We’ve just realised that we’ve been in our house 6 months now! Yet it only feels like a couple of weeks ago that we got the keys and started moving stuff in.
Autumn arrived with a vengeance mid March! It poured, the temperature dropped and the sun went into hiding! We both fell foul of autumn colds and spent a miserable few weeks coughing, sniffling and sneezing – happily we are all better now!
As we had friends around for a BBQ on Ann’s birthday weekend our next free evening was the following weekend. We went to an Indian restaurant that we both like – it was lovely.
Peter went on a trip to Auckland with the bonsai club – saw three collections and visited a nursery, fortunately he didn’t bring back any more trees to work on. Peter’s also now a page three pin up in the NZBA magazine!
Work in the garden continues at the weekends. We have planted some more shrubs in the one border and put some wood along the base of the berberis hedge to stop some of the weeds (and get rid of some sand).
As usual work for both of us has been busy. Ann’s school has been hosting a Special Education conference with 8 staff from Sunfield School in Clent in the West Midlands. The workshops on Autism were really good but Ann was slightly shocked when one of the presenters said she remembered Ann from a course at Sunfield School about 4-5 years ago. Now Peter wants to know just what Ann said or did on that course for her to be remembered all this time later!
Our dogs continue to delight and amuse us. Jaz is her usual superior self! She did really well at dog training on week 9 which is good as week 10 is assessment night!!!. Maxie ‘eyeballs’ every dog she sees – which is challenging and causes the other dogs to become noisy and aggressive so we are trying to teach her not to stare (big challenge!) Maxie continues to be a ‘loon’. She tears around, grunts and growls at the neighbours and other dogs and has now taken an interest in cows! During a trip to Te Awamutu in the car one Saturday she kept jumping up excitedly every time we drove past some cows (which means every couple of minutes in New Zealand as almost everyone has a cow, or a sheep, or a goat on their section)!
Maxie is a real tomboy – she came back in from her morning ‘perambulation’ one wet and muddy day with four extremely mucky paws and dirt all over her face and neck! She was not amused when Ann refused to let her go anywhere until she’d cleaned her up! Jaz, of course, wouldn’t deign to get so mucky!
We’ve been busy sorting out ways to keep both dogs free from boredom – especially when we’re in work – to try and prevent occasions like this.
Ann has also found two of her socks buried in the garden!
So whenever we see a new toy we buy it.
As you can see some last longer than others.
Chicken Nuggets anyone?
News from Home
Ann’s mum has been unwell and in hospital for the last couple of weeks. She’s had to have lots of tests and examinations and has baffled doctors from all over the hospital and even one or two visiting consultants. Hopefully she’ll be better and off home soon.
Ann’s nephew was also rushed into hospital with appendicitis. He’s now out and recovering from the surgery. All film and TV directors please note – he’ll be ready for filming in no time!!!
Peter’s great nephew’s, Arron and Kyle, have gone to South Africa for a couple of weeks as part of a team of 80 to train teachers in South Africa how to teach PE.
An ex-colleague of Ann’s from The Orchard School, Hugh, retired at Christmas and now spends the winter months in warmer climes in Portugal with his wife in their apartment. To prevent starvation and poverty he intends to do some menial work in the UK in the summer months (i.e. a bit of supply teaching) or something more important (cleaning public loos) and rent the apartment out.