Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Trips away

We have just come back from a whirlwind trip to Christchurch. Well, it was for a week, but we fitted so much in and saw so many people, that it felt like a whirlwind. Great fun - that is the way to break up the school holidays! I'm already planning my next school holiday trip, which I think may be a hybrid of back to Christchurch and down to Queenstown for a bit of snow.

I love being able to get on a plane and go somewhere. Maybe because I didn't board my first plane until I was in my early 20's I have never lost the feeling that flying is a bit of a novelty, a bit of a decadent treat, no matter how many flights I take. It doesn't matter that the flight is all of an hour, or that it is back to my hometown. I love all of it - the airport, the takeoff (my favourite bit) and trundling my trolley around purposefully with that smug feeling of "I'm going somewhere!".

We did have a minor hiccup on the way back to Auckland this time. The flight my daughter and I were on was fully booked and for some bizarre reason we hadn't been assigned priority when it came to sitting together. I know people can choose their own seats but I have always assumed that a child and their parent would automatically be prioritised to sit together. But apparently not, as our seats came out four rows apart, and I was unable to change it on the automated check in as the flight was so full.

Upon realising this, my daughter immediately started crying, and I swung into purposeful mummy mode and trotted up to the Air New Zealand counter and very nicely asked the lady there if she could shuffle some other people around so we could sit together. She took one look at my daughter's distressed little face, and said, "Of course! We have to have you sitting next to mum!" Then she pressed some buttons and was also unable to reassign our seats, so she took our boarding passes up to the boarding gate, where they were able to move some other people around so we got to sit together. So thank you Air New Zealand, and especially to the lovely lady who helped us out. Four rows doesn't sound like much to an adult, but it would be a LOT to a six year old surrounded by strangers and completely unable to see mum over the high seats.

Speaking of trips away, I caught up with cesca on my trip down south, and after a couple of coffees we concocted the idea to take a road trip up to the Bay of Islands one school holidays with our kids and Tiki and her kids and rent a bach somewhere and drink lots of wine. (Minor detail: Tiki doesn't actually know anything about this idea yet, she was volunteered to take part without her knowledge).

I have a few other plans for trips soon as well. Moving to the North Island has brought out the adventurer in me again. I love the South Island and think it is spectacular, but I know it so well that going somewhere there for a weekend or week away wasn't really much of an adventure when I lived there. In contrast, the North Island is a bit like an almost unread book to me - I know the first chapters – Auckland and Wellington – and that is about it, so I'm looking forward to finding out more. It's so cool that if I drive out of the city for half an hour I'll be somewhere completely unfamiliar to me.

Barring a lotto win, big overseas trips are likely to be off the agenda for a few more years anyway but it doesn't matter – it's a lot of fun to explore our own country and a lot less expensive. Although I have been telling my daughter since she was two that when she gets old enough I'll take her to Antarctica. I definitely want to do that trip while it is still there to go to.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Bits and pieces

Hmmm. It's been three weeks since I wrote in this blog. Somehow I don't think this is going to turn into one of those blogs that is updated regularly and read avidly by the masses. Particularly since I have spectacularly neglected to point anyone I know in the direction of said blog, so I think I have about three readers (which is still nice).

Busy busy busy lately. All in a good way though. Last weekend my daughter and I did the shore to shore fun run/walk which was fun. Well I enjoyed it. Daughter started complaining about wanting to have a rest about three hundred metres into it and I got her through it by putting on my pushy parent hat and bossily chivvying her along, alternating that tactic with doing the supportive encouragement thing. A bit of good cop/bad cop, but it got us to the end of the five kilometre course.

At least I think we did that last weekend. Maybe it was the weekend before. So much has been happening I've sort of lost track of the weekends a bit. We've had school fairs, get-togethers, an outing to the zoo which was great fun, and various other activities including a sleepover for my daughter at a new friend's house.

I bought a sewing machine last week and am now addicted to finding cool material to make things from. Once I learn to drive the sewing machine that is. I haven't actually got that far yet, but I'm sure it will be easy. Hopefully.

We got a trampoline last week and I surprised myself by managing to assemble it without any help. The instructions said that two adults in good health were required which sounded ominous, so I was going to wait until someone could pop round and give me a hand, but me being me just had to open the box and start pulling bits out and laying them on the ground and seeing if I could do the first few steps. Predictably, before I knew it I was in too deep and had to finish putting the bloody thing up. The best thing is my daughter thinks I'm a bit of a superwoman and thinks girls can do anything. The worst thing is I was a bit sore for a few days afterwards, but no biggie.

I've had a bit of a jump on it as well. I don't know how kids can jump around for hours like they do. The first time I did it I felt like my insides were going to fall out until I figured out the secret was to - ahem - clench while jumping.

I went out on another date with the chap I mentioned in my last blog, decided that I wasn't interested enough to take it further and nicely told him I didn't think we had chemistry. So that was the end of that. I think that was about three weeks ago, give or take. No more men on the horizon at present. No interesting ones anyway.

Also, we are going back to Christchurch for a visit in a few days for a week in the school holidays so that will be fun. Really looking forward to it, and catching up with friends and family. I'll need to work a bit while I'm there, but I still think it is pretty awesome that I can just take my laptop and work anywhere I want in the country as long as I have an internet connection. I always had that vision of a mobile business when I first set up on my own five years ago, but now it has become a reality, and my hours are so flexible, I still haven't got over how cool that is. Cool for me anyway, as I have a low boredom threshold and need to get out of town every once in a while, while still being able to keep my income flowing.

And that's about it. A pretty boring blog post, which is ironic, considering right now I feel my life is anything BUT boring. I think I am happier than I have been for a very, very long time, maybe ever. Yay! I've had enough dark days and tough times to be able to fully appreciate when life is going well and just flowing along nicely. Long may it last.