Change Time

Change of seasons that is.
Officially the 1st March is the change time from Summer to Autumn here in New Zealand.
However in normal true fashion, someone always forgets to inform the weather man that we have changed, and this usually leads to us having exceptionally good weather when it is meant to be getting cooler.

Sadly we are not having this this year. Instead we are having daily reports on the radio about how crap summer was this year, how we have had the cloudiest summer for a while, how the crops may not be so good due to lack of direct sunlight or even that they are having a good start with all the rain we have had etc.

The boys have been doing swimming at school since they went back, which is usual here as this is the summer time, but this week is the end, they have had swimming sports this week and it has been a struggle to get the children enthused for it because the water in the pool is so cold none of them want to get in! The swimming gear will be put away this weekend and not see again until November December time.

We have a heat pump in the house and we try our hardest to not use it until absolutely necessary. This means I will not consider even turning the heat on until after April 1, that way we then manage to have the heater not in use for at least 5-6 months of the year. My attitude is that if you are cold in the evening put a sweater on or wrap a blanket round you. We have the heater going permanently from May to October so every bit of time we don't have it going is saving us money towards when it is going.
Easter is in early April this year so with everything going on then maybe I can even stretch it out to beginning of May this year!

Maybe this autumn we will get one of those lovely warm ones where the colours are all alive and vibrant and you ahve some lovely crisp days walking in the forest watching the world change once again, who knows?

Finally Beaten!

By the rain that is not my favourite sports team.

Here in New Zealand it is the start of summer.
The schools have broken up for their summer break of 6-7 weeks.
The weather is finally turning nice.
Everyone has gone camping.

We too went camping over Christmas, we left on Christmas Eve and we have had an awesome time.
The first 5-6 days were beautiful, just how you hope to spend a summer Christmas if you are by the beach. The sun was out, the boys loved playing with friends and everyone had a relaxing time.
New Year was slightly different in that it rained and rained and oh yea just for good measure it rained some more! The poor people in tents, got flooded and a lot went home many days earlier than they had planned too.
Then the sun came out again and it has been nice, the odd day of rain but nothing you can't survive.
That is until yesterday when it rained a lot more, continuously all day.

The forcast for today is for much of the same and I finally made the decision that I did not want to spend another day couped in the caravan. So we came home.
We were not wet, we were not flooded, we had plenty of food, plenty of things to do but we had had enough of spending quality family time in an 8x4m space in the rain.
We had washing to do and so I decided we needed a change of scenery.

So here we are at home, sleeping in our own bed, even though the caravan is comfortable to sleep in, with more space to wander around in, the ability to use the toilet without getting wet feet on the way.
We have got a few things to get done.
The courgettes have managed to go wild and we have 2 that are like baseball bats, I think we have marrows! Will get pictures and show you later. (left the camera at the caravan, so the boys will collect it when they go back next week)
The sunflowers are reaching the roof and need tying so they don't fall over, again will show you later in a picture.
The roses need trimming, the tomatoes need tying, the garlic needs pulling.
So just a few jobs that need to be looked at so we don't loose the whole garden in the weather.

We will go back, just going to let the worst of the rain pass before we do!

What I Miss at Christmas

I have been here in New Zealand for the past 13 odd years, would I ever leave, depends where we are going, but would I move back to England...never!!

Even if it has taken me all this time to get use to having Christmas in the sun, I still miss loads to do with Christmas.
As much as we celebrate everything here, it definitely has a different feel to it.
I love the warmth of the sun but miss the warm snuggled houses with the fires roaring and everyone wearing their latest christmas inspire sweater!
I love the fact that people do decorate their houses with lights etc but hate that you have to go out at 10pm to be able to view them in their full shinnest gleam.
I miss the lights glowing in all the shop windows as you race round town late one evening for the last few gifts you desperately need or desire.
I miss the whole atmosphere that takes over in the whole month of December as you count down to Christmas with the lights, the music, the cold nights and the food. Here December wanders in and suddenly you are more concerned with the fact that the school year is closing, what are you doing with the kids over the summer break, are we going to have sunshine whilst we camp at Christmas and has summer actually started or not!
There never seems to be any real lead up to Christmas, just suddenly one day you remember and then think Holy s%#t, we only have xyz weeks to go and I have got nothing done!

I also, ultimately, miss Christmas carols.
Yes I can play a CD at home but it just does not have the same effect as standing in the cold listening to a beautiful choir fill the air with the round crisp tones of a full choir.
I miss hearing a soloist sing "Once in Royal David's City" and then the effect when the full choir comes in with verse 2.
I miss going to a carol concert leading up to Christmas, where everyone is in a jolly mood, happy to see everyone, enjoying the atmosphere and the music and munching on their christmas faire of cake and mince pies (although I will never miss either of those as I can't stand dried fruit, although never fear, we may be in full sun shine on Christmas Day but people do still insist on Christmas pudding, brandy cream / custard, Christmas cake and mince pies)

I also miss snowmen, seems a silly thing to miss but I have found that all decorations here have Santa on them, nothing seems to be snowmen orientated.
Mainly I think because we don't have snow!
So nowadays if I see something with snowmen on it and it is cute, then I snap it up really quick.

Overal, I do love Christmas here, it is very different to a winter Christmas but definitely something I would recommend everyone tries.

Merry Chrsitmas

Spring and Summer

I love spring and summer. I love the feeling of relaxation, the lift in spirit and the endless days of warmth and sunshine.

I love the flowers and colours of this time, the start of life and coming together of friends to sit around and enjoy.

I love the cool colourful clothes people wear, not afraid to just throw on a shirt and shorts with flip flops, grab the sunnies and you are ready for the sun.

The lounging by the water, splashing and cooling in the endless summer days.

The colours at this time are glorious, the flowers are out, the trees are blooming and the vibrant pinks, yellows and whites are everywhere.

Wait a little while longer and you gain the darker pinks of summer, the greens and blues, some reds and oranges mixed in too.

Although come to think about it I love all the colours of the seasons, they all have their magical power on you setting the mood for the time of year you are currently in.

Spring and summer to me is open doors and windows, long cool drinks and laundry blowing on the line.

In the winter the laundry has to dry in the house or in the drier, you feel like you are living under a laundry cloud! Everywhere you turn you fall over washing racks, things drying in the warm air of the heating or sending the electricity bill sky high when you need to get the smalls dried in the drier.

At this time of year the laundry finally gets relegated to the garage, where it can hang on the inside line (husband kindly put a line up in the roof of the garage) and dry in the natural heat of the room from the sun, or blow on the line in the gentle breeze with sun shinning. Clothes feel and smell fresh from the air, you can dry things in hours and it is especially nice when you have a 6 year old who is no longer wearing night time nappies but has the odd accident. Sheets and protector washed first thing and dry by lunch ready to go back on the bed, all smelling fresh and warm from the sun.

So summer does it for me, I am a spring summer person and I love to feel warm and relaxed.

Spring Time

For us here in New Zealand, the clocks have changed and the weather is getting better.
It is having 2 steps forward and 1 step back at the moment, but the sun is shining more and the days are so much more enjoyable.

Yesterday was one of those days when the sun shone and it was glorious.
The garden was showing proof of it too so thought I would share it with you.....

excuse the weeds in between the slabs, these plants are ground cover and they have done nothing until the clocks changed and the sun started getting to them each morning. Wouldn't mind but the tab said 'shade loving ground plants!'

Proof of a great sunny day, full line of washing

strawberries coming along nicely

Lemon tree went in Nov last year, has grown beautifully and even has buds on it

Courgette plant, although may have to move as I think it is too high in this built up area

Steve was convinced this tree in the neightbours garden was dead and then suddenly, hey presto, blossom

Garlic, growing well

Tomatoes starting well

Alex wanted some roses in the garden, yellow one which has grown at least double its height and ready to flower. Will show pictures of flowers when they bloom

Potatoes and more potatoes

Rhodo in bloom

Red rose waiting to burst its colour

Other red rose waiting to burst

Sunflower starting to poke though, need to move that irrigation pipe though!

Sunflower poking through, this seed was taken from flowers grown last year, so wasn't sure if it would grow or not

Hydrangea growing nicely, although not sure on colour, will let you know when flowers appear

Camillea still in full bloom

We have done some major work to the garden and I really should show you all sometime.
Just need to sit and go through all the pictures and work out which ones to show on here.

Changing the Clock Time

Even though we officially went into spring as of September 1, it sure doesn't seem like it in the last few weeks.
We have had an awful storm crashing over New Zealand bring with it a lot of wind and rain.
Lots of power cuts, blown off roofs and floods.

And now to add to it all we have the joy of Springing Forward tomorrow morning when our clocks change for summertime.
Sure doesn't feel like it!

Life and Police

I feel like I haven't been here at all for the last few weeks!
I have been checking up on the blogs I follow, but with it being summer here at present I feel that there are always other things to do in the lovely temps we are having than sitting and blogging on the computer.
That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about you all, I have, I have even got lots to blog about, I am just enjoying the summer at present.

I am also enjoying my new job. I have been there 2 weeks now and it is great. I now work in Cath Lab at the main hospital in Hamilton.
Cath Lab is the place you go for minimal invasive treatment of hearts, things like Angiograms and Angioplasty. 70% of the patients are older and have had some form of heart trouble, mainly Angina or even a heart attack.
It is very similar to Theatre (Operating Room) work although a little more relaxed and the patients are awake. I am thoroughly enjoying having to actually deal with patients rather than having nothing to do with them because they are asleep!
I am also learning a lot because my Cardiac knowledge was none exsistent to say the least.
This means I have been coming home knackered from working and learning so much. This will in time slowly ease off as I come to grips with things a little better.

Unfortunately, whilst I am on orientation to the department I am working full time, something I haven't done for several years!, so this is taking its toll on the rest of the family as well.
The boys are very tired by the end of the week and so weekends are very quiet as everyone recovers from a busy week.

Although if we keep having nights like last night, it will take us much longer to recover!
So what happened you ask.....?

We live in a nice area within Hamilton, unfortunately it is quite close to the University and so therefore many people have brought the houses in the area and then rent them out. This means you sometimes get people in the street who don't care or they are quite young.
The latter is the case in this story.
We have a house 2 doors down from us with young people in it and they are a pain.
They have noisy cars with big exhausts and love to drive them up and down the street several times in 5 minutes.
They have never had a party though and last night was obviously their night.
Now the music from the party was ok, it went on about 7pm and was never too loud that you wanted them to turn it down, it is also summer after all and so you expect a little music in the evenings whilst people are in their gardens.
The guests started to arrive and things were fine, a typical early 20yr olds party.
At 7.30 when I put the boys in bed, I noticed at least 30 people arrive in under 2 mins and when I went back to check on the boys I noticed at least another 20 arrive.
Over the course of the evening, the street started to resemble a carpark and you would have thought there was an important game on somewhere with the amount of groups that kept walking down the street towards the house.
As I mentioned before, the house was ok, the music was reasonable and yes there was a lot of people at the party but it was enough to make you realise that if something went wrong there would be ciaos!
I was starting to get a little restless about 10pm as I realised there were too many people there and they were all very young and that the Police were going to end up here sooner or later.
Unfortunately when a group ended up on the street outside our house at 10.30pm and smashed bottles I called '111'

Turns out I was caller #26 of the evening about the party but as I explained, the party itself was fine, it was the groups and crowds on the street that was letting it down.
Well within 15 minutes we had 12 Police here and the party was shut down. The Police went into regiment mode and suddenly there was a line of Police escorting the whole crowd up the street dispersing them away from the party.
It was an impressive sight to see.

So that was the excitment in the street for the year, may they behave themselves for a while otherwise I can see more people in the street complaining to the local council about them.

Water Safety

Here in New Zealand they are good at letting us know the stats for most things.
Holiday Death Toll
Drownings since New Year
Last Day of Rain

Of course the holiday session has finished for Christmas, but we are just about to enter 2 long weekends. The first being Anniversary Weekend, so we have Monday off and the second (2 weeks later) being Waitangi Day (Feb 6), which just happens to fall on a Friday this year, so therefore creates a long weekend.

Death Tolls on the Roads are something that New Zealand go on about a lot, they are always trying to find ways to make the roads safer.
Water safety is also another biggy for NZ, seeing as we are an island, then water plays a big part of life here in NZ, well unless you live in Hamilton, like us, then you couldn't be further away from the sea if you tried!
Over Christmas there was a lot in the papers about accidents on the water and the amount of drownings we had had so far this year. It is about 15 - 18 drownings since Jan 1.

One that stood out for me was one mentioned in the newspaper. (NZ Herald)
Apparently these 2 male relatives had gone out on their 12m aluminium run about, for a fishing trip. BUT, they had been drinking prior to going and were drinking while fishing.
Unfortunately their boat capsized, one of the guys made it to shore using a chilly bin as a float, sadly the other never made it.
Neither men were wearing a life jacket.

A relative of the missing man had this to say:
"Fishing is not somethng new to him - it's his love, and every summer he takes the boat out a couple of times a week"

So what immediately jumped out at me, was, where were the life jackets? He apparently was experienced in fishing, so why not have safety equipement?
It saddens me to hear of families loosing loved ones, especially at sea (I have a fear of drowning) but when you then hear more about the incident, then you have to wonder what they were thinking when the accident happened and could have been preventable with a few safety tips.

You always hear on the headlines "They had no life jackets"
But you never hear "Sadly they drowned but they had a life jacket on"

Why do people take water saftey so lightly?

Summer Holiday

It is our summer holiday.
We are having a great time. The sun is shinning but we are also getting the rain, sometimes enough to cool the air othertimes enough to flood the people in the tents! How I don't envy them at all.
The boys are loving the freedom they have, they can roam to the trampoline, other peoples caravans, the games room and tv room. They know not to cross the yellow line out to the car park.
They have had fun with a tarpauline, hosepipe and washing up liquid making a water slide.
They have eaten when they more or less want to and most of the time it has been a BBQ.
Steve and I have sat and read books for hours on end and not had to worry too much about where the boys are, so very relaxing.
The scenery is lovely, the beach is 3 kms away and the closest shop is 5 kms away.
Someone actually asked me what the day was the other day and I struggled to tell them, radio reception is not good here and neither is tv, so we are so out of touch with the world, I am not even sure if it is still there?
We only go into the local town, 12kms away, to do grocery shopping and then we turn round and come straight back to our little paradise. Isn't life great? Or more to the point, this is exactly what a summer holiday should be like...3 weeks of chilling out and relaxing and not having a care in the world.

All Change Please

This weekend the clocks changed from summer daylight savings to winter time.

I love this change as we gain an extra hour.

The day lasts so long and I just don't ever seem to feel tired.

Wish I could say the same for the kids. They can't quite understand why food doesn't come at the correct time and why we tried really hard to get them to stay in bed first thing!

The only thing is that suddenly the temperature changes drastically as well, one day you are in shorts and a t-shirt and the next you can't find your jeans and sweaters fast enough.

How does the weather know?

New Hats

Ben and Alex both needed new hats, as the other ones had got too small in that they didn't shade them from the sun at all.

So our priority on New Years Day was to obtain hats for them.

With a 50% sale on, apart from the colours it was relatively simple.

So we walked away with 4 hats, always good to have some spare ones in this house and 2 very happy little munchkins with new hats.

Although we did let them choose their own hats and this is what Alex wanted, so that is what we let him have. Not our fault that it is PINK!

If they are going to wear them then they can be purple with yellow dots for all I care.

Daylight Saving Time

For many years people have been mumbling every March that Daylight Saving should be extended.
We always have so many more glorious days after the clocks have changed to winter time.

So a year or 2 ago an 2 MP's (Peter Dunn and Mark Holmes) ran with the idea of extending our daylight savings by about 3 weeks.
This would give people extra time to spend evenings outside, which is good for everyone getting more fresh air, but also good for the enviroment as there would be less surge on the electricty grid as everyone got home.
It would also be good for New Zealand's tourist industry as there would be longer hours for people to visit and enjoy beautiful areas within NZ.
It would also make people think that our summer had extended, because people always seem to think that summer has ended when the clocks change.

So the MP's took this to parliament at the beginning of this year, as the clocks were about to change and put their arguement forward, along with a petition signed by over 42,000 people.
They got all the backing they required and was......SUCCESSFUL

So March next year our change over from summer to winter will happen 3 weeks later than previous years.
So on Sept 30 2007, our summer daylight saving time will start and will continue right through till April 6, 2008.

This apparently does still not bring us into line with other countries and the amount of daylight savings weeks they have, but it does bring us closer.
We will extend from 24 weeks (as set in 1990) to 27 weeks.
The US has 34 weeks and Great Britain has 31, so at least we are getting closer.

So well done that person. I think New Zealand will benefit from this incredible change and so will the people.