"Babies are such a nice way to start people."

So today was all about babies.

 

Heather arrived with baby Pippa, the newest family arrival, who is just the absolute spitting image of her father in a way I've never seen a baby be.

The day comprised of pass the baby around, and play with the baby, and feed the baby, and just go goo ga over the baby.

 

 

 

Sam arrived in the evening and it was very cute to see Sam with her baby cousin, born 25 years after she was born.

 

Poor mum and dad have 5 grandchildren 25 years apart. I really think they thought they'd get a few more from having 5 kids, only 7 years apart.

 

 

 

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Winter is Coming

"Winter is coming." George RR Martin, A Game of Thrones

DAY 5, DECEMBER 28

So today was a day to hit the shops and make sure I had enough warm clothes to handle the potentially negative temperatures of Finland and Poland in 10 days time!

Not a lover of shopping I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, but off we headed. pulled up at the Mount shops, walked past the first shop, into the second one and bought the jacket I needed, the beanie I needed, the gifts I needed for the schools we are going to visit in Finland, and we bought the couple of small Christmas presents Mum had asked us to get. Walking back to the car we walked past a lovely NZ Merino shop and bought one other jersey to replace one I'd been unsure was warm enough anyway.

Within 30 minutes we were back in the car, heading towards KatiKati. If that's what shopping with Angela is like, bring on the Melbourne shops for 4 days!

Maybe I'll become a convert to this whole shopping lark.

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To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote: To travel is to live. ~ Hans Christian Anderson

DAY 4 December 27

A stay in KatiKati between Christmas and new Year just isn’t complete without a trip to the Gypsy Fair.

Angela and mum wandered the stalls and bought clothes and hippy magnets, while I wandered with Dad. 

Cue the candy floss, hot dogs and chips. Dad thought it was better than Christmas Dinner!

Tarot cards read for the next 12 months, potions tried, hair braided and jewellery browsed.

A beautiful sunny day to wander amongst the gypsies and their house buses.

And to pretend you live in a different world for a couple of hours.

“The bridge will only take you halfway there, to those mysterious lands you long to see. Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fair, and moonlit woods where unicorns run free. So come and walk awhile with me and share the twisting trails and wondrous worlds I've known. But this bridge will only take you halfway there. The last few steps you have to take alone.”

― Shel Silverstein

A sister is a gift to the heart

DAY 3- December 26

"A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life." - Isadora James

My journey today began with a 2am alarm. Waking, I got dressed and drove the two hours to Auckland Airport to collect my sister, back for a week from Perth.

The plane landed early and by 5.30am we were back on the road heading towards KatiKati.

The journey we travelled together this morning was literal. But the real journey I've travelled with my sister is a figurative one.

I was seven when she was born. There are three brothers between us. When I started teaching she was the age of the students I was teaching.

She was a challenging teenager, and I was a young adult. We moved between being close, with her spending holiday breaks with me, and between us both having no understanding and little tolerance of each other.

Over the years our own personal journeys have taken us far away from each other. It has been 15 years since we lived in the same country. She was in New York, then I was in Fiji. When I returned to NZ she emigrated permanently to Perth.

But figuratively, as the years between us have diminished, that gap that seemed insurmountable when she was 15 and I was 22, has closed. 

The journeys we have both travelled have bought us to a deep understanding and respect for each other on top of the natural love that familial connections demands.

We have good relationships with our three brothers, all very different, but good.

But the bonds of sisterhood are something else again. 

I feel lucky that part of my journey over the next month includes 4 days with just the two of us exploring Melbourne together.  

Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.  ~Margaret Mead

What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!

Day 2: December 25, 2013. Christmas in KatiKati

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” 

― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Today wasn’t a day for travelling. It was for enjoying being with family, ad with their other family.

Excited little voices in the morning, trying to shepherd everyone together so the present opening could begin.

Presents given and shared, but more importantly the recognition that the presents are symbols of love and appreciation.

Food cooked and eaten together, another symbol of coming together, of appreciation of each other.

A quiet stroll around the KatiKati estuary. Found a very cool little house boat, I’m not sure if anyone is living in it, or if it could ever get out of the estuary.

And the ducks thought I’d come to feed them (Id better take some bread with me tomorrow.)

Quiet dinner with Mum and Dad.

And an early night so I can get up VERY early tomorrow and drive to Auckland to meet Angela, arriving on a plane from Perth at 5am.

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." –– Norman Vincent Peale 

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu

DAY 1  December 24, 2013.

So I’m off on a bit of a journey.

And some erstwhile, well meaning and irreverent friends have been trying to come up with a challenge for me while I am away.

Suggestions have included 

• eating a different food every day (impractical apparently)
• getting a photo with strangers every day (awful photo taking skills apparently)
• kissing a stranger eery day (unrealistic apparently)
• getting a tattoo (way TOO painful apparently)

So being the self confessed quotes queen according to a number of both present and past colleagues I am going to create a simple Journey Blog with an appropriate quote for each day. And my challenge is to try and update it every day as much as possible.

If you would like to suggest a less boring challenge, feel free!

So the first part of my journey was to figure out how to pack for three different journeys.

• A bag for a family Christmas and New Year in KatiKati. (expected temperature 20 degrees)
• A bag for a few days out in Melbourne with my sister. (expected temperature 30 degrees)
• A bag for a fortnight in Finland and Poland. (expected temperature -20 degrees)

Bags finally packed, although there may need to be some unpacking and repacking, the car was packed and off on the first step of the journey I went.

Traffic was well behaved. Although the immenseness of moving schools over the last fortnight might have caught up with me and by the time I reached Whakatane, I had to buy a V to stop myself from the constant nodding off I’d been resisting right through the Waioeka Gorge. )And don't panic all those people part of the wean Karyn off V party. Its the first one I’ve touched for months and I have no desire to touch another one soon. Infact I had about 1/3 of the can and that was enough to get me safely to KatiKati.

The first part of the journey is over. I’m safely in KatiKati. I’ve done the Christmas Eve church service and watched a very cute niece and nephew deliver readings. Ive sung Christmas hymns. 

And now I’ve just seen Santa Claus turn up at the door and visit Dad in bed to wish him a merry Christmas!

If the first day is a measure of the journeys of the next month, its going to be a great one. Challenging moments, proud moments and everything in between.

The biggest thing for me is that I’m making the journey. I’ve always been fond of the quote below. I have given it to many students and colleagues and friends over the years.

But I probably haven’t really lived it. 

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

Here’s to the journeys of the next month. Follow along with me, if you are really bored and have nothing better to read!