Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

I’m getting worse … I apologise for this lack of blogging!   As my niece would tell me (and anyone else who would listen) … I’m even worse at emailing!   Will try harder ….

We haven’t actually been up to much since the school holidays .. Kyle is back at school, Regan is still at nursery and Bobby and I are still working hard.   Day to day life kind of takes over … it actually makes you forget that you’re at the other end of the world from everyone as it’s all very normal now.   As I sit in the traffic jam in the morning, it’s actually weird thinking back to the (what I thought was a) traffic jam going into Edinburgh Park …   It’s weird thinking of the view from the office out to Safeway/Morrisons and the Gyle when now I look out at Viaduct Harbour and the Harbour Bridge.

The last couple of weekends have been nice(ish) weather … last weekend we went up to Orewa for a walk along the beach and the kids went to the play park (photos on Flickr).

This weekend was Labour Day weekend so Monday was a public holiday.   We decided since the weather was supposed to be very wet, not to go anywhere.   Turned out to be quite nice on Sunday and Monday so made sure we got out and about.   Kyle had decided he wanted a new scooter so bought that on Saturday while it was raining.   Sunday, we went to Auckland Museum so that Kyle could see the dinosaur bones and then went for a walk (scoot) around the Domain (large park in the centre of Auckland City).   Again, there are photos on Flickr and some plant type photos on my Flickr site …   While we were walking around the museum, Kyle decided he LOVED museums so we went to MOTAT (transport museum) yesterday.   There are lots of old cars, trains, planes, trams etc plus a kids zone so I think everyone enjoyed the day.   MOTAT is next to a lovely park so spent a while after in the park so that Kyle could use his scooter again.   It was a great day … even managed to get sunburnt shoulders!   :o(

So what else is new …. I discovered ghd …. And now don’t know how I lived without them!   :o)   Went to a night time thing at my hairdresser and ended up buying some hot pink ones   ;o)   Not like me .. Everything I buy is normally black!

Regan is mad on Elmo!   You’ll have noticed from the photos that he’s now always attached to her, so ended up buying her Elmo Live at the weekend … although a bit annoying, it’s actually quite amusing.   There was a deal at the local Warehouse (NZ shop … can’t think of a comparison in the UK ..) and if you bought Elmo Live (at $30 discount due to Labour Day weekend) then you got the giggling Elmo free.   Thought this was a great deal but Reggie thought different and doesn’t like the giggling one so has decided he’s Kyles ..   It’s quite amusing watching her go to bed with Bagpuss in one arm and Elmo in the other … not much room for her really!

Camping trip over Christmas is now all booked so we’re spending Christmas in Abel Tasman National Park and New Year in Milford Sound.   We’re away for three weeks so really looking forward to the break.   Kyle got a bit upset last week and said he didn’t want to go camping … sat and talked to him about it and found out it was because he thought Santa wouldn’t be able to find him.   Cleared that one up so now he’s really looking forward to living in a tent for three weeks … wish I could say the same for mum!   :o)   Will provide more details on the itinerary nearer the time …

First things first … Happy Birthday to Elizabeth today, I hope you have a great day.

It was also my mum’s birthday today so my thoughts have been with her too … it’s one of those days when I really wish she was here … she would have loved it here.

Reggie is all better now … spots are almost gone and she’s been back at nursery since last week.   She was very aware of the spots and kept pointing at the ones on her face (which were obviously bugging her) and saying “spots”.   Unfortunately for her, it’s now back into mossie time and she’s got a few bites over the last couple of days … so she’s back to saying spots again!   :o(

Kyle is doing great … enjoying the school holidays … even although he’s been at school holiday club most of the time.   He also went to Caylen’s for a couple of days (thanks Katie!) and we went away for a long weekend last weekend so he had an extra day off at the weekend.   Kinda makes the bad mother syndrome kick in a bit when he can’t even stay at home on the holidays but we couldn’t afford one of us to stay at home full time and you only get 4 weeks holiday down here … 3 of which are taken up by the almost close down at Christmas.

Anyhoo, back from our weekend break .. We went to the Bay of Plenty which is south east of Auckland.   Travelled down on the Friday night and stayed in a town called Waihi that night then in the morning went into Tauranga for brunch and a wander then on to Mount Maunganui (the local resort) and then drove down to Gisborne.   When we were here with my mum 14 years ago, I must admit I wasn’t overly impressed with Gisborne … my opinion hasn’t changed much.   Not much to it and the only way to get there from Auckland is via two very twisty and horrible roads so don’t think I’ll rush to go back.   Stayed at Wainui Beach just north of Gisborne on Saturday night … really lovely motel.   Sunday we drove up the coast road between Wainui and Whakatane where we were staying on Sunday night.   Now on to the reason we came down this way …..

When we were here with mum I took this really nice photo of Bobby sitting on a log on a beach “somewhere” … mum took one of both of us on the same log and it stayed on the shelf in her caravan.   We looked at those photos often and couldn’t remember where the beach had been … since coming here we’ve tried a couple of places but no.   We decided a while back that it was on this coast road hence one of the reasons for the trip … in search of the elusive beach.   And we found it!!!!   It’s a place called Tolago Bay and apparently it is where Captain Cook first landed in 1769 … probably why we went there in the first place … mum would have been into that …

Anyway … work is horrible just now …. But very slow out in the PM market so will stay where I am for the moment.   Looking forward to the weekend.