Hello, people

We are back from our adventure in the Land of the Long White Cloud. It was a very busy time but we are all alive and well (tired though - I'm still tired a week later) so I think we can count our first ever overseas family holiday a success.
All up we spent 5 nights in Auckland and 4 in Taupo. We probably over scheduled ourselves, especially as Boy Child had 2 school assignments he was supposed to complete while we were away.

Here is a brief a wrap up of the things we did:

Attended 2 of the Rugby World Cup 2011 Matches - Australia vs Italy (Australia won) and Australia vs Ireland (Ireland won),

• Went up Sky Tower in Auckland,
• Drove from Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula - had lunch in a Pub in Thames,
• Went Zorbing -Girl Child and I went twice in the water one and Boy Child went in the Zorb where you are strapped in and go upside down,
• Visited Hobbiton (we had to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement so we can't show our photos until after The Hobbit movie is released,
• Saw some geothermal stuff - Craters of the Moon and Silica Terraces,
• Attended a Cultural show and Hangi,
• Went to the Waitomo Gloworm and Ruakuri Caves
• Went out on Lake Taupo and saw the rock carvings you can only see from the water,
• Drove to Napier and did an Art Deco tour.

Rock Carving on Lake Taupo

Sky Tower

Girl Child and I Zorbing

I was surprised about the number of things that were different. First of all, how hilly and green everything was. It was stunning. Of course, it rained most days we were there so that explained the greenness. The hilliness meant that it seemed to take quite a while to drive fairly short distances. We did a fair amount of driving so it was quite noticeable. The truck drivers were very polite and some pulled off the road so other traffic could go past.

There were lots of gluten free options in the Countdown (Woolworth's equivalent) supermarket I went in to. There were 3 different brands of GF bread and 3 different GF cakes available. There were banana's for $2 or $3 a kilo. I wondered why they were so cheaper as bananas here have generally been over $9 and up to $13 per kilo since Cyclone Yasi earlier this year. The reason bananas are so much cheaper in New Zealand is because they come from South America. I think the ones we bought were from Ecquador.
If you ask for Lemonade in a shop or fast food place you are offered L&P which is a very popular New Zealand drink Lemon & Paeroa. We tried it and it has an aftertaste which wasn't that appealing, to me anyway.

Burger King sells mini doughnuts. In fact you could also buy mini doughnuts at the rugby games.

Boy Child was very impressed that some of the pedestrian crossing traffic lights had a moving green man who apparently looked like he was shuffling. So every time we crossed the road at those particular traffic signals he would sing "Every day, I'm shuffling." I still believe my version of "Everybody's shuffling" fits much better for the traffic lights but apparently I'm wrong.

Things that I wouldn't do if I travelled overseas again. Book early morning flights. We had to get up at 530am to catch our flight home. Because of the 2 hour time difference by the time we arrived home we had been awake for 12 hours and it was only mid afternoon here.

Get a Travelex Visa Debit Card. We were told there were no fees except when withdrawing money at an ATM or if there was money left on it that we wanted back in Australian dollars. We were fine with those. Not impressed with the exchange rate being about $0.11 less that the rate shown at the time. When we were converting most of our spending money, to me it was a significant amount. Oh well, it was a learning experience.

Expect children to complete school work. Despite us leavign time for his assignments, it was really silly to think that Boy Child would be able to do them while on holidays. So if there is a next time, he does them before we go or when we get back. It was too stressful for him and us to try to get them done while we were away.

It was lovely to be away but it is certainly nice to be home.

So our holiday is getting close

And I have started to freak out. Today I realized that in a few days we are going overseas as a family. Not far really, just over the ditch. My brain is spinning out with all the things I need to do.

So far today I have:

• Had coffee with my friend W (she is struggling a little at the moment),


• Printed out our plane tickets, car bookings and our hotel booking confirmations,


• Ensured the car insurance covers our house sitter


• Researched data plans for us while we are away,


• Did some work and spent an hour reading at school


• Washed most of the clothes we need to take,


• I have gotten all the medications we need (believe me it's a lot!),


• And cleaned some of the house (after all the house sitter doesn't need to put up with our mess),

Things that I still need to do (and most of these need to be done tomorrow):

• Print the notes for our house sitter,
• Do some more washing,
• Pack,
• Take Serious Dog for a vet check up as he had dental surgery last week,
• Buy dog food (they need a particular one which was out of stock until late today),
• Pick Boy Child up from school early for an appointment,
• Collect Girl Child from school and take her to collect Boy child from his appointment,
• Take both to Girl Child's activity,
• Ring Mr E's sister as she had minor surgery,
• Finish cleaning the house,
• Get food for the car trip,
• Work out what time we need to pick up the kids from their schools on Thursday,
• Arrange to get the car to the house sitter before or as we are leaving on Thursday,
• Ensure that Boy Child does the some of the two assignments that he will have to do while we are on holidays,
• Clean the rest of the house,
• Post a birthday card to my niece,
• Finalise some work stuff,
• And...

I'm sure there is more I just can't remember right now. I only have approximately 32 hours left to do it which is probably why I started freaking out.

So I thought I would take this opportunity to say bye to you, my bloggy people. I may get a chance to read some blogs while we are away but I'm hoping that i will be having too much fun and hopefully relaxing too much to do that. I better go and get cracking on my to do list. Or maybe just go to bed. Decisions, decisions.

Maybe if I go to bed now, I'll be calmer tomorrow. Or maybe not. At this point I'm actually wondering if the holiday is actually worth the stress. Admittedly it's probably mostly streess of my own making and mostly in my own head. I hope it is! When we get back I will hopefully be nice a relaxed. After all we have been planning this holiday for at least two years. It has to be worth the hype. Does getting prepared for a holiday do your head in before hand? Are major holidays worth it? I really hope so!

I'm mean...

In our house Mr E. sometimes refers to me as the 'Queen of No'. I seem to have veto power on a lot of things, which is good for the finances but not so good for the 'I Want' people in my house. When the rug rats ask why I have said no, I often reply because I'm mean. Which while not exactly true is an answer that I am kind of okay with. And its not just monetary things. Recently I told Girl Child that she couldn't play with her DS or use her recently acquired birthday IPod until she found her glasses. Today I even discussed an issue with Mr E. with that's because I'm mean.

But I was thinking about it today. I'm no longer sure that I'm okay with being the mean one. I guess it's easier to say that than to explain the multitude of reasons that whoever it is can't get whatever the item that is most coveted at the particular moment. I have to admit that Girl Child is probably the worse (do they have more fad stuff aimed at girls?) but I think part of it is because at just 8 she hasn't consciously made the link between stuff and it's cost.

I do think that people need to learn the value of things. I don't want my children to think that the consumer culture is the be all and end all. I don't believe the line "he who dies with the most toys wins". But perhaps I should also lighten up a little on the times I say No. Also I think I should stop saying the reason for the No is because I'm mean. Because I'm probably not being mean. They may think I am being mean but I think I'm just trying to stunt the growth of consumerists and hopefully teach them the value of things.

What's your stand on this? Are you the No person at your place? Do you explain the reasons behind your No?

I'm not just talking big ticket items, I think my battle against creating a consumerist started back with those rides in the shopping centres.

Today I'm grateful for...

Being back again. Hopefully this time I'll be back for a while.

This week I'm also grateful for vets. There was a lovely warm day last week and i took Smiley and Serious dogs down to the dog wash. They were filthy! Unfortunately, I discovered under the dirt that their skin was irritated. We think that Smiley dog was sad because of this and he lost his smile. Now, as Smiley is deaf and blind any issues with his attitude could mean that his quality of life isn't so great. While we love Smiley Dog very much we know that prolonging his life when he has no life quality is not an option. So the day before he had his appointment, I discussed with Boy the option of Smiley Dog not making it. Thankfully,with antibiotics Smiley Dog has his smile back.

Serious Dog gets to go back and get his teeth cleaned next week but he seems fine. He is not like Smiley, who is generally exuberant, but rather subdued. However, he is Smiley's eyes and ears so it will be interesting how things go while Serious Dog is away.

I'm also grateful that the Eisteddfod is off the agenda again. It was back on for a week (they were trying to move one item as only two groups were in it) but it turns out it is definitely off. Which means we don't have to worry about it before we leave or while we are away. Again. Hurray! It seems that I was the only one worried about it. Everyone else didn't seem to mind that going to the eisteddfod meant we would have to leave after Boy Childs class so we would have arrived in Sydney until 10 pm at the earliest. Or that a slight delay leaving new Zealand could have meant that we still missed the rescheduled item. So it's really, truly off now.

So I'm grateful for these things. I'm also grateful for a new pizza place opening at our local shops and they sell Gluten Free pizzas. I'm also very grateful for my followers (and commenters) still hanging around while I have been slack once again.

Go visit Maxabella and see what everyone else is grateful for this weekend.

I'm a perpetual worrier...

And that may explain why I have been missing from the blogosphere for the last three plus weeks. It's not that I haven't wanted to know what is going on in your lives and live vicariously through those of you who have the courage to stretch the boundaries or actually go to blogging conferences etc, it's just that I have been so wrapped up in the the possibilities (and in some cases the worst case scenarios) going though my head that I haven't had the energy to devote to the blogosphere.

So what have I been worrying about? Lots of of stuff which while seemingly minor (in most cases) together has created a huge stress in my life. But as of Friday things are mostly resolved so I can get back to my my normal worries.

My headache is still on going. It seems that so many people have a story of someone they know who had headaches which caused major physical issues (such as no longer being able to speak) or who had an aneurysm which was luckily found just in time. I'm not happy about having had a headache since mid March BUT I have had a CT scan and seen a neurologist and actually trust Dr Jesse. I am on a preventative medication which has made some difference but given my recent stress levels in may actually be working better than we think.

I've been organizing things for our long awaited holiday to NZ. Passports, checking accommodation, etc. Thankfully one of the things below has actually helped with this planning and given us a more open schedule.

I have finally handed over that job that I was no longer going to be doing from April. I attended my final meeting and handed over 4 boxes of paperwork last week. The area around my desk is actually vaguely tidy now. And I was even given flowers for all my work over the last 3 a bit years. Very lovely of the committee.

We found out that there is no way that we can attend the Eistedfodd the day we arrive back from our holiday. Despite everyone's best guess that Boy Child would need to be there by 6 pm, it was discovered that the program changed and he may have needed to be there in the early afternoon. After a week spent discussing out options including paying $120 per person to change flights and then flying to the Eistedfodd it turns out that Boy is supposed to be on stage at 9am. So all the plotting and planning was for nothing. We will be on a plane then and even if we had paid the $120 each to change our flights there was no way we could make it. This holiday has been planned for 2 years and we are not skipping out a day early and missing a match in order for Boy Child to perform for 8 minutes. I am very glad we have found out a month in advance though, the troupe has time to change the items and hopefully won't be disadvantaged by Boy Child's absence. But this also means we can leave home anytime the day before our flight out instead after the last practice which would have ended at 7pm.

The best thing of all is that the delusions that someone in this house has been having and only mentioned to me a few weeks ago just as the professional involved went on a month's leave are highly unlikely to be psychosis! Thank goodness. I have been very worried about this, especially with over a month of no idea about it. I was told about the delusions very grudgingly despite them being an ongoing thing. I hate it when people try to 'protect' me by keeping me in the dark.

So that's most of my last few weeks. How have yours been? What things are you worrying about? Any tips to stop a perpetual worrier worrying? 

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