live) so was convenient. Richard and Robyn’s new farm is on the way and Eric said he would go over that weekend and put up the sign that Eric had made for them (details in blog I have mislaid). So we called in there on the way and all went together as they were joining us. It was a nice place and we had good food except mine (which came 5 minutes after everybody else’s) was not very warm. Also, after we chose puddings they told us that the pudding menu was for evenings only and when I asked if the 4 girls could just have some ice cream they said no! Not what I would expect in a kiwi café. Didn’t get home until 5pm and curled up on the sofa with Eric and a brilliant book. Perfect for a winters evening! I have been reading more Lisa Gardner and am thoroughly gripped by them.
Well I must emerge into the cold, my fingers are like ice from typing this. Still if I do some work outside I’ll soon feel warm. I will endeavour to do another blog before we go.
Sitting in bed listening to Chris Laidlaw, H and A in living room on computers (where else) and Eric has gone (trout) fishing. He went to watch the AB’s vs Canada at Hamilton last night, a complimentary ticket to the firm. Terry couldn’t go so Eric was volunteered to represent them. While there he saw to our accountant who told Eric he had heard good things about him. Apparently, he said, the firm are delighted with him. But I knew that!!! Still, it was good for Eric to hear such a thing. Despite generally feeling he’s doing good, he still sometimes has his doubts. He has had a terribly busy few weeks, not only is it that time of year but he had a case go very belly up this week with ridiculous timelines but he is also trying to wade through his 100 + lots, cases to leave them handoverable for his month off.
Excitement is building up as we only have 12 sleeps until we fly. And not a moment too soon. It has suddenly got cold here, a southerly blowing in from Antarctica. We still have heaps of sunshine. At the weekend this week and the much needed rain during the week. The fire is lit permanently now. A. Because of the cold. B. Because the more wood we burn now, the less we’ll have to move when we pull the garage down and put up the 12m x 6.5m workshop we have just ordered.
I think we are all organised on the travel front. H, A and I went down to the barn and got suitcases and arranged with Mom and Daddy to borrow some of theirs yesterday. I keep meaning to pop into the travel agents to pay for our insurance but it just isn’t happening. I have had an unbelievably busy few weeks at work, for no good reason really. I guess I should just pop a check in the post.
I took H and A off to the doctors on Friday with a list of niggly things to get sorted before we travel. Amongst other things he gave me a course of antibiotics for Harriette (just in case) and I needed to use them 3 days later! She has also had lots of nosebleeds of late, averaging 3-4 a week and some of them quite prolonged. So she had that cauterised. You should have seen her face as Andy came at her with a range of instruments in his hand, one of which, she said, she thought was a blow torch!!! Poor Alice bruised her coccyx months and months ago. It seems she has only stopped being sore this last 2 weeks, until some child pulled her chair out as she sat down in school last week and she is in a lot of pain again. Now Alice being Alice this means we all know about it!! Doesn’t make the prospect of 24 hours in an aeroplane much fun for her. Anyway we discussed pain management options for her, renewed prescriptions for Eric and I, got advice on me having a GA 9 days before flying… you get the picture. Left with a handful of scripts and substantial bill!
Mom is now much better. She spent 8 days in hospital last month with abdo pain after 2 trips to ED in the wee small hours of the morning. I felt bad as this happened when I was so busy (work and home), and even working on a Saturday that weekend. Mom did say not to come up but it was a month that I went without seeing her and I have never done that since they emigrated. She was not right for weeks after discharge and lived a miserable, hermit-like existence for awhile. She is not 100% but certainly well on the road to recovery with treatment for a hiatus hernia. They came down for a coffee yesterday and dropped Eric off at the rugby club on their way home (I collected him at midnight but it was only from Hinuera 7km away.) They also bought their lawn mower down as ours has died and we just haven’t got round to replacing it. Having spent 5 years struggling on the financial front I am now realising the long list of things that have worn out in that time. We need to: replace the sofa suite, buy a lawnmower, replace the mattress on our bed, and get another outdoor garden set (I’d like a big round tale for the pool deck). At the moment we move the table from the house deck to the pool deck each spring but it is not really big enough. Our microwave was not replaced when it died. Juliet took sympathy on us and bought a small one to tide us over but I’d like a bigger one and put that one in the cottage. Eric’s walk in fridge/freezer died this year and motor replacement was going to cost thousands so he is going to build a new one from scratch. And that’s what I can think of off the top of my head. I just hope he gets a reasonable pay rise when he has his review on our return!
On the money front, there was a graph in the Waikato Times Business Supplement this week showing the dollar exchange rate since 1982. The dollar was at its very lowest in late 2001 (ie when we emigrated). We scored incredibly as a result. We would never have been able to afford this place at an average dollar exchange rate. Daddy said they calculated the difference in exchanging their money at the point when they first visited NZ and when they actually came. They were $180,000 worse off!! I knew we had done well but seeing this graph showed me just how lucky we were. It probably contributed to my misconception at how far Eric’s pension should have been going. The dollar has been so high lately it is causing big problems for exporters. The bank devalued the NZ$ by 2 cents last week in an unprecedented move here. Shows how bad it is.
Among other things I have been up to recently is a trip to Devonport Naval Base hospital to do some teaching. It is experiences like this that remind me how small NZ is. I was expecting, well something like Woolwich. (Well Woowich Hospital when I was last there after Eric got shot, I believe it’s closed since). I left with the impression that I had visited a large medical centre! My arrival was not without its drama. Now it is on Auckland’s North Shore which I am not familiar with, so I wrote the instructions out in big letters (eyesight is a real problem these days) and put them in the middle of my desk so I would not forget them. I did. Travelled up in very showery weather, you know bright sunshine alternating with seriously heavy downpours. Went over the Harbour Bridge and took the wrong exit. Not realising this I remembered the next bit. Get into the Right hand lane and turn right into Lake Rd. Which I did. At this point I pulled over to find instructions (which obviously I couldn’t as they were on my desk!). Got out my Auckland map to find that not only had I taken the wrong exit but turning right after both exits takes you into a Lake Rd, just different Lake Rds. Anyway, got over to the other side of the highway and managed to find the place. I then parked in the visitor’s carpark, just inside the perimeter from the road, but could not see any obvious main entrance. I therefore, loaded up like a packhorse at this stage, headed for the front of the long ‘old hospital looking’ building to my left. I took 20 paces and someone threw a bucket of water at me. Well that’s what it felt like. A huge downpour came out of nowhere. Not a drop of rain to announce it’s immanency. I was instantly soaked as I dashed to the ‘entrance’. The sign said ‘’staff only next to the card swipe box! I was directed to the building next to the hyperbaric unit (at least I knew I was in the right place!). I waited for the rain to ease and ran, needless to say after I took 5 steps the rain ramped up. I stopped as I passed my car to grab my brolly, ran round the building into the wind, and down some steps to the entrance. As the electric doors opened the doors directly across the entrance where open and an instant wind tunnel was created. I was sucked into the building as my brolly blew inside out. I stood soaked, trying to correct my brolly with soaking wet hands and heard one woman say to another ‘That’s the sort of thing that normally happens to me’ to which I replied ‘Well it’s my turn today’! I was not helped by the sight of such smart, dry people drifting around me. No-one here had stepped outside in the last 90 seconds obviously. To crown it all when I put my red file box on to the reception desk my white fronted cardigan was red. The ink had run!
I am so looking forward to getting the work on the house done. As I mentioned we have ordered the workshop. We are extending Harriette's bedroom to join our bedroom outside wall to make 2 rooms. Our bedroom is soooo cold and we had intended pulling down all the plasterboard to put Pink Batts in the walls but as we will be building in that area we are going to get the builder to take all the cladding off and put the batts in from the outside rather then the inside. We are in for a busy spring when we get back.
My morning exercise routine is on hold at the moment and I am beginning to miss it. Mind you I am looking forward to getting up and walking in warmer climes in a few weeks! I have a problem with my hip which has gone on for a week now. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t bother about it but as it is interfering with my training I have made an appointment with the physio for Monday.
It was my birthday last Sunday. I had a nice day. Eric treated me to a bottle of Chanel No5, (I haven’t had any for ages!!), Alice bought me a black wrap, Harriette a huge pot which I will plant the Kaffir Lime tree in that Alice bought me for Mother’s Day last month, Feral some gardening gloves and Rust and Inca some replacement gummies (my Red Bands have a hole in). We went to Ironique in Te Aroha. It is quite hard to find a place open for food outside Hamilton on a Sunday and Te Aroha is between us and Paeroa (where Mom and Daddy live) so was convenient. Richard and Robyn’s new farm is on the way and Eric said he would go over that weekend and put up the sign that Eric had made for them (details in blog I have mislaid). So we called in there on the way and all went together as they were joining us. It was a nice place and we had good food except mine (which came 5 minutes after everybody else’s) was not very warm. Also, after we chose puddings they told us that the pudding menu was for evenings only and when I asked if the 4 girls could just have some ice cream they said no! Not what I would expect in a kiwi café. Didn’t get home until 5pm and curled up on the sofa with Eric and a brilliant book. Perfect for a winters evening! I have been reading more Lisa Gardner and am thoroughly gripped by them.
Well I must emerge into the cold, my fingers are like ice from typing this. Still if I do some work outside I’ll soon feel warm. I will endeavour to do another blog before we go.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Birthday blog
OK. So the ‘blogging in bed on a Sunday morning habit’ hasn’t been so much of a habit lately. Sorry Helen! I will try and get back into it. Perhaps we can blame my attempts to get fit. I leap out of bed with such enthusiasm to run/walk that I don’t get round to blogging?? OK maybe not (or as Eric has just exclaimed on reading this “or you can say that that is absolute crap”!! So I’ve just been lax. That’s life!
I will say that we have been incredibly busy. I have had a hectic few weeks at work, as has Eric (though he’s always busy he has been busier this last few weeks). And we have had lots on in our own time. Eric has spent several weeks working on a farm sign for R+R (more on that later) and I seem to have had something on most evenings. Having a quiet evening in, curled up reading a book seems to be a rare treat of late.
I think we are organised for our trip, which is coming around very quickly. Tickets are ready to be collected, UK credit cards have been retrieved from the filing cabinets, a list written of UK shopping and ‘things to do’ (change PINs on cards at the ATM etc), new passports for the girls, replacement Returning Residency Visas so they can get back (we did think about ‘forgetting’ that!!), travel insurance sorted etc etc. We have had to tweek the itinerary a bit but otherwise I think everyone is happy. We are so excited about catching up with everyone. I hope everyone realises that although we have said we will catch up with you on this day people are welcome to catch up with us at anytime they wish. I am also trying to organise a day we will be in The Hope at Lyddon near Dover (probably) and a venue in London so we can catch up with anyone who wants to be there.
Despondent about my lack of weight loss despite more exercise and half heartedly trying this year, I joined Weight Watchers a few weeks ago. I have done better than I have ever managed before (not that I have been to WW’s for about 20 years now) and last week had to pop into Farmers whilst in Hamilton to buy trousers as the ones I was wearing were falling down as I was walking. I walked up to the store with my hands in my pockets holding up the trousers. Those of you in the UK won’t notice any difference as I hope to get down to the weight I was roughly when I left. Not that I can remember what I was but I know I have put heaps of weight on since living in NZ. I just wish I had joined 3 months earlier. I just hope I don’t put too much on when in the UK.
I am sitting in bed surrounded by pressies. Yes another birthday (I am sure I have had more than my fair share for this stage of my life!); Chanel No 5 from Eric (such extravagance) gummies from Inca and Rust (mine have a hole in them) a reflective jacket (I am pounding tarmac in the dark at this time of the year) from Feral, a huge garden pot from Harriette and a black wrap from Alice. We are off to R+R’s place for morning tea when Eric will put up the sign he made then we will go, with them, to meet Mom and Daddy at Ironique in Te Aroha for lunch. The sign. I will get photos. R+R. as I may have said before have had huge changes in their life. They have moved from being sharemilkers on Richard’s parent’s farm to farm owners. They have bought a diary farm out in Walton the other side of Matamata from us (which means they now live 30 instead of 10km away). We only got to see the place when they moved on 1 June. I took the day off work to help. It is just beautiful. They put an offer in without even seeing the house properly which sounds so bizarre to me but what is important to them is the farm itself. The farm contour is rolling hills, fewer gradients than the previous place but enough to add to the attractiveness of the place. They views are stunning from both the house, and as you drive around the farm. The paddocks, look great (to my unknowledgable eyes) hardly any weeds and lots of grass. The house is very livablein although obviously there are changes they want to make. All in all they have done brilliantly and we are both pleased for them and proud of them. It has taken years of hard work and careful management to get them to this stage and they are, quite rightly, thrilled. A few months ago Eric came up with the idea of an excellent ‘farm warming’ present, a carved sign. We knew what they were going to call the place and so he ordered the macrocarpa a 2m long piece and set to work with his chisels. I have to say I am so glad it is finished! This lump of wood has lived on the kitchen table except when we have wanted to eat there, or there was any chance that a Scott might drop round. The vacuum clearer has lived by the table as Eric vacuums after each episode of tapping away. A great lump of metal in the form of a sharpener has lived on the work top and we lived with a constant tap tap tap as Eric chipped away at the wood, along with his curses when things went wrong (he is such a perfectionist). Anyway, the sign was beautifully crafted and we were pleased to be able to give our good friends something a bit special as they embarked on their new venture. I’ll take piccies today.
Workwise, I have submitted an abstract for the NZ Immunisation Conference which has been accepted so I will be presenting that in Wellington in September. Looking forward to that. Our team is back up to full complement and our organisation has a new General Manager so we will see how things pan out over the coming year. I had an appraisal a week or 2 ago and apparently we should be hearing any day now about a pay increase. Fingers crossed. I sooo need a holiday. In NZ we get lousy holiday allowances compared to the UK and I have not had a break in over a year. For Eric, June 1 is ‘Gypsy Day’ when all the farm contracts change and farms change hands so lawyers are frantically busy. Eric is not handling farm sales himself but has been helping out with some I think. It is just all hands to the pump on June 1 though. Apparently it was less hectic this year as the system has moved to an electronic based one, on a national level. It obviously has made a difference.
On the band front our conductor resigned, giving us 2 hours, instead of the required 2 weeks, notice!! The timing was awful as we need some consistency to get us to the North Island Music Festival, a competition, in August. We had 2 weeks when one of our more senior members, who also conducts, did so, then has a week of panic as WYMA (our umbrella organisation) could not find us a replacement. However, we now have a solution. Another conductor has returned from a break in music while she had a baby, to take over and, along with the conductor from Youth Band, looks to have us back on track. The kids are great so I am sure they will be able to pull things together for August. Please God we have some stability now.
Blog moments:
1. Alice singing “She was a boy, he was a girl” from the Skater Boy song!!
2. Alice saying to Harriette “I’ve just had a JFK moment”. Harri: “What do you mean?”. Alice: “You know, a ‘I had a dream’ moment” She later swore she meant Martin Luther King!
Must get up (sigh!!)
I will say that we have been incredibly busy. I have had a hectic few weeks at work, as has Eric (though he’s always busy he has been busier this last few weeks). And we have had lots on in our own time. Eric has spent several weeks working on a farm sign for R+R (more on that later) and I seem to have had something on most evenings. Having a quiet evening in, curled up reading a book seems to be a rare treat of late.
I think we are organised for our trip, which is coming around very quickly. Tickets are ready to be collected, UK credit cards have been retrieved from the filing cabinets, a list written of UK shopping and ‘things to do’ (change PINs on cards at the ATM etc), new passports for the girls, replacement Returning Residency Visas so they can get back (we did think about ‘forgetting’ that!!), travel insurance sorted etc etc. We have had to tweek the itinerary a bit but otherwise I think everyone is happy. We are so excited about catching up with everyone. I hope everyone realises that although we have said we will catch up with you on this day people are welcome to catch up with us at anytime they wish. I am also trying to organise a day we will be in The Hope at Lyddon near Dover (probably) and a venue in London so we can catch up with anyone who wants to be there.
Despondent about my lack of weight loss despite more exercise and half heartedly trying this year, I joined Weight Watchers a few weeks ago. I have done better than I have ever managed before (not that I have been to WW’s for about 20 years now) and last week had to pop into Farmers whilst in Hamilton to buy trousers as the ones I was wearing were falling down as I was walking. I walked up to the store with my hands in my pockets holding up the trousers. Those of you in the UK won’t notice any difference as I hope to get down to the weight I was roughly when I left. Not that I can remember what I was but I know I have put heaps of weight on since living in NZ. I just wish I had joined 3 months earlier. I just hope I don’t put too much on when in the UK.
I am sitting in bed surrounded by pressies. Yes another birthday (I am sure I have had more than my fair share for this stage of my life!); Chanel No 5 from Eric (such extravagance) gummies from Inca and Rust (mine have a hole in them) a reflective jacket (I am pounding tarmac in the dark at this time of the year) from Feral, a huge garden pot from Harriette and a black wrap from Alice. We are off to R+R’s place for morning tea when Eric will put up the sign he made then we will go, with them, to meet Mom and Daddy at Ironique in Te Aroha for lunch. The sign. I will get photos. R+R. as I may have said before have had huge changes in their life. They have moved from being sharemilkers on Richard’s parent’s farm to farm owners. They have bought a diary farm out in Walton the other side of Matamata from us (which means they now live 30 instead of 10km away). We only got to see the place when they moved on 1 June. I took the day off work to help. It is just beautiful. They put an offer in without even seeing the house properly which sounds so bizarre to me but what is important to them is the farm itself. The farm contour is rolling hills, fewer gradients than the previous place but enough to add to the attractiveness of the place. They views are stunning from both the house, and as you drive around the farm. The paddocks, look great (to my unknowledgable eyes) hardly any weeds and lots of grass. The house is very livablein although obviously there are changes they want to make. All in all they have done brilliantly and we are both pleased for them and proud of them. It has taken years of hard work and careful management to get them to this stage and they are, quite rightly, thrilled. A few months ago Eric came up with the idea of an excellent ‘farm warming’ present, a carved sign. We knew what they were going to call the place and so he ordered the macrocarpa a 2m long piece and set to work with his chisels. I have to say I am so glad it is finished! This lump of wood has lived on the kitchen table except when we have wanted to eat there, or there was any chance that a Scott might drop round. The vacuum clearer has lived by the table as Eric vacuums after each episode of tapping away. A great lump of metal in the form of a sharpener has lived on the work top and we lived with a constant tap tap tap as Eric chipped away at the wood, along with his curses when things went wrong (he is such a perfectionist). Anyway, the sign was beautifully crafted and we were pleased to be able to give our good friends something a bit special as they embarked on their new venture. I’ll take piccies today.
Workwise, I have submitted an abstract for the NZ Immunisation Conference which has been accepted so I will be presenting that in Wellington in September. Looking forward to that. Our team is back up to full complement and our organisation has a new General Manager so we will see how things pan out over the coming year. I had an appraisal a week or 2 ago and apparently we should be hearing any day now about a pay increase. Fingers crossed. I sooo need a holiday. In NZ we get lousy holiday allowances compared to the UK and I have not had a break in over a year. For Eric, June 1 is ‘Gypsy Day’ when all the farm contracts change and farms change hands so lawyers are frantically busy. Eric is not handling farm sales himself but has been helping out with some I think. It is just all hands to the pump on June 1 though. Apparently it was less hectic this year as the system has moved to an electronic based one, on a national level. It obviously has made a difference.
On the band front our conductor resigned, giving us 2 hours, instead of the required 2 weeks, notice!! The timing was awful as we need some consistency to get us to the North Island Music Festival, a competition, in August. We had 2 weeks when one of our more senior members, who also conducts, did so, then has a week of panic as WYMA (our umbrella organisation) could not find us a replacement. However, we now have a solution. Another conductor has returned from a break in music while she had a baby, to take over and, along with the conductor from Youth Band, looks to have us back on track. The kids are great so I am sure they will be able to pull things together for August. Please God we have some stability now.
Blog moments:
1. Alice singing “She was a boy, he was a girl” from the Skater Boy song!!
2. Alice saying to Harriette “I’ve just had a JFK moment”. Harri: “What do you mean?”. Alice: “You know, a ‘I had a dream’ moment” She later swore she meant Martin Luther King!
Must get up (sigh!!)
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