Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

My job has been extremely hectic this week … it’s one of those weeks where you are so busy that you get to the end of the week and realise that you are absolutely exhausted but you haven’t actually noticed how bad you were during the week because you couldn’t stop for long enough to think about it! One of the BAs on my programme likened it to being a rabbit in shooting season she was so exhausted. Saying that it’s not been a bad week .. We’ve achieved a lot as a team this week and considering how new we all are to the new process that we’re trying to implement, I think we’re doing really well.

There are only three more weeks until we’re off on holiday and I managed to get all the hotels booked okay. There was one change to the plan from last week … we’re not going to Cable Bay anymore, we’re going to Mangonui. The bach in Cable Bay fell through.

After last weekends fiasco with the carpet fitters, we did finally get the carpet finished on Sunday and we’ve now moved upstairs. Still got some furniture and our clothes to move up but we’re partly moved.

This weekend we have a birthday party to attend in Torbay. It’s for one of the children in nursery so we’ll have to go shopping for presents on Saturday.

Talking of presents … have now sent all the cards and presents to the UK for Christmas (I’ve never been this organised in my life before .. It’s weird having to send all your Christmas parcels a month before Christmas). We now have to start shopping for Kyle and Regan. Kyle saw the Mega Mack truck (from Cars the Movie) on the TV and he’s adamant he wants Santa to bring him that for Christmas. Don’t know whether it’s the remoteness or not, but NZ doesn’t get a big selection of things like toys so although they did get some of the new Mack toys, they only get a limited amount of them and then they are gone. Couldn’t find a Mack anywhere so decided to try and get it shipped from amazon.co.uk. They don’t send to NZ! Eventually found one on eBay.com.au and it’s being sent from the US! Hopefully it arrives on time for Christmas.

We’ll have to think of what to buy Regan as we brought all of Kyle’s old V-Tech toys with us as they were really good and still in excellent condition. Between them and the toys we’ve bought her since she got here, she doesn’t really need anything. Will have to give it some more thought.

Nursery actually told me tonight that Regan is getting quite a strong personality … don’t know where she could get that from!!

On Tuesday we went for our visit to the headmaster of our local primary school. We spent around half an hour chatting with the headmaster and he told us all about his school. I must say primary school has changed a lot since I was a child … they do lots of project type stuff now and the pupils get to choose what they want to do the project around. One of the most recent topics they have looked at is the environment and what they can do as a school to help. The children found out all about the subject and decided what they would put in place. The school now has a rule that no rubbish is to be left within the school grounds and if any wrappers etc come into school within the kid’s lunchboxes, then they have to leave the same way. They have done so much that they have been named an Enviroschool.

After we’d finished talking to the headmaster, he got a couple of the older children (both ex-Brits who’ve been in the school for the last 4 years) to show us around the school. They chatted to us about the school and what they do as they took us around some of the class rooms and the grounds. I was very impressed with both of them … they were so enthusiastic about the school and were so confident that it has to be a plus point for the school and the way they teach the children.

Kyle was a bit shy around all the bigger kids and hung on to my skirt the whole time … it was kind of weird to see him like that as he’s normally so confident with adults and children alike. He says he liked the school though and still wants to go.

Overall, we were quite impressed with the school and the kids that showed us around so I think we’ll send him there rather than trying to find another school around the area. One of the things that worried us about staying in Winchburgh was the fact that we didn’t want Kyle to go to the local primary which meant he still wouldn’t have known any other children in the area. This way he should meet the children that live nearby … which hopefully will make up for the fact that he’s not going to the same school as Caylen.

Talking of Caylen, Kyle went for another play day at Caylen’s today … Actually it was just as well as he wouldn’t have got outside this morning otherwise. The carpet fitter was due back this morning since he didn’t finish fitting the carpet on Wednesday. When he still hadn’t turned up or phoned by 10am, we called the shop where we bought the carpet and they gave us the number for the installation department … who were not in the least interested! After a whole morning of trying to get someone to do something, I got really fed up and went into the shop. By this time I was not amused and have to admit to getting a bit stroppy in the shop when they said that there was nothing they could do!!! Told them I wasn’t leaving the shop until they did something or gave me the manager’s phone number … they called the manager and gave me the phone … not a good call. I was staying fairly calm with him right up till the point that he said that I had to understand that the installation manager was a busy person (and this was why he hadn’t bothered to call us back when he said he would). I told him very politely (yeah right) that I too was a very busy person and I’d had to rearrange my Saturday to wait for them to finish fitting a carpet that should have been finished on Wednesday. He told me he’d get in touch with the installation manager and would call me back. Hadn’t been home long when they called to say that a fitter would be out tomorrow to finish the job. Means we have to waste another day in the house tomorrow but at least we’ll finally be able to move upstairs.

Was told at work this week that they would like to almost close the office over Christmas and New Year (they can’t completely close it as there is a call centre on one floor). They suggested that everyone finish up on the 21^st December and not come back until the 14^th January! Given the fact that you can’t take holidays until you’ve earned them, I don’t have enough holidays for that and since I want to take a day off to go to Taupo plus a few days off when Lynne is here, I definitely don’t have enough days. I agreed with my Prog Mgr that I’d stay off till the 8^th (was going to take Regan’s birthday off anyway) and he was okay with that. Means we have two weeks holiday which we weren’t expecting though so decided to look at going away. Tried to hire a campervan for the whole two weeks but there are no campervans available at all over that period (and trust me I tried them all!) so have managed to book some motels around Northland for a week between the 26^th December and the 3^rd January. We decided that we didn’t fancy staying in a motel on Christmas Day so we’ll have Christmas in our new house and then go away.

We’re going to the following places:

Paihia in the Bay of Islands

Cable Bay at Doubtless Bay

Awanui near 90 mile beach

Baylys Beach near Dargaville

Spoke to Lynne last week about where she fancies going while she’s here and we’ve agreed to go for a couple of long weekends to Rotorua and the Bay of Islands, so will try to book a bach (holiday cottage) or something at each sometime soon.

I can’t believe I’m going to admit this but I’ve been guilty of watching the odd minute (and yes, it was a minute or two … couldn’t watch anymore in one go!) of the World Netball Championships over the last week or so. The championships were held in Auckland and due to the early departure of the All Blacks from the Rugby World Cup, NZ have been paying quite a bit of attention to the netball. The final was yesterday and although it was quite close in the end, the Aussies won the title. For those Scots who are reading this, that’s a bit like the English winning against Scotland!!

Became full time on my programme this week so spent most of the week at our main vendor’s offices discussing process! (For those of you from CVG … you’ll know which vendor I mean) Anyway, now have the task of trying to document it and get it through governance …

It was a lovely day yesterday so we went north up to Warkworth and walked along the river. Apart from the usual cry of “my legs are all tired out!”, it was lovely … The park was full of really unusual flowers of such vivid colours that I had to take some photos … Came home via the shops and had a BBQ on the balcony in the last of the sunshine. Now that’s why we came here!

Regan got sent home from nursery again on Thursday with the three counts and you’re out rule so I had to work from home on Friday. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her! I remember having a similar conversation with CareShare when Kyle was a similar age … as a number of factors determine that particular bodily function … teething being one of them. Think I’m going to have the same conversation on Monday!

Headmaster visit on Tuesday, carpet is being fitted on Wednesday and hopefully we’ll be upstairs by next weekend.

Illness strikes again … Regan got sent home from nursery last Thursday with a stomach bug which we all (except Kyle) managed to catch by Friday. Bobby and I were feeling so bad that there was no way we could run Kyle to pre-school so he had to stay at home with three ill people … poor him! Bug only lasted a couple of days so we were pretty much okay by Saturday.

Just as well really as one of Bobby’s ex-colleagues from the RBS visited us on Saturday afternoon. He is over in NZ on holiday so popped in for a visit between Paihia and Waitomo (where the glow worm caves are). It was good to see him and it meant that Bobby caught up on all the RBS gossip!

Managed to do my final handover at work so I am now full time on my new role! Have managed to cut down my meeting “issue” so that now I can at least have lunch and a coffee in the morning (or at least most mornings).

Decided last week that it was about time that we started looking into which school Kyle will join in May … found the website with the school zones so contacted the nearest one to find out what the process is. We now have a headmaster visit planned for next Tuesday where we not only talk to the headmaster but also get shown around the school by a couple of the pupils. Kyle is looking forward to it … but I’m not sure that he quite understands yet that Caylen and him won’t be going to the same school.

Regan’s walking around the furniture is getting a lot quicker and more steady. Bobby stands her up and lets go and she will stand there for ages with no support until she realises then she falls over. Once you’ve done that once, she remembers and falls over right away after that.

Bonfire night at Caylen’s was good fun. The blokes were all trying to light the bonfire when we arrived … there were a couple of attempts (with petrol included) and finally the petrol firebomb did the trick and it lit. The kids all roasted marshmellows on the fire while we waited for it to get dark. Kyle and Caylen were having fun running around in a paddock full of sheep poo (you should smell my car now … yuck!). Regan was just fascinated and kept watching everything that was going on …. especially the furry white things cowering in the corner of the paddock (sheep obviously).

Finally darkness arrived and the fireworks started. Caylen got a bit scared and went inside …. his dad talked him around by putting some ear protectors on him … obviously as soon as Kyle saw that, he was suddenly afraid of the noise too. Caylen’s dad (Aaron) disappeared in the house and came out with another pair and we were all fine again. The pair of them sat and watched the fireworks with their ear protectors on, shouting at each other because they couldn’t hear! Both kids were extremely tired by the time we left and both were asleep before we got to the bottom of the road! Getting them up the next day was hard …

Other than that life trundles on … work is getting busier and busier as I’m still doing two jobs (final handover on Friday thank goodness). My days, at the moment, are one big meeting … I had half an hour free today in which I caught up with email and managed a small bite of lunch! Didn’t even manage a coffee …. and that’s not good!

I’ve been getting alot of comment spam recently on the blog so have decided to close all comments apart from the last few posts, so if you want to send me a comment (please do, I like it when I get comments!) then you’ll have to do so within the last few comments.

A couple of months ago, it was National Cancer Day in New Zealand and there were people out selling pin on daffodils. I obviously bought one and wore it all day that day. When we came home at night, Kyle asked me why I was wearing a daffodil so I explained that I was wearing it to remember his Gran because I missed her. He gave me a thoughtful look and wandered off.

This morning, he found the daffodil again and asked if he could put it on. He wandered around with it on for a couple of hours and then asked for it to be taken off. Bobby asked why he’d been wearing it and he said “Because I wanted to remember Gran for a little while”.

Heat pumps are now in and they are great .. Instant heat in every room! Of course now that we’ve got them, the weather has taken a turn for the better and it’s been lovely all week. Blue skies, sunny … the works! Heat pumps have hardly been on. Still if it gets any warmer then we can just turn the air conditioner on instead.

The guys who installed them were brilliant. They turned up on time, worked really hard, were friendly and even cleaned up after themselves. Nothing like the service I’ve experienced in the UK. Turns out the founder of the company (who’s dead now) was a Scot!

Did my first working from home during the heat pump installation and it didn’t go well. Couldn’t get my remote access to work so spent most of the morning on the phone to the helpdesk who were not very useful. Need to get it fixed for next time.

Went in to order the carpet so that we could get on with the next task and they don’t have any left .. Had a look about but they were all a bit more expensive so have gone back to the drawing board. Saw one today that fits with what we want so going back to order tomorrow with fitting some time around the 19th.

Kyle and Regan have been outside a lot this week with the weather being nicer and have ended up covered in sand fly bites (very like the Scottish midgie). I’ve been told that we’ll get all lumpy and itchy this year from them and then will start to become less irritated by them as time goes on. Kyle will be glad of that as he’s getting very annoyed with all the itching!

Don’t know how … but on the way to the chiropractor the other day, I managed to chip my tooth! Hadn’t got around to joining a dentist yet so had to find one quickly. Luckily there is one at the bottom of our road who had just had a cancellation so went there. I think all dentists are private over here as you can cover costs with the private medical care … anyway, this one is definitely private. She had a bit of time so did a full check up while she was at it and found that some of my old dental work is getting to the stage of needing replaced. To be honest, I was in the process of getting all my silver fillings changed to white ones before we came out here so the fact that she wants to do some more is fine. However, she also took an X-ray of a tooth which has a crown on it and said that the root treatment needs redone as it’s a bit dodgy! Thank you NHS dentist. Down here, I need to get referred to a specialist who has specialist type charges and she tells me that it’s going to be expensive! Oh Oh!

Chiropractor is going well btw. He said that it’s really working and I’m almost back to normal (backwise anyway!).

Halloween night, to stop Kyle asking to go trick or treating, we told him he could go dooking for apples. Bobby filled up a tub with water, threw in some apples and he and Kyle went out on the balcony to dook. Kyle (as expected) didn‘t want to put his head in the water so Bobby had to show him how … pictures on Flickr. He eventually got in the swing of things but was a bit upset when Bobby then decided to empty the tub of water over their heads!

Bonfire night, we’ve been invited to Caylen’s for fireworks and toasted marshmellows (Kyle’s word which is much cuter than the real word). Kyle has been watching the fireworks up and down the valley tonight and is really looking forward to going to Caylen’s.

Got some really sad news this morning … Bobby’s Gran died. She had been getting more and more unwell recently and I guess her body had just had enough. She’s at peace now and is no longer suffering. Bobby is obviously very sad but also feeling a bit lost as he is so far away and will not be able to go to the funeral. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind though as she understood why we were making this move and she knows that we’re thinking of her.