Winter's here....

Sunday was the start of winter. I know this emphatically and without a shadow of a doubt for four reasons: 1 - we had our first roast of the year: roast lamb, onion sauce, mint jelly, snips etc - followed by a rather stonking apple crumble which I didn't make. 2 - turned around the living room. In summer we face our French doors and our deck, winter we face the open fire. 3 - lit the fire (just! - come back John all is forgiven!). And 4 - fleecy PJs came out of storage.

And Blimey, it is seriously brass monkey weather!! Always forget how chilly it gets here. Don't think it is anything like as cold as the UK, but for some Godforsaken reason, no-one seems to think that GCH is very necessary here. We live in little wooden houses on hillsides with wicked winds pitching in from the Pacific, the Tasman and the cold bit by the South Pole (can never remember which is Arctic and which is Antarctic!) - and we have no radiators!! There have been evenings in the last 3 years when I have resorted to spending the evening in my sleeping bag! Mind you, the kiwis are a bit dillusional when it comes to weather. In the summer they blast everything with air conditioning so that it's almost as cold as winter.

Speaking of curious kiwi things - did you know that over here, a French door / patio door, is called a ranch slider?! Linen is Manchester. Sweeties are lollies. Ice lollies are iceblocks and trousers are pants. Never thought I would get used to the trousers / pants thing - but confess to actually calling trousers pants!

I think I have started to wander - focusing, briefly - what's new?

Girls have colds again, Rebecca has had another chest infection. It has rained for 3 weeks. I'm fatter.

Saturday is Louisa's birthday party. Yes her birthday is in January. It falls smack in the middle of the school and annual holidays so no-one is ever in Auckland and so Lou's party generally gets kicked into February. This year, however she has been really rather skanky and I have had to cancel it (with the option to buy it back with good behaviour) at least 3 times! Finally, 6 months late (or 6 months early, whichever way you prefer to look at it!), Boo is having 6 friends (including Jacob!!!) round on Saturday for the movie "A Series of Unfortunate Events" followed by Hell's Pizza and a couple of girlies staying over. Think the movie is to be accompanied by much popcorn, and the Pizza is to be followed by multi-coloured jelly sucked up through straws! She's looking forward to it - and she is behaving beautifully. Have had a lovely Loulou for about 4 weeks, but who's counting?:! Should also mention at this point that Boo has been trying to set me up with Jacob's Dad!

Two weeks after that, Becca is having her birthday party (on the day!). She's having a jewellery making party with 10 little friends. Was going to all be straight forward except that this afternoon she came home with an invitation to a friends party on the same day and at the same time! Arghh! So now, her party is preceding the other party and there will be a convoy of mothers shipping screaming 6/7 year olds to part II of the party at the local bowling alley.

After that, I think I would probably quite welcome settling into a cold bottle of unoaked Chardonnay, however, instead I will be peeling potatoes, carrots, parsnips and sprouts for 12, for Mid-winter Christmas on the Sunday. Which reminds me, at some point I really must cook off my Christmas puds!

Strangely, however much I know that we are now in Winter (see paragraph 1!) my brain does this weird loop and thinks that I should be planning New Year's Eve soon. And despite the fact that my washing seems to spend more time hanging limp and wet on the line than it does in my wardrobe (does spend a Hell of a long time scrunched up in the ironing basket too, but hey!??!), I still find myself talking about June, July and August as 'over the summer' - as in 'we'll go down to Taupo and see Megan over the summer...' - as I said, weird brain loop!

Netball continues. The girls do Chelsea Singers (I'll tell you about that another day!) on Wednesday and Thursday mornings before school, which gets me in 30 minutes early, which buys me half an hour in the afternoon - which means I get to get back from work in time to see Lou play netball. Turns out my Booie is really neat little player. Better on attack than defence. Her shooting is amazing and she marks like a little demon (till the other player gets the ball, when she kind of gives up!) - and sometimes she seems to make space! as in make it!! Anyway, I haven't played netball since I was about 15 and have never watched a whole game in my life - but suddenly Wednesday afternoon netball is the highlight of my week - not least cause I get a wee bit of time with Lou on her own. Saturday netball comes in a close second, of course!

Strange how there are some things in a situation which you don't anticipate. As in, you split up with long term husband and expect to be broke and tired. You expect to get a bit frazzled from time to time. You don't think about the fact that you will rarely get any time with either of your children on their own anymore. Thursday night is Lou's Brownie night so I get some time to read with Becs and have cuddles, and Lou I get 20 minutes after Netball - but that's about it.

Anyway.... just to complete my promises from previous blog - played Triv a couple of weeks back with a load of poms and a token kiwi. Girls led 5 - 0 for the bulk of the game, but couldn't land on the last piece of cheese - and in the end were beaten by the chaps! We wuz robbed!
Played a brief and unfinished game on Sunday after the roast as well and discovered that Matthew cheats!! (Could he have me for libel for publishing this fact on the web do you think?) - Turns out Sarah knows as much useless information as I do! - possibly more actually.

Spell checker very sad on the blog site - a 'Pom' is a poem - 'netball' is notable - 'Louisa' is logic and 'Jacob' is scabies! Oh, and defence is spelt with an s not a c!

Enough! I have flicked into burble mode! Doesn't take much, eh!?!

Bedtime - cold sheets - girls have heaters and wheatie bags - I have holey socks - woe is me!

N'night xxx