LUNCH WITH THE KIDS

 

It has been just over 3 and a half months since I last saw Mike and Joyce, so it will be just awesome to catch up with them today.

We are meeting up for lunch, before Mike has work.  He does night shift work, so meeting at midday/early afternoon is best for him.

Before, or after seeing the kids, I want to pop out to the University and visit a patchwork shop out there.  It's a 'sister' shop, owned by the same lady who owns Fox's Cottage in Foxton. 

Sometimes they have different fabrics from their other shop, so it's worth having a gander.

And that's all I have on my agenda for now.

Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

It is now 2.46 pm.

I've had a very busy morning/lunch time.

First off, I went out to Hidden Hollow fabric shop and got just a little more fabric.  Then I met Mike and Joyce for a nice lunch in George Street, before we did some shopping together.

I exchanged one of the t-shit/bra thingees for a bigger one, then we went to Mitre 10, where I bought a thingee for picking up stuff off the floor.   It is staying here to help Chris get stuff off the floor.

Then I went out to the kids home and spent some time with them and their dogs.

This visit has been not only about visiting humans, but dogs as well! 

ABOVE:  The back entrance to the library, it's got a neat wall art thingee.

ABOVE: A few happy snaps.

 

ABOVE:  Mike and Joyce have Beau, their border collie, and quite often now, they look after a family members dog as well.  That dog's name?

LACY!  She's an SPCA Rescue dog, with three legs. She growled at me!  But I was reassured she would not bite me.

I'm always nervous around dogs I don't know or who growl at me.  But, she was OK.

ABOVE:  Beau and Lacy play fighting.  Beau has a huge advantage.

ABOVE:  How gorgeous is this little family?

Two things to mention about them above...

1. Joyce has been chosen, along with 7 other girls in her Palmerston North Indoor Netball team, to represent NEW ZEALAND in a Tri Nations Netball competition in South Africa in August!  She is an amazing player, and I'm not in the least surprised she's a NZ Representative.

2.  Our son Mike could have DIED last month! He was at work and did a dumb, spur of the moment thing, and nearly got crushed by a machine!  He was left with a gash in his head, and had to take a couple of days off work as he was very shaken.  I hope he's learnt his lesson, and doesn't do such a DUMB ARSE thing again.  101 safety rules should be adhered to.   I had to slap him for being such a twat.

Right, now that's out of my system... time to chill out with Chris for the rest of the day.

8.13 pm... and we are enjoying a nice evening in front of the telly, nice and warm.  It's most likely going to be another freezing night, but at least they don't get frosts too often here.  There was one in Hamilton this morning... ikkkk.

I will sign off for the day now, and catch ya tomorrow.

OFF TO THE HOSPITAL NICE AND EARLY

 

This morning Sandra is picking Chris and I up and we are heading up to the hospital.

We don't know how quickly Chris will get her 'procedure' done.  It could be any time today, or maybe it will be tomorrow.  It all depends on if they can find a bed in a ward for her.

So, fingers crossed she gets a bed, and then has her procedure.  It will be good for her not having it hanging over her head, and will hopefully answer some questions re:  current health issues.

So, that's about all I have for now!  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

ABOVE: And here we sit, waiting... waiting... for something to happen. It's now 9.42 am. Let's see how long we wait...

11.30.  We sat in the hospital for 2.5 hours, Chris had the usual pre-admission checks, bloods taken and then... she was told to go home and come back on Friday, as the hospital is too full !

So... that's what she will do.

I will still be going home on Thursday, as Chris has our bestie Sandra to be with her.  I really only came down as I wanted to see my friends, and be here if needed to babysit the dogs.  

It sounds like Chris's procedure will be a same day thing, and she should be able to come home afterwards.

It has been so good catching up with the girls, and hearing all the goss... and there's a bit of goss! 😂😅
In an hour or so we are going to meet Sandra again for lunch at the mall.  What shall I have today I wonder?

2.29 pm.  Home from lunch, and shopping.

I had a sausage roll and some hot chips for my lunch.   After lunch we wandered over to K Mart, where I bought this:

ABOVE: There was a bin FULL of them, mostly blue ones.  I just had to get one for Lily!  They were very popular, we saw another two leaving the mall while we were there.

ABOVE: Sandra carries Cee Cee around in a little front pack thing, and OMG, does she get lots of attention.  So many people smile and want to pat her (the dog, not Sandra 😂😅).  She's so popular in the mall, it takes forever to get around cos she's stopped so often.

I got a couple of t-shirts with bra incorporated at K Mart to try.  Chris D wears them all the time, and said they are really comfy.  So, I'll give 'em a go.

Now that we are finally home, we are going to just relax.  It's been a busy sorta day already.

8 pm.  It's time to sign off for the day, a day that didn't quite go as expected.  But, these things happen.

I'm up till Coronation Street is over after 10 pm, then off to bed.

I'm getting a damn good night's sleep on the air bed!  I wasn't sure how good it would be, but it's just awesome.  I'm certainly going to get one for us as a spare bed.

One that self inflates and deflates.  

Right, catch ya tomorrow.

A DAY WITH THE GIRLS

 

LOL,  I couldn't help using the above 'Good Morning' picture.  Very appropriate, except for the togs and ice creams. 

I'm hoping that Chris and I can meet up with Sandra, and maybe Anne as well, for a couple of hours in town, maybe have lunch at the mall etc.

Chris goes to hospital tomorrow, and right now, we don't know how long she will be there.  It might be a day stay, or an overnight thing.  

So, I'm making the most of my visit with her right now.

ABOVE:  Can you get any closer to me Chip?   I was eating, and seriously, both dogs were totally in my face.  They are just so cute, total Shih Tzu hard cases.  I will enjoy spending time with them, and making sure they are OK while Chris is out of the house.

Chip and Benne are full brothers, but look TOTALLY different!  Chip (above) has a really old man face, and he's much heavier than Benne.

There's a really lovely photo of Benne on yesterday's post btw.

Right, that's me for now.  I'll update later on, probably closer to lunch time.

ONWARD...

ABOVE:  Me and the girls this morning.  We had a lovely catch up.

ABOVE:  I went to one of my favourite clothing shops here in Palmerston North, Ballentynes.  I found 4 warm, lightweight jumpers to wear under my lovely SCRIBBLER jacket.

I just have to remember NOT to wear them when I'm sewing, cos that just ruins woollen jumpers.

ABOVE:  Sandra and her tiny little Cee Cee, who is allowed in the mall and shops as she is a support dog.

After spending a couple of hours at the mall, I took Chris home, then went out to Foxton.

It's just a MUST DO when down this way to visit Fox's Cottage.

ABOVE: Of course, I managed to find a few bits of fabric.  Building my stash for the day we are existing on the pension and I can't afford to buy as much.  It's a good idea eh?

6.51 pm, and I'm signing off a bit early today.  Chris and I are just blobbing out in front of the tv, watching the dogs play. 

Catch ya tomorrow.

ROAD TRIP TO PALMY

 

This morning I am packing me bags and heading off to Palmerston North for a few days.

I will be leaving around lunchtime, thus giving the roads time to warm up, I don't like driving on icy roads!

Normally I'd never go down that way at this time of year, but I just felt I needed to go.

My friend Chris D is having a procedure done in hospital on Tuesday and I'm going to A) support her, and B) Babysit her two little dogs.

AND... Fox's Cottage isn't far from Palmy eh?  😂😅😉

I am also, of course, looking forward to seeing other friends, and Mike 'n' Joyce.

ONWARD...

11.20 am, and I'm at Taupo.  I left home hours earlier than I anticipated.  Cos, why wait around? 

It's a lovely day, no frost so good to go.

I stopped in Tokoroa and swung by the home my parents built when I was 3 years old.

We lived there until I was 15.

ABOVE: From the outside its hardly changed at all. I got out to take the photo and thought... why not? So I knocked on the door to say hello. 😉😊. The couple who live there now have owned the house for 40 years, and they invited me in! So a lovely chat ensued. He knew my Dad. He knew my brother Peter, who died over 40 years ago! We had such a nice, impromptu visit. We ended up having hugs as I left. So nice.

Now I am about to carry on with my trip down the line.  Just taking my time, enjoying the drive. Traffic is steady.

12.30 pm and I've  stopped on the desert road.

ABOVE: So lucky to have a fantastic view of the mountain today.

ABOVE: I'm sitting watching this helicopter landing with a bucket hanging below it. No idea why of course. But interesting.

ABOVE:  2.30 pm, and here I am, safely in Palmerston  North. I'm going to check out the mall for an hour, then go to Chris's.

ABOVE: So here we are. Chris and Chip, and Benne on my lap. I've been given the 3rd degree... I think I passed 😆.  We are spending the afternoon yakking. 

lol, we are sitting here talking about .... CORONATION STREET!  And how much it's changed.  Chris D hasn't watched it in over 45 years!  I will be watching it this evening  WRONG... ITS SUNDAY EH? , she's gunna be shocked at how much it's changed.  There's so few of the 'original' characters now.  I think Ken Barlow is about the only one from way, way back 'in the day'.  And of course, the story lines have changed dramatically, and the characters.  At one point I counted 11 homosexual characters, and there was always a murder just about to happen, or being investigated.  Shows how much times have changed, for sure.

7.56 pm, and it's a quiet night here.  We are just doing our games/puzzles on our laptops, while listening to the telly.  Time to sign off for the day, catch ya tomorrow.

39 YEARS!

 

Today Stew and I have been married for 39 years.  It's a bit hard to believe, time goes by so fast.  So much happens.  So many moves. Family expands, then contracts. 

I was totally BLESSED the day I met Stew.  He made my life shine again.  We met on the 28th of September, 1985 at around 7 pm. I will NEVER forget that night, our first kiss, our first dance, our first ... NOPE!  lol  THAT came a bit later.  *snigger*

So, we shall spend our special day together, and have a nice lunch somewhere.  

After lunch we will come home, him to watch sport on the telly, and me?  I might try and get another runner finished.

But we will see.

ONWARD...

10.15 am, and we have done the weekend grocery grab.  I wanted a few extra things today, so best to go with his nibs.

We are now twiddling our thumbs till it's time to go to lunch.   Maybe we will go out a bit earlier, as shopping is always fun.   He wants to find a back scrubber thingee...

We found a back scrubber band at Bed, Bath & Beyond at the Base.  

ABOVE: Lunch at The Lookout, it never fails to impress us.  We had Loaded Fries, that meat (Beef Cheek) was amazingly soft and juicy.  We had the Smokey Pork Pizza, with added bacon and mushrooms.  It was the yummiest pizza we'd had in a very long time.  It had caramelised onions on the top,  soooooo good!

After lunch we visited Steve, Bex and family.  

ABOVE: See the 'side eye' !  lol

ABOVE:  Found these in Farmers.  I've been wanting some for bloody ages.  I hope they work.

Shame we ain't got any eggs in the pantry right now.  Stew will get some during the week I'm sure.

ABOVE:  And like, did we need any more dishes?  NOPE, but these are such a good size, lightweight and colourful.  Perfect for small meals.  And cheap as chips from Farmers. Even Stew agreed, buy them.  😊

Now that we are home, it's going to be a quiet afternoon.  I'm freezing, so have me heated throw on... time to do a jig saw I reckon.

8.55 pm, and it's been a lovely day.  Stew is a happy man, our rugby team won.  

Time to sign off for the day.

I've got a different day planned for tomorrow.

THANK YOU

 

Thank You to everyone who popped in yesterday to say 'Hi' and leave a nice, informative comment.  It was neat hearing where you were from, what ya were doing and so on.

Sad no one was about to throttle anyone, but I live in hope... though it's more likely to be me doing the throttling than anyone else eh?  😂😅😖

Yesterday's runner is finished, but I've not taken a photo yet.  I'll do that later I suppose.  

Right now, I've got a load of washing in the machine waiting to get chucked in the dryer.  It's too wet to even think about hanging it out.  And I can't be arsed hanging it on racks. I worked out it cost us $2 to dry a load in the dryer... I'm doing it!  

Once that's done, I'll get into Crabby Quarters and start THE NEXT runner.  It's taking about 2 hours to get each one quilted and bound.  So not too bad.  Bearing in mind I have to cut out the backing fabric, pin all three layers together with a few dozen safety pins, then also make the binding.  So it's not just 'quilt and bind it' really.

I love it when one if finished, I look at it and still can't believe I MADE THAT!  They look so good ... to me anyway.  I'm proud of them.

OK, enough waffling... off I go to start me day.

ONWARD...

ABOVE: And there is yesterdays runner.  I am now off to choose which one to work on today.  Could be green, could be red, or even the brown tones one?

ABOVE: Stew has been taking these for his knee pain (plus Tramadol when needed), so this morning I decided to take some, to see if it helps with my shoulder pain?

I'll let ya know it it helped... later.  😊

10.45 am, and I am making awesome progress on today's runner, almost up to making the binding.

ABOVE: And there's another one done and dusted.

I'm now taking a break for a very late lunch, it's 2.30 pm. 

And it's soooo dark outside!  A miserable, dreary day.

ABOVE:  I did it, got another one finished!  It was pushing it with my arms starting to kill me, but happy to get it done.  The Panadol did help for a while, but probably only for about 4 hours.  I probably should have taken some more.

There might not be much sewing going on over the next few days.  I've other things to do.

More on that another day.

Right, today is done.  Stew's watching rugby.  I'm doing a jig saw and waiting for Coronation Street to come on, which is MOST unusual.  It's not usually on a Friday night.  Weird.

Catch ya tomorrow.

GO AWAY, IT'S JUST THE SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT DAY HERE!

 WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?

Seriously.

It's gunna be a case of 'SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT DAY' today.

I'm going to Coffee & Chat at 10, then I'm coming home and friggin well sewing!

ABOVE:  Today's runner is already on the table, ready for stitching.  I got a couple of rows done late yesterday.

I'm 100% sure now that sewing is aggravating my shoulders... but no way in hell will I ever stop sewing.  You'd have to chop off me arms for that to happen.  Maybe in 15 years time I will stop ... time will tell of course.

There's little old ladies here in the village, who are aged over 90, and they are still doing crafts, sewing, knitting and so on.  They are so inspirational.

I wanna be like that one day.  

So, how about YOU tell me what you are doing today?  Anything exciting?  Going anywhere?  Shopping?  Throttling anyone?  (that would be fun).  😂😅  Just boring old work?  Where do ya work?  What do YOU do to keep busy?  

Where do you live??? I know there's quite a few readers overseas.  Fill me in.  

ONWARD...
Stew kindly reminded me this morning that my cars WOF was due to expire.  So I took my car to the VTNZ place in Pukete at 9 am.

ABOVE: I was fully expecting a big queue, but NO!  I was the only one there.  My car passed it's WOF, which was a relief.

It's like going to the dentist, trepidation of a big bill.  Very thankful my wee car passed.

Once that was done, I came back to the village to attend Coffee & Chat.  That was good, some nice topics of conversation.  By 11 am I was home again, and I had an early lunch.

Warmed myself up a bit, and now?  Might head into C.Q's to work on that runner.

Thank You for your comments (so far)... it is nice hearing from you all.

MICHELLE in PALMY:  Sorry to hear that chick, I hope things work out.  It would be lovely to see you.

ABOVE: After lunch I took some time to clean up my email inbox/junk box etc.  That took some time!  In the end I deleted 1,686 emails sent to me!  They were for the months of March/April and May.  Far too many to keep.  I TRY to do a clean up at the end of every month, but I always forget.  Grrrr.

After that, I folded up the washing and did a couple of other small jobs around the house.

I did not get to my sewing, and I doubt I will today.  Stew is due home soon, and I shall take him to the pub.

Maybe I'll come home and sew for an hour, before visiting the kids?  Ya never know, I might feel motivated by then.

8 pm, and Yaaaa!  I did stay home until I finished the runner of the day.  I will show it to you tomorrow.

After that I visited the kids, then joined Stew at the pub. NO chips tonight, I wasn't hungry at all.

I did have a glass of bubbles though, which is becoming a regular thing.  One glass of wine ain't gunna hurt me eh?

We are home now, and looking forward to doing bugger all, then watching Coronation Street before bedtime.

Catch ya tomorrow.

JUST. ANOTHER. RUNNER.

 

Hi ho... guess what?

I have bugger all to start the day with.

Literally the only thing on my agenda is to finish another runner!

Kiwionholidays asked me last night after all our families?

Well, it's like this.  We birth them, we raise them up to adulthood, and then they move on with their own lives.  

Some choose to stay in touch, and we really appreciate that so much.

And some choose not to.  And that's fine as well.

Some are just too 'busy' for us.

Some are estranged, by us, or by them.

It is what it is.

I used to think I wanted my own version of 'The Waltons' (IYKYK), but that is totally unrealistic!

I used to think we were cursed with how this family turned out, but the more we talk to other family, friends and acquaintances, we realise we are not abnormal.  It's fairly common in fact for families to splinter and drift apart.

It's been comforting knowing that, because sometimes our situation used to really upset me.

But not any more.  I have accepted it, and moved on, enjoying those in our family who still want to be a part of our lives.

I hope that answered your question Kiwionholidays.

And now... I'm gunna do a few jobs around the house, then move into Crabby Quarters to work on today's runner.

ONWARD...

It is now 12 noon, and I've just finished today's runner:

ABOVE: This one has been in the 'to finish' pile for a long time!  So glad I finally got it done.

Now I'm taking a break, jumping on a bus and going to pick up my latest prescription.

On my way home I plan on wandering around Chartwell Square for a little while.  No other reason than ... 'I CAN'.  😂

7.30 pm.

I got to the bus stop with 15 minutes to wait for the next bus, so that turned out well as I had the chance to chat with one of the residents in our village that I'd not yakked to before.  He was just lovely. Then on to the bus and off I went to the pharmacy for me meds.

Got them, and I was walking back to the nearest bus stop when a car pulled up beside me, and it was one of my immediate neighbours.  He offered me a ride home, so I said sure.  That meant I scrapped the idea of going to Chartwell Square.  All good, I got to yak with 'O', and that was nice as well.

Once home, I pottered around in C.Q's for a while, getting the next runner ready for stitching.  I have to use about 100+ safety pins to hold the three runner layers together, and that takes time. 

After that I did 'housework' in C.Q. as well. Which means filling bobbins with thread.  That took me a good 3/4s of an hour!

Before I knew it, Stew arrived home, so I accompanied him down to the gym.  He did his exercises while I did nothing!  Not into exercise late in the day, thank you very much.  😕😖

And that's me day done and dusted.  I'm now in me lounge chair, heated throw on, watching mindless TV till bedtime.

Catch ya tomorrow.