Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

Considering the lack of preparation for Christmas and the holidays, it all went well and we really enjoyed being away. Unfortunately, now back at work (day 3 just ended) and normality returns.

Christmas itself was really good … the kids had loads of presents and had fun both opening and playing with them afterwards. Kyle had asked for a computer as he uses it quite alot at after school club so Santa obliged … along with a microscope and some meccano etc. Regan’s dolls house had an extension (it’s now got three floors!), she got a kitchen as she loves that whole role playing thing and lots of other stuff. Christmas Day weather was blue skies and warm so it was lovely just hanging around the house/deck all day.

Next day, we headed off to Blue Lake with the tent. There’s nothing else habitable (other than the campsite/tents/cabins) around the lake so it’s a lovely setting. The lake itself is as you would imagine a beautiful colour of blue and it’s surrounded by typical kiwi forest …. which I love. Kiwi forests have such a mix of tree types that it’s a big adventure just walking through and seeing what’s there! I have discovered since coming here that my favourite tree is the ponga which is also called the New Zealand fern tree …. If you’ve looked through our photos you’ll see loads of pongas as I just love taking photos of them especially in a light/shade area.

Anyway, got the tent up in record time (which was just as well as we arrived late due to not being very organised and it was getting dark!) and made it home … I will admit now that we ended up bailing out of the tent near the end of the holiday though and moved into a motel for the last few days. The campsite got extremely busy and some of our neighbours just got too much for us! Motel was in Rotorua though so didn’t change anything we’d planned.

When we’ve been to Rotorua in the past it’s always either been raining or just plain freezing (in NZ terms not Scottish!) so we’ve never managed to do so many of the touristy things that we wanted to do. So to name a few of the things we got up to:

- went to a wildlife park and watched them feeding the lions. The lions were a matter of cms from us which for Bobby and I was quite amazing as we’d never seen them so close up before. Not sure Kyle and Regan quite had the same feeling but they did enjoy it.

- went to a geothermal park that we’ve never been to before … have put some photos on Flickr ….

- went on the Rotorua duck which is an amphibious vehicle … they do a tour of Rotorua explaining the history of the town and the Maori legends of the area then take you on to two of the lakes … one of which was Blue Lake. My friend Leanne and her son Millan had joined us at this point so we all went on that one.

- went on the Gondola (cable car) and then back down on the Luge. Kyle’s first trip he did on his own but he didn’t like it much so subsequent trips were with dad. Regan came with me and absolutely loved it! She sat on my knee shouting “Whee” at the top of her voice and as soon as we’d got to the bottom, she started asking to go again! To get to the top of the hill again you have to go on a chair lift (much like the ski ones … I’ve seen them on the TV …. wouldn’t know from personal experience since I dislike snow so much!) and she had no fear of that either.

- went to visit a village that had been buried by a volcanic eruption … nowhere near the scale of Pompeii but still very interesting. Also had a lovely bush walk to a waterfall so took more ponga photos! :o)

Took the mountain bikes with us as well so did some local trails. Santa brought me a compact camera so that I can take pictures when we’re out on the bikes etc so have some good photos taken during our biking adventures.

As I said above, now back at work however Auckland Anniversary weekend coming up at the end of the month so we’re off for a long weekend to Raglan with a Waitomo Glow Worm Cave visit planned (it’s just up the road from Raglan).

My personal trainer is off on holiday till the end of the month so no p/t sessions for a whole month! She’s left me strict instructions on what to do though so that will start up again next week. Have also decided to start running …. first outing last night. Have to say that running is my least favourite form of exercise so didn’t enjoy it at all! Doesn’t help that Browns Bay is very hilly … and for Lynne’s benefit … I turn left at the bottom of our street UP the hill! Will keep trying though ….

Big reorg going on at work so no idea what that means for the future … will keep you posted!

Think that’s it for now … will try to blog again soon!

Are we prepared? Not really … Christmas presents for the UK are all done, the kids presents are nearly done and the Christmas tree is up… Prepared for the holiday …. not at all! :o( Will need to start thinking about that this weekend. Can’t wait to go on holiday though … been a long year and the shortage of holidays down here doesn’t help. My friend and her 3 year old son are going to try and join us for a couple of days while we’re there …. Millan (her son) is 5 days younger than Regan and they’ve met a few times so it will give her company other than her big brother.

So what’s been happening since the last time I blogged (which was A LONG TIME AGO … sorry!)?

Work, work and more work …. :o( Been extremely busy and have deployed a couple of major projects. Bobby’s job is just as busy so we’ve been working hard.

Weather was a bit naff for a while so we’ve only just started cycling again … we managed to do a 30km run last weekend which is a long way if you’re 6! He did really well and didn’t even seem that tired at the end. We’re taking the bikes with us on holiday as there are supposed to be alot of good cycle tracks down that way.

Bobby went real mountain biking a couple of times with the guys from his work … hasn’t been for a couple of weeks as he fell off and badly bruised himself.

Other exercise stuff … Kyle has taken up football after school … he’s getting better but it’s weird as they’re just not into football down here so doesn’t play at school or see people playing at the park etc. They even call it soccer! I give in on some of their changes in words … but I refuse to call football soccer …. Call me picky!

The gym is still going well … although I’m not managing to go as often as I want to due to work. Still managing my 2 sessions a week with the personal trainer and now that it’s summer, we tend to do our workouts in the park which is great! Tuesdays in the park are running and boxing and Thursdays are suspension training which basically involves me doing exercises hanging from a rope! Need to try and keep it up over Christmas as my trainer is off on holiday from next week until the end of January. She’s given me a programme for when I’m back at the gym but I need to do something while we’re camping. Might try running … have never really enjoyed it before but since I have to do it during boxing sessions, it might be an idea to get better at it?!

Back in October/November, we had a visit from George and Sandra which was great … we see people from Scotland so infrequently that it’s a big thing when someone comes to visit! The weekend they arrived was Labour Day weekend so we all headed up to Russell for the weekend. We spent some time in Russell, went across to Paihia and also visited Waitangi. It was a good weekend and they headed off to do their whirlwind tour of NZ! Their first visit was to Coromandel so we told Kyle that they were going to visit Narnia (Cathedral Cove). The day they visited was the day that the arch fell down …. so Kyle was not impressed that George and Sandra broke Narnia!!! :o)

After their tour, they came back to Auckland for a few days … one night we headed over to Murawai Beach and had pizza on the beach. There’s some photos on Flickr …. The kids (George and Sandra included!) spent a long time drawing pictures on the sand ….

Happy birthday Elizabeth and thinking of you mum …

We’ve had a few weeks of illness … first Bobby and swine flu, then Kyle and then Regan had a re-occurring ear infection. Has made for an exhausting time recently. All good now though …

School holidays are nearly over … Kyle goes back on Monday after two weeks off. We went back to Thames in Coromandel for a long weekend which was great … even taking into account the horrible weather. After the last couple of months, it was good to get away from everything and just chill. We realised (again) that we don’t want to live in Auckland forever and still need to think about what we want to do workwise. It’s been good as I’ve been thinking hard about the future and have a few options in mind that I’m looking in to (longer term ..).

Talking of weather, it’s been very changeable. A couple of weeks ago, it was lovely and everyone was walking about in t-shirts and the more adventurous even went as far as shorts! Last weekend, as I said earlier, was horrible up here but go as far south as Taupo (which isn’t that far south) and people were getting stranded in their cars due to snow!!!! Clearing up a bit now and it’s definitely got warmer …

We’ve also had a couple of tsunami alerts over the last couple of weeks … first one after the Somoan earthquake and again this week after the earthquake in Vanuatu. Bobby and I have never been in a tsunami alert before so it was all a bit weird. After the first one, we started to think more seriously about it all as we both work south of the bridge and if there was a tsunami then the likelihood is that we wouldn’t be able to get back over without hours of driving around the harbour. We have now got a kind of draft disaster plan! It’s weird what you have to think about down this end of the world.

It’s only a couple of weeks until George and Sandra arrive so looking forward to that. We’ve booked a bach for the long weekend when they arrive so it’ll be good to catch up …. Hope the weather picks up a bit for them though! :o)

Not been a good few weeks health wise. Turns out Bobby actually had swine flu … he’s better now but it was quite bad. The rest of us have either had something else or have been fighting swine flu and not got it that bad. So all in all, three weeks of illness throughout the family and lots of working from home. All back at work/school/nursery/gym now so we’re definitely all on the mend.

Although we’ve been having some storms, the weather is definitely getting warmer so won’t be long till spring is here! It’s generally around 14-15 degrees when I get in the car at 6am so it’s much warmer than it has been.

We decided since the weather is better that we had to get out and about at weekends again. Ruled out the tramping option (that’s walking to you non kiwis!) as not sure our ears could cope with the constant … “mum, my legs are hurting!”. Decided to go for something that would seem much more like fun so went out and bought some mountain bikes a couple of weeks ago. Kyle already had his new bike from Christmas so once we were all kitted up, we headed out somewhere flat to get Kyle used to the whole cycling thing.

On our first outing, I think we probably did about 8 or 9km and he LOVED it! I should point out incase you think we’re horrible parents that Regan obviously wasn’t cycling! We bought her a new bike seat and although she was rigid with fear (which is VERY unlike her) when we first put her in … by the end of it, she was pointing to the animals and giggling at mummy coming up beside her on a bike.

The following Sunday, we went back to the same place as we hadn’t done the full run and we knew it was do-able. I think the full run is around 14km and Kyle did most of it before he ran out of steam which is really good. Bobby ended up having to push him along a bit near the end but he still had alot of fun and wanted to do it again.

Last weekend, we decided to be more adventurous and found a nature reserve with a supposedly easy run for families. It was in South Auckland so was quite a trek before we even got there. You’ll guess from the “supposedly” used above that it actually wasn’t very easy …. the tracks were very big gravel and not easy to ride on at all. I had a couple of “moments” when I nearly fell off as it was really slippery so it’s not surprising that Kyle absolutely hated it! At one point, he was riding down a hill screaming his head off that he wanted to get off and go home … looking back it’s actually quite amusing but it wasn’t at the time! We cut that one short and came home … I just hope it hasn’t put him off too much.

Bobby is not feeling very well this weekend (flu) so maybe the break will help Kyle forget about his bad experience. We’ll probably go back to the place we went to the first couple of times to get his confidence back before we try anything adventurous again.

The cycling hasn’t had much of an impact on my ankle which is good. Must mean that it’s finally on the mend. The gym is still going well although still not doing as much as I was before the ankle issue.

Work has been really busy recently … it’s been one of those periods where I work my 8 hours and then start again once the kids are in bed. Shutting down the laptop at midnight when you get up at 5am is not very sustainable ….

I mentioned in the last blog entry that we’d been looking at summer holiday options .. so we’ve had confirmation back re the Blue Lake camping … so tent it is! Also booked a couple of weekends away … one during next school holidays where we’re going to the bach in Coromandel that we went to at Easter and the second in Russell when George and Sandra are over. Hopefully the weather will be even better by then.

Other than that … all is good down under. Kyle and Regan continue to grow and change. They are both coming on well at swimming … although Kyle finds the whole breathing thing a bit hard! :o) Regan’s speech is coming on in leaps and bounds … she chatters away constantly now .. usually at a very high volume! I do wonder whether it’s just my children that are this loud or whether it’s related to them having been in nursery since an early age and having to shout to be heard above the other children?! They really should have a volume control button built in on children .. ;o)

Gym is still going well although my ankle is still not fixed so having to take it a bit easier. I can do most of the weights and boxing, just have to take it a lot easier on the bike (and not allowed on any of the other cardio machines). Not sure how long hairline fractures normally take to heal but it’s starting to annoy me now so hopefully it heals soon.

Work is still the same … :o( ….

Last time I blogged was just before my birthday … we were all feeling better by the weekend so headed off to Rotorua as planned. Our usual hotel was fully booked that weekend so we ended up going to another one on the lakeside. Room was okay but come Saturday morning, we went to run the bath and the water was black! Now I get the whole thermal/mineral water thing in its place but not in the bath that we’re trying to get clean in!!!! It was disgusting! Bobby and I tried to have a bath in it but the kids refused! :o)

Saturday night we went out for dinner and both kids behaved perfectly … which is very unusual but great! We had a lovely meal.

Bobby bought me a new watch for my birthday … the one I bought in Carcassone a couple of years ago had finally given up a few months ago and I’d been looking unsuccessfully since then for one I liked. Found one in Rotorua that weekend …

Bobby and I had taken the Monday off so we went on a shopping trip sans kids … had some lunch … it was lovely. Don’t get to do that very often since the majority of our babysitters are at the other side of the world.

At the beginning of July, Bobby and I have been together for 20 years!!! OMG where has time gone … he came down to meet me in the CBD and we had a lovely lunch.

Got a phone call from my niece Pamela last weekend too … she got engaged while on holiday …. Congratulations Pamela and Chris! Wedding is next summer so I’ve started looking at the cost of flights etc …. ouch! It’s going to cost $12k to get back!!!!!!!

The $12k shock took it’s toll on our summer holiday dreaming and we’ve decided to get the tent out again this year but rather than travelling around we’re going to stay in one place as the packing and unpacking last year wasn’t good. Looking at staying at Blue Lake near Rotorua … that way we get the water thing but also close to loads of stuff to do with the kids. Because it’s normally winter when we’re down there we never end up doing all the parks, walks etc due to weather so hopefully we’ll get to do those things while we’re down that way at Christmas. We’ll stay in Auckland for Christmas and head down there afterwards … the Santa thing didn’t work too well last year.

For those of you who know me well, you’ll know that I have a mistrust of doctors and anything they tell me … so I tend not to go and see one unless I really have to!   I’ve only come across a few doctors in my time that I can actually say were any good (ie they listened and actually seemed to care about the patient) and the situation with my mum’s illness made these feelings even worse.

So anyway, back to why I’m telling you this …. my ankle still wasn’t feeling better after two weeks and Shellee was worried that I might have a hairline fracture … so I went to the docs to get a referral for an x-ray just to find out.   Had to fight with him to get him to refer me as he kept saying that there was nothing wrong with it …   Eventually he agreed just to shut me up ..   Got the x-ray and went back to see him .. he spent a couple of minutes looking at it and told me there was nothing there.   Fine!   That’s all I wanted to hear.

A couple of days later, I get a call from the health centre saying that the x-ray had now been checked by someone else (normal process) and actually there is a hairline fracture there!   So the mistrust deepens ….   :o(

Ankle is not too bad though … just aches a bit at night so long as I keep it strapped up.   Still going to the gym but just adjusting what I’m doing … not allowed to do any running, have to keep the level low on the cardio equipment and adjust the exercises we do during our weights sessions.

Apart from my ankle, we’ve had a houseful of flu type illness as well.   Reggie was off nursery for most of last week and Kyle has come down with something this weekend.   :o(   Bobby and I are both nursing colds but struggling through ….

Not much more to say at the moment as we’ve not been doing anything due to feeling yuck.   Hopefully, we’ll all be feeling better next weekend as we’ve got Rotorua booked for my birthday.

Last time I blogged, we were all suffering from the flu and I had done my back in.   We’re now all back to normal (almost) …. flus gone and my back is feeling better.   Since then though, I’ve managed to badly sprain my ankle!   Who says that exercise is good for you?   It was one of those truly weird scenes that makes me glad that no-one had a camera!   :o)   There I was, doing a cardio/boxing circuit in the underground carpark next to the gym when the ground came up and grabbed me … and over I went.   Shellee (my personal trainer) then has me lying on the floor of the carpark (which is used .. so cars coming and going around me) with my foot up on a box and an ice pack on it.   Then she says … “do you want to do something while you’re down there?”.   So next thing, in the same position, she’s got me crunching up, boxing at the top then back down.   Must have been quite a picture!!   Have been going to the gym since but taking it a bit easier till my ankle gets fully better … it’s still swelling up during the day and a bit achy at night.

Work is much the same as normal …. there is a big fight between VF and Telecom just now which is getting very boring!   Both sides get very passionate about “their side” … Bobby and I just sit in the middle getting very annoyed with it all.

It was Kyle’s 6th birthday at the end of May.   On the Sunday before his birthday, we took him and four of his friends to the movies to see the second “Night at the Museum”.   To say it was like herding cats would be a bit of an understatement.   We ended up with a wanderer … youch!   I kept losing him!!   Movie was okay and they seemed to enjoy it.   Then came back to ours for play and food.   Tried to make it a bit healthy so got real chicken nuggets (rather than those disgusting things you buy in cafes) and only our two would eat them!   Oh well…. good try!

Next day was his birthday and as expected, it was weird not spending the day with him.   We left the present opening and stuff till night-time and by the time he’d finished that he’d decided he didn’t want to go out as planned …. he wanted to play with his new toys/model railway so we got pizza and then had cake.

On the Tuesday was the school MOTAT trip.   Arrived early at school and got told my six children … most of whom I knew which was good.   A double decker arrived to take us to the museum, which they all thought was great as it’s not a common thing down here.   Spent the day walking around the transport museum but I didn’t see very much as I was constantly checking I still had six!   And if I thought the wanderer at the movies had been bad then I was completely wrong as I’ve now discovered there is such a thing as a sneaky wanderer!   This little guy would keep an eye on me out of the corner of his eye and as soon as I looked the other way … he’d be off!   This happened a couple of times before I realised what he was up to!   Once I had worked him out … it was fine, but made it difficult to keep an eye on the others.   End result??   Six out, six in … so I have to take that as a success!   :o)

Have decided that Kyle is going to be a schmooze … he came in the other day, looked me up and down (had a new skirt on as my old clothes don’t fit anymore … yeah!) and he says “you look lovely today mum”.   Awww!   He’s such a sweetie!

On Queens birthday weekend, we went to Sandy Bay on the Tutukaka Coast (north of Whangerei).   I think we’ve now found “that place” that if we could afford a bach … that’s where it would be!   Gorgeous.   The bach we were staying in could have been lovely but it wasn’t very clean and the fireplace smoked out constantly so the air was always a bit dusty/smoky.   They are actually trying to sell the house but are not really presenting it very well so I’m not surprised it’s not sold yet.   Maybe we should offer our services as the house doctors …. seemed to work well when selling our own houses.   The weekend was good though … didn’t do too much as I could only hobble at that point due to my ankle.

This weekend, we booked a hotel room in Rotorua for my birthday … will go down Friday night, back Sunday night.   I have always been used to being on summer holidays for my birthday, so this winter thing is not working for me.   It was nice being away for my significant birthday last year so we thought we’d go away again this year.

Then have to find somewhere during the July school holidays so that we can take Kyle to the snow as he’s desperate to see the snow again … strange boy!   Certainly doesn’t take that one from me!   Talking of cold …. went out the other morning and the car down the street was covered in frost!!!!!   Thankfully ours are protected in the carport so I didn’t have to go out and scrape the car ….. that would have made for a very grumpy Gail!   It’s been really clear all week and a southerly is coming in from Antartica so it’s been really cold ….   :o(

Reggie is really chattering away now and can have whole conversations with us.   Tonight, Bobby was sitting at the table with me and Kyle and she comes up behind him and starts to pull him out the chair … “get out mine chair dad, me eating!”   It was really funny … not sure whether it was Regan’s statement or Bobby’s face that was funniest though!

It was Mother’s Day last weekend so Kyle made sure that Bobby bought me some roses and cards.   It’s lovely when Kyle writes his own card … means so much more!   Reggie scrawled all over hers too …   :o)   Bobby gave them their cards the night before so that they could bring them to me in the morning … all went well with Kyle but Reggie had other thoughts.   Bobby asked her if she was going to give me my card .. she looked at me and said “no .. Regan’s card!”.   This went on all day so finally got my card when she went to bed!

We’ve all been a bit under the weather over the last couple of weeks … there’s a bad cold/flu thing going about which we’ve all managed to catch.   I also managed to damage my back which meant that I couldn’t go to the gym for a couple of weeks …   It’s not good ..  you get used to going and it’s a weird feeling when you can’t go!   Started going again mid week and had my first p/t session in two weeks on Thursday.   My back feels a bit tender but not too bad.

Talking of flu … there’s a few confirmed cases of swine flu around us.   The local college had a language course trip to Mexico over Easter and a few of them have been confirmed with the flu.   They’ve started putting masks up at the door of the doctors etc and selling the flu drug at the pharmacy …

We’ve booked another weekend away over Queen’s birthday weekend … going up north to the Tutukaka Coast which we’ve never been to before.   Renting a bach in the country so hopefully it’ll have the same impact as the Easter weekend and help to chill us all out a bit.

Neither of us are having much fun at work just now so some chill out time is much needed.   Can’t put my finger on what is wrong … I’m busy but not horrendously and my new Programme Manager is nice and is taking alot of the pressure off  so why I feel the way I do, I’m not sure …

Kyle’s birthday is coming up week after next … we’ve decided not to have a big party … they don’t tend to do that over here once they reach school so we’re going to the movies with a few of his friends on the Sunday (his birthday is the Monday).   Then we’ll come back to the house for some food and play.

It’ll be weird though as this will be the first year that I haven’t spent the day with him on his birthday … we’ve always taken a holiday in the past but he’ll be at school this year.   However, his class are going on a day trip to MOTAT (transport museum) on the 26th so I’ve volunteered to be  a parent helper that day to make up for it!   Not sure what I’ve let myself in for but Kyle is really happy that mum is going to help.   He’s been asking me for months to do parent helper during class time but it’s hard when you’ve got a full time job which is as busy as mine.   Hopefully, the MOTAT trip will make up for it …

Although Kyle loves it in New Zealand, he’s made it very clear that he misses the snow so we’re going to have to give in (that’s more of a me than a Bobby) this year and take him to the mountains during the ski season.   Not sure mum is going to enjoy it much as I really don’t miss the snow and the cold but he really won’t be happy if another year goes by with no snow …   Bobby and I will have been together 20 years in July (OMG …. where has time gone!?) so we’ll probably go down to the snow round about then for a weekend break.   Reggie has never seen snow so it’ll be funny watching her reaction to it!   :o)

Reggie has come on so much over the last couple of weeks … her speech is amazing now and she has conversations with us now rather than a couple of words.   She is still Elmo mad and can tell you who all the Sesame Street characters are …   Her Cookie Monster impression is great!!!

They are both still enjoying swimming … Reggie loves diving in and splashing.   Kyle moved up another class and is now learning to breathe as he swims.   His stroke is really good now and he swims without floatation so it’s now learning to breathe so that he can build up his distance.

Heard from my friend George back in Scotland a couple of weeks ago and he and his wife Sandra are heading out our way in October for a visit.   It’ll be great to see them and have some visitors again … just trying to sort out an itinerary for them.