Christmas 2011

Well the year is almost over, and Christmas has been slightly chaotic but most enjoyable with Jonathan and Olivia and little Callum here with us. Callum is talking and communicating really well - he knows No and Yes, up and down, on and off, shut, please, ta, hot cool, truck, duck, etc.... and getting really good at "take this to Mummy or take this to Nana..." - and has the most wicked little grin. Forgot to get a real family photo taken, but a few snippets are here - note him trying to imitate Grandad's position on the couch! The talking Thomas engine was a real hit at Christmas as was the push along bike. At the Wallace extended family Christmas Day, the children and adults had fun - Jonathan is the only adult allowed to have a go at the Pinyata and Callum was quite upset at Daddy hitting Santa and after his Daddy succeeded in knocking Santas's head off - he kept saying "Santa Whack" and "Santa Sad" - but he really enjoyed the trampoline and playing in the water.

Having friends over on Boxing day for lunch and dinner did make it a long day, but really glad we did it - the plants, flowers, the big deck, good food, wine and good company was great. Great to see them all (Having a very quiet, and almost slothful day on 27th!)

WE had some lovely presents from family, and it has been a really warm stress free time - except for slight paranoia about keeping the front gate and garage shut! Even the weather was co-operative after weeks of wet and cool times.


I got the quilt finished for Jonathan, but only one other hand made present - hopefully I will start earlier next year!

It was great to get a phone call on Christmas morning from Catherine's family, especially after spending a lovely week with them at the beginning of December. It has been a great year for the grandchildren, Samantha dancing in her first Eisteddford, Joshua's league team winning the Under tens Grand Final, and then to top it off, we were able to go to the school prizegiving for Sean who is now off to High school, and he got two huge shields - one for Student of the Year and one for Dux - in the photo he is with his Mum, and his two grandmothers. We didnt know he was gettting prizes and although he was hoping for Dux he didnt sound sure, so all in all the time we spent with them this year has given us some great memories.

Hopefully I will get one more posting this year and then I will provide a link to the 2012 chapter of LizziesJourney.

The bus is back!

After some months of waiting and to-ing and fro-ing from external repairer to internal repairer we got the bus back last Thursday and straight away took off for a few days up north. We slept over in Gulf Harbour for the night - only feet from the water - a great spot to make an early start from - and then explored a few of the regional parks and approved overnight camping spots - as usual I opt for as close to the water as possible - so I put a big tick by Snells carpark and the Scandretts Regional Park - it was very windy at Snells and the windsurfers were out in force. We wandered up to Kerikeri to overnight at Peter's brother's house and the weather changed overnight.

Wet and quite unpleasant when we woke but brighten up with some great fudge and then diverted to Kaikohe and down the middle Twin Bridges Road. The HoneHeke Monument ( celebrating he who cut down the British flag at Russell three times) is set in a lovely littlepark which would have a wonderful view in fine weather, and briefly stopped at the Wairua Falls which have been reduced to almsot a trickle by a small regional powerstation.

Weather continued most inclement, so I opted for a visit to the Waipu Museum. Waipu was settled in the 1870s by over 900 Scots, led by their minister Rev Norman McLEod - as a Gaelic speaking community they were very close knit and had spent 30 years in Nova Scotia after fleeing Scotland during the time of the closures. They even built the boats they sailed for Australia in - it appears our friend Murdoch McDonald is a descendant - we knew he was very proud of his heritage and now we know more about why!

Decided our own bed and TV to wat ch England Scotland match was better than spending another night away so we just kept on driving, but looking forward to the summer!

The weekend bonus was a visit to see Callum who was spending the weekend with Olivia's family. He continues to grow into a delightful little boy. We are in trouble because we fed him jelly snakes (only 3) and apparently he and his Mum had a most uncomfortable night, Oops!

Home again

Finished up in Sydney last weekend with a quick trip up to Bathurst to watch Josh in his Under 10s grand final - taken very seriously by all the kids and families - pom pom girls and balloons and Josh's well coached and disciplined team played their hearts out and won to great excitement ( especially the fathers!) - lovely to be there! After an enjoyable couple of days I had to get the train all the way to the airport and home.

All well at home - Daffodils are out and now so are the irises - Peter had bought another station wagon - hopefully to fit all the family at one time and the bus was almost ready. We delivered it back to the external repairers for them to sort out some stuff they had damaged earlier. Hopefully not too long now before we get it back properly and can take off again in it.

Went to my quilting group on Tuesday and some of the ladies had done great things - I am very behind and will just do what I can when I can - it is for fun! The work in this photo is NOT mine.

Still have lots of work going on - and offers of more for next year - I guess the dilemma of deciding what to do is better than the dilemma of not having anything to choose between!

Auckland is Rugby World Cup mad, lots of cars with flags on esepcially in South Auckland where Tonga, Samoa and Fiji have lots of supporters - we even have an All Blacks flag on our car! Keeping my fingers crossed for the All Blacks France game tonight - the country will be in all black if we lose!

Catching up on a bunch of news

Well I got back from Geelong and had a busy week at home getting ready to go away again - my brother Randall from Brisbane was over to play golf and he came out with little(!) brother Gilbert for dinner after an afternoon spent showing Randall round the new Auckland Viaduct recreation area - all done up in time for the World Cup - going to be a real asset to Auckland. It was lovely afternoon and evening topped off my rendition of one of Mum's favourite puddings - self saucing Lemon Delicious - and it was yummy.

Then a few days later and Gilbert had his 60th - I stitched madly in between finishing off a bunch of academic tasks and finished the table runner as shown which looks lovely in his house. All his family were looking really well - lovely to see grandchildren and his long time friends. Lovely people and they dont look faintly like slowing down.

Then I was off to Sydney - and up to Bathurst to see Samantha in her first Eisteddford - dancing in the 5 and under with her dancing class. She thought she was just great in her beautiful pink dress and she did remember to dance - some of the little ones just stood there awestruck. Josh's football match was on at the same time so we werent able to be there to see him kick the conversion which put his team into the "grand final" but I am going to go back next weekend and see this grand final.

I was off to Perth to talk at four universities about the project I had been working on in 2010 and it was really interesting hearing from them about the innovative course structures and new buildings and layouts that were being put up to enable students to do more group and interactive learning. The beautiful new building Peter and I had seen being started seven years ago at Joondalup looked magnificent.

BAck now in Sydney and yes, I was a bit tired but I have caught up on sleep. I am trying to catch up with friends but also now need to work flat out on the project I am doing here, so that I can go up and see Josh play football next weekend.

The weather today was beautiful with clear blue sky so I took advantage and went over in the ferry to the Open Day at the residences of the Governor General and Prime Minister of Australia. They are lovely old homes, and they really are homes, not just showplaces. Lots of people there, but the most fantastic views back across the harbour - what a place to live!

All well at home, Peter's daffodils got prizes in the gardening club and he had a great three days babysitting two corgis who devotedly followed his every move.

BAck from a week in Geelong

Just back from a week in Geelong working at the university there - busy every day and weather was wet and cold, but felt it was a useful week. The apartment I used was lovely, view from the balcony of my first dawn looked good but weather deteriorated. I missed the snow in Auckland - first in 70 years - Wellington and other parts of the North Island were a pretty sight but increased diversity in the climate seems the norm now, rather than global warming! Feel sorry for those in Christchurch still in substandard homes without proper toilets.

Peter Ok at home - sun starting to comeout so the garden is now getting some attention - the daffodils are out and looking pretty - but still chilly day temperatures - yesterday reached 11 deg. Oh, roll on spring and summer.

An eventful week!

A bit remiss about not posting earlier - July was a very wet, cold month where I plugged away writing conference papers, doing bits and pieces associated with contracted work I had underway, and had a couple of great days sewing when I was determined not to let the weather get me depressed.

Sadly, an old friend died. Kata , KAren's mum died at 92 years of age, one of the kindest, sincerest ladies you could wish to meet, she embodied all that was good in her Christian faith. The next weekend we attended a lovely 40th birthday party and a christening/cum first birthday party -reminding us that life has many stages.

I joined the patchwork class next door at Nathan Homestead - more of a longstanding group than a class but friendly women and doing some interesting projects - more later! I am plugging away on several projects - need to stop buying more bits and finish them!

In late July I had a very uplifting and spiritually refreshing week in Wellington on a week long residential with the School of Philosophy -and then back to a fairly eventful week or two.

Jonathan flew in and out on his way to Prague to deliver an international workshop on the use of R statistical software, particularly for people with visual difficulties and he left Jenna with us. Peter really enjoyed having her for two weeks, I love her but oh, she does shed hair!

Then Olivia flew in and left Callum with us for a couple of days while she went to a scrabble tournament. Callum is now 16 months old, saying a few words, very very mobile and inquisitive, very cheerful happy little chap. I took him to the playground next door, in to the hospital to see his other grandma, out to visit an old friend in Pukekohe - he really enjoyed that - she has 7 grandchildren and a box full of toys! We loved having him and he got lots of cuddles. He also loved all grandad's garden tools and bits - there are now white pebbles in all sorts of funny places - but nothing harmful.

All sorts of little dramas make life interesting - like a car hitting the powerpole on the road outside at 8 am on a Sunday morning! which caused the burglar alarm to go off continuously and then jam the electronic gate and garage door openers! Then Peter and I both got an attack of some gastric thingy - yuk! less said the better, all well now.

Our bus is still in the repair shop - some very polite but lengthy negotiations - the people fixing the outside and the people fixing the inside need to agree on getting it right - it is now our insurance agent having discussions with the panel beaters insurance agents - meanwhile we wait!

Jonathan back, so no dog here now - suddenly it is very quiet!

I am off to Geelong next week to do some work - a little apprehensive - going to be a bit challenging but hopefully I can be useful.

Peters Birthday Quilt

After me playing around with little bits and pieces practising a technique for joining little squares all very exactly, a beautiful red and black kimono lap quilt arrived in the post for Peter's birthday. When our daughter does it well, she does it really well. Peter was delighted. It is so beautiful I am not sure if he is going to use it on his knee or put it on the wall!

And I have been invited to join the quilting class/group in the cultural centre next door - so I am looking forward to "playing" with some like minded ladies next Tuesday morning.

It has a busy and topsy turvy week or two - After a lovely residential weekend practising my Sanskrit, we heard a dear friend's health was failing fast and she died on Sunday. She was 91 years old and was a much loved, generous lady whose Christian faith was exemplified in all she did.

LAst weekend I helped organise a very well received workshop with a renowned British speaker and spent time showing her around Auckland. Since then I have been busy working - so much for my semi retirement - but all the jobs are interesting and working with nice people. I am lucky.

Looks like I will have several trips to Oz in the next few months, and our bus is almost mended, so lots to look forward to - thank goodness we are both in pretty good health.

A constructive rainy day

It has been wet and wild since I got back from Christchurch and after working on the computer on Thursday and Friday decided that the evening and the weekend were "me" time - so I had fun with my sewing machine. The block for this month for the Rainbow Connection group was a log cabin in reds - and I was told to watch out and keep it square! Warning was justified - the slightest error in the seam width would have made it a parallelogram or a trapezium instead of a square - however I was tickled pink with the overall result - see photo.

Then I spent the rest of Saturday working on other patchwork projects that are on the go. FUN!

Today my throat which overnight had been burning has developed into a full blown runny nose cold and sore throat - so much for my invulnerability!

Playgrounds are fun!

This weekend Peter and I drove to Palmerston North to babysit Callum - sole charge - for the weekend while J went to a judo tournament and O went to a scrabble tournament. The little chap is a delightful baby - slept like a dream and had the most delightful wicked grin.

He is now almost 14 months old and walking and exploring at great speed. My friend Christine and I took him to the magnificent Esplanade playground - with miniature train - I think perhaps the adults enjoyed the train more than a one year old - maybe he needs to be a little older - he looked very solemn! But he loved the swings, slide and Christine followed him around the climbing frame! I took photos!

Really glad to get the chance to be with him for the whole weekend. We think he is saying Nana and something that signifies Grandad - definitely knows Mama and Dada! Woof and Shut.

A successful weekend for J - he got two gold medals at his tournament and O. also had a very successful weekend and ended up the B grade Scrabble champion.

I am off to Christchurch for a couple of days work tomorrow - they had a 5.5 quake today so hope they dont have any tomorrow!

Liz back on line

I have been remiss in not keeping this blog up to date in the last few months - Yes, I have been busy but I have been unsure how interested other people might be in my happenings so have decided to continue even if it is just for my own benefit in keeping a pictorial diary.

fter an eventful trip to the South Island over Easter in our motorhome - long story - the short version is a tree fell on our bus in a storm, but all is well or mendable - and we spent a great few days with J and O and Callum on the way home.

I have just returned from another two weeks in Sydney working at UTS - always feel so welcome there and had several lovely meals with friends and the work went well.

I spent a couple of days with Catherine and the family up at Glanmire, it gets cold watching football up there - the two nanas took Sean to his game while Catherine took Joshua to his. I think the kids grow an inch every month - it seems like that!

The following weekend I caught up with Brett R. - lovely to hear news of his family - we had lunch at the Forum - an Italian community area in Leichardt with a large square surrounded by restaurants on the ground level and apartments above. Also went for a walk the next day to the Museum. Hyde park was being enjoyed by large numbers of people out in the sunshine.

Visited with my friend Joan while she was babysitting her grand daughter Eva- almost same age as our Callum - and enjoyed a Lebanese restaurant meal in Redfern.

Had an enjoyable evening with the UTS Women in Engineering group - the speaker brought along a couple of incredible robots - one football playing dog and a person shaped one that had been programmed to do Tai Chi and dance to rock music! The little dog was jsut like these

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diiv7kpW-ng

My last day on this trip was special as a colleague picked me up and we went to work by boat in his "picnic" boat - a gorgeous still, blue sky autumn morning, as we left Iron Cove and tootled up the PArramatta River, anchored at Darling Harbour (only $25 a day if you are going to work) and walked up from there!

Home safely now in Auckland - and enjoyed catching up with two old friends we hadnt seen for about ten years.

More later! Off to Palmerston North next weekend to babysit Callum. then home for at least a month.

We are having the hottest February for a long time - really hot and sticky - hard to sleep at night.

We ran away last Saturday night overnight to Shell bank at Kaiaua - fish and chips and the calmest sea imaginable. Hot swim the next morning and back to host a few friends over for a BBQ.

Peter continues to work consistently on the garden and is gradually separating all the bromeliads which had been "procreating" in their pots - each year they get another pup and the part that has flowered dies - when we shifted we brought them all with us and we now have upwards sof 50 new bromeliads all nicely planted in new pots. Not sure what we will be doing with them all - maybe we can set up a roadside stall? The photo has only got the first 20 or so ...

Tomatoes coming out my ears - I am freezing pulp, and cooking them every night. Lettuces, second crop going crazy as well - have eaten up all our potato crop but another is on the way!

Sunday we had the first music in the park concert over our back fence. A "covers" band which was very good - so hot that all the audience sat quite away back in the shade - must have been a bit hard for the band to feel in the mood with everyone a bit away from them - but way too hot to sit in the sun. Next Sunday night is "French Toast" which is a trio playing French tunes. Should be fun.

I am doing quite a bit of work and preparing for more - but have made sure I take the time to do stuff for myself - like patchwork. Done quite a bit the last couple of weekends. Went to the "Counties Manukau Quilters Guild" - a nice group of women - about 50 of them, met some ex pupils, but most of the women were older. And I am back at my Philosophy group - off to a weekend retreat this coming weekend.

All well - just HOT!

Up North and the Far East

Well the year is racing past, and after a week or two, sorting through paperwork and doing a couple of outstanding tasks ( like writing my Kong Kong presentation), we set off to go to the near North for a weekend. The first night we took the Scenic Drive and ended up at Bethells Beach ( there was a Rock band going to be playing so we left there) and then back to the Cascades which is a lovely DOC spot with a regenerating Kauri forest and a clear bubbling stream. We stayed the night in the car park and I went for a neat walk to the Falls - very do-able 45 min walk. Tidied up immensely and well maintained since I last came here as a school teacher with a school group. Then went on up to Mangawhai for Saturday night - had breakfast in the car park by the beach - watching the world go by.

Then on the night of 18th I left for Hong Kong where I had been invited to give a keynote talk at a workshop which had mostly Korean, Hong Kong and Taiwanese participants. Great experience where I learned a lot about the academic cultures and also my first experience of Hong Kong. A fascinating place - 7 million people crammed into such a little space. difficult to choose photos to display. The first one shows the walkways which are over the roads -they are everywhere in the business district - cars take preference on the roads! They have the longest covered "escalator" moving walkway at 800km which goes from the CBD to the "midlevels" - where the medium to rich people live which comes one way - down - in the morning and one way -up- from 10am.

The statues are by a contemporary sculptor - they symbolise the fervour of the red Guards for Communism ( the front one with the little red book) and the back one the fervour of the modern Chinese generation for Capitalism ( clutching a cell phone).

I was somewhat amazed at the seeming lack of Communist China influence in HOng Kong - seemed to be "Business as usual".

The photo in front of the lights was taken before we left on a dinner cruise when all the Skyscrapers were lit up and they had a fancy laser light show every night at 8pm. Quite magnificent but my little camera didnt take good photos so the photo in front of the poster will have to do.

The skycrapers were jaw dropping and incredibly close together. One new building was going to be so close to its neighbours that they demanded that the residents of the adjacent condominium had to remove their external air conditioning units so that the new building could fit in!

I was also able to squeeze in a couple of side trips - one to Lamma Island which is relatively unpopulated - only 45 min in a ferry - lots of expatriots live there and commute into the CBD - no houses over 3 storeys and no cars on the island - lots of bush and lovely beaches. Didnt realise there were such unpopulated areas or island close to Hong Kong - most of them too hilly to build on but a real breath of fresh air from the CBD.

Then on Saturday afternoon after a workshop I was able to go to the Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Gardens - I easily negotiated public transport during daylight hours and other than being a bit squashed it was very efficient.

The Gardens were beautiful - aiming for Harmony and Peace - they certainly achieved it! Bonsai'd trees, huge unusually formed stones and rocks and lots of water features!

Then on my last morning I took a bus to Stanley Markets which went round the south side of HK Island, and Repulse Bay with the multi million dollar apartments over looking the beach.

The markets were incredible - I bought presents for kids and family - lots I could have bought in the clothing line but my wardrobes are already full, so I restrained myself.

All in all a wonderful, unexpected opportunity. Enjoyed the chance to see how the other half lives, glad we are in NZ and blessed with so many natural assets.

The beautiful edible garden

Our garden has blossomed and fruited madly - we had a bucket and a half of beans when we came back on 4th janaury and have had at least another bucket full since, a coupl eof buckets of new potatoes and cabbage and cauliflower ( although the white butterfly got more cauliflower than we did) - and last night we had our first sweet corn - and wow were they sweet. The gladioli have been a picture although the colours are not as vivid in these photos as theya re in real life. Pity they last so short a time.

I have sat out on the deck and eaten lunch in beautiful sun, under the umbrella, and think - yeah it is a simple but good life!

Hopefully we have gardened enough and will get away in the bus this weekend.

Happy New Year for 2011

Happy New Year to anyone that reads this and follows my journey. Well, here we are in 2011 – the years fly by. Seems only yesterday we were planning for computer crashes as the clock rolled over to the year 2000.

After a quiet New Year in Palmerston North, with Jonathan, Olivia and Callum ( and Jenna and Hershey of course) Peter and I had a sightseeing morning with Christine – whose driveway our bus had been inhabiting each night – and we went up to the wind farm overlooking Palmerston North. I didn’t realise the turbines were so big! We think they are quite attractive, although I think sometimes they look like the pictures from War of the Worlds.

Palmerston North is quite a pretty town, although it is not close to any beaches, it does have the river winding through it with lovely riverside parks and the little Centennial Lake ( thats me with the ducks having a drink before my dinner).

Then we left on 3rd January to drive back to Auckland – took it slowly and explored some side roads and potential camping sites for the future – right beside the railway line at Erua where the Last railway spike was rammed home joining the north end to the south end of the main truank line in 1908, and at the YMCA camp beside the Mangawhero river.

Beautiful spot and quite empty that day.

We went in to see what we could of the Raurimu spiral and then came up the back road into Taumaranui on the other side of the river. Watched four mothers and six kids get set up in hired canoes to go down the Wanganui river - I got more grey hair just watching them, One kid was crying "I dont want to go" before they even set off - and none knew any paddling strokes except forwards and hopefully backwards. We followed them down through the first couple of kilometres and then decided it wasn't really our problem. Love weather for them, and very low water so hopefully they had fun.

Home again and now back to work. It is taking a while to settle.

The garden had grown madly - a bucket and a half full of beans alone! nd a few days later a bucket and a half of lovely new potatoes.

Hopefully someone enjoys reading my blogs - I put them here mainly as a record for myself and Peter - good backup - never too sure if they are a bit of an ego trip though, but at least it is better than bombarding friends and family with long emails with pictures! Hopefullyalso a bit more private than Facebook.