I visited my daughter and her family (my grandies) in March. Mum visited her family in Palmerston North. While she was down there she drank infected water. The infection she caught is known to kill babies and elderly people. She was fairly close at one stage but my battling mother pulled through once more, thank god.
Mid year my brother came into our flat one day and asked how long it would take us to pack if we were to shift? Could we do it in a week? I responded we could be packed in 4 days if needed and if he could keep boxes, tape and bubble wrap coming. He came back with 25 cardboard cartons. We were on the move. Together with my mother and daughter we set to. I listed the contents and box number, prepared more boxes by taping them up and stacked filled , sealed boxes. Mum wrapped the fragile things and told my daughter where they needed positioning in the box. It was a production line. My brother would come every few days and take a carload to his garage. There was a hiatus 2/3 of the way through to settle when we needed to be out so he could put the flat on the market, if we all stayed at his place for a few weeks and when our new place could be occupied. Mid-July to his place and mid-August to our new place in the end.
We have been busy sorting out our new home and the slightly larger garden. It is lovely here. The distance to town is a bit longer but still walkable. If the rainy weather makes me not want to do that walk then there is a bus stop just over the road. I am using the walk to the library in town as my exercise. We no longer have a gym I can go to daily until I save enough to afford the membership at a gym down the road from us.Tthat is a goal I am aiming for early next year. I can do other forms of exercise at home till then.
The pictures show the outside of our new house and the bigger garden. Lawn moving takes a few minutes with an electric mover. We frequently move the planters around so the best flowers can be seen from the sitting room where Mum spends most of her days. I am the person with the red velvet top second from the left. The KIP (Knitting in Public) group I attend knitted a castle with Knight, Princess, Page and two horses for the Botany Library to use in their Storytimes.It was a thank you for them having us use a large room at the front as our meeting area on a fortnightly basis. 30+ women and 1 man can be a little noisy at times when a few of them are deaf..
I have had a good year in my 2 writing groups though. We are attempting to get a group of short stories together to publish next year. One of our Saturday group published a children's book recently called "Rabbit's Big Idea" by Elise Da Silva. She launched it at Botany Library as that is where she went to our writing group. She got up the courage to do this book. I did Nanowrimo again this year but with a lot of other things happening only got to 25,000 words. I will finish that book though. My niece got 55,000+ words so my wish for her in the coming year is that she does something with it.
I have my grandchildren in the country at the moment though they are mostly visiting their other grandmother and their father. We went out to the airport to welcome them here and got an hour of time to cuddle and talk. They have both grown heaps even from when I saw them in March. Once again a young male in out family is so much taller than me. Genetics will out; my younger brother is 6ft 3 inches and their grandfather( Paul) was the shortest in his family at 6 ft. One of his brothers was 6ft 5 in.
So I wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS, fun and games with your family, joyful eating, ravishing exercise, no weight gain and JOY, PEACE, LOVE, GOODWILL, CHARITY AND HOPE for a better world in the year to come.
