Letters from Wetville

Twelve months ago I was jumpy and scared.  My thyroid bulged, I was tired despite being on holiday and being very well cared for.  I snapped at the children and sometimes consequently burst into tears. It wasn't nice. Today, I'm not jumpy and I'm not scared.  The medical peoples were useless but thankfully I did find some other things which helped.  I did three months without any alcohol and then was mostly alcohol free for another three months.  After that I had maybe one, occasionally two glasses of alcohol per week.  It helped.  I took increasing care about what I ate at night before bed and that helped with insomnia.  I cut my sugar intake back.  I set out to cut my bread intake back but that is always my health-kick nemesis.  I'm not sure if the alcohol elimination  is specifically a "cure" for the thryoid difficulties - I suspect that my liver is challenged because of haemachromatosis and this is linked to the arthritis (s...

Things I've been doing: Good : fantastic actually.  I had a weekend in Nelson with three wonderful friends and got back yesterday.  Being a tourist in Nelson is fun. Good: Morelands Fabrics in Nelson had 50% off all of their fabric last weekend.  Pictures to follow - I did well. Bad: crap really.  Heart palpitations/racing heart/breathlessness/scary irritability.  Then worse: the medical people, who I saw as soon as I got back after my weekend away, decided it was all in my head.  Stress, apparently.  I've had the cruisiest holiday since I became a parent this summer (I've been a parent for 10 years).  So there is more to be done on that score, as I would seriously like to get rid of these symptoms.  They are not as bad as a few days ago, but they are still there.  Progress: getting ready for going back to work.  I've put the word out that I'm looking for a cleaner.  I took three bags of rubbish to the dump, a yoghurt ...

In surprise evidence that anyone in Wetville is not thinking about rugby league , I have been knitting and reading about knitting. I am sewing up the never ending purple cardigan and could be wearing it as early as this coming week. That would make it only 12 months in the making... Given the steep learning curve I've had on fitting and altering sewing patterns, I had a wee google on the same for knitting patterns this afternoon. I found this set of tutorials: Fit to Flatter . Wow - one very clever and helpful knitter and teacher. This morning I took Fionn down to the special kids league session with the Warriors. I took heaps of photos and every single one of them is terrible. Do let me know if you want some pictures of headless league players, or their shoulders. This afternoon Favourite Handyman took him to the big game which he loved, and I chopped onions and prepared spuds and kumara for tomorrow's hangi. I resisted all offers of wine as last night I had two and a ...

I managed eleven days without a drink. Tonight's lapse was hardly an alcoholic bender, just a beer with fish and chips. This back to work and school and kindy and making lunches very early in the morning is a rude shock to our holidayed systems. Tonight, home at 5.30 after a long meeting, takeaways and beer seemed a mild response to my fatigue. Anyway, enough whinging. Some things are fantastic. The car is going to get a warrant tomorrow. Well that is what I fondly imagine, given the amount of time and money involved in getting four new tyres, ball somethings, indicator covers or lights and door hinges lifted. None of that deals with the fact that when it rains, the seal has gone and raindrops land on the driver, but I guess that is not dangerous and I'm sure we have spent enough on this car this fortnight. When the system registers the warrant as a pass, then I can pay lots of money, almost $300 in fact, to register the car for 12 months. After that Brighid and I are ...

Lots of new things, like the lounge walls and the bookcase Favourite Handyman painted to go in it. Today I finally finished hanging the curtains I washed three weeks ago. Tough bikkies about the wrinkles - I'm not taking them down to iron. The dress pattern. I finished all the alterations to the actual pattern. I wanted to lower the waist which is surely one small detail. Which meant the altering of the front and back bodice pieces and the front skirt wrap and the front facings. I'm not game for altering anything else on this pattern. I washed and dried the fabric. I'm not sure if the navy blue will end up looking crisp and smart or make me look like I am 69 (apologies to stylish 69 year olds), but I am sure that choosing a cheap fabric to learn on was a good idea. I pressed the pieces of the never ending purple cardigan. That's it all in a neat pile, looking most unphotogenic. No photographic evidence, but I did clean the oven, wash masses of laundry, spend an...

Not cleaning precisely, though I did run round and do some today in aid of not scaring of dinner guests off too quickly. I made chicken stock, which is the first photo. A long time ago, I read this very good book on waste in the food system, the name of which, right now, completely escapes me. Since then I look at the marked down food differently. Before I only bought it if the special was really superb, as well as that I planned to eat it anyway. But now I feel a stab of virtue as I pick up the specialled chicken (so often it is fresh chicken), that I will ensure this bird did not live and occupy the resources of the conveyor belt in order to be thrown out into landfill. So in the fridge are roughly hacked pieces of raw chicken meat which I must stir fry tomorrow and in the slow cooker is the carcass. My first ever pavlova. I was given an early birthday present by some kind people who usually give me teatowels. This time it was a copy of Annabel Langbein's The Best of Anna...

Day two of my supposed month of not drinking. I committed myself and I doubt my health will fall over immediately if I break it, but it seemed a useful experiment at 4am recently. As in 4am wide awake having drunk wine the previous evening. The King's Speech. Mary K and I went to see it this evening and I loved it. I loved the Queen in it and when I got home I used her lovely crisp and calm voice for at least ten minutes on my children. Tomatoes. We are growing some, green ones so far. I watered them and delateralled them and weeded around them and then I had a look at my bed of compost with a layer of peastraw on top and harvested big fat slugs and black and tan caterpillars for the chooks. I put fertiliser on the lemon tree. In contrast to other years when we have killed the lemon tree(s), this year we have tiny lemons on the tree. The seeds of phacelia which I sowed recently have germinated already. Beetroot. My best crop ever. I do not want to make beetroot pickle or...