I hadn't written for awhile as there was nothing to write really. Life plodded on in the usual way and I don't have Carol's flair for relaying everyday wittisism's (mainly because I have such a poor memory that I cannot recall them!). This last week or two, however, life has been pretty hectic and I have not had the time to write!!
Last week (or I was it really the week before, is Sunday morning the end of a week or the start of it?!) it was just work really. I guess most of you will not really have much understanding of what I do, well........ I'll write about that another time maybe. Suffice to say I was very busy with the routine stuff until Wednesday evening when I had a meeting in Hamilton about the change in the structure of GP services in this country. We are in the midst of change at the moment (it's like home from home really, when was the NHS NOT in the midst of change?!). Everyone is totally confused and some people from the Ministry (quaint eh!!) came to explain it all to the practice nurses. That went on until 9pm so it was a late night home from work. On the Thursday and Friday I was in Rotorua for some education training. We undertake clinical assessments and had an update on that process. We also do a lot of the Vaccinator Training Courses around the country and each year IMAC (the Immunusation Advisory Centre, my employers) launch a new education package, so we got updated on that. We also had a regional planning meeting and allocated training. I volunteered to present the immunisation schedule as I still have the UK one stuck in my head. It is such a basic bit of knowledge and I am struggling to inwardly digest it and I am always surreptitiously checking it when relaying this information on, or testing someone on it!!!!!! I figured that if I present the lecture enough times I might remember it! The biggest difference (for my health visiting friends out there) is that they space the vaccines differently and kids routinely get Hepatitis B here. I originally found this out in our first year here when I checked the schedule following the death of Alice's classmate Casey from meningitis. I was quite relived to find that Alice and Harriette were protected from the strain that Casey had (Meningococcal C). Apparently they do not vaccinate against that here and at the moment are about to introduce a new Menningococcal B vaccine for the unique strain that they do have a problem with. Men C is very rare and not a vaccination priority. Unfortunately that did not help Casey's parents when they realised that she died of a vaccine preventable disease! And we do daily battle with people who refuse to have their kids vaccinated, and worse, indoctrinate others against the vaccine process. Enough, I'll get off my IMAC soapbox now!!!! Now where was I, oh yes, my excuses for not writing lately. Those 2 days (of absolutely foul weather I might add) took us to the weekend. Oh, one postscript on that. The training was in one of the many hotels in Rotorua which is a major tourist centre, mainly because the earths crust is so thin and they have have such major geothermal activity. (Lake Rotorua, like Lake Taupo was formed from a collapsed volcano). Our room looked over the geyserland and we watched it them erupting and steam bellowing up to the sky all day. Quite different to your view from your average training room in the UK!!
Our friend Robyn had her gall stones removed on the previous Monday (gosh I hope she doesn't mind me broadcasting that to the whole world - don't think she will!!, do you Robyn?!) and I was feeing guilty that I had not spoken to her since her return from hospital. We took the girls into Matamata on Friday evening to a small fair that they had and popped in to the Scott's on the way home. The operation had gone well (which I knew) and she looked very well, if obviously a bit sore still. We only meant to stay for 20 minutes but got chatting and left quite late. Eric got engrossed in their contract for a farm they have just bought (more about this big excitement in the future when it is more public knowledge here, not that I think anyone in this neck of the woods accesses this site, apart from R and R) as he was about to do contract and property exams the following week. We spent most of the rest of the weekend at home, Eric stuck in his books as he has been for months now, and me trying to keep the girls out of his hair. I took them into the pools in Matamata to try and get them to increase the amount of lengths they can swim. I know, we have a pool, but it is not 25m long and not exactly good for this type of thing. Anyway, it is warmer than our pool and, as I said, we are having terrible weather here. I can also leave the girls in the pool while I do shopping etc. after I've swum a bit.
The exams!!!! Poor Eric!!!! He did Contract on Monday and is convinced he failed. It was a rewrite of one of the exams he failed in July and he was so dissappointed with the questions. Very nebulous, conceptual stuff for which he could not utilise all the information he had inwardly digested over the previous months. He came through the door afterwards with a face like thunder and declared angrily 'Well that was a waste of time!"!!!'!!!!!. The following day was better but not brilliant. Tort and Property I think. One was OK and the other he was not so confident about. these exams are a real bind. All subjects that he has studied and passed in the UK, AND there is no choice in the questions. Have you ever written a paper where you have to do 2 questions out of 2? I certainly haven't, and as you are probably aware, I have written a few exams in my time!!!
Well I really must get up. I can hear Daddy and Michelle (Hudson - will explain later) I think is up, so I ought to get up and sort some breakfast out. I don't want to post this yet so have ticked the 'draft' box. If this is posted I will attempt to finish it later. if it isn't then you are not reading it so it doesn't matter!! I have also written this offline for the first time so am hoping I don't loose it all!!!!
Hello Again,
Well I didn't - loose it that is. We have just been into Matamata to New Zealand's famous 'Warehouse' ("the Warehouse, the Warehouse where everyone gets a bargin"), sort of Woolies but cheaper and on a bigger scale. I needed to get Harriette some boxer shorts. She has spent the last few weeks at Intermediate living in her school PE shorts. ie wearing them under her gymslip. I severly disapprove but it is an absolute essential in their eyes as the boys (prepare yourself for a shock) look up their skirts!!!!! Did you ever here anything so outrageous?!?!?! Anyway the girls have taken to wearing PE shorts or boxers to protect their modesty. I severely disapprove but remember how important such things were to me at that age. Hence the trip in to buy boxers. We all stopped off at the dairy (ie a small corner shop) on the way home for ice creams. Gary was famous for his enormous $1 ice creams and we were devestated when he announced he had sold the place. Jack, a Korean of very little English, has taken over, and while he has attempted to maintain standards it is not quite the same. Still they are still pretty good sized ice creams.
Now I mentioned Michelle and that Mom and Daddy are here. M and D arrived on Friday 20th having had a 3 day stopover in Singapore. They had never been there and I think enjoyed it. I took a days leave to pick them up and gave Alice the day off school. I had originally said that as Harriette could not go (it would not be appropriate to take her out of school) then Alice could not, but then thought why should Alice suffer because Harriette is at a different school? And I could do with the company on the 2 hour drive up!!! Anyway, she came. And Michelle is a friend of Eric's from school and although they haven't actually seen each other since then were aware of each others progress through Stan. Michelle is a sucessful accountant in London and decided to take some time out to travel. She left in September and has been in the Americas and stopped at Hawaii and Fuji on the way here. She arrived on Saturday (yesterday) and found her way down here by the evening. We would have picked her up but did not know when she was coming in. Yesterday afternoon we went to the rodeo!!!! The weather was not brilliant but at least the rain held off. It started at 11am but by the time we had got all these jet lagged people up and got ourselves organised it was 3pm before we got there. It was good fun and I would imagine if you took a picnic and had some sunshine it would be a fabulous day. Those guys are mad, no doubt about it! And no-one had their camera so no piccies I'm afraid. We had so much choice for what to do yesterday. As well as the rodeo, the Super 12 started (now of course you knew that didn't you. Didn't you?!) and the Chiefs our local team was playing our North Island rivals from Wellington, the Hurricanes, at our local stadium in Hamilton. I would have been keen to go but Kihikihi where the rodeo was was in the completely opposite direction to Hamilton and couldn't be fagged with all the travelling after 4 hours in the car yesterday. The girls were upset but I was able to appease them with an offer to get the TV out so they could watch it. We (ie the Chiefs) started off badly but ended up winning 20 - 7. Not that Eric and I watched it. Michelle arrived just as it started and just as I served pizzzas. We ate and then adjourned to the kitchen so Eric and Michelle could do 20 years of catching up. I went to bed and left them rabbiting until the early hours. Oh, the Super 12. I guess it's the Southern hemisphere equivilent to the 6 nations. S. Africa, Australia and NZ put up 12 teams. I must confess that I did not get to grips with it last year but plan to this year. I felt very 'out of it' not knowing what was going on. The other thing that was on was a firework display and concert in Hamilton as part of the Hamilton Gardens summer festival. I hope to get to the jazz concert on Friday. I am in Auckland Thursday and Friday this week so it depends when I can get back.
So there you are. I think that brings you up to date. I am off now to phone my aunt in Australia. It's mid afternoon Sunday and I actually have nothing that needs doing. Bliss! Love to you all.
Michelle
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Saturday, February 07, 2004
A week or 2 down under
I have just read Carols blog for the last few weeks. She is such a talented writer. I could never write as well as that!! She seems to be awake more since Karaka (the big thoroughbred sales where they worked 25 hours a day for tuppence ha'penny). Leading up to the sales and immediately afterward she worked even more obscene hours than usual and often drifted in just to say she was too tired to eat and see you tomorrow. And all for the love of horses. Can't quite see it myself. She is really in a dilemma now as the reality of her May return to the UK is hitting home and she so wants to stay here. She moves up to the stud next week as Mom and Daddy arrive on the 20th.
I have spent today working in the garden. Nothing unusual there I hear you say but this was in the flower beds near the house. I had a rethink and decided that the overgrown casual look was basically a mess and have been generally clearing out and tidying up. I have managed about 10m and that took me all day!! My hands are ripped to shreds, mainly due to the rogue roses branches that I keep grabbing on to and I ache all over. I have been burning the rubbish on the drive, or rather trying to as the damned thing kept going out. When Carol said 'I don't have trouble keeping fires going' Eric replied along the lines of her cheating using whole trees!!! We dined this evening on home made burgers from home-grown beef and home made rolls and home-grown, and seriously scrummy, sweetcorn. At the moment we are harvesting runner beans, the previously mentioned sweetcorn and courgettes for Africa, as well as the usual salad veg. I am disappointed at the progress of the fruit trees. Our stock fencing sometimes proves ineffective and the cows have helped themselves to foliage on some of the trees, especially the olives. The weed suppressant is also not terribly effective, the caterpillars and beetle have stripped foliage on some trees AND the nectarines and peaches have leaf curl, despite being sprayed. I am going to have to pay them some serious attention in the future. Along the end of Taotaoroa Rd someone has planted up a paddock with fruit trees and box in rows, quite close together and they are looking much bigger than my trees. It is very disheartening.
Yesterday was a public holiday, Waitangi Day which celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Queen Vic and Maori. The treaty remains highly controversial to this day and the anniversary is often a time for Maori to be rude to the government. Don Brash, our recently elected leader of the opposition, the Nationalists, made a speech recently saying that if elected they would sort all treaty issues quickly then after that end all special privileges for Maori and treat all New Zealanders the same. Maori are up in arms as they get a huge amount of extra government resources. I think he is right though. He says resources should be allocated on the basis of need not race. I do accept that their culture should be respected but a lot of pakeha (European New Zealanders) are resentful of the special privileges given to Maori. Anyway when he went to the Waitangi marae (meeting house) as invited, he refused to enter as the Maori's would not let any 'mainstream' reporters in (only those from Maori stations) and then he was pelted with mud. 'Our great leader' (Eric's words) Helen Clarke also had a rough time when she went later in the day because of the foreshore disagreement (Maori say it belongs to them and Helen says it doesn't). NZ politics is something else!!
On the home front, Alice has decided to give up her piano lessons. I am torn really because I think that learning to play an instrument is important but, she has never practiced off her own back and has hardly touched it at all all through the summer holidays. I am also aware that we have just shelled out a huge amount of money for a years hire of an alto sax (used the money you left for Harri towards it Stan, hope that meets with your approval) for Harriette. She will also continue with the piano as she practices regularly and is making good progress. Alice has always been on about horse riding lessons and we may think about this for her now in as she has dropped her piano. She says she wants to do flute when she goes to Intermediate but I suspect this is because our friend Robyn teaches it! On the subject of Intermediate Harriette has settled in well we think. She is struggling, as she knew she would, with the increased demands on her fitness. She was in tears the other evening saying they had to run round the grounds twice as fast as they could and she just could not run that distance. She has since been 'training' in the pool doing 'laps'. I have also started taking them (well Harriette so far, Alice was left behind as she still had not tidied her room 3 hours after going in there to do it!!!) to the pools in Matamata to do some serious lengths. I also went in as with my new job I am even more sedentary than before!!
Eric has just come in to say he can't find the other 2 pillow cases (I stripped the beds earlier today). I asked him what I needed to report on blog since the lamb episode and he said 'that I ain't got no pillow cases' - so now you know!!!
The cows are hungry still. We still have not got our hay cut, on account of the incessant rain of late. This means we are 3 paddocks of grazing down. We are feeding them the little hay we have left from last winter and scraps from my veg plot (they are particularly partial to silver beet). They are so funny and now come dashing over as soon as I venture down to pick veg or garden. Ermentrude and Twink make the strangest guttural noise, almost like talking, though I'm sure they are just warning the others off 'their' snacks. They do have some grass, just not as much as they would like. I mentioned the rain. We've had heaps of it. The last 2 days have been dry and, Lo, we've even had some blue sky. And this is mid-summer!! I have to say that this afternoon has been very hot in the sun but the temperatures have been quite cool still.
Yesterday we drove to Otrohanga (about 90km away) to pick up golf clubs for Daddy. They have decided not to bring their golf clubs over this time (something to do with the frantic packing and re-packing when they left last time as they had bought so much they were overweight I suspect!) but buy some second hand ones here. They have been checking the local Loot online and sending me details of any they wanted me to check out. The directions these people gave me were rubbish and I had to phone them twice when I was there to find their house. Anyway with the golf clubs loaded up I asked them about the, what I thought was, shammy leathers hanging in the garage. It turned out they were tobacco leaves. I then realised they were hanging everywhere and saw the plants growing in their veg plot. The last time I saw tobacco growing was in Zimbabwe on a friend of a friends farm - I often wonder how they have got on under the tyrannical regime out there. Anyway the guy was retired and had given up golf because he couldn't afford it now (I bet you're choking on your tea Mom and Daddy!) and he was growing tobacco because he couldn't afford to buy cigarettes - I wonder if he didn't consider giving up instead. Mind you looking at the yellow of his beard and his fingers I guess that's a silly question!
Well you lovely people, I'm fit for my bed now. You will be pleased to know that Eric now has pillow cases, only because I went and did a 'Mommy look' and found them, guess where, in the cupboard with all the other pillow cases!!! I'll put it down to the stress of studying!!
Nighty,night.
Michelle
I have spent today working in the garden. Nothing unusual there I hear you say but this was in the flower beds near the house. I had a rethink and decided that the overgrown casual look was basically a mess and have been generally clearing out and tidying up. I have managed about 10m and that took me all day!! My hands are ripped to shreds, mainly due to the rogue roses branches that I keep grabbing on to and I ache all over. I have been burning the rubbish on the drive, or rather trying to as the damned thing kept going out. When Carol said 'I don't have trouble keeping fires going' Eric replied along the lines of her cheating using whole trees!!! We dined this evening on home made burgers from home-grown beef and home made rolls and home-grown, and seriously scrummy, sweetcorn. At the moment we are harvesting runner beans, the previously mentioned sweetcorn and courgettes for Africa, as well as the usual salad veg. I am disappointed at the progress of the fruit trees. Our stock fencing sometimes proves ineffective and the cows have helped themselves to foliage on some of the trees, especially the olives. The weed suppressant is also not terribly effective, the caterpillars and beetle have stripped foliage on some trees AND the nectarines and peaches have leaf curl, despite being sprayed. I am going to have to pay them some serious attention in the future. Along the end of Taotaoroa Rd someone has planted up a paddock with fruit trees and box in rows, quite close together and they are looking much bigger than my trees. It is very disheartening.
Yesterday was a public holiday, Waitangi Day which celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Queen Vic and Maori. The treaty remains highly controversial to this day and the anniversary is often a time for Maori to be rude to the government. Don Brash, our recently elected leader of the opposition, the Nationalists, made a speech recently saying that if elected they would sort all treaty issues quickly then after that end all special privileges for Maori and treat all New Zealanders the same. Maori are up in arms as they get a huge amount of extra government resources. I think he is right though. He says resources should be allocated on the basis of need not race. I do accept that their culture should be respected but a lot of pakeha (European New Zealanders) are resentful of the special privileges given to Maori. Anyway when he went to the Waitangi marae (meeting house) as invited, he refused to enter as the Maori's would not let any 'mainstream' reporters in (only those from Maori stations) and then he was pelted with mud. 'Our great leader' (Eric's words) Helen Clarke also had a rough time when she went later in the day because of the foreshore disagreement (Maori say it belongs to them and Helen says it doesn't). NZ politics is something else!!
On the home front, Alice has decided to give up her piano lessons. I am torn really because I think that learning to play an instrument is important but, she has never practiced off her own back and has hardly touched it at all all through the summer holidays. I am also aware that we have just shelled out a huge amount of money for a years hire of an alto sax (used the money you left for Harri towards it Stan, hope that meets with your approval) for Harriette. She will also continue with the piano as she practices regularly and is making good progress. Alice has always been on about horse riding lessons and we may think about this for her now in as she has dropped her piano. She says she wants to do flute when she goes to Intermediate but I suspect this is because our friend Robyn teaches it! On the subject of Intermediate Harriette has settled in well we think. She is struggling, as she knew she would, with the increased demands on her fitness. She was in tears the other evening saying they had to run round the grounds twice as fast as they could and she just could not run that distance. She has since been 'training' in the pool doing 'laps'. I have also started taking them (well Harriette so far, Alice was left behind as she still had not tidied her room 3 hours after going in there to do it!!!) to the pools in Matamata to do some serious lengths. I also went in as with my new job I am even more sedentary than before!!
Eric has just come in to say he can't find the other 2 pillow cases (I stripped the beds earlier today). I asked him what I needed to report on blog since the lamb episode and he said 'that I ain't got no pillow cases' - so now you know!!!
The cows are hungry still. We still have not got our hay cut, on account of the incessant rain of late. This means we are 3 paddocks of grazing down. We are feeding them the little hay we have left from last winter and scraps from my veg plot (they are particularly partial to silver beet). They are so funny and now come dashing over as soon as I venture down to pick veg or garden. Ermentrude and Twink make the strangest guttural noise, almost like talking, though I'm sure they are just warning the others off 'their' snacks. They do have some grass, just not as much as they would like. I mentioned the rain. We've had heaps of it. The last 2 days have been dry and, Lo, we've even had some blue sky. And this is mid-summer!! I have to say that this afternoon has been very hot in the sun but the temperatures have been quite cool still.
Yesterday we drove to Otrohanga (about 90km away) to pick up golf clubs for Daddy. They have decided not to bring their golf clubs over this time (something to do with the frantic packing and re-packing when they left last time as they had bought so much they were overweight I suspect!) but buy some second hand ones here. They have been checking the local Loot online and sending me details of any they wanted me to check out. The directions these people gave me were rubbish and I had to phone them twice when I was there to find their house. Anyway with the golf clubs loaded up I asked them about the, what I thought was, shammy leathers hanging in the garage. It turned out they were tobacco leaves. I then realised they were hanging everywhere and saw the plants growing in their veg plot. The last time I saw tobacco growing was in Zimbabwe on a friend of a friends farm - I often wonder how they have got on under the tyrannical regime out there. Anyway the guy was retired and had given up golf because he couldn't afford it now (I bet you're choking on your tea Mom and Daddy!) and he was growing tobacco because he couldn't afford to buy cigarettes - I wonder if he didn't consider giving up instead. Mind you looking at the yellow of his beard and his fingers I guess that's a silly question!
Well you lovely people, I'm fit for my bed now. You will be pleased to know that Eric now has pillow cases, only because I went and did a 'Mommy look' and found them, guess where, in the cupboard with all the other pillow cases!!! I'll put it down to the stress of studying!!
Nighty,night.
Michelle
From Alice
Hi it is soooooo hot here! Especially when your playing golf in the paddock in the bright sun! All I feel like doing tomorrow is sitting on the pool deck reading a good book listening to my Shania Twain CD and swimming!!!!!! BLISSSSS! Poor old Carol up at half 5 starts work at SIX!! We had a long weekend this week! Any guess? Going once........ Going twice......... GONE! WATANGIE DAY!!!!! Sorry I am soooooooooooo tired night.
Friday, February 06, 2004
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
First school day of the year.
Well Harriette has started at Intermediate and has had a good day. She started off properly by getting lost but managed to find the classroom before 8.50am. Her teacher, who is very 'efficient' and whom Harriette has lived in fear of through the summer holidays, turned out to be not half as fearsome in the flesh and she has come home very happy (Harriette that is!). The photo is not terribly flattering and I was trying to work out why she looked so big round the hips. This evening I found that she had her big thick blue shorts on underneath!! Apparently that is the thing to do. She has also been told to SHORTEN her skirt! Which makes me think of Lynne in South Africa recalling how they used to have to kneel down to have their hems measured from the floor then they'd walk away and roll them up at the waist to make their skirts into mini's again.
Alice has the wonderful Mr Mac this year whom all the kids adore. She came home with some wonderful homework, for Eric and I.... errr I meant, to do before Friday. How many things beginning with the letter p can you fit into a matchbox? I remember doing a similar thing in the Brownies. Anyway we are up to 42 and have lots more ideas. It's great fun. Does perfume sprayed into the box count? and a pathetic joke, typed in size 3 font? Alice's class did not get to swim today as most of the kids forgot their togs. Amazingly Alice was not so disorganised!!!!! I am not sure she had her writing stuff, and I know she did not hand in the cheque for school fees (or 'donations' as they call it here) and stationery (or is it stationary, I can never remember).
Eric was in the depths of depression yesterday when he pulled out some old property exam papers. I think this is almost the only subject he has studied for and he felt he could not answer any of the questions! They get no choice, you have 2 questions and have to give 2 answers. Not much scope for movement there. He convinced himself that he was going to fail all 3 exams next month. I never know what to say in these circumstances and really feel for him. Sitting the papers is so expensive as well so he really feels under pressure (nothing to do with my plans to retire next Christmas you understand!!!).
I am back to work today after our weeks leave and a bank holiday Monday. Yesterday was Auckland Day and as Waikato does not have a Waikato Day - we take the day off when Auckland does - which goes against the grain for the locals as there is a healthy dislike of all things north of the Bombays (a range of hills dividing the Waikato from all things ie Auckland, to the north). I must say that although I have been looking forward to returning to the routine of work and school I have today had my first headache (of which I get many) in about 3 weeks. I spent the day clearing my email inbox and generally doing office work. I tried to get down to the veg plot this evening but as I stepped outside the door the rain came down. By the time it stopped (about 20 secs later) I was already engrossed in something else.
The piccie below is of my man and his dog... well nearly.
I was just watering the tomatoes when I heard a lamb bleating. Now I know we have 2 or 3 paddocks full of lambs and sheep around us but this one was about 3 foot from my backside! What was even stranger was that it stood still as I walked towards it. Tanner sheep have a 'personal space' radius of about 30 metres! so I knew it wasn't one of ours. I called Eric to throw down a lead. We managed to get the lead round her neck and Eric led her off across our front paddock to put her in Claire and Ians woolshed paddock where she lived. Apparently (according to Claire) they are sheep sitting for friends who are on the move and these 2 sheep are pets, and could Alice and Harriette please go and pet them regularly and they like bread!!! I haven't quite got my head round sheep eating bread. I wonder if they taste any differently after a wheat based instead of grass based diet!?!?
At supper this evening Carol was explaining to the girls about a rodeo that she had been to and how brave (mad!?) the riders were. Alice said she could do this to which Carol replied 'I don't think so Alice you need real guts for this' (Alice has a reputation for being an absolute whimp). Alice looked proudly at Eric and said 'but you always say I've got guts' to which we all collapsed in hysterics and Harriette said 'I think he refers to the size of yours Alice'!!!!!!!!' Eric does tease her somewhat about her increasing rotundness. Luckily Alice, either because of her good nature, or naiveity, just laughed!
Well I thinks it's bedtime. Eric has just risen from his studies in a bleary daze and headed in that direction.
Love to all.
Michelle
xo
Alice has the wonderful Mr Mac this year whom all the kids adore. She came home with some wonderful homework, for Eric and I.... errr I meant, to do before Friday. How many things beginning with the letter p can you fit into a matchbox? I remember doing a similar thing in the Brownies. Anyway we are up to 42 and have lots more ideas. It's great fun. Does perfume sprayed into the box count? and a pathetic joke, typed in size 3 font? Alice's class did not get to swim today as most of the kids forgot their togs. Amazingly Alice was not so disorganised!!!!! I am not sure she had her writing stuff, and I know she did not hand in the cheque for school fees (or 'donations' as they call it here) and stationery (or is it stationary, I can never remember).
Eric was in the depths of depression yesterday when he pulled out some old property exam papers. I think this is almost the only subject he has studied for and he felt he could not answer any of the questions! They get no choice, you have 2 questions and have to give 2 answers. Not much scope for movement there. He convinced himself that he was going to fail all 3 exams next month. I never know what to say in these circumstances and really feel for him. Sitting the papers is so expensive as well so he really feels under pressure (nothing to do with my plans to retire next Christmas you understand!!!).
I am back to work today after our weeks leave and a bank holiday Monday. Yesterday was Auckland Day and as Waikato does not have a Waikato Day - we take the day off when Auckland does - which goes against the grain for the locals as there is a healthy dislike of all things north of the Bombays (a range of hills dividing the Waikato from all things ie Auckland, to the north). I must say that although I have been looking forward to returning to the routine of work and school I have today had my first headache (of which I get many) in about 3 weeks. I spent the day clearing my email inbox and generally doing office work. I tried to get down to the veg plot this evening but as I stepped outside the door the rain came down. By the time it stopped (about 20 secs later) I was already engrossed in something else.
The piccie below is of my man and his dog... well nearly.
I was just watering the tomatoes when I heard a lamb bleating. Now I know we have 2 or 3 paddocks full of lambs and sheep around us but this one was about 3 foot from my backside! What was even stranger was that it stood still as I walked towards it. Tanner sheep have a 'personal space' radius of about 30 metres! so I knew it wasn't one of ours. I called Eric to throw down a lead. We managed to get the lead round her neck and Eric led her off across our front paddock to put her in Claire and Ians woolshed paddock where she lived. Apparently (according to Claire) they are sheep sitting for friends who are on the move and these 2 sheep are pets, and could Alice and Harriette please go and pet them regularly and they like bread!!! I haven't quite got my head round sheep eating bread. I wonder if they taste any differently after a wheat based instead of grass based diet!?!?
At supper this evening Carol was explaining to the girls about a rodeo that she had been to and how brave (mad!?) the riders were. Alice said she could do this to which Carol replied 'I don't think so Alice you need real guts for this' (Alice has a reputation for being an absolute whimp). Alice looked proudly at Eric and said 'but you always say I've got guts' to which we all collapsed in hysterics and Harriette said 'I think he refers to the size of yours Alice'!!!!!!!!' Eric does tease her somewhat about her increasing rotundness. Luckily Alice, either because of her good nature, or naiveity, just laughed!
Well I thinks it's bedtime. Eric has just risen from his studies in a bleary daze and headed in that direction.
Love to all.
Michelle
xo
Sunday, January 25, 2004
This is written by Harriettte
hi everyone
this is the first time I have used blogger so it may take me a while to get going.
I just went and picked up the dead lamb from the paddock. Don't have a clue why it died but had to chuck it dowm the offal hole anyway.
I start intermediate on tuesday and am extremly frightened it is SOOOOOOOOOO big. I 'm going to stick photo's of me in my uniform on blog soon, any way got to go.
this is the first time I have used blogger so it may take me a while to get going.
I just went and picked up the dead lamb from the paddock. Don't have a clue why it died but had to chuck it dowm the offal hole anyway.
I start intermediate on tuesday and am extremly frightened it is SOOOOOOOOOO big. I 'm going to stick photo's of me in my uniform on blog soon, any way got to go.
Friday, January 23, 2004
Last week of the holidays.
Well this is the first 'real-time' blog as everything preceeding this has been cribbed from our sent box. (In 2 years we have sent 1594 emails! - I must say that only about 5 were written in the last month though) Mind you we have made lots of UK phonecalls in the last few weeks.
As I type, Eric is driving back from Auckland having taken a very reluctant Stan back to the airport. The big man has just had his second trip out here and arrived in early December. He is desparate to settle in NZ but it will be a huge step for him and I am not sure if he can do it. The next week or 2 will tell. I can see him running some totally unconventional backpacking establishment where waifs and strays stay for months. He got into diving while in the Bay of Islands and would love to combine work with that. Oh for a crystal ball!
The girls are in the cottage watching the first LOTR film which they purchased today for about $10 (£4). We went to the cinema (a wonderful oldy worldy 'picture theatre' in Te Awamutu) to see the third movie yesterday. Now I am not a Tolkien fan at all and thought the first film was grossly over-rated, however I have to admit that the third film was thoroughly enjoyable and that the special effects, and the sheer scale of everything was quite amazing. For those of you that doen't know (is there anybody?) 'Hobbiton' is literally over the hill from us. In fact at the end of the movie when they returned to 'The Shire' after such along absence, I felt quite relieved, not sure if that is the right word but you know, that feeling when you turn into your road after a long holiday. Then I had to say to myself, of course, that IS home! Such a strange thought that to people all over the world it is just some pretty hills!
Mom and Daddy arrive on 20 Feb and on 21st Michalle arrives. I have never met her but she is a friend from Eric's school days (Yes I know he went to a boys school). She is doing one of those 'round the world' trips and is stopping here for a couple of weeks R and R. As she leaves to travel NZ we may be getting a Japanese student for 2 weeks so as usual it's all go here. I spoke to Mom this morning and a long lost cousin is about to do the same thing and wants to catch up with us. Not sure when though.
Well Eric has just pulled up, and I am trying to get the girls into some sort of routine so will organise supper. They go back to school on Tuesday after the holiday weekend. Eric and I also return to work after a weeks leave. For Harriette Tuesday will be a big day - she starts a new school!
Let us know what you think of things so far.
Love Michelle
As I type, Eric is driving back from Auckland having taken a very reluctant Stan back to the airport. The big man has just had his second trip out here and arrived in early December. He is desparate to settle in NZ but it will be a huge step for him and I am not sure if he can do it. The next week or 2 will tell. I can see him running some totally unconventional backpacking establishment where waifs and strays stay for months. He got into diving while in the Bay of Islands and would love to combine work with that. Oh for a crystal ball!
The girls are in the cottage watching the first LOTR film which they purchased today for about $10 (£4). We went to the cinema (a wonderful oldy worldy 'picture theatre' in Te Awamutu) to see the third movie yesterday. Now I am not a Tolkien fan at all and thought the first film was grossly over-rated, however I have to admit that the third film was thoroughly enjoyable and that the special effects, and the sheer scale of everything was quite amazing. For those of you that doen't know (is there anybody?) 'Hobbiton' is literally over the hill from us. In fact at the end of the movie when they returned to 'The Shire' after such along absence, I felt quite relieved, not sure if that is the right word but you know, that feeling when you turn into your road after a long holiday. Then I had to say to myself, of course, that IS home! Such a strange thought that to people all over the world it is just some pretty hills!
Mom and Daddy arrive on 20 Feb and on 21st Michalle arrives. I have never met her but she is a friend from Eric's school days (Yes I know he went to a boys school). She is doing one of those 'round the world' trips and is stopping here for a couple of weeks R and R. As she leaves to travel NZ we may be getting a Japanese student for 2 weeks so as usual it's all go here. I spoke to Mom this morning and a long lost cousin is about to do the same thing and wants to catch up with us. Not sure when though.
Well Eric has just pulled up, and I am trying to get the girls into some sort of routine so will organise supper. They go back to school on Tuesday after the holiday weekend. Eric and I also return to work after a weeks leave. For Harriette Tuesday will be a big day - she starts a new school!
Let us know what you think of things so far.
Love Michelle
Friday, January 02, 2004
Christmas and 2003 summary.
This is in lieu of the pre-Christmas summary of our year. Needless to say at this time of year you were all in our hearts and we hope you had a great Christmas and New Year, and that 2004 brings you all you wish yourselves. If that should include a trip to NZ then all the better!!!
Well we have had another busy year (does anybody ever NOT have a busy year!!). It started off with Eric working frantically to get the pool finished or at least swim-able in before the summer finished. He succeeded, the pool was finally fenced and now all that is left is to box in the filter unit and build a trunk to accommodate the various pool toys. I must say I always knew Eric was a clever badger but his efforts since we have been here have impressed me so much, putting in pools and building, in wood, and to accommodate earth-quake regulations are not exactly tasks he ever envisaged undertaking when we lived in the UK!
Summer, ie Nov - March, saw us enjoying the company of lots of visitors, Mom and Daddy for 4 months, Mark, Cathy and the girls for February, Stan and Sarah for much of March, Helen and Chris briefly in Dec and then later in the year Eric's nephew Todd and 3 friends for a week and an ex-Dukkie Mike for another week. The later visitors were on world tours, back-packing and seemed to enjoy the comforts of home for their stay (decent food, hot showers at leisure and, as Ben {Todd's mate} said, sitting on proper sofa's!). We also had our holidays, touring the top half of the South Island (how many times can you say 'Wow' in 2 weeks, go to the S. Island and count) and a few days in the Bay if Islands in the north.
Eric pressed on with the pool and a big kitchen extension as well as a new deck through the year. After spending 2002 back at Uni. he was planning to sit exams in Feb and July this year and then do the Professionals course in 2004. With the summer rush he decided not to do exams in Feb but bite the bullet and do 6 in July!! When he then found out that the exams were over 2 days, and saw old papers and realised how hard they were he reverted to plan C, 3 papers in July and 3 in Feb '04 (my retirement slipping further away!!). Unfortunately Eric failed 2 of the 3 July papers (the first time he has ever failed a law exam) and so we are now on plan D, 3 in Feb and any left (hopefully only 2) in July with the Professionals course Oct - Dec '04. He is so resentful of the NZ requirements as if a graduate from here went the other way they would not have to do any of this before applying to do the post-graduate course. I admire his perseverance, Eric started his studies in 1995!!! ONE DAY I will be a lady of leisure, growing veg, making marmalade, going to the gym 5 days a week and married to a wealthy barrister/solicitor. Well a girl can dream can't she!
By mid-year, with the prospect of only 6 exams and 15 weeks at Uni over the coming 18 months, Eric started job hunting. His ideal job would have been part-time, local and something to do with law. Well the first 2 requirements were satisfied and the last very tenuously. Eric works for the local council (much better paid,relatively, than UK council workers) as Matamata's Animal Control Officer. They do all those animal things that the UK police did (stray animals, rampaging bulls, animals causing chaos on the roads etc) as well as maintaining the dog register. The vague law connection is that Eric has been asked if he would conduct his own prosecutions rather than farm them out to solicitors. Eric has agreed but as of yet has failed to find anyone to prosecute! He has his own ute, office etc, is very much left to is own devices and does not find it too stressful so it will do as a stop gap.
In June we received terrible news from the UK that friends of ours had been involved in a house fire. Eddie and Alan had been our first ever visitors here. They had done a month in Auz. and tagged a week in NZ on the end of their stay. They said they should have done it the other way round as there was so much to see in NZ and they planned to come back soon and do it 'properly'. Well sadly Alan at least will not. He died in the fire and Eddie suffered a horrific 64% burns. She arrested several time in the first 24 hours and it was touch and go for several weeks for her. Eddie is amazingly strong and I am sure that it is only that that got her through the following months. She finally came out of hospital a few weeks ago and, although very dependant on carers, is making excellent progress at home. Well done to Mark and Vanessa to all the support and help you have given Eddie, on that fateful day and ever since.
Meantime I was plodding on on 3x12 hour nights a week in ICU. It was OK but I was looking forward to cutting my hours (I had increased them earlier in the year from 5, to 6, shifts/fortnight). However, while looking for jobs for Eric we spied an advert for an Immunisation Co-ordinator. I applied and was offered the job actually during the job interview. I started in October, and although I am now working full-time (something I vowed never to do again!) I am really enjoying it. I am my own boss most of the time, have a car, cell-phone etc and work from home. The pay is awful but the advantages of working from home when one has young children cannot be overestimated. The organisation I work for, IMAC, the Immunisation Advisory Centre, is part of Auckland University, and very 'family friendly'. I have been to Auckland twice, Rotorua 4 times and was flown to Wellington once. They also acknowledge the progress you make and good work you do, something that was very lacking in the hospital. I am really enjoying it. I cover a huge area (imagine Bristol to Great Yarmouth but rotated 90 degrees so it runs N to S) although 80% of my work is based in Hamilton. There is a large teaching component to the job which suits me.
At home I have managed to extend the veg garden significantly though the rampant weed growth that continues through the winter caught me off guard. Mid-year we sold about half our cows and some of our sheep to Alan, a 'retired' farmer over the road (that means he manages 50 instead of hundreds of acres!). In August we had 5 calves born, though one was virtually a still-birth and our first born Gertie dropped dead at about 3 months of age. 2 out of 5 was not good but as the adage goes,'where there's livestock there's deadstock'. Later in the year we added 4 Duroc x sows to our collection (so nice to have pigs again) and then later a saddleback boar. Eric also acquired more chooks so we now have to have a bit of a cull there and get rid of the non-layers. We have planted more trees though I have a brown beetle problem with the fruit trees. I also have too much grass growing in the orchard, the cows are not allowed in there as they reach over the tree guards and eat the trees, and the sheep don't eat the grass quick enough. The orchard is on a steep slope so running the sit-on mower around it is not an option. Maybe we need a goat ('over my dead body' I hear Eric saying!).
The girls are fine. Alice continues to function at 2 speeds, slow and stationery, (God she drives me mad) and Harriette is hormones on 2 legs (and I thought childhood was hard work!). Both got excellent end of year reports this year and Harriette achieved her ambition and got the BOT (Board of Trustee's, ie Board of Governor's) cup for academic achievement at her leavers assembly. She moves up to Intermediate (sort of Middle school) in January, a year early and is also in the E (extension and enrichmant) class, an accelerant class for high achievers. We are very proud of them both. Winter saw them complete theier second netball season here. Alice did a netball skills course last year but played properly this year. She came home with player of the match on one or two occasions and their team got lots of awards at the end of the season, most enthusiastic team, best coach etc. They both love it. They were thrilled when the Silver Ferns bought home the netball world cup from Jamaica (hands up who didn't even know the World Cup was on?!) and school stopped so that the pupils (and teachers!?) could cheer their team on. You will be pleased to know that they supported England in THE OTHER World Cup!!!
Alice is very into horses at the moment and I think has read every library book on the subject. She listens avidly to Carols tales from the stud. We would consider buying them a horse but not for a few years when a) we can afford it and b) I am confident they would do all the work. I have no interest in the creatures and would not be prepared to do any of the graft!! They have progressed well at piano and practice is not so tedious to listen to now, indeed sometimes what they play is quite pleasant. Their teacher holds an end of year concert where we parents all crowd into her living room to suffer, err I mean hear, the children's efforts! Actually listening to the older children was very nice, some of them are incredibly talented.
We have found some very good friends in Richard and Robyn Scott this year. They are dairy farmers and have girls in Harri and Alice's classes at school. The girls always have a wonderful time when they go up there. A few weeks ago I drove up their (1.3 km long) drive to the house to collect them and saw Sarah grooming Millie in her paddock next to the drive. I asked her where Harri was, expecting them to be together and she pointed way across another paddock. There was Harri riding a motorbike looking like she didn't have a care in the world. During her day she had been also been horse riding and helped Richard with milking. This, I remembered, once again, was why we had come to NZ! Earlier this year I had been thinking that we did not seem to have made any of those friendships that we find so important. Kiwi's are very friendly people but getting beyond that everyday friendliness is not easy. A fact that has been re-iterated by other ex-pats here. I think that living in such a tight knit rural community as we do has made this even harder. So Richard and Robyn are extra special. Thank heavens also for Juliet and Kev, our very dear friends who emigrated from Coombe Wood Lane a few months ahead of us. They have been an enormous support over the last 2 years as have long standing and long ago emigrated friends Mandy and David.
In August Carol arrived. Now for those of you who don't know, Carol is Stan's boss (Stan being our best man and long time friend and a copper in the Met's). She has taken a year long career break to work with horses out here. She got a job on the South Island but it did not work out and she was very unhappy. Stan was relaying all this to us and we contacted her to offer her the cottage here to stay in if she really wanted to get away from where she was. She took up the offer and within a week of her arrival had caused a fire requiring the services of the local fire brigade at 10.30 at night!! She had been clearing some of the tree debris on the drive by sweeping into piles and burning it, common practice. However one of the fires did not die properly and at night a spark must have blown across to the unburnt rubbish under the trees. They caught fire and when we first saw it the flames were over 20' high. It was a way away from the house but the shelter belt of trees that caught actually came all the way up to the house. It was very scary. We worked frantically bailing water from a nearby trough to try and get it under control and I can honestly say I have never felt so pleased to see blue and red flashing lights in my life (unlike those that were attached to traffic police cars that stopped me for speeding twice within 3 weeks last month but we don't talk about that!). Carol later got a job on a stud near here and although they had accommodation it was very grotty and she asked if she could rent the cottage. We said Yes but only until the summer visitors started. She is planning to travel in March and April, returning to the UK in May but we she has no desire to go back to the UK and now efforts to find a kiwi husband have taken on a more urgent nature as she cannot get residency any other way!!! Seriously, she thinks she can extend her work permit to 5 years and the Mets can extend her career break for the same period so she is looking to stay, but not with us, and finding a job on another stud.
I started my new job in October. I wanted to take a week off in between jobs but I needed to do the Vaccinator Training Course and it happened to be running in that week so I didn't get the time off. I therefore had no leave between Feb and this Xmas. Luckily my contract states that I have to take Xmas to after NY as A/L else, officially, I would have had to wait until April to have time off!! They have training for nurses doing immunisations very well organised here, and the system is far superior to the UK. Their information systems are a mess though and every surgery submits stats differently, usually after removing various categories of kids from the equation. We therefore have absolutely no idea of what the immunisation rates are in this country so cannot assess if the work we do affects the rates. Luckily this is being addressed and a National Immunisation Register is being introduced this year. We are hosting the National Conference this year in Rotorua which should be hard work, interesting, and hopefully good fun.
November saw us use the TV that our neighbour Claire gave us earlier in the year, for the first time. That World Cup, that NZ ridiculously quibbled over, and therefore lost hosting rights to, was on and we were glued to as many matches as we could watch. They were broadcast around 9pm to 1am for us so watching and getting up for work/school was a bit of a struggle sometimes. Mike (an earlier visitor) was there and got to see England's last 3 matches and relayed to us reports after each one. Amazingly he said the atmosphere was best at the England v France semi-final. But what a final!!!! Could one have asked for more? We could not go to bed until about 4am because of the adrenaline we had coursing round our bodies. We watched it at Richard and Robyn's with another kiwi couple, all of whom were supporting Australia (Turncoats! I clearly remember Richard saying 'I don't care who wins as long as it's not Aus'!!). The match, here, as I'm sure there, was the only topic of conversation for weeks and, although it was good to be in the Southern Hemisphere for the matches, I would have given anything to have been in the UK for the following week or two.
We have had a good Christmas. We spent weeks trying to decide what to do between going to the Scott-Mackies, going to the Stokes, having the Stokes here, staying here but eating out and just staying here. We finally opted for the latter. Stan is back again from the UK and Carol (who works a 58 hour week for a pittance) actually had 3 days off. They spoilt us terribly and so pressie unwrapping seemed to go on for hours. Eric bought me a fabulous digital camera which is something we have wanted for ages. Stan and Carol clubbed together and bought Eric and I a chainsaw (long story around Eric slaughtering and butchering one of our cows in Dec - please refer to Carol's blog on 10/12/03 at www.quest4aragorn.blogspot.com ) and Eric lots of kiwiana tat that had us in stitches. Among other things we bought Stan the dvd of Whale Rider (an absolute must to watch when you can) and he bought Alice the book and video!! I bought Eric a clay pigeon launcher and we had great fun in the front paddock clay pigeon shooting with Eric's shotgun. Yes even I had a go and hit my first clay!!!! We had duck, cooked indoors, for dinner as it was too blowy to BBQ. We had a little sun over Xmas , lots of cloud and wind. But now... well as I type this (sitting in bed around 7.30am) it is warm outside and promises to get hotter. I plan to repeat the last 2 days today, that is, gardening until it is too hot to continue and then crash out under the parasol by the pool, taking the odd dip to cool off, a simple supper then a little more gardening in the cool of the evening. My veg garden is looking like one rather then the enormous weed patch of recent weeks! We have had odd weather for ages. The South Island is suffering drought and we seem to have had all their rain. Nov/Dec are always unsettled months and they certainly have been this (last?) year. Summer certainly seems to have arrived now though. Yesterday the South Island had record temps of 31 - 40 degrees at a time when it averages 22 degrees!!! I don't know what we had but I'd guess 28 - 30 degrees. When did you say you were coming?! Mark and Cheryl are somewhere in the country with their children and Cheryl's mom at the moment. We are expecting them on Eric's birthday, hopefully for a few days. Mom and Daddy arrive in mid-Feb for 6 weeks. All of which we are looking forward to.
Well if you're still with us well done. It is difficult to put a years news into compressed form and I am sure we have missed out heaps. We do still miss our friends and hope to see at least some of you soon. In the meantime have a wonderful year and please write with all your news.
Big hugs from us all.
Well we have had another busy year (does anybody ever NOT have a busy year!!). It started off with Eric working frantically to get the pool finished or at least swim-able in before the summer finished. He succeeded, the pool was finally fenced and now all that is left is to box in the filter unit and build a trunk to accommodate the various pool toys. I must say I always knew Eric was a clever badger but his efforts since we have been here have impressed me so much, putting in pools and building, in wood, and to accommodate earth-quake regulations are not exactly tasks he ever envisaged undertaking when we lived in the UK!
Summer, ie Nov - March, saw us enjoying the company of lots of visitors, Mom and Daddy for 4 months, Mark, Cathy and the girls for February, Stan and Sarah for much of March, Helen and Chris briefly in Dec and then later in the year Eric's nephew Todd and 3 friends for a week and an ex-Dukkie Mike for another week. The later visitors were on world tours, back-packing and seemed to enjoy the comforts of home for their stay (decent food, hot showers at leisure and, as Ben {Todd's mate} said, sitting on proper sofa's!). We also had our holidays, touring the top half of the South Island (how many times can you say 'Wow' in 2 weeks, go to the S. Island and count) and a few days in the Bay if Islands in the north.
Eric pressed on with the pool and a big kitchen extension as well as a new deck through the year. After spending 2002 back at Uni. he was planning to sit exams in Feb and July this year and then do the Professionals course in 2004. With the summer rush he decided not to do exams in Feb but bite the bullet and do 6 in July!! When he then found out that the exams were over 2 days, and saw old papers and realised how hard they were he reverted to plan C, 3 papers in July and 3 in Feb '04 (my retirement slipping further away!!). Unfortunately Eric failed 2 of the 3 July papers (the first time he has ever failed a law exam) and so we are now on plan D, 3 in Feb and any left (hopefully only 2) in July with the Professionals course Oct - Dec '04. He is so resentful of the NZ requirements as if a graduate from here went the other way they would not have to do any of this before applying to do the post-graduate course. I admire his perseverance, Eric started his studies in 1995!!! ONE DAY I will be a lady of leisure, growing veg, making marmalade, going to the gym 5 days a week and married to a wealthy barrister/solicitor. Well a girl can dream can't she!
By mid-year, with the prospect of only 6 exams and 15 weeks at Uni over the coming 18 months, Eric started job hunting. His ideal job would have been part-time, local and something to do with law. Well the first 2 requirements were satisfied and the last very tenuously. Eric works for the local council (much better paid,relatively, than UK council workers) as Matamata's Animal Control Officer. They do all those animal things that the UK police did (stray animals, rampaging bulls, animals causing chaos on the roads etc) as well as maintaining the dog register. The vague law connection is that Eric has been asked if he would conduct his own prosecutions rather than farm them out to solicitors. Eric has agreed but as of yet has failed to find anyone to prosecute! He has his own ute, office etc, is very much left to is own devices and does not find it too stressful so it will do as a stop gap.
In June we received terrible news from the UK that friends of ours had been involved in a house fire. Eddie and Alan had been our first ever visitors here. They had done a month in Auz. and tagged a week in NZ on the end of their stay. They said they should have done it the other way round as there was so much to see in NZ and they planned to come back soon and do it 'properly'. Well sadly Alan at least will not. He died in the fire and Eddie suffered a horrific 64% burns. She arrested several time in the first 24 hours and it was touch and go for several weeks for her. Eddie is amazingly strong and I am sure that it is only that that got her through the following months. She finally came out of hospital a few weeks ago and, although very dependant on carers, is making excellent progress at home. Well done to Mark and Vanessa to all the support and help you have given Eddie, on that fateful day and ever since.
Meantime I was plodding on on 3x12 hour nights a week in ICU. It was OK but I was looking forward to cutting my hours (I had increased them earlier in the year from 5, to 6, shifts/fortnight). However, while looking for jobs for Eric we spied an advert for an Immunisation Co-ordinator. I applied and was offered the job actually during the job interview. I started in October, and although I am now working full-time (something I vowed never to do again!) I am really enjoying it. I am my own boss most of the time, have a car, cell-phone etc and work from home. The pay is awful but the advantages of working from home when one has young children cannot be overestimated. The organisation I work for, IMAC, the Immunisation Advisory Centre, is part of Auckland University, and very 'family friendly'. I have been to Auckland twice, Rotorua 4 times and was flown to Wellington once. They also acknowledge the progress you make and good work you do, something that was very lacking in the hospital. I am really enjoying it. I cover a huge area (imagine Bristol to Great Yarmouth but rotated 90 degrees so it runs N to S) although 80% of my work is based in Hamilton. There is a large teaching component to the job which suits me.
At home I have managed to extend the veg garden significantly though the rampant weed growth that continues through the winter caught me off guard. Mid-year we sold about half our cows and some of our sheep to Alan, a 'retired' farmer over the road (that means he manages 50 instead of hundreds of acres!). In August we had 5 calves born, though one was virtually a still-birth and our first born Gertie dropped dead at about 3 months of age. 2 out of 5 was not good but as the adage goes,'where there's livestock there's deadstock'. Later in the year we added 4 Duroc x sows to our collection (so nice to have pigs again) and then later a saddleback boar. Eric also acquired more chooks so we now have to have a bit of a cull there and get rid of the non-layers. We have planted more trees though I have a brown beetle problem with the fruit trees. I also have too much grass growing in the orchard, the cows are not allowed in there as they reach over the tree guards and eat the trees, and the sheep don't eat the grass quick enough. The orchard is on a steep slope so running the sit-on mower around it is not an option. Maybe we need a goat ('over my dead body' I hear Eric saying!).
The girls are fine. Alice continues to function at 2 speeds, slow and stationery, (God she drives me mad) and Harriette is hormones on 2 legs (and I thought childhood was hard work!). Both got excellent end of year reports this year and Harriette achieved her ambition and got the BOT (Board of Trustee's, ie Board of Governor's) cup for academic achievement at her leavers assembly. She moves up to Intermediate (sort of Middle school) in January, a year early and is also in the E (extension and enrichmant) class, an accelerant class for high achievers. We are very proud of them both. Winter saw them complete theier second netball season here. Alice did a netball skills course last year but played properly this year. She came home with player of the match on one or two occasions and their team got lots of awards at the end of the season, most enthusiastic team, best coach etc. They both love it. They were thrilled when the Silver Ferns bought home the netball world cup from Jamaica (hands up who didn't even know the World Cup was on?!) and school stopped so that the pupils (and teachers!?) could cheer their team on. You will be pleased to know that they supported England in THE OTHER World Cup!!!
Alice is very into horses at the moment and I think has read every library book on the subject. She listens avidly to Carols tales from the stud. We would consider buying them a horse but not for a few years when a) we can afford it and b) I am confident they would do all the work. I have no interest in the creatures and would not be prepared to do any of the graft!! They have progressed well at piano and practice is not so tedious to listen to now, indeed sometimes what they play is quite pleasant. Their teacher holds an end of year concert where we parents all crowd into her living room to suffer, err I mean hear, the children's efforts! Actually listening to the older children was very nice, some of them are incredibly talented.
We have found some very good friends in Richard and Robyn Scott this year. They are dairy farmers and have girls in Harri and Alice's classes at school. The girls always have a wonderful time when they go up there. A few weeks ago I drove up their (1.3 km long) drive to the house to collect them and saw Sarah grooming Millie in her paddock next to the drive. I asked her where Harri was, expecting them to be together and she pointed way across another paddock. There was Harri riding a motorbike looking like she didn't have a care in the world. During her day she had been also been horse riding and helped Richard with milking. This, I remembered, once again, was why we had come to NZ! Earlier this year I had been thinking that we did not seem to have made any of those friendships that we find so important. Kiwi's are very friendly people but getting beyond that everyday friendliness is not easy. A fact that has been re-iterated by other ex-pats here. I think that living in such a tight knit rural community as we do has made this even harder. So Richard and Robyn are extra special. Thank heavens also for Juliet and Kev, our very dear friends who emigrated from Coombe Wood Lane a few months ahead of us. They have been an enormous support over the last 2 years as have long standing and long ago emigrated friends Mandy and David.
In August Carol arrived. Now for those of you who don't know, Carol is Stan's boss (Stan being our best man and long time friend and a copper in the Met's). She has taken a year long career break to work with horses out here. She got a job on the South Island but it did not work out and she was very unhappy. Stan was relaying all this to us and we contacted her to offer her the cottage here to stay in if she really wanted to get away from where she was. She took up the offer and within a week of her arrival had caused a fire requiring the services of the local fire brigade at 10.30 at night!! She had been clearing some of the tree debris on the drive by sweeping into piles and burning it, common practice. However one of the fires did not die properly and at night a spark must have blown across to the unburnt rubbish under the trees. They caught fire and when we first saw it the flames were over 20' high. It was a way away from the house but the shelter belt of trees that caught actually came all the way up to the house. It was very scary. We worked frantically bailing water from a nearby trough to try and get it under control and I can honestly say I have never felt so pleased to see blue and red flashing lights in my life (unlike those that were attached to traffic police cars that stopped me for speeding twice within 3 weeks last month but we don't talk about that!). Carol later got a job on a stud near here and although they had accommodation it was very grotty and she asked if she could rent the cottage. We said Yes but only until the summer visitors started. She is planning to travel in March and April, returning to the UK in May but we she has no desire to go back to the UK and now efforts to find a kiwi husband have taken on a more urgent nature as she cannot get residency any other way!!! Seriously, she thinks she can extend her work permit to 5 years and the Mets can extend her career break for the same period so she is looking to stay, but not with us, and finding a job on another stud.
I started my new job in October. I wanted to take a week off in between jobs but I needed to do the Vaccinator Training Course and it happened to be running in that week so I didn't get the time off. I therefore had no leave between Feb and this Xmas. Luckily my contract states that I have to take Xmas to after NY as A/L else, officially, I would have had to wait until April to have time off!! They have training for nurses doing immunisations very well organised here, and the system is far superior to the UK. Their information systems are a mess though and every surgery submits stats differently, usually after removing various categories of kids from the equation. We therefore have absolutely no idea of what the immunisation rates are in this country so cannot assess if the work we do affects the rates. Luckily this is being addressed and a National Immunisation Register is being introduced this year. We are hosting the National Conference this year in Rotorua which should be hard work, interesting, and hopefully good fun.
November saw us use the TV that our neighbour Claire gave us earlier in the year, for the first time. That World Cup, that NZ ridiculously quibbled over, and therefore lost hosting rights to, was on and we were glued to as many matches as we could watch. They were broadcast around 9pm to 1am for us so watching and getting up for work/school was a bit of a struggle sometimes. Mike (an earlier visitor) was there and got to see England's last 3 matches and relayed to us reports after each one. Amazingly he said the atmosphere was best at the England v France semi-final. But what a final!!!! Could one have asked for more? We could not go to bed until about 4am because of the adrenaline we had coursing round our bodies. We watched it at Richard and Robyn's with another kiwi couple, all of whom were supporting Australia (Turncoats! I clearly remember Richard saying 'I don't care who wins as long as it's not Aus'!!). The match, here, as I'm sure there, was the only topic of conversation for weeks and, although it was good to be in the Southern Hemisphere for the matches, I would have given anything to have been in the UK for the following week or two.
We have had a good Christmas. We spent weeks trying to decide what to do between going to the Scott-Mackies, going to the Stokes, having the Stokes here, staying here but eating out and just staying here. We finally opted for the latter. Stan is back again from the UK and Carol (who works a 58 hour week for a pittance) actually had 3 days off. They spoilt us terribly and so pressie unwrapping seemed to go on for hours. Eric bought me a fabulous digital camera which is something we have wanted for ages. Stan and Carol clubbed together and bought Eric and I a chainsaw (long story around Eric slaughtering and butchering one of our cows in Dec - please refer to Carol's blog on 10/12/03 at www.quest4aragorn.blogspot.com ) and Eric lots of kiwiana tat that had us in stitches. Among other things we bought Stan the dvd of Whale Rider (an absolute must to watch when you can) and he bought Alice the book and video!! I bought Eric a clay pigeon launcher and we had great fun in the front paddock clay pigeon shooting with Eric's shotgun. Yes even I had a go and hit my first clay!!!! We had duck, cooked indoors, for dinner as it was too blowy to BBQ. We had a little sun over Xmas , lots of cloud and wind. But now... well as I type this (sitting in bed around 7.30am) it is warm outside and promises to get hotter. I plan to repeat the last 2 days today, that is, gardening until it is too hot to continue and then crash out under the parasol by the pool, taking the odd dip to cool off, a simple supper then a little more gardening in the cool of the evening. My veg garden is looking like one rather then the enormous weed patch of recent weeks! We have had odd weather for ages. The South Island is suffering drought and we seem to have had all their rain. Nov/Dec are always unsettled months and they certainly have been this (last?) year. Summer certainly seems to have arrived now though. Yesterday the South Island had record temps of 31 - 40 degrees at a time when it averages 22 degrees!!! I don't know what we had but I'd guess 28 - 30 degrees. When did you say you were coming?! Mark and Cheryl are somewhere in the country with their children and Cheryl's mom at the moment. We are expecting them on Eric's birthday, hopefully for a few days. Mom and Daddy arrive in mid-Feb for 6 weeks. All of which we are looking forward to.
Well if you're still with us well done. It is difficult to put a years news into compressed form and I am sure we have missed out heaps. We do still miss our friends and hope to see at least some of you soon. In the meantime have a wonderful year and please write with all your news.
Big hugs from us all.
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