A fleeting visit

I am in New Zealand for a week.

On the 23rd I left London, Heathrow for Christchurch and arrived on the 25th (local time) having traveled 12413 miles via Los Angeles.

My friend had a very premature baby on the 12th October so I wanted to see her and meet her gorgeous little baby boy.

He is putting on weight and learning to feed slowly but surely. Hopefully he will come out of hospital in the next week or two. I have been lucky to have lots of cuddles with him and I have promised to teach him all the best mischief for when he is a bit bigger.

In between visits to the hospital I have managed to fulfil a lot of yearnings for foods that I didn't realised I actually yearned for until I got here. But that is a whole new story for another day.

I also got to spend this weekend with my nephew who flew down from Nelson - his first flight as an unaccompanied minor! He arrived Friday night and we stayed with my friend that night and then drove out to Hinewai Reserve, near Akaroa to spend Saturday night at Tricia's. Lucy came up from Lake Hawea so the (poor/lucky) boy spent 24hrs with 3 doting aunties.

Tricia and Paul have a beautiful little spot in the wilderness to call home. After a yummy dinner we walked to the beach and enjoyed the views, the sounds of waves and birds and watching my nephew as he inadvertently filled his boots with sea water.

We watched as a pair of Canada geese wandered along the beach with just one tiny baby. The parents headed for the waves and each slightly bigger wave would send the hatchling hurtling back up the beach until it could finally dig it's toes back in the sand. Very cute to watch but obviously hard work for the baby.

Mum and I are VIP's for an evening

I was given VIP passes for me plus one to go see Kasabian last night at Wembley Arena.

I first asked Megg (sister) if she would like to go but the answer was a resounding negative (not surprising - she listens to Radio 4!). So I asked my friend Teresa, again a no.

So talking to mum a bit later and I said I didn't ask her as I knew it would be mega loud. And I have still a very clear memory of mum stuffing tissues in her ears at the Tom Jones concert a few years ago!

How wrong can one be! She said she would love to come!

So last night we both finished work, jumped on trains and met at Wembley. Kasabian weren't playing until 8.45 so we planned our arrival on that. Picked up our VIP passes, dropped of our work bags to the coat check and made our way to our seats.

We got there just as Kasabian was about to start.

OMG! What an amazing concert! The special effects were simple yet great to watch, the crowd below us in the mosh pit were great fun to watch also.

All drinks were poured into plastic cups for the show as the night before a bottle that had been thrown had hit the guitarist in the hand. When talking to him, he said it is a sign of how much fun they are having and things get thrown all the time. What an interesting way of showing your affections. But if that is the case then this crowd were more in love with Kasabian then words could express!

Cups were flying the whole night and a few other interesting things too. Crowd surfing was banned and the security had a very busy time dragging off the offenders.

At the end we were escorted to the VIP room to meet up with the band. We had a drink with them and then headed for home - getting out of the VIP/stage area proved more challenging then getting in! They take security very seriously.

But as we left we got to see the floor covered in plastic cups and awash with beer as the cleanup gang started shovelling loads of cups into rubbish bags - I really really hope they recycle!!

Mum sat through the whole thing and can now say she has been to a real rock concert! Took a few years to get that one under her belt - but better late then never.

Christmas lights in Chicago last year

Well, OK...
So it's a little late to be posting last years Christmas photos.

But at least I got them in before this years Christmas!

From busy to... well... busier!?

I seem to have no time or energy to write on here these days but change is afoot and I hope it means more words on the blog.

I have taken a 5 month job working only 2 days a week (see Maternity Nurse Diary) although it seems to be more like 2-3days most weeks. And I am about to fill in some more days - the other 5 actually - with a local family having baby No1. Sounded like an easy job and here's hoping I am right. So although I was planning to reduce hours, I may well have increased them for a short time instead.

I've also moved house with Mum and my sister Megg. We now have a 3 bedroom place. So for the first time in 7 years, I have my own (double!) bed in my own room. I cannot believe I lasted this long! It is taking a bit of getting used to as I now have to walk the length of a hallway to make a cup of tea or go to the loo. I can't reach the toaster from my bed or the CD's to put in the stereo (also sadly out of reach now). We have more then one window to open, a real oven to cook in - unfortunately a gas one - and a little garden of our own.

Our former landlord was sad to see us go and did try to convince us to stay by telling us after we gave notice that he could reduce the rent - after putting it up just as the recession really kicked in! Too little too late.

A bee - but not in my bonnet

It's been too long, and so much going on - but no time or energy to blog.

I'm in Colchester now in an 8 week job with twins. As usual it keeps me busy and oblivious of the outside world. In fact, today I took the boys for a walk in the garden for the first time since being here. Not sure if it has been laziness, exhaustion or the weather keeping me inside and idle.

I am in a lovely country house on a very quiet lane with only tractors with trailers laden with summer harvests dashing back and forth. The postie drives along once a day and we occasionally hear another car, but so very peaceful after the madness of London.

They have a huge garden (at a guess it must be about 3-4 acres) of which about half is lawn and the rest an orchard and out buildings.

Today while out tootling in the garden I realised just how many insects there were and how I have become 'unused' to them being around. I had my macro lens on and was trailing quite a few interesting creatures. Every time one flew away there were many waiting to take it's place.

Tonight is a perfect summer evening (about bloody time too!) and I have walked along public foot paths to a pub that comes recommended for it's food. There is a little fountain and lots of outdoor seating. It reminds me a bit of a garden bar at home - except better hanging baskets.

I am off tonight and tomorrow so will hopefully get out and explore somewhere a bit further afield - they have lent me their car for the day.

Braving the world

Today we crept out into the streets of Essaouira, having holed up for the better part of 2 days.

We have eaten pasta with courgette, onion and tomatoes and bread and jam for 2 days as the thought of going shopping was just too much.

But we had a thoroughly enjoyable day with only a few 'moments' of unpleasantness.

We walked down to the water front - a place bustling with activity. There were fishermen taking care of fish - gutting and cleaning etc. Seagulls swooping in anticipation of the scraps. Cats stalking - also in anticipation of the scraps, and maybe something a little better...

The smell was something else!! Not a nice fishing village sort of fishy smell, but a full on 'fish guts from the last 100 years left in the heat' sort of fishy smell.

There were lots of men sweeping and scooping up caked on layers of sand from the walkways and we both thought it seemed odd that it had got to that state without being dealt with earlier. It was only later that I remembered a conversation with someone a couple of days earlier, he had said there was a movie being filmed here and they had put sand down to cover the cobbles for the set. I guess filming was over.

We walked out towards the fishing boats and got 'got' by a man who wanted to show a boat that was being built. We weren't remotely interested, but of course he managed to drag us in. After 2 minutes telling us about the wood used in the building of the boat, he then asked for money for his little 'tour'. I just happened to have 3 dirham in my pocket (and genuinely no more as we were yet to go to the bank) which I knew was a pittance, so handed it to him happily. He asked for more and I said I had no more, I needed to go to the bank, and he went off moaning and grumping.

How is it, someone invites me to go see something, they then expects me to pay for the privilage. Moroccan culture is obviously very different from my own.

We had some breakfast (ripped off again) and then went off to do a bit of shopping. Mum was keen on getting some slippers, which she duly did in a painless way (not ripped off).

I also bought some shoes (not ripped off) and then we wandered down towards the sea front, but a different point. The wind was incredible, so strong and blustery. We ended up covered in sand and sprayed sea water.

Home again buying some vegies for dinner (not ripped off) and then to buy tickets for the bus tomorrow (not ripped off).

So in general a good day. After thinking that I would only take the one memory card for my camera as it still had space for over 400 photos, I ended up having to delete some along the way - it was a big day for the camera!

Never to be repeated!

Yesterday we braved our first Grand Taxi on the open road. Never ever will we set foot in one again - and advise all others to consider very carefully this mode of transport.

We had read and heard about the drivers being kamikaze madmen, but it couldn't be that bad... could it?

YES!! In a word, it can be that bad AND worse.

We left Marrakech at 4.30pm and getting out of the city was fine. Once on the open road though, the driver became obsessed with being in front of every vehicle on the road - those going in our direction and those not!

I said to mum at one point, 'I hate to think how fast we are going', and from where she sat she coud see the speedo.

'100... 110... 120.... 130' came the terrified whisper in my ear.

We swerved in and out of the traffic barely enough room at times for the ocassional 3 vehicles side by side on the 2 laned road. Scooters, bikes, pedestrians and donkeys were tooted a warning before being passed within inches.

There were several miles of road works in a few locations and these were treated more like a race track then the road - many vehicles were overtaken while on 40km/h restrictions.

He knew exactly where the police with speed cameras hung out so would drive sedately past them, only to put his foot down the second they were out of sight.

At one point, mum gasped as he overtook in a very stupid place barely missing an oncoming car.

'What are you worried about, we missed it by several millimetres' I said in relief.

We made it to Essaouira at 7.10pm. I think if there had not been so much traffic and road works, we would have broken the record for Marrakech to Essaouira.

Thank goodness for traffic and road works.