The Lunch .......

was lovely: Bread and oils to start; a choice of Lamb Shank, Chicken, Fish or Pasta - I choose fish and then for dessert I chose a trilogy of desserts - three small bowls of delight: an apricot half baked in filo pastyr with custard, a very rich chocolate mousse and cassis poppyseed gateaux.

Steve and Steph (on the right) from The Breeze and Paige, their assistant on the left

There was a bag of presents - something from Life Pharmacy and believe it or not, I have not opened it yet; a decadent cupcake from The Chocolate Cake shop, a CD and beautiful flowers.



Yes there is two of everything because Adrian got one too!

I know!!!

I got a telephone call from The Breeze this morning. Every year they have a Mother's Day competition - five winners and a friend/partner are taken to lunch at The Intercontinetal and given flowers, goodies from Life Pharmacy etc.

I am one of the winners!!!! They phoned me this morning to tell me. Adrian said he did have a Plan B if I wasn't selected though and that was to take me to lunch at Logan Brown. Either way I'm a winner.

I'm really looking forward to it

What's your guess?

Last night Adrian asked me if I prepare for each lesson or if I re-use work from the previous year. I explained carefully that I don't write out exactly what I'm going to say or do anymore, but I have a plan of where I'm going to to and I use worksheets and excercises from previous years.

Then he says to me that I should prepare work for Friday for whatever classes I am teaching between 12pm and 2pm ..... AND DON'T ASK ANY QUESTIONS! Now don't tell me that! I open the presents at Christmas time and carefully seal them again.

Off I went to school today and casually say to my Head of Department, "Am I doing something on Friday?" She looked at me with a huge smile on her face and said, "Do what you're told and don't ask any questions!"

So what's your guess? I am desperate to know of course as I don't do surprises very well!

Accidents

Today we were nearly either involved in an accident or would have been witness to it.

I bought a fridge on TradeMe for our little staff space at school and the boys and I headed to Paraparaumu to collect it. No problem and we were almost home. Travelling south on SH1 the traffic lights at Whitford Brown turned orange. I was in the outside lane and knew I wouldn't get across in time so I stopped .... as did the old man in the inside lane (next to me). But the great big Linfox double rig behind the old man put his foot down as he thought the old man was going to go. The next thing there was a huge squeal of brakes as the driver of the rig put his brakes on. Thank goodness there is a large verge on the right as I swerved into that to avoid the possibility of the Linfox coming into me. He managed to stop in time but the clouds of smoke from his tyres wafted right round us. Fortunately the old man didn't notice, but Colin looked at the driver of the Linfox and said he was looking pretty pale.

The kids were quite shaken and we discussed concentrating all the time as a driver and also being aware of what is going on around you. Colin particularly, was concerned as he was sitting on the inside.

Because it's NSD

(National Scrapbook Day) even though it's nearly all over. I have some grunge board to give away so I challenge you to complete some UFOs. By 9pm next Sunady night and I want to see before and after photos please

ANZ Fiskars blog

Australia New Zealand that is! For ScrapCamp, Fiskars, who have been donating items for three years now, gave each of us the very cool fingertip knife. Here we are featured: http://fiskarscraft.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/anzac-scrapcamp.html I must say those fingertip knives are very useful

My scrapbook pages

My pages may not be terribly artistic or have masses of stuff on them which is why I seldom upload them to various scrapbook galleries. But they are snapshots (pardon the pun) of our lives and what we've shared as a family. My family love them and so do I and that's what's important. I have decided that I'm not even going to buy the beautiful embellishments anymore as they just languish in a box never to see the light of day again. So there may be a few bags available for those of you who love to use lots of product on YOUR pages :-)

This is another one from ScrapCamp - NO embellishments, just my WishBlade to do the title

Another one completed

This one uses some of the product from an SBO paper add-on; the title I made on my WishBlade (including the bit around the edge) and it fits the NZ Dares dare for this fortnight: Use a number in your titles.

The photos were taken at my BIL's 50th birthday that my husband attended in South Africa. I love how the title turned out and it was chosen by my hubby!

Some Photos

This is the "Chocolate Story" that I was given at ScrapCamp! So cool that I really don't want to eat the chocolates from it!

One of the l/os that I did from our January holiday
Photos from 2004
The bread that I regularly make



Those are the completed ones; I have done some titles and have to do some more as well as the journalling. I kept all the titles to do at home on my WishBlade and sold my chipboard to Tracy so that I am forced to use my WB :-)!

And Jenny - just to show you even though there is no title or journalling! I will need some more of this paper in Ash & Andy's container!

And while I was about it a few more that you will recognise, Jen, but they still need titles and journalling

This particular one uses an SBO paper add-on kit

I'm in "print"!

Have a look - page 19 http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz/e-zine/Default.html

And if your're a scrapcamper, have a look here and leave or email your comments

Back home

It was a great weekend and I got 16 l/os done! They all need titles from my Wishblade but that will happen during this week while I'm still on holiday. The sponsors were all very generous and supplied wonderful gifts. I am tired of doing the organising and this is the end for me. Hopefully someone else will pick up the reins and take over. I will post some photos later during the week. Here is a photo of all of us holding the wonderful fingertip knives that Fiskars donated

Make your blog into a book

http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook and an estimate, for a soft cover 8x10 150pg book is $14usd which I don't think is too bad. It's very tempting!

School Holidays

YAY! I am so looking forward to two weeks off. I have got ScrapCamp next weekend so this week I'll be preparing for that. I really need this weekend - to be with a group of like minded ladies having fun creating is very restorative. Add to this a wonderful project shared by the lovely Jo B, a lovely setting and yummy food and the weekend is set to be great.

Also my new camera arrived and it has lots of bells and whistles. I have not had much of a chance to play with it yet, but the coming weeks will remedy that

I went to KiwiScraps yesterday for our monthly crop, but really was not in the mood so took nothing but bought lots! Mainly for Jo's project at SC. I also organised our crop on 17th May: it's been a year since we started there, but as a group we have been scrapping together for nearly five years. People have joined, people have left but the same core of about four or five people remain. But back to 17th May - we're going to have a party with a special project so if you want to join us, please email me to book your spot.

Ross is loving College and is doing well. Colin has suddenly discovered himself and found himself in the Otago Problem Solving group (during the course of the year, they answer five sets of five word maths problems) so all is well on the school front

What a shock!

Everytime I wave goodbye to my children when they leave on school camps, I worry that they will be safe and that they will come home safely. Sadly, seven teenagers and their teacher won't be going home http://www.stuff.co.nz/4481793a10.html This has shocked New Zealand: parents, teachers and everyone else. My heart goes out to all those affected at Elim Christian College

My quilt

is done!! I will take a photo tomorrow and edit this. The quilting police will be after me however, as I machine stitched the binding down - no hand stitching for me thanks!

I had to laugh!

Look at this:

Too funny! I need one of these

My Quilt

Well, here it is. It still needs a binding around the edge but it is quilted which I had done professionally and I'm so glad that I did. Every piece of fabric is representative of something in my life either current or in the past. I love it and I'm thrilled with it, but it is the last one I will do.

Third from left: a piece of fabric from my wedding dress
Second and fourth from left: Photos of the boys when they were little from a T-Shirt - I cut the T-shirt up

The crocodiles represent both a trip to Florida and the place at which we got engaged Ngwenya (meaning crocodile)

Nemo - my three boys love watching that movie and know many lines from it ...which they repeat during the movie

Tui - sings outside our bedroom window

Blue Guinea fowl and orange giraffes - tea towels that Adrian bought me at the Kruger National Park specially for me to cut up

Belle - when Ross was small his favourite story was Beauty and the Beast. When we went to Disneyland, he and I queued for quite a while to see her. She bent down to him and said, "Are you a prince?" He was five at the time

Frnagipani - our trip to Fiji and the flowers on my wedding cake

Just to the right of Belle - piece of fabric from a skirt I used to wear

Two cheetahs representing my cheetah encounter
Green spots - the dress I made and wore for the boys' christenings

Electric trains - my Dad's employment

Black and white cats paws for all the cats we've had

Dolphins - Colin's love of nature

Sports balls - sports the boys have played

Little blue penguins - the dressing gown I made Colin

Emperor penguins - our trip backstage to see the penguins at SeaWorld LA

The tartan - Colin at six months old had a cute pair of trousers I made from this fabric

The white waffle weave at the bottom right - the three dressing gowns I have made

Lots to represent South Africa and New Zealand and the green border represents the sea we crossed to get here.

There! I think I've given you all of it - if not - feel free to ask

Oh ... and if you're going to ScrapCamp I'll have it with me

Daylight Saving

That's it - no "s" on the end! Also I can't believe how many people did not know when Daylight Saving ended and we went back to NZ Standard Time. Also how many people kept asking when Daylight Saving started - um ... that will be on Sunday 28th September.

So NZ DST ended and for my lovely SIL in SA we are now back to ten hours ahead of you - see the clock on the side bar

My Dilemma

I ordered a new camera from DSE on Monday and then discovered it for $99 cheaper elsewhere. I cancelled the DSE order (and have the cancellation notification) and ordered the camera from the other place. Both places said cameras only arriving 11th April. Today a camera arrived from DSE - do I send it back or keep it?

My camera

is an Olympus SP500 Ultra Zoom. It is 6mp and 10x optical zoom and has great features eg "use available lighting". I want to sell it for $300 - if you know of anyone who may be interested, please send them my way

Here is a good review: http://www.cameras.co.uk/details/olympus-sp-500.cfm

Catch up

So the brats got caught - they have to replace the lollies and apologise. Their parents were contacted. The one who stole the calculator has to return it and his misdemeanor has been referred higher up. There was also money stolen but no one is owning up to that.

Ross played in the second bowls team and did really well - played better than some of the regulars!

We had parent-teacher meetings this week - exhausting for me, but really good comments from Ross' teachers

Colin goes on school camp next week and is sooo looking forward to it - I hope that he is not disappointed

My quilt is slowly growing and I am now pleased with it

Soccer season hasn't started yet and I'm sick of it! I'm sick of whinging parents and kids who won't play because of this, that and the next silly reason. I'm sick of precious committee members who want to stick to the age group rules at all costs .... to the detriment of kids who just want to play soccer. I've been Age Group Co-ordinator for seven years and this is the first year that I'm really hating the job

Roll on ScrapCamp! Four weeks to go and it's over ANZAC weekend so is three days long - YAY

Wonderful Weekend

and it's not over yet! Yay - the boys and I still have tomorrow off. I sewed Ross' dressing gown - he was so pleased he showered so he could put it on straight away. I sewed another pair of sleeping shorts for Adrian (cream so now he matches with the sheets and duvet cover lol). I cut out and sewed the border to my "postcards" for my quilt. Now I have 48 squares which will need to be sewn together. I also used a very old T-shirt of Adrian's that had photos on of very young boys. I found lots of fabric in my sewing cabinet so I will use one of them for the backing of my quilt and I think I must sell the rest on TradeMe. I am feeling a lot happier about my quilt as I was ready to give up on Tuesday last week.

We relaxed and just had a great weekend. I made Hot Cross buns and turned the leftovers into a very yummy Hot Cross Bun & Butter pudding that we had for breakfast. I made butter chicken from scratch and it was yummy. We had a wonderful brunch yesterday and super blue cod for dinner. Tonight my Mom and Dad came over and we had a bbq.

We also did a bit of shopping today and I got a typist's chair for my sewing. It beats the uncomfortable little stool I have been sitting on!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone and I hope that the Easter Bunny was kind to you all. Boys are happy - they got good chocolate rather than lots of cheap stuff; Adrian got red wine and chilli bites (biltong/beef jerkey) and I got small bottles of Lindauer Fraise and Cote d'Or bouchees (chocolate elephants)

The "Easter Bunny" also found this really cute font to make labels!

Bl**dy Brats at School!

On Tuesday, 9 or 10 Yr 10s (Form 4) broke into my classroom at lunch time by opening the door from the inside. They put their arm in through the window next to the door. They moved many of my posters and work kids had done and then opened up my cupboard. In my cupboard they moved glue sticks all over, took a personalised stamp and stamped desks. I had half a bag of sweets for rewards - they ate all of them. A Graphics caculator is also missing.

I was so angry about it because I care so much about my classroom. It's one thing to go into a classroom, but completly another to go through the teacher's personal things and steal/eat hat's there. The last time I felt like this was in South Africa when our house was broken into.

I have calmed down about it now, but on Tuesday I felt as though I needed a stiff drink when I got home.

Edited to add that someone recognised one of them and told me - I just passed that name on to the Dean and she found the rest. Don't know yet what punishment they'll get, but at the least I expect a contribution to replacing the sweets and an apology - I'm not holding my breath though.

Anyway, five lovely days off ahead of me and I have lots to do - sewing, quilting, scrapping

Yum!

Look what a courier brought for me today:

Penny is making this yummy fig jam from all the figs on her tree and selling it in aid of her son's kindy. I think a fresh loaf of bread and some fig jam will be in order this weekend

While surfing I found this on A Civil Conversation and I have to agree :

It is a cold, icy, snowy morning. I am sipping my coffee and pondering the words of Cathy Zielske, who works for Simple Scrapbooks magazine. Cathy is a wonderful soul whose simple but eye-catching designs have always caught my eye. I also appreciate her candor and very funny sense of humor.She recently wrote something on her blog that grabbed me and, dare I say -- released me. Yes, released. For quite some time, I have felt that awful pressure to scrap one-photo layouts because they're so much more artistic. Or powerful. Or whatever you want to ascribe to what has now become the plat du jour in Scrap Happy Land.I've been scrapbooking for as long as Cathy. In the beginning (thus saith me...), it was all about laying down at least five or six photos of the same event and telling the story of said event. Writing has always been an integral part of my scrapbooks and that really hasn't changed. But somehow, after reading the magazines to learn more about the hobby, I got the impression that scrapping a page meant to place one perfect photo on a 12x12 piece of cardstock, (with the coordinating patterned papers), a few embellishments and a dreamy one or two word title.It drove me nuts in a way because I wasn't seeing names, dates -- anything that would be able to identify that photograph to great-grandchildren years later when those photos were most likely aged as well as a fine bottle of Chardonnay. I started to think that the page really wasn't as much about memories as it was about product placement.Thank goodness for Cathy.She recently wrote this on her blog, Bits & Pieces:
Sometimes I feel nostalgic where scrapbooking is concerned. As if I’ve really earned that right—to wax philosophic ‘bout ‘dem good ol’ days. I mean come on… I’ve only been scrapbooking since 2001. That hardly qualifies me as an old timer. Yet I really do remember the giddiness of finally figuring out that I could do a hobby and still maintain my personal sense of design integrity and overall coolness factor. The novelty of it all can still be recalled, and the freshness of it rings so sweetly in my memory. And when you reach the point where you see trends come and pass, and even come back for a second round, well… that’s when all of a sudden you do realize you’ve been around the block more than one time.Ah, Cathy. I couldn't have said it any better myself.What struck me so powerfully was seeing Cathy's layout of a day in her life. Just very simple stuff. And then her collection of photos showing her husband was endearingly sweet and tender. As I read her journaling, I realized once again why scrapbooking is so important to me.Scrapbooking is important because it is my memories of my life. It is important because it celebrates the people I love. It is important because when I'm dead and gone, people will have another opportunity to see through my eyes the family that I cherish so much.In so many ways, I am a secret journalist, writing stories about my loved ones. Twenty years in the future, no one will care about whether I nailed that "shabby" look or if I used too many overlays. They won't care if the ribbon doesn't match perfectly or ask why didn't I use three brads in the upper right-hand corner instead of two.But I know they'll care about the photographs and the words. Thanks for the reminder, Cathy. I really needed it. :)

Playing Bowls

Ross joined the College Bowls and has had three practices. He and a friend were asked to join the 3rd team on Thursday as they were going to be short. In the College Bowls league they were drawn to play against the 1st team and two of the players play every weekend, and both of them have played at National level. In fact, one of them is a NZ national champion. Earlier on Thursday he had told me that their aim was to win by 40 points! I felt really sorry for the three young boys in the 3rd team.

They held their heads high and were determined to do their best and have fun. The 1st team fell apart a little when the score was 4 - 3 to the 3rds! Unfortunately, experience took over and the 3rd team was beaten 15 - 5. But a very creditable 5 points those were, of which Ross scored 2 points. The 3rd team was very happy with their efforts even though they didn't win. Their coach was so pleased with them, she gave them all a hug. Ross loves playing lawn bowls.

I really liked this quote!

If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job. ~Donald D. Quinn

Two pupil councillors

At the Intermediate where the boys go/have gone, they have pupil councillors. One boy and one girl per class and the class vote for their councillors. Last year Ross was pupil councillor and today Colin was announced as pupil councillor! Colin was sooo happy. And that means two brothers have been pupil councillors in the same teacher's class two years in a row.

Why?

Why do people say "Oh my god? or "Christ!" etc as a term of swearing or simply just as a word to use in the same manner as teenagers use "like"? I personally find it offensive as do many others. In my religion (Christianity) that is blasphemy. Why don't these same people say "oh my Allah" or "Mohhamed!" or "Buddah!"?

I wrote to TV One and asked them the same question; they replied and said they would pass the feedback onto the newsroom etc. I have noticed that there is not quite so much blasphemy as there was. Now I wish other people would do the same

Scrapping on Saturday

I did quite a few l/os and then yesterday I cut the titles on my WB and did the journalling. What I like most about the WB is having the ability to make the title the same font as my journalling. I know that I'm not as creative or as artistic as many people out there, but I feel that my story is told too, so that's what's important. A few of these I'm going to enter at the NZ Dares for their dare to use at least ten photos

This one is from Mt Maunganui -

all I did was add the title

This is in Queenston up the Gondola for NZ Dares - 10 photos

This is also from QT

The Caitlins north of Invercargill - also for NZ Dares - 11 photos (it's just the wrong ay round)

Woo Hoo!!!!

I am such a happy person today! I got a text message from my Head of Department telling me I have a classroom. So why is that so exciting I hear you ask. Well, for four years I have had to teach in other people's classrooms - no storage space of my own, always having to drag my preparation and folders in and out of classrooms, not being as organised because I am busy getting sorted whilst the kids are coming in, not being able to have the desks arranged as I want them, never being able to put my students' work on the walls ............ I can't wait for tomorrow to start moving in!

Edited to say: because I am a part-timer, in a big school such as ours, there are no classrooms for us p-ts to have our own, hence my excitement at finally getting a classroom

For Alan

My BIL in South Africa has his 50th birthday in two weeks time. My SIL decided to do an album for him but chose a 12x12! Each relative has been asked to do a l/o for the album - this is our contribution.





Once I decided what to do it didn't take too long, but I really wasn't inspired earlier this week. I have used Bazzill c/s and scalloped c/s; a piece of vellum from Up2Scrap called "Koha - the gift" firstly because I liked the pohutakawa blossom and secondly because I am sending him a "gift" (he doesn't know about it yet though :-) I also used my WishBlade to cut the title and the dates (the dates were a bit fiddly because they are quite small) and then lastly I added the little kiwi brad

Conversation with a teenager

I hope that when they are a few years older, our converstions are not like this Enjoy!

Two good looking boys

Well, I think so! All dressed in their school uniforms

New Year

The boys start school on Monday:

Colin in Yr 8 at Intermediate and he will be with Mrs Smith who taught Ross for two years! Woo hoo! We are so pleased about that! [Problem - what do we buy for the teacher to whom we have already given Christmas presents two years in a row? Answer - Bottles of Lindauer Fraise (her favourite) and a champagne stopper]

Ross in Yr 9 at College (first year) and he is in a streamed class! Another woo hoo! He is also with Josh (one of his friends) and Changling with whom he had many maths discussions last year

I hope they both have a great year ahead of them

And me? I have a weak Yr 12, a weak Yr 11, a weak to ordinary Yr 10 and an ordinary Yr 9. Don't feel sorry for me with tthe weak classes, as I like them and one can make more of a difference with weak kids than the brighter ones. Bright kids are easy to teach; weak kids present a challenge so I'm looking forward to it

Beautiful!

Yesterday evening was so beautiful that we bought fish and chips and went into Whiteriea park down to the beach. The boys found a washed up boogie board and were using it to slide down the hill.





The light was so lovely across to Plimmerton that I had to take some photos.





Then coming back over the hill look what we saw: that's Mana Island in the right foreground and the South Island in the sunset! Too beautiful

More about Momorangi Bay

The whole area apart from a few bachs and the two Post Office houses, is a campsite. There is only one little shop there that sells basic goods (milk, bread etc) and doubles as a cafe/take-away place. (They make the BEST chocolate cake there and I got the recipe.) Anyway, because of this, there are no young adults etc there only families with children.

The boys made friends with lots of kids and one of the dads invited them to go out on his boat on the "hotdog" one morning. Well, they jumped at the chance! They had to wear sunscreen, hats and lifejackets and they set off very excitedly. They were out for about three hours and came back beaming! They'd had a wonderful time and both the dads who were out with the kids said they were brave boys. Yes, they fell in but all they did was stay where they were and they boat came back round to pick them up. I didn't manage to get many photos as they went across to the other side of the sound and my 10x zoom didn't reach that far!

Another favourite was to jump off the end of the jetty there - they would meet up with their friends and just spend the day jumping in together, swimming round to the steps and then doing it all again.

No one missed TV, PlayStation or PSP as there was so much to do and all of it outside in the sunshine and fresh air.

Question

I know that there are lots of "ordinary" scrappers; friends and family who visit here and at each other's blog; and I know that we all visit the "scrap celebs" (aka as DT members) blogs but do they visit us plebs at all?

My useful little tool .....

known as a Lil Chizler it's great for lifting the letters off the sticky carrier sheet from my WishBlade!

Home again

We're back after a very pleasant crossing on the ferry. Of course, the seasick tablets helped as well as sitting in the middle of the boat so it was quite blustery, but I didn't feel anything. I have some photos but I need to go through them all and pick some to upload. We're all brown and had a wonderful two weeks in the sun just relaxing, eating when we felt like and what we felt like and reading lots of books.

Where shall I start? Momorangi Bay is just beautiful - it is a DoC campsite as well as a few bachs. We stayed in the green roofed cottage you can see in about the middle of the photo. Even though this photo was taken about ten years ago, only the trees and bushes have grown

It was wonderful to be able to just sit in our lounge and look out at the water. The boys would get up in the morning and just head for the beach. While we were there, we drove the long and winding road to The Portage. It was beautiful but if we ever go again, we will go by water taxi.

We also went across to Lochmara Lodge where we had a wonderful day and the boys spent lots of time in the water

Then we had a week in Nelson and although we spent lots of time on Rabbit Island, we were also there in the strong storm that passed over. Unfortunately we missed the pod of orca that came into the bay but we think we saw evidence of them being there - a number of chewed up rays on Rabbit Island beach. Also the storm at the beginging of last week brought down a few trees. This one fell right where we always used to spend the day

We also went back to Natureland and I saw a peachick for the first time - look how small it is!

They also had three of these birds that had been injured as chicks and would never survive in the wild - at least two groups of Kiwis did not know what they were!

What is it with Blogger that it cuts my internet connection every second or so??? It really makes me cross as I'm trying to upload photos and it just won't work!

Ice creams!

Outside Richmond is a PYO berry farm and we usually stop to pick raspberries and whatever else they have. We stopped on Sunday and the PYO were finished but we did buy some raspberries and strawberries that were delicious. e stopped again yesterday to buy more raspberries but there were none left. Ross asked for an ice-cream which we've never had there before. He chose booysenberry and they make it on the spot - a block of vanilla icecream and a smaller block of frozen fruit all get put into a machine which pushed the fruit icecream out like a soft serve shape. We decided to have raspberry and it was delicious! I can't believe that in all the times we've stopped there we've never had one, but we'll be back.

It has been really hot here but started raining yesterday and is still raining today. Even so, at 8.15am this morning it as 24 degrees C inside this morning - that's with all the indos and curtains open overnight! My car has to go to the garage today (always when we get here :-) ) as the ABS system has no fluid left. The wind is also bloing a gale today - feels so much like Wellington!

Thanks for all the comments so far!

No change here

It's still hot and sunny - 35 degrees here yesterday!

We have taken the long and winding road to The Portage which lovely but if we never go and again by road that will be fine.

A boat from Lochmara Lodge came and picked us up yestreday and took us there for the day. It was beautiful and the boys had great fun. Kayaks were great, the rope swing to drop into the sea was great, feeding the fish (herrings), catching non-poisonous jelly fish was all part of the water fun. Then a walk through the extensive gardens where hammocks abounded, art work all over as well as a bird recovery programme all added to the wonderful atmosphere. The only way in is by boat or an hour off the Queen Charlotte walking track.

We also drove to Anakiwa where the Queen Charlotte tracks ends and it is also the place where the NZ Outward Bound school is.

I will upload photos when I can get to a more accessible internet connection

And the "w" is not working too well on this keyboard so hopefully I went back and put them all in!

Beautiful one day, fantastic the next

At midday today it as 26 degees C inside our cottage. From where we sit, we just see a stretch of Queen Charlotte Sound, the hills on the other side, boats and sun. At night we can hear morepork calling and during the day bellbird and tui - just bliss. Today we felt as though we have had too much sun!

The kids have built sandcastles and dams and then have watched the tide come in and destroy all their wonderful engineering! We bought a sandcastle building set just before we left and although Ross sneered at it at first, he has loved using it. They have swum, caught crabs (and returned them), and jumped off the wharf.

We have read, walked slowly, sat in the sun and eaten the most wonderful chocolate cake at the DoC cafe here. Last night, our neighbours here collected mussels and so I have eaten fresh mussels and bbq prawns today. Talk about relaxing - that's exactly what we have done in this beautiful corner of NZ! Linda - it's Momorangi Bay which is 20 minutes west of Picton

Another year

Woke up this morning and even though my WishBlade was a combined Christmas/birthday present, I thought I might get something wrapped up (even if it was a $2 bath sponge) or at least a cup of coffee. Nothing ... not a "happy birthday", no coffee, no present, nothing. Not-so-DH left for work and about 20 minutes later I heard bth boys awake. Nothing from them either. I gave them ten minutes and then called out "Have you forgotten something?" yes, they had but they came bounding in with a present - wrapped in Xmas paper. Inside was a cool wine glass to replace the one I smashed last week (accident - don't ask - left me with three cuts in my hand) and a wine bottle stopper.

Before not-so-DH left for work, we heard a courier outside and I thought it was the boys' DVD that they ordered - it was my prize parcel from Fiskars! It was perfect as it felt like a birthday present had arrived. Inside was some very cool Heidi Grace papers, some HG embellishments and a silver coloured HG charm bracelet!

My parents took us out for lunch; a friend came for afternoon tea; another friend brought chocolates and flowers and we went out for dinner.

Oh, when did not-so-DH remember? About two hours after getting up and he phoned me very apologetically

Happy New Year!

Ross talked us into having a party for New Year's Eve - we had about 14 or 15 people for a bbq and it was great. We decorated the garage because it was rather windy out and had music and lights in there. We chatted, drank, admired the lights in the street, drank a bit more, ate our bbq, ate dessert and by then it was midnight. Our last guests left at 1am and we quickly cleared the garage so we could bring the cars back in.

New Year's Day was glorious so we packed the car, fetched my Mom and Dad and headed for Paraparam beach where there was a slight breeze blowing which was great for keeping us cool. We bought fish and chips at Fed Up fast food (on the beach front and a great place) and washed it down with Chardon or beer shandy. The boys had a got a volleyball/badminton set for Christmas and so the four of us had fun playing that.

Second New Year and we slept late and then stayed in bed reading and drinking coffee until 11.30am - what a treat! I spent the rest of the day sewing and then in the eveing we met my online Australian friend Alicia and her family for dinner. They are on holiday in NZ and slept over before catching the ferry to the SI. How amazing to have had almost every day contact with someone for about two years yet never met in real life

I have done no scrapping but have made Adrian a pair of sleeping shorts and a summer dressing gown. Tomorrow I will start Colin's gown and then one for Ross. I also have fabric to make a few skirts for myself but I will be last in the queue. Actually I finished off this l/o by cutting the title on my WishBlade - the first one I've done! It's quite a learning curve but I'm really pleased with what it does so far.