Time

Just before my 80th birthday I decided it was about time I got serious about writing my family story.  I've been writing bits for it for about 20 years and realized I probably won't have another 20 to get it done.  So that's what I've been doing these past few weeks.  My progress was slowed by an infection that knocked me for a six.  And I can certainly verify that one does not bounce back as quickly as one once did.  I tell myself to forget about bouncing, just get up and get on with it.

I most likely won't get back here to post about the North Island tour I had with two of my sisters after my birthday.   So I'll just leave a few photos.

  

 Taupo

 

 Huka Falls, Taupo

Waipunga Falls, Taupo Napier Road

  

Diamond Princess docked in Napier

Diver feeding the fish at National Aquarium of NZ in Napier

 

 

Main street, Napier on a Sunday after all the tourists had gone back to the ship

 

Mission Estate, Napier

Te Mata Peak, Napier

Fountain, Pukekura Park, New Plymouth

 

 Lake Mangamahoe, New Plymouth

Mt Taranaki, New Plymouth from my daughter's home.  No snow but plenty of decorations.

Places north

While I was tripping around showing my family the sights near where I live, one of my sisters asked were we near where we had seen a funny sign about littering on her last visit to NZ.  No, we weren't, we were in the Waipoua Forest and that sign had been in the Mungamuka Gorge which has just recently reopened after being closed since August 2022 until last December.  The road had suffered severe storm damage.

I wonder if it was re-erected when the roadworks were finished.

 

We visited Tane Mahuta, which is the largest living kauri tree in  New Zealand, named after the Māori god of forests and birds. It is over 2,000 years old and still growing, 51.5 metres tall, nearly 18 m to the first branch and 4.4 m in diameter.  It is magnificent.

 

 Unfortunately, it faces threats from kauri dieback, a fatal fungal disease.  Below, is the remains of another kauri, a very short distance away, which succumbed to the disease.

 

 

Unwrinkled heart

A friend, while wishing me happy birthday, commented that the wrinkles don't matter, I must just keep my heart unwrinkled.  I liked what she said enough to find out where the words came from. 

It's a quote from Thomas Bailey Aldrich - (November 11, 1836 – March 19, 1907) an American writer, poet, critic, and editor.

"To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent - that is to triumph over old age."

A reminder to us that a youthful spirit does not wither with the passage of time. To keep our hearts full of hope, kindness, cheerfulness, and reverence.  The wrinkles time leave on our bodies is irrelevant.

 

A big one

My older daughter, Leone and Clare, the third youngest of my 10 siblings pulled off the surprise of the century for my 80th birthday.  I was already in high spirits, looking forward to a gathering of family and friends at my son and d-in-law's restaurant on Monday, 27th January, the day of my birthday. It was also a public holiday. 

 

The day before the Big Event Leone asked me to go with her to look at a house for sale near the beach where she and my older son live.  There, firstly one by one and then two by two I discovered two of my brothers and their wives, two of my sisters and a niece were all there.  My brother Peter and his wife live in England, all the others live in Australia.  I honestly had no idea, had no expectation that any of them would even think about coming all that way for a birthday.  One other sister made her appearance the next day.  I cannot begin to explain how delighted I was.  I blemished my  reputation as a speech maker by becoming overwhelmed and getting teary eyed.

    

Four sisters.  Only the youngest knows how to behave herself.

There are still a few bloggers around who will remember how my grand-daughter, Georgia and I spent hours in my kitchen together when she was a child.  She credits me with her love for cooking and her current role in hospitality.  Which is strange because all we ever cooked was muffins and I am a really lousy cook.  Look at the beautiful cake she created for me.

 

With my grandchildren and g-g-daughter beside me in white. 

One grandson was in Australia and unable to attend.

My family, who planned and schemed and worked so hard to give me a great party.

 

The Australians and English guests.  My niece proved expert at avoiding photos.

Siblings

 

Old and dear friends.  The two who have  been there for me for over 40 years. 

If you know me well you will have heard of Chris and Twink.

So proud of these four!

Emilia

It's been over two months since I last posted.  That makes me more of a rare occasion blogger than the irregular one I thought I had become.  I think I might become a special occasion blogger as I would like to continue to record special occasion.  My blog has been a great resource when I've tried to remember what happened when and just today I could refer back to a post in 2010 to find the name of a church.

While I was at it, I checked when my first blog post had been - 23 January, 2009.  Happy co-incidence!

That's what it was until I wandered off to do something else and forgot about this post.  I also said happy birthday to a brother on our sister's birthday. 

Ah well.  That's how life is these days.

Christmas came and was happily celebrated in a quiet-ish fashion.  The family was a bit scattered this time - Bernie had not yet arrived from Brasil and Justine and family were celebrating with Bill's family in Canada.   They had a wonderful time in the snow, too.

The pace of life picked up in the new year with the arrival of Bernie, Roberta and Emilia.  Little Emilia caught a cold somewhere between her home and here and was miserable for a few days. I think jet lag also played a part.  She loves water but didn't have any enthusiasm for catching tiny baby sea creatures in the little tidal creek that runs off from the beach at Waipu.   She just sat on the sand, looking unhappy, and watched her father trying to catch some for her.

For a child who rarely sits still, she was happier letting her father bury her in the warm sand.  Although she denied it, I think she drifted off to sleep for a while.

 The quiet Emilia was short lived.  Within a few days she was back to her lively, noisy self.

Cruise

I think I have hayfever.  Started sneezing a couple of days ago and when I'm not sneezing, I'm coughing or blowing my runny nose.  Bet you can't wait to read more.

But I didn't come here to talk about that, I wanted to record a few pics from the cruise I enjoyed recently, thanks to my son and daughter-in-law who decided a "family" holiday should include all generations of the family.  So we were a party of 8, including 3 grand-daughters, a g-g-daughter and a family friend.

 

Half the crew in the mini bus on our way to the port in Auckland.

We were on a 5 day cruise from Auckland to Melbourne. Shayde was my cabin mate and looked after me from the moment we boarded.  She even bought a photo to mark the occasion.

 

The first few days the sea was a bit rough with many passengers succumbing to seasickness.  A couple of our party were a bit queasy but nothing too serious.  The sun was shining and there were warm spots to shelter out of the wind.  What more could you ask for?

 

 

Heather with her daughters and g-daughter on White Night.  Little Lexus had a wonderful time at the Kids Club each day, I think it was called the Shark Shack (which I thought sounded a bit scarey). Lexus just gave me a blank look when I asked her had she seen any sharks.

One of the highlights for Lexus was scaring the living daylights out of me on a ride in the games arcade.  She had talked her grandfather into doing a virtual motorbike ride with her while Heather and I watched.  As soon as that was finished she grabbed my hand and pulled me towards another ride, she showed me how to get on the contraption and lay back and then wham, it was like being on an open, extremely fast, noisy vehicle blasting across plains and jungles, dodging wild animals, narrowly escaping death at every other turn.  Lexus hardly watched the screen, it was much more entertaining watching my reactions.  I must admit it was a highlight for me, too.  And thanks to Heather for my favourite photo from the cruise.  Just look at the delight on that child's face when we finished the ride.  I recovered.

Cats and ducks

 

One day last week a group of us watched the aerial warfare as two young male wild ducks fought it out for the position of Top Duck in the life of a lovely lady duck for the coming season.  Mother Duck wasn't at all interested in watching the battle, just carried on poking around in the long grass for fresh nibbles.  

Around the same time there was consternation in the village when a freshly hatched wild duckling was found abandoned.  It's at times like that Facebook comes into its own.  A quick post on the township page and an experienced wild duckling rear-er was found and the baby is thriving.

The Facebook post idea worked for me at the weekend when I became concerned about a unidentified cat that was obviously hungry and distressed and was crying loudly near my home.  Residents in the village are permitted to have one cat (no dogs allowed) and everyone knows the cats by name, where they live and so on.  My cat is not friendly towards other cats but most of them get along well together.  My Alleycat has human friends she likes to approach when they are nearby, others she runs and hides from.  I'd seen the visitor at the weekend from time to time at a distance and thought it must live nearby.  Anyway, because I was concerned about it, I put a post on Facebook and soon discovered it does indeed live nearby, the family had been away at a funeral, the cat was not happy about that although it was being fed.

I can sympathise (se? ze?) with that.  During the week I've been feeding Brodie, a neighbour's cat.  He's been well fed and I linger to talk with him but each day he's looked more and more miserable.  And the day he followed me back home Alleycat hissed at him.

Back to the ducks. I love seeing and watching them but have never been able to get close enough to get a photo.  They are wild and flighty.  Then on Sunday night I had the closest encounter I've ever had with a wild duck.  It was just after dark and as I was lowering the kitchen blind I saw a large, dark shape on my neighbour's lawn, just outside my window.  I thought, "That looks like a duck!"   I peered with my glasses on and my glasses off but wasn't sure.  I quietly went outside and approached the shape just as my neighbour was stepping out his door and doing the same thing.  He quietly said, "What is it?  It looks like a duck!"  I slowly crept closer and closer and it turned its head to look at me.  Yes, it was a huge male  Muscovy duck.  Alleycat had followed me outside and was even more interested in our visitor than Jack and I were,  then Brodie came along from another direction and the duck obviously was tired of all the attention and with a loud flapping of wings, took off.

Thanks to Facebook I can show you what the duck looked like.  He was a pet who had escaped.  I hope he found his way back home.

 Photo thanks to Tyson Cook, Facebook.

Chicken drama queen

I've spent a lot of time quietly at home lately.  The cold I came down with after Georgia's 21st party proved hard to shake and developed into a chest infection.  Antibiotics beat the cold and almost beat me at the same time, I had an allergic reaction.  When that was overcome I had 3 or 4 days of good health before another cold caught up with me.  Arrgghhh!

Usually I listen to the radio during the day but have lost interest in that.  I'm just generally rather lethargic and tired most of the time.  I find if anything annoys me I am quite grumpy.  And I find it really annoying that I can do nothing about the thing that annoys me most right now.

We have an open area at the back of the retirement village where residents can have a large vegetable garden if they wish and one of the residents keeps a few hens.  I love hearing them clucking away to each other.  It's such a peaceful sound.

One of the chooks has turned into a drama queen.  She lays her daily egg around the same time each day and you wouldn't believe the fuss she makes.  She squawks over and over and over again.  Sometimes it seems like it will never stop.  I mutter all sorts of obscenities to her and end up feeling quite foolish for getting into such a state about a cackling chicken.

Other residents complain about a barking dog belonging to a neighbour but I live closer than most to that dog and that doesn't worry me at all.  Except for feeling sorry for the poor thing.  He barks all day but is quiet as soon as the family's children get home from school.  He's bored.

But for some reason I can't cope with a noisy chicken!

 

21st

It's been a week already since we celebrated my grand-daughter, Georgia's 21st birthday.  For a couple of days afterwards I thought I was just tired from the late, late night and all that dancing.  But no, I had caught a cold.  I don't seem able to shake them off as quickly as I used to.  

I was not very impressed with my timing but it turns out listening to broadcasts of Olympic events on the radio while snuggled up in bed, can be more enjoyable than I expected.  And if I drifted off back to sleep before the event was finished?  I just took that as a sign that I needed the sleep.

Wish I had some photos of the party to share but I was in the few that were taken and they haven't been shared as yet.  The young these days seem to like their photos to be selfies.  Maybe so they can edit/enhance the result?  To be fair, I didn't notice many selfies being taken either.  Everyone looked to be too busy dancing.  

I took a number of videos as requested by my younger daughter who was unable to travel because of recent knee surgery.  This is the only photo. 

But I did get a photo of the cake.

 

Not for the first time, I've been impressed by this group of young people.  Georgia and her boyfriend have a wonderful set of friends.  They are always so friendly and respectful.  I couldn't just sit quietly and watch the partying without one of them popping themselves down beside me to ask if I was OK, did I need anything and then staying for a chat.  I was so touched by one young man who told me he had cried during my speech, he missed his grandmother so much and he then spent about 20 minutes telling me all about her.  How special is that?

The party was at the lodge in the forest that I managed for a number of years.  It was so good being back there, checking out the improvements. I loved waking in the night (when the music finally stopped) hearing the call of moreporks (owls) in the bush surrounding the lodge and then the dawn chorus.  I do miss that place.

The next morning, two early-birds were out for a stroll.

A bright spot

 Some child may have been upset to see their balloon sitting high in the tree but it made my day.

 

My excuse

I feel I have more than writer's block.  It feels more like a strangulation.  I even Googled to see if there is such a thing as writer's strangulation.  No, there doesn't appear to be any such thing and just reading the descriptions of strangulation had me giving up on that idea very quickly.

However, I do fit the number one reason listed for writer's block - lack of inspiration.  I've only ever blogged about my day to day life which has never been very exciting although I've always been contented with it.  Excitement is over rated in my book.  I avoid having my heart race these days.  Trouble is, I now feel there are limits on what's acceptable for me to post about as my tales of daily life may infringe on the privacy of others in my retirement village.  And so far, I've failed to find any other inspiration.

My family, perhaps?  They are all happy and busy.  My oldest son and his wife are restoring the old kauri villa where I lived before moving to the village.  Danny is back coaching the local rugby union team and my daughter and I support him and the team by attending most of their games.  

Said daughter will be back at work full time again soon after suffering a bad break to her leg.  I was busy for a while playing chauffeur to and from hospital appointments.  New Zealand has very good accident compensation (ACC) but it took a while to kick in.  The scheme covers everyone in NZ who is injured in an accident by paying for a wide range of treatment and medical costs from GP visits to specialist fees, x-rays, hospital emergency services.  Once all the services she needed were organised, she was provided with a car and driver to take her to appointments and to and from work.  A physiotherapist still visits her at home and her limp is improving each time I see her.

My second son, Bernie has also been in the wars.  He has a herniated disc in his back ad has been in a lot of pain.  I find it hard to cope emotionally when one of my kids is suffering in any way and are a long way from home.  I do not do well with helplessness.

In this case I was very concerned as Bernie has an extremely high tolerance to pain and I worried that if he said he was in pain, the injury must have been quite serious.  He's slowly improving but has been finding sitting around for so long to be difficult to deal with.

Did I just say all my family are happy and well.  Thankfully, the happy part is true and they don't have health problems as such.  Most of their difficulties are structural.  My youngest daughter is currently enjoying a week or so of sunshine in Queensland and will return in time for knee surgery in a few days.  It's the same operation Bernie had a few years ago.

Add to that mix of woes, I recently had a rotator cuff tear which slowed me down a lot but thankfully I discovered I could still do line dancing with my arm hanging by my side.  A good osteopath is a blessing!  As is a line dancing group of a similar age who understand each other's limitations.

And here's my youngest blessing, little Emilia all dressed up for a feast day in Brasil.  I tell myself it's not long till Christmas when I will see her again.

Here's May

I love this time of year.

Having said that I just looked out the window and see a dark cloud approaching - and I have sheets drying on the line.  Could happen at any time of the year.

Already 10 days into May.  Days are a little cooler, nights are a little cold, this morning was the coldest morning of the year so far, with threats of power outages,  but I did my bit towards conserving power by staying snuggled up in bed until the sunshine did its job of adding warmth to the day.  It seems there will be more power cuts this winter.

Here's what has been making me smile lately.  A little owl I crocheted for my great-grandaughter waiting for her to visit.  I smile every time I look at it, I think I'll make another one for myself.

 And little granddaughter, Emilia's artwork.  I'm so happy all her people look happy and loved.

Seasonal change

Autumn is definitely here.  All too often we seem to go from summer straight to winter but I like this lingering of summer during the day with just a hint of winter in the mornings and at night.

Alleycat seems to like the weather, too.  She's spending more time than usual snuggled up sleeping.  It may not be the weather, it could simply be that she is now more settled living here.  She has finally got the other village cats to understand that she is not their friend and that they are not welcome near her or her home.  She has a small area around our unit where she obviously feels comfortable, where she knows the residents.  She still scarpers the minute she sees or hears a male but she has some nice (human) lady friends. 

In her own way it's taken her a while to find her place in a new environment.  Maybe she's been people watching the same as I've been doing. 

 

I've always been a people watcher, I have an innate human curiosity to understand how people tick, I've wasted many a long hour idly observing people.  And living in a retirement village is the ideal place for someone like me who likes to watch others' behaviours, mannerisms and interactions. 

 

Here we have a community of people who are strangers when they arrive and may have little in common and who now live at reasonably close quarters.  In this village the residents coordinate voluntary social activities to encourage neighbourly bonds, such as group outings, hobby groups and interest groups.  Fertile grounds for personalities to come out to play. 

I have relatively strong instincts when it comes to people and have learnt to trust them, especially when I meet someone for the first time.  So it's been interesting, after living here for about 9 months to reflect on how well my instincts served me when I first moved in.

I'm happy to say the ones who instantly attracted me are now my group of friends.  We are all getting to know each other better, little by little learning each other's life stories, becoming familiar with each other's families.  It's been an enjoyable process, unlike anything else I've experienced.

 

And I haven't seen anything that has changed my opinion about the other residents.  The ones I was instantly wary of, I'm still wary of.  The ones that interested me then, I still find interesting, they are on the 'long term' observation list. 

One of the things that has kept me out of blogland recently is this nearly finished shawl to keep me warm in winter.  The idea was to use up all the bits of wool from finished projects over the years.   I'd better get on with it, winter could arrive any old time now.