From the top

I climbed the mountain again the day before we left.

We're back home. On Friday we head off to Taupo for a few days.

Modern life

This is a picture of a few of the gadgets we bought with us on holiday. When I told the girls I wanted to take a picture they didn't quite get it. I had to explain how "When I was a kid..." we didn't have laptops, mobile phones, iPods and DSs.

An inventory:
2 x mobile phones
3 x iPods
2 x DSs
1 x laptop (includes docking station and webcam)
1 x camera
All the chargers and USB cables that go with the above!


While I'm on the "When I was a kid" subject, does anyone wonder how the Y generation learn to touch type? I learnt at school in Office Studies (I think that's what it was called). We learnt on old-fashioned typewriters, repetitively typing on the QWERTY keyboard without looking at our fingers. If you were lucky you got to use one the two electric typewriters. WooHoo! I think it's a good skill though – much quicker than using two fingers.

Another subject I did at high school was Parentcraft. Yes, can you believe it? A subject for girls only. Somehow we were meant to acquire the knowledge needed to be a good mother by cutting pictures out of magazines and sticking them in a scrap book. We also got to bath dolls and learned to fold cloth nappies. Wow, that was really helpful–not! I'm sure anyone with kids will agree, nothing can prepare you for being a mother. Parenting comes down to osmosis; kids learn by watching their parents.

How long will this last?

Another gorgeous day – I could get used to this. Knowing this is probably as warm as it's going to get here, I made myself get in the water again. It was torture for Steve to watch. First my ankles (5 mins); then my knees (another 5 mins); groin (at least 10 mins); kidneys and armpits (10 mins); and finally under! Mission accomplished, I stayed in for less than 10 mins.

We found a shady spot on a shelly beach with lots of exploring to be done.


Steve decides to swim around the island in the distance, returning 50 minutes later.


Exploring.



Eadie's shell sketchings.

Summer arrived today

What a gorgeous day. It's predicted to be raining on Friday which possibly means cold and windy too. But I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about the weather, we are making the most of it.

You call this summer?

We are at Mt Maunganui, affectionately know as The Mount. Our first afternoon at the beach. It is quite late so the sun has lost it's heat (warmth). Steve and Ruby get in the water and catch a few waves on the boogie board. After getting my feet wet and a long pep talk to self, I don Steve's winter rashie (the one he uses in Australian waters) and decide to take the plunge. However, the process was not so much a plunge but more like a long drawn out wade. Everyone knows I am a complete wimp when it comes to getting into anything cooler than bath water.

So here is a picture (geez, I look old), taken by Eadie, just to prove I did it. Don't ask me if I enjoyed it, I think I would need a full wetsuit for that.

And here is a cute picture drawn by Eadie:

Resolutions

I just love my Frankie calendar. I got one last year and fell instantly in love with the pretty pictures. So much so that I couldn't bear to write on it, opting to photocopy it and use that instead. I then framed some of the pictures. Is that a bit anal? I still haven't written on my 2010 calendar. What do you think? Should I deface it and use it as was intended, or treasure it?

New year's resolutions? I wasn't going to mention it but seeing as you asked, I'll share. You see, I don't normally 'do' them. It's not that I don't have anything that needs improvement. It's just that minor renovations can quickly turn into major reworks at which point you have to ask yourself would it be quicker to just knock it down and rebuild? And then there's the landscaping, but we won't go there.

Here are the big 3 (no surprises here):
Exercise. Usually at the top of everyone's list. It's at the top of mine too. There is sooo much room for improvement here all I have to do is put my walking shoes on and I've made progress. Of course, it's a good idea to start now whilst I can still bend over to do up my laces–unassisted.
Drinking. If it's your shout, I like G+T in summer; red wine in winter, thanks very much. Seriously though, I aim to reduce my intake. Enough said.
Passion. I am going to find a passion. Over the past couple of years I have surprised myself to find there are things that I'm good at. Some of them like Clean Up Australia Day, are worthwhile. So this year I am going in search of more passion. God knows I could use it.

Last year (or was it the year before), I started my own reward chart. I put little stars on the calendar when I did exercise or if I had an alcohol-free day. I figured if it was good for changing the undesirable behaviour of kids, then it should work for adults too. And it did! So that's where I will start this time around and maybe I'll write on the pretty calendar after all.

Twenty ten

We say good-bye to yet another decade, how quickly they fly by! It seems like just yesterday we were preparing to see in the new millennium. Many of us didn't have kids back then which meant that we usually partied in a completely different way (sigh).

To be honest, I forgot it was NYE and only just managed to pick up a few sausages from the butchers as they were cleaning up. Still, what started out as bangers and bread turned into a pretty good feast of bangers, grilled eggplant, baked potatoes and salad. This was accompanied by a bottle of Pol Rogers champagne (thanks Scotty and Sandy) and followed by a nice almond and polenta cake with cream.


Earlier in the day Steve and Ruby did some skating - all good fun, but unfortunately it ended in tears later in the day after Ruby had a stack. You should have heard the cries. Actually, you're lucky you didn't. I have no doubt it hurt but Ruby has a very low pain threshold. Sorry Ruby, you know it's true.



Before the skate stack, we had some fun at One Tree Hill. Here are some pics...

Me and Ava on the flying fox:


Cool big tree:


On the tree:


Best wishes to all my dear friends and family. Thanks for being so wonderful and supportive and willing to create so many memories together. May 2010 be happy and rewarding one.

Love m, xox