wordful wednesday and a letter to my teenage-self

dear sue

you are beautiful (even though you don't think you are)

you are smart.  a different kind of smart.  not the kind that gets As in school, but as you will discover, they don't turn out to be that important in the grand scheme of things

first impressions are ALWAYS lasting ones

maya angelou says 'when people show you who they are, believe them;

this women is right!

you DO have a flat stomach (even though you don't think you do)

of course, you won't realise this until after you have given birth 4 times and that flat stomach is but a distant memory that you never really appreciated.

it is true - youth is wasted on the young

you will have MORE fun in your 40s that you can ever hoped or imagined you would

you will love to dance, dress up and have fun

you are funny

you are a good friend

you need to worry less about what people think.  there's nothing wrong with stating your preference, even if it's different to that of others around you

you do NOT want to be an air hostess.  it's way less glamorous than you think, and by the time you turn 20 (which is the age at which you can join the airline), you will have discovered that your talents lie elsewhere.

you will become more than slightly anal about mis-placed apostrophes and grammar in general.  you will also care way more about table manners than you ever thought possible.

you will discover that these things ARE important.  especially the last one.

your mother is right (pretty much all the time).  of course you won't discover this until you have children of your own, and it will take you that long to tell your mother how much you appreciate her.

cold duck is a BAD WINE.  drinking this to excess at the party you crash at the burnside rugby club rooms will result in you puking out your bedroom window into your parents' precious garden.  if they discovered it, they pretended not to see it.

parents have eyes in the backs of their heads

they also HEAR everything.

this will be handy for when you are a parent and your kids think you are stupid

parents are NOT stupid

you will also discover that it's ok (NECESSARY even, some days), to feel and act 18,

even though you've just turned 48

photostory friday and the HERO

this is the man who sings hero

this is the band who sings with the man who sings hero

these are the people and the city for whom the band and the man sing hero

this is the girl who bought tickets to see the man and the band sing hero

this is the woman who bought 2 extra tickets for the girl to give away so two other people could see the band and the man who sings hero

these are the girls who got the free tickets from the girl from the woman to see the band and the man who sings hero

this is the man who sings hero

this man IS a hero

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

wordful wednesday and what i know for sure

a visit to our office by the women [whose job i am filling], to show off her gorgeous new baby got me thinking

now that i've been a parent for almost 22 years

i can look back and know that at the time, i spent a lot of time worrying about a few things that, with the passing of the years, weren't THAT worrisome
(of course at the time, they were EVERYTHING!)

like the MAGIC LINE in the baby book.  the line that indicated NORMAL height, weight and whatever else we need to plot to make sure our babies were 'normal' or 'average'

we plotted every 'weigh-in' and poured over every little gram and millimeter as if our lives depended on it

we worried about how much sleep they were getting
when they'd start eating solids
when they'd be nappy trained
how they'd go at daycare, kindergarten and school

if they'd eat their lunch
if they'd eat their dinner
if they'd eat!!!

whether they'd get a good report
be able to cope with homework

who they'd be friends with
who they'd be dating
how late they'd be staying out
whose else was at the party they were going to
how they'd get home
WHEN they'd get home

if they'd pass their drivers' licence
their MOTORBIKE licence
would they be able to handle their bigger and more powerful bike

we worry about sleepovers with the neighbours
with their friends who live on the other side of town
when they fly overnight to another city for a concert

and you get texts like this one i got this morning at work:

"sooooo keen to have a shower.  you can't comprehend just how soaked i was in other people's sweat'.

 



yep - what i know for sure, is that there will ALWAYS be something to worry about.

photostory friday: an ode to christchurch

today is a national day of mourning for christchurch and its people

this website is selling t-shirts, (chch hearts) and was launched by a group of individuals who wanted to raise money and show they care.

i bought two.

coincidentally today's PSF is an ode to christchurch

when i was scrolling through my photo library

(all 50,000 of them - one good thing about aperture, you CAN scroll through the years rather quickly!)

.....i came upon these pictures from a girls' weekend that Tara and I had in Christchurch a few years back

sad to think that this tram line is buckled and no longer in use

 sad to think that much of the Arts Centre (where these markets and street performers gather) is closed indefinitely

sad to think that this brick building [behind the juggler] has probably crumbled

i know for sure that at least one of the spires in the arts centre came down in the SEPTEMBER earthquake

that's jackie in the middle

we've known each other since 1979

i started going out with her brother not long after she and i met at work, but that's a whole other story...

you'll be happy to know that my friend Jackie and her family are all fine

there were broken water cylinders and DIY lavvies for a few days, but everyone is OK

this is one of those 'living statues'

(not me, the guy BEHIND me!!!)

and yes, all the photos are in REVERSE order

because BLOGGER is STUPID

all the left handers will have no trouble with this

all you right handers, tilt your head to the right and stick out your tongue

there you go.....

i will give away this t-shirt on this blog NEXT WEEK

so YOU TOO can show your support for christchurch

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

wordful wednesday and a blast from the past

i posted this pic on facebook last week after mr scrappy re-visited Bluff (New Zealand's most southern point) on his 5000km motorbike ride.

i pondered how mr scrappy (who i wasn't even going out with at the time!) managed to climb to the top of the sign

the things you can do when you're:

- young
- stupid
- carefree
all of the above!

before this politically correct raised deck with safety perspex was installed

(some time between 1981 and last week)

i pondered that i can't remember the names of most of the people in my photo from 1981

then i counted on one hand the number of people in this photo i'm still in touch with:

- my sister (4th from the right)
- one friend with whom christmas newsletters are exchanged (2nd from the right)
- and the guy who went on to be a groomsman at our wedding (3rd from the right)

oh yeah, that's me holding the teddy (WHICH i still have!)


people come and go all throughout our lives, but it doesn't stop me wondering what the rest of this crew are up to these days.....

photostory friday: life is full of hellos and goodbyes - that's why it's always best to say seeya later

part of what i love about being a mum, is some of the crazier things we do for our kids.

take today for example.  i got up at 5.30AM (on my day off) and drove my 14 year old and her friend all the way across town to the airport, so they could say goodbye to their friend who's moving back to japan.

yes, that's my child and her friend running through the airport in their pjs...

we went straight to the gate and sat around for 20 minutes stressing that we'd got the time wrong; that they'd already left - because they were nowhere to be seen.

after a hunt around the food court, the girls found each other, and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the gate.  again.

then at the time when all the normal people were just getting out of bed

we headed home for buttermilk pancakes before school

coz that's what we do

UPDATE: Leina's family is fine.  they were diverted away from narita to osaka and are staying with family.  they didn't even feel the earthquake!


thanks for all your comments and well wishes!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli