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 …