It is the best of times, it is the (worst) of times!

I am completely over myself and the state of my health or lack thereof.  I am STILL under par which is irksome to the max - still have this lingering, gut wrenching cough but thankfully the need to cough is diminishing.  Also had a good belt of chest pain yesterday morning after waking early, falling back to sleep  immediately and then sleeping in obviously later than I needed to for the blasted tablets to work - again, TOTALLY over it. 

Despite the above, I have been pushing through each day to achieve a list of requests from No 1 grandson/son and daughter-in-law (all of which were things I had planned on doing anyway so a great match).  I was met at the airport by the male contingent midst a delegation of ? Chinese people greeting a Chinese acrobatic team, and a kapa haka group welcoming a Seven's team.  After my bag was fetched and we headed for the car, No 1 grandson stepped in front of me and opened the car door for me (straight to the top of the will list, lol).  He did this without any prompting and I was mightily impressed indeed.  

Since my last visit, the house has been altered with a wall out between kitchen and lounge which has opened the whole place up.  Floor to ceiling sliding doors open off the dining/kitchen area to a deck with a " you beaut"  stainless steel barbeque in place.  At right angle to the doors are  matching doors to the new master bedroom plus en suite,  all of which is a great addition to the house.  The kitchen area has stainless steel benches, oven and dishwasher with  oyster shade cupboards and drawers and - designed by the DIL's brother who is a cabinet maker and who has done a brilliant job.  They have also incorporated under floor heating and had the house insulated so it is completely cosy.  I am now sleeping in the old master bedroom which is nice and roomy, shared with the computer, and houses a tv that the small lad watches his movies on which is handy as we have spent some hours doing just that.

The first days plan was to visit Te Papa, (National Museum).  No 1 grandson had spotted a sign saying 200 years ago and wanted to check out what it was all about.  He was totally dismayed on arrival to find it was 200 years of wedding dresses but the giant squid more than made up for it.  I had seen the squid the last visit but this time was encouraged by the small person to watch a short 3D movie about it before having a closer look.  Have to say it was quite fascinating.  This squid is the only one known of its kind to have been found live.  It was caught in Antarctic waters after trying to eat a fish off a long line from the boat.  They have made a parrot beak that you can touch that is similar in size etc to the real thing - very interesting to see and touch - and I never knew that there are multitudinous hooks on their tentacles which help grip the fish they catch to eat. Have to say, it is a creature only a mother could love, and would be frightening to behold in its natural habitat.  They reckon this beast  was a female as they found eggs inside so the likelihood is that somewhere in the very dark depths there are more of these. The squid is also shrinking since it was initially preserved for exhibit.  I would say at least a foot if not more that the tentacles have shrunk.   After a good amount of time spent looking and listening about said squid, we moved onto volcanoes.  

Whilst looking at the volcano exhibits, we had to go into the earthquake house for a simulation  that replicated the Edgecombe earthquake in the 80's (that I remember as I had friends living nearby at the time).   The small one regaled me with many facts that he had learned from doing a project on volcanoes.  We had moved back to the natural exhibit area and came across  new exhibits  to me,  featuring several smallish dinosaurs, a moa and a New Zealand eagle (both birds now extinct).  I didn't know we had a giant eagle and yes, it was a monster weighing in over 14k.  It preyed on moa and as large as they were, the eagle could kill them and in fact died out much the same time as the moa did as they lost their main food source. Seeing the dinosaurs was amazing - I had no idea that NZ had any.  Remains were discovered in the 70's and 80's in the Hawkes Bay.  There were two skeleton heads - one much the same shape and size of a crocodile and one smaller and flatter like that of a plesiosaurus.  Fascinating stuff indeed. 

The next section we had to go look at was the Maori waka (canoe) wharenui (meeting house) and pataka (food storage building) followed by a trip to the museum's contemporary meeting area up a floor where you can fill out your own whakapapa sheet (family history) which you can then log into the Te Papa data base becoming part of the Te Papa family.  There were tours being taken through all parts of the museum while we were there so I managed to pick up bits of information on the way to what we were looking at.  It is great to see the small one right at home at the museum - he loves going and remembered the Pompeii exhibition we went and saw on one of my previous visits (also tied in with the volcano conversations, lol).  We both decided we had had enough so headed back home to watch some Dr Who programs which is the new series of choice at the moment.  On one of our chats in on the bus, I was regaled with the names of all the Dr Who's, in sequence, since they began (when I was the same age as the small person now!!)  I managed to watch some of the first program and promptly fell asleep during the next few that he watched.

Wednesday was movie day.  It was a miserable wet day so drove the car up and parked on a side street nearest to a bus stop to the next little shopping area where a hair cut had been booked for the small person.  He was determined to have a cut like David Tennant (the 10th Dr Who) and I watched in amazement as the hair dresser googled David Tennant to see what the small one meant as she had no knowledge of Dr Who!!!!  Have to say, she did a good job once she understood what was wanted and the small person was very happy indeed.  After morning tea at the cafe next door we carried on into the city by bus.  We were too early for the movie and had been given a mission to buy new clothes for school and home, as the small person had pretty much grown out of all things in his drawers, following a massive clean out post Christmas.  Good old "Farmers" were having a sale, so lining up the specials racks, we did some speed shopping getting over just half of what we needed before heading back for the movie.  We saw the "Muppet" movie and yay, we both loved it.  What a trip in nostalgia for me and I was surprisingly moved to see all these old friends return to the big screen.  I explained to the small person how big Sesame St and the Muppets had been when his Dad was the same age - both brilliant in my opinion appealling to children and adults at the same time.  Once again, it was a return home to crash (me) and Dr Who (him) until his folks got home from work. 

Yesterday was not a great day so we had a very slow start, not getting ready to go out until after lunch.  I had promised a trip to the pool so off we set - using the car again as the weather was still inclement.  The small one had to swim a length of the pool which he did, mostly dog paddle, and then for the next four hours he swam and played with various other kids while I read a book and dozed from the sidelines.  He would have stayed longer but I had well passed my use by date for the day. As his parents were having dinner out together that night, we cut corners and bought a hot cooked chook and fresh bread which we had for dinner, in between - you guessed it, more Dr Who, lol.

Today we had to be out of the house by 10am when the cleaner was due so decided to blast into town again to finish off the clothes shopping.  First stop Burger King so body and soul could be kept together with the small person ordering like a pro.  Shopping completed I decided I needed a coffee and something to eat so chose a bar/cafe called "Plum" in Cuba Mall which was a good choice - had a slice of gluten free orange syrup cake with honey yoghurt - divine, and a flat white that hit the spot.  We had arrived in the city as it was gearing up for the opening of the "Rugby 7's" competition later in the afternoon.  Oh my goodness, the sights we saw - the range and scope of the dressing up was beyond imagination.  There were people dressed like barrels, prisoners, cowboys, Indians, Dr's in scrubs, cocktails, super hero's, Mario bros, firemen, can can girls, men dressed as women, women dressed as men, Romans, Arabs, Bob Marleys, knights, accident victims,  and the one I nearly choked on my cake over - a large group of men, purely in their underwear, with some leaving less to the imagination than others - I was informed by the young person that it was just like the ad on tv about undies?.  There were buskers in Cuba Mall and the whole atmosphere was very festive.  Knew I was back home when I saw some good keen girls carrying boxes of beer under their arms as they headed to their destination.  I could have sat for hours watching the passing parade of costumes but the small person wanted to head home again and so we did - me for another nap while another couple of Dr Who's passed me by though I woke during the last two programs and kept him company until his folks got home from work.  Tomorrow morning is cricket - yay so had better get to bed - more lashings of Vicks and a good night's sleep.