Gosh. Where to start!! Firstly by wishing you all the happiest of New Years. May you rise to the challenges 2007 brings you and we hope many good things come your way. It certainly feels like a good year for us is in store. (I hope they are not famous last words!) Just the fact that Eric is not studying is a good starter.
For my cousins son in a Miami ICU following an accident diving from a beach and now fighting for his life, I pray the New Year brings an improvement in Alex’s condition and that he can be soon flying home with his family and on the way to making a full recovery. Working in ICU for so long you se,e far too often, the way an accident can turn a family up-side-down. It is bad enough having to move into an ICU in your local hospital but to fly across the world and have to camp out in strange accommodation for weeks on end just makes it so much harder. Alex’s parents and 3 siblings are all there so at least they have each other but still what they are going through many of us can hardly begin to imagine.
I am sitting in bed, it’s nearly 9am on the first day of the New Year. We did not stay up last night (we generally don’t ‘do’ NY) but did spend the evening with friends. We had been invited to Hamish and Claires for a curry, along with the Scotts. They are a white Zimbabwean family who left their tobacco farm because of the well-publicised troubles there. They have two daughters, one in Alice and Katherine’s class last year and the other in Sarah’s class, and a pre-school son. Their 2 girls have become great pals with the Scott girls. We met them through Richard and Robyn and have had 2 evenings now where the 13 of us have got together and they have both been thoroughly enjoyable. Hamish and Claire manage a dairy farm just about 18km away from us.
Well the intrepid travellers have left and should just be recovering back in the UK now. Carol (Briggsy) and Milky (Paul) arrived early Dec and after a week here went north then south. I don’t know what was the matter with the girls in that first week but they played up terribly, bickering and arguing like I haven’t seen for a long time. I’m not sure if it was attention seeking or what but I had serious words with them before Carol and Milky returned. They (C+M) swam with dolphins in the Bay of Islands, did white water rafting, horse trekking, flew in a chopper over the glaciers, kayaking, swam with dolphins again, saw whales and a kiwi (the kiwi in the wild well crossing the road, something most kiwis haven’t seen). So they packed plenty in. They came back here on 23rd December. Christmas was, well a bit non-descript really, apart from my yelling at the girls. They really made me cross. You plan for weeks and try so hard to make everything nice, spend a fortune on pressies and come Xmas Day, ask for help putting a meal on the table and get a) ignored, b) “do I have to”, or c) “in a minute”. I must confess that general lack of help spoiled my day. On Xmas Eve evening we had neighbours, and the Stokes here for early evening drinks. The disappointing thing was that one of us (Eric) couldn’t drive as we were going to Midnight Mass, in the big white wood church (St Andrews) in Cambridge. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and really relaxed with the company and a few gins and glasses of wine. So much so that Eric seemed to think I was under the influence and when it came to taking communion Eric said, tongue in cheek, “don’t you think you’ve had enough wine”!!
By the time we got home and put pressies out, a carrot and mince pie for Santa and did all those other parenting things one does, it was 2am before we got to bed. This was on top of the previous 1-2 am bedtimes for the previous 2-3 nights followed by early starts. Christmas day did not start well. Now the girls are usually pretty good Xmas morning, we have almost never done the 4 am starts I remember from my own childhood!! At 8am the door burst open and Alice flew in, totally hyped, yelling “Happy Christmas”, Harriette behind her going “No, Alice No” followed but a groan as she realised she had not stopped her in time and knowing what our reaction would be! They were sent out and told not to return until they came armed with cups of tea. Harriette and I walked in the morning and popped into Jill and John next door to collect parsley for the traditional kedgeree which we finally got on the table for about 11.30am. (Alice was asked to lay the table. She threw place mats on and put the everyday cutlery out and thought that would do for a Christmas breakfast. She was not happy when she was told it wouldn’t!) Mom and Daddy arrived as we were eating and we finally unwrapped pressies in the early afternoon. I got: thin straighteners for my, recently acquired, fringe (which always seems to be pointing to the heavens when I wake each morning), Love perfume, silicone bakeware from Alice (Eric saying when they bought it, “Are you sure Mom will want this” knowing how kitchen stuff is a strict No-No in my eyes. Alice was adamant and this was something I was pleased with.), a book Coast from Bridget, Calender girls DVD from R+R, a big protea bush from Mom and Daddy (I am always cutting blooms from their beautiful bushes when they are in flower), a 1GB chip for my camera from Carol and Milky, the new Brooke Fraser CD, a fabulous car stereo from Eric (the one in the Mistral was seriously budget with no volume, about 3 radio stations and only played tapes). The trouble is the car now has no radiator in it so we haven’t driven anywhere to test it. More later on that.
I find it so hard to come up with something special for Christmas lunch. We eat so well all year and never eat turkey at Christmas as we don’t like it so… what do you eat? We have often had venison in the past but it is so expensive here and pennies being what they are we have not had it very often in NZ. The geese have not produced goslings (well one out of about 22 eggs this year and it died aged two days after a night of heavy rain) so goose was still not on the menu. We have been out of beef for a few months so thought we’d get a beast done and have a nice rib of beef but then we could not get the homekill guy out in time, despite phoning them in October (!!) and Eric has not had time to do it himself so, beef was out. We settled on a surf n’ turf with our lamb (a back half done on the BBQ) and a mixture of seafoods. Eric made a prawn salad (emulating a dish he had when he went out with the firm for their Christmas lunch) and a seafood platter, both very nice. I dug new potatoes and picked peas from the garden (the first crop of both for the year) and we had local asparagus with a homemade hollandaise sauce. The, now traditional, pav followed (with strawberries from the garden), Mom’s wonderful homemade ice cream (Richards moms recipe) and a passionfruit pana cotta (Nigella recipe, but I am sure the gelatine measures were wrong). I also made a Nigella Cossasina (? spelling) Christmas cake and so the overeating began!
I have decided that we will do something very different next year, maybe tramp into the bush and spend Christmas in a DOC (Dept of Conservation) hut!!!
On Boxing Day we had the, again traditional, smoked salmon scrambled eggs and I made salads for our day at Ann and Mikes. We had not been given a specific time but invited ‘for the day’. I was so embarrassed that we got there at 3.30pm. We just couldn’t drag ourselves out of bed after the lack of sleep over the preceeding week. Mike had done a loin of pork, which Eric restuffed and strung for him. They planned to cook it on the rotisserie on the BBQ but were not happy with it so awaited our arrival for Eric’s butchery skills before they would cook it. So, because of us, everyone was starving!!! Why I do not know as Ann had a continuous supply of nibbles! Ann had also done a salmon en croute and Eric had taken some of his home cured smoked ham and a pork pie. Just before dusk Eric and I took a walk on the beach for a much needed break. It was meant to be romantic but Eric talked non-stop, just general rubbish in between complaining that I made him walk in water and that the sand was getting into his sandals. He frequently did Ministry of Funny Walk impressions trying to shake sand out with each step. It was not romantic at all but he had me in stitches. We also spotted some rare birds. They were nesting on the beach and someone had put some pigtails and tape (common sites on farms to control stock but so out of place on a beach, well maybe not a kiwi beach) around the nest site to keep people away. I was amazed that, despite being very close to a campsite, it seemed to be working. I kept thinking that in another country someone would just pinch the eggs or trash the place. It was real pleasure to see these rare birds as the sun was setting. Maybe it was romantic after all.
The 27th was Carols birthday and we bought her the Brooke Fraser CD (she must have guessed as Milky was under instruction not to let her buy it when they were away and she didn’t get it for Christmas) and a fishing licence and took her and Milky to Lake Rotorua. E, C and M went with the boat and the Safari while the girls and I followed a few hours later in the Mistral with camp stove, tea and coffee making stuff and biscuits. We left in sunshine and drove through rain as we passed over the Mamakau’s me thinking I had no raincoats, and into overcast weather in Ngongataha. We made camp under a big tree, texted and waited, and waited! Apparently it was so windy on the lake they made almost no headway and took ages coming in. By the time they did, and had a cup of tea it was too late to take the girls so Eric promised them a fishing trip when I go back to work. Carol caught this:
We needed to get back as we had arranged to take Carol and Milky to Gengy’s in Hamilton where we were meeting The Scotts. We didn’t get there – the radiator gave out in Cambridge. The car has been a bit of a saga this last week or 2. The Friday before Christmas H, A and I were in Matamata where I left H in the car with the aircon and radio on while I picked up shooting goggles and ear defenders for Eric for Christmas. When I came back the battery was dead and I had to wait ages for the guy in the store to have a lull so he could come and jump start me (I carry jump leads). He noticed some water under the car but I assumed (incorrectly as it turned out) that it was fluid from the aircon. I forgot to mention it to Eric as, when he arrived he had this huge, fabulous hamper from work and was busy telling us about the fantastic meal he had had at Longlands, probably Matamata’s poshest restaurant as I examined the hamper contents. That afternoon we went into Hamilton to do last minute bits and a major vegetable shop at the Heaphy Terrace veg shop, called in on J and K on the way back then a final stop at the Countdown in Cambridge. We came out to find all the coolant running down the carpark! The garage over the road provided rags, water and Stop Leak (NZ equivalent to RadWeld) and we go home – late. We went to a party at some people we had met the previous week, arriving at 8.45pm (it started at 6.30pm and we had phoned to say we would be late). We thought it was just a party (bring a plate they said, that means a plate of food) and found it was a full sit down meal!!! Very embarrassing but they made us welcome and had not got as far a puddings. The car did well on the StopLeak, we went to Midnight Mass (20 mins), Ann and Mikes (1hr 15 min away) and Ngongataha (50 mins over the mountains) all with no trouble then overheated, again in Cambridge, on our way to Gengy’s. We abandoned the car at the garage, phoned R+R to say we couldn’t get there and had dinner at the Prince Albert pub. Ironic really as this was where Carol socialised when she worked at Trewlawney stud. R+R joined us for a chat on their way home and, after some RadWeld Eric had found in the garage at home and put in the car, and more water, they followed us back. We went to Tirau for a meal on our anniversary, 15 mins away and it was leaking a bit then so now the radiator is out and waiting for the world to go back to work on Wednesday after the holidays to get a replacement. Add to that at 1am yesterday we were trekking round paddocks trying to find a water leak when we had no water and found that the belt slipped on the water pump, Eric was able to fix, it has been eventful around here.
I have suggested to Eric that now he is qualified and life seems to be settling down we should make some plans and set some goals for the short, medium and long term. The sole goal for years now has been Eric get qualified and get a job!! We have lists of things we/I want to do around the place but it is so long I think we need to prioritise and plan rather than doing them randomly. We were making good progress with this plan until I told Eric I wanted the roof line altered on the bit of the house that contains Harri’s bedroom and my office (we plan to extend that bit again and make some alterations to our room) then it fell apart!! Still we can go back to it. This year’s plan is easy really, financially recover from our UK trip by November and save for Christmas. The following year we want to get the drive done and the shed/workshop/sleepout built which will mean a new septic tank. And so it goes on.
No NY’s resolutions but I do intend to blog a bit more often, I just cannot catch up after 6 weeks.
Wishing you all health, wealth and happiness.
