Month: May 2012

Outside the box

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The great thing about children, and in particular ones that are below four, they are not afraid to do things slightly different to how everyone else is doing them. Take Minnie and her new best friend Ethan.  They both have matching scooters (it’s like they were meant to be) and they are learning to ride them.  Like me, you might think that the best way to learn to ride a scooter is to listen to instruction, watch how mummy does it and then have a go yourself.  But Minnie and Ethan aren’t like you or I, no they like to think outside of the box.  On their journey of scooter discovery they like to do this… I have no idea how long this phase of learning to “ride” a scooter is going to last but I am believing that it’s a brief warming up to actually putting feet on the scooter and attempting to push oneself in a forward motion.  One can only hope. In the meantime I am trying to work out a way …

Swerved Disappointment

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So just to update on the house buying situation – it would seem we did get the house!  Shan’t bore you with the back and forth details we have just been through for the last two weeks, but essentially it resulted in us paying a deposit (yes that’s really required over here) for a lovely house in Christchurch.  Please God don’t let an earthquake hurt it. Or us for that matter! Anyways I’m very excited and am now off to look for sofas….

I don’t think I’m alone

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Every two to three months I will have a total meltdown, the air will be blue, I will be upset, there will be shouting and I will seriously consider leaving my husband and children.  And by leave I mean not show up at dinner time and sulk in the bedroom with a bar of Dairy Milk. Now I can’t be sure but I think it’s hormonal.  Generally my period comes about 48 hours later.  So in a way it’s not a real meltdown (can’t believe I am giving my husband ammunition for the next time this happens) but it’s actually just a chemical imbalance in my body.  Have to say it does feel a lot in my head though too. The frustration I feel on that fateful day is always about not having time for myself.  Again it’s probably my body telling me a little bit of ‘me time’ would be a good thing as it’s pretty busy with all them there hormones.  But what it feels like is my life is too much, the …

Gold on the streets

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My sister is going to be so proud of me when she reads this one. This morning I was on my usual quest “to get fresh air” with the children and had Jackson in a back pack and Minnie in the pushchair.  As I was walking along I could see walking towards us, a lady probably in her seventies smiling, no beaming at us.  So I stopped.  Yes that’s right Bud I stopped to talk to an old person in the street. I am so glad I did.  Turns out she was gorgeous.  A doctor who had never married but had spent twenty years of her life working in hospitals in South Africa.  She owned a house out there and was going back for a year.  This angel also owned a house in Kent and Christchurch and best of all, she thought my children were lovely (first way to my heart). We swapped names (Mary is hers) which led into a long conversation about the Scottish, Welsh and English.  Mary said that the Scots (from …

House buying sucks

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How do you prepare yourself for disappointment, without just bringing forward the feeling of disappointment? Gareth and I are still trying to buy a house in Christchurch.  After a huge search across the city, we settled on a lovely house on a pretty street in a not so desirable area of town (due to liquifaction not crime rates). In New Zealand there is quite a formal procedure to put in your offer, you have to sign a contract that awards you two weeks to get all your ducks in line for a definite sale.  Once you get to that point there is no going back. HOWEVER if in that two week period your building inspection flags up a bundle of problems with the house, then everything stays not so definite.  Oddly the issues on this house aren’t earthquake related and are more to do with the age of house.  Maybe New Zealand isn’t so different to the UK.  Tomorrow is the 14th day so decisions must be made and I fear we are going back …

Giddyup we’re homeward bound

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Minnie had her first pony ride today and she loved it!  As soon as she was on HP (Harry Potter) she shouted “giddyup” periodically to remind her stead who was in charge.  All those “Nimminnie knee” sessions have paid off Pops!  What was most curious was her fascination with the horse poos along the way, “there’s a poo” was said just as often as “giddyup”. Her enjoyment of it made me so proud.  I find that it’s generally when my children do something I wasn’t expecting them to do that I feel most proud. I think I had my first pony ride when I was five or six.  My dad used to take me to lessons every Saturday through my childhood and then bought me a horse, Moose, when I was in my teens.  At about 15 I realised that boyfriends and horses didn’t mix – I think I’ve been on a horse about three times since then.  My dad still owns horses! So I’m excited about the prospect of Minnie enjoying horses, learning to …