Author: thethingsnotsaid

Jewels in the Crown

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It’s that time again when the blog is clearly serving one of its main purposes – letting the family back home see our children, and this time, as an extra treat for Gran and Grandpa Cowles we have the other jewels in their crowns – cousins Eleanor and Amalie. This Christmas we had the best of all sides of the world.  We had lovely hot, sunny days in beautiful locations and we got to share it with family.  Gareth’s sister and gorgeous family stared the long haul journey in the face and said we’ll ‘ave ya, which we are most impressed with. So here they are, brother and sister. Fast forward 30 years (give or take) and you get this brother and sister.  Shockingly similar no? Anyways we were joined by this lot.  Who flew in by helicopter….just kidding. Thankfully everyone got along well from the start.   We were all particularly relieved that these two became chums! Off down South we went and had some sweet memories made in Arthurs Point.  Wisely we mum’s …

The power of an image

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Social media among many things is a way of individuals marketing themselves to their target audience in such a way that gives those that see their posts, tweets, blogs and Instagrams an impression of their lives that is the only one they want people to see, but is in fact not an accurate representation of what their life is really like. Of course that’s as it should be.  That’s why we have families and homes and private lives and our own thought life, so we can choose what we share with others.  We often hear about how social media is taking away our privacy and exposing too much, but I think for the majority of us we still keep hidden what we don’t want others to know.  The whole thing about marketing is that it sells a product people want, that people will be attracted to, that people will want in their lives.  So if Facebook is the marketing campaign for us ‘The Product’ then we’re going to put our best up there. I’ve never …

Childhood

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  One of the ways I think about our role as parents is that we are giving our children their childhood.  Some of the other ways I think about my role as a parent is being bullied by people you can’t hit back, project managing Groundhog Day and working an 18 hour day with no weekends or holidays but I shall refrain from focussing on those, for your sake. When any of us talk about our childhood, the memories that we can’t forget and have somehow made a curious impact on our lives and the stories we share to help others understand why we are the way we are, our parents and our family are always there. Let’s start with an easy one – Christmas.  As parents now we are excited about making Christmas wonderful for our children.  We will debate on how long Father Christmas should be truth and we squabble over when is the right time to give out presents, because if you were my family it was first order of the day and …

Happy 21st!

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A special friend of mine turned 21 last month.  And I couldn’t miss the opportunity to share in their celebrations. I don’t see much of my friend these days but they’re one of those friends that even if you didn’t see or hear from them for a really long time, the second you are back together you would just feel so comfortable and at ease. I first met them when I was only 19 and straight away I knew I had a friend for life.  We just seemed to be on the same page and they accepted me for who I was.  They were super generous and introduced me to all their friends, fed me, gave me a place to stay and made me feel so at home. One of the most wonderful things this friend gave me was a sense of purpose, they saw that I had things to give, they saw I had things I was good at and they let me have a go.  I learnt so much from them, about myself …

Another Winter’s Day

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I have been missing blogging these last few months, I have lots to say (I’m sure) but I just don’t have the time to think of it and even less time to put it down somewhere so other’s can read it!  So at 11.14pm on a Wednesday night, having just finished working for the night I thought I would post some photos from today.  I may regret this tomorrow morning but hey, live on the wild side that’s what I say (I don’t, not ever). Grandparents look lively –  these are up-to-date photographs of your grandchildren – this is what they look like right now! It’s the middle of Winter over here on the “other side” but the last couple of days have been sunny and mild (19 degrees!) so today, despite runny noses, gunky eyes, nasty coughs and runny bottoms my children embraced the outdoors like the long lost friend it is.  Clothes were stripped off, picnic lunch was served and the Wendy House had some fresh air come in.  Oh and the trampoline …

The stress of being stressed

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Anyone who has known me long (let’s face it everyone who reads my blogs is either related to me and so you’ve known me since birth or if not you’ve known me since I became an adult!) you will know that I am somewhat of a busy minded person.  That is to say, I don’t switch off unless I’m sleeping, I over think, I obsess, I go over details to the nth degree, I’m a bit of a stress head.  There are quite a few good things that come from this..I don’t miss much, I get things done, I’m likely to say yes if you want me to do something, I’m awesome at organising things.  The downside is that I can be pretty tense at times, if my emotions are involved they can be all consuming for anyone within a mile radius of me and lately…I think it effects my health. One of the reasons I don’t blog so much anymore is that I literally haven’t got the time to spare.  I’ve been gradually picking …

Celebrating Anzac Day

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Today was Anzac Day, which I believe is the Australia/New Zealand equivalent to Remberance Sunday in the UK.  The lovely thing about it over here is that they give a Bank Holiday for it and this year it was a Thursday, so a little reprieve towards the end of the week – sweet. Yesterday, Minnie and I baked Anzac biscuits to mark the day and today we brought them to the beach for our Anzac Day family outing.  Jackson is modelling his Anzac biscuit here. After spoiling the children (and let’s face it us too because we get to stay horizontal for another hour) with a special iPad showing of The Lion King in mummy and daddy’s bed, we set off for Taylor’s Mistake.  This is a particularly attractive bay round the corner from Sumner where surfers and paragliders like to hang out.  We chose the less adventurous pursuit of sitting on a bench watching the waves whilst our children ran around us.  Which was all very nice until the little monkeys decided to make …

Spot the Difference

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I just found an old photo of my eldest when she was coming up two.  Apart from the fact that I think she looks absolutely gorgeous in it and I want to show her off to the world.  I thought it would be fun to get one of Jackson who is two in June (wow that went fast!) and put them on the same post. What is funny is even though Minnie was born in November and Jackson in June, they both turned two in the Autumn – aahh the weirdness of emigrating to the other side of the world. Anyways here’s the very lovely Minnie, Autumn 2011:And here’s the handsome Jackson, Autumn 2013: Spot the difference.

Le Race

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On Saturday at 8am I will begin a 100km bike ride from Christchurch to Akaroa. A ride which includes three very big hills. It will hurt. Pray for me. Two weeks later…. Just to let you know all your prayers worked because I did it and really rather comfortably.  I was the only female on a mountain bike so I even have my name on the website, check it out http://www.thetimingteam.co.nz/results/index.php?thread=1534118008 It was such a beautiful day and there was no wind so I wasn’t battling anything more than my lack of training. Feel pretty proud of myself. Haven’t looked at my bike since.