the fishbowl

Hiatus

2010-02-08T19:26:00.001+13:00

This blog is in temporary shutdown. I started it to keep my friends up to date with things I am up to, but now there is such a thing as status updates I find I hardly use this blog anymore.

Arohanui :)
fish

tacky but I like it!

2009-12-15T16:10:00.001+13:00

Here is a cool video just for Charlotte all the way from the North Pole.

My boob out on the internet

2009-12-15T07:57:00.001+13:00

It's OK Mum, it's just a breastfeeding photo competition.

http://www.breastfeedingnzphotos.org.nz/Gallery.aspx
Choose Wellington region and browse to find me on the beach at Scorching Bay!

Last year I was the baby Jesus

2009-12-13T21:00:00.004+13:00

This year - the best angel EVER.

2009-11-28T07:18:00.001+13:00

So while Sam is up in Auckland having the Best Time Ever, I am at home with Charlotte and a tummy bug. Bleurg.

What we've been up to recently

2009-11-08T16:10:00.006+13:00

Took some more pics of the babe. Hasn't she grown!!

Tried on the Wedding dress to see if it still fits. Amazingly it does :)

Sam's anniversary present to me - tidying the 'spare' room.

Before: Magazines galore, a sewing cabinet, models and a
workbench for Sam, and a lot of detritus.

Charlotte helping sort the magazines.

After: Aah, that's better!

Oh yeah, a few weeks ago I got a medal from the Bishop of Wellington for service to the choir for 25 years. Guess that makes me old. (I think there's a reason the ribbon is grey!) Charlotte will probably get her medal in 24 years or so.

Looooook into my eyyyyyyeeeessss...

2009-11-07T22:52:00.002+13:00

.... buy some peppeeeeeerrrrrr....

Where did that year go?

2009-09-29T09:43:00.003+13:00

Charlotte is now one. It's been a challenging year, but also incredibly rewarding. We have been showered with love, baby clothes, help, advice, toys... and have recieved it all very gratefully (ok maybe not *all* the advice!).

She continues to improve with her eating and is now able to eat weetbix and porridge without it going through a sieve first. She can eat malt biscuits if she takes very small bites and chews well with her six teeth. She can eat the same food as us if you put it in the blender first, or do things like bite the end off the chip or piece of roast kumara and squeeze out all the yummy squishy stuff! She also likes cupcake icing.

She can swim under water, but needs someone to pull her up above the water at the end of her swim. She stands unaided and is *so* close to walking. She has taken a few steps between the two of us, but usually needs catching at the end to avoid a forehead bruise! She says Mama, Dad, Nana, up, hello, and seems to speak a language I can't understand the rest of the time.

She has grown about 20cm since being born and has put on about 5 kilos. Not much, but she is in proportion according to the Plunket Nurse. With parents like hers she was never going to be tall anyway :)

She still wears 3-6 month and 6-9 month clothes, and is the smallest baby in the antenatal group, but she definitely has the biggest place in my heart.

A year ago

2009-09-23T21:21:00.006+12:00

Right now, a year ago, I rolled over in bed and silently thanked my Sister for suggesting I put a shower curtain under the bottom sheet.

Thanks Carol!

About an hour from now, a year ago, I was typing an email in between contractions.

"Hi John (and Andrew)

Might be a false alarm but I may be delivering a baby a little sooner than thought. Here's some relief just in case..."

About 4 hours from now, a year ago, K took this picture.

Happy Birthday little girl!!

Now face North...

2009-09-16T15:02:00.001+12:00

Check out the clever baby!

rock and roll

2009-08-31T20:36:00.001+12:00

Seems that being the sober driver is a kickable offence at the Southern Cross.

Yeah, so I was alseep in the corner of our booth. It was LATE (11pm) and I have a BABY dammit!

Blimmin' no sleeping policy. Whatever.

If I wasn't a school teacher...

2009-07-30T21:17:00.006+12:00

I would run a costume hire place, making my own costumes, cos I love it :)

Today I completed something I have been meaning to do for aaages - transfer all my costumes from a bunch of boxes into an actual wardrobe! I have so much stuff I didn't realise it till I saw it all hanging up.

Here's the (complete I think!) list...

Fur stole and shoulder cape and coat (all 3 from Grandma)

Purple feather boa

Rock and roll petticoat. It's all full and flouncy. Vintage gear from Dad's first wife.

Wrap around old-school netball skirt.

Hutt Intermediate t-shirt.

Hutt High t-shirt.

Hutt High skirt, tie and jersey.

Gym Slip (my Ma's old uniform, or perhaps my Aunt's.)

Red boiler suit.

Nurse costume (actually a 60s housedress that I converted.)

Tuxedo shirt.

Flouncy pirate shirt.

White alb (that's a priesty churchy garment, or could double as a really old fashioned nightgown.)

Bumblebee striped singlet with wings (with matching striped 'rugby undies' I won at a quiz.)

Tiger suit (spraypainted white paper boiler suit like they put criminals in on the telly) complete with stuffed tail.

Tellytubby costume (red tracksuit with a shiny belly bit, and a hand stitched head piece.)

Unicorn hand stitched head piece plus white trousers (Wore it to Sophie's 'U' themed 21st, wow, 12 years ago!)

Indian bodice, skirt and scarf. My dancing dress :)

Black and glitter saree and bodice top. Was a wedding gift from a workmate.

Two other sarees from an Indian fair.

Grass skirt and about 6 leis. Not sure how I got so many leis...

3 sulus (sarongs) from Fiji.

German-Oktoberfest-barmaid kind of dress. My Ma made this in the 70s (remember Burda patterns? No?) and actually wore it as an everyday outfit! Mad.

Ripped (not just small but tiny!) t-shirt from when Sam was the Incredible Hulk a few years ago.

Black dress that was my Ma's nice black dress in the 80 but is really dated and I'm hanging onto it in case it comes into fashion again.

80s towelling jumpsuit a'la Flashdance. Sweat bands optional.

60s velvet A line dress - paisley, Noice. Matching handbag.

Three floaty flowery 70s dresses in yellow, green and blue. My fave is the green one. They all have matching handbags too. These were all Ma's.

Academic gown. Scored for free from my Great Aunt, who was in the Association of University

Women or some such (they handle gown rentals for prizegivings etc.)

Long white shift dress. The actual under dress for Ma's wedding dress. She apparently cut the dress proper up and made nighties with the fabric?!! Double mad!

Princess Leia dress. Ma and I made this using a church robe pattern, modified from looking at many screen shots of Carrie Fisher.

3 pairs of camo pants, nicked when I left the Cadet Unit :)

1 camo shirt, ditto.

Green army shirt.

Scrim (green netty stuff that makes a nice headscarf or sweatband or whatever.)

Camo face paint.

Silver bridesmaid dress from Sister's wedding.

Green ball dress from 6th form ball.

Wedding dress, used once :)

Black sheet - Sam's ghost costume.

White sheet, cut in half and sewn back together to make a long strip for easy toga tying. Length is the key, in case you didnt know.

Assorted ties, glasses, belts, braces, wigs, hats, wings, tiaras, wands, jewellery, face paint.

Headbands with ears/antennae/devil horns.

A long cigarette holder for stylish lady smokers.

Handcuffs. Don't ask ;)

Handmade poi from a tangata whenua costume.

A ball and chain, made for Sister's Hen's night.

Mum's knee high hand made boots from Singapore.

Doc boots.

Army boots.

Anyone wanna borrow anything? Ask away!

Dressing babies up is fun, honest!

2009-07-22T20:58:00.001+12:00

Omg - here is the funniest thing I just found! Love the pea pod :)

Winner

2009-07-09T10:11:00.002+12:00

Well done to Cal who figured out what the mirror thing was. It is indeed for seeing bub in a rear facing car seat. Here's my one, modelled by my beautiful assistant :)

This is what it looks like when you turn in the front seat and look backwards:

And this is the driver's view in the rear view mirror. Sometimes I forget to look at the road :)

more craftiness

2009-07-06T13:56:00.009+12:00

"What's that?" you all ask.

It's a pressie for my Sister from Cassie's leftover fabric, a mirror and some old bra straps.

Answer later this week. Maybe I'll organise a prize for correct guesses? (except Carol, Kirsten and Sarah, who already know).

The pics below reflect someone else's craftiness:

We got this cute wee hoodie in the post last week, courtesy of my Cousin Nicole. So cute! Thanks babe :) Charlotte was kinda wriggly when I took these with the cellphone, so she's a bit blurry.

Being Crafty

2009-07-02T09:11:00.007+12:00

I have been in a bit of a lazy funk recently, and have had all sorts of things planned in my head to do "when I get round to it", so this week I decided to bloody "get round to it"!

Here's the jobs so far:

1. Make chair thingy for Cassie's mate's new baby. Here's my version, but hers is blue with monkeys and lions and elephants all over it.

2. Turn wasted cupboard under the stairs into coat cupboard.

I took two bits of 2 by 4 and an iron bar from Dads' shed (good thing he was a hoarder or I might have had to spend money), chatted up the woodwork teacher, who drilled a couple of big holes, and stuck it all together in the cupboard. Voila - coat cupboard!

3. Get next tattoo organised.

I've had this picture (the left one) for years, and last night I had a dream that I finally got it onto my arm. The pic is by Escher, but I want to modify it slightly. The purple fish are upside down, but I see no reason why they can's have eyes too. It's going to wrap in an armband on my big huge muscly bicep.

Here's a badly edited version showing what I mean.

In my dream it got all messed up though. The ends met in a bad place and stuffed up the pattern, and the colours were wrong, and it got distorted so the ends were different sizes. It didn't hurt in my dream though :)

4. Make a hole in a wall.

Our kitchen is at the back of the house and a completely separate room, which feels quite isolated. I want to make a window through into the dining space so I can watch the bub without having to have her on the kitchen floor where I might drop hot food/knives/heavy stuff on her. Haven't done this yet. Times like this I miss my Dad. And Leon. :)

5. Garden.

The side garden is a weed (no not that kind of weed...) heaven, but should be a nice courtyard.

I need to:
Remove the grass and weeds, make it level, super saturate the ground with nasty plant killing stuff, weed mat it, and cover it with big slabs of concrete/pebbles in a chequerboard fashion cos I think it would look cool.

This will be a summer job methinks. I feel a working bee coming on. Watch this space!

2009-06-03T11:23:00.005+12:00

So, I went to the foot specialist, and he says that I am a candidate for surgery to remove the extra bony stuff from my foot.

There is a 70% chance that this will solve my problems (constant pain, lingering weakness, limited range of motion).
However there is a 20% chance of it not fixing anything and 10% chance it will get MORE painful (due to increased range of movement aggravating the arthritis there).

So for now, I am to see a man about an orthotic insole and see if that helps first. I've waited 16 years so I can wait a little longer!

********

A bunch of us did a bike ride for Motor Neurone Disease awareness on Monday. It was supposed to be Sunday but the weather had other plans. I got a baby bike seat fitted and Charlotte did about 6km of the ride with me before we jumped back in the car and followed the riders the rest of the way in warmth and comfort.
Sam has pics on Facebook, but here's one that Miri took. CYOOT!

Sam and the others did well in not so pleasant conditions, and I gather Maria collected about a grand in donations, so yay us :)

*******

Seniors have exams at the moment (hence why I have the time to update my blog at work!). I have each of my senior classes for a 2 hour slot - one today, one tomorrow and one Friday. Nice and cruisy now, but then I have a bunch of marking to do. It's always so intimidating and I procrastinate my ass off. Funnily enough, once I actually start it's not so bad.

Spot the difference

2009-04-20T09:05:00.008+12:00

One is a normal foot, one is mine.

Guess which is which!

Turns out that one of the times I sprained my left ankle, I actually broke my foot. I have to go see a specialist and possibly have surgery/bits of metal/moonboot/crutches etc. So now I am awaiting paperwork from ACC so I can figure out which time I did it, and if I can claim ACC and go private. Otherwise I have to go public and wait who knows how long.

Here are the three contenders:

1) 1991 - Confidence course, Linton Army Camp. Jumped off a 3m high bit of the confidence course and rolled the ankle as I landed. Went to the Medics, where they iced it, strapped it and said it was sprained.

2) 1996-ish - Vic Uni carpark. Tripped and rolled my ankle on my way to the car. Definitely heard an audible snap here. Had to be carried up all those stairs to Student Health (embarrasing!), where they iced it, strapped it and said it was sprained.

3) 2001 - UHC field. On lunch duty, walking across the field. Fell over my own feet, I think. Also wearing stupid sandals so that my heel slipped off to the side and twisted my ankle. Definitely claimed ACC for this one, as I remember being told off for not putting this in the workplace accident register. Oops! Iced and strapped it myself (pretty good at strapping ankles by now!), and the physio I went to said it was sprained.

My money is on number 1.

Posting FRENZY!

2009-04-06T20:12:00.003+12:00

Wow - nothing for ages, then an edit and two new posts all in the space of an hour! Sam's at netball and Charlotte is fast asleep, so you gotta do stuff when you can.

Speaking of the Most Beautiful Baby Ever, please vote for her in the Treasures Coverbaby Competition!

Search for Charlotte Hall on this site, and exercise your democratic right to vote for the one I tell you to vote for.

Cheers to those who have voted already - I am quietly confident :)

Exercisey stuff

2009-04-06T20:06:00.003+12:00

I did a tri 2 weekends ago...

...and a duathlon last weekend.

I have no events till October.

I'm gonna have some ice cream :P

We interrupt your regular programme for this Important News Flash.

2009-03-16T07:09:00.005+13:00

Kelly Anna Mansfield was born at 10am yesterday. Both Carol and Kelly are fine.

Yaaaaayyy!!!!!

long time no blog!

2009-03-01T14:42:00.006+13:00

If anyone listens to 90FM in the mornings (I have to, my car stereo only goes up to 90!), you might know that Camille (breakfast host) has been talked into doing a women's duathlon in April. I sent a text to the radio on the day she agreed to do it, saying something along the lines of: "Well done, great way to get fit after baby, see you there cos I'm doing it too". Or something.

I was chuffed when they read my text out on air, but even more chuffed when Camille herself called me back and asked if I wanted to be part of a team she was putting together so that we can train together and motivate each other! So we are getting a training plan each from some person at Les Mills, and free t shirts and stuff. Cool. I think the du is in April. That's after the second tri of my scheduled three this year (March 22nd) so I should be sweet.

Netball trials this afternoon. Definitely NOT coaching this year; just want to focus on my own game for a season.

Carol's baby is still chilling out on the inside. Due very soon though, so not long now.

Sarah and Ron's baby Heath is 5 weeks old, now home and doing well. Here's him at 3 weeks (and C at 4 months 3 weeks. Yes, they are the same size. He is HUUUGE!)

Charlotte is positively thriving. Finally hit 5kg last week, possibly because she is now completely formula fed. Seems that Stressful job + Breastfeeding only morning and night = No/poor milk. Never mind, I made it to 5 months, and I had a feeling it would be much harder when I went back to work. C had a check up with the hospital paediatrician last week and he gave the all clear. Just need a kidney scan twice a year for a couple of years to monitor a slight enlargement. So YAY. Here's some photo goodness cos I haven't put any pics up for a while.

Starting her early on the reading music thing.

So pretty when she's asleep. And awake. :)

Oh yeah, she was baptised a couple of weeks ago. Here's all the Godparents (and nibling Eleanor).

Weekend roundup

2009-01-26T08:41:00.003+13:00

Went to Palmy to visit Carol and Megan. Murray was in Taupo with a helicopter crew doing the Air Force thing. And perving on chicks in bikinis no doubt. I tried to help Carol rest by doing some jobs for her and minding Megan so she could nap. Her baby is due in 7 weeks and she is thoroughly sick of waiting now.

Came back in time for the Wedding of the Year. Or Civil Union actually. Saw an old ex; confirmed I made the right choice there. I don't think I have been in one place and seen so many pregnant or recently sprogged people. Except maybe my antenatal class. Drank a bit, fed bub from a bottle for the next feed :) Ate, danced and made merry. Danced onto a piece of glass but only bled a little. Got back on the floor and shook my Scottish dance thang with Sam and others. Disappointed that a particular person completely snubbed me when the appropriate music was played for other kinds of dancing, but danced lots with Sam instead, who seems to have lost all dance inhibition. Way to go babe :)

my best bud had her baby on Saturday afternoon, having had her waters break on Thursday and then nothing happened till they induced her on Saturday morning. Heath Patrick is a big boy... 4.02kg and with HUGE hands and feet. Currently on ice in neonates while they monitor his brain (he had a lack of oxygen for his first minute or so of life). Was kind of weird going back into the very same room Charlotte was in, but to see someone else's baby. Deja vu... Poor Sarah is doing the milking cow routine as i did, and going down in the lift to see bubs when she can. Good thing she's getting lots of care and help from the nurses and her midwife. Mine never even came in to see C, and only met her at 4 weeks old! (bitter much? lol)

Back to school tomorrow; got a pow wow with the Hillary House leaders to plan another victorious year. We are the only house so far to have won twice in a row and are now going for three! Wednesday is course confirmation day, so I am there in an official Deaning capacity, and then Teacher Only days on Thurs/Fri. Then it's all on from Monday. Still not totally guilt free about leaving Charlotte, even though she'll be in great hands with my Ma. But the fact remains that to be a stay-at-home mum we would have to sell the house and buy a bedsit in Taita. Damn mortgage.

Not that there's anything wrong with Taita - eh Leon?!

Clever baby!

2009-01-16T14:46:00.001+13:00

... excuse the bare bum ;)

New Year

2009-01-05T09:41:00.003+13:00

So another new year is upon us. Time to make some more resolutions.

Firstly, three triathlons again. I didn't do them justice in 08, as I didn't push myself due to being either pregnant or just post baby. My best time: 1h 44 in February. Worst time: 1h 59 in December. The first one of 09 is on the 19th and my goal is to beat the December time by at least ten minutes.

Secondly, eat less, exercise more, blah blah blah. I bet everone tries this and never sticks to it, just like me. This year will be different though. Yeah right. :)

Thirdly, brush my teeth more often. Far too often I get into bed and then remember I haven't done it. Euuu.

Now for some for other people:

M: Clean out the pantry. And by pantry I mean the space that is the same size as my *entire kitchen*. It's full of things you no longer need or use and needs to be tidied out big time!

S: Finish what you start. You know what I mean, Mr "I'll put it back later". :P

K: Exercise every day, including 2x swim a week with fishy, to make sure she goes too.

R: Make chocolate slice for fishy but only let her have one piece per day cos it's too yummy!

K and D: Learn how to REPLY to text messages! You know who you are.

A K and P: Make sure fishy stays in touch despite no longer being a lady of leisure.

L: Save save save - be really tight so when you come to NZ you can spend up large!

Anyone else want to be on the list? :)

Merry Christmas one and all!

2008-12-23T12:53:00.002+13:00

Love from Santa Baby :)

Yes, I know it's cruel to dress your children up when they have no say in the matter, but in my defence I will add the following:

1) I did not buy the hat; it was a gift from Sam's sister.

2) She looks good in red. So there!

2008 Resolutions

2008-12-11T09:49:00.002+13:00

What was yours? Have you done it?
Comments please!

Mine was to do three triathlons, and yes, mission accomplished, I'm very proud to say. :) Now, what to do in 2009?

Mucking around with black and white

2008-12-02T08:57:00.005+13:00

She's sleeping on my tummy here. Check out the scar...

Hi Daddy!

Nearly smiling...
... there it is!
Being a supermodel is hard work.

Blowing my own trumpet

2008-11-27T13:18:00.003+13:00

I made a really yummy beef salad for tea on Tuesday.

Then on Wednesday I whipped up a little craft project.

It's a kind of instant portable highchair, for when you are out and about. If folds up into a small pouch and fits nicely in the baby bag. Charlotte is a bit wee for it at the moment but it pays to think ahead :) Thanks to the fabric being free (thanks Ma!), I just saved myself about 35 bucks.

Here's the Aussie version. How did I do?

For the three people I know without facebook!

2008-11-21T10:26:00.006+13:00

Here's some more Charlotte-y goodness to keep you happy :)

Tummy time.
Not great with the holding the head up business, but getting better every day.

Look at Moi. I is a supermodel!

Raspberries to you too!

She's actually breastfeeding here, but Sam was being discreet with the camera.

Yum eskimos! (Thanks to Chrissy for the Photoshopping)

Done.

2008-11-17T13:09:00.002+13:00

I've done it. I just entered the Scorching triathlon, which is on December 7.

A few numbers: That's 20 days from now, it's a 500m/10km/5km course, and Charlotte will be 10 1/2 weeks by then.

What have I done???

Not about Charlotte

2008-10-23T15:59:00.002+13:00

I told you I could talk about something else!

I played two games of netball last night and lived to tell the tale. Not as fit as I used to be, but still better than I thought. At least I could still catch and throw.

Next goal: Triathlon on December 7. This is the third one in my New Year resolution to complete three tri's this year. Wish me luck!

Charlotte Update

2008-10-19T15:34:00.003+13:00

Yes, my life DOES revolve around her at the moment. I promise to blog about the rest of my life sans baby at some stage, when I figure out what those bits are!

Random shots from the last week or so:

Charlotte's first walk around the Neonates ward. Cordless!

Shortly afterwards she had her first bath.

First photo taken when we came home, under her snazzy bassinet quilt, lovingly made my Sam's Mum (*). Stuffed creatures courtesy of Sam's sister. Her friend makes them. Weird but cool. :)

(*) Charlotte will call her 'Dinny'. Apparently Thomas, the eldest grandkid, couldn't say 'C's or 'G's when he was small. I think it's a corruption of Granny. We call Coke 'doke' for the same reason. Interesting that he could say the K but not the C...

Home

2008-10-14T08:58:00.002+13:00

is where the BABY is!

********

Stayed three nights in a Mother's room at Welly hospital, being woken 3-4 hourly to feed. I slept the rest of the time mostly, as did Charlotte.

We came home yesterday afternoon to a clean and tidy house, and dinner provided. Thanks Ma and Sam!

Other than during Family Nap Time (tm), which is from 1 till 3pm, we would love to see anyone who wants to pop in for a visit. Be aware you have to make your own coffee as I am under orders to rest as much as possible. Nah - I'm just lazy actually :)

I am also planning to visit UHC on Wednesday morning, so don't come then.

It's good to be home. :)

The Verdict

2008-10-10T07:56:00.002+13:00

Charlotte comes home...

When the feeding line comes out of her foot.

Which will happen when she is on full feeds.

Which will happen when she gets the hang of breastfeeding.

Which is harder than it seems.

And the lactation consultant is on leave this week. Typical.

Finding out today

2008-10-09T08:01:00.003+13:00

I'm about to head into town for the 9am feed. There is a meeting today at 10-11ish between all the doctors and some of the nurses to decide what happens with certain babies today; Charlotte being one of them.

Basically, when she is up to full feeds (bottle or breast - whatever) she and I move to Hutt Hospital for a day or two, then home. YAY!!!

Unfortunately, time scale for that ranges from "five more days" (overheard from a doctor) to "by the end of the week" (from the boss nurse of Neonates - to me personally).

We shall see.

Who needs a cot...

2008-10-06T09:53:00.002+13:00

... when you have Daddy?

Charlotte took 30ml yesterday and kept it down :)

Getting there slowly

2008-10-04T18:59:00.002+13:00

Charlotte has now graduated from an incubator to a plastic cot. She still has a tube in her foot for top-up feeds, but the oral-gastric tube came out today. It wasn't supposed to come out till Monday, but it was starting to come out and Charlotte was having trouble getting a seal on the bottle with the tube in the way.

Today she had 30ml in a bottle, but only managed half of it before she got tired of sucking and fell asleep. She's still not quite got the hang of sucking for an extended period of time, poor wee mite.

We may start breastfeeding on Monday, if she can manage this sucking business anyway.

First Cuddles!

2008-10-01T19:08:00.003+13:00

Charlotte is now a week old. She is off the ventilator and off the morphine. The chest drain is gone, and the dressing comes off the surgery site soon. The only tubes attached are the tube down her throat (for feeding and keeping the oesophagus open) and a canula in her foot (for nutrient feeds in addition to milk).

Today I got to cuddle her and I held her while the nurse gave her 5ml of breast milk through the tube (see photo). This is the first milk she has ever had in her tummy, as my attempts at feeding on her first day actually went into her lungs. Apparently reflux is a common problem with repairs such as Charlotte's, but she kept it all down.

Much as I hate pacifiers/dummies, Charlotte has one to suck on when feeding so that she associates sucking with a full tummy. This should help the transition to breastfeeding in about 4 days when the tube comes out. The hospital has lent us an electric pump for expressing at home, which is great because the hand operated one just doesn't cut it for 5-6 milking sessions a day, especially at 3am!

I am getting through a lot of reading right now. Like one book every 2 days. I fear I will never have so much free time ever again, so I'm making the most of it!

Update

2008-09-30T18:39:00.002+13:00

Today Charlotte was given the last dose of the paralysing drug so now she can move around and open her eyes. She is still on morphine which means she is still sleeping a lot, so she hasn't really opened her eyes for more than a few seconds today.

One side effect of not moving for 5 days is that she has retained a lot of fluid and so her face is all puffy, especially round her eyes and mouth. She has big juju lips, which looks kinda funny. This should clear up in a day or so.

She also had the chest drain and the cannula in her foot removed. That was where the drugs were injected, so no need for it now.

Tomorrow she comes off the ventilator. Then I might get a CUDDLE! Haven't had one since last Thursday, so I'm looking forward to it a great deal. And she'll be able to cry. It will be a very welcome sound. At least for the first few minutes.

Video of Charlotte

2008-09-29T06:59:00.001+13:00

Video courtesy of Damon here

Thanks D.

Charlotte

2008-09-27T22:41:00.005+12:00

Sam brought the laptop in for me at the hospital so I can compose a blog post for him to put up when he gets home. What can I say? I am completely overwhelmed by everything at this stage.

After a magical first 20 or so hours with what we all thought was a perfect little baby we are now faced with weeks of time with wee Charlotte in the Neonatal unit at Wellington Hospital, with all kinds of tubes and needles poking into her. We’d all like our children to be special in some way, but this is not quite what we had in mind.

If you haven’t quite caught up on the happenings, here’s a bit of a timeline from the last few days:

Tues night
Got home from the movies about 9pm and went to bed. At 9:30 I rolled over, my waters broke and I gushed all over the place. Luckily I had taken Carol’s advice about putting a shower curtain under the top sheet and sleeping on a towel! The midwife said contractions could start any time in the next 24 hours and not to stay awake waiting for them so I got Sam to help change the sheets and got back in bed with a bunch of towels. Contractions started about twenty minutes later. Just like me to be efficient. I got up and emailed some work for my classes in between the next sets of contractions, then called the midwife at about 11pm who suggested I take a bath to ease the pain and call her when the contractions were 3 min apart and stayed that way for an hour. Which they pretty much were already. Got in the bath anyway, and grit my teeth to the pain for a bit longer. I eventually got to the stage where conversation consisted of one unintelligible grunt at a time between contractions, and we decided to head to the hospital. Good thing we did, as just after we arrived I had the urge to push. The midwife arrived just as I was getting up on the bed, and after about 40 minutes helped us to deliver a beautiful dark haired angel just after 12:45 am Wednesday 24 September. We decided to name her Charlotte Alexandra, although she was actually nameless till about lunchtime on Wednesday.

Wednesday
Kirsten and my cousin Nicole were both coming to watch the birth (both being nurses and not wanting to miss an opportunity like that), but the baby was too fast, and they both came into the delivery suite to be greeted by me holding a wee baby, apologising that they missed it. They didn’t seem to mind. They both got to have a good look at the placenta and talked medical stuff with the midwife for a while, which may have been some consolation.

We called Mum, and Sam’s folks, and Carol, who were all delighted to be woken at such a reasonable hour. Colin and Anne even came straight down to the hospital to have their first cuddle at 1am! Anne checked the ears for Hall family sticky-outed-ness and pronounced them ok. Charlotte and I got cleaned up and into our own room, and people went home as I drifted off to sleep about 3am. I kept waking all night as Charlotte’s breathing was very rattly. Apparently since she came out so fast she didn’t get the fluid squeezed out of her lungs properly. We had been assured this would clear up after about 12-24 hours, so I wasn’t too concerned.

From about 7am, we started getting text messages and phone calls and visitors, which didn’t stop till about 1pm. Good thing the ward has a compulsory no visitors period, or I never would have got any rest! The onslaught continued in the afternoon till Sam went home around 9pm.

Later that night, one of the nurses suggested that a doctor have a listen to Charlotte’s lungs as she was still very rattly, and not very interested in feeding. She carried Charlotte away and said she would come back and fill me in later. It was around 10pm, so I lay back down for a sleep while I waited. The doctor came back and asked me to go see her in the Special Care unit at the end of the hallway. When I got there she explained that Charlotte’s trachea and oesophagus were still connected, when they should have separated before she was born. This meant that most of the milk she was getting was going into her lungs, and not making it to her stomach. We were going to have to transfer her to Wellington where surgery could be performed to correct this.

The ambulance came to transfer Charlotte, and my Mum came in to take me as well. Wellington hospital had no bed available for me, so technically I had to discharge myself in order to be allowed to go with her. Not that I was really in a fit state to be moving, but I didn’t want to stay behind while she went without me. I ended up spending about 4 hours napping in a chair in the Wellington Neonatal unit while they settled Charlotte in and organised an x-ray. At about 4am I finally made it back to the Hutt to my own bed and a sleeping husband.

Thursday
Sam and I made our way into Wellington at 9:30am, just in time to see Charlotte being prepped for surgery. We met the surgeon and I bawled through most of his explanations of how it would go. Sam took most of it in though. I think I was still in a bit of post birth shock; there was still no bed for me and I was in a lot of pain having to walk all over the hospital from Neonates to Surgery and back again. After a bit of a meltdown in the Neonates waiting room, a nice lady mentioned the Ronald McDonald room in the childrens’ ward, where there was a quiet family space and a separate bedroom. Bliss! I finally got the liedown I needed and slept through the surgery time.

I was also worried about my milk; everyone was doing everything for C, but I couldn’t make my milk come and there was nobody to show me. I was quite distraught at this stage, but eventually someone contacted the lactation consultant who got me a pump and set me up for action. Charlotte came through the surgery just fine and by 4pm I had a bed in the Gynaecology ward. I didn’t care where it was; I just needed to sleep again. This crying business was very tiring.

Friday
By this stage, things are beginning to become a little more clear. Charlotte’s repair was tricky as there was quite a gap between the two ends of the oesophagus that needed to be connected. This means that she needs to be sedated and immobilised for five days to enable healing to take place. So no cuddles or holds till at least then. Not easy. We are allowed to hold her hand and stroke her head but that’s about it.

I feel a bit like a milking cow, hooking up to a sucky machine every 3-4 hours, but am pleased that things are happening there. My milk is being frozen until she gets woken up and is off the ventilator. Even then she’ll get it through a tube in her nose for a while until her oesophagus heals completely and I can feed her properly.

I hope to come home on Saturday or Sunday, as I am almost all healed up and much more mobile. There will be a fair bit of commuting to Welly for some time though until Charlotte is well enough to bring home.

Thanks to everyone who has visited/texted/called/commented/prayed etc. It’s gonna be a long road, but at least we have a map.

2008-09-18T08:03:00.001+12:00

This is a video from Wellington Cathedral. Not great production values, but at about 3:50 they talk about the crosses that my Dad used to make. Cool, he's famous.

Angels from http://vimeo.com/user551273?pg=embed&sec=1687282 on Vimeo.

Counting Down

2008-09-02T18:42:00.004+12:00

I haven't been blogging much recently, mostly because everything I think or say or do at the moment is BABY BABY BABY and that gets a little boring if you're not the one having the baby.

Having said that, I am now talking about the baby again. 5 weeks to go!! OMG!

I have 3 1/2 weeks left of school now. And with Senior exams that means ten lessons or so left with Year 12/13 classes, and 14 or so lessons with my year 9s. I have so much to do and not a lot of time to do it! I just hope the baby isn't early, so I can get everything done in time.

*******

We had to euthanase (or euthanise... whatever) Poppy (our dark brown rat) on the weekend. She had these abscesses all over her lymph glands, and it was going to cost well over $250 to fix, with a chance that it wouldn't be fixable - $250 that we just don't have. The other option was only $30. No brainer really. She is buried next to Wee Man, under the lemon tree. Lily (the grey one) is wandering around in her cage looking all folorn and lonely. Poor mite.

*******

I have two, count 'em, TWO baby showers being organised for me. My work one is this Saturday, and a friends and family one is on Saturday 13th. Big yay to my work mates and my sister for organising them!

Consider yourself invited to the second one if I haven't asked you already. It's from 2 till 5pm at our place, and you need to bring a baby photo of yourself. Boys are welcome too - I gather the menfolk are going to escape to a pub somewhere.

dream

2008-08-12T09:43:00.002+12:00

I had a strange dream on Sunday night.

I was on the West Coast, at the Punakaiki rocks, and I was jumping off into the water, which was a river rather than the sea. The current kept pushing me back up onto the top of the rocks, from where I would jump in again and again. There were signs everywhere warning that swimming was prohibited or dangerous or something, but I kept doing it, as there was nobody around to stop me anyway. At one stage the current carried me to the other side of the river, and I could stand in the shallows. I was able to swim back across, and against the current to end up in a calm pool on the upstream side. Not sure how it was calm if it was on the upstream side, but I guess that's the cool thing about dreams - they don't have to make sense.

Anyone care to analyse this?

On another note, who else has that dream where your teeth fall out? You spit out one or two, then they all start to crumble, and you're left with a handful of bits of teeth and blood and stuff. I haven't had that one for a while, but it recurs every now and then. I gather it's to do with money, but not sure.

Fa la la la la hey nonny no

2008-07-30T16:01:00.005+12:00

Just a few pics from a concert we had at Church recently on St James' Day (which is on 25 July, but the concert was on the 27th).

I sang in a small group that sang a few madrigals. And managed not to sing too many wrong notes. Not bad, when you're the only person singing your part. I like to think I am more of a team singer than a soloist, so this was a bit of a challenge for me.

Notice I'm now into the preggy robe. My old one was getting a bit tight!

warning! semi naked fish!! :edited

2008-07-14T16:27:00.004+12:00

This is what an overweight chick looks like at 6 months pregnant. Not the perfect rugby ball out the front like you get with skinny chicks, but pretty amazing all the same.

Just got back from my first Birth Ed class. The other people seem pretty nice and normal. For now anyway. Bet that's what they are saying about me - little do they know...

********

Edit:
Had another scan today. The midwife was worried that the baby was breech and a footling at that (that means is basically standing up, when it should be curled up and upside down about now).

The scan today showed that the baby is now a little more curled up and is now transverse (lying sideways). I guess that's better than breech! Plenty of time for it to turn anyway. Panic over.

Had a very high blood pressure when I went to the midwife, and high sugar levels. So I had to have a blood test to rule out toxaemia/pre-eclampsia , and I have to have another test to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes. Oh joy. I have really cruised through so far, so it's about time I had a few blips. Updates to come.

out of the office

2008-07-08T17:47:00.001+12:00

I'm away in Masterton at Choir School; back Saturday night.

... not that you'd notice, as I've been really slack at updating recently.

baby stuff

2008-06-17T15:37:00.002+12:00

I can feel the baby moving inside me; have been for a week or so.

Today I can feel it on the outside! Wierd...

It's been a while since I last posted...

2008-05-19T10:32:00.001+12:00

... and a lot has happened.

I had a birthday on the 6th, then a party which was on (the 10th) then off then on (the 17th) again. Thanks to those who came, especially to BigGeek, who brought his awesome sound system and DJ'd his ass off all night :)

My Grandma passed away on the 8th. She was 95 - not a bad innings. She was always adamant that she would not be put into a home, and she managed to do that with the help of her amazing and dedicated caregiver who came in every morning to help her dress and kept her company. Mum and I took the ferry to Picton then drove down to Gorrrre over two days, which was actually rather pleasant. We stayed at Grandma's house and spent a few days there with some of the family, finishing with a meal at Riversdale Pub the night after the funeral with all 40 or so of us that were able to be there. I was a pallbearer for the first time ever. I'd rather not have to do it again, but I guess its a privilege in a roundabout way.

The dog has been staying with us as Mum's still down South, returning today. He has finally realised the difference between grass and carpet and there have been no pee-on-the-carpet incidents for a few days. I think it may be time to hire one of those carpet washer thingies to remove the yellow patches from the white carpet. He was pretty good on Saturday - except when I caught him up on the couch licking dip out of the bowl I had just put on a table for my guests. Don't worry; I *did* make more!

Netball is frustrating at the moment. I play and coach the bottom team in my club, even though I was in team 3 last year. I asked for Team 5 mainly so that when I get all fat and pregnant I can drop out and still be involved, but it won't affect the team too much (Team 5 always has lots of players so the higher teams can borrow players occasionally).

Unfortunately most of the team either has never played before or has played but really sucks. And most of them have a problem with commitment. EVERY week I get at least 4 players texting me to say they can't make practice due to some reason or other, and it's really hard to practice teamwork stuff when your team has only 5 players.

I had a bit of a meltdown on Saturday after yet another humiliating loss (41-6), and it seems to have had some effect. The girls that were there, (never mind the other two that "couldn't make it on Saturday"), said they would all make training this week. We shall see.

At least at indoor I feel like a skilled player. Sometimes.

Comments please!

2008-05-04T15:07:00.001+12:00

So who else felt the earthquake on Saturday morning?
It was a short one: by the time I woke Sam it had finished.

Active

2008-04-28T16:22:00.003+12:00

Sam and I rode our bikes into town on Sunday to see my best bud, who just got back from a 6 week holiday in Canada, the UK and Japan. Yes, ALL the way to Wellington, as opposed to the last time we tried and had to walk from halfway along the motorway cos Sam got a flat.

The road works section of the Hutt motorway was a little hairy, but once we made the path alongside the motorway, it was all good. I especially enjoyed going round the waterfront and sharing it with the rollerbladers, other cyclists, pedestrians, joggers and those crocodile bike things. FYI the textured surface on the wooden bridges may be great for stopping walkers from slipping over, but on a bike it feels like riding across corrugated iron. Pretty sure Sam didn't notice as he has suspension on his front forks.

I forgot to reset the speedo till about Korokoro, but I estimate the journey from Kelson to Mirimar was about 25km. Not bad.

***

Not content with yesterday's effort, today I had a 30 min session with my personal trainer and then went and swam 42 laps at Huia. I did 40, but then I was at the opposite end to the spa, so I swam one more to get there, and one more after my brief spa to get back to my stuff at the other end. Turns out that I can spa at Huia even though I can't at K's place (38.5 degrees vs 42 degrees). Love the spa!

***

No baby bump yet; only 17 weeks. Give me a couple more and I'll be sticking out a bit. I've started nesting though (although I have this need to rearrange the house even when not pregnant). The cupboard under the stairs is much tidier now. Next room on the list is the spare/computer/sewing/model making room. This will be a BIG JOB.

it's my birthday soon...

2008-04-24T12:03:00.004+12:00

I'm gonna be 32. That's old.

Mum bought my present today at the Baby Factory. I walked over to the portacots and pretended I couldn't see her buying what she bought. Kinda hard when the pressie is 4 foot high.

Mol and Kel are in the South Island doing the same trip Lauren and I did. SO JEALOUS!! I took them to the ferry this morning.

But I get to see CarolMurrayMegan in under a week, so that makes up for it.

End of term approaches...

2008-04-16T17:31:00.003+12:00

... and I am SO ready for a break!

I have all sorts of things planned - going swimming, gym, reading, catching up with my friends who just had a baby, and visiting my Sister and family in Blenheim; YAY!

I only have 7 lessons left, two of which are tests, so that makes five... bring it on.

****
Molly and Kelly are great fun and easy to live with, despite being vegetarians in a omnivorous household. I'm gonna learn how to cook stuff with beans and tofu, and other kinds of new and interesting food type things. I don't think I could give up meat for good though, especially bacon. Mmmm, bacon. :)

****
We are going to Cafe Istanbul to celebrate the end of term. If you're out in town on Friday, look for me. I'll be the sober one :P

Boarders

2008-04-09T15:00:00.002+12:00

Molly and Kelly arrive from Washington tomorrow. Molly is coming to teach at my school on a student teacher exchange; Kelly is tagging along for the ride to spend 4 weeks in NZ. They will be staying at our place. Expect an invitation to a welcome party sometime soon!

The first baby photo

2008-03-30T09:56:00.002+13:00

Kinda looks like an alien, but I have been assured it has the required number of arms and legs; I even saw a stomach and bladder. Wow.

Amended due date now early Oct, so it looks as though I may just make it to the end of Term 3.

Three short things

2008-03-28T10:16:00.003+13:00

I have a student teacher. She is great. Her degree is in combinatorics, and the topic we are doing right now is combinations and permutations: Perfect! Maybe she can replace me when I go at the end of Term Three. Right now she is teaching my Year 13s while I sit here with the laptop and update the blog.
Real professional, Mrs H!

***

Having the 13 week scan today. I have this paranoid and morbid fear that they are going to say, "oh, sorry; it died a few weeks ago". Think about it: No morning sickness, not any fatter, no sore boobs... am I actually pregnant, or is it a figment of my imagination? Scary stuff. I'll be glad when today is over.

***

It was wierd getting home last night and not having to let the dog in.

wet behind the ears

2008-03-25T10:43:00.006+13:00

Ryan has long ears; he doesn't like them to be wet.

I gave him a bath today after a long walk and a play in the paddock below Kelson School. He got all grubby as there was still dew on the grass and it was quite long. This is the result:

Mum comes home tomorrow. I'm gonna miss having the dog at our place. Won't miss the wet paches on the carpet or the fur in my bed, on the carpet, in my food....

I think a baby may even be less work than this guy; well, at least they LEARN!!

***********

Speaking of babies, congrats to Alex and Katie on the birth of Persephone Megan Lindsay yesterday. Thanks guys for letting me share the day with you. And she was born on Megan (my niece)'s second birthday too!

I've already signed her up to the facebook group "People who have to spell their names".

**********

Oh yeah, happy birthday Megan! I know your Ma reads this blog, so please ask her to write a comment ok?

puppy sitting

2008-03-12T08:13:00.002+13:00

Mum has been away visiting Carol and other family members less than a week, and already the puppy has got out TWICE! The first time he squeezed under the temporary mesh fence I had erected; the second time he chewed through the leash, made it behind the row of pot plants strategically positioned to block him from the fence, and then squeezed under the fence again. Thank goodness he has Mum's phone number on his tag, and that her message has her cellphone number on it. I got a message from one of the office ladies yesterday: "your Sister in Timaru called - the dog has got out, call this number to go get him..." I bet the office ladies were a bit confused as to why the call came from Timaru!

Yesterday I had my tame builder up to fix a gate across the gap between the house and the retaining wall, so now Ryan has a wee dog run at the back of the house that he can't escape from. But I bet he'll try anyway.

Next mission - a dog door. For some reason, even though the back door is left open when Ryan is inside, he has reverted to crapping on the carpet. Euuu. :P

Hormonal

2008-03-04T07:30:00.003+13:00

So I was sitting on the couch marking my Year 13 assessments (which they all passed, might I add - yay me!) when a commercial for NZ Post came on. One where a wee girl writes a letter to her Dad and he meets her after school for ice cream.

It made me cry.

Seriously. There are incriminating splashes on one of the kids' assignments.

Damn hormones.

baby, school, fair

2008-02-17T14:17:00.005+13:00

Thanks for all the congratulations everyone! The baby is about the size of a peanut at the moment. Expect semi-regular updates when I can be arsed. Can't wait to have an excuse to be fat!

***

School is back properly now. I have four lovely classes; Years 9, 12, 13 and 13. yes, I have two Y13 Stats classes, which means I'm teaching the whole course. THE POWER!!! Muahahaha! This may be a problem when I stop teaching some time at the end of Term 3, but for now it's cool.

***

I went to the Petone fair and bought a really lovely merino wrap cardy, and a necklace, and some earrings. All for me, so there. Here they all are in a fetching ensemble I call "what I wore to Church today". Wow, my eyes look really crooked...

Got pissed off at the crazy people who walk too slow and get in my way, but otherwise it was ok. We took our bikes down on the back of the car cos we knew the parking would be crazy, so we parked ages away and rode the rest of the way. What a good idea that was!

um, yeah...

2008-02-07T21:42:00.000+13:00

one down, two to go

2008-01-22T15:06:00.000+13:00

I did the Scorching Triathlon yesterday. There are still two to do, and then I will have achieved one of my NY resolutions. I will do the Naenae tri in October, but I want to do another one while its still warm. Anyone know of any tri in the near future? I can do another Scorching one; it will be good to do the same course and improve my time, but I am open to suggestions.

Anyone not have facebook? No, thought not :) You can see the pics from yesterday on my profile. I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband and great photographer to boot!

The last month

2008-01-16T13:40:00.000+13:00

It's just over a month now since Dad died. Time flies huh?

Thankyou to everyone who supported us over the last month, with cards, food, hugs, and a listening ear. It is great to know we have such caring friends. Mmmmmwah! xxx

**********

It's a new year and time for new beginnings and the inevitable resolutions. I aim to do three triathlons this year. The first is under a week away on Wellington Anniversary day, next Monday. I'm doing the mid-length one rather than the short one I did last year. So that's 500m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. Wish me luck! The other two will be probably be Scorching Bay in March, and the Hutt tri again in October/ November.

Darcy/Ryan/puppy is still having somewhat of an identity crisis. He's been answering to Ryan for 6 months now, but I just don't like the name. I surreptitiously throw a B on the front, so he reminds me of the dog in Family Guy. Much cooler than the OC. and Bryan is Dad's middle name so that's kinda cool too.

I am currently nursing an addiction to Scrabulous, for which there seems to no cure other than riding it out till the obsession passes. Good thing it doesn't use a lot of bandwidth, or paradise would be raking in the dough by now.

I am riding my bike all over the place. Haven't made it up the hill yet, but I got halfway to the dairy the other day before I had to get off and walk. The time before, I only made it to the first corner, so any improvement is a good thing.

Right, back to facebook... Canada/US timezone is just about to hit peak playing time...

Puppy!!

2008-01-05T15:45:00.000+13:00

Introducing our third Cavalier King Charles spaniel... Darcy. Not sure about the name yet, but I think it will grow on him.

While not exactly *replacing* Dad (he was a lot taller anyway), he will be good company for Mum, and he can protect her from burglars and other nasties by staring at them till they melt. Awww.

He's about 6 months old, and a little timid. He sure loves to snuggle though.

Christmas time, Barbeques and wine

2007-12-22T16:52:00.000+13:00

I've always hated that lame Christmas song. Especially when Cliff Richard sings it.

Today I have been preparing for the thirty, yes - 30, people who are coming here on Tuesday. Good thing it's a pot luck barbie thingy.

I weed-eated (weed-ate?) the wasteland that we call the Deck to Nowhere. Seriously, it just sits there, separated from both the house and the courtyard. Strange. I plan to have blankets down for people to sit on once Sam mows it. The plan was to pave it in November but circumstances intervened. And the quotes were well over our budget.

Pressies are wrapped and under the tree.

Below is a close-up of two decorations that I'm sure will be talking points when the family all arrive on Christmas Day. One is a picture of not-kate and I; it was in my goodie bag at her 30th birthday. The other is a Champagne cork. The bottle was a wedding pressie from my cousin - we opened it and drank it in the lounge when we bought the house in Kelson. I tied curling ribbon on it and hung it on the tree: It ended up back in the decoration box so I put it back on again this year.

Warning! Rat photo below!

I just wanted to put this photo up cos the rats look so cute all snuggled up together. They were sleeping, but woke up when I opened the door to take the photo. Poppy is such a poser!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

2007-12-15T11:04:00.000+13:00

Me and my Dad.

Dad was an only child

He was born at the tail end of the Great Depression, in 1934, in Inglewood. His Dad – my Pop – was a schoolteacher and later a headmaster. Pop went away to war in 1939, and so Dad and his Mum Elizabeth lived a pretty meagre existence for a good part of his childhood. Elizabeth died when Dad was in his late 20s. She drowned during her daily swim in the sea at Paihia. I grew up knowing little of her, as Pop remarried and I grew up with a different Gran.

Dad was a soldier

He joined the Army as soon as he was old enough. He wanted to go to Korea, but I’m glad he didn’t. He went to Malaya and fought in the Emergency that was happening there. He didn’t like to talk about it much. He did like to tell us though, about his trips to exotic places like Bangladesh, Australia, Singapore and the States, and the shenanigans he got up to, including asking for a huge plate of cabbage from the mess when he arrived back in New Zealand from USA. I’m sure they thought he was mad, but apparently you couldn’t get cabbage in America back then.

He met Mum in the Army. She was a senior rank to him, which raised a few eyebrows back then, but he didn’t care. He swept her off her feet and into an Army House in tropical Waiouru once they were married.

When the Army Cadet unit started up in Lower Hutt in 1990, Dad told us all about how he was a School Cadet in the 40s, which sounded pretty exciting. Carol and I joined up the next week, and Dad even joined as an officer for a few years. I owe a lot to my 9 years in the Cadets. I would never be so confident as I am now if I hadn’t been to all those courses or taught all those lessons, or led all that drill on the parade ground. I will always be thankful to Mum and Dad for taking us to that first meeting in a draughty drill hall in Petone.
And “on time” to the Hall family ALWAYS means “five to ten minutes early” thanks to our military parents.

Dad was a family man

So much so, that he had two families.
He married Jean in 1956. Steven was born later in the year. Dad had always acknowledged that he was a bit of a lad, and wasn’t always around when he was needed, and eventually they divorced. Steven grew up into a fine man and we used to all go to visit Jean and Steve a few times a year for a catch up. When Steve developed cancer in 2005, Mum and Dad opened their home and hearts to have him move into our place for the last few months of his life. It was a really special time.

He married Mum in 1973. Carol arrived in 1974, I followed in 1976. Apparently when Mum was in labour with me, the doctor sent Dad home, saying it would be a while, and that he would call when it was time to come back.
He was at home, mowing the lawn when the phone rang. Mum’s voice on the other end of the line said; “Hello David… we have another daughter!”
He replied; “Who is this?”

He was a surrogate Dad to Katie (Carol’s friend), Sarah and Kirsten (my friends), and Allison, our exchange student from Chicago who stayed with us in 1990. Recently he was also Dad to Lauren, who stayed with Sam and I while on teaching exchange from Canada for four months.
He was also a loving Gramps to Megan. There will be more Grandchildren eventually, but unfortunately they won’t get to know him as Megan did.

Dad went on a big trip overseas with Mum in 2001

The planning conversation with Mum went like this:
Where do you want to go?
Chicago.
Anywhere else?
No, just Chicago.
What about England?
No, just Chicago, to see Allison and her family.
OK, but we’re going to England too because I want to go there.
OK, but only because you want to. Don’t ask me to enjoy it.

When they got back, the conversation went like this:
Where do you want to go back to?
London!

Dad was skilled with electronics

He was what is known as an ‘early adapter’, trying and embracing new technology as it came to hand. Working for Philips helped. We had a video well before most other people we knew. The cassette was two-sided like an audio tape, and popped out of a little hinged door. The technology never took off, but ‘Mr Philips’ always provided us with newer, better models as they became available.

Carol and I had a Philips version of the Walkman, before most people even knew what one was. The batteries lasted long enough to play about 3 tapes before they went flat, but damn we were cool, walking round to the dairy in the 80s with our big black foam headphones on.

When things broke, Dad was always able to fix them. He could still install and programme a video faster than any cable guy, and always knew exactly which cable went where, even over the phone, which he had to do the many times that Carol and I moved flats.

When the Defence Film Library became the Defence Video Unit he took it all in his stride. Watching him use a mouse when computers came in was hilarious, because his finger would hover over it like it was the Doomsday button, but we taught him how to play Minesweeper and Patience, and pretty soon he was using the mouse like a pro. He was pretty good at using the internet and email, and loved being able to interact with his Army buddies using SigsNet.

He could also send a text message faster than any other Septegenererian I know. Even though he held it at arms length and typed with his index finger.

Dad was great with his hands

He made a wooden rocking horse and a doll’s house for us when we were kids, and heaps of wooden toys. The wooden train he made is still at home, and Megan now plays with it. He remodelled every house he lived in, including Miro St, which has now been remodelled and redecorated at least twice in some parts.

He made Carol and I wooden boxes that sat at the end of our beds. And later, a blanket box for the end of his and Mum’s bed too. He made our garden furniture, built the pergola at the back of our house, and rebuilt the deck in 2005 with Steven and Murray. He made a beautiful changing trolley for Carol and Murray, and a trolley that he used to get himself round the house when he was still mobile. When he couldn’t do the big jobs anymore he started making holding crosses. They are all over the place; as far afield as Canada, USA, Japan and England. And even Gore.

I learned a lot of skills from Dad, and own my own tool kit and power drill. Sometimes I even let my husband use them.

Dad was firm but fair

He picked us up from parties with no questions asked; whatever the time or place, he and Mum were there to take us home. Even if there was underage drinking involved. Which there was, on quite a few occasions.

When we were old enough to drive, we got to return the favour by collecting him from the Taita RSA on ANZAC Day and Corps Days. These were the only times he ever left the seat up! Living with three women engourages a man not to do that very often.

When one of us had a boyfriend round very late at night – a BIG no-no, Dad chased him out of the house. Naked. That certainly scared the living daylights out of the would-be Romeo.

Dad was smart

He did the prize cryptic crossword every week in the paper. It became a bit of a competition between him and Peggy from Church and Jim from SigsNet. The record stands at three pens each.

He did Sudoku every morning. Mum and him would each work on their own copy after breakfast, and race each other to finish it.

He loved maths, particularly algebra. I couldn’t wait to find out what that was. When I found out, I loved it too. Now I’m a maths teacher, passing on my love of maths to my students.

He loved to watch Eggheads and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on the TV, and knew a heck of a lot about a heck of a lot of topics. Sam and Dad’s combined knowledge base was a scarily powerful combination, and they used to love watching it together when we went home for tea every Thursday for the last few years.

Dad loved to have fun

He used to take us to a local playground after Church on Sundays, to let Mum have some downtime. We loved going to Avalon Park, or Petone Foreshore, or the playground just near St James. He would push us on the swings till we were so high we could see everything around us. Or he would take us on the model trains at Petone and Avalon Parks. Dad loved going on them with us too.

He was a great rock 'n' roll dancer, and would eventually dance with me after a bit of persuasion. He would get breathless at times, but he gave it his all. He taught me how to follow, as often I would second-guess the next move and try to lead. I have great memories of dancing with him at Carol and Murray’s wedding.

He used to read to us at bedtime. Our favourite book was There’s no such thing as a dragon, but he never got to find out how it ended, as every time he got to “luckily the milkman was able to tell them which way it went”, he would collapse in laughter and tears, unable to read any further. Even in our teens and 20s we would beg Dad to read it to us, just to watch him laugh. He never got to read it to Megan, but we will do it for him when she is older.

My Dad was amazing and I’m going to miss him.

1934 - 2007

2007-12-13T23:14:00.000+13:00

My Dad passed away this evening at 10.45pm, after the machine that was breathing for him was turned off. While not entirely unexpected, his turn for the worse was kind of sudden. He was surrounded by family and friends and not one but two Priests. Oh yes, he certainly had God on his side.

Farewell, my big strong Daddy.

Yet another busy weekend

2007-12-09T09:08:00.000+13:00

Friday night:

Leavers' Dinner at Kaitoke Gardens. My babies are all grown up now... good old 9FH from 2003 have left the building. It's interesting that the only ones who stayed to the end of Year 13 were mostly boys (there were three girls but they didn't make the dinner). Seeya guys! I must admit I shed a few tears during the goodbye hugs and thankyous.

On the way home, Sue (another of the Deans) and I popped in to Paul's place to see if their annual family and friends Christmas party was still going. It was, and we arrived just as everyone was gathering round the piano for a singalong of Christmas classics. With pre-printed songsheets and everything; man, were they prepared! We went through all the carols and tacky santa/snow/winter/reindeer songs, then lo - a bunch of songbooks appeared from the piano stoool, and we sang our way through those too. At some stage a guitar appeared as well. We were just singing "The Midnight Hour" when we realised it *was* the midnight hour, and that the neighbours might want some sleep, so we finished up and headed home.

Saturday:

Hit the shops early to avoid the rush; needed a Santa suit for the Church Christmas Pageant (it's a trad story and a modern story running parallel to each other), and bought a dress for $20 for Sarah and Adam's wedding in 2 weeks. Bargain! Then I headed to Church to 'do a few things' to prepare for the afternoon rehearsal. I ended up 'doing a few things' for close to 4 hours! But the set looked cool, and the rehearsal went well.

When I got home, I had a quick change into the Indian gear and headed to Upper Hutt to dance in a concert. Turns out it was the Anita's School of Dance end-of-year concert, so there were lots of little poppets in tutus and tiaras wandering around. Too cute. We were special invited guests; Rani runs our group, and apparently Rani's daughter does Jazz through Anita, and Rani asked if we could join in. Something like that. I caught myself speeding on the drive home and was wondering what a cop would think if he pulled me over. I still had on a pile of makeup, a bindi, and a sparkly red and gold dance outfit. With a denim jacket on top. Nice.

Here's a shot of us rehearsing, and a posed one at the concert in the Green Room. It really was green!

Sunday:

Sang a solo in Church today. Sam even came to listen, but Dad was not well enough to come due to a bad night of breathing issues. The piece I sang is called "This is the record of John". It's a traditional piece for the second week of Advent: Prepare the Way of the Lord.

After Church I went shopping for school camp and spent around $450 on food. It filled three trolleys, and STILL managed to fit in the boot of our car cos it's so big!

Then I went back to Church for the pageant. It went off, and Dad was even able to make it, so I was really pleased. The angels got carried away and came on way too early with the wise men, but they understood my sign language and managed to get off the stage in time to lead the shepherds back on. The dancing farmers (modern shepherds) stole the show!

At the BBQ tea afterwards, people were all coming up to tell me how much they enjoyed the pageant - I guess it was worth all the stress in the end.

At 7pm I escaped to K and R's where we watched somebody Bergen (the bad ventroloquist), Madeline Khan (who sang badly), and Steve Martin (who plays the banjo quite well!) on The Muppet Show. I got a fab shoulder massage from R, and K fed me feta and herb rice crackers. Yum.

It's now after 11:30 pm. I need to go to bed now.

I came home without my undies last night

2007-11-25T18:55:00.000+13:00

It was on the guy's stag night to-do list: I couldn't resist. And they were my nice ones - clean too, thank goodness.

I also wrote "fish loves you" on his left buttock with a permanent marker.

Going out in Welly is fun. I should do it more often.

Secret Admirers Week Rocks

2007-11-23T10:39:00.000+13:00

I am at the computer in the staff workroom getting a very relaxing and pleasant shoulder massage from my co-wo Mihail. He has good hands.

It was arranged for me by my Secret Admirer.

This week I have had chocolate milk and V delivered to me, and three chocolate bars, and today I got a bottle of wine and some pretty flowers. Yay :) I am very spoiled.

My secret admiree has been even more spoiled this week. Every day I have left notes in her pigeonhole (saying things like "Helen is awesome" or "Helen rocks my world"), about 5 times a day. I got students to deliver Hershey's kisses to her office three times a day, I got her fav drink (coke zero) and put one in the fridge for her every day, and I got her some flowers. And two mini bottles of wine. And I made bacon and egg pie on the weekend for her lunch on Monday. Wow.

I am still being massaged. It's lovely.

We just bought a car!!

2007-11-11T16:52:00.000+13:00

It's a Mazda Capella station wagon, just right for putting pushchairs and babies in, when the time arrives. No Mum, NOT YET!

You can see a similar one here but ours is a pretty blue colour, is manual (yay) and has done about half the k's.

We get it tomorrow. Yay!!

Sorry it took us so long Lauren. It would have been really useful for you to have had our old one to run about in. They gave us $1000 for the Barina - about 500 more than I was expecting for the old heap :)

Farewell, little Barina. A new fishtank is in town.

Triathlon!

2007-10-28T13:54:00.000+13:00

This shot I like to call "Ahmed and his harem". Yeah Right.

This is Kathryn, Femke, Ahmed, Sarah and moi just before the start.

My goals were:

Don't stop on the run, and follow through from the hip (Thanks Damon!)
Improve on (my best) 6min30 per km run time
Cycle with fast RPMs and do it in under an hour
Swim non stop and pass lots of people in the pool

Well, I did all that. Yay me.

I ran 6 minute kms (4 km in 24:07)

I did the 18 km cycle in 47:45

In training I had got down to swimming 300m in 5:40, but in the race I did it in a pathetic 7:07.
I meant to do tumble turns in the swim as I had been in training but there were just too many people hanging around at the ends to do it safely. I did pass about 20 people in the pool though. Note also my high elbow and streamlined head and body position in this shot; excellent form.
The official time is 1:18:59 which put me in 14th place (out of 20) in my age group, and 38th (out of 72) out of all the women.

All photos taken by my personal photographer on his new camera. Thanks Sammy!

PAR-TAY!

2007-10-26T12:56:00.000+13:00

Lauren goes back to Canada very soon. Boo!

So we are going to have a farewell party. Yay!

We are also forcing you to look the part. Come in your national dress, or the national dress of some other country. Make an effort or else!!

Be warned that if you dress as an All Black you will probably get beaten up. Unless you dress as Dan Carter. Lauren will probably take you upstairs for a while. Just kidding, Lauren! :)

Anyway, be at our place on Saturday 3 November from about 8pm.

BYO.

Back in Town

2007-10-22T16:11:00.000+13:00

We arrived back from Wanganui last night and managed to last for about 2 minutes before turning the computer on; not bad. Anyway, here's some pics from our wee road trip.

Kirsten's car is not really made for five adults. (Like whose is?) We made the most of it anyway. This is early in the journey on Friday evening.

We stopped at Raukawa Falls along the way. The river is a bit high. And dirty.

We stopped in Bulls at The WORST Subway Ever (tm) where the service was crap and the bread was stale. Good thing we had Fruit Bursts to tide us over till morning.

The next day we travelled to Waitomo, just missing being there the same time as a Kiwi Experience bus. (Ah, the memories!)

Here's a (poorly focussed) shot from inside the Aranui caves. Photography is forbidden in the glow worm caves unfortunately. When you are inside the cave they call the Cathedral, they always do this spiel about how the acoustics are great and how Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has sung in there, and would anyone like to sing a song? I've been twice before and always been too chicken, but this time, Lauren and I got brave and sang the beginning of Pie Jesu. We were ok, I guess. The acoustics were actually not that good though - it's nice to have a *little* echo, but the limestone absorbs absolutely *everything*. Anyway, we got a little round of applause from the tourists in our group.

On Sunday we drove over 65km of metalled road (via Athens, London, and Jerusalem!) to arrive at Pipiriki, where we rode a jetboat to the Bridge to Nowhere.

We took loads of Obligatory Self Portraits (OSPs)

And Obligatory Tourist Shots (OTSs)

This is a swingbridge on the way to the Bridge to Nowhere.

The infamous Bridge to Nowhere. The land up here was gifted to returned WWI soldiers. Unfortunately the land proved unsuitable for farming once the forest was cleared and most of the families had left by the time the bridge was completed in the 1940s.

We stopped in Taihape on the way home for Iced Chocolate and coffees and things. Yum!

This sign is just out of Maungaweka. It cracks me up every time. "Peach Teats, calves love 'em!"

We were SO over the back seat by this stage, but still managed a weak smile. I certainly enjoyed getting home and leaping into a warm shower then bed. Many thanks to Rich for organising us and being the Dad. And to Kirsten for supplying the car and being the Mum.

**********

The Naenae Triathlon is less than a week away! I have to do one more trial of the whole course and one more bike ride before I feel fully prepared. Think of me on Sunday morning!

four hours sleep does not a happy fish make

2007-10-15T14:57:00.000+13:00

That is all

I'm sure we all knew this already, but...

2007-10-13T18:25:00.000+13:00

Kiwi women most promiscuous in the world - survey

Here we go!

2007-10-08T09:16:00.000+13:00

Canyon Swing #1

I went first, mainly as I thought I would chicken out if I had to watch others go ahead of me. In the end it still took me a while to get off the edge, but I got there in the end! I think going over backwards was way easier, as I couldn't see the drop. Although at one stage I take a quick peek over my shoulder. Please excuse the swearing :)

Canyon Swing #2

This time I went forwards, which was really scary as I kept looking down and psyching myself out. The two guys kept freaking me out too - pushing me and then pulling me back in. One of them poked the back of my knee to try and make me tumble too, which nearly earned him a slap. In the end I asked the guy holding me to just push me and I would go with it... he reckons he didn't push me, but I think he did. But hey, at least I got value for money with the dvd footage - 4 minutes worth!

It's good to be home

2007-10-07T18:34:00.000+13:00

I posted my canyon swing videos on facebook today. I will get them up here soon for those that don't use facebook, but until then, try this link and click on "videos" just below my photo.

Dunno if that will work; let me know!

Chch

2007-10-03T17:41:00.000+13:00

Oh yeah, I'm alive after my canyon swing. Having too much fun doing other stuff to spend much time on the computer, so I'll upload my canyon video later in the week.

In Christchurch now, then Kaikoura tomorrow. Gonna swim with the dolphins - yay!

If you're interested, you can see more news of our travels on Lauren's blog.

Q-town

2007-10-01T12:10:00.000+13:00

We are in Queenstown, about to do the canyon swing this afternoon. Eek!! You can read about it here, and if you have a flash player, check out the jump styles link also. I'm planning on the back flip and perhaps a pin drop if I do a second one. I just have to keep telling myself that it's just a big swing, and swings are fun, right?

Kayaking in Franz Joseph was awesome. I have some photos on disc which I will upload soon. The water was mirror smooth in places, which made for some pretty shots.

Monday night is karaoke night at the backpacker's pub. Bring it on!

y'know what you should ALL do?

2007-09-28T13:44:00.000+12:00

I'm in Franz Joseph, having a play on the internet while the people with more money than me go heli-glacier-ing. My internet time is almost up though, so I just want to say that you should ALL go and look at Lauren's blog for pictures of our trip, cos i have a film camera that doesn't upload to the interweb.

Oh yeah, apologies to the tangata whenua. I hope my costume doesn't offend anyone :) They even forced me to do a haka 'cos the bus driver didn't know how to do it and I did. And I knew that I shouldn't do it. Oops. My poi skills have improved heaps though.

Onward... kayaking this afternoon. Off to Wanaka tomorrow.

so far so good

2007-09-25T22:14:00.000+12:00

We are in Westport right now, having just returned from the beach where we had a bonfire and Lauren and I entertained the masses by singing songs from our varied repetoire.

Today I swam in Lake Rotoiti. Actually, 'swam' might be too loose a term - the bus driver said he would buy a beer for the first person to jump off the jetty and I couldn't let that go! So I got a beer and also got very cold!

Then I went on a horse trek. We got to trot and canter, and even got to gallop! I have never galloped before, so that was cool.

Reports on challenges to come soon.

The travels of fish and lauren

2007-09-23T18:11:00.000+12:00

Lauren and I are in Blenheim right now, staying with Carol and Murray and Megan. Tomorrow we head off on our Kiwi Experience trip for nearly 2 weeks of South Island action. Yay!!!

Expect random updates over the next two weeks. Pictures too, courtesy of Lauren. Dopey fish took her old film camera rather than the digital camera!

Any missions from my faithful readers that you wish to give us will be carried out and reported upon.

New Head

2007-09-09T21:53:00.001+12:00

That's what my Dad says when you get a haircut. Like; "Oooh look, new head!"

I haven't had a haircut, but I do have a new header. Thanks Kate! Now if only the green fish matched the green banner down the side... :)

***

Missing the gloriousness that is Rumpus this weekend as I will be at the Wellington Regional Synod in Palmerston North. It's like Government, Church styles. What a trade-off. Pity it's not being held in Welly. Ah well, rock on without me, my friends.

I spelled 'regional' wrong just then, and had to use the spell check. I have come a long way from standard 4, when I used to be called "Dictionary" and I was in the best spelling group.

"Dictionary?" I hear you all ask? Well, it beats "Fat-ona" any day.

Stuff to tick off the to-do list

2007-09-06T16:41:00.000+12:00

*** WARNING: Rat photos below. Scroll down at your own risk! ***

I got the car window fixed for free. Thanks State Insurance :)

I marked 24 x 4 Year 13 Stats papers and 28 x 2 Year 11 Maths papers and entered the grades into the school system. Tomorrow I get to go through them with the kids - should be interesting.

We finally got our Rick Edmonds prints block mounted and on the wall. It will probably take another 12 months till I get them to hang level with each other and the ceiling line!

I cleaned out the rat cage and even wiped the shelves down. It should take them about 10 minutes to pee and poo all over it again, but at least it's clean for a while. Actually I think Lily is doing her bit in the corner in this picture. Thanks Lily.

I just love their little bellies :)

To the bastard that broke into my car last night

2007-08-28T11:35:00.000+12:00

I hope your hand got cut breaking my window and that glass got stuck in it and that it gets infected so your stupid hand falls off.

So there.

Yay - I got some more pictures from Choir School!

2007-08-25T14:45:00.000+12:00

Our Church choir is rare in that we don't wear red. Makes me easy to spot though. This was taken about 20 minutes before the final service.

I *do* however, wear red when I'm dancing. This is me in action at the in-house concert on the Thursday night.

Beep test

2007-08-23T07:42:00.000+12:00

I just did a beep test by myself in the Gym before school. I dropped out at level 5-9. That's a crap score apparently. The kids do it in groups - I think maybe if there were some other people to run with I might not have given up so easily. Still, it's a start. I can only improve from there. And I can still beat all the Year 13 PE class in the swim.

I saw an infomercial yesterday morning for something I MAY ACTUALLY BUY. I know - strange but true! It's a set of exercise DVDs, but here's the cool thing - it's a hip hop dance class! Cool. I can learn to dance hip hop AND get killer abs at the same time. I don't want to pay just three instalments of $39.95 though. Does anyone wanna go halves/threes and we can illegaly burn copies? Go on...

2007-08-14T08:02:00.000+12:00

So I have a facebook account but I'm not really convinced that I'll use it once the fuss dies down.

I don't see the point in being a zombie/pirate/ninja/vampire/whatever. (Can anyone explain to me what purpose that has??)

If I want to give my friends a present, or a poke for that matter, I'll do it in real life.

I'm not interested in acquiring thousands of friends so I can say "look how popular I am, darlinks!"

The only useful thing that I can see is that you can keep in touch with people even when their email addresses change - because fb emails you when you have messages and stuff. Of course, this is assuming said friends update fb with their new address when it changes. And if they are the kind of person who doesn't update YOU with their email, why on earth would they tell fb? There goes that theory.

I do have the aquarium application of course, which is almost the only reason I keep using facebook. Meh. Read the blog if you want to know what I'm doing; don't expect a daily update either.

Wins all round!

2007-08-11T19:25:00.000+12:00

UHC Senior 4 vs Sacred Heart
We won 20-24 and are in the Collegiate 10 final next week.

UHC Senior 5 vs St Oran's
We won 35-10 and are in the Collegiate 12 final next week.

High School Old Girls 3 vs Resene Paints
We won 13-17 and next week we play the loser of 5v6.
If we win that game, we play in the minor final the next week.

And I was named player of the day. Yay me!

Netball on Saturday

2007-08-06T09:34:00.000+12:00

** From an email that I have sent to our netball co-ordinator at school. She will be passing it on to the College Sport people for me. So there, HVHS! **

Upper Hutt 14 played netball against Hutt Valley High School 13 on the weekend. At three-quarter time, the score was 41-2 to UHC. At the start of the fourth quarter, most of the HVHS team began to yell loudly whenever UHC had the ball, and screamed even louder when the GA/GS were shooting. They were not yelling out cheers or encouragement - it was just plain screaming. In my opinion, they were not cheering their team on - they were making noise with the express purpose of putting us off our game.

When the ball went over the sideline a few minutes into the quarter, I asked the UHC umpire to have a word to the girls before play re-started. She reminded the girls that this was a competetion game, and to take it seriously. Play re-started, and as it did, the HVHS umpire (a student, and possibly their coach?) called out "no girls, keep doing it!". The screaming and yelling continued.

The HVHS Goal Shoot mentioned to the UHC Goal Keep that they were doing it to put UHC off, and then proceeded to elbow the GK sharply in the stomach, allegedly on purpose. The GK was injured by this, so much so that she needed to call time and leave the court for someone else to take her place. She did not retake the court for the rest of the game.

I talked with the venue manager after the game, and he said I should have notified him during the game so he could have seen what was going on. I didn't think of this at the time, but I certainly will if it happens again.

The HVHS team showed a gross lack of judgement and very poor sportsmanship at this game, and I believe their school netball manager needs to be notified that this is not acceptable.

************

Thanks for tea on Saturday, Sarah and Ronnie!! Yum :)

Harry Potter and swimming

2007-08-01T08:51:00.000+12:00

*** WARNING!! Allusions to Harry Potter content below, but no genuine spoilers ***

Rich lent me his workmate's copy of Harry Potter on Saturday morning. I read a few chapters on Saturday, but was so busy with everything else I didn't really get into it till Sunday afternoon.

After a few hours reading on Sunday, and a couple of hours on Monday/Tuesday, I finally finished it last night before I had to race out the door to netball.

I have to remind myself this is a kids' book, so then I don't feel too disappointed with the Scooby Doo ending. I ALMOST cried at the bit where Harry did something really nice for someone who died (near the middle of the book) but managed to control myself. Wuss.

*************

I went to the pool with one of the Year 13 PE classes yesterday. They were doing a 300m time trial in preparation for the Naenae Tri, which I am also going to do this year (anyone want to join me??). I swam rather slowly, as I kept tagging the feet of the two kids in front of me, but I did the 12 laps in 6m 40s. Totally within reach of my under 6 minute goal. Only one other kid managed to do faster than me (6:30), and he had a clear lane in front of him. I will triumph over you, Chris M!!!

The kids were quite impressed with my machine-like swimming prowess. Not only did I do the 12 laps, but I did it THREE times, once with each set of kids! And as I said, I still beat (nearly) all of them. Yay for fish!

They will of course, kick my ass in the run/cycle bits.

snap out of it fishy!

2007-07-30T14:04:00.001+12:00

I'm feeling low today. Not sure why, but I've been on the verge of tears all day. I have heaps to cheer me up, so I thought I would post a list and see if that helps...

I have lost 5kg and kept it off for a month.
My husband is back in town after a weekend away.
I have a neat bunch of Year 9,10,13 students (even though my Year 11s are awful).
My HoD likes and respects me.
I am going on a maths course in 2 weeks.
I have two free periods tomorrow.

That should do for now I think.

Te wiki o te reo Maori - rima

2007-07-27T08:06:00.000+12:00

Phrase-a-day: Ramere 27 Hongoingoi

Ka rawe to korero Maori
Gee, speaking Maori is good fun!

I probably won't have time to post on the weekend, so that's all from me. I hope you have enjoyed this week. Ka kite ano!

Te wiki o te reo Maori - wha

2007-07-26T08:13:00.000+12:00

Phrase-a-day: Rapare 26 Hongoingoi

Today there are two for the price of one!

Kei te pehea koe?
how are you?
Kei te pai ahau
I am well

practice this one with a partner :)

Te wiki o te reo Maori - toru

2007-07-25T11:18:00.000+12:00

Phrase-a-day: Raapa 25 Hongongoi

Today's one is a little naughty...
patu i te kumu
smack on the bum - haha!

Put homai te at the front to say "give me..." if you're feeling naughty :)

Te wiki o te reo Maori - Rua

2007-07-23T15:29:00.000+12:00

Phrase-a-day: Ratu 24 Hongongoi
ko te aroha taku koe
I love you!

Go and use it on your loved ones. If you don't have a loved one, go find a hot guy or girl and see if they like your lingo!

Te wiki o te reo Maori - Tahi

2007-07-23T15:19:00.000+12:00

Kia Ora readers

This week is Maori language week. I will try to post a phrase a day for you to practise. Make sure you visit!

Phrase-a-day: Rahina 23 Hongongoi (Monday 23 July)
ka nui tena maku
You look good!

Off you go, poppets. Practice saying it out loud and you will have it in no time!

Lauren's first night in NZ

2007-07-22T09:11:00.001+12:00

Yes, I know that was over a week ago, but better late than never. Not a bad night out, considering Lauren had just had a 36-hour plane journey to get here! I gather staying up late is a good way to prevent jet lag anyway.

Lauren and Fish, having just arrived at the BlacktoSchool karoke party.

Lauren and Merv (Merrrrv!) singing a duet. Awwww.

Fish singing with Jeremy - an ex student who was at the party to run the music machine. Rosita seems to be enjoying herself too.