Author: migrant

OK, it is alright, I survived.
I went through that weird feeling of the room disappearing and the liquid goes up the arm, only to reappear in another room, feeling groggy, and wondering what the time is. This time I managed not to talk gibberish.
I understand the meniscus has had a trim, and so hopefully now road to recovery. Sad that no pics of inside to demonstrate, but……

Tomorrow is time for the knee to be fixed. Arthroscopy to hopefully fix the meniscus, improve the pain and mobility and go back to normal.
With the clear sky tonight, and a reminder of what it is to look at the stars, maybe I will soon be able to star gaze from the top of mount Kaukau. Of course the walk to the top requires a good knee.

Anyway, in case I have a mishap, it has been nice knowing you all.

Eleanor takes another step in the Church events, with her Confrmation on Saturday. This is out of step in NZ, as it is stage 2 of 3 here, rather than 3 of 3 as in England.
As such she was by far the oldest of the group, but as such the most helpful to the leader of the programme.

To celebrate her and Sara’s fine run, the family went off to Eastbourne for lunch and a walk on the beach. The best weather in over a week made it feasible.

Sara gets up early and shows her paces with the crowds in Wellington. The weather has not been great of late, but clod waether does not put off the hardy athlete, who also fights back from pugnaciuos virus.
She did a 10k run in 56 minutes, helped by her new running gear, music pounding in her ears and taking on the family mantle as the old man still has the gammy knee.
Well done Sara, who is now in the groove and looking forward to the next event.

Just must have a quick moan about weather. Bloody freezing with cold winds from south and rain and gale force winds-youch.
So much so we went on a buying spree for thermal underwear for bedtime!
All this not helped by vision of European heat wave.

A recent school mid winter event with bit of food, live music and an auction. Lots of work put in by Sara and other mums as part of the Help Our Kids committee, for that read PTA.
Anyway lots good items and we fell for the art work by Sue Lund, which now hands on a wall displacing one of my photos.
The painting depicts a street in Newtown, Wellington.

Call yourself a football fan? In order to continue the masochistic behaviour of watching England play football in the world cup, one has to suffer that bit more down here. Up at 4am today to enjoy the game. Sara stayed in bed but was woken at one point by the expletives emanating from the lounge when Crouch managed to shoot about 10 yards wide when on the 6 yard box, when he tried to score like a flash git instead to just stopping the ball and shooting with time when he just the keeper to worry about.
There were not many other lights on so hopefully neighbours did not hear my tirade.
Here’s to more pain to come, and hopefully at some point -football!

A massive round trip for the three rugby fans. Wellington to Hamilton, 7 hourish journey each way.
We hit Hamilton a little early to soak up the atmosphere and get our burgers in. Plenty of green shirts on. I got the feeling more were migrants who were reviving their ancestry than travellers. Good support though, and made as much noise as the locals with nine times as many supporters.
A good game, though had my head in hands after 45 seconds. I feared a total thrashing or a reliving of Christchurch 2005.
The Waikato stadium was a good venue, quite small but compact and close to the action. We were behind a goal and close to the pitch and could hear the crunching.
Joe was getting as frustrated as all the other Kiwi fans and moaning about the ref! Mum and dad were loving it. By the way did anyone see me on the telly? I am sure I saw myself when I watched the game on Sunday.
We hung around after the final whistle and the other goings on and watched the players from the bench play around afterwards. The hope of autographs for Joe was forlorn.
A downside? other than the result-the number of totally pissed people in the ground.

We drove out of town back to the motel hoping to watch England play Paraguay. But not on terestrial tv and on Sky Sports 3 and the motel only had Sky Sports 1. In the end no great loss. I saw most tof the ‘lowlights” the following morning when we stopped off in Taupo.
So a good trip and Joe fulfilled his dream of watching a live game of his heroes. Good M&D time for him. I don’t think the other two missed us much either!

Well the sporting world is just about to go crazy. World Cup, touring rugby teams, ongoing cricket. What more would you want?
Football fever cannot be said to hit NZ just yet, but the interest is just about visible in hte media with more mentions of coverage on the tv, and the analysis of teams appearing in the “Dom Post” today. The innane coverage of the UK it is not. I did manage to watch the live coverage of Wayne Rooney’s plane landing in Manchester as he was being ferried for his “scan”. Remarkable!
I am not sure we are missing out by not having a minute by minute update of his osteoblast activity.
However, I think when the action starts it will not be quite the same. I am sure a shout at the TV will still work from this distance.
Rugby this weekend also. Off to Hamilton to watch All Blacks play Ireland. nice seven hour drive. Does not look far on the map but no motorways around here. Looking forward to the action, and Joe very excited. He has to miss his own game tomorrow because of the journey. Ireland have a chance as NZ spreading resources with so many games coming up.
So “Go Ireland” “Go England”!
Could do with a few weeks off work just to watch the telly.

A long weekend and the driving rain and wind abate overnight so the chance to go out again. EQ was off out again with a friend, this time swimming. So those left went for a bracing walk at Pukerua Bay. Was the last time we were here Christmas Day with the Hacks and Rudgleys?
Anyway they may claim the weather was just the same six months later. It was chilly but sheltered from the wind in places as we went for a decent walk along the coast into the reserve. Pebbles and drift wood everywhere, big rocks and steep escarpment all topped off with a beautiful blue sky. No air pollution in NZ!
Boys played together while adults considered life and its fascinations.
Back home to light the woodburner-not for a nice cozy effect, but for heat.