Anniversary Day

THEN

We arrived in NZ on 31st August 1997. Adrian had been here just on two months ahead of us and in that time had bought a house and a car and been very lonely and miserable. The flight from SA to Perth/Sydney was not too bad as the boys slept most of the way. In Sydney they woke and the flight to Wellington was a bit more difficult. We only had two seats between us and they gave me “baby slop” for Colin who was 20 months old. We landed around midnight and were met by a wonderful couple who helped me with the boys and the luggage and stayed with me whilst Adrian got the car. Even at that time of night I could feel the freedom – I wasn’t at all scared. We drove home to Whitby to our new house and all tried to go sleep. The next day, Adrian took us into Wellington to look around. I was struck by the beauty of the city.

We slowly settled into life in NZ, discovering new things all the time. I was very sad to start with and cried every day, but soon found myself crying less and less. We met people, generally other South Africans and slowly settled into life in our new country. We almost had to learn a new language when we cam here as there were many expressions that were foreign to us. We also had to discover new foodstuffs and favourite brands.

Ross started at Mana Montessori and in no time I was chairperson of the committee and building new premises. Then Mom and Dad arrived and within six weeks were found a house for them. Whitby was hard to live in as not many people were very friendly. We joined South Africans in Wellington and soon enough I was the chairperson there.

Ross started school at Adventure School and Colin went to Adventure Kindy after a not very pleasant year at Montessori. Both of them loved their new schools. In the meantime, Adrian left the BNZ and started working at NBNZ. The next thing I found myself working there too as a PA to Adrian’s senior manager.


We slowly realised that we were outgrowing our house and started looking around. By a stroke of luck, we managed to buy a lovely house in Tawa in a private deal through someone I had met at NBNZ. Colin started school at Greenacres and Ross went to Year 2. By the end of Year 2 we realised that Colin was not succeeding through a series of useless teachers and moved him to Redwood School.

The Adrian left NBNZ and went to Westpac which was a thoroughly bad move. After three years of job hunting, he moved to DataMail. In the meantime, I was made redundant from NBNZ and at the same time was appointed a part-time teacher at Tawa College. Ross moved on from Greenacres to Tawa Intermediate as did Colin. Mom and Dad moved to a house closer to us.

We became New Zealand citizens as soon as we could (in 2000) and happily swore allegiance to the Queen and all her heirs etc etc. We also know the national anthem better than many others. We have seen much of New Zealand – most of the South Island and the North Island more than half way up – in fact more than most New Zealanders. We have also travelled overseas to Australia, South Africa, Singapore, America and Fiji. In fact, I almost feel that I’m nearly home when we get onto an AirNZ plane.

Adrian is a Lions member and has been to a number of conventions; in fact, this year he is a Cabinet member. I discovered Scrapbooking and made many friends through it.

The last ten years have treated us well and in the words of a Circle Journal I took part in – we took a gamble coming halfway round the world, leaving everything and everyone we knew behind to a country we had only seen few photos of …and won! This country is safe and secure and an ideal place in which our children can grow up. We live in a pleasant suburb that has walkways and our house is within easy walking distance to the schools and the train station. There is an excellent train service into the City . We have a lovely house which we are slowly repainting. It may not be the tidiest house in the world but it’s comfortable and spacious and suits our needs. We have five bedrooms, two of which are downstairs which are ideal for guests or for when our sons are a little older. The family room has a beautiful view down the valley to the sea and we have a beautiful view across the rest of Tawa. Are we glad we came? Without a doubt

NOW

Lunar Eclipse

Last night (Tuesday) was a total lunar eclipse visible in New Zealand and parts of Australia. I said I would wake the boys to see it when it started happening. The weather forecast was for cloud but they didn't mention the biting southerly! I went outside just after 9pm and started taking some photos and then got the tripod out.These photos were taken over the course of the night up until 10pm

9.45pm and you can just see the Earth's shadow coming over.

Lots of cloud around hence the bit of haze

Ten minutes later

10pm

The moon got darker and darker as the night went on ....and the wind got colder and colder! The boys went to bed just after 10pm and we weren't much later

Come out, come out whoever you are!

I see so many visitors from all sorts of interesting places - Oxford, Winnipeg, Hunua, Hamilton, Napier, Pretoria, Karlsruhe, Maketu are just a few I can remember. Come and tell me who you are :-)

Today ....

I am the mother of a teenager! Yes, my first born turned thirteen and it's scary being the mother of a teenager. We left South Africa a week after his third birthday so he has spent nearly 80% of his life here. Adriam and I celebrated with lunch at the pub today! Tonight it is blue cod and wedges for dinner and Saturday we have a party - Laser Force and then back here for pizza and cake


Thanks for all the wishes for our wedding anniversary.

Paula - the "Penguins" is Maya Road chipboard painted with MM Buttermilk paint

Fifteen years ago

at 11.30am in the morning, we said, "I do" to each other. Now we have two boys and live half-way round the world. So we celebrated by all four of us going out to breakfast this morning. We had fun although the cafe was a bit on the "juvenile" side: we asked for Buck's Fizz, no, said the waiter we don't have any of that. Adrian explained it was just orange juice and bubbly. "But then I'll have to charge you for two glasses of orange juice and two glasses bubbly", said the waiter. What?? Does he not know it's HALF a glass of each? We considered ordering one of each and mixing it ourselves but decided against it - so they lost the sale.

Anyway, I got a lovely funky pink "Stamp" watch and Adrian got a weather station

Scrapping on Saturday!

We had a great day again on Saturday - 17 ladies which is more than we've ever had before. KiwiScraps was full as there were three groups making wedding invitations and two parties so it was rather noisy too. But when 5pm came it was just us and it was bliss! Oh and then we had a short surprise visit from the fire brigade - shhhhh! Anyway, I got three l/os done and another two started. Here they are:

Dunedin - and I don't like this l/o

Hanmer Springs - love these colours

Penguins - at Oamaru and I love the chipboard and how it turned out

Both Dunedin and Penguins I have entered at SBO in their Chipboard Challenge

TA - WOW - WA

The boys' school production is on this week - titled TA - WOW - WA very loosely set around their own World Of Wearable Arts with some baddies and others thrown in for good measure. I tought that the story line was very thin and some of the lines and actions a bit risque but the kids are having fun!

Ross is the head of a chinese dragon and

Colin is a wind dancer.

Unfortunately flash cameras were banned so I didn't get very good photos - we will, however, be able to buy a DVD of the show for $20!

Final CJ entry

My final CJ entry in the circle with some ladies in the US and Canada. The title was "What a Gamble" and I used our decision to come to NZ as my topic. I will parcel it up today and on Monday or Tuesday it will wing its way north-east. I have full size photos that I will be doing a similar l/o for me

Thanks for the comments everyone - on 31st August it's our 10 year anniversary here. My l/o will be along those lines. When I arrived here with a 3 year old and a 20 month old (I flew all by myself as Adrian was already here) it was to the news that Diana died.

Another challenge

but this time it's late! It was for the Kiwi Jack Me challenge a few weeks ago (see post further down). I did get it done, but only finished the journalling last night - anyway, it's done now

ScrapPink

This is an international scrapping weekend in aid of Breast cancer. Here in NZ, there are many crops happening over the weekend of 28th - 30th September all co-ordinated by KiwiScraps. Our group, Paper, Scissors, Crop will also be taking part - leave a comment or email me if you would like to join us.

Then of course we will be having our usual monthly crops on 18th August; 20th October and our Christmas Crop on 24th November

Scrapping Challenges

It's fun to take part in a scrapping challenge but you have to remember to enter on time! Here's my entry for N0 8 Wired - the NZ Dares blog. Called "15 Minute Cleanup" whilst not strictly an every day occurence it's certainly an every cleaning day occurence! I set the timer and the boys and I clean for 15 minutes then we stop and play, surf the net etc for 15 minutes and so on until we've finished. It works really well for the boys

PS Penny - it's just something I made up one day to get my boys to help without it being too onerous and now it's stayed around. Sometimess they say we'll do 20 minutes or 30 minutes depending on how they're feeling - but it works well

PPS Thanks Trina for picking my name out for a prize