it's the quiet time

of the morning.

well 4am usually is the quiet time.

And boy am I craving quiet time.

As much as I love having a house full of family

I need my space

and my house just isn't big enough.

So I wake up early early

and set the fire

and try to nap on the couch.

Believe me, I so admire

anyone who can sleep sitting up,

on a couch, on the floor,

in a hammock,

anywhere other than a bed.

I am a sleep in the bed girl.

As I may have mentioned a few times

I LOVE MY BED.

But I wonder if it's my bed that I love

or is it that I just love being in bed.

Maybe I should say

I LOVE SLEEPING

cause I truly do.

P.S. My house is so small that when family come to stay everyone shuffles around the beds until everyone has a space.  Which is great in summer with long, sunny days not too flash in winter with it's short, dark, crying out to be in bed days.

Orange snow day

Pippapotamus's favourite colour is

ORANGE!

SNOW DAY!

oh and Pippapotamus and CLoD arrived from the tropics to this...

Well not quite, these photos are from this morning.

Pippapotamus and CLoD arrived at midnight Saturday,

it's Monday morning now.

And it's cold

but so beautiful.

It's so pristine

and I can't wait to go and stomp all over it...

before you think I'm being selfish and destructive...

This is what it's like outside now

Last night we, Pippapotamus, CLoD, Punky Pete and Me* 

had a snowball fight in the dark 

while the snow piled up around us.

Then stood watching the snow float down around us

through the security light beams.

Turns out snow in your eye is really annoying.

Snow in your ear isn't too flash either.

My ute is going nowhere today.

I wouldn't want to disturb the snow.

The cats are loving the snow.

They like pouncing on what they think is a solid lump

and smooshing it.

They come in, washing their feet first,

and rub up against your leg

and we all get to be wet and cold.

* I wanted a capital letter too.

Im sitting

here on a Satruday night

by my glowing fire

thinking about how I don't have any kids.

As I browse blogs

mommy blogs keep coming up

and the lengths these people go to make

picture perfect children's birthday party

is beyond me.

Seriously people I don't think the kids notice the matching sand pails

or the handmade, themed happy birthday banner,

or the perfect toffee apples with ribbons.

And don't you find it odd that so many parents

go to kids brithday parties?

When I was a nanny many years ago,

I used to take my kidlets to perfect parties

and leave them there.

Hell it was free babysitting.

I used to get mean mommy looks for not staying.

Me, I was just grateful for an hour's quiet time

in a cafe away from the kids

and they weren't even mine

and spent heaps of time with their parents.

Anyway my kidlets got a cake and friends over.

If we remembered to sing happy birthday

it was a success.

One year there was a bouncy castle

and that was a huge deal.

Now it the norm.

One cool party was an under the sea theme

with helium balloons bumping on the ceiling

with long tails like kelp.

That was cool and met my balloon fetish needs nicely.

And easy and the kids took the balloons home as treats.

Perfect.

Just as I despair over the stress these mothers put themselves under,

for no reason related to kids at all,

I came across this post

from a Colleen Greene

I wanted to be the perfect mother

Bewarned perfect mommies

it's too hard being perfect

and your kids won't thank you.

Its getting colder

and colder.

My little fingers are freezing as I type

but it also might be

that I lept from bed this morning

to finish cleaning the bathroom

and now have cold, slightly damp fingers

that smell like spray'n'wipe and jif.

poo stink!

Its hard to play farmville with icy fingers!

I picked up Micheal J Fox's

Always Looking Up

at the library yesterday

and started reading it last night.

I know this says more about me..

but man it's boring.

Mr Fox is writing about setting up his Parkinsons foundation

which I think is great that he is passionate about such a huge problem,

as we all know people with Parkinsons.

And I think its great that he celebrates his opportunities

and the goodness in this life.

But in the back of my mind

the little voice says how much of this is self-interest?

Because it is.

And that's not a bad reason to do something

because there has to be something for us in everything we do.

But there seems to be something very much more honourable

about the people who get involved

because they believe in something

rather than have been directly affected by it.

y'know?

Meanwhile on the whole be there for the right reason
though that is subjective...
Dole has introduced ethical bananas.
Oh so many jokes are running through my head right now.
Is putting pajamas on bananas an ethical thing?

Dole says its ethical banana shtick here
but to me as a New Zealander
an ethical banana would come from Samoa or Tonga
not from the Philippines.
Lovely people and by all reports lovely country
but surely for NZ
ethical is also local?

Our neighbouring islands need our help more than the Philippines do.
They have American military bases etc
our neighbours don't.
Our neighbours are selling out the Chinese Government
who are not known for their ethical sensitivities
in any way, shape or form.

So for me Dole you aren't all that ethical
epscially when you listen to what supermarket chains
in New Zealand have to say about the stand over tactics
of big companies like Dole use.
If you dont take their bananas you can't have their whatever elses.
Well I say I don't need mangos in winter
but I do need local bananas.
So no Dole nanas here please.

Im on my hols

but that doesn't stop a 5.1 earthquake

at 5.40am about 20 kms north-west of us waking  me up.

Man those things make me very awake.

Plus it is really cold today.

I have a week off

and it's going to go like this...

today, my plans have changed a little

but there will be baking, visiting and napping

oh and cleaning.

Saturday will be similar

but on the stroke of midnight

Pippapotamus and CLoD arrive from Brisbane

so they can enjoy freezing their butts off

and if they are lucky we will find some snow somewhere.

Nasty stuff that it is.

Sunday is Stake Conference at 10am

and we will have a new Stake Presidency.

All our leadership have been exhausted by caring for us all

during the 10 months of earthquakes.

Apparently this number of aftershocks is unprecedented

 in the history of all earthquakes.

Funtimes.

Monday, I think we will head up into the mountains

and visit the snow and maybe go up to Arthur's Pass

to see the cheeky kea.

Tuesday, Wednesday will be in Hanmer

specifically in the hot pools.

Pippapotamus has organised it all so it'll be nice to be taken care of.

Thursday will find me helping to organise a fireside for Sheri L Dew.
Super Mel has organised it all,
all I have to do is trouble shoot on the night.
But that meeting starts the little Sheri L Dew fest
that will be going on for me and Dae.

On Friday I go to Auckland mostly to meet up with Dae
and go to Time out for Women
but also to raise a fair bit of money for NZYF.
Making the most of my time...
ok getting work to fund flights for my social life.
But as a birthday present for Dae
I thought I'd see if we could meet Sister Dew
for a minute and it turns out we can
and will on Saturday morning.
Nice.

That's my coming week.
What are you up to?

Today is your day

and Shania would know....

I'm a word geek

This will surprise those who read this blog regularly,

 I got to bed late last night

after going out to dinner with TL

(that's a new name for a previously posted person

but circumstances have changed so their previous name

is no longer appropriate.)

Great dinner, great conversation, awesome connecting again.

Weird to dine in a restaurant surrounded by collapsed buildings

but that's the new normal round here.

Anyway I am assuming* that CERA

will take it's sweet time to sort our city out

so dinners amongst ruins will be the usual

I think I'll pretend it's Rome.

So I got bed after getting home

and watching the tail end of battle for something

which was being screened on our new local movie theatre,

my lounge wall.

I brought home the work projector for some reason

and now things like Graham Norton have been on my wall like

a piece of art that hasn't quite receached it's potential.

Battling aliens for Los Angeles is a big concept to get your head around

when your lounge is not that big.

So I finally got to bed

(a bit like this post)

and lay there thinking how silly the word

disappointed is.

See usually a prefix of dis- would mean the negative

but apppointed means an entirely different thing.

Which leads me to a conversation I over heard on the radio

one morning this week which was followed up by a dinner conversation on Tuesday night.

On the radio they, being Si and Gary,

were discussing the word munted.

It's current and usage is to describe the degree of a buildings destruction from various earthquakes.

So one might say "My house got munted in the February earthquake but June 13th totally munted it."

and you would know that in Feb they probably had a number of cracks and a hot water tank that released it's contents through the roof and flooded the house but it was still habitable.

In June, they would have, maybe come off their piles, lost a wall, had liquefaction again

but basically had their house red stickered due to structural damage.

Keep in mind these days red stickered doesn't necessarily mean you don't keep living in your house,

it just means someone decided it was unsafe,

 but it's all good otherwise.

So Gary decided to investigate where the word munted came from.

Keep in mind for NZ this is the original Munter

So Gary's findings were that the word Munted

comes from the word munt which is a British colonialist

word for natives in Rhodesia

(used Rhodesia instead of Zimbabwe cause that was when it was a racist state,

y'know as apposed to now that it's a Marxist state with absolutely no racism at all, ever.)

Based on the location of it's use it can be assumed to have been a negative word for natives.

But it also means;

extremely drunk,

extremely ugly,

and extremely broken.

Now Gary, who is a bit of a confused Marxist,  

has decided to never use THAT word again.

More power to him.

His decision was based on the root of the word or original common use

and to ignore the evolution of the word to mean something different and is of common usage.

Now there are other words that have evolved from being a complimentary word used in poetry

to what is basically the worst, most insulting word in the world....

in my humble opinion.

Sorry had to find of a way of being clear

and how better than to use a picture of a Bush.

That's cracking me up....

So I emailed the radio station if Gary, based on his logic

would start using this original old Elizabethan English word

to compliment his wife?

Hmmmmmm......

Can't be a sanctimonious hypocrite in a public forum now can we?

*Thinking about words I'm kind of annoyed that assume has got a bad rap.  Every time I use it a little voice in my head that sounds like my 5th form English teacher, says "assume  makes an ASS out of U and ME"  emphasis hers.  That bothers me cause assume is a great word and it only is ass making if supporting information isn't collected, which any intelligent person would do before making an educated guess aka an assumption.  To be fair it was the public school system and catering to the lowest common denominator.

East Hawaii 4H on tour - Monday

 The East Hawaiian 4H kids and co arrived on Sunday the,

oh hell I can't even remember when they got here

but it doesn't matter

only that they got here in one piece

and didn't try to smuggle in fruit

cause you know how we are about that.

And you know that all the best people arrive on flights

at the crack of dawn.

And you know I'm the kind of person

who is at the airport at the time the flight arrives in,

not a guesstimate of when the passengers will actually

get out of Customs and Immigration.

So it was a bit of a wait.

I love airports and watching people

mostly cause we don't have people where I live.

Well not very interesting to watch people,

quite interesting to know though.

And you know how it is when a group of strangers arrive

and you get introduction after introduction

and you really have no idea which person is which.

To be fair I struggle with names en masse at the best of times.

Anyway you've met the crew in previous posts

so here is a wee report on their first two days....

Arrival Sunday morning,

first stop the supermarket,

I always go to supermarkets first cause that's real wherever you are,

random I know but knowing the price of things

compared to those at home is really helpful for context.

We drove to Hamilton,

stopped at the backpackers,

then out to Ohaupo to go milking at Jason and Heidi's place.

The kids all had a good at putting cups on the cows

and drinking raw milk.

We then had dinner at Kaye Kayes with all the Nonoas

and that's a tonne of people.

She put on roast mutton and pork,

salads and roast veges

but most importantly she put on

FRY BREAD!

Manna from heaven that stuff.

Love it.

Erica came by and did a wee speel about agriculture in NZ

and the kids fell asleep

This is before the kids fell asleep from jet lag.

That's wonderful Kaye Kaye with the blonde hair

behind the wee girl whose name slips my mind in pink

but I'm going Taytay.

And that's the decimated dinner table.

The next morning I picked everyone up

and we headed out to CRV Ambreed,

one of my favourite NZYF sponsors

(yes it's a plug - if you need bull semen, they are your men... um people)

Where we watched bulls donate.



Cause you can't start a tour of NZ agriculture

without a front row seat

where it all begins.

The glass window was for biosecurity

not for anyother reason....

Andy was giving us a commentary

and what he told us

basically applies to human males too.

They use young bulls to create a bit of testosterone filled competition

but they still collect from the young bulls

but the collection from the young bulls is minimal and too fast

so the old bulls are so much better.

They take a little longer but they are more reliable

and give a bigger donation.

Good to know eh?

Afterwards we went north to the Te Rapa Fonterra plant

for a tour with Loana who was just great

and gave us milk bottle lollies.

Did you know you can go for tours?

yup just give Loana a call and it's all good.

No photos though,

which I think had more to with not getting run over than anything else.

There are usually lots of trucks driving around,

not so much when we were there

cause the plant was closed cause all the cows are dry

so no incoming milk.

During lunchtime I remembered a

Country Calendar programme on

Kaiwhenua Organic gardens in Whale Bay, Rags.

I love google.

It will help you find anyone and anything

so I found Kaiwhenua's phone number,

gave them a call and we headed out to Rags

stopping to watch the surfers at Manu Bay

(best left hand break)

and up and around the corner

and we found Kaiwaka on his wee tractor turning mud.

Uncle Kaiwaka was generous with his advice and experience

talking to Mama Chioke, Reggie and Kainoa

who were all really keen to listen to the philosophy

and wisdom of growing biodynamic vegetables

with a good dose of Maori traditional practices.

Kaiwakas tupuna (ancestors) watch over each garden

making sure they are bountiful.

Which they are.

Kaiwhenua supply salad greens to Raglan restaurants

so go eat their yummy salads with fresh flowers and leaves

for your kai.

Ah Rags in the summer is bliss,

note to self: must go there this summer and bask for a bit.

We finished the day eating fish and chips

with Watties tomato sauce and L&P

in the dark in the van,

just like real Kiwis.

Its a rant

At Grand Final two weeks ago

we had Brian Lochore speaking

at one of our dinners.

We have three gala dinners,

that's a lot of little black dresses....

Yesterday my coordinator cheerfully repeated a story

where he was on the welcome desk where people

collect their namebadges on their way into the dinner.

Sir Brian arrived and humbly said his name,

as NZ heroes would never assume anyone would know who they were,

which was good because coordinator boy

doesn't know who Sir Brian Lochore is.

He seemed to think that not knowing

an iconic kiwi hero and our guest speaker

was amusing.

This morning when I asked what was the story with

not knowing who Brian Lochore is

he shrugged and said he wasn't interested in rugby.

I tried to explain that it wasn't so much that

he didn't know who Brian Lochore is,

nor is it how interested you are in sports

cause I'm sure as hell not interested,

it's that Sir Brian is such a cultural icon that is like not knowing

what the All Blacks do

or saying Sir Peter Blake was just a sailor.

He just didn't seem to understand that knowing

a little bit of your cultural history actually makes you well rounded,

that not knowing what is common knowledge kind of stunts your mental growth,

hinders you fitting in with your equals

actually puts you on the back foot

because the baseline of common cultural understanding

is what creates a bond between strangers from the same land.

I asked him who he considered to be a kiwi icon

and came back with Norm Kirk

which surprised me as that is rather obscure.

When I asked why

the response was that he had learnt a little about him at school,

Norm Kirk shared my coordinators hometown

and he kind of knew his grandkids.

He didn't actually know why Norm Kirk

might be iconic....

he isn't particularly by the way....

I just can't believe this ignorance.

I explained that it wasn't acceptable to not know

general cultural history,

you don't have to know historical details

just who people are so you can relate to others from your own general culture.

But it's also that not being interested isn't acceptable,

especially when your career requires you to know who people are

as you are likely to be in contact with them one way or another.

I am just astonished that there are people out there who don't know who they themselves are.

its freezing

and I'm blogging with frozen fingers.

and I am still in bed.

But it's Sunday and the sky is pale blue,

the sun is coming up over my garage

(now that's how it should be all romantic and picturesque),

My bedrooms windows are foggy from the cold and

my warm breath all night.

I lie here thinking how wonderful it will be when I get double glazing.

Oh how I long for double glazing!

I also long for clear days like this but it's summer.

And fry bread for breakfast would be good.

Fry bread for breakfast in bed would be better.

Fry bread for breakfast in bed with the maker joining me.......

to eat the fry bread!

Cause you can only make huge batches of fry bread

so it takes at least two to eat them all.

I love fry bread,

frozen fingers or not.

Back to the post Sara!

Yesterday was bliss

as I lay in bed and watched the reflection of dawn

grow stronger and stronger on my bedroom wall.

The glow of the warm rays of the sun

lit my room with gold then yellow then white light.

Made me go ahhhh

and snuggle for a bit longer.

Ahhhhh sometimes I really like winter and it's late dawns.

took a wander

through Christchurch yesterday

because I realised I was

being a bit of a sook

avoiding going into town

after I took the Hawaiian kids

around to take a look.

Becky and I had a chat about viewing

natural disasters.

I feel like a voyeur*

Becky, however reckons she would be taking a look

at the heart of things as soon as.

She lives on the Big Island in Hawaii

so chances are that she gets a front row seat for a tsunami

is likely.

Bet she doesn't go down to the heart of the disaster immediately.

We were on a schedule

so there was not stopping

but if we did this would have been the first stop.

The Catholic Basilica on Barbados Street.

Well except that Barbados Street is a one way street

and we were going in the opposite direction on Moorhouse.

Unlike old guy was driving in the wrong direction

on Barbados St today!

Hair raising!

Makes you want to cry really.

The building not the old guy driving.



This window makes me frown sadly.

I'm not Catholic but have had some very peaceful and

pleasant experiences when visiting with friends who are

and since it's me of course those friends are about as extreme Catholics as you can get.

Terri is a Carmalite nun,

the ones who take a vow of silence and

stay locked away from the world.

She is pretty chatty for a silent nun.

Just joking,

 it's not a 24/7 vow,

it's a away from the world vow

and lots of silent prayer and contemplation vow.

I always thought that would quite a good life

cause Terri certainly knew what the All Blacks were up to

and they were in her prayers often.

Anyway my point...

visiting her was always in rooms that this room would have been like.

Silent but humming with peace,

sparsely furnished but comfortable,

stark but decorated beautifully.

Now it isn't.

I'm not sure if retaining walls are getting creative or not

but I'm liking the usage of the hay bales

to soften any damage from the next round of earthquakes

cause you know they are coming**.

Sorry that's a wee bit blurry

but I got a new camera

since someone who shall remain nameless

took off with my batteries and didn't return them

before he went back to Hawaii.

Actually that's not the reason at all.

I've looking for ages.

So all this damage happened on Feb 22.

Yes four months ago

and they (may be CERA) have only

got around to pulling down/fixing up buildings.

To be fair there are 900 commercial buildings

that have to come down

Already there are huge gaps all over town.

Ah Christchurch, what is to become of you?



* I mean voyeur in a lazy English way not in it's true meaning!

** Have decided to embrace earthquakes using the theory of Murphy's Law.  You should see my emergency kit, very organised.

Hawaiians Part Toru

To complete the group,

are the chaperones.

You didn't think that 9 high school kids

would be allow to traipse across the Pacific

by themselves now did you?

Ok I know New Zealanders would kick them out of the nest

and send them away by themselves.

For instance Pippapotamus was sent to stay with me

all the way to California via Honolulu

by herself when she was 13

but hey clearly we breed 'em tough

in the land of the long white cloud.

Anyway the adults of the Hawaiian crew

were

Aunty Vaaiga!

She is the mama to them all.

Not literally just emotionally and spiritually.

Vaaiga did so well to survive being outside in the cold for days on end.

She asked heaps of questions,

was kind and caring... even to me.

(I was the bossy tour leader who kept to a schedule)

I love this photo of Mama Chioke!

Chioke is a garden nut,

she loves vegetables

which is good since she is a vegetarian.

I really enjoyed our conversations about race and history,

where she came from and her sense of place.

Her gentle ways were such a pleasant clash with the cracking pace we required.

Becky and the lamb!

(nod to Puku and the Lamb: 2010 Methven Escapee Champs)

Becky was the one who got us into this whole big adventure.

If she hadn't randomly emailed me,

and I wasn't crazy,

 this little tour of NZ would never have happened.

Becky loves, loves, LOVES sheep.

Seriously loves sheep.

Good thing we have so many of them.

She also loves youth development,

that's what 4H is all about, that and sheep

(sometimes other animals too).

Becky was fun to hang out with.

As the tour progressed, she rode shootgun

 as we got into it, as we got near the end,

you know that time when everyone is overtired,

Becky was really good with the kids.

I say this cause I was ready to slap some of them*

but Becky held it all together.

We are mates for life,

like Fonterra is Dairy for Life

only there are no tankers.

ALOHA!

* Not really, but potentially.

Hawaiian kids part deux

Kainoa, Wyllis, Reggie and Keoni

in Taihape,

the gumboot capital of the world.

So proud.

Reggie, Kalapana, Kainoa, Beautifull, Vanee, Maria

and Wyllis, in the front.

Ok I give up.

I don't have a photo of all the boys together,

which doesn't surprise me at all

cause they were like Brown's cows to get anywhere.

Got to the point where I started to hang on to them

when it was time to go back the van.

Reggie - full of wonder.  His enthusiasm for his own culture

lead him to want to know much about Maori culture.

Good thing there was a no tattoo rule on tour.

Kainoa - aka deer killer. His billet took him hunting and he shot his first hind.

Way better than coming to Grand Final evening show I'm sure,

except for a hoof to the head.

Kalapana - sweet Kalapana, sweet, distracted Kalapana,

sweet, distracted, ADHD in an island styles way Kalapana.

The highlights with Kalapana?

Leaning on him to get him to stop long enough to listen.

Him lying on State Hwy 1 in the middle of the night.

Hmmmm....

Keoni - smart, interested, had plenty to say all backed up with research.

Keoni took the time before he came to our shores to see what we had to offer.

And he follows instructions well,

wearing a tie and jacket to the Grand Final evening show.

Bless him, not so alert on day 6 of our tour.

Wyllis - deep, introspective, thoughtful, ambitious, charming.

He reckons he is quiet but I reckon otherwise.

So these are the crew I put through their paces

with a sprint tour of NZ agriculture.

I'll introduce the adults soon

and then take you through the highlights

of our time together

tripping across the land of the long white cloud.

out of the mouths of babes

The last two days have provided me

much merriment from what kids have been saying.

Overheard at work today...

when Kim's boys arrived from school

to be taken home.

Kim's eight year old son

said to her he needed to stay

until the end of the school social tonight,

which is 10pm

(on a school night!),

because if she picked him up early his girlfriend

would be alone and this other boy would flirt with her,

cause he does it now!

True story.

Last night I went to birthday dinner

for Lavina.

Very nice it was too.

Leah was telling us about taking her

nieces and nephews

to the (now gone) aquarium in Cathedral Square.

There were magnificent displays of

tropical and exotic fish

(not sure if they are the same or not).

While Leah was enthralled by the huge tanks

filled with brightly coloured fish,

her nieces and nephews were acquainting themselves

with the feel good tank

where the kids could reach in and

touch the shellfish and crays.

Leah felt a tap on her shoulder

from the horrified attendant

to turn around and see the 

kids hoeing into the kina,

cracking open the paua,

prising open the oysters

and gobbling them up.

Her little nephew had his hand wedged under a rock

as he tried to get a hold of the crayfish.

When Auntie Leah glowered at them,

hauled them off the tank,

snatched the remaining kai moana from little hands,

and wiped the seafood drool from tiny chins,

the kids looked at her innocently

as she told them off for touching the feel good tank,

when the littlest one said...

"But it feels good in my tummy Auntie!"

True story.