It is quite
difficult to re-commence blogging after a significant gap – the dilemma is
whether to do a detailed catch up or just act as though the intervening period
wasn’t worthy of noting down for others to read.
The
trilemma (?) includes another option – and I was always taught as a manager
that having two options didn’t give freedom of choice whereas three did – the
third option therefore is to do a summary. As bullet points are my go to method
of providing succinct, logically set out info, I am about to refine the third
option. You have been warned …
January:
· New Year was spent at Chris and
Edward’s place in Pahiatua along with Pete and Warren, Bruce and Gary, Chris’s
mum who was over from the UK, and numerous other people who stayed in the large
house. I snuck off to bed well before midnight but David stayed up, played pass
the parcel and won the rainbow toothbrush…
· Time spent with Tim and the lovely
grandsons came down from Opunake for a couple of days and then Tim left the
boys with us.
· I took them away in the motorhome on
my own. We went to:
o
Shannon,
to Owlcatraz which is very NZ and quaint and decidedly worth visiting (see
their website here), and to The Toy Circus, which is also very NZ (even more so
than Owlcatraz), very casual and scruffy but fun. It is one man’s collection of
TV and movie toys and models, displayed in large cabinets with hand made signs below exhorting patrons
to push the buttons for the animated display … It has the most rumpty mini-golf
that I have ever seen. But definitely worth a visit as it is so informal and
fun.
o
Palmerston
North where we stayed at the Motor Camp and went to the Lido Aquatic Centre
next door. Lots of fun on a very hot day – we stayed till the boys turned into
shivering prunes … Before leaving PN, I took them to the museum, countermanding
their dad’s instructions that they don’t like museums – tough, says I, as I was
interested. They were captivated by the lego exhibition and we could have spent
much longer there. It is very interactive as well as having displays. After
over an hour there, we were about 10 minutes into exploring the rest of the
museum when we had a call from Tim to say he was just leaving Hawera on his way
to meet us at Wanganui. So we had to leave. The boys were exhorted by me to
never tell them again that they don’t like museums.
·
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| Dinner in the motorhome at Owlcatraz - the plates hardly needed washing by the time dinner was over ... |
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| At the motorcamp in Palmerston North, right next door to the swimming pool complex. Olek and I managed the awning very well! |
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| Dammit, I was severely beaten by the grandsons at Yahtzee! |
- I drove Tim, Dana and the boys to Auckland from Opunake to get them on their flights back to the UK; then drove back to Wellington. I stopped on the way back in Taupo and stayed with Colleen, one of the first people we B&Bed with years and years ago (before the turn of the century even …) It was lovely to catch up with her and to spend time talking about her husband Bob who died a few months ago, our new PM, the Deputy PM (of whom Colleen is a big fan). Colleen told me of some advice she had been given on Bob’s death. She has adhered to the advice which was to accept every invitation. Another widow told me the same thing a few days later. Interesting, and something to remember if David decides to shuffle off this mortal coil before me.
· The rest of January was spent
blobbing, eating and drinking with friends, gaining weight, dammit.
· I bought some lightweight cotton
material and made two skirts as skirts are cooler than shorts. Nice to wear,
but being cotton, they NEED ironing after laundering – more heat generated,
dammit!
· In the meantime, David worked every
day from our return from Opunake and after New Year, on Weaving Memories
assignments – well, he is now the only income earner so best he sets his nose
to the grindstone, I think.
Early
February:
· Was so hot and so hot and so hot
that I stayed inside much of the time, blobbing, moaning ineffectually, moaning
loudly, moaning quietly, watching Netflix and reading …
· More time spent with friends eating
and drinking and gaining weight – AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
· Had a disastrous experience cooking
stuffed chicken breasts and baked potatoes on the BBQ when Joy and Grahame were
over for dinner. Everything tasted fine, but I cooked everything too long and
too hot, and the potatoes were burnt on the bottom (and just like they can be
when roasted in a fire) and the chicken was burnt on the bottom too and too
dry. Will try again another time, using the trivet, lower temperature and less
time. Will only have David as my guinea pig though so my reputation as a
reasonable cook isn’t too tarnished …
1 comment:
Lovely to see the boys again doing so well and you are super Grandparents btw.
We love spending time with our two grandsons it's not quite so exhausting now they are older though.
Ann and Keith xx
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