Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, not so much leaving as left!!! In two days I will have been back for a week and already the hols are a bit like a blur. The temps are still quite warm here in the day - 38C yesterday, and last night I put the air conditioning on as my two duvets at night have been a bit too hot!

Thought this post would be a bunch of random items as my creative juices are running thin today.

* Nearly mixing with the Rich and Famous - I mentioned that I was reading an Ian Rankin book on the trip over to NZ - one of his 'Rebus' murder and mayhem novels. I thought I was seeing things at the airport when I thought I saw 'Rebus' aka John Hannah amongst the crowd of incoming passengers and then thought - no - you've had him pictured in your mind while you've been reading the book, and it could be someone that looks like him. THEN, I read in the paper, John Hannah and family were holidaying in NZ, in fact were in Napier by that weekend.!!!!!

My next OMG moment was at Melbourne airport when this bloke was standing next to me at one of the check ins again looked familiar, and it was Dylan Moran of 'Father Ted' and 'Black Books' fame (squeal to the Lee family, heh, heh). As I have not watched a lot of either of those series, I wasn't a 100% sure until I heard the Irish accent (swoon). Not only that, but when I arrived at Perth, I saw him again - must have travelled on the same plane!!!!

*The flight back was passable, not that impressed with Qantas service and I much prefer a straight through international flight than domestic travel. There were no individual screens to watch anything on - just a couple of big screens with the one option movie to watch. I either slept or read on the way back. I happened to be sitting in the row just under the main screen for my section of seating which was great for leg room but as there were exit doors either side of the plane at that juncture, it seemed to be freezing. I asked for a blanket and it took ages for one to arrive so was extremely cold by the then.

* Change is in the air - we have a new program for the students this term that will include boarding hours - we are finding out more over the next two days. It is a program that will help prepare the students for work with literacy and numeracy, rather than an academic program that follows the national curriculum. It should suit our students and give them work/industry based qualifications that will be more suited than studying for university in the long term. There has been some downsizing with staff with two teaching staff and two boarding staff (men) moving on. Will no more by the weekend. We are now down to 5 girls and about 12 boys.

* I am over moving furniture in either country. Spent Monday and today moving from girls' boarding UPSTAIRS to our new abode - the Principals house which has 7 bedrooms while the current Principal is moving underneath the WM's home in the old convent. We have moved beds, linen, kitchen stuff and lounge suits, hence the brain dead feeling at the moment.

* It was interesting experiencing ANZAC day in Aust. I watched the dawn parade live from Gallipoli and it was interesting to find out from Mum and Kay that they had done the same, live back in NZ. I also saw a part of the Perth Service and then one from Brettoneux in France (I think that is the right spelling) where Aussies turned the tide during WW1 for this village. I found the Gallipoli service very moving and it was good to hear the Gov Gen from NZ speak.

*Big thanks to Mum who stayed up until 3am the morning I left as I waited for the shuttle. I think I fell asleep pretty much as soon as we picked up the last passengers just out of Waiuku. The Workmate was at Perth airport to pick me up having dropped off another friend 3 hours earlier. It took us about 5 1/2 hours to drive back (with a stop at Bindoon bakery for a bite to eat and a coffee). I don't think we drew breath all the way back, lol, catching up on all the collective news. Haven't had a chance to get to the shops yet so the WM and family have fed me each night since I got back, bless.

* I did think I might bring some rain back with me, but no such luck. My spinach and parsley are still alive, thanks to staff who watered my plants while I was away. The country side is very dry. Yesterday as we drove into Mullewa to pick the boys up from footie practice, there was lots of dust in the air as farmers are ploughing in preparation for seeding. There was smoke also as we passed paddocks with wheat stalk rows on fire as burn off before ploughing.... There were hundreds of little patches of fire for acres, looked very like slow burning detonator lines as the patches moved along the lines of stubble.

Hopefully will be back to regular posting again. Need to pay the telephone/bigpond bill this week and all should stay good, lol.

Life In the Fast Lane

Well, I weakened and went back to the shopping mall at Glenfield, this time with my wallet and an amount of damage was done in several shops. I totally had to go back to the book shops and came away with several new tomes - some will have to wait until Christmas to read I think. Also picked up at the Warehouse, several DVD's - and now have Boston Legal 1, 2, & 3, Bones series 1, and a House series 3, which was just starting when I went to Oz. That should keep me out of mischief during the next few months.

I then tried to find Wairau Park and Spotlight in particular to buy more material to finish the second cot duvet cover for no 2 grandson. The short version is, I got lost three times, and that was armed with the map (and I read it) as well. First I turned left when I should have turned right, but along the road there was a sign that said Wairau Rd, so turned down that until I reached the end of the road at a T junction without a hint anywhere of which way to go next. I pulled over and checked the map again, and headed for Wairau rd but got in the wrong lane at the lights, ending up with another left instead of right turn. I turned down a side road to go back the way I had come and finally found Wairau Rd and headed for the shopping as marked on the map. This was fine, and I found it, but it was not the shopping centre I was wanting and by now I was seriously over the whole expidition. Drove the entire Wairau Road up to Glenfield Rd and headed back to no 2 son's instead. There is nothing that helps raise the blood pressure, than driving on roads you are not familiar with, when there is heaps of traffic swooshing along at a fast clip in a knowing way (as to where they are going, lol). I needed coffee and a rest with two biscuits by the time I got back as what was going to take about an hour ended up by being a three hour sortie. I then found out I should have been going to Wairau PARK shopping centre so had missed the boat completely!!!!!

Fortunately the V8 car races were on the telly live from Hamilton when I got back and there was spectacular driving and prangs - the only downer was that Murph was not on the track........ Managed to see a bit more today and shared a lovely time with Zachary propped up on the couch, hanging with Nana watching his first car races, heh, heh. You can never start too early with an introduction to such a great sport.

Finally got to Spotlight today as we had a family outing after lunch with a return trip to the mall as well. It transpires I was one road off where I should have been yesterday!!! Mission accomplished and a few groceries and we were back in time for another coffee and then it was time for me to head back to Waiuku. Had my best trip yet on the motorway heading south - it looked horrific for the traffic travelling north as it was bumper to bumper and just above snails pace. Bring on the outback.

Sister Kay is on her way back from Argentina, and I am heading down to Hamilton for two days. Hopefully the town will have cleared of the V8 crowd by then, at least I will be driving against the traffic and should have a good run through. Update on the spiders: no more sightings so am feeling reasonably reassured that the death to spider sprays did the trick.

Am heading to Hamilton to hopefully catch up with a few people and to search through my bits and pieces in storage. Another 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic ' situation as I have boxes and boxes of China to move around to get to things I want to search through. The trick will be to come back with less than I take down, lol.

Boys, boys, boys

Is this not a perfect moment? The boy had been fed and changed and was just hanging with Nana and far too cute to go to sleep, lol.



I had bought James a face painting kit which needed to be used immediately!. Hence the face which was copied directly off a picture on the packet of said paints which for those without an artistic bone in their body - is a dog!!. This is a cousinly moment.



Now 'spot' the difference, lol. James and Bowie having a compadre moment.



Nana was a bit slow off the mark as I do not seem to have a photo pre 'dog face' mode but the changes in three months are that he is taller, has several new permanent teeth (and four loose ones) and was looking such a boy in his jeans and checked shirt. The mind of a six year old is a fascinating maze of connections. James has had this thing about family relationships for some time and meeting his uncle, aunt and new cousin had to be worked out and integrated into the already unusual (or not) family lineage. At this point he is Zac's only cousin, and as soon as that had been explained, he came back with 'my (his)children won't have any cousins' (being that he is an only child)!!!!! (no pressure, parents, lol). He continually astounds me with what he comes up with. I remember when he was devastated to find out I was his Dad's mother and not just HIS Nana and then I had to fess up I was Stephen's Mum as well. Once he understood, I was SILL his Nana and wouldn't change, he assimilated all these facts and moved onto working out other twigs on the branches of the family tree centering out from him of course, lol.

So, Thursday night dinner there was No 1 & 2 sons, two grandson's and Mark who is like a son (though not good for a kidney), lol with the two daughters in law and Mark's girlfriend - which was lots of laughs and it went too quickly as that was all the time I got to spend with No 1 son and family this hols. I feel a bit like a sponge as I am soaking up as much time with family as I can to take with me when I return to Oz for the next 8 months. Hopefully, I will be able to co-incide my skype time occasionally to see James and Zachary as they continue to grow.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, we had made a trip to the local Mitre 10 to look for a spider bomb as I was unsure whether flyspray would do the trick re the white tailed spider of my last post. Apparently, there is no 'specific' spider bomb, the ones we saw were broad spectrum insect bombs and the woman who was talking to us said a specific spider killing spray would be better - who could argue with that. Having purchased the death to spiders spray, I came back here a liberally sprayed every nook and cranny outside the car, opened the doors and sprayed into the internals of the doors, mirrors, windows etc. It wasn't a fine misty type spray, but a more liquidy type spray, so the car was dripping by the time I finished - however, I haven't seen another spider since, heh, heh. It is a little difficult seeing out of the windows with the spray residue, but still no spiders!

I had the afternoon to myself yesterday so thought I would go shopping at Glenfield mall. Set out and made it OK without getting lost and it wasn't until I got out of the car, I realised I had left my wallet back at the house!!!!!! I decided I couldn't be bothered going all the way there and back again so went window shopping instead - spotted several bargains so may go back again today with wallet for the purchases. It was lovely having a drift around - of course the book shops all have sales and that is cruel and unnaturual punishment because I cannot carry the weight of all the books I would like to have purchased back to Oz. I have a gift voucher for Paperplus from Christmas time, but oh, the choices .......

Arachnaphobia!!!!!!

Am lucky to be alive to tell this story tonight as whilst I was driving on the Russian Roulette of life that is the Southern Motorway this afternoon, (going north,lol); having evaded the slow lane at Manukau (because of an accident); I was travelling reasonably smoothly, though hemmed in fore and aft, and each side (pause for gasp of air), when I saw movement out the corner of my eye, as a WHITE TAILED SPIDER scuttled from behind me along the window edge of the inside of MY side window. (Having never seen a white tailed spider before, I have suddenly been besieged with them in the past week, thankfully, all bar this one have been ex-spiders or have been in the process of being ex'd). I had one of those life passing in front of your eyes moments trying to decide upon appropriate evasive action. Such is my fount of near death experiences recently (snakes, wheels falling off cars etc)reason took over from impending hysterics and I continued driving to the north shore and my favourite New World where I purchased a maxi can of 'death to multiple insects' fly spray. I was helped by the fact the said spider had moved along the edge of the window into the door structure - I did have a nano second of thought - would it be able to sense my fear and return, but as luck would have it, it went to the dark side and stayed there (as far as I know, lol). Of course, wouldn't you know it, I thought I could feel something on the back of my neck, and then my head itched and my nose and side of my face and I was loathe to scratch anywhere, in case there was spider family members about - there wern't - but there could have been. Needless to say, I was very relieved to reach No 2 son's place. Have left the car as is, to lull any beastie in attendance into a false sense of security, and tomorrow I am going to Napalm the inside and outside of the car with the aforementioned flyspray until the can is empty, will then close the car for the morning until everything should be DEAD.

Arrived just as the Plunket people were leaving. Zachary (8 weeks on Friday)is now 5 kilos and 60cm long. He looks as though he has grown since the weekend, lol, and he was just full of smiles and chuckles for Nana today. Had heaps of cuddles and got him off to sleep again after his afternoon feed. He had to be poked awake for dinner this evening by his Dad who could not wait any longer to say hello, and I just managed to grab him for a few seconds to make his second appearance on Skype for the Workmate in Aust to meet him.

I spent a good amount of time yesterday (while still at Mum's) sewing a duvet cover for Zachary's cot duvet. I had planned on sewing two but found that one of the pieces of material was only half the size I had requested!!!! In the midst of my creating, we had a visit from the District Nurse to take out the stitches from Clive's stump. I happened to mention we hadn't seen sight nor sign of any follow up support from the hospital, and she rang back later to say, no referral had been received - (I feel an official complaint coming on!!!) and bless, she has got things cracking instead. There is wonderful support arriving daily from the local Lions group, with the permanent ramp having the finishing touches done today. Yesterday, Lion Daphne (wave) arrived with an amazing quiche which featured at lunchtime, shared with Clive's family, Les and May from Australia who are visiting for a couple of days. It was lovely meeting Daphne and to find out she is one of my 'silent' readers (one of the hapless friends Mum has handed my blogs onto, lol).

By about 4pm I realised I was not going to tackle the motorway in peak traffic, so rang friend Viv and asked if there was a bed at her inn for the night. She said yes and to come on out so that was an unexpected bonus for me to be able to share an evening/morning with her family. I had another revelation about the local countryside as I drove out to her place (two houses down the road from my house) at Kariaotahi when I noticed how many hills there are on the horizon towards the coast and towards the Manukau Heads. If you had asked me before these holidays, what the countryside looked like, I would have said rolling hills, but no, these are serious lines of hills, I have just not noticed how many there were and that they surround most of the district .... Oh well, they do say travel broadens the mind, lol.

How good is skype - I have just been contacted by a friend from Rotorua days who lives and works in Sydney (works for Novatel,Ibis and Grand Mecure hotels in Darling Harbour) and she will be in NZ for a holiday arriving next Thursday so there is an afternoon of opportunity to catch up. Love it.

Need to go to bed as it is one more sleep until I get to see No 1 son, daughter in law and grandson who are up from Wellington for a visit. I think they are arriving tomorrow afternoon and are staying for dinner - No 1 son is not long on details, so will have to prise out any more information out of him then, lol.

Have also had a brief catch up with Kay in Argentina earlier - I caught one of her last classes with one group of students that she has had - they were sharing pastries which looked very fine. The holidays are zooming away on me once again - I feel like I need one more week....., lol.

Furniture removals are us.

Am feeling somewhat like a pate de fois gras duck and that is without a single easter egg passing my lips to date. It seems like I have been eating all weekend as we have had cousins Bob and Raemond (wave to you both) visit for lunch yesterday, friends of Mum and Clives visit last night, who bought dinner for us (Mike and Marion - beautiful chicken pie and vegies with superb apple pie for desert) and today continuing with a feast of leftovers.

Noticing the distinct drop in temps from Oz, 30C - 19C, it felt like soup weather this weekend, so found ingreds for the inaugural bacon bone soup of the season. I bought a mixture of fresh winter type vegies which Mum kitchen whizzed up, to add to the bacon bone from the supermarket - I nearly fainted at the price. It was $7+ for a flopping bacon ankle - I can buy a roast for $12!!! Note: May be reduced to using bacon stock at that price in the future!!!

In between the visits we have continued to move furniture about - a sleigh bed from Mum's room to brother Brett's, who swapped it with a king single to go in the spare room/dungeon, which meant moving the double bed from there upstairs into Mum's room. The double bed is not in its first flush of youth and has SIX legs of steel with coasters at the end of those. Each foot was affixed to the bed with four screws and the weight of these legs and thier length meant they had to come off for Mum and I to move the base. I started with a spanner and took an hour to get the first leg off! Thinking there must be an easier way I asked Clive if he had any socket wrenches and yay he even had exactly the size I needed (8ml for those playing at home, lol). Such was the speed I was able to work at with the right tool, the whole remaining job took another hour which included hefting the base up the stairs and through three narrow doorways. Mum and I were in hysterics several times as we jostled, changed ends, pushed and pulled the sodding base until we finally made it to her room. The job was completed and I only had 5 screws left over, lol!!! It transpired that several of the holes were covered by fabric that some of the screws would not work in without getting wrapped around the scres slowing things down. In a moment of ' I'm over it' (small hissy fit) I thought, buggar it, three screws will do on some of the legs, especially if they are on tight, and thus the job was completed.

I have also repacked three containers of clothing etc of mine and gone through three boxes of cross stitch patterns - Kay, if you are reading this, you have a Trade Me mission when you get back to get rid of one box of patterns at your leisure, lol. (Bro in law Mark barely flinched when I turned up and lugged the box inside, heh, heh).

While I was out getting the soup essentials, I also went to the local $2 plus shop to get some track pants for Clive and OMG it is child heaven with as much super hero clothing as you could want - there is Ben 10 everything (lots of Bratz and pink girly stuff too) so considered myself lucky to get out of the shop with only spiderman pyjamas and Ben 10 underwear for No 1 grandson, though it was difficult to resist several other items.

Yesterday while looking at the tide going out I noticed what I thought were ducks trawling along the tide line and yes, Mum said that's what they were! I thought ducks were fresh water birds but apparently, six weeks before shooting season each year, ducks turn up here in the harbour. Clever ducks indeed! Am noticing heaps of sparrows and of course the tame blackbirds that live at Mum's (she has one visit inside regularly) as the birds in Oz are all very skittish with no sparrows, thrush or blackbirds to be seen. On another tangent altogether, I never realised how many hills are around Waiuku. I found myself totally surprised at the range of hills on the horizon as I drove down to Otaua which are such a contrast to the flat, see for miles countryside that I have become accoustomed to. I am thinking they are the Port Waikato Hills and they looked particularly awesome in purpley blueish light the other day and a more greeny, fresh look today.

Though no easter egg has passed my lips, tonight I have broken out a box of Cadbury Roses Chocs and am swooning - there are CHERRY RIPE chocs in the box and my especial favourite of the moment - Lemon Cheesecake - a seriously fabulous flavour. In fact there are several new flavours altogether so may have to sample a few more with another coffee, lol.

The only blight on my weekend has been my tangle with technology again - with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The day before I left, I transfered money across to my NZ account only to find that it never reached here. Somehow or other, the bank in NZ would not accept the transfer. Not only that but the Commonwealth Bank has charged me for it not going through and I lost money as they also took the exchange rate out as well. If that was not enough to have me changing banks on my return, today I tried to change money from my current account to my Visa account, and though I tried time and time again, it would not go through. Now I will get charged late fees, blah blah blah,. I am sensing a change of banks when I go back as there must be a more user friendly outfit than this one. I have never had this amount of trouble using my National account in NZ! My Telstra bill is also on line and I cannot access that as I have forgotten what name and password I used to set that up with!!! So much for trying to be organised before I left.

Somehow in my lugging of large/heavy objects in the last two days, I have pulled something in my neck which is giving my gyp. Definitely time for that coffee and chocolate.

Because I Can......

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Here he is, another day older, LOL.

Sanity, thy name is not the Southern Motorway on a Good Friday. Not to belabour the point, but I hate driving on that piece of road. Today I set off from Birkenhead at about 10.30am - when all good people should have either been at Church or with their families eating hot cross buns, but no, almost the entire population of Auckland decided like myself, to time their exit south at the same time I did. I do believe, it was no better for people travelling north according to the radio.

I was lucky to get up to 10kph from Newmarket turn off until Takanini. I think there were at least two lots of nose to tail series of prangs along the way, thankfully no bodies or gore anywhere, and one breakdown on the opposite side of the road. There was a period of time, I was driving under 10kph!!! and I could have run quicker (if I in fact could run, lol). It did help me understand road rage though when I tried to change lanes at one stage and the car travelling behind me sped up. There was a moment of language that was not appropriate for Good Friday, and for two pins, I would have given them their pedigree, but I as I was listening to talkback (easier than taking novacain) and it was all about the meaning of Easter - (the godly side of Easter) I took a deep breath and waited some extra time until there was a bigger gap and better behaved drivers. Consequently it took me an hour and a half to get back to Waiuku.

Made it in time for lunch at Viv and John's and had the yummiest home made hot cross buns to eat. In a moment on nanoo nanoo, we were talking about Kay and wondering how she was celebrating Easter in Argentina and decided to take a photo of a hot cross bun with a cup of coffee to send to her, when we read her blog, and there she was mentioning just what we had been talking about. Viv decided to take a photo of a few of us, while I was flicking through my photos on my lap top, and I found one of Kay, while camping at Christmas, so we got another photo with Kay present by photo, lol.


Homemade hot cross bun and coffee and below, Darren, Claire, Hannah, Moi and Kay via laptop technology. Am having to finish blog here as have pressed a command that will only do blue underlined writing beneath this photo and it will not post with the change it writing. ARRRRRggggggghhhhhhhh
Have a safe and happy Easter Break.

Home and Away

Am writing this from No 2 son's home having been up in Auckland for two days now. Tuesday was spent in Waiuku with Mum and I finishing rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, or getting the house in readiness for Clive's discharge. I say rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic because all we really did was move things from one place to another, just not all in the same room, lol. (The deck at the back of the house is rather cluttered instead).

Had a good trip up to Auckland and found myself thinking, why is there so many trees around houses, what if there was a bush fire!!!! Hmmmm, not likely of course, but I have noticed how many trees and shrubs there are on the north shore and how dense it all is. Made it over the Harbour Bridge OK - always feel like I am taking my life in my hands when I cross it, and finally arrived late afternoon. The new grandson is just perfect (of course) and am spending hours just looking at him, soaking him all up. He seems to me to be a very good baby, in that he eats, sleeps, and when he is awake, he seems very happy to lie in his baby gym, kicking away, or lying in his rocker observing those who are observing him.


Just having a yawn.

Me in repose.


Zachary with Nana Lynn

Is he not just too cute for words!!!! and of course, genius that he is, he is already able to smile at Nana, heh, heh.

I was no sooner settled later in the evening on Tuesday night with the laptop, when off went the Skpye sound, and I became the main feature of sister Kay's English class in Argentina!!!!! I spoke to a small group who were aged 11 - 16 - what is your name and how old are you were our introductory sentences. The boys all seemed to have names only previously known from Mills and Boon stories - Allesandro (usually chiselled featured, with smoldering eyes, dark hair ....), Rodriguez, (read above) ..... to name two. The girls spoke very quietly and I was not able to pick them up so well. They asked me questions and I did my best to answer them in simple English. I was very impressed to hear Kay after two weeks, translate several times, some of the words I was using. (How do you explain a boading school in the middle of nowhere in Australia in simple words, lol).

Yesterday spent a lovely few hours with Amanda's Irish Godmother at her house in Ponsonby. Amanda had been surprised by a white tailed spider in the kitchen the night before and had called the pest control bloke to have the house sprayed that morning. Photo of Z with Nana taken there. We did some shopping on the way home and managed to find some bright material for duvet covers for Zachary, which I will hopefully sew this weekend. Will enlist the help of Mum but I think I should be able to manage a few straight seams, lol.

Have had a pretty lazy day today, it has rained and hailed, and other from a quick dash up the shops this afternoon for bits for tea, have hunkered down with good book and laptop, in between interacting with Z.

Am just watching the news, having heard earlier today that the road rage incident reported in Auckland yesterday has resulted in a death. A 21 yr old student beat a 78 yr old man after an accident, an the elderly man died later in hospital. Tonight there is news of an 80+ yr old having been attacked in his unit in a rest home when someone broke in and stole his laptop, leaving the old chappie with severe head injuries - and now a clip of a Melbourne train driver beating the snot out of someone who tried to hop on his train while it was being cleaned. Craziness beyond understanding.

Its time for Zac's bath and I am cooking dinner so had better go and check where things are at. Back to Waiuku tomorrow and lunch at friend Viv's with home made hot cross buns while this lot visits the other grandparents down in Taupo. No 1 son and family are due up in Auckland next week so am looking forward to catching up with them too.

Hospital - ity

Am reclining in the lazyboy at Mum's having played a few games of wordtwist, and now having a coffee with a hot cross bun after several hours at the hospital sorting out Clive's discharge which is likely to be tomorrow.

Having stayed up probably too late last night, I was woken to the dulcet tones of the lawn mower as one of the local Lions turned up at 8am to mow the lawn prior to building a ramp for Clive to access the house. This will be a permanent fixture rather than the temporary one the community bods would provide, which now frees that up for someone else. By the time I surfaced there were three keen blokes digging turf, unloading wood, removing some vegetation and it was all systems go. By then the community occupational therapist had rung Mum, so I got on the phone to see what was happening. She was less than enthusiastic sounding, answering some of the questions I had re Clive and Mum managing at home and then she gave me other numbers to ring to ask for an assessment!!!. I rang the hospital and spoke to the charge nurse, to arrange a discharge planning meeting as we had not heard from them by 10am and 11.30am was the time given.

Mum and I ablutioned respectively. She had commented that she doesn't use the shower curtain as it gets heavy when damp, and will eventually mould (won't we all, lol), so tried it her way the last two days. This is of course was fine until this morning when I used the hand held shower thingie instead of just standing under it and the need for the curtain became apparent. As I had swished with mad gay abandon, I turned to see that water in fact had sprayed all over my clothes lying on the floor waiting to be hopped into. Fortunately, it WAS only a spray as I hadn't lingered due to time constraints.

New Zealand must have as much money to get rid of on roadworks before winter as does Mullewa Shire and Geraldton. There is roadworks in four places within a 3 mile radius - the first is the road Mum lives on and the main street has been reduced to one lane in the top half. Have managed the motorway several times now and and there is more roadworks going on there as well. Best new job has been the laying down of a footpath in Mum's road which brings it into the 21st centuary. Can you believe, there was someone who lives down the street who got out with placards, ringing the council, to say that the council was vandalising the place by putting a footpath in!!!! It makes it much safer for all the walkers who use the reserve next door rather than using the narrow busy road.

We got to the hospital and met with the charge nurse, OT and PT and watched as they put Clive through his paces. It is unbelievable how much he is able to manage already - he was able to transfer from bed to chair, wheelchair to commode chair and back again. He did it all twice and then it was decided to give him a rest before trying a wheelchair to car seat transfer so I shot down to Manukau City to try and find Spotlight to buy some material. I know I am getting old, because I can remember Manukau City Centre being built when No 1 son was born, when it was just a Foodtown and a large mall. There was no Spotlight there but had a quick look around and made it back on the dot for the next stage. Had to park on level ground and Clive went through his paces again, transferring from chair to car and back twice using a board for assistance. That ticked off, Mum and I came back to Waiuku and Clive went back for a well deserved rest. He would have done the equivalent of a marathon today. He is to be delivered back by ambulance, most likely tomorrow as the ramp is not quite finished yet. The OT is sending someone out with blocks for under the bed as it is 10cm too low, and other bits and bobs that will help Clive being independent. Social work buddies - you would have been impressed - the old girl has still got it, as the OT thanked me for my contribution as I was leaving. It would appear they have no social worker there at the moment (is that a job opening?, lol). I was much relieved to see they all seemed to know their jobs, it was the putting it altogether that was lacking - I am very grateful to the late Ange and Kim who were very much present in my mind today, and how I learnt so much about discharge planning from them. Ange was the discharge Queen at Waikato Hospital, lol along with Maria and co who wrote the protocols on how we did the job back then.

Have postponed the trip to Auckland until tomorrow morning as there is some furniture to be moved about before Clive gets back and I will give Mum a hand tonight - will stop me getting more RSI from playing computer games, lol. Am coping with the temps as it was a lovely warm day today, getting cooler now so may put a pair of socks on and will need the extra blanket on tonight as well. Am thinking dinner preparation so will go and fossick in the kitchen.

Back in NZ

Saturday

Am sitting at the table at No 2 son's home having landed, shopped, held grandson, put son on skype, had hotcross buns, checked facebook and Kay's blog, and taken photos of said new grandson and it is only morning tea back in Tardun, lol.

It has been a hectic couple of days. I did the town trip on Wednesday, dropping off my books at the library in Mullewa on the way. I was on duty that night and was up at 4.30am Thursday to get two girls off to Geraldton airport at 5am. There was no point going back to bed, thus started the day. I cooked dinner that night for the WMH and family plus the DP, and did garlic and lemony chicken and my vegetable tangine - thankfully both worked as I was cooking and packing and cleaning at the same time.

It was 2am by the time I finally got to bed then up again at 7am to go to school by 8.30 for Easter egg delivery to the last four girls. The WM had another Drs appointment in town which fortuitously co-incided with my need for delivery to the airport. A quick goodbye to all and sundry and we were on our way. There was a wee moment as she drove past the airport, as I wondered why we were not slowing down, and then a quick U turn followed over the grass verge and there I was ready to check in. I had a wait of 90 mins before boarding and then promptly fell asleep for the hour flight to Perth.

As I had more hours to kill, I thought I would have a coffee at Dome in the domestic terminal so I could charge my laptop and check my mail. Having succeeded at that I caught the bus to the international airport to wait another two hours before finally being homeward bound on my Air NZ flight. I slept once again and then once dinner was served stayed awake to read for awhile, and then after checking the entertainment booklet, decided to watch 'The Last Waltz' the movie about the last concert The Band did back in the day. I have seen it several times before, but it was an interesting experience to see it stone cold sober and from some years hence. I love the music that begins the movie and am seriously considering adding it to my 'funeral' list. 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd is still top of my list to begin with but I am thinking "Last Waltz" as music to go out by. This is not to alarm any readers of this post that I plan on going any time soon as I have had my funeral planned for years, lol. (The old Girl Guide coming out in me, but also as there is nothing like a dismal funeral with poor music or no music at all.) I also managed to listen to the Fleet Foxes album but came totally unglued when trying to use the gaming function without reading the instructions. I gave up on that as I couldn't be bothered with looking up instructions and had another doze instead. I am reading an Ian Rankin novel at the moment who has Rebus as his main character - I always enjoyed the TV series that is based on his novels - murder, mayhem etc with Rebus as a hard man detective.

In anticipation of cold weather back home I had dressed in layers, and had to laugh to myself as both Sky West and the bus company had the air con going flat tack so nearly froze to death in OZ before even stepping foot back in NZ (temp 10C on landing).

Sunday night.

Mum picked me up from the airport, the plane was late by about 30 mins and it took awhile to get through customs but everything flowed OK. We headed straight for the north shore stopping for groceries on the way for goodies for breakfast. We arrived just as no 2 son was changing his son's nappies - pause for thought - did I ever think I would see this day????, and finally got to hold the new grandson. Managed to get a smile out of him and of course he is a cutie. Am heading back for more tomorrow.

We called into see Clive on the way home at Manukau Super Centre. All considering, he was in a good form. There was talk of him being discharged tomorrow however after a word to the physio who was trying to get mum to have a go at putting a bandage on to shape his stump, I mentioned I had been a social worker at Waikato Hospital and we would be expecting a meeting with the team before dischage took place. We are hoping to meet with the Occupational therapist tomorrow so things can be put in place properly before any discharge date is made. Watch this space.

Have had a lovely day today with a lunch at the next door neighbours in Kariaotahi Rd, with 11 sitting down for the meal. It was a good catch up and got to see photos of the latest wedding, family visits, new babies, older babies etc etc which filled in the gaps since I was last home. Feeling very replete, we went down to brother in law/sister's place to pick up my car which lives on their lawn while I am away and then back to Mum's for a post prandial snooze. Hence I am wide awake now but need to get rested for tomorrow so will sign off for the meantime.