26 June 2011

Sunday morning ramblings

Yeah, so much for chilling at home for the rest of the weekend. On Friday morning Grant went to apply for our IRD numbers while I did some housework and made the kids toast under the grill in the oven. At 11am we walked down to the school for a meeting the head teacher, then we went home to get the car and go out and buy the kids' uniforms. We also picked up some door mats, slippers and a cheap toaster.

Because of the earthquake in Christchurch the school uniform supply store is having trouble getting stock so we had to go back to the school to get second-hand sweatshirts for the boys, as their sizes were out of stock.

After lunch I decided to take a nap as I was absolutely out of it. I thought I'd take a 2 hour nap then go to bed later and hopefully sleep through the night. I slept from 2pm till 4pm but when my alarm woke me I couldn't get up. Like, I physically could not stand up. It was like trying to come around from general anaesthetic. So I slept till just after 6, then forced myself to get up.

I felt like an absolute zombie after that, kind of how I had expected jet lag to feel from the beginning. I thought it would start out bad and get better, but for me it started out fine and got worse. I still had to go to bed around 8pm as I couldn't stay awake any longer. I woke up at about 3 or 4 and had to get up and eat some cereal before eventually falling back asleep until about 6:50am, I think.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the other day the electrician came to check out the socket for the fridge ... and immediately walked in and turned on the isolator switch hidden in the pantry. How embarrassing. I blame jet lag, and plan to use that excuse for ages ;)

And while I think of it, we also had tenants sign a lease for our house back in England! That is a worry off our minds.

Yesterday morning Grant had to go do something for work and I had a mid-morning nap of two and a half hours, waking when he got home. The boys did enjoy chilling out. But then we had more errands to run. The boys had their pocket money and wanted to go to the dollar store. We also needed some more groceries - with the boys we never seem to do a proper full shop and we're also trying to ration our money and only pick up what we really need as we need it.

Daniel is fitting right in, he was in shorts and by the end of our errands he was running around barefoot too! The weather is very changeable and it will be sunny and then chuck down with rain, but we know now where to look for the rainclouds moving in and we can anticipate the downpours, which only last about 10 minutes. But what a deluge while they are happening! The temperature during the day is about 16 degrees.

Home for supper and then we were all in bed by 8pm. I actually slept better and more deeply than I have since arriving, only waking at 4am but was able to get back to sleep and slept until 7:40am. I feel like I've turned a corner, hopefully will start to feel better now as jet lag is kicking my butt!

We decided not to attend church today as we're all zonked and tired and the boys are feeling a bit nervous about starting school tomorrow. We thought we'd keep things low-key for them. We're thinking of taking a drive to see the beach this morning, and we have been invited to afternoon tea at Ruth's house, she is a friend of Nic and a blog reader and has been absolutely lovely to me via email and blog comments, and you'll remember she left us some thoughtful gifts and a lovely hand-made card when we first arrived. It will be nice to meet her in real life at last!

Here's to a chilled-out day!

Oh, some other disconnected thoughts (as all of mine seem to be lately) - the other night we stepped outside after dark to look at the stars. You never see stars in the UK, it's too densely populated and there's too much light pollution. It was amazing to see stars again, but what made me giddy with joy was the smell of the air. Such pure, intensely fresh air, smelling richly of plants, water and soil with light scents of woodsmoke. Absolutely delicious and I couldn't stop sniffing it in like a drug. I feel so blessed to be here.


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