We've got rain

Yes folks, we finally have precipitation. had to be in the middle of the long weekend though. Personally, I don't mind, cos we don't usually make a habit of going anywhere on long weekends anyway. Its not a lot of rain, just a gentle fall that is all being soaked up nicely into very thirsty soil. Its that dry here that the water isn't even making it to the end of the drain down the drive yet.

Meantime, I'm having a lovely time playing with my new toy. You know all those phone & power bills & bank statements that accumulate & you don't want to put out with the rubbish or recycling ? You KNOW how they tend to accumulate. Mine have accumulated for a number of years now. I bought a shredder yesterday & I've been having a lovely time. So far, I've cleaned out one tray of 4 filing baskets & have filled 2 black rubbish bags with shredded paper. It sorta grows when you shred it. later on today, I will take it down to the dump along with some other recyclables & the trailor load of organics that Lorna next door has accumulated. Thats if it stops raining of course....

Its a Boy !

My eldest son's wife has been pregnant for some time now & is due some time in July. They went for a scan yesterday & gave me some wonderful news. Sometime in July, they are having a boy. To say that I am delighted would be a mild understatement. I am absolutely over the moon

STOP PRESS !!!!!!

Yes folks, hold everything.. Flattie wants the front page. Why ? Because he has received permission to publish the pic of Flattie, Herself & the oh so beautiful & charming Michy..
Yes folks, that's her & she really is that nice. Thanks again for coming all that way to see us Michy. We really appreciated it. Was absolutely fantastic to finally meet you after all this time & we both look forward to seeing you again in September.

Home again home again, jiggety jog

Well, here we are safely home again. Had a lovely time we did in Dunedin. The flights down & back were good as well, thanks to the lovely lady at Virgin Blue in Auckland who upgraded us for both flights to 1st. class. The only slight fly in the ointment was the 3 dickheads in front of us who cranked their seats right back then proceeded to drink beer & visit the toilet with monotonous regularity, throwing themselves down when they returned. Oh well, boys will be boys I guess. Didn't see much either way as as it was cloudy, but as both trips were straight thru , it was relatively quick.

Our new grand daughter , Conaire is an absolute delight. see what I mean ?

This is us at the airport, me looking a bit down as we was about to leave. parting is such sweet sorrow as the Bard said once. Speaking of leaving, that wasn't without incident either. You see, Herself neglected to take a pair of scissors out of her carry on luggage, so in the end I had to race back down to check in with it. I mean honestly. What did she think she was gonna do ? Struggle her way out of her window seat, wrap her leg brace round a flight attendants neck, brandish the scissors & hold up her magnadoodle board with "This is a hijack! fly me to the nearest patchwork exhibition" written on it or something. Oh well, I suppose we should really be grateful that they care so much about our (& theirs) safety that they are so thorough.

There is something indescribably wonderful about being with family. Almost a sense of awe to sit down with both my sons, their wives & our two wonderful grandchildren, especially seeing Sean's wife, Susan, being very pregnant with the third one.

These are my boys with their two precious bundles. Not that Conaire is precocious or anything. Anna loves to ham it up for the camera as well....

Amazing what Poppie's hat & a camera will do....

We were also lucky enough to meet the lovely Michy & her two delightful daughters. I have a pic of us all together, but will wait until she says its OK before i publish it here. Anyway, all things considered, we had a wonderful time, but it is really great to be home though. The cats were actually pleased to see us , greeting us in the driveway with plaintiff "Where have you been?" meouws instead of their usual studied indifference. Nice to know that somebody missed us anyway.

Herself has been busy today taking down the Xmas decorations. I have been very busy catching up here & sleeping. Doubtless, my task for tomorrow will be putting the deccies away in the roof till next year. OK, thats it, nearly time for Star Trek, the next generation, so will catch you all later.

Greetings from the South Pole

Well, not quite, but nearly there. I mean Dunedin IS getting pretty far south isn't it? We are having a wonderful time. My boys have been looking after us in great style. So far since we have been here, we have met our new grand daughter, Conaire, aint she beautiful?

Also, Ian took us to see the new movie sensation, Avatar.Can't really sy an awful lot about it, because words sorta fail me just a little. Suffice it to say, that if you get the chance to go see it you gotta.

Next day, we did the Taiare Gorge railway trip. We have wanted to do it for some time now, & have finally gotten around to it.
It really is an amazing trip. I will probably do a separate post on it after we get home.















That fullah Arthur must have been a pretty busy sort of guy, because not only did he pass somewhere else in the South Island, He left a vital bit of his anatomy at the top of the Taiare Gorge, so you go figure.......












This is the other reason for our visit. Our first Southern Grand Daughter Anna, who has now just had her 2nd. birthday. She is growing up beautiful & seems to be developing a special bond with her Grammy, as you can see. Anyway, as the post card says, having a wonderful time, wish you was here.. LATER..

In the making

Ally & the kids came up for a quick overnighter on Saturday. I wasn't that quick that I couldn't take the boys out in the boat for a fish yesterday morning & get some quality bloke time in, or Jude couldnt get some quality sheila time in with the girls doing girly stuff like washing hair & window shopping & stuff that any decent bloke would rather slit his wrists than do. Anyway, we all had a good time. Jude ended up getting rid of some of her "stuff" that has been stockpiled in my garage for years thanks to a chance encounter at our local Seagull shop,(don't ask), & me & the boys caught enough snapper for us all to positively gorge ourselves on beautiful fresh fish for tea.

The Red Shed had a special on plastic bins post Christmas, so I invested the princely sum of $10.00 in a new fish bin. This one is bigger than the one I have been using, has a lid & no drainage holes. So I invested the princely sum of $5.00 in a binful of salt ice. This is good stuff, because it chills your drinks down as well as your fish. Having finally learned how to humanely & quickly kill fish, they arrived home in absolute prime condition, well chilled, which makes for easy filleting & the most beautiful eating. We thoroughly enjoyed.

Anyway, as we were coming in on the high tide we were motoring up the channel to the boat ramp. To one side was a mum with 3 kids & light fishing gear having a lovely time catching fish. Very considerate they were too, hauling in their lines as boats came through so as not to foul there gear in our props. As we drew level with them, the oldest, a lad of maybe 6 or 7 holds up his latest catch, a wopping 6 incher & calls out, "How many did yer get?" I answered, "Oh, 6 or 7." (8 actually) He yells back, "Ohh , we got more than THAT !" Nice to see a whole new generation of fisho's coming on. Especially ones who are prepared to boast about their catch. Good on Mum too, for being prepared to stand on a steep river bank in the hot sun while her kids had the time of their lives. You deserve a medal.

You're not worth the powder sir...

After wading through the absolute garbage inherent with the holiday season, we finally got spoiled for choice tonight. Harry Potter & The Philosopher's stone, part one of a very good sci fi mini series, The Andromeda Strain & HornBlower:The Even Chance on Prime. After much deliberation, I opted to watch the start of Harry Potty then swap over to HornBlower at 8.30. With Andromeda Strain, have read the book, seen the movie & probably got the tee shirt lurking somewhere.

For those that don't know, Even Chance is the first book in th HornBlower series written by C.S. Forester. They are set in the late 17th, early 18th century & involve lots of naval battles, gunpowder smoke personal conflicts & above all the triumph of said Horatio HornBlower. Was a good movie with plenty of gun battles at sea, & even the odd duel or two. All in all a relaxing way to spend an evening, blowing away the old Christmas cobwebs. The title is HornBlower's line after refusing to kill the dastardly senior midshipman who was the story baddy & challenged him to a duel. Good stuff it was..

Happy New Year

Some time ago last year, I put a nice big calendar on the wall in the office. you know the sort. The ones with the spaces big enough to write stuff in on each days space. I did this out of sheer desperation, as I was always getting someone either turning up unexpectedly, or phoning to see where we were. It's been a very busy year for us both. I took it down this morning as i do with calendars on the first day of a new year. Leafing through it was a scary experience, a little like going back through my blog. So much happened in this past year, it has just been a whirlwind.

The biggest change I think, has been going from a fully employed worker to a carer/sickness beneficiary. It hasn't been an easy transition, but like everything that you HAVE to do, you just do it & sort out the nuts & bolts later. Even so, a year on there are still a lot of nuts & bolts left in my jar. I made the same resolution this year that I make every year. That is not to make any resolutions. I do have some things that I have to do this year though. One is to lose weight. A lot of it. Next is to give Jude the very best care & support that I can. Then to spend time fishing. Then to finally get to meet the latest addition to our family. Last but not least, is to keep on telling those dear to me how much I love them. You all mean a lot to me. Happy New Year. I hope its a good one for you.