An updated list of fun

Here’s a few of the things that have kept us busy in New Zealand so far…

Family Fun Stuff in and around Christchurch

1. Visit the paddling pools at Christchurch Botanic Gardens (assuming they’ve re-opened, the sign I saw in September indicated they’d be open for summer.  If not, the back-up is just to actually walk around in the gardens within Hagley Park)     We visited the paddling pools several times and we even found another lovely little paddling pool at Abberley Park, close to where we are now living.  It was lovely to splash around in the sunshine and make the most of some very good summer weather.

2. Go to Lyttelton for brunch and the Farmer’s Market  We went here with my BFF when she came to visit and it was great. We got some lovely apples and fresh veggies. The stall food available was also excellent.  There was music and Moo had a fun time dancing. We’ve visited a few other farmer’s markets now, and Lyttleton is is still our favourite and worth the 15-20min drive.

3. Go to Sumner beach and paddle in the sea.  I doubt I’ll actually swim though.  (My willingness to swim in NZ is pretty limited.  I think I swam in the ocean about 4 times in the 3 years I lived there and only about 2 of those times did I actually feel hot enough to swim) We went down to Sumner to see the people who race the Coast to Coast come in.  (The coast to coast is a mad multi-sport event involving running, kayaking and biking from one side of the South Island to the other.  It has a few different categories for a two day even, but the maddest folk are the ones who do The Longest Day). It was warm enough for paddling but as expected, I wasn’t actually tempted to swim.

4. Visit Orana Park and hope not to get peed on by the lions.  (True story, one of my SILs friends really was sprayed with lion urine)

5. Go row boating on the Avon.

6. Take a weekend camping trip to Peel Forest

7. Lunch at a winery in the Waipara    We’ve been to Waipara Springs so far and enjoyed the wine, lunch and a post-lunch bush walk. Moo enjoyed the awesome kids platter, large lawn and sandpit.  We’ve still got a voucher for Pegasus Bay to use though!  The menu looks great.

8. Go skiing with Moo and her Nana at Mount Hutt mid-week

9. Go skiing with Moo and Dr DK on the weekend.

10. Have a market lunch at the Cashel Mall re:Start (it’s an open-air shopping ‘mall’ made of shipping containers)  DK and I now work very close to each other and have a standing lunch date on Wednesdays.  We’ve tried a few places, but the best so far has been the amazing lamb souvlaki from Dimitris Greek Food.

11. Go hiking in the Port Hills

12. Go for a swim at Jellie Park Aqualand.  Happily, Moo and her Dad went to do this without me.

Fun Stuff for ME!

1. Visit my friend in Auckland (FIA) for the weekend – all by myself.  This was MAGNIFICENT fun.  I did a lot of child free shopping at some of my favourite NZ clothing stores (Kilt, Workshop and Storm).  We had breakfast out twice, a long lunch with good company and food purchased from the farmers market at La Cigale, went to the rugby at Eden Park and ate Bluff Oysters (the *best* oysters) and drank wine and girl-talked at the Ponsonby Road Bistro.  I fully intend to repeat this weekend again later in the year.

2. Take my FIA skiing for the first time ever! (We’ve got a week in Wanaka planned in August. Yay!)

3. Get a shellac manicure in a really fun colour.   It was pink. Very, very pink. And very, very fun.

4. Then get the shellac removed properly when it grows out and replaced by a more sedate colour.  (didn’t quite manage this as I had to do a self-removal job due to a work event. So hey, maybe I need to do it again)

5. Catch up for dinner with my Chch friends (all ex-graduate engineers/geologists from the company I worked for in Auckland)  {I’ve had dinner with one friend, it took ages to set up and in the meantime we ran into each other in the street and then while talking at dinner we realised we’d be at the same meeting the next day! }

6. Join a craft group and go monthly.

7. Related to #6, pick a couple of ‘big’ projects, like a tote bag or baby sized blanket and then work on them.

8. Go out on the weekend to a nice cafe, all by myself to drink coffee and read the paper. I’ve managed to do this during the week while Moo is at pre-school. Again, this is something I’d like to do more of!

9. Join a running group and train for the St Clair Half Marathon.  If I’m going to do a half marathon, I like the idea of running through vineyards, with lots of people I know (like all five of my husbands siblings and my FIA) and being rewarded for finishing with a bottle of wine.  Report in previous post.

10. Find the Kilt shop again for great NZ fashion. They made perfect denim shorts and I’m hoping for more gems.  I bought this coat: http://www.kiltonline.co.nz/estore/style/coat-jetson.aspx?c=3150

11. Go to Wellington and end up (inevitably) a bit hung-over.  (This is booked for mid-June. We’re going for a long weekend and taking my mother-in-law too so hopefully will get out for a grown-up dinner.)

12. Go see a band with my husband.  Preferably somebody loud.

13. Read more of Michael King’s histories of New Zealand.  And more Ngaio Marsh.

Fun stuff we’ve done that wasn’t on the list

1. Easter weekend in Nelson. It was meant to be for a 40th birthday and it turned into a surprise wedding (sadly I had to miss the reception because Moo was a horror after not enough sleep and too much excitement) but it was still a very good weekend.

2. Disney on Ice: is next weekend! My mother-in-law bought her grandchildren and their parents tickets as a gift.  To quote on my BILs, “Moo loves Mickey Mouse with a fierce passion.” So she’s excited – I’m excited too, because I have never been to an ice-skating show before and I’ve always wanted to go to one.  I’m a bit dorky like that.

3. Hanmer hot pools: we broke our 6.5hr drive from Nelson to Christchurch with a detour to Hanmer for a walk, a swim and dinner.  It added quite a bit of time to the travel day, but was totally worth while.  After 5 hours in the car, we were all SO ready for a swim in the hot pools.  We’ll be heading back there at the start of June and the end of July too. I might consider getting a discount pass!

Fun stuff newly added to the list

1. Go ice skating – hopefully at the Staveley Outdoor rink but definitely at the Alpine Ice rink in town.  I haven’t been skating in a long time (in fact, I can’t remember if I’ve skated since I was in high school, when we used to skate at a rink in Kuwait.)

2. Watch this sculpture develop and then burn.  It’s in the shape of the seismic reading from the February 11 earthquake. I feel this could be very cathartic – even for me. I have some very mixed feelings about Christchurch and the earthquakes that I may blog about later. I love the city but some days, it still makes me want to cry. And I wasn’t here before.

3. Go to some Christchurch Writer’s Festival Events in August/September… programme not available yet.

4. Go to Christchurch Arts Festival events… programme not available yet.

 

Things I never thought I’d do…

So, I ran a half marathon. It was a beautiful course. The St Clair half takes you through vineyards and along the Wairau River in the Marlborough region at the northern end of the South Island. Clear blue skies, golden autumn colors and a fresh nip to the air to encourage running just to warm up!  I don’t have any photos myself but the race event photostream on flickr captured the day really well – e.g. this photo of the vines

While my run was notable in that it was quite out of character – also notable was that my husband and all his five siblings ran the course this year. Our times ranged from 1hr20 to 2hr38. His younger brother (who won last year) would have been quicker but he took a wrong turn and added about 4 minutes to his time. That was hilariously appropriate as my husband’s family is notorious for getting lost. My husband came in second of the siblings at 1hr30.

I was pretty happy with my time at 2hrs38– it was better than it might have been due largely to the influence of my BFF who finished her half and then TURNED AROUND to find me and then ran back to the finish with me again. She kept up a constant stream of pep talk, which really helped me keep running when frankly, I would have pretty happy to walk! (Yes, she is awesome and has amazing legs: see this photo for evidence, she’s in a black hoodie next to my husband, the tall guy in a long sleeved blue shirt and yellow runners).

My preparation in the month before the run was not the best – I had a calf strain just over a month before the race and had to cut back how much I was running. Then 10 days before the race I tripped on some earthquake damage on the footpath and sprained my ankle and couldn’t run at all until race day. I’m not sure that’s quite what is meant by a taper… However, my physio strapped my ankle up to within an inch of immobile and it worked ok (see this photo for evidence of massive ankle strapping – it’s how my husband recognized me in the photo as he clicked through them)

I’d gladly go back and run the race again. It’s very much a ladies race even though it’s not promoted as such– 75% of the entrants were women! However, it is promoted as a ‘fun’ rather than ‘serious’ half marathon and that I suppose makes it more female-friendly. How serious can you take a race where there is sauvignon blanc sorbet on offer at one of the water stops and a beer tent at 18km. I gave the beer a miss but the sorbet was lovely. The on-course entertainment was good fun too – a banjo man, a pipeband, a drummer and some kapa haka.

After the race, my husband, BFF and I managed to stir ourselves up enough to go to wine tasting at Wither Hills – it was nice to actually try some of their cellar door only and reserve wines rather than just the supermarket line (although, the supermarket line is still pretty damn tasty). I felt a bit of wanker, but I did really like their single vineyard organic sauvignon blanc. Very limey and fresh.

We followed up with a mother’s day lunch the next day at Hunter’s Winery. If you’re looking for a place to eat with kids in Marlborough, I’d really recommend it.  They had lots of toys, lots of garden and a few diversions like a little native bush trail and sculpture garden.  (You can also buy their wine from the website in the US. I rated their bubbles the MiruMiru)

Then we drove back to Christchurch through the sea mist at sunset along the Kaikoura coast.  It was a beautiful end to the weekend.  (I didn’t have a camera but this photo is far more reflective of the scene than anything I could ever capture)

So, it turns out moving countries keeps one rather busy

We’ve been in NZ for nearly three months now. It was summer when we arrived here in February (well, not the actual day we arrived – which was 9degC and raining ) and now it is autumn and snow is starting to fall on our home mountain.  

I can’t quite believe how much we have packed into the last three months.  We bought a house (which was INCREDIBLY stressful) and are unpacked bar putting pictures on the wall.  That’ll have to happen soon because the box of pictures needs to go so we can get the dining table we just bought into place. Our house is much, much smaller than our place in Perth – but I actually really like it. Less cleaning, less clutter, less stuff. It’s enough.

We’ve started new jobs and caught up with old friends.  My job is unbloggable – but good.  Dr DKs job is unbloggable – but good too and it is so WONDERFUL that he has no after hours or on call work.  I have managed to just ‘run into in the street’ three friends I wanted to catch up with: and that’s happened twice with two of the three friends.

Despite randomly running into people, we’ve struggled to catch up meaningfully with friends to date – but for the best of reasons. We’ve just been flat out with settling in and doing stuff with DKs’ family and it’s been FUN. I do love the way their events snowball – it starts out with a plan to catch up with one aunt and then it somehow organically ends up with 15 people around a table in a cafe all afternoon…  However, the settling in process is ‘settling down’ and we’re starting to fit in catch ups with friends (especially DK who has a good friend here with a ‘man cave’ where they can watch rugby and play darts – no girls allowed – and also go mountain biking with). And I spent a whole weekend in Auckland with my BFF without husband or child which was AWESOME.  (I may have been distinctly cavalier about getting to the airport to go home – I made my flight with 2 minutes to spare before the check-in cut off! This is *very* out of character as I’m usually excessively early)

And that leads into the fact that I have made good progress on ticking items off the fun stuff list so far this year.  I might make my next post an edit of the lists – I think I need to add some more items to keep the momentum up! 

Because nothing cheers me up like making a list

I would love to write a post about the awesome-ness that was our big family trip to Japan (and the special sauce that was the first 3 days of the trip at the Conrad Suites in Bali)… but my brain is fried with moving and finishing work and packing and thinking about where I’ll be living in less than 3 weeks!! Which, in case you were wondering, is not my house. And not my city. Not even my country.  We’ll be in Christchurch, NZ from February. And I’m not taking all my good wine glasses.  Just in case they all fall off a shelf in an earthquake or something.

So, to counter the escalating brain explosivity being caused by moving anxiety, I got inspired by Anandi & Cloud’s & Moxies Fun lists and decided to focus on all the good stuff to come in the year ahead.

So – here they are: some lists

Family Fun Stuff in and around Christchurch

1. Visit the paddling pools at Christchurch Botanic Gardens (assuming they’ve re-opened, the sign I saw in September indicated they’d be open for summer.  If not, the back-up is just to actually walk around in the gardens within Hagley Park)

2. Go to Lyttelton for brunch and the Farmer’s Market

3. Go to Sumner beach and paddle in the sea.  I doubt I’ll actually swim though.  (My willingness to swim in NZ is pretty limited.  I think I swam in the ocean about 4 times in the 3 years I lived there and only about 2 of those times did I actually feel hot enough to swim)

4. Visit Orana Park and hope not to get peed on by the lions.  (True story, one of my SILs friends really was sprayed with lion urine)

5. Go row boating on the Avon.

6. Take a weekend camping trip to Peel Forest

7. Lunch at a winery in the Waipara

8. Go skiing with Moo and her Nana at Mount Hutt mid-week

9. Go skiing with Moo and Dr DK on the weekend.

10. Have a market lunch at the Cashel Mall re:Start (it’s an open-air shopping ‘mall’ made of shipping containers)

11. Go hiking in the Port Hills

12. Go for a swim at Jellie Park Aqualand.

Fun Stuff for ME!

1. Visit my friend in Auckland (FIA) for the weekend – all by myself.

2. Take my FIA skiing for the first time ever!

3. Get a shellac manicure in a really fun colour.

4. Then get the shellac removed properly when it grows out and replaced by a more sedate colour.

5. Catch up for dinner with my Chch friends (all ex-graduate engineers/geologists from the company I worked for in Auckland)

6. Join a craft group and go monthly.

7. Related to #6, pick a couple of ‘big’ projects, like a tote bag or baby sized blanket and then work on them.

8. Go out on the weekend to a nice cafe, all by myself to drink coffee and read the paper.

9. Join a running group and train for the St Clair Half Marathon.  If I’m going to do a half marathon, I like the idea of running through vineyards, with lots of people I know (like all five of my husbands siblings and my FIA) and being rewarded for finishing with a bottle of wine.

10. Find the Kilt shop again for great NZ fashion. They made perfect denim shorts and I’m hoping for more gems.

11. Go to Wellington and end up (inevitably) a bit hung-over.

12. Go see a band with my husband.  Preferably somebody loud.

13. Read more of Michael King’s histories of New Zealand.  And more Ngaio Marsh.

Be careful what you wish for…

Well, despite doing my damnedest to put potential employers off (only part time, can’t start til February, not resigning from my job here…) I’ve just had a call saying I’m ‘the preferred candidate’ for a job in Christchurch.

 

Ack!

More musing on plans for next year

I’ve been reading “Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment” – by  Marcia Reynolds.  I think it is an appalling pun in the title, but some of the content is really resonating with the state of mind at the moment.

To quote ‘The Five Drivers”

1. Extreme confidence (of the, well, I don’t know how to do it now, but I’m sure I can work it out type)

2. Constant need for new challenges (been there, done that, what next?)

3. A strong drive for recognition based on performance

4.Work is your life’s blood – your greatest pleasure comes from achievements out in the world.

5.Experience is the best teacher.

….

And right now – I feel work is not meeting my need for driver #2 – I need a new challenge.

….

There are also some comments about asking yourself “what is the purpose of what I’m doing? Do I believe in the purpose?”  I think that’s a very useful question for me right now.  Which of my options for next year has a purpose I believe in?

….

Anyway – I’ve got to leave it here for now due to Moo waking up from a (very rare) nap.

 

What to do, what to do…

My brain is occupied at the moment with the question of, “what am I going to do with myself?” next year while we’re living in New Zealand.

My default brain pattern was – I’m going to find a job and so I clicked into job hunting mode (update cv, what network can I use etc). There was no doubt initially that finding a job was just what I should do. That Protestant work-ethic thing runs strong in my brain!

But – I have around 4 months of paid leave accumulated from the company I work for here in Perth. And I’ve started to think – well, how can I best use that time? I’m planning to send Moo to pre-school two or three days a week. I’ll have child free time! Chunks of it! How can I use it to maximize my happiness?

Watching tv and aimlessly surfing the internet for four months are unlikely to lead to happiness for me. I need purpose! meaning! to feel like I’m making a contribution to my family! And contact with people! I don’t want to feel all the house shit cleaning is my job because that’s all I’m doing.

So I started thinking – what do I want to do when I come back? Which led to – what skills should I try to build while I’m away? But then I thought – does it have to be about my career? What about my family?

The expectation is that when we come back, DK will have fellowship in his two specialities and start work as a consultant. He seems to think he’ll end up part time in a salaried position but need to work privately as well. Effectively, this means we’ll be entering the world of working for yourself. Neither of us have any formal (or informal) business training. This is a skill area I’ve already identified as something I need to work on.

So, right now I’m leaning towards trying to plan a program of learning for myself that will build my understanding of how to run a medical practice and by extension a small business. I have no intention of doing the running – but if we have to hire (for example) an accountant I want to understand what they should be doing. Getting my head round self-managed superannuation funds is also on my list. Could that be a good idea for us?

All this is very well, but it’s not really about me. Sure, it’ll benefit me – but it’s not really addressing my own interests.

So I’ve got other ideas tossing around in my head (a new travel with kids blog), volunteering in some way, developing ideas for my own business, training for a half marathon … It’s all jumbled at the moment. But I’m trying to think out of the box a bit, beyond signing up for another standard job as an employee.

Does anyone have any suggestions for good thought starting books?