Rejoice Heartily, Your Teacher Has Measles!!

I hate to always start with the weather, but I am English and it always seems to give me enough blurb to start with that I remember the stuff that I actually want to say!

Anyway, last week I felt sure that we had turned the corner into early summer as I had spent Monday and Tuesday sitting on the beach as the girls played in the rock pools. This mistaken assumption had been compounded by the fact that we had enjoyed fish and chips in the park on Friday as the sun went down - and by the fact that the journey to work no longer seemed to require a fleece lined anorak to protect from the Antarctic blasts. I confess that I was feeling smug that winter was falling behind us, whilst my friends in the North were just beginning to dig out their longer pjs as the sun cream sadly collected dust on the corner of the bathroom cabinet!

However, it seems I was a tad premature in my farewell to winter! We sprung our clocks forward one hour last night, and instead of waking up to Summer, we awoke to the foulest weather imaginable! We were actually out of town staying at Mark's Mum's for the weekend and drove back to Auckland in the filthiest downpour only to discover on arriving home that the path between my garage and my front door was flowing slightly faster than the Zambezi. As a result I had to roll my trousers up to paddle through two inches of water to open the garage door and discover two inches of water inside as well as out! The deluge has continued all evening, and despite the fact that my house sits about 5 feet above the road on 3 of it's 4 sides, I am not entirely convinced that we are not going to be washed away over night! (2 days after writing this, 3 houses within walking distance of us, fell off a cliff and into the Waitamata Harbour!! - told you it was wet!)

I am off work again tomorrow and suspect that instead of sitting on the beach, my daughters and I may be playing Monopoly!

Apologies - this is now not 'tomorrow' but 10 days later, 11 October, to be precise. We did play Monopoly, it did continue to rain and I did have another lovely day off. In fact it has rained intermittently ever since and the girls have continued to be pretty lovely. At the moment Louisa's stereo is confiscated at least once a week. It is returned when the nice smiley lovely Lou is up and about - and repossessed every time she talks back or gets bolshy!! I'm hopeful that relentless repetition will ram home the message eventually - but then it never has done with anything else, so ho hum!!

Lou is feeling really rather full of herself at the moment actually - at the end of last term she was awarded a certificate for Excellence in Road Patrol (they didn't give me one!!!) - which I think means that she always turns up and is quite bossy! The same week I was sent a note from the Year Head telling me how well Louisa had done when she had presented her book review to the whole syndicate - can't remember exactly what it said, but it made Lou feel very special. Sorry, that's 'spicial', forgot I was in NZ for a moment!

Plus, this week she finally passed the spelling test that she has been labouring on since March! 25 / 25 and a Congratulatory sticker from the head for finishing the spelling programme - first student this year I believe! And now of course I don't have to think twice before putting the second 'l' in 'travelling'. Funny how some things stick with you. Lou had 'Rhythm' in her list, and to this day I remember Miss Parr, my music teacher at The Abbey, drilling us with 'Rejoice Heartily Your Teacher Has Measles' - and I fully expect that Louisa will pass that little gem on to any little darlings she has.

Becca meantime, still a poppet. Has the odd tantrum, but nothing that can't be fixed with a mild beating!!!!! She's actually pretty good at working out that the sooner she stops yelling, the quicker she gets out of her room. Mark is still new enough to family life that he finds the 8 year old tantrum very entertaining - remind me to report back on whether the funny side has worn off this time next year!

Netball starts again next week. This is the 'fun' term. No trophies (but then there weren't any last term for those of us that didn't win!!), and more 'positional' play. Gymnastics is already back - Becs is wildly excited that next week she will finally join the 100 Club. All this actually means is that she will receive a delightfully tacky (but don't tell her I said that!) t-shirt, which commemorates the fact that she has attended 100 classes. She has asked that I attend. May have to take the new camera and see if I can capture on film my little Olga Corbett doing her thing on the beam! And then the week after that she is doing her Grade 2 exam.

Both the girls have recently discovered Cluedo. They borrowed it from a friend and as a result Mark and I are now becoming Super Sleuths - at this stage I am not unconvinced that Mrs White isn't actually a serial murderer - although her modus operandi varies considerably - last week she favoured a candlestick in the dining room, yesterday a wrench in the Conservatory. I was also rather distressed to see that the Reverend Green has been defrocked and is now plain Mr Green - perhaps we shouldn't delve too deep into that one!

Not sure if I have told you (!!!!!!), but am completely totally and utterly smitten with Mark. I only add this here because for some reason Tracey didn't seem to have absorbed this fact!! LOVE in a big way!

House not sold yet. Originally Mark signed up with a 'budget' agency - seemed like a good plan. The fees worked out at about $8000 less than the mainstream realtors, but the reason for this soon became apparent when hardly anyone came to see the place! It is now on with 'Barfoot and Thompsons', and they seem to be working hard - currently have my fingers, toes, and elbows crossed as I, in fact we, are now in serious need of living in the same space as my lovely man. http://www.barfoot.co.nz/scripts/db.dll/details?sid=300&ref=349421# if you fancy a nice 3 bed holiday home in Auckland??!

What else? Well the John saga continues! All seriously messy now. He's asked me to sign divorce papers, come the two year anniversary of our separation, so that the divorce goes through in time for him to get married to Sharron in mid December. I have said I'll only sign them once he has resolved a couple of financial issues which remain outstanding. Suffice it to say that the air has been more than a little blue round here since I replied to his request.

Strange though. Everything felt very very heavy yesterday. The fact that the divorce is pending has made me do even more thinking than usual. I read a lot of the e-mails that John and I have traded in the last two years and found myself feeling sad and a bit sick. I walked while Becs was at gym, had the music on very loud (I know, Dad) and in the middle of some innocuous song I found myself pounding the pavement very purposefully, but with tears rolling down my face. There was some line about 'the memory of love' and I remembered John smiling at me and how happy I was. It just seemed a very long time ago.

And no I wasn't having a relapse! And I wouldn't trade where I am now for where I was even 3 years ago for all the beer in Munich (was going to say 'tea in China', but can live without tea!) - I am very happy to be with Mark, and Boo and Becs, making plans and just keeping my head far enough down that eventually all the crap will pass over and be done. VERY HAPPY - (sorry, just reinforcing for Tracey's benefit!!)

And of course I have had a birthday since last blogging. I was well looked after by Captain Yummy Pants, but my girls completely blew me out by forgetting to make me a card. I know that they are only young, but I had told them, fairly bluntly that all I wanted for my birthday was a beautiful homemade birthday card from each of them (please note, that they forgot last year too!!) - call me over optimistic, but I thought they might have got the point! Fortunately my disappointment was countered by Mark being very attentive, very very lovely and very extravagant - I now have fab digi camera!!! I'll even take some more pictures when it stops raining! I mowed the lawn last week so that I could take a picture of the house now that the Wisteria is out - sadly, Wisteria in howling gales and torrential rain wasn't quite the picture I had been hoping for!
Yes, so anyway, 42!

Anyway - think that is it for now. The rain is still raining! Andy Williams is Loving me Baby, and I need to check out RVs for Angela and Vince who are coming in about 7 weeks! When did a motor home become an RV? or am I missing the point?

Huge snogs, big hugs xxx