Eventful Eclipse week

Evening all. Rather eventful week......starting with last Monday evening. Adrian and i were happily laying in bed, snoozing away as you do at 1am in the morning, when there is an almighty CRACK, and the bed literally just splits in two. We now have a new bed base, but the worst thing was, i was recounting the story to a girl at kindy, where a few other people were obviously listening, and one girl turned around and said " what were you DOING, to break your bed in two?!" Cue lots of blushing by me and some feeble protestations of "well,.....sleeping". Methinks i have a bit of a reputation at kindy now! Ah well, i bet they're only jealous.

We had a spectacular Lunar Eclipse on Tuesday( see pictures here) ; that was really something. And Wednesday i drove ALL by myself over the harbour bridge...IN the dark, i hasten to add. Which is a bit of an achievement. Except for the fact that i got completely and utterly lost and ended up in the completely wrong place. But of course, that is not the point - i never in a million years thought i would ever be able to drive over that thing by myself, and now i have. The world is now my oyster :D

Where i was going is another story and i want to tell some people in person before i announce it to the world, but suffice to say it will be a big change for us. Mysterious, yes....as a disclaimer i am not pregnant, moving or divorcing Adrian! All will be revealed in time.

Well, love to you all and thank you for all the emails, especially from Susan...i loved the pictures :) Don't know if i said a public congratulations to Emily and her new husband, but am really made up for you both and wish you all the best together.

Love to everyone........think i already said that but am feeling particularly loved-up this evening :) xxxx

The Grandmother's influence

Work day yesterday. I'm really enjoying being at work, which suprises me. The girls that work there are all genuinely lovely, and i'm feeling like i've got the hang of it now. There are the usual funny questions though - one guy came in with his pregnant wife yesterday asking for a kitchen timer. I showed him what we have and he was disappointed that there wasn't a 24 hour one, as he wanted to set it for every 3 hours so they'd know when to feed their baby. I kid you not. I let out a rather unattractive involuntary guffaw and told them that i was sure the baby would be a good enough timer. Probably very rude of me i know, but it really did make me laugh. And did i mention the woman who came in asking for a thermometer to measure how hot her boiling water was? Again, i was like "errrr, at a guess, 100 degrees?"

Jenna is having her first time at morning kindy this morning, she was absolutely fine and sitting at the baking table ready to make some scones when i left. It's very strange just having one child around the place.

Adrian had a nice day with the girls yesterday by all accounts; he bought Leah some stabilisers for her bike as it's a tad too big and she was having a bit of bother learning on it, so she's all chuffed now. Jenna was very tired and grumpy apparently, and at one point Adrian was frantic trying to find her, thinking she'd gotten out of the gate, looking all up the street....then went into our room, heard a quiet little snoring noise under our bed......



....bless her; she stayed under there for 2 hours !

And lastly; i'd like to share with you all what my lovely mother has taught my children.

They are now hardened card sharks and sit at the table together after dinner (without adult help, even!) playing Last Card together. They'll be wagering their pocket money on it next, mark my words. It's really lovely, in truth; they play so well together. Well, until next time xxxx

disco fever year 2

It's been Disco fever again in our household as i have been very busy helping prepare for the annual kindy disco. I was very wise and stayed safely within the confines of the cake stall. I suspect myself and my fellow cake-stallers were the only people with any personal space the whole evening. I even managed to escape looking after the children and poor Adrian was roped into looking after not only his own 3 but Sam, our nephew, also.

Upon tidying up with some others a full hour after the disco had ended last night, i looked around and wondered why it is so often the people with the most children that stay and help tidy up at the end of the night? Not always, i grant you, but of the 5 of us there, 4 of us had at least 3 or more children. Just a ponderance!

Today we've just been pottering really; we took Sam and the girls for a walk round Panmure Basin and they've just been playing beautifully in the playhouse and sandpit all day. In face it all felt rather 1950s-ish today at one point. Adrian was out mowing the lawns, i was inside cleaning the kitchen; the children were scampering up the treehouse; an ice cream van went past.....all that was missing was a pet Labrador and we would have been straight out of a children's book. I was even wearing a half pinny! ( Having just typed 'pinny', i am aware how strange a word it is - do people other than my mother still use the word 'pinny' for apron? Is it a scouse thing???)

I have grand plans for 2 trees in my front garden for the summertime. When we first moved in we thought they were a bit randomly placed on the front lawn like this.....

.... but i have come to the realisation that they are obviously there for me to put a hammock. I am now filled with contentment knowing that come December i will be in my hammock in the sunshine with an excellent book and a G&T. Does it get much better than that?

Anyhoo, talking of books, i am going to curl up on the sofa with my current book, some tea and shortbread, so i'll love you and leave you with some photos of today.

Chuckling away...

I am still in the depths of despair but a very funny announcement i heard today has had me chuckling away to myself. I was in Sylvia Park ( swanky great big brand new mall-type thing) and driving past the train station attached to it with my window down. The next second i heard over the railway tannoy:

"If you urinate in that shelter one more time young man, i will come down there and chop it off and you won't be able to urinate anywhere"

I was in stitches, i tell you....best thing i've heard in ages.

Also got news today that Jenna starts Morning kindy on Monday, so it'll just be me and Heidi in the mornings now which will be nice and quiet, no doubt!

Adrian started his new job yesterday and all seems to be well, they sound like nice people and hopefully all will continue to go well. Mum and Dad are about 3 hours into their mammoth 13 hour trip home from Hong Kong as i type; bet they'll be glad to be back on solid ground.

Other than all that, it's back to normality so quickly.

Nice memories

aaah, well they left again :( I'm all depressed and gloomy again and wondering why on earth i live where i live. It was the most fun holiday though; i had a thoroughly lovely time. I'm too gloomy to write much today but in short, my highlights were, in no particular order

• Spending a lovely day in Devonport
• Having a picnic with all lovely organic foods from the Clevedon Farmers Market, all courtesy of Uncle Joe
• Going away to a beautiful bach in Russell
• Seeing pods of dolphins and seeing the look on Dad and Leah's faces
• Watching Harry Potter with Chris
• When a random man asked Chris teh way to Manukau (sometimes pronounced Mun-oo-ko), Chris thinking he'd asked the way to Monaco and told him to go to a Travel Agents down the road
• The fact that Heidi never once called Chris by his name - he was always "Grandad", much to our amusement.
• Having coffee out every single day
• Spending a day out shopping at Sylvia Park with mum
• Playing lots of Scrabble and Cranium, and most notably, Chris's interpretations of miming walking down an escalator, and a spring roll. I guess you had to be there, but take my word for it that it was hilarious :)
• Talking to Claire at least twice a week; something i must do more often for i forgot just how much she always cheers me up
• Going to the zoo for Dad's birthday
• Watching the expression of horror on Adrian's face telling him that we had used approximately 400 tea bags in 3 weeks.

There were so many highlights and I'm sure I've forgotten some of them; i had such a great time, and the kids just loved waking up and having them in the house. It all feels very empty without them. Heidi keeps asking "Where Nanny?", Jenna has expressly told me NOT to talk about Nanny and Grandad and Chris or else she will get sad, and Leah has told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted to go back to England with them and that we need to go back soon. As for me, i have done all my usual sobbing and wailing, and Adrian felt so sorry for me that he bought me a pair of boots, which has appeased me somewhat.

Anyhoo, as usual will leave you with some photos of yesterday....enjoy :)

********BLOGGERS CRAMP********

Further to all your emails and messages, i have returned to blog once more. I have been trying, i promise, but a combination of having my parents here and a feeling of not knowing what on earth to write any more have stopped me. Seriously, I've been sitting down to write something and then getting stuck for inspiring words to come out. A severe case of bloggers cramp, if you will. Plus Adrian has lost his job; it's been a hectic old month.

It's been fantastic having mum and dad and Chris around; too much to go into detail about now, as I'm still enjoying spending every last minute with them, but I'll leave off for now with a selection of photos from recently for you. We've had a weekend away at a lovely bach up north in teh Bay Of Islands, doing a bit of dolphin spotting, playing lots of Scrabble and Cranium and generally relaxing and just hanging out together and enjoying each others company.

And........as i didn't write a special message for her, a VERY happy belated birthday to Claire....sorry darling xxxx

Mad weather

Well, all moved in to the new house; everyone should have gotten my new address via email but if anyone hasn't then drop me a line and i'll send it on. It's just lovely, and i mean it this time! I have told Adrian if he asks me to move again he will find divorce papers on his desk (kidding....kind of!) Kids have been loving roaming around the garden and sheltering from the rain in the playhouse at the bottom of the garden.

The day started off beautifully today; i got two whole loads of washing out and dried before lunchtime - Pat can vouch for me no doubt that given Auckland weather currently that is no mean feat! Then we had to go out to get Jenna's immunisations done at 3 o clock; i'd noticed some interference with the telly and said to the kids there would probably be a thunderstorm. Well, you've never seen anything like it. I was driving down Pakuranga highway and honestly, i've never seen such an ominous looking sky. The heavens literally opened to the point the visibility went to practically zero, with loud thunder and scarily close lightning. I had to pull off the road and try to wait it out. We got to the doctors safely and by the time we got out it was just raining. Turns out, listening to the radio a minute ago, there was a tornado just bowled through Botany Downs (about 5 minutes away from where we are). Minimal damage but lots of flooding, some roofs are missing Scary stuff.

Now the skies have gone black again and looks like we're going to get another storm, so i'd better get off the computer. Sorry for the lack of blogging again recently, should be better now we're up and running again. Love to you all xxxx

Girl power!

I am currently feeling like Wonder Woman. Yesterday, i got a job before breakfast ( yes, the interview went well and i have a job, yay me!) , i packed up the entire contents of my house, made biscuits with the children, cooked a fabulous dinner out of nothing, and then went outside and chopped the wood for the fire. And today, having got the keys to the new house, i am single handedly moving the entire contents of the house, bar one or two things. Men....pah....who needs them?!

Backdating to do....

Sorry for the lack of blogging - i have, as usual, no excuses........just laziness on my part! I forgot to blog a Happy 6th Birthday to Leah, so first off, Happy Birthday Leah! We had a lovely day and her party was decidedly more low key than Jenna's was, for the sake of my nerves! I took her and a couple of friends ice skating and they loved it - leah especially, who was running across the ice by the end thinking she was Torvill and Dean.

And another birthday.....Rachael and Ivan rang on Monday night last week to ask if we could look after Sam for the night as Rachael was in labour, and baby Owen Bergman was born on the 19th at 3am. We saw him yesterday and he is very very gorgeous (photo courtesy of Ivan)


I have an interview this morning at Stevens, for a part time job. Hopefully it goes well and i get it. Up until about 10 minutes ago i had only one shoe suitable for interviews. The last time i remember wearing them both together was the last time i went for an interview......ummm, about 2004!

The big move happens tomorrow; i get the keys to the new place and will satrt taking boxes over during the week and then the men can do all the lifting at the weekend. So looking forward to be living there now - will email you all my new address.

Anyhoo, wish me luck! xxx

Houses, houses.....

Well, it's that time of year again.....yes, the Bergmans are on the move again. I swear we must have gypsy blood in us somewhere along the line. However, the new house has been approved by myself, it has a lovely playhouse outside and a massive garden, with a tree hut and a slide, and all fully fenced. And not far away, so no moving of schools or kindy. 3 weeks and we'll be off again


Also, quite randomly, Adrian found our first ever house we had in Rotorua on trade me earlier this evening....click this link to have a look at how it looks now. This is what it looked like when we first moved in - clearly we did all the hard work for them moving all the rubbish out of the garden!


And these ones show just how overgrown that lawn by the tree was when we first moved in - I'm sure Anne and Des remember it all too well, we spent WEEKS clearing that! And now someone is selling it for $269,000. Pah.

Party

Party done and dusted, and all successful and, dare i say it, rather enjoyable. There were 15 kids ranging from 1 to 5, and every single one of them behaved beautifully. Sheryl did face painting for the kids, then we had a treasure hunt in the garden, which took all of 2 minutes but they all loved it. Then we bought out the morning tea, and i had done a fruit platter (which they all went nuts over - there wasn't a single piece left at the end), sausage rolls, mini rice crackers instead of crisps, marmite pinwheels, and once they had polished that lot off they had fairy cakes. Luckily the weather held out for us and they had a run around in the garden, giving me a brief respite to clean up a bit, then back again for pass the parcel while the adults had some Bucks Fizz, which went down very easily for morning tea on a Saturday!


Then we had presents, and Jenna got more Polly Pocket stuff, a new Troll, a supermarket checkout thing complete with annoying beepy noises (!) puzzles, books, new clothes - she did very well! Then onto the cake......


....of course they all ate off the sweets and left the cake; it wouldn't be a kids party if they didn't. (all photos courtesy of sheryl - i was too busy to even think about touching a camera!!!)

Then we had a relaxing afternoon; i had a nap and then watched The Queen when they had gone to bed, which i didn't enjoy as much as i thought i would. And this morning we all had an early start to drive to the airport ( my first time!) to pick up Adrian who had been playing a gig in Wellington.

Today the weather is horrible and i have just been informed by the children that "there's nothing to doooooooooooo". Nothing, of course, other than the 2 tonnes of plastic we have acquired in the last four days!

Roll on birthday number 2.....

Happy Birthday Jenna

It is most scary that it seems like only yesterday that i wrote that last year. First off, happy 4th birthday to my middle baby, and secondly, a picture for Claire, of Jenna wearing the outfit that she bought her...and of course Jenna's new bike!


And the new cardigan that Aunty Mary and Uncle Loll bought for her....it was 6am which is why she looks so sleepy!



I have literally the most amount of stuff to do for this party on Saturday, so much so i really shouldn't even be sitting here writing this! I will update again soon, but i bathrooms and kitchens to clean, bedrooms and gardens to tidy and many party cakes to make, ice and decorate - arrrgggh! Not enough hours! Plus Adrian is talking about us moving soon and wants me to go view a house today or tomorrow - why do men not understand the planning that goes into parties??

A couple of random photos whilest i'm here; Jenna with Haylee and Heidi...



...and Leah reading to Heidi up on the top bunk; heidi was most incensed to be pulled down from there!

Birthday season

I'm more stressed than i am at Christmas - June is fast becoming a horrible month! Not really, of course, but ours is a household in the grip of fever pitch excitement, which brings with it frayed tempers, a lot of fighting and a mother increasingly turning to drink to cope with it all! Jenna turns 4 tomorrow, and is having a morning tea party for her friends on Saturday, and Leah is 6 (6!! Where did that go?!) next Saturday and is going ice skating with a couple of friends from school.

We had a lovely bank holiday weekend for the Queen's birthday, it was very busy and we caught up with lots of people we haven't seen in a while. We were treated to dinner at Paddie's, went to a lovely farmer's market out in Clevedon, went to the beach and made sandcastles, and took our nephew to MOTAT, which was great fun and all the kids loved riding on the trams. I especially liked the aviation hanger, where they had an old plane that was the first to do the trip from Auckland to Southampton. Boy, we think we've got it bad having to fly 24 hours - it used to take 12 DAYS! Stuff that! Although they did have an awful lot more leg room than they do these days. But still, you'd have to REALLY want to get to England badly to do that mission.

Bad news for Leah yesterday; we had to take her to the orthodontist because she has an ectopic eruption, and turns out she needs a plate brace to correct it. My poor baby - i really wasn't anticipating braces at such a young age. This diagram (courtesy of www.uic.edu/classes/orla/orla312/VTM_4.gif) is the best i can find to explain it; basically her molars are growing at the wrong angle, and if they don't straighten them, the molars will erode the tooth in front, cause an infection and all go a bit pear shaped. And he told us that we should prepare ourselves that she will need fixed braces as a teenager. Time to start saving or take out a dental plan, methinks!

Anyhoo, will leave you with some photos of the weekend; will probably post some pics of the birthday girl tomorrow xxx

Lovely Sunday

Fairly quiet weekend in the Bergman household. I am still alive and Adrian was not cross with me about the tyre. He didn't really have a leg to stand on really as he had admitted that he had driven the wrong way down a one-way street just the night before, so i did have that to hold against him!

A delicious lamb roast a la Adrian is filling the house with gorgeous smells as i type; i have a good book, good wine, worn out children and a roaring log fire.....it's a good sunday afternoon. In fact it's been a lovely Sunday all round; if only every Sunday could be like this.

I got to lie in bed this morning with a (good strong English) cuppa and my book, then had a lovely chat on the phone to Emma which cheered me up no end for many reasons :) We then had a lovely morning at the park in Panmure basin, and the kids and i had morning tea under the shelter while it rained. Then the kids played with the little boy next door all afternoon and Sam and Ivan came to visit just before, so it's been all fab.

Hoping the coming week holds fewer insults and mishaps!

pre-menstrual mishaps

I was doing so so well with my whole not crying thing - as previously mentioned i did not cry when Jenna's teacher essentially told me i looked fat; nor did i cry when heidi smacked her lip on the pavement later that afternoon and blood went all over my brand new shirt. (poor heidi - there was blood all over her, me, the pavement - it looked like a massacre. Leah didn't help much by standing there screaming "there's blood EVERYWHERE!!!!" It was only her gum luckily but she did have a fat lip for a few days). NOR did i cry when i burnt the Toad in the Hole the other night.

However, i did cry today. I was driving to music group, which is all of a kilometre away from the house; i went to turn left and as per the road code, gave way to traffic turning right, i turn next and BANG, misjudged where the kerb was and blew a tyre. As you can see, i don't like to do things by halves and thought a massive great big hole would obviously more dramatic.


I cried, i admit it! Luckily i was at music group and my lovely friend Tiffany is a proper grown up and knows how to change tyres, so she made me change it myself. Although at one point a rather rude man who obviously thought he was coming to save the day told me to "get out of the way and let me [him] do it". I firmly but politely told him that i was quite capable of doing it myself and had to learn. Honestly.

The worst thing is i've probably done the wheel alignment again and Adrian is probably not going to be very happy with me. Who gave me a licence? Seriously, i think i should have an extra clause on my licence that specifies no driving whilst pre-menstrual. Forget about not letting me drive at night, i'm fine then - just shouldn't be allowed on the road for about a week per month.

On the (only) plus side, i do now know how to change a tyre which is something i was worried about not knowing, and if i do ever get stranded on my own, i'll know how to do it.

I may be back to blog again, dependent entirely if Adrian kills me or not tonight *gulp*. I'm sure he won't......i think!

Weight gainage

I am incensed. And also a little bit upset. I just dropped Jenna off at Kindy and her teacher came up to me, asked how my trip was and said "wow, you've put on weight.....they must have really fed you well in England" Isn't that just what every girl wants to hear after she comes back off holiday, or indeed, ever?

So of course i did what every self-respecting girl would do after she's heard news like that; i came home and ate a bacon sandwich and a big bag of crisps, topped off with a chocolate bar, and then i sobbed into my cup of tea. (well actually, that's a lie, i didn't cry - i've gone 4 WHOLE days without crying now, which is somewhat of a record this year! But i felt like crying, anyway)

The worst thing is, i know she's right, i have put on weight, and even worse than that, i can't even run or swim because of my dodgy hip, which i managed to hurt again last night. Must find a nice osteopath.

Thining about it, I actually blame Chris for my sudden weight gain, as he was a co-inventor of the Stilton Crumpet....the nicest way to eat a crumpet in the whole world, but i suspect, also highly calorific and not good for people's waistlines. In my defence, i HAD to eat as many as i could while i was there because you can't get a good crumpet here, and i went to the supermarket yesterday to get some Stilton and the cheapest little slither was no less than $10, which is an excellent deterrent to purchasing it.

Ah well, it's a good job i don't have any major psychological issues with my weight - people just shouldn't say things like that! Anyway, photo for the day, and one of my personal faves, my (weighty) self and the person i blame, Chris. (I'm sure, incidentally, that my expanding girth has nothing at all to do with the French Fancies, Hula Hoops or numerous lovely dinners out!)

Slightly more awake

A little more awake today :) Although Saturday was a mammoth 19 hour day due to me waking up so early.

Anne and Des really did jet off to England today - really really this time, i am sitting at my computer in Auckland, it's definitely not me this time! It's going to take a wee while before i'd be prepared to do that journey again.

Feeling a little more settled in at home today, although certainly more resolute that Auckland is not the place for me. I don't feel miserably homesick, just glad i've made my mind up and made an informed decision that i really would rather be at home. It's just going to be a lot of baby steps over an extended time to implement it.

Adrian started his new job today and it seems all has been going well so far; he was, in his own words "more nervous than when i got married" this morning. This was probably compounded by the fact that, despite having had 3 whole weeks to buy something to wear, he left it until THIS MORNING to go out and buy something suitable to wear. Honestly, men!

Some more holiday snaps......a nice one of me and mum at the Potter in Lancing, where i found a HAIR in my profiteroles; be warned!


Laura, Richard and I ready for our first night out in Worthing in years. We might as well have had our walking sticks with us, we all felt that old!


Nice one of me and pa in the garden :)


Off to dish the dinner now, and make another cup of fabulous English tea....they just don't make the bags strong enough over here. NZ can have the coffee but England wins hands down on tea.

xx