At the risk of being boring on the Mark stuff, Dad said he couldn't see him very well in the other picture - so here's another... still got the sunnies!
25 April 2006
...It wasn't Red Sausages, it was Luncheon Meat!!!
Ah yes, the party was fab!! The orange shirt, which cost $4.32, looked absolutely disgusting and wasn't helped by the fact that it was a 3XL (they didn't have any smaller!!) and I had to tie a knot on my left hip (very 1979!) - the bandana also looked a bit dodgy but fortunately, Mark was not unduly fazed by my new look! (But then remember the sunglasses - and he does have a banana yellow pair the same!) Highlights of the party included each of the five teams singing Waltzing Matilda (!!) on a roundabout outside a very nice local restaurant, the loss of my very fetching, and very cheap jandals (still not retrieved 4 days later) and the strange disappearance of road signs, realtor boards and street furniture not nailed down! I think Malcolm was planning on putting them back them on Sunday, but I can't remember what we 'moved' from where, so I can't tell if they have been returned!
Anyway, moving on!! Mark scored a gazillion points last night when he turned up with a treadmill. This could be construed as a not very flattering and a not very subtle hint, except for the fact that ever since I have known Mark I have groaned about the fact that since John left, I've not been able to get out for walks. Thinking about it, I guess most of you lot, have not seen me when I am in fit mode! About 3 years ago I discovered walking and within not very long at all I was walking 5 - 6 times a week for about an hour. Clocking up about 40 - 45 km per week. A bit after that I discovered the gym and after losing about 3 stone was actually looking quite trim and even had abs!! If you doubt me, I do have photographic proof of this, but I intend to be buried with it! Strangely John left when I was actually looking the best I had looked in 15 years - read into that what you like!!! Anyway, since his departure, I have gradually inflated and without some serious effort I will soon be unable to leave the house for want of a wide enough door frame!
Anyway, tomorrow I will be up at 5 am and will make a very gentle start on my wobbly bits! Hopefully, Rangi will be kind and reward me with a spectacular sunrise!
Other news? Yes, course going ok. Harder work than I had anticipated but enjoying it immensely. We were given our essays back a couple of weeks ago - which I passed. There are 3 marks, pass, fail and resit - so I guess I will be pleased with my grade, but somehow, just 'pass' is strangely unsatisfying!! We have another assignment due on May 22nd - the Case of Joan. We have to figure out why she is where she is career wise and try to find a way forward - suffice it to say, Joan is a tad unconventional!
Today is ANZAC Day, which is a public holiday. The girls have been in the parade in their Brownie and Guiding gear. And yesterday I did my best to explain what it is that the war dead have bought us. I explained about poppies, and Gallipoli - and then I ventured into a metaphoric explanation revolving around Louisa deciding that she wanted to have Becca's room too - and Mummy deciding whether she was going to let Lou get away with it or not - because obviously, if I stood by and did nothing, then next thing I know, Lou is going to take over the living room too! Needless to say, the girls were bemused at my persistence and none the wiser at the end of it!! I shall try again next year! Personally, I have never forgotten the first time I saw the Festival of remembrance at the Albert Hall when the poppies fall from above and just keep falling and falling and falling.
Anyway! Anzac Day! Post parade, Louisa is trying to master her roller blades! We gave them to her for her 6th (maybe 7th?) birthday, (Fortunately we got the kind that grow!) and they have gathered dust at the bottom of her wardrobe for the last 3 / 4 years! Sadly, here is not the best place to try them out - we live at the top of a steep hill and have cobbles down our drive, so she has resorted to going round and round the garage. Still, if she takes to it, maybe she can have a new pair for Christmas and we'll have to look for a house in a flat street or with a flat drive!
Speaking houses... We actually did some 'Open Homes' on Sunday. Another curious Kiwi thing. The Real Estate man doesn't ring you up and say 'can I bring a bloke round at 3.00?', instead, on a Saturday and Sunday, you clean your house, gather up your children and head for the swimming pool / cafe while the realtor, sits in your house while hoards of people tramp through having a bit of a nosey. Not all are buyers - some are just getting ideas for their new sofa, others are just seeing how the other half live, but one or two may just be interested in buying your house!
So, we had a look at a couple of places - one was gorgeous, expensive, but no spare room and nowhere for the girls to play and the other one we could afford, but was in a horrid area and was just yuk! (All that money and an English degree and you still only get 'horrid' and 'yuk') - then we had a look at a couple of sections (land - another kiwism!) (oh and sheets and linen are 'Manchester'!) several very steep, (this is Auckland of course!) and one quite usable, but we seem to have missed that one!
Mark had his place valued this morning (scarey) and I'm starting to think that maybe 'it's' actually going to happen. Despite all the hassle that is going on with the settlement and the divorce, it suddenly feels like the girls and I are very nearly out of that forest. Apart from all the things Mark is and all the things he does for us, he just seems to fit. He seems to be part of us. John will always be Daddy - and the girls will have another happy little world with him and Sharron - but in my little part of the world, with Mark and Lou and Becca things are feeling very right and very normal. When John left it felt like the world would never be the same again. It felt like something was broken that could never be fixed - right now, I am just starting to acknowledge that maybe I was wrong and it feels bloody marvelous!
And with that, I am going to bugger off and play on my treadmill -
huge snogs from the land of the long white cloud. xxxx
Anyway, moving on!! Mark scored a gazillion points last night when he turned up with a treadmill. This could be construed as a not very flattering and a not very subtle hint, except for the fact that ever since I have known Mark I have groaned about the fact that since John left, I've not been able to get out for walks. Thinking about it, I guess most of you lot, have not seen me when I am in fit mode! About 3 years ago I discovered walking and within not very long at all I was walking 5 - 6 times a week for about an hour. Clocking up about 40 - 45 km per week. A bit after that I discovered the gym and after losing about 3 stone was actually looking quite trim and even had abs!! If you doubt me, I do have photographic proof of this, but I intend to be buried with it! Strangely John left when I was actually looking the best I had looked in 15 years - read into that what you like!!! Anyway, since his departure, I have gradually inflated and without some serious effort I will soon be unable to leave the house for want of a wide enough door frame!
Anyway, tomorrow I will be up at 5 am and will make a very gentle start on my wobbly bits! Hopefully, Rangi will be kind and reward me with a spectacular sunrise!
Other news? Yes, course going ok. Harder work than I had anticipated but enjoying it immensely. We were given our essays back a couple of weeks ago - which I passed. There are 3 marks, pass, fail and resit - so I guess I will be pleased with my grade, but somehow, just 'pass' is strangely unsatisfying!! We have another assignment due on May 22nd - the Case of Joan. We have to figure out why she is where she is career wise and try to find a way forward - suffice it to say, Joan is a tad unconventional!
Today is ANZAC Day, which is a public holiday. The girls have been in the parade in their Brownie and Guiding gear. And yesterday I did my best to explain what it is that the war dead have bought us. I explained about poppies, and Gallipoli - and then I ventured into a metaphoric explanation revolving around Louisa deciding that she wanted to have Becca's room too - and Mummy deciding whether she was going to let Lou get away with it or not - because obviously, if I stood by and did nothing, then next thing I know, Lou is going to take over the living room too! Needless to say, the girls were bemused at my persistence and none the wiser at the end of it!! I shall try again next year! Personally, I have never forgotten the first time I saw the Festival of remembrance at the Albert Hall when the poppies fall from above and just keep falling and falling and falling.
Anyway! Anzac Day! Post parade, Louisa is trying to master her roller blades! We gave them to her for her 6th (maybe 7th?) birthday, (Fortunately we got the kind that grow!) and they have gathered dust at the bottom of her wardrobe for the last 3 / 4 years! Sadly, here is not the best place to try them out - we live at the top of a steep hill and have cobbles down our drive, so she has resorted to going round and round the garage. Still, if she takes to it, maybe she can have a new pair for Christmas and we'll have to look for a house in a flat street or with a flat drive!
Speaking houses... We actually did some 'Open Homes' on Sunday. Another curious Kiwi thing. The Real Estate man doesn't ring you up and say 'can I bring a bloke round at 3.00?', instead, on a Saturday and Sunday, you clean your house, gather up your children and head for the swimming pool / cafe while the realtor, sits in your house while hoards of people tramp through having a bit of a nosey. Not all are buyers - some are just getting ideas for their new sofa, others are just seeing how the other half live, but one or two may just be interested in buying your house!
So, we had a look at a couple of places - one was gorgeous, expensive, but no spare room and nowhere for the girls to play and the other one we could afford, but was in a horrid area and was just yuk! (All that money and an English degree and you still only get 'horrid' and 'yuk') - then we had a look at a couple of sections (land - another kiwism!) (oh and sheets and linen are 'Manchester'!) several very steep, (this is Auckland of course!) and one quite usable, but we seem to have missed that one!
Mark had his place valued this morning (scarey) and I'm starting to think that maybe 'it's' actually going to happen. Despite all the hassle that is going on with the settlement and the divorce, it suddenly feels like the girls and I are very nearly out of that forest. Apart from all the things Mark is and all the things he does for us, he just seems to fit. He seems to be part of us. John will always be Daddy - and the girls will have another happy little world with him and Sharron - but in my little part of the world, with Mark and Lou and Becca things are feeling very right and very normal. When John left it felt like the world would never be the same again. It felt like something was broken that could never be fixed - right now, I am just starting to acknowledge that maybe I was wrong and it feels bloody marvelous!
And with that, I am going to bugger off and play on my treadmill -
huge snogs from the land of the long white cloud. xxxx
18 April 2006
Orange T-Shirts and Red Sausages....
Well, Phillip, Tracey and "the cousins" have been and gone. My first essay is in and is now returned; have done Wellington; School Fair is all finished up and Easter has now been reduced to chocolate egg wrappers scattered liberally around my newly hoovered carpet! It is now Saturday. The girls are with John this weekend and I have had the luxury of an extremely lazy day painting my toe nails, looking at the property press and spray painting larey t-shirts! (more of that later!)
The girls are off school for Easter and as a result, I too have been 'off'. School broke up on the day before Good Friday and was the last time I rushed anywhere! I had promised myself we would have our Citizenship application in by Easter - which inevitably meant racing round having photos taken, finding a JP for his signatures and getting all the paperwork done only on the day before my deadline!!! (When will I learn?) Anyway, posted applications by courier post and hopefully my charming offspring and I will be holders of both British and Kiwi passports by the end of the year.
Since then, there has been an eerie, unhurried calm over 5 Le Roy Terrace! I have slept late everyday, so have the girls. We have eaten together, played games, gone to the movies and generally chilled out - and God it was needed. One of the things I hate about single parenthood is the rushing everywhere. Children in general do not really understand the concept of being on time, (actually that could be nothing to do with children in general, but rather something to do with Percy family genes???!) and as a result mornings in particular are fraught with tension, and tardy children are harassed verbally, very loudly! Generally we get where we are supposed to be near to when we are supposed to be - but rarely actually when! Thus, holiday time is as much a calm down time for the girls. First day of the holidays Becca asked me how long she was allowed to stay in the bath. It was 10.00am and we had nothing on so I hollered back something along the lines of "As long as you like, Hun!" - she eventually emerged from the waters purple and prune like at 1.08pm!
Apart from the usual everyday knackeredness that seems to prevail in most youngish families, ours had been exacerbated by the recent visit from the Southampton branch of the Le Riches. It was fab to see them (please note that I have to be nice about them here as Tracey will be reading this!!) really fab. They were only here a couple of weeks but they spent time with us in Wellington (nice place, but not as nice as Auckland!), time doing the tourist track on their own, time with John and they also swung 3 days in the Coromandel with my two small people in tow. They stayed at a friend of Soph's bach in a place called Cooks Beach. I went there with Soph before we moved here and remember it as being incredibly peaceful. The house is so close to the beach that you can hear the waves as you lie in bed drifting off to sleep. (Tracey says she couldn't, personally I think that she is probably going deaf rather than me romanticising about Cooks in the intervening 6 years?!!) That said, I remember thinking at the time that Cooks was the most beautiful beach I had ever been to - and then Soph took me to three others within 15 mins drive and I had to confess that they were every bit as gorgeous - and maybe even more so!! (you may have noticed that I like the Coromandel!) Where the English coastline is traditionally adorned with promenades, beach huts, pink rock, kiss me quick hats and ice cream shops that sell buckets, spades, rubber rings and fishing nets, kiwi beaches are just where the land ends. No shops, rarely even a loo, just sparse long grass then sand then sea. Gorgeous. Anyway apparently Cooks worked it's magic on Tracey and Phillip too, as I got a message in the middle of their second day saying something like "We aren't ever coming back, we are staying here for ever and if you want to see your children again you'll have to come and get them!!!"
Having waved goodbye to Josh, Megan and the big LRs at Ungodly O'clock a couple of Mondays ago, we now find ourselves in the middle of a rather changeable Autumn. Today started grey and rainy, has since been blue and sunny and now looks grey again, which is a bit of a bugger as my painted t-shirts will probably run all over my jeans, my feet and the pavement! I ought to really get onto explaining that, oughtn't I?...
...Friend Kerry, (husband Malcolm put up the girls netball net...) is 40 this weekend and is partying. She has rather magnanimously decided that her friends need more exercise and has put together a Scavenger Hunt round Birkenhead for us to complete - whilst not very sober. I gather that one of the tasks to be completed is to order a Kilo of 'red sausages' (curious kiwi speciality - size of cocktail sausages but wrapped in red frankfurter skin and boiled in water. Adults DO NOT eat these thing - they are awful enough that only children like these delicacies and quite predictably they adore them!!) - anyway, yes, Kerry wants us to buy a kilo of these hideously awful sausages and to finish eating them before we go through the checkouts - photographic proof required!! Whilst carrying out these exploits we have to wear t-shirts in our team colours - which we have now spray painted with various birthday messages - my hands are blue and pink and my t-shirt is orange!!!! Thanks Kerry! I will be taking some photos with a digital camera - and if I can figure out how it works, I may post some of the resulting photos some time next week - I will not be in any of them - I am not sure that an orange spray painted t-shirt accompanied by an orange bandana is really going do much for my image!
I think I am rambling! Yes, Autumn. My garden is looking atrocious. The flower beds have disintegrated into weed beds and my attempts at cultivating lavender bushes seem to have failed - judging by the small black sticky things which are now residing in the places that I put the lavender! My lawn is half mown, half not. My excuse is that I ran out of time, light, petrol and energy. Plus, there are two spots that I can't mow because they contain dead animals - one is a dead mouse - the other a dead bird - at some point I will look witheringly pathetic at Mark until he gives in and moves them for me! Have already mown round their resting places twice!
I haven't finished!! BUT, my team mates are arriving here in 45 minutes and it is going to be difficult enough to look normal in orange without complicating things greatly by trying to look normal quickly! So, I will take a breath here - and return tomorrow evening - possibly with the remnants of a hangover!
Snogs xx
PS, in case I forget tomorrow - the School Fair went really well. I did the quick fire raffle - a raffle every 7 minutes with baskets of goodies to be won - $1200 in 2 hours - not bad - but I couldn't speak (ha ha!! Yes I know!) for most of the following week. The fair as a whole made $17,000 which was a fantastic result bearing in mind it was only our second fair - and the first only made $6000! Gotta go - orange t-shirt awaits!
The girls are off school for Easter and as a result, I too have been 'off'. School broke up on the day before Good Friday and was the last time I rushed anywhere! I had promised myself we would have our Citizenship application in by Easter - which inevitably meant racing round having photos taken, finding a JP for his signatures and getting all the paperwork done only on the day before my deadline!!! (When will I learn?) Anyway, posted applications by courier post and hopefully my charming offspring and I will be holders of both British and Kiwi passports by the end of the year.
Since then, there has been an eerie, unhurried calm over 5 Le Roy Terrace! I have slept late everyday, so have the girls. We have eaten together, played games, gone to the movies and generally chilled out - and God it was needed. One of the things I hate about single parenthood is the rushing everywhere. Children in general do not really understand the concept of being on time, (actually that could be nothing to do with children in general, but rather something to do with Percy family genes???!) and as a result mornings in particular are fraught with tension, and tardy children are harassed verbally, very loudly! Generally we get where we are supposed to be near to when we are supposed to be - but rarely actually when! Thus, holiday time is as much a calm down time for the girls. First day of the holidays Becca asked me how long she was allowed to stay in the bath. It was 10.00am and we had nothing on so I hollered back something along the lines of "As long as you like, Hun!" - she eventually emerged from the waters purple and prune like at 1.08pm!
Apart from the usual everyday knackeredness that seems to prevail in most youngish families, ours had been exacerbated by the recent visit from the Southampton branch of the Le Riches. It was fab to see them (please note that I have to be nice about them here as Tracey will be reading this!!) really fab. They were only here a couple of weeks but they spent time with us in Wellington (nice place, but not as nice as Auckland!), time doing the tourist track on their own, time with John and they also swung 3 days in the Coromandel with my two small people in tow. They stayed at a friend of Soph's bach in a place called Cooks Beach. I went there with Soph before we moved here and remember it as being incredibly peaceful. The house is so close to the beach that you can hear the waves as you lie in bed drifting off to sleep. (Tracey says she couldn't, personally I think that she is probably going deaf rather than me romanticising about Cooks in the intervening 6 years?!!) That said, I remember thinking at the time that Cooks was the most beautiful beach I had ever been to - and then Soph took me to three others within 15 mins drive and I had to confess that they were every bit as gorgeous - and maybe even more so!! (you may have noticed that I like the Coromandel!) Where the English coastline is traditionally adorned with promenades, beach huts, pink rock, kiss me quick hats and ice cream shops that sell buckets, spades, rubber rings and fishing nets, kiwi beaches are just where the land ends. No shops, rarely even a loo, just sparse long grass then sand then sea. Gorgeous. Anyway apparently Cooks worked it's magic on Tracey and Phillip too, as I got a message in the middle of their second day saying something like "We aren't ever coming back, we are staying here for ever and if you want to see your children again you'll have to come and get them!!!"
Having waved goodbye to Josh, Megan and the big LRs at Ungodly O'clock a couple of Mondays ago, we now find ourselves in the middle of a rather changeable Autumn. Today started grey and rainy, has since been blue and sunny and now looks grey again, which is a bit of a bugger as my painted t-shirts will probably run all over my jeans, my feet and the pavement! I ought to really get onto explaining that, oughtn't I?...
...Friend Kerry, (husband Malcolm put up the girls netball net...) is 40 this weekend and is partying. She has rather magnanimously decided that her friends need more exercise and has put together a Scavenger Hunt round Birkenhead for us to complete - whilst not very sober. I gather that one of the tasks to be completed is to order a Kilo of 'red sausages' (curious kiwi speciality - size of cocktail sausages but wrapped in red frankfurter skin and boiled in water. Adults DO NOT eat these thing - they are awful enough that only children like these delicacies and quite predictably they adore them!!) - anyway, yes, Kerry wants us to buy a kilo of these hideously awful sausages and to finish eating them before we go through the checkouts - photographic proof required!! Whilst carrying out these exploits we have to wear t-shirts in our team colours - which we have now spray painted with various birthday messages - my hands are blue and pink and my t-shirt is orange!!!! Thanks Kerry! I will be taking some photos with a digital camera - and if I can figure out how it works, I may post some of the resulting photos some time next week - I will not be in any of them - I am not sure that an orange spray painted t-shirt accompanied by an orange bandana is really going do much for my image!
I think I am rambling! Yes, Autumn. My garden is looking atrocious. The flower beds have disintegrated into weed beds and my attempts at cultivating lavender bushes seem to have failed - judging by the small black sticky things which are now residing in the places that I put the lavender! My lawn is half mown, half not. My excuse is that I ran out of time, light, petrol and energy. Plus, there are two spots that I can't mow because they contain dead animals - one is a dead mouse - the other a dead bird - at some point I will look witheringly pathetic at Mark until he gives in and moves them for me! Have already mown round their resting places twice!
I haven't finished!! BUT, my team mates are arriving here in 45 minutes and it is going to be difficult enough to look normal in orange without complicating things greatly by trying to look normal quickly! So, I will take a breath here - and return tomorrow evening - possibly with the remnants of a hangover!
Snogs xx
PS, in case I forget tomorrow - the School Fair went really well. I did the quick fire raffle - a raffle every 7 minutes with baskets of goodies to be won - $1200 in 2 hours - not bad - but I couldn't speak (ha ha!! Yes I know!) for most of the following week. The fair as a whole made $17,000 which was a fantastic result bearing in mind it was only our second fair - and the first only made $6000! Gotta go - orange t-shirt awaits!
10 April 2006
Picture of Mark!!
At least if you scroll down there is!!
Will do proper catch up at the weekend when I am off work for 10 days, but till then - been to Wellington, passed first assignment, Tracey, Pip and kids have been and gone!
...........and here is Mark in all his glory, bad sunglasses and all!
xx
Will do proper catch up at the weekend when I am off work for 10 days, but till then - been to Wellington, passed first assignment, Tracey, Pip and kids have been and gone!
...........and here is Mark in all his glory, bad sunglasses and all!
xx
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