Our place

Our national museum Te Papa (translates as ‘Our place’) is a fantastic place to hang out if you’re ever in Wellington. Rory and I spent another day there just before Christmas as we were keen on seeing the latest Pompeii exhibition. It was a great day as usual, we’re inevitably inspired and excited by what we see there.

Click on logo to open website in new window

I see today in the news that a new boss of Te Papa has been appointed to replace Dr Seddon Bennington who died a few months ago of hypothermia while hiking in the Tararua ranges. The new chap is a Welshman, Michael Houlihan who is currently the head of Amgueddfa Cymru, a seven-museum group in Wales. He’s due here around mid year to take up the job. I hope he’s not a hiker. 

An ever popular fixture at Te Papa is the colossal squid which was inadvertently caught in a trawlers net in the Ross Sea in 2008. The fishermen had the foresight to freeze the dead squid so they could bring it back in one piece. Apparently a  colossal squid is way bigger than a giant squid – this one weighs 495 kilograms (1100 lbs). This photo shows the squid being defrosted for the first time a year ago. The marine biologist and squid expert on the right is a guy I went to school with, Steve O’Shea.

Christmas eve and all is well

I’m sitting on my little patio sipping a delicious pomegranate cocktail and munching on fresh cherries while waiting for some friends to arrive for Christmas eve drinks (and a barbecue later). 

It’s a clear blue sky day and it’s getting a bit warmer as the afternoon progresses. Even though it doesn’t get horribly hot in NZ, we do have very thin ozone which equals a killer sun. This reminds me I better go slap on some sunscreen and get the sun umbrella out before I start to grow a melanoma glow.

Have a merry Christmas all.  Stay safe and enjoy your loved ones if you’re lucky enough to be spending time with them this season. Stay warm if it’s cold where you are and stay cool if it’s warm.

I’ll catch all of my lovely bloggy friends after Christmas and remember; you can’t make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.

Louise

I dropped Rory off here to Westhaven Marina earlier today where his dad’s boat is moored so they can go sailing for the day.  The sea breeze was lovely and I almost wished I could tag along.

Another decade down

I know that purists will say that the decade isn’t over until the end of 2010 but it’s my blog and I say now’s the right time for a review of the first decade of the 21st century.

Here are some of the highlights according to Louise.

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2000: I started the year in between jobs but with definite prospects so no real concerns. I had a 7 year old son, no man (some things never change) and I had my eye on a house that I coveted for my very first ownership experience.  At one stage that year Rory got airlifted off his dad’s yacht after getting hit in the head by the boom – scary stuff, he didn’t know anyone for hours afterwards. The year ended with me and Rory settled into the new house, a promotion at work, a boyfriend of sorts and a brand new nephew. A perplexing choice (in my opinion) was made made by the American electorate but it was a very good year all in all.

2001: My best friend moved to Australia and the boyfriend became an ex. Horrible happenings in the US. The only bright side was that a lovely puppy, later named Bonnie, was born and adopted by yours truly. I quit smoking that year and lasted 8 months before falling off the wagon. Rory racked up over 40,000 kilometres in flights between Auckland and his dad’s place in Perth, Western Australia. I went nowhere.

2002: Met another cheating jerk. Swore off men forever.

2003: Menopause. At 37 years old. Rory turned 10 and to celebrate his dad took him to Africa to explore for 3 months. I cried myself to sleep every night from missing him though the grief did great things for my career as I worked 15 hours a day and earned another promotion. The US declared war on Iraq – I remember something about WMD? My older sister was very ill but thankfully recovered fully. I got away briefly at the end of the year to spend time (and money) with my friend in Victoria, Australia.

2004: Got to Thailand again this year – one of my very fave places to escape the kiwi winter. Also got in another visit to Victoria. Another nephew born – that made four but still no nieces. Everything else was bad that year - horrible happenings, this time in Spain and atrocities continued in Darfur. And then that catastrophic tsunami on Boxing Day to finish the year.

2005: Finally quit chewing my nails to mark my 40th birthday. Katrina struck. It was 10 years since we lost my sister so we had a party to remember her by. Rory spent Christmas snowboarding in Japan with his dad – it was my first Christmas without him and it was hard.

2006: Rory started high school. Saddam Hussein was hanged and Steve Irwin got stabbed by a stingray. Crikey.

2007: Sinn Fein and the DUP hammered out an agreement for a power-sharing government in northern Ireland. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Rory’s dad moved back to NZ and for the first time ever we did the every second weekend part time dad thing – I started to remember what a real social life was like. I drank too much.

2008: Quit smoking again (18 months now and still going strong). Got addicted to Facebook. The Kiwis won the Rugby League World Cup and the hottest tennis player ever, Rafael Nadal, is ranked #1. Somali entrepreneurs found their niche in the piracy business. I met a man with real potential until the day he slammed Rory against a wall for looking at him sideways. Got a couple of long weekends away in Australia. Started new role managing projects at work and commuting to Wellington city twice a week.  Rory had a tumour removed from inside his jaw – it was benign. I spent most of the year exhausted. Bought new house and moved in just before Christmas. Whew, what  a year!

2009: Started the year with a new pastime – blogging. Met lots of wonderful new friends. There were terrible bushfires in Victoria so I went to console my friend. Witnessed a terrible car accident. Started reading about Tao Buddhism. Centre-right government elected in NZ for the first time in many years. I bought a lovely new car. A never ending cycle of study. Rory turned 16 and attended his first school ball, my mum and dad both turned 70, dad retired finally and my youngest nephew started school – still no nieces, have given up on that ever happening now. 

 

 

 

 

 

…and here we are nearly at the very end of 2009. That was my decade in brief; how about sharing yours?

 

 

Happy Christmas everyone.

Even more about me

I nicked this from Daniels blog over at The Pursuit of What Matters to Me. Thanks Daniel. Feel free to join in anyone who wants to.

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1. Do you have any tertiary qualification?
Yes I have. I also continue to struggle along with study – it’s a never ending process.

2. What was the amount of your last electric bill?
NZ$63 for a months worth of power. Not sure how this compares but this is considered a very modest bill here especially as I don’t have gas as well – I’m tight as all hell with regards power usage.

3. Do you have life insurance?
Yes (single mother and all that).

4. How many hours per week do you work?
Around 45-50.

5. Have you ever attended a Toastmasters event?
No.

6. Favourite place to attend Happy Hour?
Nowhere these days. Occasionally I meet a girlfriend after work for a wine but that is few and far between these days. 

7. How far is your commute to work each day?
When I am working in Auckland my travel is only 15 minutes each way but on the once or twice weekly days working in our capital city, Wellington, the commute is about 2 hours each way – yuck!!!

8. What time do you get up every morning for work?
We’re up at around 6am to get to Rory’s school bus at 7.10am. I then head straight to work so am there by 7.30am most days.

9. What is your definition of sleeping in late?
On a Saturday I can sleep and then doze until almost midday if there’s nothing I have to get up for. 

10. Do you check your cholesterol on a yearly basis?
Yes along with all the other checks that are deemed necessary.

11. How large was your first cell phone?
Not that big as I was fairly late to the cell phone game. Only flash businessmen or ‘out and about’ types like trades or sales people, had the bricks here in NZ. My first cell phone was in the 2G era, it was a Nokia that I got in about 1995 or 1996 I think.

12. Does your employer provide good health insurance?
No, that’s not something employers do here as we have a public health service that covers all New Zealanders. It’s not that great but it’s free.

13. Did you use the Internet to write a research paper?
When I was at university there was no such thing as the internet, well as far as I was aware of anyway.

14. Have you attended a High School reunion?
Yes. Had a few laughs but I think I’ll leave it there. Anyone I still like I am in contact with anyway so no further need.

15. How many jobs have you held in your career? 
I have had about 10 jobs over the years.

16. Have you ever been fired or laid off from a job?
No.

17. What is your favourite drink?
Jim Beam and Zero Coke in a tall glass with lots of ice. Yummmmm.

18. What’s the most expensive bottle of wine that you’ve bought?
Not much. I buy inexpensive wine – I don’t have a snobby palate.

19. Have you been divorced?
Nope.

20. How old were you when you stopped getting ID-ed for alcohol?
In my early 20s if I remember rightly.

21. Favourite casino?
None. Hate the places, they reek of desperation.

22. Are you happier now than you were in high school?
Yes and No. High school was great carefree fun but now is cool too.

23. Did you ever have a Hypercolor shirt?
Yes I had a yellow/green one though I didn’t wear it much. It always seemed a bit weird wearing a shirt that clearly showed that you were hottest under your arms and boobs.

24. Do you remember when Michael Jackson was black and was attracted to older people?
I remember him as black, yes.

25. Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos?
No we didn’t have MTV in NZ until after it had gone to shit.

26. Have you had a will made?
Yes, within a month of Rory being born. Updated twice since then.

27. What music was in your cd/cassette player when you were 16?
It was a cassette player and it was Patti Smith, The Clash, Led Zeppelin and Simon and Garfunkel.

28. Favourite fancy/upscale restaurant?
Don’t have one. My favourite eateries are cheap and cheerful local Thai places.

29. Where were you when you found out about 9-11?
My clock radio went off at around 6.00am as usual on the morning of 12 September but the morning DJ crew I wake to each day were talking about something serious instead of the usual joking around. I got up and turned on the TV and was horrified.

30. Do you have any children yet?
Yes, one.

A real obit this time

Kashin died today aged 40. She’s been a fixture at the Auckland zoo for as long as I can remember. She’ll be very sadly missed by everyone in Auckland and especially by her much younger best mate Burma. The zoo is closing for the day tomorrow as a tribute to her.

I took this photo of Rory with Kashin (behind Rory) and Burma earlier this year. I actually feel quite sad about her being gone, she was a big feature of my childhood.  Check out this photo gallery for some highlights.

Scary stuff

The lovely edder from I Don’t Care for your Tone came up with a list of  her fears. It’s quite the list though quite different from what scares me.

In no particular order:

1. Slipping on the edge of swimming pools. A friend broke her hip when we were 10 and since then I’m always very very careful.
2. Cancer.
3. Eels. I grew up swimming in rivers and occasionally in the deep swimming holes you’d feel something big and slippery against your leg. Things in the sea don’t scare me in anywhere near the same way.
4. Migraine headaches. Once the ‘aura’ starts the race is on to get home and into a dark room for what is inevitably 12 hours of vomiting and suicide inducing pain. Hell.
5. Something bad happening to my son.
6. Spiders. Especially those Camel Spiders that Moko told me about the other day on Twitter - check out a picture here. EEEEEEK.
7. Dying alone.

What scares you?

Butterfly Creek

It was a cold and wet Sunday afternoon here in Auckland so we needed an outing somewhere indoors. A new butterfly house has opened a few minutes from home so Rory and I went to check it out.

    

It was so lovely and warm in the butterfly house that we stayed for ages. There were thousands of butterflies and moths representing about 50 different species. Some of them were very big and I wasn’t sure about those ones landing on me – they look a bit too much like giant bugs for my liking.

I didn’t realise this place also just imported a couple of huge crocodiles from north Queensland. I had never seen anything like them. I got a pic of the biggest one; 45 years old and 4.8 metres long. Mind blowing.There’s also a petting zoo and though Rory’s a bit old for such things, we couldn’t resist. The baby guinea pigs were adorable. It was a nice afternoon. I’m very conscious that soon Rory will want to forgo such forays with his mother so I make sure to appreciate them while I can.

All grown up (almost)

My son went through a rite of passage last night at his first senior school ball. A fabulous time was had by all and he’s even more in ‘serious like’ with the sweet Rhiannon.

It takes my breath away to think that next week Rory will be 16 and he has only 18 months left of high school before he starts university in 2011. He’s decided he wants to teach; senior level history, geography and biology so he’s planning to complete two degrees in arts and science. Teaching will never make him rich but I am very happy he’s found his passion. He has the perfect attitude for it, he’s caring, calm, patient and tolerant and importantly I believe, he laughs easily.

As jadedj said poignantly in his post of yesterday, there’s a sadness to it. My baby boy is nearly all grown up and not needing me in the same way he has done for the last 16 years.

Bitter sweet. But of course I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Momma always said…

…that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

I am determined to start making a better go of breakfast during the week rather than the current situation where Rory gobbles down his cereal standing at the kitchen sink and I grab something, usually unhealthy, when I get a chance later in the day at work. I want to be one of those families where breakfast is a sit down event. 

In my fantasy world, every morning there would be a clean and pressed plain white Irish linen tablecloth on the table and freshly squeezed chilled pulpy orange juice in tall glasses. Our places would be set with an eclectic but stylish mix of old fashioned pretty crockery and there would be rich dark cappuccino in beautifully glazed cups. Rory and I would sit down and chat for at least 15 minutes about our plans for the upcoming day.

We’d be eating…

IN SUMMER:

• Monday: A fresh made waffle with locally grown berries and yoghurt. 
• Tuesday: Light toasted muesli with fresh apricot and peach fruit salad.
• Wednesday: A buttery croissant with a slice of gruyere cheese and a couple of slices of tomato.
• Thursday: Kellogg's crunchy nut cornflakes followed by a hot piece of toasted Vogels bread with Marmite.
• Friday: Half a juicy pink grapefruit followed by a creamy banana and yoghurt smoothie.

 

IN WINTER:

• Monday: A cherry tomato and spring onion omelette.
• Tuesday: A bowl of porridge with sultanas, cinnamon and a wee sprinkling of brown sugar.
• Wednesday: A short stack of pancakes with real maple syrup and banana.
• Thursday: A poached egg on Vogels 12 grain toast with a drop of HP sauce.
• Friday:  Grilled chicken bacon with a toasted sesame bagel and cream cheese.

 

 

…or something like that *sigh*

How about you? What’s your idea of the very best week day breakfast options? Feel free to put me to complete shame and share your family’s breakfast routine.

Mothers Day

Had a delicious breakfast in bed this morning for Mothers Day and scored a lovely new pair of slippers which is great with winter fast approaching.

I think Rory was trying hard to get me out of my ‘funk’ of the last couple of days and suggested we jump in the car and go get his suit hire organised for the school ball on June 6. He rang his date as she wanted to come and bring her dress so they could co-ordinate their look. We picked her up on the way and I watched his eyes light up as she came down her front steps. He’s besotted.

It was a great idea to get out of the house for a couple of hours. It was wonderful seeing him looking so grown up (and suave even) in a beautiful black single breasted jacket with a charcoal shirt and silvery grey embroidered waistcoat and tie. I enjoy watching him and his girl interact; he’s gentlemanly and considerate - I’m really proud of the man he’s becoming.

I love you son.

What a day

A terrible car accident happened right in front of me on my way home from work tonight.  I rang 111 and parked my car so my hazard lights would warn other cars coming as it was quite a dark semi-rural road. 

A woman of about my age or a bit younger maybe, was badly hurt and I was the first one to her. I couldn’t open any of her car doors and the steering wheel was jammed into her legs which were obviously broken. I could get to her through the broken window, she had a bad cut on her forehead and I was trying to stop the bleeding with her gym towel while holding her hand as she was freaking out and wouldn’t let me go.  By this time another couple of cars had arrived and people had got a guy out of the other car.  He didn’t seem too badly hurt.

The ambulance arrived super quickly thank God as the woman was losing consciousness and I didn’t know what to do. Some guys who’d arrived managed to get her car door open with brute force and the ambo’s officers eased her out of the car.

When they had her out I saw her phone on the floor by the pedals. There’s a big thing in NZ about listing an ICE (in case of emergency) number on your cell phone so I thought I’d have a look and sure enough there was an ICE in her contacts so I rang the number and got her husband. The ambo’s told me which hospital they were heading to. Poor guy, I hated telling him.

This was all well over two hours ago but my heart is still racing and my hands are shaking as I type. Rory reckons I was really pale and my bloody clothes gave him a heck of a fright when I walked in the door. I spent 20 minutes in the shower trying to warm up when I got home - it poured with cold autumn rain through the whole episode and I was frozen to the bone. That reminds me I had better go put my blouse in to soak now.

Freaky day.

I don’t even know her name (I think the husband said Olivia) but she’ll be in my prayers tonight.

Solicitation

I don’t know about where you live dear reader, but here In New Zealand it’s perfectly legal to ‘cold’ call private residential land lines and tout for work or solicit charitable donations.

Then, to add insult to injury, if you’re silly enough to agree to donate to a particular charity in this way, you run the very real risk of having your details on sold to other charities.

It has reached the point now where 6 to 8 calls to my fixed line every single week are from various charities looking for support. I would be bankrupt if I made even a small donation at every request but, to my immense frustration, I am a salesperson’s dream – I just can’t say no. I just can’t. The sales pitch works on me because I can’t stand to see anyone go without whether it be new toys for the local kids hospital or accommodation for families of kids with kidney problems through to funding for our local rescue helicopter. I just can’t say no.

My solution is to stop answering the phone.

I haven’t answered my home phone for months without screening first. Rory is well trained – he can pick a cold caller from a thousand yards and says I’m out.  They have to get tired of ringing at some stage. It’s a form of freakin’ terrorism when I can’t answer my own phone for risk of it costing me money.

Now don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe in supporting the charities of your choice. I do and I am more than happy to continue to do so each year.  I am a long term supporter and member of WSPA, Red Cross, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and a couple of other organisations that I believe maximise the use of every dollar I  donate.

I just don’t want to be stalked and hassled at every turn.

Now before you suggest I do the hang up thing or get brutal with them, I don’t blame the actual caller – they’re just trying to make a living. All I want is some sort of ‘no call’ register where I can get my name and phone number recorded and which says that I do not to be called on my home phone number. I understand that the UK has such a thing and I have written (repeatedly) to NZ’s privacy ombudsman about having this option available here. I will not be giving up any time soon as there does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel so far.

Is this a problem where you live?

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A big Quiet Life welcome to ‘simple life’: my 40th follower! Thanks for stopping by and joining the crew. Join in and let me know what you think.

The Mighty Chiefs

For those of you not familiar with the game of rugby union, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are in the middle of the ‘Super 14’ competition.  14 teams from the 3 nations compete for the title each year.

Due to a quirk of geography my team is the Chiefs.  Even though the Chiefs home stadium is in Hamilton city which is 90 minutes away, Rory and I try to get to at least a couple of games every season.

They tend to build into a great team throughout the competition each year but towards the business end of the competition the wheels can fall off. The team then struggles along to the end where they only very occasionally make the playoffs.

This year though we’re seeing a rejuvenated and highly motivated team who are real competition contenders. We’re 10 rounds through the competition already and after this morning’s win over the Cheetahs in Kimberley, South Africa, the Chiefs are on the top of the points table. Yes, you read that right – the TOP of the table.

It’s freakin’ fantastic.

There’s 4 more rounds to go before the playoffs; 2 more games in South Africa (Bulls and Stormers)  and then 2 final home games against our own Wellington Hurricanes and the ACT Brumbies from Australia.  From these 4 teams, only the Bulls from Pretoria are in any kind of reasonable form.

There’ll be lots of fingers and toes crossed in this household. Go the Mighty Chiefs!

WALK-A-THON 2009

Rory and I have been out walking for the annual school overseas fundraiser.

I am exhausted.

We made the full 12 kilometres which was easy for Rory but a bit of a struggle for me as we walked at a much faster pace than my normal saunter.

Over the next few days we will collect all the sponsorship funds from friends, colleagues and family who’ve been unlucky enough to run into us over the last couple of weeks. Rory and I estimate we’ve raised between us about NZ$460 which we think is pretty damn good going. The fundraising this year is to help rebuild a storm damaged primary school in Samoa. We felt we deserved a nice brunch after our efforts so traipsed to our favourite cafe which is in the middle of our local garden centre (see below the view from our table of the seedling nursery). We scoffed down eggs Benedict with salmon on focaccia for me and pancakes with bacon and maple syrup for Rory. All washed down with strong hot coffee for me and berry juice for Rory. Mmmmmmm it was good. A good morning all in all.

Coasting

You may recall that last Sundays walk took me and Bonnie out through the Waiuku forest to Kariotahi beach which is a wild west coast beach facing out into the Tasman Sea.

Today after the family Easter festivities were concluded we headed home, collected the dog and headed to the east coast inner Waitamata harbour beaches which are 10 minutes from home. I am mindful that in the next few weeks our weather is going to start getting pretty abysmal so I’m all about maximising outdoor time right now.  I knew the tide would be out but Umapuia and Maraetai beaches are nice spots anyway. Plus it’s too cold to swim already anyway so the tide situation doesn’t matter.

I actually remembered I had my camera with me today so I’ve taken some shots to show you. The light wasn’t great as it was late afternoon already by the time we got to the beach so some of the last shots are taken at dusk.

Hope they’re of some interest.  Click to enlarge.

    Then it was practically dark and getting cold so we packed ourselves and our sandy and wet dog back into the wagon and headed home.

It’s been a lovely day and I hope everyone else has a great day too. There’s been lots of food,  a bit of the wider family, some yummy chocolate and a lot of spending time with those precious to me. Getting to the beach was a bonus.

With malice

 

 

Ring ring, ring ring (my land line)

 

 “Hi, Lou here”

(Mature woman’s voice) “Whoever you are, stop ringing me”

“Sorry? Who is this?”

“My name is (bleep bleep) and I keep getting missed calls from this number on my cell phone with no messages left.”

“Oh. It’s just me and my kid living here – wait a minute; I have a teenage son, any chance you have a teenage son or daughter that he might be trying to reach?”

“My children are grown up. Stop ringing this number or I’ll call the police. I will only warn you once. I’m filing an immediate complaint with Telecom about the malicious calls.”

..and hangs up. Hard.

Total over-reaction to a wrong number I think but as I don’t have caller ID on my land line, I don’t know if Rory has been calling her number for some reason.  He’s at his dads tonight but I’ll figure it out when I talk to him tomorrow.

I’ll be checking the next phone bill that arrives. Weird. 

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I always want to say ‘have a great day’ or some such at the end of my posts but I can’t as a couple of you are reading at the end of the day straight after I post while others are reading at the end of the previous day and still others of you are actually reading earlier on today (I think that about covers all 5 of you who visit)

It’s  a life long mystery actually, I’ve never fully gotten my head around the concept that the Antipodes have already finished the day when the other side of the planet is just starting out – surely we down under should be able to take advantage of this situation somehow - it just seems plain ungrateful to squander a God given head start.

Auckland, NZ    

Good night. Good day.

Goosebumps

I am still home today and still feeling nasty, though not quite so bad as yesterday. In between frantic, but less frequent, dashes to view the porcelain sculpture, I have been reading my book, browsing blogs and watching a bit of TV.

It’s only 11am and I am bored already.

I should now be logging in to my work e-mail and seeing what’s there but I figure what the heck, it’ll wait…

Instead I am going to share a weird, tingly story that mystifies me to this day. All my friends refuse to listen to me talk about this anymore so I’m going to share it with my friends in cyberspace.

In my early 30’s I had a short stint as a part time nanny but I was not a very good one. What I mean is I was responsible and all that and really liked the kid I cared for but I just didn’t really love being a nanny and I think it’s one of those jobs that’s actually more of a calling that a job. It fitted in nicely with what I needed at the time as I was studying part time, Rory was 3 and I could bring him with me for the couple of days a week I was needed.

Anyway…

I was lying on the lounge floor playing with Rory and with 4 year old Imogen when Imogen’s mum, Sandra arrived home to their small farm 30 minutes south of the city. As she came in the front door she called out “Hi, where are you all?”. Her coming home unexpectedly was not unusual so we just continued playing and I yelled out to her in the hallway “Hi, we’re in the lounge”.

I heard her walk up the hall into the kitchen, open the fridge and then she asked “Have you guys had lunch yet? Shall I make us some sandwiches?”. I said that would be great and then heard her taking things out of the fridge and getting some plates and glasses out of the cupboard. 

A few minutes later the Lego zoo that Imogen, Rory and I had been building was complete and so we washed up for lunch. 

When we got to the kitchen the breakfast bar was set with plates and glasses and the bread, butter and some sliced ham were set out but Sandra was nowhere to be seen.  The fridge door was hanging open. While I started preparing sandwiches for the kids, Imogen went to find her mum. A couple of minutes later she was back saying she couldn’t find her. I called out too but still Sandra didn’t respond. Now I was worried, had she fallen or something somewhere in the large house? After unsuccessfully searching  for her again myself, I rang her flash new cell phone (it was still quite fancy having a cell phone here in NZ in the mid 90’s).

Sandra answered sounding flustered. She couldn’t talk right now as she was just going into a meeting with a client in the city and she was late and still needed time to prepare for her presentation.  “Is it important?” she asked me. I was speechless. And completely and utterly spooked. And I still am to this day.

Rory and I never set foot inside that house again.

My Town

I liked Uamada’s idea of snapping some pictures while out walking to show us what his town’s like.

Being me though, I have opted for the motorised version and after collecting Rory this afternoon, I handed him the camera and instructed to shoot anything that caught his fancy while we drove home. The first couple are shot from the car travelling on the Southern Motorway.

Hover your curser over the picture for a descriptor and you can double click to enlarge as usual…

      

  I hope this gives you an idea of what’s like here in suburban NZ.

I believe it’s much like any other city I’ve been to in other parts of the world though less crowded perhaps and more spread out too – we tend to like our space us kiwi’s.

Papakura is the southern most part of greater Auckland and retains some strongly rural roots – it’s 10 minutes from my place to farm land in almost any direction except north.

Motherhood Update

Home from work in time to cook dinner the last 3 nights?

Back to overseeing homework?

House spic and span?

Fridge and pantry well stocked with nutritious food?

Washing folded and back in drawers?

Resumed nagging about chores, showering, shoe cleaning, tooth brushing, hair shampooing and room tidying?

Back in the running for mother of the year?

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What a relief!

I was really starting to worry that I was turning in to one of those mothers whose own needs superseded those of their child. I realise now that I’m unlikely to leave any significant mark on this world so I consider that my main reason for being here is to raise a good and useful citizen who may be in a better position (i.e. smarter and more able) to leave his positive mark on the world.

I know that in only a few short years, the boy/man will be doing his own thing and may or may not be regularly in my life and I accept that but…

I would hate myself if any ambivalence on his part related to his perception of ambivalence on mine.

Broken toes

Rory arrived off the bus from school today with 2 toes on his right foot broken, bruised and strapped together and him struggling along with a crutch and his school bag and his football boot bag. Lucky I was home (worked from home today) when he texted from the bus to tell me he was hurt and I was able to zip down to the bus stop and collect him.

In the 3 years he’s been at his high school, he has developed quite a relationship with the school nurse - she’s stitched his cut feet more than once, she’s waited with him while the ambulance arrived when he was knocked out on the sports field, she’s strapped broken fingers on at least 3 separate occasions and iced his strained muscles, she’s given him panadol and a quiet place to sit when he started getting headaches last year and generally looked out for him and rung me as required. Most weeks he visits the sick bay for one injury or another, thankfully he usually only requires a sticking plaster or an icepack for 10 minutes and then he’s off again. She’s an older lady and she claims he’s her reason for not retiring yet – he makes her feel useful :-)

Rory is not particularly accident prone, he’s just a big strong very active boy, he’s 15 and just reached 182cm, (or fractionally over 6” for the non-metricated amongst us) and spends every lunch time with his mates playing either their own variation of American football or something else they call Canadian Forceback . All I know is that sewing up his school uniform shirts and trousers (he’s at a single sex school with quite a formal uniform) is a weekly occurrence when they comes home ripped, with buttons missing and almost always covered in grass stains. At least once a week he’s got a massive new bruise or two somewhere. After all the orthodontic work he’s had I insist he wears a mouth guard at all times playing these full contact ‘games’ and so far no damage thankfully to his pearly whites.

Apparently one of his mates landed on his foot with his knee while they were playing at lunch time today and his poor toes are very obviously broken, bruised and very swollen. We hardly bother with x-rays and doctors visits for toes these days as there’s nothing they can do besides strapping when they’re broken anyway.

He’s not complaining but is worried that his football (soccer) team are mustering within the next couple of weeks to get started on training before the season starts, and he wants to be in good shape for that.

I’m lucky he’s a tough kid.