Law and order at the Santa Parade

Ah yes, its that time of the year.  Goodwill to all men and women, lots of Christmas cheer and grumpy security guards trying to evict me from the Santa Parade.  Well, I do exaggerate a little, but don’t worry, I held my ground!  I showed my girls you don’t have to be pushed around by a security guard!  Or two.

I tried to get there early, but half an hour before kick-off doesn’t cut it.  Some people looked like they’d spent the entire day lining the route, with camping chairs, rugs, and picnic bags.  We started off sitting on the road in front of some people in chairs, but a lovely policewoman moved us on because we were in front of the blue line painted on the road.  But that was just the start of our problems. Read more of this post

Sitting in a cloud at Piha

Today we decided to visit the new, extremely delayed but finally here, cafe at Piha.  A group of people who thought Piha could use another cafe decided about four years to open it, but various appeals led by local opposition meant it only opened on Wednesday.  It was a gloomy cloudy day, but we had another open home so had to evacuate the house. Read more of this post

Censoring Lulu

Another day, another cafe outing.  But this time, Lulu’s booming vocals were the most memorable part of the trip.

We made it through nearly the entire trip with no problems at all, then just as we were getting up to leave a genuinely enormous man walked in and approached the counter.   I looked around to see if Lulu was following me, when she opened her mouth, pointed to the man, and loudly asked:

“Has that man been – ” Read more of this post

Oh no, she’s found the phone

I was tidying up the kitchen tonight, when the phone rang.  A little voice said “Is Madeleine there?”.  Thats the first time I’ve ever heard that.  Her very first phone call, from a school friend.   Madeleine was terribly excited and they chatted for over 20 minutes.  She even threw Lucia out of her room while she chatted on the phone, like a proper little teenager.  Which she won’t be for another 7 years.

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On Sunday night Lulu asked me, “Mummy, when I grow up, will I have a baby?”.   Read more of this post

Houses and lunches

This weekend we had our first open homes, having put our house on the market.  Lots of reasons for selling, but among them is the desire to be closer to the school the girls will attend from next year, and to have a bigger house.  Anyway, after a feverish week of activity, it all looked tidier and spicker and spanner than it ever had in the 13 months we’ve been living here, and we vacated at lunch time both days.  So, being lunch time and all, we decided the best thing to do would be find a child-friendly cafe and have lunch.

All parents of young children will know the numerous minefields lurking beneath the surface of a simple trip to a cafe for lunch. Read more of this post

Adios oncology!!

Good news – I don’t have to go and see an oncologist ever again!!!  Well, unless, you know, circumstances change.  But at the moment, so long as I keep seeing an ENT regularly I don’t need to visit an oncologist.  I’ve been wondering what the point of the oncology visits is anymore, since the oncologist can’t do any more than look inside my mouth and check my neck for lumps.  The ENT does this, and more, every time I see him.

Plus, visiting the hospital is an ordeal all out of proportion to the reality of what happens when I get there.  The visit today was a text book example of Auckland DHB’s apparent inability to organise a piss up in a brewery.  Or an appointment at the oncology department. Read more of this post

Halloween!

Its Sunday night, and we are all absolutely exhausted.  The girls have collapsed gratefully into bed, and I am slumped in front of the telly (Top Gear, Richard and James are racing in a Porche to Orkney, trying to beat Royal Mail.  Excellent.)

Yesterday, after a long and very hot play at the park at Orekei Domain, we  went up to Bastion Point.  I’d never been there before and its absolutely lovely.  The views are outstanding, and on a beautiful clear day (as it was yesterday) it would be a perfect place for a picnic.   Andrew was hunting for a Geocache. (Geocaching is a kind of orienteering for the 21st century, involving an iPhone with GPS, and hunting down caches that people have hidden around the country.) Read more of this post