Rural Realities

Well we now have another house move under our belts - our third in 10 months and now find ourselves happily settled in our first kiwi home of our own. Spouse has worked his socks off ferrying our trash and treasure between the old house and the new and faithfully working through the never ending list of jobs that need doing. The fils seem delighted with their new bedrooms and had their newly painted walls plastered in blue tac and posters within hours of taking possession. Decided to hold my breath on what damage was being done because I realised I quite like their taste in rugby players!!

I know I keep going on about this, but everything just feels so good and I have been feeling on a tremendous high. I am sure it must have something to do with the amount of sunshine we now get. I was driving to a meeting this week and just couldn't believe that this is our life and we don't have to go home! It was toasty warm in the strong winter sunshine, not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky, stereo up full blast and me singing along at the top of my voice to Simon & Garfunkle's Mother & Child Reunion! Sad maybe, but it certainly gave me a lift.

We continue to marvel and find so much pleasure in the quirks and differences we come across everyday. A typical example is just one day earlier this week - whilst walking across the playground in the morning with the kids on the way to their classrooms we bump into a mum with a 4 day old squealing orange piglet in her arms, nonchalantly kissing goodbye to her son as if every mum should have one! I then go to a friend's house at the end of the day to collect fils 2,3 & 4 who had been playing there and discover them giving swimming lessons to 6 tiny ducklings in the bathroom sink, who had been orphaned by their mum in a road accident. Very quaint and I guess to be expected living in the country. What gave me a good laugh though was the memo waved in my face by fils 1 later that evening as it was so untypical of the memo's brought home from their previous schools in the UK. In the efforts of fundraising for the class, a deer had been donated and helpfully butchered by one of the parents. The teacher was therefore offering marinated venison steaks at a very competable price! Not for me, but thought spouse would probably enjoy cooking it up on the BBQ. Not sure if I can risk purchasing it for him though - fils 1 tends not to give anything up that finds its way into the depths of her school bag and I don't want to discover a portion of deer conjealed to her pencil case at the end of term!!