Is It All In My Head Little Journeys From My Mind

A couple of weeks ago the girls became seized of the idea that they simply HAD to have a goldfish.  On the basis that it was all funded from their pocket money, and that they would be responsible for all care, we agreed.

Andrew carefully investigated the options, and a starter kit was settled upon, which came with tank, filter, decorations and three goldfish.  We took the gear home, set it up, waited the recommended two days for the water to, well, do whatever the water was supposed to be doing, and that Sunday three goldfish came home.  Harry, Fred and Riley became merry little members of the household.

But alas, that wasn’t the end of the story.   Continue reading

I’m loving summer.  At the moment, Auckland is just sweltering.  Every night it cools down a little until about 9pm, and then (although I think this is actually impossible) it just seems to get hotter again, and by about 10.30pm the air conditioning is back on and the girls are kicking off their sheets.

People are complaining about the humidity, plants are dying, and some of the earth in our back garden is so dry it is cracking open.  But, I love this heat.  I’m not bothered by hot nights, and now that I’m on to my second Auckland summer, my hair isn’t getting frizzy in the humidity anymore.  (If you could see my hair you’d be pretty impressed that it ever got enough life to get frizzy at all, but it did, for about a month, last summer.)

This afternoon the girls didn’t even want to go to a park, which has literally never happened before in their lives.  So we jumped into the pool instead, which was a much better idea and I’ve got no idea why it hadn’t occurred to me earlier.

But as I put Lulu to bed she noticed that some leaves were blowing off the tree in the front lawn, and asked me if winter was on the way.  No, I cried, its miles away, but it was a good reminder – enjoy summer while it lasts!  Get outside, all ye in the southern hemisphere!

Little Bess, the quietest and best behaved member of the family by far, turned four on Sunday.  She came to us as a teeny weeny scrap of a puppy, and we’ve loved her to bits from first sight.  She’s had a few difficult moments in her life, with two operations so far for wobbly knees, a bout in dog hospital on an IV after scoffing all the Easter eggs one year, and so many failed attempts to catch mice and cats that I’ve lost count.

Despite these crushing blows, she has remained the most gentle and tolerant dog I’ve ever come across. She’s a supreme child magnet, and cannot go to a park or sit outside a cafe or school without being inundated with pats and tickles, and she bears it all with great composure.

She is so well behaved that when we pick her up from the kennel after a holiday I sometimes wonder if they are going to give her back, and when we last took her to the dog groomer they liked her so much they gave us $5 off and put bows on her ears!

So here she is, the cutest, most good natured dog in the world.

Today the news is full of the new education standards that will be rolled out in New Zealand primary schools this year.  All the stories say that children are going back to school today.  But no!  Not all children – Madeleine doesn’t start school until Thursday.  I’ve got no idea why, she’s been on holiday for about a hundred years, so its not as if she needs more time to rest.

In fact, we all need a holiday from the holidays, because MAN they go on for a long time.  Lulu went back to pre-school last week, and its really been a good thing for her.  Poor child was getting desperate for some play time with children her own age, and I think Madeleine is about to expire from boredom.  Although we’ve taken her to every park, museum and other child friendly attraction we can think of at least 10 times these holidays, its all got boring and stale to her seven year old tastes.

Madeleine turned seven yesterday, and was thrilled with all her presents and the attention that having a birthday brings.  Here’s a pic of the two little monkeys hard at play at a local park.

I know we’ve been back for about four weeks now, but I’ve finally downloaded the photos we took while on holiday at Tutukaka!  I know, its terrible that we only took four photos, but we were having such a relaxed time I guess I never thought about it.  Ah well, we have the video.

So, here are two photos taken at the bach, one at a fantastic pizza place at the Tutukaka marina, and the girls being cute with a flower.  Happy days. Continue reading

Here is another video, this time of the girls playing in the surf at Sandy Bay.  (Honestly, Europeans don’t have the best record of naming things do they – Poor Knights, North and South Island, Sandy Bay?  Its a miracle New Zealand wasn’t called A Country We Found Down South).

Ella, the girl’s friend from the bach-next-door-but-one makes a guest appearance a few times in this video.

We got home today from a week on the Tutukaka coast, which as far as I’m concerned must be one of the best places to spend a week in a New Zealand summer.  We stayed in a little bay with about half a dozen houses, which was typical of most bays on the Tutukaka coast.  We were a couple of bays from Tutukaka itself and the marina.

Our little two room bach was at one end of the bay, and it was about 5 metres from front door to beach.  The bay was shallow and calm, perfect for the girls to swim, with a small island offshore that we could row to, or walk to during low tide. Continue reading

Vertigo might be a famous Hitchcock film, but it is also a particularly awful condition which has made me so sick this weekend I had to have an injection in the thigh so that I could walk a few metres without feeling like throwing up.

I’ve had occasional bouts of vertigo since my ears were radiated in 2007, and generally its been nothing worse than a slight loss of balance when standing up.  Last Thursday and Friday I noticed that when I stopped driving and started to get out of the car, I felt as though the car was rolling forwards, but it wasn’t.  Last night I started stumbling into walls, as though I was walking on a boat in a rolling sea.   Continue reading

This has been such an exhausting weekend I don’t think I’ll be able to do it justice in this post, because I’m about to go to bed.  We have had a children’s birthday party, two open homes, two BBQ’s, a Christmas party and I’ve had a hair cut.  Which was definitely the most relaxing part of the weekend.

The girls have been treated to all manner of things, including a surprise appearance of Santa Clause at one party, followed by a special visit by Mr Whippy.  All I can say is the Higgins’ have raised the Christmas Party bar extremely high indeed, and if all their parties are like that one, I’ll be back every year.

Cornwall Park was the site of a family picnic lunch today, followed by a BBQ for Auckland geo-cachers.  It is such a lovely park.  I spent about two hours stretched out on a picnic blanket reading the Sunday papers, it was bliss.

Yesterday I found myself carrying Lulu (4 and a half) from one party to the car, and told her that really she is too old to be carried anymore, and just a bit too heavy for mummy.  She smiled happily, patted me on the shoulder, and  said “Well, thats YOUR problem.”  I was too surprised to find a witty come-back, and she’s still cute enough to get away with it.

This week we found our tent, which had been missing since we moved to Auckland, hiding inside Andrew’s dive bag.  We put it up and of course the girls immediately wanted to spend the night in the tent.  We managed to put them off camping on a school night, so last night was the big night.

But first, I was busy continuing my reputation for law breaking, by being refused service and having my drink confiscated at an inner city bar.  I seem to be attracting trouble at the moment. Continue reading