So anyway ...

... we left Dunedin on Saturday 20 January at 3.30 in the afternoon. We were supposed to leave around 10.00am, but the pile of "stuff we would just pack in the back of the car" grew and grew and grew with every room we thought we had already emptied until it took up most of a single garage. The the hard work really began ...

I really want to thank S and R who went so far above and beyond the call of duty ... thank you guys for helping the MOTH with all the stuff he wanted to do but couldn't ("I don't care how not-broken your other arm is, no, you cannot do heavy lifting with one arm !!!"), thank you for taking the leftover rubbish to the tip, thank you for taking the clothes and household stuff we couldn't take with us to the Salvation Army shop, thank you for returning the keys to the property manager ... thank you for EVERYTHING !!!

We spent Saturday night with my folks in Oamaru. Will be the last time the rugrats see their Gran and Pop in a while, although K has convinced me he will be quite capable of flying down to see them "all by himself" when he's 12. Three years will zip past before we know it ...

Sunday was the road-trip I was dreading. OK, so I drove the entire way to Dunedin when we moved down. But we took ten days. And I was following the MOTH. And somehow, it felt quite scary and serious all of a sudden that it was up to me to ensure that we made it home to the other end of the country safely. It's ridiculous ... I'm thirty-("mumble") years old, I have two kids, I should be used to responsibility by now !!!

Anyway ... Sunday we drove Oamaru to Picton to catch the ferry we had already booked and paid for prior to the MOTH's accident. The kids were quite content in the back with their DVD player, traffic was pretty good, it wasn't raining, and with the couple of decent stops we made (Christchurch for lunch and Kaikoura for a quick paddle in the ocean, a power nap and an icecream) it was no where near as scary as I was dreading. I'm not a huge fan of long distance driving, and planning to share the task is a lot different from knowing it was all up to me ...

Monday morning in Wellington we met Lisa for coffee (trim mochaccinos all around), who has already posted about it far more articulately than I could ever hope to. It was fantastic to meet her. I count myself truly fortunate that I have never had a bad experience meeting anyone face to face whom I have come to know online ... it has honestly been one of the best parts of this strange world we inhabit.

Driving Wellington to Taupo on Monday was almost anti-climactic after the day before, and then driving Taupo to Orewa on Tuesday was an even shorter distance. By the time we got to Wednesday, the two hours from Orewa to Whangarei were nothing but a hop-skip-and-jump ... and the Dome Valley which I have always hated driving through is nothing compared to some of the winding roads around the coastline near Kaikoura. I may get used to this long distance driving yet ...

So now we're home. Camping out on mattresses on the floor until our stuff arrives, doing laundry every two days because we only have three changes of clothing, sitting on camp chairs in the lounge until we find an affordable lounge suite we like, drinking out of plastic cups because all our glasses are packed into our chest of drawers, but we're home ...

Why I haven't been around much lately ...

What's pretty much the most inconvenient thing that could happen to a family planning on moving to the other end of the country ?!?

Go on, guess ... I dare ya !!!

How about the person responsible for the heavy lifting, packing, and driving afore-mentioned family to the other end of the country completely incapacitating himself exactly six days before departure ?!?!? Didn't think of that now, did ya ?

We went to Christchurch for the BMX South Island titles the weekend before we moved. In hindsight, being out of town the week before we left, with 95% of our packing still to do was not the smartest move we could have made. However, due to the fact we were leaving the rugrats with their grandparents in Oamaru for the week on the way back from Christchurch should have left us with plenty of time.

Oh the best laid plans of mice and men ...

Surprisingly, I had not factored into my carefully list-ed equation the fact that the MOTH would crash in the 5th round of racing, bounce headfirst into a jump, knock himself out, stand up and attempt to walk off the track, fall over, be carried off on a stretcher, attempt to thump the well-meaning medic who tried to fit him with a neck brace, be trucked off to hospital in an ambulance, be diagnosed with a broken collarbone and two cracked ribs and that we would have to spend an additional night in Christchurch ...

Which meant, not surprisingly, that the week before we left Dunedin was ... chaotic, to say the least. I was so excited about leaving, but the closer we actually came to departure, the more I realised I am going to miss a lot of people.

In reality, when we left Whangarei we knew it was only temporary. And that we would be back regularly for visits, no matter how long we ended up staying in Dunedin. So it didn’t feel like such a “break” …

The reality is, I doubt we will be back to Dunedin in the forseeable future. Although, having said that, the BMX Nationals are in Christchurch next year, and (assuming the kids are still racing) we will be down for them … and Dunedin IS only four hours away. So … we will probably make it down for a few days then …

The last week was hard … I said goodbye to the guys from ice skating on Monday night, goodnight at BMX on Thursday and then dinner on Friday night with a few of the girls from work …

Only three months ago I was, not exactly moaning, but feeling a bit down, and saying to the MOTH that I had made no real friends in Dunedin. The last week showed me just how wrong I was …

Downs ... and then ups ...

Some of you who have known me for a while may remember that, when we first moved here from Whangarei, the relocation "specialists" lost our cat - M. We finally got him back two months later after they trapped him in a local reserve, but he was never quite the same.

I took M to the vet this morning. He has been throwing up all over the house, stalking around meowing constantly, wouldn't settle, and he looked awful. To cut a long story short, he had a heart murmur, and she suspected hyperthyroidism and bowel problems as well. Basically, he just got old and even if we had spent a fortune on diagnostic tests, he was going to be on meds for the rest of his life and he was never going to get better.

I bought M as a present for the MOTH to celebrate our three month anniversary. The MOTH grew up on a farm where cats weren't considered "pets", and M was the first cat he had ever owned. Or rather, M was the first cat who had ever owned him !! He was definitely a one person cat ... he tolerated (barely) the rest of us, but he loved the MOTH.

I held onto M while the vet put him to sleep. Actually, it took three of us to hold him down as she first shaved his leg, then put the needle in. Anyone who says "don't worry, it's very peaceful" is lying. He fought like a mad thing and I feel like a murderer. The only good thing is that it was incredibly quick. And when it was over he lay there with his stupid little pink tongue just sticking out, like he used to when he was waiting for the MOTH to notice it was time for a cuddle ...

I've told the MOTH I can't ever do that again. And if that means that we can't have any more pets, then that doesn't seem like such a bad thing at the moment.

Insignificant as it seems in the face of this morning, the MOTH received a call from our property manager this afternoon. Our tenants have found somewhere else to live and will be moving out of our house the weekend before we arrive home. So I guess I was stressing over nothing. As a sensible woman I know told me yesterday, "in ten years it won't matter" ...

Ups ... and downs ...

The MOTH and I went into work early this morning so that we could catch our manager before the day started and I could hand in my resignation letter.

Although I was really nervous, it all went well. I'm pretty sure his main concern was losing the MOTH's services, but once we told him he was sticking around until April, he was extremely relieved. However, although he did say several times that it was a good decision for us, not once did he say he would be sorry to see me go. So I don't feel at all bad about leaving.

The down part to this story is that our property manager in Whangarei has rung. Although tenants are required to only give three week's notice they are vacating a property, apparently we, as the owners, are required to give six !!!! How dumb is that ?!?!?!? It's our house ... how is it that they have more rights than we do ?!?!?

We are tied into being back home in three weeks (so that the kids can start a new school year etc), my new fridge and microwave are being delivered on the 24th, and we want our house back !!! So I am stressing majorly at this point ...

Stay tuned for more updates !!!

Resolutions and decisions ...

Why should a decision we make on a particular day hold any more weight, or be any more likely to be effective than a decision we make on any other day ? I mean, why don't we make "February the 18th resolutions" ?!?!? What's wrong with August the 24th ?!?!?

As you can probably tell, I'm not usually very good with New Year resolutions. Of course, I make the generic "lose weight, eat more healthily, do more exercise, yell at my children less often" mental list at the start of each year, and then again about April .... but by about October I'm just hanging in there for the holiday at the end of the year ...

Last year I actually managed to accomplish several things on my list. I joined WW, and so far have lost 7.2kg. Another 3kg and I'll be at goal. As we were reminded at our meeting last week, "goals are dreams with deadlines" ... so I've set myself a deadline of 28 February to make goal. So I'm on track there ...

Last year I increased the amount of exercise I do too. I trained for, and completed, a duathlon at the beginning of the year ... started ice skating ... and (until I screwed up my rotator cuff) was playing squash two or three times a week. I'll need to review my plans now, for a couple of reasons ...

Not yelling at the rugrats is hard. Really, really hard. Anyone who has ever had kids knows that. I'm not the most patient of people, and I have a rather short fuse. Some days I suspect that K was put on this planet for the sole purpose of pissing me off. I'm not a natural parent. It doesn't come easily to me, that whole mother earth, self sacrificing thing. Last year the MOTH and I took a parenting course ... and things have improved. And if we didn't want to change things, we wouldn't have done it. So we're doing the very best we can, even if I don't bake cookies and I still yell at my kids too much ...

This year the MOTH and I have made a major resolution / decision. We're moving home. We leave in three weeks, will be driving back to Whangarei, and will be home by 23 January. The hardest part is that the MOTH will then be flying back to Dunedin to finish his contract, while I attempt (temporary) solo parenthood in Whangarei. We've bought a laptop though, and with web-cams the rugrats will still get to talk to him every night.

My rugrats are moving home to already established friends, a school they know, their own bedrooms ... and family. I'm moving home to girlfriends with new babies, babies that are now toddlers, children that have become young adults, and my own house !!!!!

So Lisa, fancy a coffee some time around the 21st ???