19th Nov day 36 wake up and smell the roses

.After Simon had gone to work I busied myself with a few domestic tasks and then I FaceTime'd Cheryl and the boys, as well as Vicky. Initially the boys were involved with a big FIFA game on the Xbox so couldn't chat but they got back to me at the end of the match. Mark and Marcus were the winning team, I commented that didn't seem very fair just Seb against them but then Marcus explained Seb will never pass the ball - so fair dooz. It was fantastic to see them all and to hear how the rehearsals are going for the school play, Annie, which runs all next week, Marcus plays Miss Hannigan's boyfriend Brewster. Seb showed me his new watch, very swish and told me he had 9 out of 10 in his spellings this week. It's that sort of real life info that I love knowing. 

It was then onto the ironing, I'm a woman on a mission to stay on top of the laundry especially as when the weather is good I can do it in the garden. When the jobs were done I went for a walk locally, there is a beautiful park about 100yds from 904 and I hadn't been yet on this trip. So I walked up the street, just look how wide it is compared to ours at home. You can do a U turn on virtually every street here, I wonder if that means you don't have to learn 3 point turns in NZ, must enquire.

The park is full of rose beds and I stopped at them all to enjoy the heady scent of the various varieties.

As I wandered leisurely through the park I remembered a poem my Dad used to quote by William Henry Davies (a Welshman of courseI) the first 2 lines are - 'what is this life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare...' It talks about the need for all of us to just slow down and take in the beauty all around us. So often when I was working and my life was manic I didn't take this sensible advice and I was impoverished as a result. So this park was perfect for me, this was my favourite rose for the perfume, it looks pretty good as well doesn't it?

As I went further into the park I came to this pretty bridge and stayed there for a while as a host of memories came flooding back. Each time I have visited I tried to let Simon and Philippa have a lie in so I would take Nicholas to this little park, initially as a baby of 3 months and then each year for the next 5 years. I clearly remember taking Marcus and Nicholas out when they woke really early one morning, I couldn't find Nicholas's shoes so I put him in his tiny red wellies. We fed the ducks and then went to the swing park and I have a fabulous picture of this 2 yr old at the top of the slide in his boots with Marcus behind him keeping him safe. Stupidly today I didn't take any bread so there was no rush to greet me by the ducks and moorhens, must do better!

When Simon got home we had our new tradition of a coffee in the garden before rushing into whatever is next in the evening. A cuppa for me without cake is way too wet, this time it was accompanied by macaroons - yummy.

Carol is Director of a successful choir called Fours Company and they have been invited to sing at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2017. The cost for them all to go is immense so they are doing a number of fundraising initiatives to raise the money to ensure no-one is left behind. This weekend they have a garage sale in Arthur Miller School, Taradale about 12km from here. She had asked if Simon would go along and help collect and unload donated items. He sent her a text saying "bringing my Mum she's rather old and a bit frayed round the edges, so not sure what you'll get for her!" I miss his quick sense of humour, I love how both my kids take the mickey out of me.

As we drive to the school I reminded Simon who Arthur Miller was, a famous American playwright who wrote Death of a Salesman amongst many other plays. He was also married to Marilyn Munroe. Turns out after I had showed I'm not a complete ignoramous that the Arthur Miller the school is named after was a local guy who lived until he was 89!

There was so much stuff of all kinds and it took hours to collect it all in, here is Linda Carol's sister when we had offloaded a couple of trucks and then Jess putting his feet up after a lot of hard work.

As soon as all this stuff had been stored away safely a gang of us went for a hot, tasty Turkish meal in Hastings, we were all cold and tired so this was the perfect antidote at the end of the day.