butterfly observing

I've started helping with childcare, one day a week, for my sister, who has two small daughters, R. and M. They are lovely to be around and so much fun to look after - last Tuesday R. was a little bit upset and so we had to have an emergency screening of The Little Mermaid. This was followed by (a) reading The Little Mermaid book, which was continued throughout the day by R., who can't read but basically knows it off by heart, and who added Ariel singing to most parts of the story ... "ah ah ahhhh, ah ah ahhhh"; (b) making little mermaid paper dolls, using the old method of folding up some paper and cutting one out so they all hold hands, and in this case, tails; (c) making gingerbread men who were decorated as mermaids.

Anyway - what I was intending to share was that my sister and her husband have been slowly working on their garden. It was pretty much bare when they bought the house except for a big green lawn. They really want to make it a cool place for little girls to live, so one of the things they added was a collection of swan plants.

Swan plants, in case you don't know, are where monarch butterflies like to lay the eggs that become the caterpillars that curl up in a chrysalis and then become a beautiful butterfly! Just like in The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's been very cool watching the plants weekly and seeing things happen.

Butterflies visiting.

Caterpillars growing.

And chrysalis appearing! (Does anyone know the plural for chrysalis?)

I'm really hoping that I'll get to see at least one butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.

I love that I get to be a little girl again when I look after R. and M. I get to make paperdolls, gingerbread men, watch Disney films, and spend time observing butterflies!

Dunedin

I went down to Dunedin on the weekend, with one of my sisters and her family, to see two other sisters and their families! Had an absolutely lovely time hanging out with my siblings, their spouses, their kids. We stayed with the sister who has just moved house - and by gum it is a good location. They are still in the city but up the hill and around the peninsula a little, so from their kitchen window they can see out to sea, but if they take a short walk in the other direction, into the reserve right next door, they can see right down the harbour on the other side of the hill.

I went for a walk on Sunday morning to catch some views. I love that sunrise in winter is quite late, so these photos didn't require extreme earliness. That view was quite something.

There's something about Dunedin in the sun that is just - phwoar. It's still freezing cold, but it's the prettiest city. If only it were always sunny there!

I also enjoyed playing with my sister's cute dog, who was a tiny wee puppy last time I saw him and is now a boisterous but reasonably well behaved Jack Russell/bichon frise cross. We took him to the dog park, where he and other dogs delighted us. Example: this hilarious video - Oscar and a big German Shepherd playing hide and seek. Enjoy!

If you're the praying type, I'd appreciate you glancing at the post previous to this.

the holiday

How was your Christmas?

Mine involved:

1) Driving down to Dunedin, the city where two of my sisters live. Two more of us travelled there, as well as my father. On the way down my brother-in-law and I stopped at Moeraki Boulders and I surreptitiously took this photo which I think is quite sweet:


2) Playing with two very cute additions to the family. My five-month-old nephew below:

And Oscar, the new puppy who lives in the house I was staying in. He's a Jack Frost, a cross between a bichon frise and a Jack Russell. He hasn't quite learnt not to nip people yet, but he's so cute that it's easy to forgive him.

3) Playing with new toys. The niece and nephew pictured below, and their brother, received this trampoline for Christmas, which, as you can see, they are enjoying a lot. In fact, I enjoyed it too.

4) Dressing up warm for the Dunedin "summer". Once again, I completely overestimated Dunedin's weather, and brought with me lots of t-shirts and shorts, and only one pair of jeans and a jersey. But actually it's almost pleasant having to snuggle up warm for Christmas - this coming from someone who has always had summer Christmases.

the best advice my parents ever gave me

I have decided to move out of my dad's house next year. For many reasons, including that I can now afford it, and that it seems a bit odd to be doing a masters and still be living at home. So I've started looking at flats, and there are at least two places near university where friends of mine need a new flatmate next year - exciting.

Recently on the radio, whenever they interview someone slightly, quite, or very famous, they've asked the question, "what's the best advice your parents gave you?" Often it's something like, "never give up", "believe in yourself", or "work hard".

It got me thinking - now that I'm moving out of the family home, what advice can I take with me? What catchy little slogans have been inculcated in me over the last twenty-two years by my parents?

Actually, nothing. I was talking to my dad about this last night, and he said he never wanted to be the type of parent who is always telling their kids the best way to live. He thinks it's more important to set the best possible example, instead of preaching slogans he will never live up to.

My mum was the same, pretty much. She'd advise me on very specific things, i.e., "if you don't work harder on your exam study, you will fail Calculus" (a prophecy which came true). Probably the most bittersweet memory I have of her is our talk soon before she died, in which she knew she was supposed to give some pithy, meaningful advice but found the idea so funny and alien that she advised me to "wash your clothes, keep your room tidy, and be patient with Dad", with a slight twinkle in her eye. But neither of them ever said, "y'know, Allie, life is just like a [insert metaphor here]. You've got to [insert instruction here] or you'll [insert horrible fate here]. But if you [insert unlikely task here], you'll be blessed with everything you ever dreamed of!"

Both of them were more likely to go out of their way to help others on a regular basis, to work hard for people that weren't going to give them anything in return, to care about people in practical as well as vocal ways, to be responsible yet generous with their own money, and to keep things in the ultimate perspective that God comes first and that fame or success in the world isn't really what we should be trying to achieve. If it came, good for you, but if it became the most important thing in your life, there was no point in having it. Neither of them ever told me this in so many words but I think I could fairly say that that's what they have taught me - and I'm not sure I would have listened if they'd said it in so many words.

It may even sound a bit corny having put that into words. For me, however, although there are things about my parents I don't want to be like, everything I've written above is something I will try to keep in focus for the rest of my life.

welcome to the world...

...to my new baby niece, Miriam Katherine Rose. Born yesterday (22 April), all well, dark hair, little sister to Ruby, very very cute. I know my brother-in-law well enough to know that he wouldn't appreciate me sharing her photo online to potentially millions, so (below) Miriam and little Moses will have to do!

Unfortunately I won't see her for a while as she is in Perth, Australia, but my sister has recently accepted a job offer back in Christchurch starting next year, and they will possibly come back to visit for my father's birthday in August.

weekends are goooood

Well, I have had a full-on, busy and huge weekend but somehow I feel so refreshed! This is what happened:

On Friday night was my friend K.'s 21st birthday party which was a COSTUME PARTY!!! Such a relief after so many formal/cocktail dress 21sts which, though fun, require an endless supply of pretty clothes. At first I wanted to go as a hippie but then I couldn't find a sufficiently ugly dress at the op shop. So I went and hired me a nun costume! I've wanted to dress up as a nun ever since I got obsessed with The Sound of Music, and I have to say, it's so much fun. I went around all Friday singing "how do you solve a problem like Maria". Below is a picture of me and K. There were also cowboys, Snow White, zombies, fairies, singers from K.I.S.S., Austin Powers, hobbits... and so on.
Then on Saturday morning I got up very early, and a friend (P.) and I drove down to Dunedin for another friend's wedding. I also have two sisters and some friends there, and P. has some friends studying there. It was so much fun travelling with a friend for the five hour trip, and it was a rather beautiful trip too. Soon after leaving Christchurch we had the most beautiful view of the mountains, snow-capped quite early in the year and stretched right out along the horizon.
We also stopped at the Moeraki boulders, which are about two thirds of the way to Dunedin, and spent about half an hour there. Moeraki boulders are weird concretions which you will see below. It was a sunny day but a rather frigid wind was blowing and it made me feel so happy to be back in the New Zealand countryside, feeling fresh, rather than swatting away flies and sweltering in thick windless air in Western Australia. P. has a moral problem with wearing shoes on the beach so she happily froze her toes off.

Dunedin itself was exhibiting absolutely horrible weather when we arrived. I had to go buy myself some tights at a supermarket because I had chosen wedding clothes with Christchurch weather in mind - silly me. The wedding itself was lovely although very very quick; the bride arrived a few minutes early and the vows were all over in maybe ten minutes! Then I spent a lovely evening with my sister V. and her husband and kids, and we stayed at their house.

The next morning I dropped P. off to see friends, and I went out to one of the beaches to visit my brother-in-law and my two nephews (unfortunately my sister was at a conference all weekend so I couldn't see her). They're renting at this beach until they move into their house and it was a beautiful sunny day so we went for a long walk along Brighton beach and climbing around the rocky cliffs (which I am paying for now - I don't think I've used some of those muscles since I broke my heel!). It was great to see them again and it is such a lovely beach. I love Dunedin beaches. They're very pretty but also wild, and it's not uncommon to come across seals, sea lions or penguins enjoying the day. My sister has seen whales off the beach on numerous occasions.

Some crazy man surfing - full wetsuit, but still... it must have been pretty frigid.
After I left their house, I went into Dunedin city for a couple of hours to visit the Otago Museum. Unfortunately the friend I wanted to see had to cancel, so I went instead to the tropical butterfly forest in the museum which I've heard a lot about. This is kept heated at about 34 degrees celsius, so obviously the Dunedin people, who are used to maybe twenty degrees on a really good day, love it. It was very cool, full of tropical plantings and butterflies flying around everywhere. One landed on my camera and some people were walking around with butterflies sitting on them. I took lots of photos but here are a couple of the best.
Then I picked up P. at about 4pm, and we returned to Christchurch! Another beautiful trip until the sun set, and a nice warm electric blanketed bed to hop into at the end.

scanners are good

My dad has finally got a scanner, and I have been playing around all evening with family photos. I thought I'd share some - I love these, for me they capture all the romance and humour of another era. Enjoy!
My mum (right) and her two sisters at the beach in the fifties, with their first car.

Sigh... I wish I was a kid in the Victorian era... This is my great great grandfather, Ernest Schwass. Fortunate wee munchkin.
My great grandmother Nell. Her husband had a passion for photography. I love this. It's the sort of photo I can't do even with digital technology.

My great grandfather on his motorbike with Nell and daughter Betty (my gran's sister) in the sidecar. Styly.
My grandmother, Olive. She hates this photo and thinks it makes her look dowdy, but I think it's just so cute.
Gran (left) with her parents and Betty at the beach.
My gran's sister-in-law and her husband, Milly and Reg. This photo makes me wish I had met these people.
My mother (on right again) and her two sisters with Santa Claus. I think this is beautiful.

One of the coolest things tonight was finding out that somehow my great-great-great aunt on the female side looks almost exactly like me. Creepy!

I know Stacy decided against sharing family photos on her blog, but does anyone else have some cool ones that they could share without offending anyone?!

the joy of womanhood

Last night two of my sisters and I went out for coffee. One is pregnant for the first time and the other has three children and before I knew it they had launched into an intimate womanly chat involving each of my elder sister's labours in quite some detail. I had never heard how horrible labour can be before and I do not want to hear it again. I don't think I will ever make the mistake again of thinking of childbirth as some precious, non-traumatic experience, every moment of which a mother treasures forever. And I think I will have to forget a lot of what was said if I am ever to consider having children again. (I really think that if they sent a whole lot of women who had had difficult labours in to speak at Sex Ed classes, the numbers of unplanned teenage pregnancies would drastically drop.)

The funniest moment, however, was when some unsuspecting male sat down along the cafe couch from us with a newspaper in hand - my pregnant sister had just launched into a description of the stretching exercises and tools a pregnant coworker of hers uses to prepare her nether regions for labour. It took maybe half a minute for the penny to drop and then, slowly, our eavesdropper turned carefully away and slid further down the couch while we grinned with satisfaction and continued our discussion. That alone, I think, made womanhood seem worthwhile again.

The photo: I went to the zoo today, accompanied by five children, sister, her hubby and my dad, aaaand my new camera, which arrived about twenty minutes before we left. Hurrah! I love it. 12x optical zoom. Yummy.

I'm a wreck

Today has felt like an emotional rollercoaster. This afternoon we saw off my sister Janet, hubby John and baby Ruby from Christchurch Airport. Back to Perth they go. I lived in Perth with them for five months last year and needless to say I have got very attached to that little girl. They came back to NZ for Christmas soon after I arrived back but now they're gone again, and I probably won't see them for at least a year, by which time Ruby will be in her terrible twos and she will have a little sibling and she probably won't remember me.

I am a sucker for airport scenes. I just can't handle them. It's very embarrassing and I always end up with a pounding headache.

I am 21, 21 am I

Well, today (that's 30 October for all you people on the wrong side of the world) I turned 21. It's strange being away from home and having a birthday; other than my sister and brother-in-law, I think one person in Perth knows it's my birthday. But I got lots of cards and text messages etc from home so I feel a lot better.

I opened my cards/presents at breakfast. Among them was a card a lot of people from my home church signed which was very very sweet. Also there was the card pictured above, from my niece Lydia, who is ten. This is the poem she wrote inside it:
Allie
Action woman
Likeable
Laughter
Icing on the cake
Ecstatic

I think she's destined for great things.

I also got this book, The Jane Austen Miscellany, from my niece Ruby who turned one six days ago (the one I am living with). Ruby has great taste for one so young.

I had a lovely day - I met my sister near her work for lunch, and then I went for a swim in the afternoon, and I did THIRTY LAPS. (I am so proud of myself. I have been going regularly for a couple of weeks now, and doing thirty or forty laps each time. I decided to take it easier today because after all, it's my birthday.) Then this evening when J&J got home from work, we had:
Cake. Janet's almost unbeatable Armenian nutmeg cake. Yummmmm...

Then this evening we went out for dinner to the Little Creatures brewery which is also a really popular bar/restaurant. Very cool. And Little Creatures beer is actually nice. My sister is going to kill me for including the lower photo; somehow my photos of her always make her look like an alien.

And in just over two weeks, I am off on my birthday present from my family - a trip to Malaysia to visit my brother and family, from whence we shall drive to Krabi in Thailand. Huzzah!

like a rolling stone

This afternoon I've followed the trend and googled my genealogy. It all started with a book I was reading of interviews with Kiwi veterans of Gallipoli in the First World War. When I read the account of a medic, I was suddenly struck by the sporadically recurring urge to know more about my paternal grandfather, whom I never met, who was a medic in the First World War, and was wounded at Bapaume in the Battle of Amiens, in the name of King and Empire.

I quickly typed in "Silas S------" and four pages of results appeared, none of which were my grandfather - however, there were several mentions of my great-great and great-great-great grandfathers who were also called Silas S------.

The younger of the two was the first S------ to come to New Zealand, and also the first surgeon at Christchurch Hospital, in 1862. I knew that already. He was mentioned in the lists of those coming through the Port of Auckland on ships in 1861. It turns out the elder was a physician of evidently some importance as his name is mentioned throughout London's medical periodicals around the 1840s to '50s. One medical journal has a letter from him detailing an unusual case of a twin birth he presided over, and he writes from Guildford St, Russell Square, London. Russell Square! That's in Georgette Heyer books! Automatically my great-great-great grandfather goes up a few cool notches.

I also found a website an American S------ has created centering around the S------ family branch of which I am a member, and he lists famous S------s. For example, a general in the US Civil War or explorer Captain John Gabriel S------ of Scotland - but most recognisable of all - make sure you are sitting down - none other than MICK JAGGER'S GRANDMOTHER was a S------!!! I am very tenuously related to Mick Jagger! Of course I'd prefer Bono or Jane Austen, but still, you can't be too picky!

This also makes me remember a very exciting day when I visited the main Christchurch public library and checked out the births, deaths and marriages files for family history. Among other things, I found my great-grandmother's marriage file and discovered that she was an illegitimate child. She had taken her mother's surname as a child, but it named her father as one John I----, and suddenly I realised in a flash why her son and my dad had the really weird middle name of I----! It was extra exciting because my dad had never known, and as his father was a very upright Brethren man it is unlikely he would have given his son that name if he had known either. So I was the first in the family to discover a slightly grey sheep. I felt very clever.

I am loving that you can find so many cool things on the internet now, simply by googling a name, things that we couldn't have known otherwise.

progress

One of my Projects while I'm over here is to learn German - or at least, to start learning German. I have now been to two lessons and done all my homework and here is an example of my prowess:

A: Guten Tag! Ich heiβe Allie. Wie heiβen Sie?
B: Ah, guten Tag! Ich heiβe B. Woher kommen Sie?
A: Ich komme aus Neuseeland. Aber ich wohne in Perth. Und Sie?
B: Ich komme aus Australien.

Hooray! I wrote all that from memory. It's very very likely therefore that there are mistakes, but still, I feel quite pleased.

The classes are fun; I have met several people around my age who are really nice and interesting sorts of people. There is one man in the class from Croatia who obviously finds the pronunciation a little easier or who has done some German before (I don't know why he has to be in the Elementary I class), and he is one of those students who has to answer every single question before everyone else, or repeat phrases as fast as is physically possible. It's very annoying but also a little amusing.

In other news, my niece has learnt to crawl. Only about three days ago she was still sliding backwards whenever she tried to make a movement - now she is zooming round the place in a sort of lopsided, hobbling crab crawl. It's been amazing to watch her but now we are all feeling the effects of having to watch what she can get her hands on. Sigh.

babies

[ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A PHOTO OF A PARTICULARLY GORGEOUS BABY HERE - but I feel sure now that this would definitely break the strict censorship my brother-in-law has over who gets to see pictures. Sorry!]

Babies are:

1. Scary. What if they don't like you? What if you drop them and they are scarred for life? What if you feed them the wrong thing? What if they just won't stop crying? Oh the responsibility!

2. Smelly. Especially after vomiting three times. Enough said.

3. Noisy. In this particular case, especially when having their nappies changed or having a bath or in the middle of the night (I have earplugs, to be fair, and she has actually slept through the night three times in a row since I've been here - amazing, apparently).

But (and this basically cancels out all the bad stuff):

4. Insanely cute. I defy anyone to frown when a baby is laughing.

5. Fun to play with.

6. Amazing to watch. This one is just about to learn to crawl, besides other things, and it's incredible to watch her slowly grasping how to do something.

In other news, tonight I joined a recorder quartet which has now become a quintet. So much fun! We are playing really meaty music and they are all really, really good. I'm not bad enough that I find it scary, but it's exactly challenging enough. We have a concert in September!

i'm not in kansas anymore

I arrived last night in Perth, Western Australia. Eight hours by plane!! Australia is one big place. I haven't done a whole lot so far but I've just got back from a walk down to Cottesloe beach, where I:

a) got a feeling for the local climate.

It's hot! It's supposed to be winter! I've just come from Christchurch's negative five degree (celsius) frosts, while in Australia if it gets below ten degrees they feel the need to give it a decimal point - eg 7.8 degrees. My sister's house is pretty cool, but it is very sunny outside, probably about twenty degrees, and when I wasn't getting the sea breeze it was pretty darn hot.

b) experienced the local flora and fauna.

Ravens, parrots, sounds in the trees which I haven't identified as certain birds yet. As you may have seen above - and although I haven't seen any - SNAKES.

c) tasted the local cuisine.

Well, maybe that phrase is going a little too far. I bought a bag of Twisties, chips we have in NZ, that turned out to be totally different here - and in a much bigger bag. I can't understand it because every single person I have seen is slim (and more often than not, blonde and tanned).

It was great to see my sister Janet and her husband John again, and to meet my nine-month-old niece Ruby for the first time. She is ridiculously cute and at an adorable age. I can't wait to get to know her. Will post photos eventually.

Tomorrow: getting a sim card, getting a bank account, doing Stacy's World Domination meme!

wandering

My niece feeding the eels. Eek!


As you can see, I went to a zoo on Friday - Willowbank Wildlife Reserve is a fantastic little zoo in Christchurch. They don't have any big animals like lions or giraffes or anything, but they have this cool farmyard with hilarious creatures like the kunekune pig pictured above and an attention-seeking goat, which you get to feed. They also have the best kiwi house I've ever been to. Usually you have to peer through dirty glass and darkness to see kiwis at other zoos, but in this one, they have a really big building in which it looks like the kiwis can actually have fun, and although you have to be as quiet as possible, you can actually get really close to them, and see them quite clearly. It was great. A few came literally right up to where we were at the fence and were snuffling round for grubs by our feet.

Anyway - I don't usually go to zoos just for fun although I wish I could - my niece and nephews from Dunedin were up for the weekend with their parents for a family gathering, as well as my sister from Auckland with her husband. On Saturday night we had a kind of early 21st for me (my birthday's in October but I'll be away), with Indian takeaways and LOTS of dessert. It was really great, despite the fact that five children can make a lot of noise, especially when they've been drinking Coke.

Aaaand - I've been given a rather wonderful early 21st birthday present from my siblings, dad and grandmother. In November, I am going on a two week trip to Penang, Malaysia, where my brother lives! I might get to go to Krabi, Thailand as well, or Kuala Lumpur, or Langkawi, or somewhere fantastic like that! I am very excited.

It's only a few days now until I leave for Perth, Western Australia, where I will be a nanny for my smallest niece for five months. I'm actually a bit nervous but also am excited. It's starting to sink in now that I'm actually going. The next time I blog, I will probably be in Australia!

Just wanted to share something else - I recently joined Facebook and I searched the groups available there for both U2 and Jane Austen, naturally. I had no idea how many people dislike Jane Austen!! High up on the list are these groups:

Coalition Against the Reading of Jane Austen's Madness
Damn You, Jane Austen!
English Majors Against Jane Austen
I ardently detest and despise "Pride and Prejudice"
I don't care what you say - Jane Austen should never have been published!
If I had a time machine, the first thing I would do: Kill Jane Austen
Jane Austen gave me unrealistic expectations of love
Say No to Austen; Say Yes to ABBA
I Peed in Jane Austen's House (IPJAH)

Still, there are many more that make me feel much more happy:

Jane Austen is my homegirl
Jane Austen Tea Party
Austentatious
Jane Austen books are ruining my sense of reality - and I love it!!
Jane Austen's Biyaches
Real Men like Jane Austen
Jane Austen or bust!
Stalking Heroes of Austen
Jane Austen Novels Explain The Universe

And I loved this - someone has created the Anti-Jane Austen Book Club - so someone else has responded with the Anti-Anti Jane Austen Book Club! Take that!!

health professionals and my family

I went to my sister's house for dinner last night and we had a conversation over the dinner table about our family's run-ins with medical professionals. Here's a few:

1) My sister's dentist told her that her teeth would "see her out". Perhaps he meant this as a compliment, as only dentists can, but to me it conjures up visions of the person doing the autopsy looking down gravely at the corpse, shaking his head, and saying, "Well, she was bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer, but at least her teeth saw her out."

2) When the same sister gave birth to her second child, the attending doctor was a man who had gone through school with her, from ages five to eighteen. Nightmare Scenario #1 - how very awkward. At least, though, as a friend said, he wasn't an ex-boyfriend.

3) My father was operated on for a hernia by a surgeon he had taught at school, in chemistry. This is more nice than weird, in a karma-type way, as the same doctor told my mother that Dad taught him everything he had ever learnt about science.

Looking back and reading this over, I've discovered this is a very random post. But I'll push the "publish" button anyway, for lack of a better one. Has anyone else had strange/nice encounters with medical professionals?