welcome!

We have a newphew!! Welcome Daniel Luke and congratulations Kate and Phil! We can’t wait to see you and meet you!!

PS I’d just like to point out in a completely non-gloating way that I predicted they’d be late and have a boy and that his name would be Daniel!! I think I have a gift! Now, I wonder how many of my other predictions will work out!!

Jowsey boys (minus O)

Another lovely sunny winters day in Christchurch. And so after a quick game of left right straight we headed to the beach.

We played 20 questions and the boys were trying to guess mine (which was Miley Cyrus!) They did’t know I was taking this picture but I love that Ben is genuinely scratching his head as he thinks!

Then the boys decided to have a stick fight – slightly one-sided I reckon!

And now Phil has arrived for the weekend

Another game of Settlers!

g.l.o.r.i.o.u.s

Before I blog about what we did today I’ve just heard another classic Maureen quote which I’ll share. She and mum have just been for a ‘holiday’ in Aschaffenburg, Germany. While there someone offered Maureen a glass of water – it was 30 oC so it’s not a silly suggestion. However, she replies ‘Water is for washing, I’ll have some wine!’ That’s my gran for you!

Now today is what winter is meant to be like! The perfect day for me – maybe 15 oC, blues skies, sunny and just enough of a breeze to cool me down. Of course we did what we always like to do on day like today – take a trip to Taylor’s Mistake to do the Godley Head walk. And it didn’t disappoint!

Those are three smiling faces in those three photos! Incidentally if you look in the one of Ben you can see the wee beach which is where we start the walk. The settlement beside the beach is called Taylor’s Mistake.

This time we took a picnic and ate it ate Boulder Beach. Seriously, what a way to spend a few hours!

We want to give a big shout out to someone whose birthday is today. We’ve given a few clues as to whose birthday it is in the photos below. Hope you have had a great day!!

(see how long my hair is getting?!)

PS We are totally thinking about and praying for the Strachan family today who are holding a service for their wife/mother who died of pancreatitis after a long illness. We’re so sad with you!

active day/lazy evening

Today – finally – the sun shone, the sky was blue.. and my washing dried in one day (rather than three it’s been taking recently)

We went to QEII this morning and the boys lived it up on the hydroslides and in the pool. I meanwhile played the ‘mum’ role and sat reading on the sidelines (lovely!) After a quick soup lunch J scooted off to work and Ben and I hit the park and worked our way round the fitness loop. First some stretching…

and then the work begins…

Honestly I couldn’t in any way keep up and doing a chin up entirely eludes me but it was a nice walk!

And now this evening it’s movies galore. All good!

overnight visitor number 20

By my reckoning Ben is our 20th overnight visitor since we arrived in Christchurch (and incidentally the final Jowsey to visit – now we’ve hd all six of them to stay since we got married!) So far we’ve watched a Top Gear DVD and playd a few rounds of zilch. It’s all good!

This afternoon I was round seeing those sweet Geddes girls who aren’t feeling in tip top condition. I have to give a shout out to mummy Geddes who remained calm and composed and rational and sweet tempered in the face of one sick girl and one just newly awoken on the wrong side of the bed girl. Being a parent isn’t always a cruisy ride – and here I thought it was!!! She worked it marvelously though and by the time I left there were two smiling girls.

Now, back to zilch…

no news…

surely is good news? We haven’t heard from Kate or Phil yet about a new addition to the family. I predicted the baby would be late though so it’s looking like I may get at least one thing correct!

It’s been a rainy dreary weekend here in Christchurch. I was reading today that we’ve had 13 hours of sunlight for the last two weeks! Seriously, this isn’t what New Zealand winters are supposed to be like! Dear, dear, it had better be sorted before Lewis and Louise come! Speaking of their arrival, J and I sat down to make some proper plans. He’s got time off work so the four of us are going to do some trips about the place – I’m so looking forward to it!!

Incidentally we did get up to watch the semi-finals and were sad for Andy M, the coriander was obviously affected too because it started to droop! Not sure if we’re going to get up to watch the final… probably not!

whisky galore

After our Belgian beer escapades we’re back on home turf again. Tonight we went round to visit with some Christchurch friends  and sampled the delights from their five bottles of Scottish Single Malts (note 1 : Kim and I did not imbide in whisky but went for the Baileys instead. Note 2:  the boys didn’t sample all five bottles!! We’ll just have to return for a further tasting.) It was a fun relaxed evening though! And J and I cycled there and back.

This afternoon we hung out with our 14 month old god-daughter and her sister. We are very fond of these two sweet girls as I’m sure you’ve gathered. It just seems to work out perfectly that both of their parents need to be at work and J and I enjoy the girls so much.

So now our decision is whether to get up in the middle of the night to see Andy play. We went out specially and bought an aerial for the TV so we could watch the final but it’s tempting to watch the semis too and J isn’t at work this weekend. (Before our aerial we had a wire coathanger out the back of the TV and didn’t get all the free chanels). Hmmmm.

The Chin and the other Andy Murray

We’re proud to think we probably have the only coriander plant named Andy Murray. Can’t really remember why. And it seems that both Andies are doing well – growing, maturing, reaching for the skies…aiming to take down the Fed. Yes, our plant wants that too. I think the tennis playing Andy is bushier – but coriander Andy is getting there. Go Andies!

And the Chin is back with remarkable romantic news. A suitor has emerged and swept her off her neck. We had a brief chat…

“Chin you’re looking lovely! Is that hat for fashion or the Christchurch winter?”

“It is pretty chilly I have to say – but the hat was actually a gift.”

“From your new love?”

“We’re just friends – despite the rumours”

“He’s a leftie if I’m correct. Where did you meet?”

“At a local knees-up for the ambidextrous society.”

“That was handy! Thanks Chin – we’ll pop a picture up for the fan(s) at home. You look very happy.”

And thanks to Keith for his undying Chin support – without you it would be a bleak and chinless world.

books books books

I have a pile of NINE books beside my bed and I want to read them all right now! There’s a mixture of fiction and non-fiction and over 1500 years between the writing of the oldest and the newest. Oh how I love to read! And I have the whole evening ahead of me – bring it on!! Seriously, this is one of my most favourite ways to spend my time!!

Just in case you were wondering here are my temperature observations from our house:

• Generally speaking the houses here are not well heated – no central heating just plug in heaters mostly or log burners (which we LOVE but don’t have), although we do have the benefit of having a heat pump in the living room.
• And most houses here (including ours) are single glazed and the heat escapes every which way.
• Also, it’s not unusual for there to be a lot of condensation on our windows in the morning and even on occasions ICE!!
• And seeing your breath in the air inside is the norm.

Quite obviously I’m not complaining – I do love the cold! But J has this cough that persists and so I decided we’d have the heater on in our room last night (it comes on when it goes below a certain temperature) so today our room was (relatively) toasty and warm. And so we spent most of the morning here – we had a picnic lunch on the floor and played zilch and J played his guitar and we did some reading and we lived as much as possible in one room! We did venture out for a walk though and J is at work and I spent a delightful afternoon with those sweet Geddes girls in Borders bookshop (you gotta love a bookshop where there are so many great books to look at and wee chairs and a table to read at – all three of us had such fun! And also I noticed that people talk to you a LOT more if you have kids. I think one mum wanted to become my best friend – having kids seems to break down a lot of the normal barriers between strangers – is that true?!)

Anyway, I’m back in the toasty room for my evening with the books. Love it!

PS Welcome back Paul and Meg – glad you had a good holiday!

PPS Louise, if you’re reading this don’t worry – I’m working on all sorts of cunning heat making activities so when you’re here it should be sweet!

mid-winter

It’s that time of year when the days are short, the air is cold and frosty and inevitably my mind finds itself wandering towards Christmas songs. Except that it’s not Christmas for another 155 days. However, there’s no rule that says you can’t enjoy mulled wine and roasted chestnuts in June. And so we have! Yum!! (And only one chestnut exploded in the oven which is about ten times better than the last time we tried!)

We also ended up at a Belgium beer bar yesterday and sampled the delights…

There’s something special about personal mail arriving in our mail box, especially when it contains a delicious recipe (Miriam’s muesli) and a handmade recycled envelope (I love it! What a great use of an old calendar!)

So I made the muesli this morning and it is d e l i c i o u s

Thank you Grahams!!

J’s being interviewed at church tonight and chose not to know the questions in advance – who knows what they’re going to ask! He’s still a little bit poorly with his chesty cough but hopefully he’ll manage to speak without having a coughing fit!