Beijing Games symbol

Colin and I outside The Birds Nest - so cool!

Great Wall

Well, here we are at The Great Wall and it was wonderful! Colin walked to one of the top stations but I didn't get very far. No matter - I had an awesome experience anyway

New hat

So proud oh his hat he bought!

Giant Panda

He/she was really enjoying the bamboo!

Forbidden City

Here is Colin and I outside the entrance to the Forbidden City. We are having a wonderful time - very busy. It was rather windy and a bit cold

Boys

In amongst all I had to do yesterday, it was Academic Assembly at school. Of course my mom and I went. here is Ross receiving his academic tie and certificate for Achieving NCEA Level 1 with Excellence

From nowhere, Colin decided he wanted to play bass guitar. he bought one on TradeMe and joined a rock band at school. He also changed courses to music and is having private music lessons. here he is in the Start me Up rock bands concert last week

RIP

Jack Woods: born 16 December 1923 Died 13 April 2011

He was very peaceful and my mom was with him at the end - she was talking to me on the phone.

Not a great photo but this is him as I want to remember him - vibrant and very involved with his grandchildren

So much

I have so much going on in my life right now:

My Dad declines by day. He doesn't know us or that we're even there and is not eating. What happens if he dies while I'm in China? I have a plan - what would you do?

My Mom needs help as she doesn't drive and can't do much organising of the big picture things.

My knee at least is almost at 100%

I have so much to do packing and getting things organised at home over the next few days. I have left Ross with a freezer full of frozen meals - does that make me a bad mother?

I have a 14 hour flight on Saturday night and I HATE flying!

I am single parenting two teenage boys and that's not easy

There is some other stuff that I am barely thinking about let alone talking about

I would like to see 12 months ahead and see where I'm at

As I said on Vicki P's blog: Find something good in every day and focus on that.

So today the sun shone and I got my Chinese money

Knee

So the diagnosis was a dislocated knee-cap. I spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in bed and as my Mom says, for someone who can't spend four hours in bed, I must have felt awful. I was also really, really sick from the pain killers so could keep nothing down. (I know, TMI!) I saw the physio on Wednesday and have got gentle stretch exercises to do every hour - and yes, I am doing them! He says I will be on the plane in China in 16 sleeps without crutches! I think I may just take one as my "insurance".

Then .... THANK YOU ........ this is what was waiting outside my door for me today. This lady I have met ONCE ... yes, only once. She is part of a tiny Australian scrapbook forum to which I belong ...four or five Aussie ladies and me. Because we have all been on the Board for such a long time, we're quite close (funny to say that) and we share a lot of our day-to-day events

Packed in a cute little black and white box that looks like a great scrapbook goodies container!

I tell you - this lifted my spirits no end today.

Thank you Alicia - you have made a huge difference to me today

Look who's coming to live at our house!

Meet Buddy, a Rainbow Lorikeet who needs a new home

Colin and I are so excited about him!

In pain

I have a sore right knee and I have been molly-coddling it along. I have a doctor's appointment the Wednesday before I go to China for a cortisone injection. What happened today? My knee clicked backwards and left me in excruciating pain. A visit to the doctor and I have it strapped up, a pair of crutches, three lots of tablets and instruction to not get out of bed all weekend!

Just what I don't need right now with having to take my mother to visit my dad and my husband leaving. Hopefully my sons will help me out

Day off

Friday we had the day off; coincidently the same day as the Day of Mourning in Chch. I was busy - mainly with things for my mom and dad.

Saturday I had the "day off" - I went scrapping! And had a wonderful day. I did one l/o - it was originally going to be about Adrian's dressing gown but I changed it to a l/o about my sewing

Then, I decided earlier in the week that I wanted to make a travel diary. There is no FaceBook or Blogger in China so I wanted a diary to make brief notes in rather than a travel album. With the help of Tracy and the ideas she showed me, a purchased 19cm x 14cm photo album I bought, the excess PL notecards that Heidi sent me and my scraps bag, I came up with this:

Clock museum

Science & technology Centre

Ancient observatory

Great Wall

Happy Valley Theme Park

Overnight train

Xian School

Terracota warriors

Maglev Train

Yu Gardens, Science Museum and Tangram centre

Water Township

University

Extra pages

A few pages to finish and my diary is done! There are pockets for tickets etc that I pick up on the way. Not a work of art, but I'm very pleased none the less

Oh, it's a school trip and we leave in four weeks time

St Patrick's Day

I decided last night about 8pm that we needed something for St Patrick's Day so Green Velvet Cupcakes it was. They are chocolate with a whole bottle of green food colouring in the cake mix!
Not sure if you can see the green colour inside. I had very green fingers after finishing with the cake and the icing!
My Dad seems to be settling down but he is not at all well - poor, sick old man! It is so sad to see him as he is after knowing what a strong man he was. I really hope that my memories of him are as he was and not how he is now

Two of my form class students are in big trouble: one for forging his mother's signature in a note about not having time to do his homework! His parents, him and the senior staff had a meeting today about the issue. Just before the meeting, he came to ask if I would be there - in his words, "Because you'll support me, Miss". Gosh, I must be doing something right! Makes me feel like I am doing a good job there because I had already told him off this morning for such a silly decision. What I didn't tell him was that I used to forge my father's signature in my sister's homework when I was about 8! Another of students also had a telling off from me and I warned him that he would not be playing the next Touch rugby game if there was any more bad behaviour. What happened? That day there was more bad behaviour; however, I am going to relent on him not playing Touch on Tuesday because of his mature attitude today and that he did not ask me to change my mind!

Colin is so pleased with himself as he got a Merit grade in his first Maths internal assessment. Ross has saved enough money to buy himself a really nice flat screen TV - he is thrilled with it and is making his bedroom into a real haven for himself

Then, from 26th April I will be a single parent as my husband has decided that he needs to be away from us for a while :-( We'll cope, the kids and I; we're already talking about what we'll do and how we'll manage. Although this couldn't have come at a worse time

Out of hospital but not home

After three weeks of not wonderful nursing, my dad is out! We had looked at numeorus places and our fist choice was Longview in Tawa but he was third on the waiting list. Some of the "nursing" left much to be desired - they would hand out pills and change a dressing (screwing up their noses in distaste) but that was all. There was no CARE. No one cared if his meals were accessible, no one cared if he was hot or cold - nothing.

On Tuesday, my mom and I were talking on the phone and she asked if we should try Kemp Home which is just a bit further away. I phoned and there was no one there who could talk to me, but we decided to go and look anyway. We were impressed. The next morning (wednesday) the nurse-manager phoned me back to say they had a vacancy and we should come and look. We went on Thursday morning and it looked great. A bit shabby, but friendly staff. In fact, they were so kind to my mom that she broke down and cried. A nurse went to the hospital to assess his needs and on Thursday around 4pm she phoned me to say he could move on Friday.

What a rush! On Thursday night, Adrian and I took a TV, some paintings and books in. We did notice that the room was very sparse. What a difference on Friday! There were curtains up and over the wardrobe, a TV trolley and they had connected and tuned it.

As we arrived we were overwhelmed by the kindness and friendliness. It was just on lunchtime and Mom and I were invited to have lunch. I looked around at how the other residents were being treated - kindly and patiently. My dad was so tired after lunch and probably because he'd seen more people, activity and concern in two hours than the entire three weeks in hospital.

We will go back later to see him, but I am confident that he will be fine. I know that I'm a numbers person - look at this: their address in SA was 108, their first house in NZ was 84, where they currently are in #3 and dad is in room 12! See all those combinations of 12 and 3? I know it will work

Red & Black for Canterbury

Red and Black are the colours for the Crusaders and Canterbury. Yesterday we had had Red & Black day at school. We raised around $3200 in a school of 1400 kids. This is me with one of my classes yesterday. I had them all cover theri faces so I didn't have to blur out any!

Rest homes

Yesterday my mom and I went to visit rest homes. The ones we saw have two levels of care: rest home and hospital bed. My dad will qualify for hospital bed and my mom rest home. The problem is that they are all single bed rooms. We first looked at Harbourview which is ultimately our first choice but my dad is #14 on the waiting list. next up to Longview which is here in our suburb - dad is #3. Then onto Cashmere House who can take my dad now, but it is far for my mom and no accommodation for her.

My mom didn't sleep well last night and in the early hours of the morning she decided that Longview will be the best. dad can go as soon as there is a room for him; she can sort out the house (with our help) and then hopefully there'll be a room for her. She will be able to get there easily (as we will) and when she is there, she can spend most of the day with him

We just hope that he gets in quickly and then there is a place for her within the next six weeks

Such sad news

What a dreadful year so far! I suppose dominating the news at the moment is the 6.3 earthquake that rocked Christchurch at lunch time yesterday. Now 6.3 is not that big but it was only 5kms down so the devastation was huge. Many buildings in the city are ruined - how does one clean up the third biggest city in NZ?

Below is a photo of the famous Christchurch Cathedral before yesterday

Now it looks like this

Now because NZ is small, everyone will have friends or relatives down there as do we. All my scrappy friends and their families are safe; some SA friends are also safe. Other people have not been so lucky as currently the death toll is 75 people. How do families come to terms with the loss of their loved ones like that?

Our personal sad news is that my dad is back in hospital and will not be coming home. He can no longer stand or walk and is hallucinating. I just pray that he does not linger on. We will find out on Friday how long the hospital can keep him or we will need to find hospital level care for him. I am stretched to maximum capacity as I'm not sleeping well because I'm constantly aware of where the phone is in case it rings in the middle of the night.

To make matters worse, my husband decided to go to Melbourne for ten days so I am dealing with ALL of this alone!

School 2011

Ross Year 12 and Colin Year 11 - Colin is not happy about having to have his photo taken!

Catch up

This week has felt very long indeed! School started officially on Monday and in between running to the hospital and preparing my classroom five days felt like 15!

I have a terrible timetable - no non-contacts on Monday or Tuesday, staff meeting Monday, tutorials Monday nights by Wednesday I'll be tired. However, I think that is all to change as we have so many Year 10s that I have been asked to give up my Year 13s in order to take a new Year 10 class. I will be sorry to lose this Yr 13 class as for the first time the "right" kids are in it - no badly behaved ones who don't really want to be there or do the work, but have been forced in because there is no other option for them.

Ross worked so hard at the Stadium over the Sevens - 28 hours and was on his feet all the time. His feet were killing him and he was so tired last night. He went back the second day even though he was so tired. He worked more hours than any of the other "runners": running with trolleys of food and drink between the kitchen and the corporate boxes. He said that there is so much food wastage there - he was horrified. I need to get him some decent shoes and maybe even some orthotics.

Colin, my Mom and I are planning a garage sale on Saturday so I have also been going though the stuff we don't want here. Where does it all come from? And getting rid of lots of scrap-booking stuff on TradeMe! I wish I didn't work and I could really get stuck in and sort. Trying to do it after school is too hard.

No photos and I haven't even taken a photo of the boys at the start of the school year. I'm hoping that I will get one tomorrow morning

Colin has bought a bass guitar and he has an amplifier! Fortunately he is very considerate and closes his bedroom door so it's not too loud

Thank you

.... for your kind thoughts either here or via email.

My Mom and I got to the hospital at 10.45 am and packed up my Dad's things very quickly. He put on his own pyjamas (he was wearing a hospital "nighty" - how demeaning is that) and got into his wheel chair.

Then we had the meeting. The young registrar came in and first off apologised for what had happened yesterday. He then said that he would phone the GP tomorrow morning and get my Dad's antibiotics sorted out. He agreed that my Dad should just be kept safe, happy and comfortable. My Dad will have to have blood transfusions every three or four months but I have had a note put on his records that it is transfusion only and then he will go home. I got him home just before 11.45 am and he was so pleased to be home!

He is looking much better already (I saw him this afternoon), my Mom is happier and I don't feel so stressed!