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.