nishatalitha

So, I handed in my final Te Reo Māori assessment at the weekend and of course now I'm convinced I did something horribly wrong in the written. But it's too late and I haven't been able to make myself review it to check.

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of moving into this house. It's still a good house, we still like it and we are slowly doing the necessary maintenance. Hopefully this year the front and back door. I do a lot with the garden (hopefully the alliums I planted out the front will come up).

Following a talk at work last week, I'm experimenting with mindfulness. The app provided by the people who did the talk is clearly designed for use with headphones because the first time A and I sat down to concentrate on our breathing for ten minutes, we did way longer than that as it kept timing out on my phone. Now I set a timer. Doing an actual ten minutes—as opposed to the however long but at least twice that—is actually not too bad. I'm not 100% convinced by this particular app generally, so if anyone has one they'd particularly recommend, let me know.

My grandad (my mum's dad) was recently moved to the hospital section of his care home (he had been in an assisted living apartment for the last 18 months or so). He's rallied a bit with the higher level of care, but the general estimate is that he'll last maybe a couple of months. And you know what, I'm okay with that, as are the family members I've talked to. He's 89, he misses Grandma, he wants to go home but can't look after himself properly and he's in a place where people are taking good care of him. Mum and the aunts visit regularly and have all necessary power of attorneys, so everything is undercontrol on that front. All appropriate plans are made and they know where things are.

When Grandma died, I found out via Whatsapp, which was fine at the time, but less so for a few months after when everytime I saw Whatsapp messages that had arrived overnight I was wondering who had died now! I forgot to make it clear to Mum last time we spoke that if possible I'd rather be woken in the middle of the night than wake up to a text message. I need to do that.

It's dinner time - steak & chips & gravy in response to it being shark week. Kua rite te kai.

My parents, brother and sister-in-law are visiting this weekend. As such, some things need doing before I go to meet people at the airport on Saturday morning:

• Ironing
  
• Homework
  
• Clean bathroom
  
• Vaccum
  
• Create Guest account on Annabelle
  
• Tidy room
  
• Call Te Papa and check the maximum size of bags they'll store in the bag-check room
  
• check bus timetables for getting to the airport by 9.30am
  
• Wash double sheets used last weekend on the foldout couch
  
• Put money on my cellphone
  
• My laundry - mostly done

I'm sure there's more, as that seems an awfully short list. The plan is to meet my brother and his wife and go from the airport to the Monet exhibition at Te Papa, buy a roast chicken from the nearby supermarket and head home for lunch. Stuff will happen.

List is courtesy of the handy-dandy link maudlinrose posted recently. I thought I'd experiment.

While doing the ironing tonight (this is a habit I gained when living with my parents doing the ironing while watching Star Trek during high school), I watched the anime for FAKE which is an adaptation of a manga series I own about two cops in New York and their romance. It was the most accurate adapation I've seen - there were about four noticeable changes from the plot of Volume 2. It was as though the manga was their storyboard and they stuck to it!

I suddenly have the urge to reread the series...

Mum and Dad are presumably on their way back from the 'tron, where they dropped Gran off, so she wouldn't have to drive over the plains before driving to Auckland. Gran phoned a couple of hours ago to say she arrived safely and was off to have a cup of tea with some friends, so I expect them shortly. maudlinrose and jessikast are also on their way over.

I was dropped in Tauranga this morning and went clothes shopping and Christmas present shopping for people in Wellington. I purchased half of one present and all of another, which leaves me with several yet to get - thesane, I have no ideas for you. I also bought a dress; two work tops; two copies of the hardcopy version of Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce (one for me, one for tamarillow; and Rapunzel's Revenge, a comic by Shannon and Dean Hale.

Went for a walk along Ian Fergusson Park when I got back and played with some of my loot.

( Loot - and I feel thoroughly spoiled )

People seemed to like what I got them as well, so that's good. Might start buying the in-laws birthday presents this year...

I don't think I'm relaxed yet, but I'm working on it. I haven't napped today, but if I hadn't gone for a walk, I probably would have. I figure I'm on holiday. If I feel like lying down and napping, I can. Haven't done any handwork yet. Might have to do some soon.

Dad brought a ladder over yesterday and we went through the second and third stories of the house they're building a couple of sections over. The view from the third floor is beautiful and they'll use the deck there a lot, I'm sure. They're not trading down in size at all - I think the house I grew up in was 180/210 m2 plus garage space - the new one is 260m2! There's a birdsnest inside at the moment - presumably it will be removed before the jib goes in. I have various photos.

In Tauranga now, flew up after work. Flight relatively good, although delayed at the airport waiting for new luggage to be loaded. And I not only got confused by the new self checkin kiosks (I'm used to the old ones, okay?), but got complimented by the baggage watcher for putting it on the conveyer belt correctly (wheels at the back).

It's currently raining and my parents decided to make room for me in the storage room rather than put the tent up in the wet. While making a bed on the mattress on the floor for me, water was discovered dripping down the inside of the back wall and from there onto such important items as pillows and packed boxes of books - including the Biggles first editions, carefully wrapped in tissue paper by the movers. The Biggles books are fine, other books got a bit damaged. I'm not sure if I'm sleeping in there or on the couch tonight. Either is fine.

Work was insanely busy today, but I managed to finish at 5.00pm (only the WCC billing letters got sent out today, the rest can wait until late January) and do two settlements, including my second edealing. Edealing is awesome, except when it's a complex dealing and one has to wait for LINZ to check it and then email you a week or so later to say the transfer has been successfully completed. Still, good to do. And PJS did the running around bits so I could type up narrations. Next year, he will be more organised with narrations!

Have ended up with a sore ankle, since at some point today the tip of the heel on one of my sandals came off, so I've been walking around unevenly all day. I'll either take the other heel tip off or get rid of them, not sure which yet.

Didn't bring up much reading material - Beginning Operations by James White, which is the first three Sector General books; the November and December issues of NZ Lawyer; and the November issue of the Property Law Section bulletin, which I read on the plane. Getting odd looks about the latter items, but I've been looking forward to reading them, haven't had time at work and while I might argue that it's professional development, it's actually that they're interesting. Good thing there are now lots of books lying around though.

Had to install MSN on my parents new computer, which runs Vista and the latest version of internet explorer. Having tabs is good, the rest a bit odd and I'm not sure I like it. Do like the wireless keyboard and mouse, though.

Link posted for tamarillow - Google on Google Chrome webcomic.

Yesterday was fun: bookfair in the morning with clockworkflight and darthsappho as well as us three, and then they came up for lunch/afternoon tea/dinner to celebrate tamarillow's birthday. There were scones with cream, but no jam because we forgot to buy any at a our last grocery shop. And then we read exerpts from books we'd bought (mostly children's short stories) and talked.

I was relatively restrained at the bookfair; I only spent $43, the least amount of the five of us. And two of those were duplicates of books I already owned, one of them accidental. I really need to remember that I don't have Freedom's Choices by Anne McCaffrey - I always get the wrong one. I'm rather pleased with the copy of The Zucchini Warriors by Gordon Korman that I picked up and Mad Maudlin by Mercedes Lackey. Am even more impressed that, apart from the biographies (Richard Burton, Napoleon and Oscar Wilde), everything is now catalogue and shelved.

Have spent (or pretended to) a reasonable amount of time today studying. Property Law and Practice test tomorrow; I wish I could take it more seriously. Called my Dad for Father's Day and forgot that he would be at Katikati already for the SOLGM conference. Talked to Mum and texted him instead.

We will not be moving in three weeks, which I'm rather relived about. Us moving in the middle of September is not a sane thing to do. In many ways, it's a shame about the house: it crossed off so many things on our list, but it lacked location, warmth and timing and in the end we weren't enthusiastic or decisive enough. We'll keep looking.

As ever, I end up packing after 10pm the night before I leave. I think I have enough clothes, shoes and random bits and pieces that I might possibly want. My embroidery is coming on the plane with me (scissors are small enough that domestically they tend to be okay with me taking them on the plane) as is my handbag.

Sampler is getting picked up tomorrow morning. I called today and it will be ready, but he wanted to do it tomorrow morning because they'd had a horrible day today and he wanted to do the job properly. Seeing as I will likely have time in town (wheeling my big green suitcase around) I think I will get him and his staff a box of Favourites or Roses to share as a thank you because I really do appreciate that they've managed to get it done in under a week. I took it in Tuesday last.

I am packed though, apart from the sampler. I hope I haven't taken too many clothes or shoes or anything, really, and that I'll have enough warm things. But Christchurch is supposed to be really warm at the moment and it's only in the last couple of days here that I've started putting a jacket on in the evening. I'm not sure what I have jacket-wise that will go with my dress, so I'll probably just suffer. Oh, well.

I think I will go and finish rereading Blind Waves by Steven Gould, which is deliciously silly and fun and delightful and then go to sleep. I'm almost at the point where I want it to be morning already and to be doing things.

I am going to bed as soon as I have written this, which is an hour earlier than last night. I need to get up earlier tomorrow too, as I am going to my parents' church. Why do I do this to myself?

While I'm here, I haven't been online as much. This isn't my computer and I don't entirely feel comfortable reading my usual range of things somewhere where my parents might see, despite them having long gone to bed.

I'm putting off going to bed a little because I got sunburned today. I had hoped to manage to avoid getting burned this summer, but evidently lying in the sun for three and a half hours this afternoon, even with sunscreen and swimming was a bit much. And since I was lying on my stomach, it's my back and legs that are red. My face is more or less one giant freckle, but that's usual for this time of year. My parents didn't manage to avoid getting burned either. But the Mount was nice and the water was lovely. Still haven't gone to that ice-cream shop, maudlinrose. Don't know if I'll get there, either.

I went flounder fishing with Dad last night. This involves going out into the water with an underwater light in one hand and a spear in the other hand and walking through the shallows until an oversize flounder is found, whereupon one spears it. We didn't see any oversize flounder, which may be one reason I'm keen to go out again because I didn't have to kill anything. On the other hand, we saw eels, sprats, pipers, a baby kahawai and a sting ray. The ray was actually really cool; Dad managed to turn it towards me and it glided towards me until its nose hit the spear shaft and then it turned and swam away. It really does look like it's flying underwater. There were a few baby flounder too, only five centimetres long or so. One of them I poked gently with the spear, it swam about five cm, I poked it again and it swam another five cm. It was practically transparent. When I say poked, I mean touched gently or slid the spear tip under to lever up.

Some family friends are coming to stay with my parents over New Years, starting tomorrow with numbers gradually increasing until after I go home. I'll be seeing the ones I miss at the wedding and it'll be nice to catch up with the ones I do get to see. Wedding present is coming along nicely; I've finished five of the eight figures and have the remaining three, the lettering and the backstitch to go. It's very easy. I should have gotten more done, but I've been relaxing.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The rain has stopped, probably temporarily, presents have been opened and appreciated, chocolate has been consumed, sister and hubby have departed and it's nearly lunchtime. Lunch is going to be rotisserie chicken cooked on the BBQ.

After lunch we're off to have Christmas with my mum's side of the family.

Every year, it seems I put off packing until after 10.00pm the night before I go. This year, it's not on purpose.

I got out of work about 4.30pm, after the secret santa giveaway - and whoever did mine either knows me or guessed really well because I have a magnet with a quote from Madeline Astor on it - and went down to Borders to await tamarillow so we could go shopping to find her a bikini. Which we did and it was fun. It just entailed starting off in Amazon, going via Kirks and every other store we could find which sold togs before ending up in Colorado and returning to Kirks, whereupon she bought a bikini that looks absolutely awesome on her.

I ended up buying a matching pair of bikini bottoms to go with the one I got last week from Kirks, as the partners in our team gave the secretaries a $30 gift card for Kirks and I put it towards that. So now I have a matching set and feel very pleased.

We got home, I finished my book (Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier, sequal to Wildwood Dancing, made tea and then we did the dishes. It's amazing how much can accumulate in a bit over a day! I feel very strongly that my house should be clean when I go away, particularly if we're all going away.

This is why I am currently sitting at my computer listening to Emma Shapplin, putting off going into the lounge to collect the Christmas presents to take to Tauranga with me. I also have to work out what I'm going to wear on the way up; hopefully it will be a fine day and then I won't be too hot when I arrive.

It seems I've suddenly snapped out of the haze of tiredness I was in for the last few weeks, which is really good. Meant to (and forgot) to call the doctor today to find out the results of my blood test; I guess that's what happens when I don't note it down on my calender at work. I'll send an email to myself to remind me tomorrow. Said GP is retiring in October and hasn't found someone else to take over his practice. I'm going to be looking for a new GP; does anyone have any recommendations, preferably close to where I live and on a bus route?

Had a lovely visit with my parents. We went to dinner at Cafe Instanbul on Saturday night, which has become a tradition, followed by coffee (chai for me) at Dorothy's and watching the end of the Waikato v North Harbour Ranfurly Shielf match. I managed to astonish them both by managing to remember - correctly - something that happened in the only game I remember watching of a rugby world cup some years ago. The one in South Africa...

Sunday they were up for lunch and general hanging out before they had conference things to go to. Monday I had a test and Dad had conference things. Mum wandered the shops and came along to JCs with me to see what it was like. I have now lost 11kgs since I started and am about a month off halfway, which is really good. Tuesday Mum and I hung out, wandered the shops. Mum bought fabric and my (early) birthday present. I now have new sheepskin slippers without any holes that aren't actually supposed to be in them and they're lovely and warm and comfortable.

Today I managed to get to the gym for the first time in ages, which felt really good. I was even semi-coherent by the time I got down there. And I didn't have to run for the bus. Ankle coped just fine, despite me rolling it on Tuesday morning - yes, I rolled the sprained one, but it doesn't seem to have made it any worse - and I will work on my jumping and hopping exercises (both feet since my balance is terrible on both) - and with any luck, being able to play Ultimate again will come in a couple of weeks. If it weren't for the DCM bookfair, I think I'd even make it to practice on Saturday.

Have sortof stalled part way through Vol. 3 of Journey West and am distracted with Heyer. By which I mean I read These Old Shades over the past few days and am now onto Devil's Cub. And manga. I am consistently distracted with manga. And fic, of course.