My Mum

Yesterday.
Context:I went to the loo, and on my way back into the living room, jumped on the bathroom scales and weighed myself.

Conversation:
Me: "Hey Mum. I've lost about 4 kilos"
Mum: *starts giggling*
Me: "Umm.... wtf?"
Mum: "No dear that's great, I just thought.....*laugh laugh laugh*..... that perhaps you had a really successful trip to the loo there"

Today.
Context: I have to get up mega early to get to the bus by about 7.20 am to get to school by 8am.

Conversation:
Me: *sneaking around the house all quiet like, while the wind and rain batter the house*
Mum : *in sleepy voice* "Claire? I will drive you to the bus stop cos its cold and raining"
Me: "Awwww.........that's sweet but you should stay in bed. Its horrible out there."
Mum: *ends up driving me not only to the bus stop, but the bus stop 3 stops further down the road, the one that has a proper shelter so I don't get wet while waiting for my bus*

Umm, yeah, sooo............

I think I might have recovered from the wrecking, although 3 hours sleep on Sunday night didn't help. I have no explanation. I was tired, I went to bed, and lay awake for hours. Boooring!!!!!

Its party central here, last night it was lights out at 8.20pm. Rock on, Jimmy.

Because people have asked, and because I am kind of proud of it, here is the wedding cake I made. For my sister. For her wedding.

Srsly, if one person did, 20 people came up to me and said "OMFG girl! That cake was teh awsum!!"*
5 cakes (although I actually made 7, which didn't last much longer than the 5 I used) of chocolate and chocolate-vanilla marbled, it stood about 40cm high and the bottom layer was about 35cm diameter.
The penguins were on the Chilean wedding cake as well, I made Carlos bring them over for my cake. Continuity, they call that.
This is the topper I bought and put on the practice ensure-that-the-bride-and-groom-actually-like-it cake I made a couple of days previously.
Emma wanted that on the real cake, but Dad wasn't entirely sold on the idea, if you get my drift.

And now I shall return to despairing of the state of this country's education system as reflected in the writing abilities of its first year university students. Head, meet desk. *THUNK*

*it is entirely possible that I somewhat elaborated on the language.

Home Home Home

I'm home.
It's awesome.

Doing some sightseeing with the Chilean in-laws today, meeting a couple of my boys for a Ginger Tom, drinks at my sister's place, dinner at Dad's, then off to Mount Cook tomorrow with parents and the bride and groom and The Peanut. Wanaka the next day, then worky work for a few days to get all ready for the nuptials.
I am making a wee speech, in English and Spanish. Note: I don't speak Spanish.

Updates likely erratic.

In conclusion: being here is the shizzle.
Ok bye.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go......

I'm off tomorrow.
Off home for 12 whole days (which is 12 days NZ time, even though I'm gone for a fortnight....so confusing)

Blogging may be erratic, but I'm sure you'll cope. Its not like you'll miss much!!!
For those of you so inclined you may rest assured that I shall be making plans to secure arrangements for your inevitable immigration.

In 41 hours I can hug my favourite people in the whole world.
That makes me happier than a whole room full of puppies.

Also, I just watched the first episode of season 4 of Doctor Who...... I tell you, I DID NOT see that coming!!!

I know what I *said*.....

But for serious, I challenge anyone to sit down to a medium rare sirloin on a mozzarella crusted polenta cake topped with garlic, pinenuts, spinach and green beans without requiring a glass of cabernet sauvignon to wash it down with....

In other news, I got a dress for my sister's wedding. I think its appropriately pretty and respectable, as well as being appropriately understated and not-as-pretty-as-the-bride's dress.
At least I hope I have the balance right.

Home Again

I've been home for 3? 4? days now, and its fucking fantastic.

The kids are awesome, my sister is amazing, my parents are delightful (ask me again tomorrow when I've spent 5 hours in the car with my mum) and I only wish my other sister could be here, but she's busy right now on a cruise ship in Patagonia.

So far I've had 2 pies, 1 meal of fish and chips, 2 L&Ps, one afternoon nap and read half a Neil Gaiman book.
I've done my Xmas shopping, I've gotten drunk with the TBALC crowd (minus the T), I've eaten a delicious BBQ with my best friend, I've been to Riccarton Mall twice, and received Lord-only-knows how many snuggles and cuddles from the children (mostly the girls because Alex is too grown up..... about an inch shorter than me!!!).

Tomorrow I'm off to Wanaka with my parents for a few days then the whole family is off to Gore Bay which Rosie has renamed Bore Gay for Christmas and New Year and I'm going to lounge around and read the 6 books I have with me and then maybe a few more (not remotely school related) and have some more naps and eat some food and drink some wine and explode with happiness.

Yes its all a bit bittersweet but my sister was right. Its so much better being home and seeing for myself how it is all going.
There really is no place like home. Especially when home is the most beautiful place in the world.

But its not my kind of scene

iTunes knows what's going on. I turn it on and the first thing to come on is Powderfinger's "My Kind of Scene", as in "its not my kind of scene".
Cos its not. Not this.

I think I had an epiphany tonight.
Everything is coming back.

Maybe its the fact that its 11.46pm and I have too much work to be going to bed anytime soon, maybe its the rain, maybe its the fact that I haven't seen my family for 317 days, maybe its everything thats happened in those 317 days that has tested us all on an atomic level, maybe its the fact that in 16 days I will be confronted with a truth that is eight months and seven days old for everyone who was there but which for me will be all too new because while in my head I know its true, that he is actually gone in the gone-and-not-coming-back kind of gone, I haven't seen their faces, the faces of those little angels who unbeknownst to them taught me to be a better person, the children who I love more than the sun and the moon and the stars, and when I see those faces and I see him in those faces then and only then will it be real.

I can't go posting things on here before I tell people in person, my people here, the ones here who matter and who have been my family. And its not like I can tell people anything, because nothing is decided yet.

But sometimes allowing oneself the option to decide evokes a sense of relief sufficient to generate real tears. Never underestimate the sheer effort it takes on a daily basis to be a stranger in a strange land.

If my sister changes her name her initials will be E.M.O.

Today is indeed an auspicious day!!!
My sister (the next oldest up, me being the youngest) is getting married.
In Punta Arenas. That's in Chile, FYI.

We are going to video-conference it, via the marvels of Skype, so that my other sister, home in NZ, and I can be there digitally.
Holly suggested that we dress up, so I am going to put my party skirt on and go to her house and drink bubbly things. Ahh.... weddings.

So to all those boys who have been friends of mine over the years and have said to me "that sister of yours is a bit hot" I say now: you had your chance lads, and now its gone, for she is about to marry the coolest Chilean boy in the world.

If any of you happen to be partaking in a liquid refreshment this evening, I ask this of you.
First, raise a glass to my sister and her in-an-hour-and-a-half-will-be husband.

Secondly, and on a more poignant note, raise your glass to Shawn and his beloved late wife Lynette on their wedding anniversary, the first since her death.

Thanks.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt"

Yesterday I went on a trip.
A sort of pilgrimage, if you will.

Fifty minutes the other side of Ithaca is a small town called Elmira. Like so many towns in this part of the world, it has a grand history of industry and wealth; a history which unfortunately hasn't endured.

A significant part of Elmira's history, and perhaps the reason it is most famous, is due to the presence of a family by the name of Langdon. The daughter of the Langdon family, one Olivia Langdon, met a friend of her brother's in 1868, and two years later the couple were married at the Langdon home. The young man in question was one Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen-name of Mark Twain.

Every summer for 20 years the Clemens' came to Elmira to stay with the family, and in 1874 Samuel's sister-in-law Susan Crane and her husband Theodore gifted Samuel with a study at Quarry Farm, their farmhouse in the hills surrounding Elmira. It was in this study that such works as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi were written.

Those who are lucky enough to have met him will know that my Dad is a bit of a Mark Twain fan. He is legendary within his Rotary Club for his uncanny ability to summon a quote from Mr Clemens for any occasion, so yesterday's mission was a bit of a Dad day. Needless to say, SOMEONE is going to be getting some Mark Twain/Elmira memorabilia for Christmas.
(Rachael, don't tell him, am going for the element of surprise)



I miss my Dad.

Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction

Things I tried in attempts to get rid of this headache I woke up with (and no, I didn't get drunk last night)
- drinking lots of water
- stretches (because headaches usually come from my neck which is a bit fragged)
- a cup of tea
- aspirin
- a nap
- chocolate

Things that actually worked to get rid of my headache
- beer
- lying on the sofa watching CSI

In other news, my Dad gets double quote of the day award today for these gems:

(1) re: my current love life situation and the messiness thereof: "Love, you'll have more trouble with men than you will with anything else in your life".

(2) re: the catering plans for my vegetarian sister's upcoming wedding and his suggestion that there be a meat option available to those who would want it: "I am just concerned that if there is no meat someone might kill one of the guests and eat him or her and that might detract from the occasion".

Pavlov's dogs got nuffin on me

So, 13 years later, David Bain wins his appeal, and gets a retrial.
This is pretty big news really, especially seeing as how this will be the last NZ case to be heard at the Privy Council.
I'm reminded of that Mark Twain quote (I am so my father's daughter*) about how the justice system is marred by the inability to find twelve men who can't read and who don't know anything. This is why I am unsure how I feel about removing the Privy Council from our legal system; in a small country, everybody knows everybody else's business, and a degree of distance may serve to add a degree of impartiality.
I was never totally convinced of Bain's guilt, nor am I totally convinced of his innocence, but being a firm believer that actions speak louder than words, I certainly admire the man's intestinal fortitude in taking his appeals this far. I think I probably need to read Karam's book now.

In other news, I have developed a Pavlovian response to sitting at my computer. Because I spend so much of my life sitting here, and because I am usually deathly tired, no matter what state I am in while in the kitchen, at school, doing the washing etc., the minute I sit at my computer I am overcome with an overwhelming desire to nap. Mmmmm, sleepy time......

First, however, I must finish my last 2 papers. Please send Timtams.

*My dear old Dad is legendary amongst friends, family and the Rotary Club for being able to recall a Mark Twain quote for any occasion.