Made it....

So, the theory was that a 14 hour direct flight YVR-AKL in economy would surely not be full and was, therefore, manageable. Double HAH!

However, have now viewed both Lion and La La Land and am hoping a few more good ones will still be on the list for the return but that is then.

The Dangerous Brothers were at the gate in full DB gear and advised that I could "get over being tired as it was a new day with Things to Do!" So relieved to find nothing changed there!

Was given yesterday to acclimate (and ride on the most amazing train ever - goggle Driving Creek Railway) and this afternoon find myself in new friends' lounge with a selection of just-picked-off-their-trees citrus in my tum and a view of several different kinds of palm trees flittering in the wind. There is a clear blue sky and wine chilling for our dinner of fresh "he was in the pasture last week" lamb.  I am in shorts, t-shirt, and bare feet.

Tomorrow is either bike sorting (long story with lots of DrahMah, currently using a car the inside of which looked as if it had been used as the local hazmat dump.  TP wields an excellent vacuum cleaner and fury proved useful for beating filth out of car mats) or camping on a bach site (yes, autocorrect, "bach" short for bachelor/baching ) up the coast on our way to kauri forests. We will head to 90 Mile Beach (really more like 90km but I'm not measuring with a stick), Cape Reinga, and Waitangi followed by classic bike racing on the weekend (watching not riding).  I was promised I wouldn't be bored!  So far so good.

Still breathing.

ps: did I mention shorts, t-shirt and bare feet???

And why now?

This started out as a record of travels and withered as the travelling of daily life seemed somehow not worthy of notice.  After all, how often can one make having tea with a friend sound as interesting as, say, the Sistine Chapel (no, I haven't been there but you get the idea).  Now this is from a person who used the phrase "Comparisons are odious" so often that the now-adult children have been known to murmur it in their sleep.  A daily life is worthy of notice if not of record and quite a lot of life has happened.  Some of it I might write about at some point:  selling the house, the birth of WonderGrandchild, the death of my father, and the impending selling of his house AKA The Family Home, seem to be needing some review.

But not today.

Today is for figuring out how to get back onto this platform using some still-new-to-me technology and, to my quiet surprise, it seems to have worked.

And why now?

Well, because some friends said, "Come.  All you need is a helmet.  We can get everything else in the charity shops."

Going to New Zealand.  Not Ordinary Daily Life.  Need to Keep a Record.

Stay tuned.

Still breathing.

Apparently

there ARE angels.  After a lonnggggg day in the driver's seat and a very UNhelpful front desk at the local Holiday Inn, this is where I ended up http://www.riverhouse.com/ If you watch the scroll through - I am in a room like that only facing the other way and without the clutter of the sofa as there is a Murphy bed.  All this including a glass of wine at dinner for less than the HI!!

I really don't want to leave - the deck door is open, I can hear the river and my shoulders keep falling out of my ears - it's as if they've been up there for months.  There is a full breakfast waiting but I may make a coffee and sit on the deck in the sun in my pjs until they throw me out.

Go, Angels!!

still breathing

heading out

What does it take for someone to post again?  Apparently a road trip.

California here I come.

Still breathing.

Testing....

It's been so long since I was here that "everything" has changed and I don't know my way around.  This could take a while to get used to.

Snow on deck, snow on driveway, snow on highway, Christmas is coming, Juniors are coming to Poppa's, I am excited.

Feels good.

Still breathing

01-01-2012

Down to a soupbowl of turkey, no stuffing, enough gravy to do one more meal. Random pieces of baking need to be attractively arranged on the Christmas goodies plate that should take care of the rest of the first-footers who are already hours too late but we'd be glad of their company if only to get the shortbreads theSamHill out of here on someone else's hips and thighs.

No snow here - good thing as The Jrs were only one this year and he was here for one sleep before heading back to The Big Smoke and The Job and The Friends Who Are (Thanks Be) Not His Family. We miss him and we miss Freddy-the-Dawg who is eggzackly the right height to clean off the sideboard and the kitchen counters. As F-t-D is well-mannered and as we are used to dogs and vigilance, all was well until some gumball put the bacon paper in the garbage can and left the kitchen. Sadly, as F-t-D was borrowed, he could not be left to enjoy the delights of stolen bacon dripping unlike dogs who have lived in this house and either developed digestive tracts of prodigious capabilities or croaked.

A closet is sorted which resulted in burning my late brother's bank statements. He's been gone 14 years.

Heading home tomorrow to have a pitch through my own closets.

Still breathing.

His Sister's Wedding Gravel

In my driveway this evening there are 4 yards of mixed gravel chippings and 4 yards of dark mulch. In my driveway tomorrow morning there will be one son and one bobcat (mechanical version) having a lot of fun. The son is here for a few days, the bobcat for only one. There are plans involving chippings and mulch and rock moving. Rakes and shovels have been requested.

I'm not sure whether to stick around tomorrow or not.

Maybe I could get excused to finish painting the Wedding Deck and planting the Wedding Rockery?

Still breathing