Sydney

People who know us well would probably agree that we've all been in desperate need of a break lately. The combined effects of moving house, catching viruses, and two parents working full time over the last couple of months has all taken its toll and quite frankly we were buggered!

So we've just spent a few days in Sydney and it was just what we needed...

The 4 days were spent pretty much just relaxing and sleeping and enjoying not *having* to do anything. We had the added bonus that our very lovely friends who we met back in the Falkland Islands joined us there - they now live a few hours drive away from Sydney (BRILLIANT to see you again Johnson family!!).

Sydney is an awesome city, and is one of my favourite places. I've spent a lot of time there over the years and have a lot of good memories - I lived and worked there back in 95/96 as a backpacker, I visited for work in '98, I went on a luxury weekend in 2004.....but I'd never been back since we had kids.

And I can now confirm that it's not quite the same experience!

But it was absolutely brilliant in different ways. Manly Beach became our base - it's the perfect location for a family as you have the beach on your doorstep and public transport to see the sights is mostly possible by ferry. In fact, the ferry rides were one of our highlights and we spent a great deal of time on them, day and night, just cruising around the harbour getting to places...
 

The kids' highlight was going on the cable car to Taronga Zoo...

We played a lot on Manly Beach. Our kids were fascinated by the golden sand as we don't get yellow sand back home....and we also put the volleyball nets to good use! 

On the second day we had fish n chips at Watsons Bay and watched a beautiful sunset over the harbour...and I reminisced about doing exactly the same thing as a twenty-something during my backpacking era!

What a great trip! See you again next time Sydney!

Mummy-Daughter Time

Aside from our weekly keyboard class, we don't often get the chance for Mummy-Daughter time, so it was awesome to spend a couple of hours yesterday after school playing in a local reserve together.

Molly loves being outside, and loves climbing trees...

She loves hanging from things...

...and she loves collecting bits and pieces of nature, making "things" out of flax.

Up another tree...! 

She might love her clothes and jewellery, but she's a real outdoorsy kid at heart. 

A Summer House

For some reason, in our new villa it always feels like summer. Even when there's a hurricane lashing about outside. Compared to our old place, this home has a really summery feeling about it.

After school the kids are loving their new sunny playroom, which so far has been a place to read, draw, play keyboard, make car tracks and play animal hospitals....Alfie x-rayed a stuffed dog the other day and diagnosed it as having a piece of cauliflower stuck in its brain. Molly then nursed it back to health and taught it to play the piano.

She's really into her music lessons at the moment, both recorder and keyboard...

Molly also can't seem to stop reading at the moment and gets through a big pile of books every week. She reads in the playroom, in the kitchen, on the toilet, in the car, while she's walking.....and we often find her reading by torchlight under her duvet a long time after lights out. 

Meanwhile, I have a lovely sunny workspace, which is keeping me motivated and productive during a VERY very busy period...

Both kids have been doing a lot of science at school this term, and have been practising their favourite experiments at home. Molly made a lava lamp the other day out of oil, water, food colouring and headache tablets. And Alfie still loves to bake (apparently this is classed as science).

And on wild weekend evenings the kids are enjoying watching Australia's Got Talent in our cozy lounge room.

Meanwhile, Jake's been very slowly recovering from a mystery virus that won't seem to go away. 

Although he's been feeling very run down for weeks now, his biggest frustration at the moment is that it's been stopping him from running/biking more than 12 kms a day and doing more than 400 lengths in the pool every week. 

In the meantime he has been very successful in using the aches and pains as an excuse for the kids to stay up late and give him back massages before bed...

Things I'm Loving About My New Home

We're settling in slowly to the new house. Things are coming together - but not very fast! The garage is still filled with boxes. The playroom is still half filled with boxes. There's a lot we can't find. But it's coming together!

Meanwhile, here are a few pictures of some of the things I love about our new home...

I love the outlook from my sunny kitchen table (which is a good thing too as I spend a lot of time here!). We eat here, I make phone calls here, I work here, I supervise homework here...

I love some (but not all!) of the lampshades the previous owners left behind...this is one of the good ones but there are a few I need to get rid of too! 

I love the stained glass window in our lounge room - so pretty! 

I also love sitting by the fireplace in our lounge room on these chilly winter evenings...

For years now, I haven't really done baths - as much as I love to do it, I haven't really had the time to lie around soaking in bubbles. (NB I do still wash though - I just use the shower!). But we now have an extra long (1.8 m) claw foot bath and I have already managed three indulgent, long soaks since we moved in! Bliss....

Outside, I love the knarly old Pohutakawa tree outside our bedroom window - the kids love to climb it, and the Tuis love to sing in it, but I just like it to look at it.

I love the views of the mountains all around us....

And I love my flourishing herb garden - there's plenty of rosemary, thyme, sage, bay and basil to last me a lifetime!

Moving House

Well, that was WAY harder than we'd expected it to be!

We took a few weeks, spending each weekend and every evenings sorting things out & boxing things up and giving things away to charity and cleaning every nook and cranny. With each day the pile of boxes grew and grew.....we had less things available to use.....we became tireder and tireder...and the dust mites swirled around and made Molly unwell again.

For the last couple of weeks the kids had no toys left out, but happily sat and read books in amongst the boxes and the mess every evening instead. 

We started living in the same clothes every day (we couldn't find anything different). Cooking one-pot meals every night. We stopped having the kids' friends over to play. We stopped washing our hair (the shampoo got packed too early & we couldn't find it again) and applying eczema creams (ditto). Life was becoming a bit smelly and disorganised. 

And then we moved.....

This part was made a whole lot easier by our lovely group of amazing friends who looked after our kids, shifted boxes, humped fridges and BBQs, re-arranged shelving, delivered pies, loaned their cars, baked cakes and brought us flowers. You guys were fantastic, we don't know what we would have done without you!

Ten days later and we STILL have boxes everywhere and we still don't know where anything is - but it feels like home and we are all very very happy!

The Great Storm of 2013

I remember England's Great Storm of October 1987 very clearly. Wind speeds got up to around 120-130 kph, millions of trees came down, and people lost their lives.

My clearest memory is of making my way home from school that day. The train line was blocked and I had to get off a stop earlier than normal so I was walking home along the high street when all of a sudden a huge gust of wind picked me up off my feet and literally blew me hard against the bus shelter which I was walking past.

That was enough to completely stop me in my tracks and I remember going into the off licence next to the bus shelter and asking them to call my mum for me.

My mother, bless her, drove out to rescue me.

Last Thursday/Friday, Wellington experienced a similar storm.

We all knew something big was coming, so the day before most people I know had been to the supermarkets to stock up and we had our torches and emergency kits ready. But the initial forecasts were that we'd get a big drop in temperature and possible snow. The South Island got the snow - masses of it - but Wellington got an extreme hurricane force storm. It's not easy to predict the weather here, as it's so influenced by the oceans  and mountains all around us, so hats off to those forecasters for just knowing something extreme was on its way and predicting the time of its arrival almost down to the minute.

Wind speeds got up to 200 kph, and the rain fell in buckets out of the sky. Media reports indicate that we haven't had a storm like this for 37 years, and are comparing it to the infamous Wahine Storm of 1968 which sunk the Inter-islander ferry.

Several days later and the city is slowly being cleared of fallen trees, and we've all been living with closed roads, no trains, missing roofs, houses full of sea water, fences blown away, there are thousands of houses with no power and a lot of closed schools.

Meanwhile, our new garden now has a tree that sits at a 45 degree angle, and we're not quite sure what to do about that.

Other than that, our biggest drama was when we got a knock on the door in the night from a man who lives across the street - it turned out our next door neighbour's big trampoline had blown right over our fence, across our garden, across another fence, over the road, smashed through another fence and gone through the man's window. The fire services rescued it the next afternoon, but the man's window is still missing...

How Many Toys Do Kids Actually Need?

Life is fairly chaotic at the moment, in fact it would be fairly accurate to describe it as bedlam.

We've spent every spare moment packing up the house. I think we're about 75% done now, which is a great achievement as we still have 11 days to go, but it's made me realise that we actually really do own a lot of useless rubbish.

As well as packing alot, we have thrown away, given away, sold and donated a lot of our old stuff. What's left is just what we need on a day-to-day basis: a few clothes, kitchen appliances, toiletries, stationery, etc. That means the 75% of stuff we've packed in the billions of boxes is what, exactly??

Once we get to the new house I'm aiming to have another big throw out.

With so much sorting, packing, organising and cleaning going on, there's been little time for other things. I am missing my regular fix of Zumba and my once-regular mountain walks have dwindled to maybe once a fortnight.

But I still LOVE starting my day by climbing up to watch the views whenever I can. On a clear day I can see  right across to the snow-capped mountains on the South Island. It always looks different when I'm up there, depending on the season.

I'm also still finding snippets of time for coffees with the other mums whenever I can! As a freelancer I do miss the chance to chat to office colleagues whenever I want to. Skype meetings and chatter via social networks are my version of the "water cooler" discussions, but you still can't beat a regular gossip over coffee!

Meanwhile the kids are coping amazingly well with having most of their toys packed away. In fact, now they're older, I don't think they actually need quite so many toys, and although we've given a lot away lately and reduced down to just 5 toy boxes, I still think we'll be reducing it further once we get in the new house.

All Molly really wants these days is a cupboard full of arts & crafts, a bedroom full of clothes and accessories, and some music (she is glued to her recorder these days, loves playing keyboard, and is usually attached to her MP3 player).

And all Alfie really needs is something to kick or throw or ride, a few electronic games, and his Bey Blade set. He's a very sporty little chap and came first in his school Cross Country Run last week. He's also completely embraced Ripper Rugby this season, he usually scores a few tries at each match, and was awarded Player of the Day this week (oh ok, so actually they take it in turns so that each kid gets a go at being Player of the Day - but he doesn't know that!).

How Long Does It Take To Buy A House?

The first big news we have is....after 15 months of searching and after viewing over 150 open homes we have FINALLY bought a house!

We bought it at auction, and I must admit the whole process was fairly nerve-wracking. I used to take for granted the old English process of seeing a house advertised at a certain price, offering 5% less and eventually meeting in the middle - usually with no other buyer competition. So easy!

By comparison, the actual house buying process here in Wellington has been fairly difficult! We've put in three tender offers over the last year, which has got to be the worst method ever (for the buyer), especially when there's no price given on a house and you have to pay for all your due diligence (lawyer, builders report, etc) before you place your tender.

The first time we were beaten massively on price. The second time we were beaten by just $2,000 (although we didn't know that until afterwards), and the third time we were the highest bidder but the vendor pulled out at the last minute.

An auction is a bit more preferable - at least you know what the other bidders are offering. But it's a nerve wracking process never-the-less and during the bidding my heart beat a hundred times louder than it does during an average Zumba class.

But we got it! We got it, we got it, we got it!!!!!

Other news..... last week Alfie went to his first school disco. For those who've never witnessed a Primary School disco, they are completely insane events which take place for fundraising purposes - and I guess for the kids' enjoyment too, although as they're usually held on a Friday evening of course there are always a few tears and meltdowns.

The kids had to dress as celebrities for this one, so Molly went as singer Katy Perry (pronounced Kay-dee Pirry if you are a Kiwi Kid) complete with purple hair, handbag, lipstick and studded belt - and Alfie wore his Superman pyjamas.

After a lot of dancing and a late night, Saturday morning began early with piano and rugby, followed by a birthday party.....so by the afternoon things had predictably got a bit messy and Jake and Molly went off to take a nap leaving me with the difficult task of managing a 5 year old on the point of a major meltdown.

So I turned to the kitchen - when it comes the males in this family, I always follow the same rule: if there's trouble, make a cake.  It always diffuses a tantrum.

We made a birthday/anniversary cake, as this weekend marked 2 years since we arrived in Wellington! What an amazing two years it's been. So very fast, so much fun. It's been a blast...Happy Anniversary Wellington!

House Dust Mites

And the blood test results are...

.....Molly has an off-the-scale reaction to house dust mites. There are no known food allergies (although she hasn't been tested for every food in the world, so you never know), just simple house dust mites.

(except of course, it's not really that simple).

On a RAST blood test, the results are scored from 0 to 6 on an allergy scale, with 0 being negative (ie no

allergy), 1 being a bit inconclusive, 2 being a positive result (ie an allergy) and then 3 to 6 being "strongly positive".

Molly's results look like this:

CODFISH                                      0.01
COWS MILK                                0
EGG WHITE                                  0
HOUSE DUST MITE                  >100
SOY BEAN                                    0.46
WHEAT                                          0.54

So, that's a fairly extreme reaction to the damn little critters!

We are firstly, extremely relieved that it's not more serious, but we are also feeling quite dazed and confused by all the advice and recommendations on exactly what we have to do and how successful it's going to be. We're hoping that a house dust mite allergy might be easier to manage than a food allergy - although it's going to be impossible to completely avoid exposing her to dust mites. We can be responsible for limiting them at home, but she'll inevitably be exposed in other places.

The results mean that many things are now explained: for example, why she always comes out of the library with big red rings around her eyes (those dusty books and cushions), and why she always becomes unwell when we stay at baches for the weekend.

My bed time reading has now become all about dust mites. Riveting stuff, ha ha! But here are a few interesting facts, for anyone out there who is interested in this kind of stuff:

1. House dust mites are extremely common in most New Zealand households. Most of us live with them with no symptoms, but in some people they cause eczema, asthma and rhinitis (basically a permanent year round cold). Unfortunately Molly is one of these people.

2. House dust mites love high humidity levels - which is probably one of the reasons we have so many of them in NZ! With this week's forecast for Wellington being 80%+ humidity all week, we certainly have a challenge on our hands. Expert recommendations are to keep your household humidity level below 55%. Easier said than done, especially in a rented house where we can't install a ventilation system or decent heating equipment. Yet another reason for finding our own home soon! In the meantime, we'll need to invest in a dehumidifier and keep all our windows open.

This is fascinating. It completely explains why Molly had eczema in Auckland as a baby, which disappeared when we went overseas. She had no trace of allergies when we lived in the desert (Central Australia) with zero humidity, and it all came back again when we returned to NZ.

3. Some of their favourite places to live are in carpets, soft furnishings, soft toys and bedding - hence the recommendation to replace carpets with wood or tiled flooring. We can't do much about the carpets in our rental property, but we can do something about the bedding.

I'm concerned that we may have a bit of a mission on our hands when we tackle the soft toys, many of whom have been an important part of our family for years now. Many of you will have come to know and love characters like Bobby, Rabbit and Penguin over the years, but goodness knows what's living inside these dear creatures...

Anyway, it's a relief to finally know what it is that's triggering our little girl into developing such angry reactions which affect her quality of life so much. Now we start a big journey into trying to resolve things as much as we can for her.

PS Big apologies for the yucky images of dust mites on this post!

Wellington's Sunday Food Market

Firstly, let me just say for the millionth time.....you can't beat Wellington on a good day.

You just really can't. And yesterday was really a good day. The sun shone, we pulled our summer clothes back out of the cupboards, got the sun cream out again, and drove down to the waterfront.

Wellington's waterfront has got to be one of my most favourite places in the city. Yesterday morning was a stunner. The water sparkled, the mountains looked sharp and crinkly, the sailing boats were out, the sun was bright and low, and the sky was the bluest blue.

Every Sunday morning in Wellington there's an open air food market by the harbourside that we just love.

For a start, you can get your fresh fruit & veggies there for a fraction of the price you pay at the local supermarket. It always seems much more tasty too. Yesterday a whole punnet of cherry tomatoes were wolfed down within 30 minutes by our lot! The bag of feijoas we purchased are currently in hiding so I can make sure I can eat some myself during the week!

It's also just a really great place to while away a sunny Sunday morning. You can get a very tasty brunch/snack there (particularly the Chinese dumplings, oh how we love the Chinese dumplings).

You can sit and drink a coffee in the sun while you watch the buskers - and there are always buskers, sometimes ordinary guitar playing ones, and sometimes really unusual elastic band playing ones or clever ones with string puppets that do portrait paintings.

The smells are amazing - coffee, bread, spices, fruit, fresh fish, pizza, crepes....Seriously, if you are a food lover, this is THE place to hang out in Wellington!

Apparently about 7,000 people attend the Sunday market every week and I must say, it feels like it! I think it's probably about the busiest place you can possibly go to in Wellington.

One of the things we love about living here is the lack of crowds and general relaxed and easy-going feel to life. But I'm always happy to endure a bit of crowding for Wellington's harbourside food market!

A bit of R 'n' R...

Over the last few days, we've introduced Nana Jenny to the little piece of paradise that is Himatangi Beach. Regular readers of this blog will know that we head up there relatively often, for a bit of r 'n' r and general family downtime.

It's not the prettiest part of New Zealand, and the accommodation options aren't the most luxurious. So, I was thinking....why do we like it there so much?

I've come up with lots of reasons. Firstly, it's a place where the sky is endless and the sea is endless and the beach is endless. A place like that is always good for the soul. It makes life simple again and allows us to get things back in perspective.

It's a place where it's always ok to open a beer or pour a glass of wine at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, with no feeling of guilt, as there is literally nothing else at all that you *have* to be doing.

It's a place where the beach is always interesting. It's full of shells and pumice stones and fish bones and lots and lots of driftwood. So you can make pretend "shops", build driftwood teepees and collect bits and pieces. The kids enjoy it so much, and the strange thing is that we do too. Something about being in Himatangi slows us down and makes just pottering around really enjoyable.

It's a place for being outside all the time and feeling refreshed. Where you can climb up tall sand dunes to get to the beach, where the wind blows through your hair and where we always go for afternoon runs. For Molly in particular, it's good to be at the beach, as her skin always improves. But for all of us in general - we always feel invigorated and healthy while we're there.

It's a place where there's always time for lots of playing. As well as spending lots of time on the beach, rugby, tennis and waterfights also tend to feature in most days' activities. The kids are always really, really happy.

It's a place which never changes, yet it is always different. We always go exploring and we always find something new (like a giant mound of hay). There's always excitement about something. 

It's a place where, no matter what time of year and what the weather, there's always time for an ice cream from the dairy. And at just $1 for a cone and a choice of about twenty or thirty flavours, how could we ever not do this?!

And it's a place where, even with two noisy children, I can always somehow find the time for peace and quiet, a good book and a deckchair, or a sunset walk along the beach...