#LifeSpeedsOn

Good Morning to Sunday, 31st, 5.11, they say 10dg with a high of 15dg, there is rain on the roof, but forecasting a clearing sky. Yesterday I had a phone call from a dear friend checking to see if all was well as I am not writing my daily posts just Poppet pic posts... so here I am back into giving you the daily dose of life in my shoes. My time since I left Wanaka has been just a blur of activity. A fabulous wedding in Christchurch, a memorable time with so many old and dear

 friends, and then to Tauranga, Kati Kati where I have been for the last couple of weeks with my girls. The time here has been full gas from dawn till late as we juggle reorganising the house for the arrival of the furniture trucks from Wanaka. Jeez... what a mission, first I spend three weeks with my Mama downsizing her from a house full of her life to a small rest home room with a bookcase holding her precious bits, now I am helping to declutter, organise unwanted for sale, rejig rooms and help put order into this little home for the incoming furniture and the garage for the overflow. In amongst that, I am Moochie in charge of a precious 22 month old dynamo with a personality that can be challenging... as rising two year olds can be. I am very lucky to spend this time as Mel cancelled all day care while I am here so I can play with the Poppet while Mama is at work. My time here is now on countdown.. this week is going to have to be a finely tuned machine to get it all done. We hope the trucks arrive Wednesday, that gives us two days to sort the big stuff before we leave for Auckland on Friday. I have two nights in Auckland with my sister and brother I.L. and then it is onto the plane for Singapore Sunday 7th... heavens the time has disappeared so fast. I have one comment about travelling on a reduced wardrobe, and for me it is reduced... two pairs of shoes, three trousers, three shirts, three jerseys and some bits n bobs to work with everything and all interchangeable... Note to self...This is not the way to travel.. no choices, and every day one of the three selections to choose from. I like choices, I have decided I do not do minimal and it trashes the small selection of clothes.

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#Haere rā, Ka kite anō

Good morning to Monday, 18th, 7.58, crisp clear blue sky morning as I sit here waiting for my flight to Tauranga. So.... a sad good bye to the South Island, thank you for everything, it has been a complete and total treat being here. It does make a girl think. The weekend went off, as expected, like a fire cracker. Christchurch turned on a brilliant winters sun soaked weekend and the bride and her bridesmaids looked fantastic. Ahhh young love. <3 No contest for ageing bones and limited stamina. Today as I sit and wait, I can reflect on possibilities, there are so many. So outward bound to Tauranga and my girls will be waiting for me... :) <3 :) <3 and then I am Moochie in charge for three weeks.. I have plans while Mama is at work  .. Fab,  I was required to do weight distribution at check in... jeez it must be all that liquid in my bags as I have not been overly wicked with retail. To those I did not manage to sit down with while here in the South, apologies, hopefully next time.  Haere rā, Ka kite anō

#I❤Christchurch

Good Morning to Saturday...16th, 5.50, 5dg, forecasting light wind, clearing sky and the sun will be out for photos. Today is a very exciting day for one beautiful young lady and her man.. It is her Wedding day. For me the last couple of days have been busy busy from start to finish. I had a brilliant Commodore to bring to ChCh... my son would have been envious, big and powerful with an impressive sounding exhaust, on low profile feet and a hold me down bar, all the things a girl needs for the drive through the Mackenzie basin and the long straight roads that run from Queenstown to Christchurch. Plenty of power when needed and a pleasure to drive, all for $1.00, thank you Transfercar. I drove through snow flurries for a good part of the way arriving in rush hour traffic Christchurch central and bitter freezing cold weather. Fab dinner out at Leinster Road Bistro with my oldest friend ever and it was just like it always is when we get together. Yesterday was a super early start to collect my wedding finery, socialising clothes suitcase from my sister's house and then straight into central city to sort the auction houses with all the boxes of Mama's possessions that I had bought to ChCh. My poor broken ChCh.. I was born and raised in this city, I used to know it like the back of my hand, but the central city was a super challenge as I had none of the land marks that were ChCh city to work out where I was. I felt a little like a curb crawler looking for the places I needed to find, and no doubt annoyed some people with my driving. Jobs completed, a quick trip to the airport to collect a bestie incoming from Palmerston Nth and then time to sit down for a long lunch  Couple of rats and mice completed then a bit of a drive around memory lane as we giggled our way through the memories of what we did where.. could make a girl blush really. Out for drinks at the Carlton pub, gosh if that place could talk... a popular haunt from our youth, and I say no more. Met many of the guests who will be attending the wedding and caught up with many old faces. Out for dinner with a group of friends, back to the Leinster Road... highly recommended. Today is a day of preparation for 14.00 glam. Photos to come. I like being here... I really like being back here. 

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#DoneAndDusted

 

Good Morning to Thursday...14th, 5.35, 3.2dg forecasting a dry morning with possible sleet showers later. It will not bother me as I will be well on my way to Christchurch by the time the weather comes through. Final day, difficult goodbyes, but I really really need to exit this place while everyone is in one piece. My original plans have been altered, adjusted and now scrapped, so it is. My work here is done, now it is time for someone else to come in and pick up the slack. So over the Crown Range with some extra special buddies to collect the Transfercar then back here to pack and go. Incoming to a hectic social schedule starting tonight with one of my oldest friends from my very first school days. That is a long time friendship. Tomorrow is the start of the wedding festivities and so it goes for the weekend. Monday, Monday I am on the big black bird, direction Tauranga. This I need. Thank you Wanaka, I have a lot of special friends and brilliant memories here. It will be a while before I return, but thank you, it is always a pleasure.

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#NotFinishedYet #NearlyThere

Good Morning to Tuesday...12th, 5.30, trying for +3dg, forecasting a little dry, a little wet and a little clear in that order. Yesterday was a day of precipitation in the bucket loads, rain low snow high. Me doing drop offs around town in amongst the heaviest of it and looking like a little drowned rat. Car empty, Sallies full, courier post overloaded and the patchwork and quilters beaming. Garage now has floor space. Result. Now the pressure is on, only two days left and the list seems to be growing not shrinking. What was supposed to be a relaxed and social time this week is just me falling asleep in the chair if I sit down at any time of the day... Nana qualities !!! Today is another one full of diary incomings. Dentist, Doctor, Birthday luncheon, with me as the driver, thank God, for the lovely 90yr old Villa neighbour and Mama, then a surprise 90th Birthday gathering in the common room for high tea at 15.00, and drinks for me with the girls at 18.00, so upshot of this day is there will be nothing achieved at all. Jeez tomorrow is then Wednesday and there are people I have not managed to visit and sit down with. This is a sad face. Transfercar organised.. brilliant car deal 2 days for $1.00 and I do not have to fill the car up prior to the return in ChCh. Waiting waiting for people to come back to me with quotes, decisions and appointments... we are all going to miss out on what could have been an orderly departure. Shame. And so my time here is finishing, next phase is a busy social whirl with a wedding, then incoming for Poppet time .  Oh yay.

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#AlmostDone

 

Good Morning to Sunday...10th, 2dg, forecasting a fine morning and possible showers later this afternoon. Yesterday was a beautiful Wanaka winter sunny day, but gloves were a nice extra. My Friday was a mad crazy day juggling appointments some that went well others that were a totally dis-organised. People arriving an hour early at the house, a Mama with problems that were not a quick fix, late from hairdressers, and she wanted to attend a funeral in amongst it all. I need to clone me so I can be in three places at once. I had a hoot on Friday night. My wonderful friend had organised and gathered a large group of friends from our Wanaka days and we celebrated all that was good in a local restaurant with wonderful tasting plates and bubbles. Bliss, and total perfection. I am truly blessed by those I know and their friendships. I do have photos but some are not so good. No surprise there. Late ? well home by 11.30 which for me at the moment is late !! Yesterday being a little slow, our day was spent on the sewing machine with alterations and such to create a better fit on a little shrinking sparrow. Finally, late afternoon, after some sterner than usual words to my Mama, we got to the drawers. Done and seriously minimalised, but a truck load of washing to do today. Why do they put things away when they are not clean? Ahhh the vagaries of the elderly. Last night I did the unforgivable... we went out for dinner with lovely friends. Delicious, all the more delicious by the fact I did not have to cook any of it, but I fell asleep twice or maybe more after we were sitting comfortably after dinner... Heavens, how rude and embarrassing is that? This morning we have an 8am knock up from the shower and dress girls... Sunday...Church. Groan. Too early, too cold, too tired. I may try and slide out of this one. A girl can only try. We have a luncheon engagement today and then back into the saddle for the final push to say " Yay.. Finished. " Then I can quietly re-organise the shit tip that the garage has become. Tomorrow being Monday we will be done with the collections of a life time.

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#Friday

Good Morning to Friday 8th, 6.05, just trying for +3dg outside and forecasting snow, cloud and general mixed bag. Yesterday we had a brief but V violent storm come through delivering a new snow line on the mountains. You quickly forget how destructive a good Nor' wester or Southerly wind can be here and the wind was mind boggling for a short time yesterday. Driving back from the village it was like playing dodgems with the falling branches by the lake front and show grounds. Yesterday was a red letter day for Mama.. we had the official assessment from the ODH with regard to her ability to live alone going forward. The assessment came back as we thought so the light is very green now to finish what I am doing here and prepare for the next big move for her. Saying that we are nearly finished with the sorting of all as we go from her Villa to a bedroom in a rest home. We are still laughing so all is happy in Camp Hanafin Leuch. Today another day of moving around doing all the last minute WOF things with dentists, doctors, banks la la la. All I can say is roll on next week when we can both sit down and do nothing more than shoot the breeze. I am on target as I had always hoped for a finish by the weekend and so it will be, but we are doing the personal bits and clothing now and that is slow. Am dumping my Air NZ ticket and driving to ChCh next Thursday, please God tell me that it is a good idea. I will load the car with all the crystal, paintings and silver for auction and have a free day in ChCh Friday to do all the delivery and haggling. Soon, a holiday. Soon. Tonight I start the first of my social catchups, and so from one to another then another, the calendar is busy. The Poppet called me Moochie for the first time yesterday and then burst into fits of giggles, she was then like a little parrot, repeating and giggling until her Mother said Oh dear what have we done? . Monday week is Poppet time. Below is a painting of Lake Wanaka, by talented NZ Artist Sofia Minson.

#OverIt

Good Morning to Wednesday...6th, 5.19, 5.2dg out with rain overnight. Forecasting a clear morning and deteriorating afternoon and going downhill from there. We have had two days of beautiful Wanaka winter weather... cracking minus morning frosts and stunner days, yesterday reaching 15dg. Nice, very nice. Incoming snow for the end of week. The last days have just been a blur of appointments, telephone calls, emails, boxes, decisions and then naturally, gin at the end of it all.. A soul soother. We have made massive progress and things will hopefully be done by the weeks end as hoped... Stay positive Moochie. Tail end charlie cough is annoying but retreating and I am now in a good place to start making diary entries for a bit of a social fling and do some catch up here in Wanaka. Friday, Saturday and Sunday all now booked, with only one of those evening engagements involving Mama, so we will both have a little change to look forward to. I have to be honest.. I want this over as it is a horrid situation, made trickier by family dynamics. Wisdom, hindsight, elephants in the room, conscience, and head in sand, silence ...la la la Ahhh families you gotta love them. Roll on Friday the 15th when I am back in ChCh briefly for a wedding and then depart this Island for Poppet time. Sweet, uncomplicated, happy little Poppet who will show me all her clever 19mth old skills full gas, full noise. Bless 

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#TrueWisdom

Good Morning to Monday...4th, 5.40, negative degrees outside and the heat pump in this house is so pathetic that it cannot operate well when the outside temp is in negative territory. This style of modern heating is very definitely not as good as simple central heating, and do not give me the energy efficiency bull argument. Thank goodness that week is over and yesterday morning my dance card was full after attending church with my Mother. Now that I am bug free and feeling bit more Moochie like, I made a quick visit to some brilliant friends I have here while Mama enjoyed a morning tea and second mini concert from a small group of the visiting Dunedin Cathedral Choir.. we then decided, as it was Sunday, we would do the traditional Sunday roast, so to speak, and we went out for lunch to Speights Ale House. As a young girl growing up in ChCh we always went to Sunday school while Mum and Dad were at Church and then all come home to the Sunday roast that Mum had set cooking before we left for Church earlier. Perfect break for both of us from the chores of packing. Monday and back into it. Thank God it is rubbish collection today, I was out in the garage last night jumping in the recycling bins trying to encourage the paper levels below the top of the bin, as for the wheelie bin, that was just a truck load of brute force. Boxes hatched and dispatched, paintings all wrapped ready for auction, now to the wardrobes... this job is one we have both been dancing around.. me because I would burn most of it, Mama because she does not want to have to make decisions. That is why I am here !! I have to keep the pressure on as I want this whole job finished by weeks end so we can then just sit down and spend the next five days quietly enjoying each others company before I leave. This could be a big ask from both of us!! FYI, I am seriously full of Wisdom....  In the nicest possible way.

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#Mothers

Sooner or later we all quote our Mothers.

Good Morning to Saturday...2nd, 6.12, 10.8dg, rain, wind, thunder, lightning and on and on. Monday they say will be a sunny day...perhaps.This morning I think I may have turned the corner.. gave up and had to go to bed yesterday after I had cooked lunch for Mama, and back in bed at 20.00....That horrid flu thingy where your skin is so super sensitive that you can hardly wash and dry it. It has been a challenge trying to do your best and smile through it with so much to do in a limited time when you would prefer to curl up in a corner and pull a blanket over your head. New day and feeling as though there is some gas back in my tank again. Back in the saddle with boxes a plenty, so after a lost day for which I think Mama may have been grateful, we can get going again. How do you explain to a little sparrow that her 20 years of daily diarys cannot fit into her single bed resthome room along with all the other things she is choosing to take with her. Answer is you don't, I have stopped trying to make her be moderate in her selection and will just box it to go to ChCh and then someone else can worry about it. Fact of the matter is that by the time she is settled into her next home she will not probably be that interested in reading back through her diarys but the thought of throwing all that written historical life away is something she does not want to do at the moment. Me.. well I am not so attached to things thank goodness. I will leave it to my sister and brother in law to have to store it !!!  Today is Saturday so we can get on with shifting some of the unwanted S and D that I have thrown into the garage out to the dump and deliver all the boxes to the Sallies. Rotary are coming in this afternoon to uplift all the boxes of books for their annual sale so we will have a touch of order semi restored to the house.
My Mother, like many Mothers has many little sayings... I found myself saying something to her yesterday as I was delivering her to the hairdresser for her weekly do.. she looked at me so I said to her " Well didn't you always say that to us ?" Silence.