Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

Winter and its usual illnesses have been keeping us a bit house bound over the last couple of weekends so I’m glad I made the point of booking something for this weekend to celebrate my significant birthday.   Drove down to Rotorua (or RotoVegas as I’ve now realised the locals call it) on Friday night … had booked a nice hotel suite on the lake front.   Woke up on Saturday morning to rain so decided just to get up at a leisurely pace, go out for brunch and then have a wander around the town … equipped with raincoats!

By the time we got back to the hotel mid afternoon, I was feeling a bit cold to say the least (I had also caught the kids cold and was sniffling and feeling a bit miserable).   We all decided to go down to the leisure facilities so Bobby took the kids in the pool while I checked out the sauna …. Which I didn’t want to come out of.   I’d forgotten how much I love saunas …   Was feeling lovely and warm and less ill by the time we went back to the room.

We went out for a meal at night and then came back to the room for birthday cake.   The cake was supposed to be a surprise and Bobby had picked it up on Friday afternoon and hidden it in the car to bring down …   The one thing he’d forgotten about was the fact that Kyle was with him when he picked it up!   While we’d been walking around the town earlier in the day, Kyle had piped up “Daddy, I want to go back to the hotel now so that we can eat that chocolate cake”.   Bobby tried to talk his way out of it but the more he tried, the more detail Kyle went in to, to explain what cake he meant!   It was quite amusing!!

On Sunday, we headed north after checking out of the hotel to Agroventures.   People at work had talked about the Agrojet and I’d wanted to try it ever since.   I booked on the jetboat and Kyle and Bobby decided to go on a Swoop which at that time, we thought was a swing type thing on a rope ….

Agrojet was FAB!   I definitely want one of those … 0 to 100 in 4.5 seconds, 450bhp.   George … you’d love it!

We then went over to the swing thing and realised that it was actually a cross between that and a bungee jump!!!!!   Kyle had seen it and was now desperate to go on …. Bobby was feeling a bit nervous …. And mum was scared out of her wits as she now realised that she’d agreed to let her 5 year old go on a bungee jump!!!   They suited the two of them up while Reggie and I watched from the side … I was getting more and more nervous and scared.   Bobby said that Kyle was as cool as a cucumber and while they were getting pulled up on the rope, he was pointing out all the sights and didn’t seem in the least bit scared.   I wonder if that’s because he isn’t aware of what the consequences are yet???

Anyhoo, they are both at the top of this rope when the guy shouts up to Bobby that he has to pull the ripcord to allow them to fall …. he did not like that idea at all!   He did though and down they came ….   When they’d got back to earth I went over to check they were okay and Kyle was completely wired!   He absolutely loved it and spoke about it all day afterwards ….   Oh Oh, what have we done?   He’s going to be a true kiwi adventurer …

After that, we decided we’d better do something for Reggie so went to the blueberry farm just up the road a bit.   Bought lots of blueberry products to take home for her and had lunch …. Blueberry crepes and blueberry pancakes.   You should have seen her face when she saw them coming …. Remembering that it’s winter just now so she doesn’t get too many blueberries …. Her little face lit up at the sight of the two dishes and she shouted “bluebees” at the top of her voice… very cute!   We were kind of blueberried out once we’d finished that so headed up the road.

Today was good too …. Had to do a little bit of work this morning as my boss is on holiday in Tonga, so I agreed to keep an eye on things in return for getting my birthday holiday off.   Didn’t do too much in the morning but headed off for my pampering in the afternoon.   Back and shoulder massage, facial, scalp massage, eyebrow trim, pedicure and manicure ….   Feeling very relaxed and pampered now.

Overall, don’t feel my new significant age … day passed without everything falling apart …. So I guess it’s not so bad!!

So what else has been happening since last I blogged?   Not much actually other than the normal life cycle … other than Reggie hurting her arm.

She’d been a bit off a couple of weekends ago but we’d thought it was just her teeth again as she was constantly chewing on stuff.   Anyway, she seemed fine on the Monday morning so we sent her off to nursery as normal … then we got a phone call about 3.30pm from nursery saying that she had a temperature and that she had fallen off her chair earlier and had hurt her arm and now she wasn’t moving it at all.   Bobby rushed down to VF and we drove up together.   Spent the next couple of hours in the emergency doctors getting x-rays etc.   They determined that nothing was broken probably just sprained and then tried to put her in a sling …. Third option she kept on and we have some photos.   She’s all better now … from the throat infection (which they also diagnosed while she was there) and the arm/shoulder.

Think that’s probably it for now so will log off.

Hi all,

Having a few technical problems at the moment and the blog (for some unknown reason that I’m trying to work out!) is showing the really old posts first.   Use the menu at the left hand side to pick the most recent posts … it’s still showing them in the correct order … while I try to fix!

Gail

Here’s an article from the New Zealand Herald recently on why it’s great to be here!!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10515623

Not too much been happening over the last couple of weeks except normal life. Kyle has settled in really well at school and seems to be enjoying it. He told me the other day that he likes after school club best which makes my bad mother feelings ease a bit. Although reading appears to be more about repetition rather than sounding out the words, he’s doing really well and likes to read his books every night. For someone who’s only been at school for a few weeks, he gets a lot of homework … two reading books a night plus an alphabet book once a week and a poem book every weekend.

He’s been missing his friends from pre-school though so we met up with Caylen and his parents last weekend at the local soft play and I’m trying to arrange a visit with his other friend (Righard) for next weekend. Righard is going to the same school as Kyle as of July so it’s good to keep in touch until then.

Regan is feeling much better now … although she still has a bit of a cough. Her last front teeth are all coming in now so she’s having a bit of a hard time pain wise. Her hair has started growing a lot as well so the back is really curly. When she’s in the bath, it reaches to mid shoulder but when dry, it curls up … very cute. Words are now coming thick and fast and she tries to repeat everything you say to her. It’s amazing how much she’s come on in such a short space of time.

Work is okay … we’ve had a technology management change and it’s looking likely that there will be a reorg throughout. Not sure what that means for the lowly PMs but my boss’s boss resigned as of yesterday … Have to wait and see what happens. One of the interviews I went for a couple of weeks ago was for a part time job with a web analytics firm in Parnell and he called me a couple of days ago just to say that he hasn’t given the job to anyone else but they still haven’t signed up the new client and he’ll be in touch as soon as it happens. I’m really interested in the job/company but not sure whether we can manage on a part time salary. I’m looking into options like getting a second part time job …

Bobby hasn’t been feeling very well this week … flu type bug … so haven’t done anything today. Will try and get out of the house tomorrow so that we don’t get too stir crazy.

It’s my significant birthday in a couple of weeks time so we’ve decided to go away for the weekend as I’m sure I’ll need cheering up. Booked a suite in a hotel in Rotorua on the lake front for a couple of nights (we’re there for my actual birthday which is on the Saturday). When we were there with Lynne in February we didn’t manage to do a lot of the stuff we wanted to because of the rain, so hopefully we’ll get to do them this time … VF give you a day off for your birthday so I’ve booked the Monday after off as well and since everyone else will be at work/school/nursery, I’m going to treat myself to a facial/massage and have a relaxing day on my own. Looking forward to some “me time” as I haven’t had any for a long time!

The rest of Kyle’s first week at school went well … Bobby dropped him off at Before School Club on the way to work and I picked him up from After School Club between picking up Reggie (pronounced Raygie … nursery name has caught on!) and home.   Every day except Friday I got a “I’m not ready to go home yet” which I guess is good … as it means he’s been enjoying himself.   He even met up with Big Alyssa who used to be at Pre-School so he’s got a friend already.   Friday when I got there he came with me straight away which I thought was a bit weird re the track record.   Got home and went to start dinner … it got very quiet quite quickly so popped my head around the corner to check on them and he was fast asleep!   The week was obviously exhausting for him.

We’ve had reading homework every night although to be honest, I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be teaching him as they don’t seem to be doing phonics down here the way they do in Scotland.   I’m just getting him to read the letters and then tell him the word … I’ll try to catch the teacher this week to check what I’m supposed to be doing.

His first week was also book week so he had fun meeting authors/illustrators and dressing up like characters from books.   Next week might not feel like as much fun …

Other than that there’s not much been happening.   This is Queens Birthday weekend so we’re off on Monday as well but nothing much planned for the weekend.