Grandma's journey home Saga

Or rescuing Grandma,

I am back...with the cold and chest infection, if it was around I picked it up in the week away, .

Had the worst day ever when I left NZ........must tell you about it, even if it is only to make you smile...it is okay you can do that ......I am actually laughing about it now.

Air New Zealand were cancelling flights left right and centre due to a fault with a planes undercarriage failing, a plane had to land day before with no undercarriage, so all planes of that design taken for checking that was good and reassuring.

Great, everything was going okay packed and just off out to do final shopping, when I have a call from Kathryn..."have you checked your flight from Rotorua to Auckland as they are still cancelling flights" , so slight detour and go to Air New Zealand Office.
Just my luck on day I leave every thing up to the 2pm was cancelled from Rotorua to Auckland and they could not guarantee the 3pm which I was booked on .......so at 12noon we had to make the decision to drive or not...yeap! we drove 3 hours to Auckland arrived in plenty of time all "hunky Dory", you would think the day would go okay from there but NO.... Iain and family dropped me at the door only 2 hours to go no need to stop, said goodbyes and they winged their way back to Rotorua.
What you need to know he has no mobile as only resident in NZ a week and that had to be organised ...and not on the priority list.... easy he said " you could live a few days with no phone". So gave him said Sim card to use till he gets organised as I leave him at airport.

Checked in.... went to pay my 25$ exit tax Oh!! " ;^***%" I had left my wallet in Iain's car and had NO money not a cent or credit cards, No Airport Tax no leaving Auckland........ easy just call him back. No such luck my phone now has Dubai Sim card in, NZ Sim given to him to use, yeap! you guessed it Dubai phone does not work in NZ and I then remember he has NO mobile phone on him in which to use the said Sim card ***?!!** my Language is now getting really choice.
Solution!! call Kathryn who lives and works in Auckland, I then looked for a kind person on a desk, any desk I was not fussy, who would let me make a local phone call.......8 desks later all had refused, I would not have minded if it had not been a FREE local call . Come on Auckland where is your kind helpful side, not a good introduction to NZ for a visitor...luckily I was not a visitor.
Finally found a nice lady on an information desk so called Kathryn at work in Auckland she rescued "grandma" with money and a shoulder to cry on just 45 Min's before take off of Emirates flight. ( Another month and she would have been living in Hamilton 1 1/2 hours away...so I counted my blessings) So panic over and we took off on time.....
So somewhere in the air is my wallet and all my cards including all driving licenses winging its way to me by FedEx.....thanks everyone for every thing you did on that day...Love Grandma x
Gee was I glad to see Dubai yesterday.

Ngongotaha, Rotorua

So we made it, a kind neighbour Lynne had put some essentials in the fridge so a cup of coffee was the first thing on the agenda.

Then the re-organisation of the house so everyone had a space of their own. The boys now had a bedroom to themselves, Grandma and Grandpa's stuff had to be moved and packed way in Grandma's study, plus precious goodies that were valuable or sentimental also had to be moved out of harms way, so Iain and Claire could relax a little, with a 6 n 3 year old boys you just never can tell what will happen next.

So we spent a day or so shopping and getting sorted, IRD Numbers, house and car insurance sorted, bank accounts etc.

Iain managed to get to Pom's office to see where he will be working and to introduce the family.

Over the week we met with most of the family and all the kids were introduced to each other.
I managed to catch up with a few folks also, from Embroidery Guild and a couple of friends, but 8 days is so short, never mind I have 7 or 8 weeks from November to January to catch up with everyone.

So good luck Iain and Claire, take care of our house but enjoy it!!

Arrival in NZ

After 17 hours flying I arrived in NZ with Iain and Claire,Ellis and Harvey. All very tired and excited. We were met by Kathryn and Steve and the boys with a bit of an emotional welcome.

After spending the night in Auckland with Kathryn and Co we headed off to Rotorua. Kathryn had collected the campervan on her way through Rotorua a while before our arrival, so with my car and the van we transported the 5 of us home with all the cases from Dubai and UK.

Family time in Dubai

On September 14th

Iain and Family arrived here in Dubai at midnight to 30+ degrees

The next 3/4 days were taken up with swimming and sightseeing and eating, and generally experiencing Dubai, the traffic and building site that the city is....but they enjoyed the experience, on the 18th September we  ( me and them ) winged our way to New Zealand

Just 2 days to go

Lake Taupo - NZ

It is just 2 days now and Iain and Claire will be on their way to New Zealand.

We are sure they are excited and apprehensive all at the same time. They will never take such a large step again in their lifetime.

After 6 yrs in NZ we can see all the advantages for them and the boys, it is not a place to get rich quick but the lifestyle is just great.

New Zealand still offers " that pioneering feeling" of the past immigrants who started to migrate to Australia and NZ in middle 1800's.....can you imagine the time they had, life would have been so hard for them. Luckily things have changed.....

There is temperate climate, the pace of life is slower, a lot of emphasis is still put on the quality of life, not the materialistic side, family values still count and so far the youth culture problems that Europe and other countries are suffering are not predominate in NZ, of course there are problems socially but to a far lesser scale than other places.

Different nationalities live in harmony side by side, this is made easier as we are all immigrants the country does not really belong to anyone race, although the Maori believe the country is theirs they actually stole it from the Moriories ( I don't know how to spell the name) a couple of hundred years ago so they are migrants of a sort as well. In any case they sold out to the British for protection, guns and blankets in 1840 something

Living in New Zealand is like living in the 70/80's with 2000 technology, values are definitely different, professionals live in the same street as the factory worker, Government housing, grouping one social class together is a thing of the past, of course there are areas of lower income families but there is not a class structure like there used to be and still is UK.

Everyone is valued for what he or she can offer to the country, it is still a young country and people can still grow with it.

New Zealand prides it's self with it's clean green attitude, if you have never been there you need to put it on your "Bucket List " I know of no one who has been to NZ who has not come away without a love for the country, it has such diverse scenery from Fiord's to Desert, the rainbows are something you must see.

No.... the NZ tourist board is not paying me, it is just pride for the country we have chosen to live in.

Ben and Alex

OK !! it is a bit Cissy I admit.

Girls all over the quilt

But it is not that bad.

Red Quilt

Many years ago I saw this pattern at a craft fair, and thought Yes! if I have a Grand Daughter this would make a lovely quilt for her, the panels would be hand stitched with love by Grandma.

Now we all know that most of life is not a choice .....at least somethings in life are and others are not and the sex of your Grand kids is one of the no choice ones....

So after 2 grandsons I thought oh well !! may be next time and the pattern went away in the UFO box ( unfinished objects to the uninitiated)

A couple of years on and 2 more Grandsons appear so the quilt stayed unfinished.

But I needed stitching and stuff to bring to Dubai so I decided to finish the quilt, it has changed to make it a little more masculine....the original had lots more flowers bands around the borders.

So sorry boys you are just going to have to love it at Grandma's house when you visit.

A Pool

When we moved into the apartment the management said there was a pool we could use for a small fee, when we tried to obtain membership for this pool...Yes!! they had changed the rules .... Seems the folks in the older blocks wanted the pool exclusively to themselves....BUT after 8 months we have beaten them....................Friends from Hash, Tika ( Napal) and Phil ( Wales) have moved into a villa in our complex around a fabulous garden and pool, they have purchased for us an electronic key to the gate.....so now we have the pool at our disposal.
Goes to show there is a way around every thing, it is not what you know in life,BUT who.
Thank you Tika and Phil our grandkids will love you for ever, so will we....

Barbie Hash

The ladies who hash, or wives and girlfriends of hashers, have formed a group called  "Barbie Hash"

we meet of an evening once a month where we run, walk or talk and someone, normally the host cooks a meal, or orders in what ever she chooses.

Everyone wears pink and we drink out of glasses that have a picture of Barbie on them,

in the past we have gone ski-ing ( yes! here in Dubai) and they have gone bowling, had a normal hash night with a run.

Next month they are renting a stretch limousine an hour to tour Dubai then stop at a hotel for a buffet supper all you can eat and drink. A great group there are at least 7 nationalities represented. The ages range from twenties something to a couple of us in our 60's.

This photo is taken at Mona's from Thailand who cooked a fabulous meal. She is in the white teeshirt

Tika ( from Nepal/ HongKong) Mona and myself don't have our pink tee shirts yet.

 

Bens Birthday

Happy Birthday Ben,

wow! does not seem like 4 yrs ago that I was chasing around New Zealand to be at Ben's birth.....But what an experience that was...if you have never been at the receiving end of giving birth ( rather than the producing end) it really is something wonderful you have missed in life I can highly recommend it...it adds a whole new dimension to giving birth...

10 days to go

It is just 10 days before Iain and Family arrive here in Dubai. On route to NZ.

We are getting excited about showing them around, as this will likely be their only one trip to Dubai in the next decade. They have 2 children to educate and raise and as we all know not a cheap thing to do.

They were hoping to go to Wild Wadi...a water park really for adults as some of the water slides reach a 80 kms an hour speed.....but sorry to say the park closes on the 15th for 15 days overhaul etc and repairs.....so sorry boys we will have to go to Dreamland instead same thing different place.

Don't forget you will not see much of, if any of this in the future

Silky Pillows

The Inner Wheel Club of NZ had a project going of making "silky Pillows, these were used by ladies who had, had breast ops..... they helped with the protection of the wound and kept the arm away from banging on the site of the op. In Rotorua we took on this project and to date have made many many such pillows.

The Quilters Guild here in Dubai was approached by the Breast Cancer Society, to ask if we could make something similar, the commercial one that is available was not a good design or fabric, it was oblong and made of a cord type material which would have irritate the wound, so I told them about the NZ ones. I emailed my Inner wheel club in Rotorua, and Noreen Fitzsimmons kindly sent me a pattern.

We are now on the road to make 40 of them as our first "package"

So Ladies in New Zealand we have spread the word and the deeds.

Pillow made by Dubai Quilter Guild

All things are moving

Today we have heard Kathryn and Steve have sold their house, ( may be we can touch them for a loan ..........) so they are moving to Hamilton to take up a new job, about an hour south of Auckland which will bring them closer to us in Rotorua, now we will only have to travel just over the hour to vist....BUT

What about the airport? What about the car being left in their garden when we are over seas? What about the pickups from the airport or the over night stays not only for us but the rest of the family on their way in and out of the country ?

Now, did they think of all this before they took this gigantic decison to move, did they ask for our thoughts have they come up with an alternative for these services they have been giving....... I think I can guess the answer....***!!*!# or something like that.

So we wish them well, and know they will love being out of Auckland all that traffic and the crowds of people, will be no great loss. I know they will enjoy Hamilton a lot for everyone to do, a lovely park and of course the river, a Quilt Guild for Kathryn etc. Also every thing will be almost on the door step, nothing will be far from home.