Christmas and other things.

Christmas is both the best and the worst time of the year I think.  Best because it is an excuse/reason to reconnect with friends and family and to be able to share with them. Worst because Christmas always needs to be one more month away, lol.  With the best intent in January, I tell myself, this year I will be organised.... and yet.... work, visitors, and the" must dos"  in life seem to get in the way, lol.  I tend to buy things during the year for Christmas with the thought I will be ahead of the game, but constantly find a trillion things for one person and still struggle to find something that fits for the others.  As an exercise in speed organisation, I spent several harried days at Glenfield Mall in Auckland (while on my "holiday") sifting and sorting, managing to get the whole NZ contingent sorted and wrapped before I left - no mean feat indeed.

 Last Saturday we had the Tardun Christmas get together - not at my place this time but at the Brentwood Olive Grove about 15 mins south of Geraldton.  This place was on  Jude's and my  bucket list to visit and when she found out that this weekend is the last time they will be open to the public as a cafe, she fixed a date and amazingly it worked.  Due to the casualness of the invite and response she had only booked for 14 when 20 turned up and full marks to the staff who squeezed in an extra table and chairs.  We responded by liberating most of our water glasses for other guests and stuck to our drinks - in taller glasses and so the world goes round.  Need I say that the food was exquisite.  I ordered the Mediterranean platter and on reflection supposed it really was a shared thing, heh, heh, but as I had no breakfast and had not planned on much dinner, it was yee har instead. OMG it was divine.  Two small dishes of caramelised  onion dip and hummus, hazelnut stuffed green olives, a long green pepper stuffed with couscous, two vegetable samosa type things, marinated mushrooms, slices of warm turkish bread, preserved artichokes and capsicums in oil, and a couple of other interesting mixtures of I know not what,  but exceptionally tasty.  The serving was large and I managed every finger and lip licking bit of it. However, if that was not already enough, I soared into orbit with dessert  and felt at this point I had died and gone to heaven.  Way beyond OMG, lol.  I had an enormous home made meringue covered with lemon butter delivered on a bed of whipped cream.  The lemon butter was what I would have called lemon honey at home and pow, the zingyness of the lemon flavour with the sweet of the meringue was absolutely divine   Anyone with a spare pot of lemon honey/curd in the cupboard, go create this straight away, lol.

Feeling just a tad replete and after much laughter, catching up, reminiscing and several hours later, we exchanged gifts with those we would not see again before Christmas and I hitched a ride back with the WMH to flop on the couch at home.  Donna had arrived the night before with her lad and I had picked up "my" lad for the weekend,  so as I recounted the day to everyone, the boys asked if they could have a candy cane of the tree - yes and pass one round to me and Donna too. You know there are just some days you should quit when you are ahead.  I was biting on my candy cane with the few teeth I have left when crunch and that sickest of sick feelings that something was not quite right.  I removed myself to the bathroom, and spat out into my hand candy cane and a massive piece of filling!!!!!!  I also think I have nearly broken the tooth from its moorings because if I touch it the wrong way it feels like it is going to come out of its socket.  So far, it is not hurting so am trying to work up enough courage to find a dentist and then to cope with what ever verdict will come - it will come with a four figure price tag as my teeth are in a parlous state and then there is the trauma I usually go through - am needing this like a hole in the head and at the end of my proposed visit I may well be looking at just that - no teeth at all, lol.

Speaking of teeth, again the few I have left are mainly the sharpened front ones and they certainly were working well  on Monday night!  I had a real estate person ring me on Wednesday  last week saying they had a prospective buyer to show through and would the next day be ok. No, I said, I will be sleeping (on night shift) and will be sleeping Friday as well, Monday afternoon will be ok as I will be at work.  All good.  On Monday I get back here at just after 11pm and went to walk through the front porch door only to find it locked!!!!!! You have to be joking I thought - the only key I had to get in was the front door  which was behind said locked door.  A quick check about the place and of course post burglery earlier in the year, the house is locked down tight as the proverbial fishes bum. Blood pressure was starting to do a slow burn and while thinking what to do I went to txt the WMH to see if he was still up  only to find a txt from Emily his daughter earlier saying that she had gone back home when she couldn't get in also,  so just drove round instead.  Luckily  Gerard was still up and thankfully while I was seething and fanging about useless, poxy real estate people, he found me a phone book and I rang the rental people and the real estate agent only to get answer phones!!!!! Arggggh  - of course all my emergency numbers were locked in back at mine.  While contemplating what to do - break a window to get in and sort it out, ring the police to see if they could break in, rip some soft toy to pieces, lol, the phone rang and it was the rental people.  I explained the situation and was told to meet the person at the office in 20 mins - they had to get dressed and travel in from out past where I work.  Phew, as Gerard had a total house full, with one couch to spare which I could have used, but after an exhausting weekend and 10 hours work, I just wanted my own bed.  So, at quarter past midnight, with two sets of keys in case one didn't have the right key (?) I was back into my own house.  I got in yet another sliding door into the sun room this time as the porch door had been snibbed from the inside from the prospective buyer thinking I had left the place unlocked - ya think!  As I relayed to a colleague yesterday - do people not know  farm rules over here - if a gate is shut you leave it shut, if it is open you leave it open, It is the same with flaming doors!!!

Once in bed I took some time to de-stress with a few games on the laptop and probably fell asleep around 1.30 2.00am to be woken by the phone at 8am by the real estate agent profusely apologising as he had just got my message.  I was ALMOST able to see the funny side of things by then, but 8am, come on, still the middle of the night for me, lol.  He totally redeemed himself however when I finally got organised and left for work, and yes out of the now open porch door, to find a parcel wrapped up in Christmas paper which was a basket of goodies and a card apologising for the day before.  A very professional and appropriate response and they will also get the bill for the call out so all is well with the world once more.

I got back last night from work at much the same time to find two new parcels at the kitchen door from NZ so yay - they have gone straight under the Christmas tree and will wait with anticipation to see what is within.
I have got a good amount of Christmas cards done and dusted.  Had a bah humbug moment with them too - went to print off my Christmas letter to enclose with most of the cards  and sod, sod, sod, the printer would not print.  Cleaned the nozzle - several times, changed inks and got everything going except the black. Shot up town to buy some more black ink and even that would not work so figure the nozzle must be clogged good and proper.  Was just going a pale shade of puce with frustration when I had a eureka moment - print it in a colour.  Tried a dummy run with blue and bingo it worked.  Another yay moment and then to double side a three page letter which is the smallest update I could manage, lol.  Several dummy runs as it had to print all the page ones, then be manually taken turned upside down or whatever to do the page 2's and lastly another run for page three.  Unfortunately, the printer hamsters were on the fritz too, so it took forever as I had to cancel and reload the job numerous times.  Flipping technology.

Speaking of technology or maybe it should be electronic/mechanical?  my fridge might be on its last legs.  It is an ex-Tarden model of unknown years and is temperamental in its closing doors habits.  I went to get something out of the icebox/freezer on Friday to find a mini thaw and refreeze had occurred that now prohibited the door being closed properly at all. Damn, I only cleaned it out the week before.  There was nothing for it but to do another quick defrost, de-ice and get it sorted before the weekend.  All done,with everything in neat and tidy, I finished, cooked dinner for Donna and the boys and retired from the kitchen for the night.  When Donna went to get water out of the fridge the next morning she noticed it wasn't very cold and then not long later checked to find I had not switched the sodding thing back on - another arrrrgh.  Luckily the freezer food was all ok but did not trust some of the fridge things so another clean out of food stuffs while I am thinking I may just throw money in the air - it will have the same effect as I had to throw out chicken I had cooked the night before - one thing I would not trust to keep.  Then one of the boys hung off the fridge door while I was cleaning it which I think was one too many things for it and now if you do not give the door a good slam, it will not seal properly.  Am keeping a bare minimum of things in there and eating mostly at work with the shifts I have this week, so will see how I go. Will not buy a new fridge regardless though may have to look at the prices of a second hand one.  The other fridge I had from Tardun I had given to the WM and family ages ago and that also died in the last few weeks so no replacement there.

I have tomorrow and Friday off so that will be my next flurry of last minute cards, gift wrapping and sorting out things like enough meds to get me through Christmas, maybe the tooth, and two lots of catching up with folk for Christmas coffees.  I missed the Christmas work dinner as I had to work night shift last week,  but was more than happy with that.  The Tardun Christmas and the actual day which I will spend with the WM, WMH and family will do me. I am having Christmas and Boxing day off this year and plan at this stage curling up with a good book on Boxing day, hopefully in the sunshine, on the couch in my sun porch with maybe a few carol CD's on in the back ground.

I have not watched the news on tv for weeks now, occasionally get a newspaper and listen to the news on radio to and from work and was floored by two tragedies over the past week.  The first was the woman who committed suicide after a prank call from a Melbourne radio station to the Duchess of York while in hospital.  The DJ's pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles and the woman who died put the call through and gave out some information I think.  I am so over "it is just a joke" mentality that is often the excuse to cover bullying and mean acts.  The two DJ's are devastated but too late when it has cost someone their life - hopefully the entertainment media that passes for news etc these days will take a good long look at themselves.  The two concerned thought it was ok because it had been cleared by the legal department!!!

The other tragedy that bought tears to my eyes was the shooting of the children at school in the States.  What utter, utter horror and too horrible to imagine for the families of those killed. I think I picked up at paper at Maccas when I went for a coffee and to faces of the children killed was what bought tears to my eyes - all so young, cheeky and full of life when they were taken.  I believe the outcry on gun control is in full swing - and some mention of mental health.  The frightening thing is many of us work with damaged children, young adults who could so easily do same and the lack of support for anything to do with mental health is huge.  Australia and New Zealand have had their own multiple tragedies - each one that occurs leaves an indelible mark - the pain for those left behind is incomprehensible especially with the randomness these events occur to ordinary  people going about their daily business expecting to return to their homes and families at the end of a day.  I briefly caught a clip of President Obama bought to tears by the school shootings and you would have to hope something will come out of this event to prevent it happening again.

It is time to get moving for another day at the salt mines.  School finished yesterday for our kids so I am thinking there will be lots of beach time in the next week.  We are having lovely fine days and warm weather but there is still a lot of wind blowing.  I thought my washing and the tent the boys put up to sleep in on Saturday night, would all end up in the neighbours as the wind was so strong over the weekend.  Gotta fly :)

Tis the Season to be Jolly already!

This has not been my most salubrious year for posting blogs and to the ever faithful out there I do apologise.  I have been in the midst of writing my Christmas letter reflecting on the year that has passed and it has gone by in a whirl.  I think the challenge for me this year is as I have said before, a good chunk of my life is taken up by work which because of confidentiality is difficult to write about meaningfully without breaching said confidentiality.  The job by its nature in working with traumatised children takes a lot of emotional energy and with working shifts - 12 hours on the weekends and mostly 9 or 10 hours, the single cells left at the end of each shift do not have much energy to replicate into fluent or cogent thinking.

That being said, I am pondering on how to do better as when I get cracking, I do enjoy writing it and the responses I receive.  As I checked in today I realise that I had begun a post while in NZ on holiday and never finished it so a quick recap.

I flew into Wellington this time to spend Labour Weekend which included No 1 grandson's 10th birthday.  First mission was to buy a phone which took two days of trips into the city and back before I was satisfied.  It seems Telstra in Australia locks their phones so you cannot buy a prepaid sim card and drop it into your phone though in NZ you can do that very thing.  After buying a $5 sim card the first day and it not working, I went back and bought an el cheapo Telecom phone as max it will only get used twice a year until I return home whereby they probably will have come out with a phone that can make you a cup of coffee as well as land man on the moon again.  I also invested in a prepaid telecom dohicky for the laptop so I would have coverage when not at family friendly uber gigs homes to tap into their networks.  Then of course, I became aware I didn't know any NZ mobile numbers as they were all in my stolen phone and not written down, arrrrrgh.  I put in No 1 son's ph number and luckily he had a few of the numbers I needed and so I slowly began to get in touch with immediate family. Tricky when you are trying to negotiate pickups from airports and such like, lol.

Wellington was both fine and freezing so completely typical. I missed an earthquake (minor) earlier in the week.  The 10th birthday took on epic proportions turning into a three day event as all bases were covered having his friends come round for cake and a trip to the movies on the Friday night, cousins, aunts and uncles round for a barbeque Saturday and the piece de resistance - the actual day.  I ended up by taking the three friends and no 1 grandson to the movies and dinner assuring no 1 son that four average kids was a walk in the park compared to some of the ones I have worked with and so it was.  Dinner at Maccas in the food court associated with the theatres preceded the movie and then it was ice cream afterwards with the boys being picked up by no 1 son to be delivered home while I caught the bus back to Karori as there were not enough seat belts for me as well.  All good until I got to Karori and went to txt to say I was there for my pick up and the sodding phone was already flat, this as it began to rain.....  Luckily its only a 10 min walk and I survived without getting too drenched.

The birthday was legendary - no 1 grandson was awake early with excitement and received a couple of small parcels to unwrap before we went downstairs for the main event.  He was given the garage door control to find behind door no 1, there was a brand spanking new bike.  Great joy and instant try out on the front lawn before finding out Mum and Dad also had bought new bikes so they could all go out together for rides in the weekend.  Very impressed we then left for breakfast out at a favourite cafe/restaurant in Wellington called Maranui.  It caught fire awhile back now and it was great to see it re- outfitted and still as popular as ever.  With breakfast/lunch behind us, we then set out to buy helmets to go with the new bike (needed to be there for the right sizing) and then to the local sportshop to buy cricket gear ( my birthday present) as this year no 1 grandson has graduated to using a hard ball.  Therefore pads, helmet, gloves,  a box and special underwear to fit later we were good to go to the next venue which was a go kart facility deep in an industrial area in a huge warehouse.  No 1 grandson started with trepidation but soon got more confident and you would have thought he was racing in a grand prix by the end of it, lol.  I think his Dad enjoyed it just as much. 

The previous day had involved a trip to the Wellington zoo and what a change that has had since I was last there about 8 yrs ago.  They have done a lot of development which means more natural enclosures for the animals that they have.  That was one of the glorious fine days in between the rain so we took full advantage of it before returning for the family barbeque.  No 1 grandson has moved on from Spiderman, Ben 10 and Dr Who with his main focus now being the Hobbit. He was devouring the book and I have since heard he was very disappointed to be away at school camp when they had the premiere of the movie in Wellington a couple of weeks ago.

My time there was over all too soon and I then winged my way to Auckland being met by sister Kay and two of her work colleagues as they swung by the airport on their way home from work.  I was struck by all the green once again, paddocks full of grass as Geraldton was almost in drought conditions when I left.  I spent the first night with Mum and Clive and then gypsy like stayed at Kay's and friend Viv's (waves) for two nights to catch up as they were at work teaching during the days, and I would then spend the days with Mum and Clive so could catch up with all.  One of the highlights was taking Mum and Clive to Pukekohe to see the movie "The Sapphires" - an Australian movie just released about four indigenous girls who form a band like the Supremes and travel to Viet Nam to entertain the troops at the time (set in the late 60's) and is based on a true story.  We had a bite of lunch before the movie so a great afternoon out.  I was able to indulge with plenty of fresh vegetables as Mum and Clive have their main meal middle of the day and it was great to be able to pick things straight from the garden squeaky fresh so to speak.  One lunch I was able to catch up with a friend who I have known since I was 10yrs old, and it made me realise how luckly I am with friends and neighbours who go so far back.  Leonie had moved back home post the Christchurch earthquakes and I got to hear first hand of her experiences that still are taking a toll.  She had been talking to a customer in the shop and delayed going to lunch by about 10 mins when the big quake hit and once she had closed the shop as best she could to get out of it she walked out to find the city in ruins - I think two people were killed outside the shop from falling masonry.  She talked of walking miles to a friends place past areas that were turning to liquification and sleeping under a table at her friends place, too scared to return home.  Then there was the costs and issues of getting out of the city and finally moving back to start afresh, leaving her job, her friends and her life behind.  The trauma was still very fresh for her. 

I got to catch up with my tennants and was very pleased to see how well the place was looking.  I had no car this time home as No 2 son is now using it to get to work and back so was very dependent on others for lifts and the loan of their cars when they were free.  Unfortunately it meant I did not do my usual fly around the country catching up with friend further afield but it did mean I got to spend a great time with family and longtime neighbours instead which was great.

The last leg of my NZ trip involved heading to the North Shore to stay with No 2 son and family and to meet Evie Lily, my first grand daughter (and likely to be the only one I have been told, lol).  She was just on three weeks when I arrived and just over a month when I left so packed in lots of cuddles in between lots of Nana time with the No 2 grandson, who now 3 3/4 yrs was just delightful.  Lots of "No Thank You Nanas" when asked if he wanted to do different things like go to the potty, have something to eat, nap etc in contrast to having fun playing lego, going to the park with his bike, jumping on the trampoline (a sight to behold I am telling you, lol), blowing bubbles, playing firemen with the hose, lots of stories and I was introduced to the movie "Cars" with McQueen and Mater which I saw nearly once a day, lol.  We had a lovely gathering on the last night I was there quite by chance when No 2's brother and sister (their Dad's second family) came with their respective partners and baby cousin for a barbeque.  Friend of the family, Peter who co-incidentally had been  a neighbour of the boys father in their teens, also visited so lots of stories told round the table with lots of laughs over dinner.

While home I had done most of my NZ Christmas shopping at at 4.30am the morning I left, I finally wrapped the last parcel, had repacked and gone to bed for the next three hours sleep before the household roused.  A quick breakfast, shower and last minute checks to see I had everything and we were on the way to the airport for my return to Oz.  We had decided to meet with Kay and Viv at Maccas outside the airport so the family could return home before the baby needed her next feed and after a luggage transfer to Kay's car it was off to check in and a last coffee before take off.  It is never long enough home to do everything that I want but the bank balance required me to return to work in Oz and I reflected that I had squeezed as much Nana time in that I could to get me through another few months.

I had a brief stop over in Sydney on the way back and friend Val once again met me at the airport, this time whisking me off to a French patisserie for coffee and a pastry on the way back to hers where we bunkered down with a cooked chook, salad and some wonderful coffee via her Nepresso machine (as good as cafe coffee if not better) and talked the night to a standstill.  Once again I was blighted by technology with my phone and laptop.  I put my pin in my Oz phone to open it and in a dyslexic moment did the wrong number , tried a different one, tried the first one again and the damn thing locked.  Then my Oz doohickey for the lap top would not work - said it needed to be reregistered so after attempting to get into hotmail (momentarily forgot my password for that too, arrrgh) I fired off emails to friend Donna who was meeting me at the airport for coffee and the WMH who was to pick me up and just prayed they would get the messages.  All good, had a lovely catch up with Donna before catching the flight back to Geraldton and then as I was waiting for my bags the WMH turned up with youngest son to retrieve me and take me to theirs for dinner.  I landed at 6.30pm and started work at 6.45am the next day and for the following two days after that.  I slept my first day off right through needless to say.  I am writing this as I try to get some sleep in before a night shift tonight so will close now and get back to the Christmas theme in the next post.  :)

Buses,cars and planes ......

It has been a roller coaster time as I organised myself to be away from Oz for just under a month, having travelled, and am now in the middle of my stay which is being spent in three NZ locations.  I almost have to take a pause each morning I wake up to get my bearings, lol.

Before I left, I had work of course, and then my 3 monthly purge of the house in preparation for the house inspection, which meant mowing lawns, weed spraying, edge trimming, gaining a cupboard for my laundry and totally resorting that room out putting all cleaning products etc in said cupboard and rearranging boxes etc that I have things stored in, getting all washing and ironing up to date, and of course, after all the tidying, a sweep throughout the house and a mopping of the floors.  Then packing and having a meltdown as I tried three different printers trying to print out my tickets - arrrgh. 

In the midst of this, I had a bit of a social twirl - the Workmates second daughter turned 17 so had a birthday dinner to attend a week before I came home.  I had called round earlier in the day to drop off gift and finalise dinner details when Gerard said it was a shame I wasn't dressed for painting as he was thinking of painting the lounge.  Siezing the moment, I suggested he drop me home with the aforementioned cupboard, and the weedeater I had lent him so I could get changed, and lo and behold, mid dayish, we started on the lounge. 

I took around a small steam cleaner so we did the walls with that as preparation and then bang, a coat of paint that most of the kids help apply, with Gerard doing the high bits.  I moved furniture, dusted, vacuumed as we moved around the room and then helped put things back, finished about 10 mins before Bronwyn walked in the door from a day at work.  Thankfully, she loved how we did things which included getting rid of an old book case that had seen better days. The following day Bronwyn's parents who were over from Victoria for a few weeks came with me to look at a quilting exhibition/craft fair being held at the local basket ball stadium.  There were some amazing quilts on display and I found a few small projects to do whilst trawling the stalls and bought some amazing relishes/chutneys that were being sold by a woman from Angloa - was able to have a taste of each before I bought and yum - a lemon grass and mango chutney, an egg plant chutney and a tomatoe based relish that was a little hotter than the others with an amount of chili in it.  The next evening I was invited to friends of Bronwyn's for a bonfire and barbeque.  What an experience that was - a huge pile of gum tree bits pushed into a pile in the middle of the paddock which went up like a rocket when lit.  The heat was phenomenal and the speed at which it burnt gave some tiny hint at what a bush fire might look like.  Mick had mown the paddock earlier in the day like a proverbial buzz cut and before my eyes, the fire spread out burning the grass left as wide out as the fire went high if that makes sense.  Heaven knows how far it would have gone if the grass had been longer.  Much to my level of comfort, Mick eventually got the hose out and dampened all around where the fire had burnt.

The following weekend, Bronwyn's parents and I set out on another sortie to North Hampton for the 16th annual Airing of The Quilts festival held in the town.  OMG, what an amazing experience that was.  We found a park around the back of the main street and walked to the top end of the main street to look at stalls and then walked the length of the town.  The festival follows the tradition I believe that started in America that represents the coming of spring, airing the quilts before they are put away.  Quilts were strung between shops, in shops, along the footpath areas, and in front of and off the verandahs of the old convent in the middle of the town.  There was a woman driving two ponies and a trap about the town, giving rides.  In the War Memorial Hall, there were spinners and weavers doing their thing among the quilts displayed - work done by various schools for the festival.  There should have been photos posted with this but in a fit of organisation I have put everything on my hard drive and therefore not exactly to hand at the moment.  Botheration!  Will update with NZ news next post. :)