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.