Christmas Strawberries on the Beach

Christmas has always been an exciting time of year for me. This year in particular I was lucky that my parents were here for the christmas holidays. Last year Blaise and I were in NZ and we had a sedate christmas; a few prezzies, we made pizza and chilled on the couch.

This year we went all out (many thanks to Blaise who cooked and put up with my over excited christmas buzz). Blaise made his first NZ ham, with oranges and cloves including a side dish of grilled kumara. My folks bought way to many prezzies for Blaise and I. The weather was sunny and warm, the sky was blue, it was summer in NZ.

I had this overwhelming desire to have christmas strawberries on the beach. Not really sure why, not sure where the impetus came from but I had to do this for christmas this year!

So after dinner and a brief recovery time we prepped the strawberries, grabbed the folding chairs and hauled my family down to the beach. ...windy Wellington, i moved to a place called windy Wellington. The wind was gusting, the sand was blowing, christmas strawberries on the beach would not be on the line for this year. However not to be denied my prize i got Blaise to snap a few photos of me eating strawberries on the beach and my parents joined in with good humour.

Christmas - check
Strawberries - check
Beach - check
family - check!

Waikanae with Mom and Dad

I've been to Waikanae before with Blaise for his kiting but in all honesty i have never walked the beach there.

First off let me tell you the first weekend after school holidays is not a good time to be on the road. I knew this too because last year we left super early on that Saturday to avoid the traffic. So when it took nearly 1/2 an hour to go from Paraparaumu to Waikanae i'm surprised it to me that long to remember about the holiday travels.

Anyway we finally got there and met up with Blaise who had come in our car with his kite gear. The wind wasn't quite up to snuff but he held out hope it would pick up. There was one lone kiter who was going to give it a go and while Blaise hung out near the car and gear, my folks and i headed for a walk down the beach. I had never walked the beach before, my past experiences with Waikanae were launch Blaise then hunker down against the wind on the beach or return to the car. It was a pretty nice walk and i saw lots of the blue jellyfish Blaise had said you could see on the shore (and in the water i might add).

Do they sting you ask? Blaise says "YES" but the ones on shore are usually dead (or dying) and aren't much of a threat. Do i want to step on one barefooted to test the theory...no.

We walked down the boat launch area and then turned around and headed back. Blaise called my mobile (cell) to say that the wind had picked up and he was going to gear up and head out. We arrived back at the cars just as he was suiting up and more and more kiters were showing up. The call had gone out and they all knew the wind had arrived. We wandered down to watch Blaise launch before heading home and for once i wasn't on launching duty, my dad took over and did a great job too.

We watched him zip around for a bit and then headed back home.

Botanical Gardens with my parents

I hadn't been to the botanical gardens in a while, not since...a while. I had definitely gone between this December and last, and ah yes i remember. I went with Jess and Lauren when they came in August. It was a lot nicer weather this time, still overcast but not the same volume of wind and rain.

When we arrived up at the top via cable car my parents wandered into the cable car museum. You know its weird that i nor Blaise had ever gone into that place before. It was actually quite good, lots of info, not too much to say "oh boring" just enough to make you go "Ooh thats interesting". We spend a bit in there wandering around, taking the occasional photo.


We headed out to the garden and walked the flower path down to the city passing through the australian garden, cacti garden, hydrangea path, main garden, herb gardens...you get the idea. The path eventually takes you back to the city proper after passing through the cemetery that they had to move 20,000 graves to put the highway through. A pleasant walk for the day and I can't speak for my folks but i for one will sleep tonight.

The Parents visit Berhampore / I did what to my ....?

Last day of school today. And what a doozie of a day. I have been sick for a bit now, a particularly virulent little infection, started off with me coughing up green phlegm, took me off school for almost 2 weeks. And just recently the coughing was really starting to hurt my chest. Before we get into that lets do the fun stuff.

So Tuesday December 15th was my last day at Berhampore school for the term. I had a bunch of kids asking me the day before "is tomorrow your last day?" so i expected (correctly) that presents were forthcoming. And they blew me away with the sheer volume of prezzies and cards, next year maybe I'll ask for a goat. Other companies like world vision do this too.

Anyhoo there was a stage show to be presented at lunch which both my parents had expressed interest in attending. The kids had been working on it for the last week and apart from one forgotten line it was very well done. Later that afternoon after lunch I was starting to feel really pained in the chest area. Like hurting to breathe. So i suggested to my teaching partner (who totally approved bless him) that i would run the last 2 spelling bees and then head to a clinic to see a doctor. Dad who had been collecting left-handed players baseball gloves for us in Canada took a group of excited kids down to practice some skills while i stayed up top to run a bee.

The day ended with some proud spelling bee winners and a pleased as punch teacher (ie. me) wishing the school year hadn't ended quite so soon.

Now onto the bad. My coughing and sore chest. The reason I ended up having pains while breathing was because i have gone and torn the costal cartilage on my 6th rib. The coughing was putting pressure on the area, anyone who has heard me cough knows i put out an enormous woofing cough for someone my size. I finally tore it out Tuesday morning when a particular bad coughing streak hit me in the morning. The doctor says i have to stop coughing and then it will be 2-3 weeks for the cartilage to repair. And to make me feel better he gave me 5 drugs, i kid you not 5. An anti-inflammatory for the muscles, an antibiotic to clear out the last of the virus so i would stop coughing, a pain killer called Tramadol which my mother claims my grandmother is using, and 2 pills to take with Tramadol to reduce the effect its going to have on my stomach and guts. I ended up programming my ipod to whistle at me every time i needed to take a pill because with 5 of them multiple times a day i'm never going to get this straight.

The Santa Run

Dad and Blaise headed out to Whaikane (sp) to do the kite surfing thing and I hung out with my mom. I had in passing glanced at something called the "Wendy's Santa Run" a charity 2.5km run where all the participants wear felt Santa suits. I can't even remember where i saw the info but when i told co-workers and the like about it they all said pretty much the same thing "i've never heard of that."

I think they need better advertising.

So we headed down to the wharf and as we got closer we could hear amplified voices on a PA system. Well i thought this had to be the right place. As we tried to get our bearings on where they would run from I glanced left to the wooden bridge that connects the water to the city. Like a train of ants ran a bunch of people in red, zig zagging in lines down the ramps. This was definitely the right spot. As mom and I debated whether to walk over there the fastest of the pack came out right beside us, as luck would have it we were on the running route.

We took a few pictures, male santas, female santas, little santas and a few little elves.


They did their run around Te Papa and came back along our path and headed to the finish line. A couple of Santas stuck out, the group of moms with their babies in prams, they had decorated them up with gold garlands and the older child had a fairy outfit on and a decorated push scooter to use. A couple who upon their run back decided they were warm and they took a dive off the pier into the water below, we tried to get a photo but they jumped to fast. And finally the lady we will refer to as chesty Claus. I'm sure she was going for a costume prize but two rules 1) think about body appropriateness and 2) if you can't jog in it why did you design it.

The only time she moved faster than a walk was the last 20 meters to the finish line.

Still a pretty fun thing to watch and every jogger seemed to have a good time. If you are Wellington next December check it out.

Two more Canadians kind of escaped to Kiwiland

My parents have arrived!! That's right we're bringing over family now. Well they are not the first my brother Jess had that honour back in August.

They arrived at 8:30am on Tuesday (December 8th) and will be here 30 days! How sweet is that. We have christmas, our summer atm, a trip to Napier planned and lots of stuff in and around Wellington.

So they got in and we headed to their place in Newtown where they began to unpack. We headed downtown organized their banking, got a cellphone for them, met Blaise for lunch, picked up their rental car and headed to our home in Island Bay for a visit. Mom was impressed on how they have built on the hills; she feels Halifax could learn from them. Both were suitably impressed by the views off our decks, Dad in particular couldn't get enough of them. He was so impressed he collected my outdoor beanbags, borrowed a hoodie and headed out for some fresh air.

He got comfy and then bam! nap time for an hour and a half, I think jet lag caught up with him. He wants to get rid of the cherry tree blocking our view on the lower deck and if the property management gives us the go ahead I'm sicking him on that tree.