Letters from Wetville

Last night we went to a beautiful hangi at our children's school. The food, the weather and the lovely combination of lots and lots of families who are part of our school community was very special. Today I dealt with the lovely bag of tomatoes my visiting aunty left for me earlier this week. I roasted them all like the first picture below. The I froze some of the roast tomato and red onion mixture and turned the rest into home made pizza, which the kids have been asking for for weeks. Brighid ate nothing because she has broken her excellent record of not being sick all term by coming down with multiple tummy complaints today. Still, it has meant I had a sleep this afternoon laying with her and I've been reading The Weissmans of Westport while keeping her company. I got a little weeding done when she put herself to sleep on the floor of her bedroom. And I'm planning a road trip with my sister. Very exciting - we've never done such a thing before. We're taki...

I could buy this top: or go to the dentist (which will likely be the equivalent of many tops) or wait until I see what the bill is after the car has been for a service tomorrow. Either way, we splashed out tonight and had dinner at the Speights Ale House where I didn't have to prepare a thing and none of us had to do dishes. You can come up with all the lectures on thriftiness in the world, but after a sleepless night and a busy day, I had not a single ounce of energy for food preparation and needed more nutrition that fish and chips could provide. We stopped at the beach and then the playground on the way home. Actually I didn't set foot on the playground, but lay in the car with my eyes shut. Yesterday I thought I was really getting the hang of the new multiple extra curricular activities - no moaning and feeling overwhelmed for at least two days and possibly more. Only now Fionn announces that he has made a decision on winter sport (rugby league again, flinging away his ...

My sewing conviction has been sorely tested this weekend. On Friday night I sewed up enough of my Simplicity 1945 crossover top to discover that there are some crucial errors. If you think I am taking a photograph of myself wearing a nearly finished top with lopsided shoulders, one baggy armpit and one not baggy armpit, too long at the front and pulling in undeneath my tummy and sharing it on the internet, then you should be ashamed of yourself. Nobody likes a sadist. Not publicly. So I retreated into knitting. Then I unwound that and wondered why I didn't just buy one at the shop. Or wear the one I already have. Or get some new hobbies. In other news of one life in a small wet town, I helped Mary K sort some more things out in her old home. Now she is settled at a local rest home, Mary is increasingly anxious to sort out all of her remaining possessions and sell the house. I have some pictures and china to link her old home and our shared ancestors to mine. I've even...

Today I went to the fire station with Brighid's class. Big red fire trucks. It was great fun - I hadn't been on a fire station visit since I was five. Just beforehand, I nipped down to our extensive central business district here in Wetville, to use my one day only discount coupon at the only modestly priced womens clothing shop in town which does not require visiting the Warehouse. New red cardy. I'm still knitting. I do want to finish my sewing as the navy top isn't far off completion, but it requires more concentration than I have to offer of an evening this week. The knitting will turn into a red scarf. In the garden, red geraniums, nestled amongst kale and rocket (sown or planted there on purpose) and self seeded alyssum, calendula and purple sprouting broccoli. I'm pretty chuffed to have gotten to the point in some parts of the garden where I get free plants which are actually welcome.

Earlier in the week I was feeling quite compromised by my working hours. My good friend's daughter was in hospital and I was at work when her four year old son needed care. But it's not that terrible after all and I can find ways to still support my friends (who have helped me so very much when I've needed it) in the evenings. Last night I hung out at the local children's ward with Miss sick 8 year old and her Mum and tonight I spent with the elderly and still wonderful Mary K. Mary K went into a rest home about six weeks ago after coping at home got frighteningly difficult for her. Today she was moved into a larger room which will be wonderful for her in the long run. Change is really hard when you are 85 and have some early dementia and Mary rang me this evening quite confused and stressed. No problem. I went down there and found a trolley (grabbed a wheelchair until they found me a trolley) and shifted the rest of her possessions. Now everything is together a...

Oh there have been some good things to read on the internet today. First up Olivia McRae on the ways in which the views of parents are ignored by the government, even as they claim to be interested in improving life for vulnerable children. I cannot decide which bits not to quote, so can only suggest you go over and read it. It is on the Otago Daily Times website. For the moment, here is part of her piece: I know that research tells us that socioeconomic factors play a large role in child abuse and the overall health and wellbeing of children. Yet poverty is carefully omitted from most discussion documents, in case the Government should be forced to admit that real poverty does in fact exist. The Salvation Army recently released its annual report, The Growing Divide, which clearly shows that a deepening gap between the haves and have-nots is having negative effects for our children and society. People often refer to the p...

As mad as a hatter Well. There is a sizeable lump of mercury filling in a container in front of me (I have an irrational desire to show it to the dentist) which used to be in my mouth. Nestled into a tooth no less. On a ranking of nasty things children bring home and share, which do you think is worst: nits or worms? That's all. I am off to read Caleb's Crossing by the ever-wonderful Geraldine Brooks now.