Rugby Sevens, Welly Goes Wild!

Apparently, Wellington is the place to come to to participate in the Rugby Sevens... Hong Kong is great too, other places fine... but Welly is Wild!

Some of you may know that our landlady rents our flat to us, but the flat beneath us is a holiday home so has people in it on and off... this past weekend it was full to the brim with (I think) 7 young ladies? from Pukekohe, near Auckland.  Noisy?  Um, well, yes, VERY!   Drunk?  Um, well, yes, EXTREMELY!  Having fun? Um, well, yes, when they weren't vomitting!

As you can imagine the noise from downstairs was somewhat loud for the weekend, usually we are aware of being a little quieter when people are staying down there! LOL!

The girls drove down from Pukekohe in a rental van and once they had tried to order a couple of taxis and failed they asked me (their very kind, funloving neighbour) to drive them into town. Oh dear, it was amazing I could even concentrate to drive as they hung out windows, screaming and shouting, laughing... oh dear indeed.....  I made sure they all had seat belts on and they mostly did... only taking them off to be ill out the window...  Anyway, after the first drive I decided to not offer again, but of course the next day drove them into town again....  

Admittedly, they did give me money for the pleasure of driving them in... I guess I saved them a lot in taxi fares... and they gave me all their leftover food.... and they gave me a laugh.... and made my weekend a little more exciting than usual....

Culture shock ville though... when I was their age - here in New Zealand - I really don't think girls went out like that and were so crazy... we went out with a bunch of people but there were always guys with us... girl's nights out were more laid back than that.... my nieces assure me that that's what girls do now.... ha ha ha...

Conscience thoughts........ was I enabling them to live dangerously or being a good citizen getting them to where they were going without them getting hurt?  Still working on that one...

Future thoughts.... thinking it might be quite fun to go to the Sevens next year.. any takers? :)

Journeying with a friend

I read my friend's blog today... she's much younger than me and lived most her life in Chiang Mai... BUT... we seem to be experiencing some of the same type of issues...

I love my friend Autumn, she's like family to me, why?  Because when you live in a country different to your passport country you make friends with people who understand how you feel, then they become FAMILY!

Sometimes people here say to me (in a loving and caring way), "Don't worry, you'll make new friends in time", what they don't realise is that it's not so much friends I've left behind, it's family.

Autumn and others now live in the US, others still live in Thailand, a very special friend is leaving mid-year to go back to Switzerland, another leaves around the same time to go back to Seattle for who knows how long...  talk about your family living all over New Zealand?!!!  Mine live all over the world!!!

Tears and sobs begin to well up in me as I come to understand that maybe I'll never see any of them again, not like 'real' family, who somehow you always get to see again eventually.... and you know what?  It hurts so much sometimes that most the time I don't even think about it!!!  Not like Autumn, who, bummer for her, is so much younger than me and isn't quite so expert and suppressing things....

To all my family in Thailand, if I don't seem to get in touch with you as much as you thought I would, just drop me a line, encourage me to stop the suppression (and live through the pain to get to the other side...) and let's try to keep in touch, let's try to eventually see each other again... just like real family.

Love you all.

Bro?

Three times in the week just gone, men have addressed me as.... 'bro'.... bro?????  Those of you who know me will know that I do NOT look like a man in any way, shape or form... guess it's another Kiwism that I just don't get...so on I go, getting used to my own culture... the other thing that I totally love is this one...

"Nah, yeah, right" which means "Yes"....

Why are people shouting at me?

Off I go to have a cuppa coffee at Cafe L'affare in Wellington, New Zealand... possibly the best coffee in town... the lady comes up to me and in a very loud voice asks, "What do you want?"  I guess she's friendly, I guess that's how it's done here, but oh dear... then I go into a shop to buy a banana and the lovely Asian lady behind the counter asks, "Howzit goin'?"...  Next I'm off to the supermarket where the guy at the checkout calls me 'mate'... What is with this country?  Oh, that's right... we're all equal here, no social hierarchy... no huge difference between old and young... no worries mate...  New Zealand is the land where the people who collect trolleys in the supermarket car park consider themselves equal to the doctors and university professors... I first met it when I got off the plane halfway through last year and the guys pushing luggage trolleys chatted to me as if I was his long lost sister!

Please forgive me anyone who hasn't lived in Thailand or other parts of Asia,  I've been living for nearly a decade in a land where the social strata is very layered... there I found it hard that people treated me differently because I was a Westerner... an ahjarn (educated person)... older (well, I actually liked that one)... I found it tricky to not thank people when it wasn't necessary... (eg waiters, bar tenders, anyone in any service industry).  Also living in a land where if you hear someone shout or raise their voice you wonder what's going on...

Here's a story then...

Isaac and I went for a drive into the country one day (in Thailand) and found a beautiful park.  We got out of the car with Kuri, our dog, and proceeded to take her for a walk around the park.  Turns out it was a private residence.  We found this out by chatting with the lovely lady there who was actually the housemaid/gardener/go-fer for the man who owned the property.

Isaac lost his chain while there, so the next week we went back to have a look for it.  The lovely lady was there again and we sat for a while and chatted.  She shopped at the same market as I did, so I saw her there a few times as well, we would always stop, hold onto each other's hand and chat, chat, chat...  She invited us to come visit whenever we wanted....

Next time I popped over to 'her' place, her boss was there.  I smiled at her and went to take her hand and have a good chat, she bowed her head and backed away, not saying a word... her boss came and chatted with me, talked about how he'd developed the land, basically showed off about how much money he had and how much land he owned and 'blah, blah, blah'... from then on she didn't speak to me at the market... guess I crossed over some 'line'....

Now?????? Now, here in New Zealand.... I really don't know where the lines are, if there are any, if not - how to work without them.... after so long of having to learn to live with them... :)

My Adventure in Carterton, Wairarapa, New Zealand

Wow! Not only is Carterton around five degrees warmer than where I live in Wellington, it's flat! Similar to Chiang Mai in that the only hills are the ones surrounding the town. Um, the similarities end there! Nothing negative to say about Carterton, oh, except I had hayfever for the weekend, but apparently that's just one of the things you live with over there!

Nicola, a friend from Chiang Mai who now lives in Aussie who came over here to visit family, and I caught the train to Carterton on Friday evening and back here on Sunday.  We had an awesome time getting to know each other better, laughing, eating, walking and eating (yes, eating is in there twice!). So proud of ourselves that we managed to eat for around $5 each per meal ha ha!

The town of Carterton is delightful, clean, interesting shops, great community feeling.You may have read or heard on the news lately that they had a hot air balloon tragedy where eleven people died...as a community they are working through that and helping each other through the grieving process.

 Today I was remembering some of the fascinating  people I chatted with while there and some of the things we did.

I went to the beautiful paua shop/factory and bought a bag of paua shell bits for craft.  As I was walking back to town to meet Nicola a man pulled over in his vehicle and asked me if I wanted a lift into town.  As we chatted on the way I mentioned that I had lived in Chiang Mai.  He then began to tell me that he had very sad connections with Chiang Mai as his niece died there just under a year ago.  Turns out he was the uncle of Sarah Carter who died at the Downtown Inn this time last year.  Sad to hear what a lovely person she was and what a large gap she has left in her family.

Then Nicola and I met a guy who was from Aussie.  He had fought in the war in Viet Naam as a young man of twenty four.  Most of his friends who went with him didn't come back.  As he shared some of his life with us, including having made and lost a million, been married and divorced and losing contact with his kids - hadn't heard of or seen them for fifteen years... well... he teared up a little...

Walking back to the camping ground I met a man who had shifted his young family from Christchurch as they had lost just about everything in the terrible earthquake there.  Turns out they are a homeschooling family so that was cool to chat with him and ask how they are settling into their new life.  He was very happy to be in Carterton and happy to be able to carry on his life with his family, but also feeling at times like he has deserted his friends and his city.  Must have been a very hard thing to decide to do.

We met a lady at a local market who, in her spare time, makes lovely jewellery... she must have loads of spare time, there was loads of jewellery... and who encouraged us to go live there and join the locals fine arts group or the local craft group.

Then to top in off on Sunday we went to the oldest Anglican church in the Wellington diocese that still has a regular congregation, excellent sermon... complete with lovely female vicar who ended the service by getting us to do the last little bit again cos it was a little 'muffed' the first time AND back to the same church in the afternoon to sit with a glass of wine and listen to Rodger Fox Quintet play beautiful jazz...

Any ideas from anyone as to how I can use my chatting skills to get a job?????

Ah, great weekend away!  Thanks Nicola!  Thanks Carterton!

2012 seems to be flying by....

Goodness, is it already 11th January?  I've hardly done a thing all year!

The boys are enjoying their loooooooooooooooong summer holiday playing computer games.  I'm really not seeing them much at all.  Took them to see Tin Tin movie and we laughed our way through it, now just need to go see 2nd Sherlock Holmes movie and our movie viewing for the holidays is over.

My biggest problem at the moment is that every time I go to do my part time job down at Lyall Bay (Google it people, it's my local beach) I either get horribly wet on a rainy day or horribly lazy on a sunny day.. take today for example...   I did my work first, thankfully, then went and bought a bag of hot chips and a wee pot of tomato sauce (for US friends I mean ketchup)... then sat near a lovely family, shared my tomato sauce with them and chatted my way through half a bag of chips.  The other half a bag was shared with my dear friends at the beach... seagulls!  Some of them are even able to catch the chip in mid air.  Fun.. the other cool fact about Lyall Bay is that it is the local dog walking beach so I get to pat loads of dogs and not miss Kuri (my dog) so much. Oh, I sooooooooooo want a dog but not in a position to do that as yet!

What am I going to aim for this year?  I will try to get some relieving jobs at local schools (supply teaching), hope to work three to four days a week, this will get me off social welfare which will be lovely, and I'll be able to keep my part time job as well.  Mmmmmmm..... see what happens.  Was thinking about doing some study but really not sure about ending up with a huge debt at age 52 + 3 years... again, we'll see what happens...

For all of you who are praying people, please pray for me to make the right decisions now that will make the road head the right way... for those of you who aren't praying people, I'd super appreciate any happy thoughts and buzziness as well... :)

All of you, have a happy and prosperous New Year, Chok Dee Kha Maak Maak...

Happy New Year

Most years while living in Thailand my family and I have gone over to a friend's place to celebrate.  Often they would have a bonfire in the yard, around which we would all sit drinking cups of hot tea or hot apple cider and chatting... remember New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai is cold for us so a fire was a wonderful thing.  Then at midnight we would gather and let loads of fireworks. Eat your heart out people from countries with sensible rules!  We let off all sorts of crazy things... ah, I miss that part of living in Thailand, although I don't miss the fear factor of it all. THEN, the whole of Chiang Mai would seem to blow up as fireworks would boom and explode for what would seem like an hour!

Then as the kids got older many of them would have a sleepover that night as well and we would go pick them up at nine or ten the next morning...

This year, I watched movies and the boys played computer games for twenty four hours... there were a few piddly fire works let off but the council display was cancelled cos of the storm.... I stood on the balcony and shouted out "Happy New Year" and got a few replies.... low key, lonely, yet kind of a fun night for me... Happy New Year everyone!