Yay, I am home again. Touched down this morning about 5.45am after an uneventful flight which is always a relief. I had no complaints flying Air New Zealand. Not only a thickish blanket but a small pillow as well which was great for keeping warm and sleeping. The meal was more than adequate - lamb casserole with mashed potato, sliced carrots and peas, ceasar salad, crackers and cheese and a slice of chocolate brownie type cake for dessert. I passed on the alcohol (I can hear people fainting all around the world, lol) as I wanted to get back here with a clear head, heh heh. I thought I would sleep all the way back but wouldn't you know it, was wide awake for good amount of time - must have been the diet coke before I got on the plane. So, not feeling like watching a movie, listening to music or playing games, I decided to read for awhile until I did eventually manage a zzz- probably three hours worth. I would have had more but bing bong, and the captain was saying we had 35 mins to go before landing and to get ready for same. I don't know why they give people so long. After all, all you have to do is return your seat to an upright position and fill out your entry card!!!. I had already done mine before I fell asleep so all I had to do was sit upright ..... and wait. I had ticked all the right boxes declaring the bar of chocolate as food that Jude had given me as I went out the door of her place mindful of those customs shows on TV where you can languish in customs for ages, getting a fine or worse. I was leaving the plane when I nearly had a stroke as I remembered the chocolate was fruit and nut, and I had declared on my form NO nuts in my possession. Fortunately the first customs person I met said she was only concerned if I had drugs or guns - did I? and when I said no, just fruit and nut chocolate after declaring no nuts, she said to go to the next counter and they would deal with that. It would seem nuts in a sealed packet encased in chocolate are not a major bio security hazard, thank heavens. I had one more mission to go and that was to buy an amount of alcohol for number 1 son and daughter in law by way of his belated birthday present, as they are enjoying making different cocktails now and then. There were specials abounding so got a ltr of kahlua, galiano and frangelica at a very good deal. That should keep them going for some time I am thinking. I had received a txt from Mum the minute we had landed and we alowed our phones on again, so by the time I had got all my bags through the final xray machine, I only had time to buy postcards for the kids back at work and get outside to the pick up area and she appeared. The first things I noticed on my return - how nice it was to hear a familiar Kia Ora from an airport staff person as we came off the plane. Outside the sky was full of cloud, with a bit of blue instead of being all blue with a bit of cloud if you lucky and it reminded me that New Zealand is not called Aoteoroa - Land of the Long White Cloud for nothing, lol. The next thing was seeing Pukekos (mudhens that are a darkblue colour with red legs and beaks ) foraging in grass alongside the road. The differences a year makes - there is a new motorway, which Mum somehow missed so we ended up on the old way home which bought us closer to home anyway returning onto the motorway at Takanini which suited me fine. What hasn't changed is the maniac traffic on the motorway which I do not miss at all. The other thing is all the hills and ranges in the distance in shades of blues, purples and greys. Western Australia is flat by comparison where I have been. Mum and I called in to see friend Deni on the way home to pick up my car which Deni had been looking after for me. Naturally a cup of coffee and catch up ensued and then Viv arrived so another coffee all round which was a wonderful welcome back indeed. Had already had txts from sister Kay and No2 daughter in law so all good. I eventually got into my car - barely knew it as it was so clean and tidy, and had to adjust to different driving style with change from Aussi car which is smaller. No embarressing stalls or bunny hops and a few adjustments to the seat and all was good. The next thing I noticed back at Mum's was the sound of birds. They are everywhere and it was so good to hear them. I get the odd magpie in the gum trees and a mudlark or two around the house in Oz but it has nothing of the birdlife that we do here. Of course it goes without saying that the countryside is GREEN as opposed to red dirt, and dry vegetation if any and cows, lots of cows, sleek looking dairy cows, woohoo. There has been major changes in Waiuku over the last year. The old four bowser Shell petrol station that had started life looking like one of those old fashioned country garages selling petrol in the movies,( before being slightly modernised in the 80's), has closed. The Caltex garage of a similar size has been demolished and on that location a brand new 8 pump, modern layout service station has been built (at a cost of about 3 million dollars). I will miss the Caltex garage as they still fully served you petrol there and Shell is self serve. I don't know why, I never had a problem filling up the ute from the petrol pump out at Tardun but when I go into a service station, I like to be served and am lucky there is a Caltex one back in Oz on the way to work that I have begun to frequent for that very reason. The afternoon I spent at a funeral which was also by way of a reunion with all the next door neighbours who had been asked to sing. The funeral was for the widow of one of Dad's fishing mates from when I was a child and a close family friend of the next door neighbours so I attended it with Mum. It is always interesting to hear the background stories at funeral's (I think) as I only knew this woman as the wife of one of Dad's friends as a child and as her son spoke there was so much more to her life which was a long and interesting one. It was a nice celebration of her life. I ended up singing with the six sisters and with two run throughs before the service began, it went well. We sang as folk put flowers/petals on the coffin in the hearse before it left to the crematorium. I knew many of the faces of people at the service from my much younger days, , but had forgotten names - I had one young woman come up to me and ask if I remembered her only to find out she was one of my girls from Johnston House days (boarding school in Hamilton which is much more recent). Caught up on the goss about some of the other girls in her year which was great. We then went back to the next door neighbours as Mum had forgotten to give them their birthday presents, had another cup of coffee and more catch up before returning to Mums. Was somewhat drooping by this time I have to say. Am staying at sister Kay's for the night and have a shopping expedition planned for tomorrow - looking forwards to that.
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