Winter is here again
I took this one in the last week in April. It’s May now and the temperature is definitely falling. Hard to get my head around it but we’re going into another winter…
All posts filed under: Life in General
Why am I so passive aggressive?
I’ve noticed recently that there is an ugly side to my character that has snuck in somewhere along the way. It is, that I sometimes use passive aggressive ways to make a point. For instance, me and the children joined a library this week. We were picking our first books, I took a while and chose two to start us off. As I was putting the coats back on the children to begin our exit to the car, I turned around to see that a woman had picked up one of the books and added it to her pile. At that point I had a three choices of how to deal with this; A/ realise it was an innocent theft on her part, I’d put my two books near a pile of others so she obviously just thought it was fair game – put it down to an unfortunate mistake, pick another and then be on my way. B/ approach the lady with a smile and explain that I’d chosen this book, had set it …
What Makes a Community?
Today I took Minnie and Jackson to register with the library local to the house we’re buying. I am trying to get a feel for the community we will be living in, making sure we’ll fit in. I realised it’s actually the small things that help you to feel comfortable in a community. We were crossing the road to get to the library and as we waited at the lights and the green man appeared, the little old lady stood next to us, took Minnie’s hand and guided her across the road. And Minnie held her hand all the way. That to me, says we’ll like this community. So even though there are bumps from liquefaction caused by the earthquakes at the end of our road and some of the houses on nearby streets are a little scruffy I think, I can live here, because there are little old ladies who take your child by the hand and make sure they get to the other side safely. As I write this I also think, choosing …
Anzac Day
In New Zealand there is a Bank Holiday for Anzac Day (their version of Remembrance Day). And it is a holiday that falls on the date rather than the day, which sucks if it is a Saturday or Sunday because they don’t “carry it over” to the following Monday. Thankfully this year was a Wednesday so Gareth got a cheeky day off in the middle of his second week of work in Christchurch. We weren’t sure how the day goes for locals, i.e. did they have a sombre day of reflection? We went to the beach with some friends. There were New Zealanders there so hopefully our day of fun wasn’t being hideously disrespectful. Even though it’s their Autumn now the weather is warm and sunny so the children just ran around the whole time and I crouched under a sun tent feeding my 10 month old happy. Now that we have the children in bed and I am sitting on the couch drinking a cider, I can reflect and remember what generations before us …
When A City Falls
Last night Gareth and I watched the DVD, “When A City Falls” which basically tells the story of Christchurch’s earthquakes. It’s very simple and real. You get a good insight into how people were effected, which really is the story you want to learn when you move to the city. We wander on Sumner beach like the picture below and you get no notion of what Christchurch citizens lived through. You realise why people are selling their houses and moving North. If you experience a 7.1 in the September, dust yourself off, mend what’s broken, celebrate a Christmas, see a New Year in and then wham get thrashed (literally) by a 6.3 in the February you are going to really struggle to forget and just carry on life as normal. If it were me I would be always suspicious, always thinking about the chance of another, working out the odds of whether I’d fair as well as the last time. I’d want to leave to. I still haven’t even felt a tremor so I have …
Presentable
I have reached the end of another day. Finished clearing away dinner, tidying up the living room and sorting out the laundry while Gareth baths the children and I look down at myself to make the unfortunate discovery that once again, I look like a tramp. My hair is unsalvageable (must not have a fringe, must not have a fringe), I have Jackson snot and puree on my shoulders, moist biscuit on my sleeve, the trousers I am wearing are too baggy, the flairs of which are caked in “street” from being dragged around all day. I look like I’ve been accosted by a restaurant bin bag. Don’t get me started on the rest of me; tatty nails, smudged mascara, unshaven legs, and feet that should be soaked in E45 for at least a week. I just rested my head on my hand and found some “mush” at the back – eurrck! When I think of how many people have seen me today I wished I’d worn a sign saying ‘this is not how I …
Most Stressful Things
If you Google the most stressful things of life, moving house is always up in the Top 5 and often it’s in first place. I’d like to confirm that it’s right where it should be, way above getting married, starting a new job and having babies. We sold our house in September 2011, three months after I’d had my second baby – also officially stressful, I checked. We moved out the following month and lodged with friends for five months (I can’t find that on a list but it should be there). We spent those five months applying to emmigrate to the other side of the world (again not on a list but it really should be). Once we got the go ahead, we flew 36 hours across the world with our two year old and 10 month old. Now we are house sitting an almost stranger’s house. On Saturday we move into a furnished property for four months. That’s four moves in six months. Our furniture will arrive off the boat before our lease is …
Clothes Shopping
Before we came out to New Zealand we were warned that everything would be more expensive, and oh they were right. With the exchange rate as it is we’re still better off buying in the UK and getting things brought or sent over. So when we arrived, unpacked and realised in the middle of the last minute panic of squeezing my clothes into one suitcase I’d not packed anything to do sport in (I am a lesser version of myself without regular exercise) I was straight on email to my mum to get some things sent over. As mum was treating (love her) I didn’t think Sweaty Betty was polite so I went for JD Sports sale and had a good hunt. Generally I buy medium for everything, but if I have to go by size then it’s going to be between 10 and 12. Having not lost all of my Jackson weight I tend to play safe at 12 but the jacket I liked was a 10 so I ordered it and got mum …
Week by week
One of our motivations for leaving Liverpool was to step out of the speed of city living. It’s a long story but New Zealand is effectively our stepping stone to the Lake District. I’ll let you know how that works out. Someone pointed out that Christchurch is, in fact, a city so was there not a flaw in our plan? Now having lived here two weeks I am heartened by the distinct impression that New Zealanders move slower than us Brits and in a good way. They don’t sprint because they are enjoying the moment. First indicator of how things are different, go into a coffee shop for a take-out latte, take a book, you’ll be there for 15 minutes. People say hello as they pass you and often stop to genuinely ask you how you are. This may not be the same thing but over here bills are measured in weeks not months, so rent is charged by the week, your phone bill and your car repayments also. They take life week by week …
The X Factor
We went to see two more houses to buy today. One was way too small and had this Kiwi quirk (at least to me) where even though it was a two storey house it had the master bedroom on the ground floor. Unless it’s a bungalow, I like all my bedrooms upstairs thank you. Then the second one was lovely, peaceful, good size, tidy garden and totally out of our price range….sigh. We have another six to see over the weekend. Although, after the many tears and protests from my children (and one or two from my husband) I am going alone to one and we’ve got our lovely friends looking after the children so we can do a whistle stop tour of five in a row. Even though that will make the grand total nearly up to an exhausting 20 viewings in four days this is going to be worth it, I know there is a house nearby that when we walk into it it will have the “X Factor” that Kirsty Allsop insists …
the things not said 