A Little Bit of Waffle on Several Wet Afternoons.....

Hello Blighty!!
It is cold, wintry and extremely wet here in 'the land of the long white cloud' - at this point in time, I'm fairly sure there is a good case to rename Aotearoa 'land of the long, fat and endless black cloud' - but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? Strangely, English rain and kiwi rain are two entirely different entities. As you will doubtless have noticed in England, when it rains, it generally keeps raining for several days at a time. In NZ, when it rains there is always the possibility that a big patch of blue is coming just over the horizon (although, less often recently!) - however, the raindrops here are much fatter than in the UK. As such, despite drying hair flat and tidy each morning, generally by the time I have reached the garage door, I am already wet and Chrystaltip like. Obviously, those organised amongst my kiwi fraternity, put an umbrella up - but my umbrella is always either in the boot of my car (inside said garage) or under my desk, some 45 minutes away! You will gather that despite having just embarked on my 5th winter here, I am still not very good at kiwi weather!

Always feels good to start with a good waffle!!!!

So, here we are - already almost half way through the year, and before I know it, I will be stressing about arrangements for Christmas parties, recitals, Santa duties etc! The start of Term 2, in April, means that the netball season is upon us again. Louisa seems to have regained her form, and is playing brilliantly - although her team hasn't yet won, they seem to have finally remembered how to pass the ball up and down the court, so hopes are high for Wednesday. Becs team have had mixed results so far - her team lost their first match 25 - 2 - Becs scored both goals and from the look of triumph on her face each time the ball went in, anyone would have thought that they had a chance of winning!!! Second match they won, but on Saturday they were beaten 9 - 5. Becs got player of the day - as Boo had done earlier in the week!! Oh what talented children I have!

In between ferrying children from netball court to netball court I have been working on my second assignment for my course. Despite the fact that after 40 years of leaving things to the last minute I should know better, it seems that this is my modus operandi! I finished The Case of Joan by the skin of my teeth and was pleasantly surprised to find today that not only had I passed, but my lecturer had written "Very Good, well done, you obviously have a sound understanding of the theories we have discussed this semester" - oh I was a happy camper!

I guess I should at this point apologise for the delay in adding this most recent blog. You will note from the date that I actually started this addition about 2 weeks ago, but as per usual, time and lack of sleep have got the better of me and I have not actually managed to finish and post the blog. Today is now Sunday 4 June. We are smack bang in the middle of Queen's Birthday weekend - which is a bank holiday weekend. Sadly, I still call long weekends, bank holiday weekends, which causes much amusement in my office. Here, a bank holiday is just a 'holiday' - but I'm sorry, a holiday is where you go to sit on the beach and rub gritty sun lotion on your back while your children fill the your picnic lunch basket with seaweed and sand! Obviously beach is possible on a 'bank holiday weekend' here, being only 8 minutes from my front door, BUT, generally the big fat kiwi rain decides to fall just as I finish work on the Friday before a long weekend! (sorry I am obviously in waffly mode - perhaps because I keep stopping and starting this post! - it has the potential to be a very long post!)

So, chez Le Riche, all is good. The girls are very settled. School is good. We have just had another Chelsea Singer's Extravaganza, this time it was 'The Best of British', and we were treated to Crocodile Rock, The Wall, Land of Hope and Glory and Swing Low Sweet Chariot - a somewhat eclectic selection! I have to say it was a vast improvement on previous efforts - which was a relief being as it was Mark's first time! Strangely, and I have to say that I am a little concerned about this fact (!), he seemed to really enjoy everything about it - except for the sitting on chairs designed for 10 year olds for 2 hours! In actual fact, he seems to be getting rather into the kids stuff, he came along on an extra curricula school trip to the Planetarium on Thursday, he's been to a couple of Becs Saturday matches and is hoping to get to one of Booie's mid week matches. Plus, as a treat, a couple of weeks back he took the girls and I to see one of the local professional netball matches, which was absolutely thrilling! Really nail biting stuff. Lou was absolutely mesmerized, Becs enjoyed it too, but I think she was most taken by the blow up plastic clacky tubey things! - or more specifically making as much noise as possible with them! (Sure they must have a name, but have no idea what it is!)

House hunting is going slow but sure. We have looked at a few places of varying degrees of wrongness but I live in hope! The market has dropped a bit in the last couple of months (Mark hasn't sold his place yet, so sadly, the benefit will be limited, but hey!) and there are one or two people getting a bit optimistic about what their houses are worth! But we are sitting tight, and waiting till we see the place that we want and then hopefully everything will fall into place. I'd forgotten quite how frustrating house hunting can be, and how deceptive photos can be - they never show you the fact that the house is actually positioned immediately next door to the neighbours from hell who favour car wrecks rather than water features in their front yard!

Currently I am home alone!! (Rarely does that happen!) Mark has been off doing his shopping, feeding cats and water blasting his deck (or was that yesterday?!) and the girls are at a friends house occupying their kids! So I unexpectedly am enjoying "Me" time, me music and catching up on my blog. In reality, I ought to be working on my next Careers essay, but it.....

Well I have no idea what the end of that sentence was going to be as I started that 10 days ago! I am hopeful that we are on the home run now! It is June 12th. I am not at work as Becca has a wicked cough that kept her and me up half the night. She's at home from school, so she has been snuggled watching Disney videos in the living room and I have been pottering - just catching up on myself. We are in the middle of another miserable day. So windy and wet that the power is down in town - so if I were there I wouldn't be able to work anyway!!

Essay number three went in by e-mail this morning. This time we had to propose our own theory of career development. I suspect my submission was pretty weak, but hey, will cross fingers and hope that I am not considered shallow!
There is a distinct possibility that I may have to leave paper 2 till term 1 next year - logistically next semester is a nightmare, and it will be significantly easier to manage the term after when I will hopefully be living with nice boyfriend who does babysitting favours now and again!

I gather the World Cup has begun! and I presume, as always, there will be nostalgic footage of 1966 and experts saying how we are in with a really good chance of winning? Always struck me as being a bit like when Terry Wogan assured us that we were in with a good chance of winning Eurovision!! Here it is not quite so big as in England. The English know it's going on, but the Kiwis aren't in it, and all the matches are at 1am! I nearly got up for the Paraguay match but had had a particularly hard day of watching netball and over 35s amateur footy - I wasn't entirely sure I could cope with anymore excitement!! I jest! ( Becs scored 7 goals and her team won on Saturday!)

Barking continues in the living room. Think we are now onto Peter Pan.

Just breifly - all quiet on the John front. He has recently changed jobs and I gather is enjoying his new role, but it means he's seen less of the girls. We aren't really talking at the moment - but then neither are we shouting! Solicitors doing whatever it is that solicitors do, and doubtless in about 4 months I will receive divorce papers in the post. Currently feeling very laid back about it all.

Going to go. Lou home from school soon. Spelling testing needs to be done, macaroni cheese to be made, Guides to be attended and cough stricken daughters to be held and healed!

Have a lovely summer.

think of me in the wet, I am going to dust off my flippers and snorkel!

xx

PS - sorry I missed your birthday, Dave! Hope it was fun! Thought of you loads xxxx