Daylight Savings

Daylight Savings just ended in NZ, so we were all up at 6am. I even managed to accidentally get the kids to school half an hour early! So it's just gone 9 and I've tidied up, vacuumed and done two loads of laundry already!

We spent a wonderful weekend staying with my brother and his wife. They endured us for almost exactly 48 hours, and I think they welcomed the quiet after we left! Thanks so much guys we had fun!

Friday night we ate weiner schnitzel and some corn and garlic bread, then took their gorgoeus wee doggie Louis for a walk. We had a quiet night, looked at a few more photos of darling baby Sarah then an early episode of Star Trek TNG. I share my sci-fi nerdism with my brothers.

Saturday we went shopping in the morning, I had to exchange some shoes, and I also went to the Bendon outlet - cheap bras and knickers for me. We dropped in to vist my brother's wife at her flower stall at the market. After visiting little Sarah's grave, and giving her some flowers, we had a lunch of pies and chips at the beach. We hadn't brought togs, but the kids kind of accidentally fell in anyway....

Home for a quick change, then off to visit an old friend of mine. I had planned to stay all afternoon to chat, but had to cut it short by an hour, as Erica kept wanting to abscond, and it was pretty much the least child-safe house in the universe! (dogs, stairs, deck, garden terraces....)

We came home in time for beers on the porch, enjoying the very last rays of summer evening sun before Daylight Savings ended. For dinner I cooked a Bailey's cheesecake and okonomiyaki. I didn't do a very good job of the latter, but I don't think they noticed. The nicest thing about cooking exotic foreign fare is that no-one knows when you mess up.

I SOOOOO wanted to eat the cheesecake after I got the kids to bed, but I ended up with a nasty stomachache and had to bow out and skulk off to my bed! At least I had done the cooking, so they didn't have to feel guilty. I sure made up for it the next day!

Shopping again in the morning, (after cheesecake for breakfast) as I had remembered my promise to get the girls nighties. They love wearing nighties in summer, and they are not sold in Japan, which makes them all the more special of course. No luck though, in the two stores we went to there were no nighties left.

We came back to bro's house after our failed shopping expedition (got nothing we wanted but plenty we didn't) to meet up with them to go to lunch again (after more cheesecake), and I stubbed my toe. Big deal you say, but as the day wore on and it got more and more sore and blue and purple and yellow and green, I decided I must have actually broken it.

We went to the zoo for lunch. New Plymouth has a wonderful little zoo, with very well-kept exotic farm animals, monkeys and birds, set within an enclosed park with picnic tables and play equipment, and all totally free. We brought sandwiches at Subway and I limped around chatting with the friend from yesterday, admiring the animals and enjoying watching Erica see them.

Then it was back to the beach, as I had promised to let them stay in much longer. They had on half togs - we had packed only Amy's togs (actually old one's of her cousins), a two-piece, so Lena went in in the top with her own shorts and Amy went in in the pants with her own t-shirt. Erica sploshed in the rock pools.

We went home after that (and the last piece of cheesecake), but had one more chore to do - helping my sister move her dog kennel. It took six of use to haul it onto the trailer, then we drove out to her new place for a squiz. We swung by KFC on the way home - I never eat it in Japan, because they don't have potato and gravy, which is the only reason I go. Apart from the potato and gravy, it was awful, and I ended up with a stomach ache again, and had to skip dessert again (Mum's famous chocolate sauce). Sigh. Well, I've learned my lesson, no more FAT, I'm eating vege stir-fry for tea tonight, so my poor sensitive tummy can fit in some dessert!