Going on Holiday

Today I did the ferry and bus routine again, and went to the 10am yoga class.  Afterward, I had about an hour until the next ferry back so I wandered around Newmarket for awhile, much more populated, hustling and bustling than 8:30 at night.  I window-shopped by a lot of nice stores and can't wait to go back real shopping at some point!  I can see why it's considered the fashion capital of the city, or country even. 

Conveniently, the yoga instructor lives in Devonport, and when I was discussing getting the bus and ferry back last night she remembered I said to Bayswater, which is basically on the way to Devonport.  She offered to drive me home after the evening classes!!  Amazing! Will also end up saving me some money on the transportation in at least one direction, which is nice!

Anyway, tonight John and two kids were off to his sister's in Mount Maunganui, in the Bay of Plenty about 2.5 hours drive southeast of here.  Tomorrow, Julia, Libby and I will join then (because Libby has got a birthday party to attend tomorrow afternoon).  In the morning we plan to check out the French market in Parnell for some breakfast goodies.  I am particularly excited about this because pretty much every piece of food in this house is extremely healthy!  It's definitely a good thing, and it's because the kids wouldn't eat anything else if there was anything with sugar or chocolate as the main ingredient, but I am definitely missing something sweet in my diet! 

Then in the afternoon we will depart for a mini holiday (because it's the start of 2 weeks school holidays) and will be staying until Tuesday.  This means unfortunately there will be no blog updates until I return, sorry for all you daily followers!  However, you shall receive a full days update for each day missed along with photos of anything new and exciting that I may have come across.

The One Week Mark!

I've officially been in the country 1 week today!  Seems like I've been here longer to be honest, as I feel pretty settled in.  Seeing as it was my first sort of "day off" I attempted to sleep in a little bit, but it's pretty much no use trying to do that, especially on a school day, mornings are very loud and crazy!  There's quiet again after about 8:45am but by then it's usually too late to fall back asleep because the noise usually begins by 7 if not sooner!  At least it's safer to avoid all the morning hecticness when possible.  Unfortunately, there was an issue with one of the other cars and it was in the garage getting fixed, so Julia needed to use the big red today.  I accompanied her to Pak N Save, a grocery store that she said would be an interesting social experience.  I sort of could see where she was coming from, definitely busier and with a larger variety of people than the local Devonport New World supermarket.  It was kind of like in BJs or Costco style the way the entire stock of the store was set out right in front of you and stacked up to the ceiling, but things weren't really sold in bulk.  Also everything from the labels to the plastic backs and checkout lines were this really terrible yellow color, it was like an overdose of yellow!

A semi-exciting part of the day was that I got my first piece of mail!  It was only my Kiwibank card, but now I feel more like an official resident.  I also purchased a Go Rider card for the LINK bus in Auckland, seeing as it's easier to ferry and bus to yoga in Newmarket than to drive across the bridge each time. 

I took my first ferry ride today, from the Bayswater ferry port.  It is literally just down the street from the house and when the weather gets a little bit more steady (stops switching between rain and sun and crazy wind 100 times a day), then I will probably bike and ferry and bike to yoga.  But it's easier just to walk when you're not really sure where you're going.  Better transportation for exploring.  It is a quick 10 minute right across to Auckland City.

Harbor Bridge from ferry

Auckland City from ferry

Auckland City from ferry back to Bayswater

Once on the other side, I had a few hours to explore before the yoga class started at 6pm.  I wandered down Queen St until it looked like the end of the high traffic area.  I was pretty excited to find a Dunkin Donuts! Although, I don't think they've started doing bagel twists yet, but I didn't look too closely!  It's almost like a Dunkin Donuts express!  It's more of a shop window/counter on the side of the street, no real door to go into or places to sit.  But Dunkin Donuts, nonetheless, nice to know there's a comfort of home if I need it.  There was also a McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's right in a row, definitely doesn't really feel all that foreign, being so far away.  It probably feels the least foreign of all foreign cities I've been to actually.  The general set up of the city and types of shops and food places are very familiar and it is very modern.  There's also the fact that everyone speaks English so there's really no problem with communication at all.  Once I'd explored Queen St. I went into the transportation center and asked the best way to get to Newmarket (where the New Zealand School of Yoga is), having previously researched online, I knew the general direction and distance I needed to go, and found the LINK bus to be my best option.  Sure enough the woman pulled out the LINK bus pamphlet and told me which stop it departed from on the next street over.  There are soooo many different buses going all over the place each to their own special stops, I think may have seen just as many buses out of service and I did in service, just parked a few meters away from their stop taking a break with a buddy.

The LINK bus brought me to my stop on Broadway just past the yoga school.  There was still about 30 minutes before the 6 o'clock class started, but luckily I was welcome to start today.  Just down the street was the Warehouse, a sort of Walmart equivalent but on a much smaller scale and not quite as discounted.  I still found a few things I'd needed so it was the perfect thing to fill the time before yoga started.  Each class you're supposed to arrive about 5 minutes early and do a couple specific stretches before class begins.  The girl running this class is in the teacher training program, and is about 6 weeks from finishing, so it was nice to see where I'd be at in about a year!  She did a nice job of walking us through everything and explaining, but if there was any little thing she missed out her teacher, the director would step in a remind her and she also came around and fixed every little thing about each pose that we did.  There were also only 5 of us in the class which was nice, and 2 people on the other side of the room just doing their own thing.  We used all kinds of props and they have these ladder wall support things to help you stretch and twist and align yourself.  It was really interesting how they had us set up down dog at first, with a rope attached to the wall, looped around our hips and positioned just right so that it's pulling just the right part of your body upwards.  Then without much warning the instructor was sitting on my back/shoulders to push me down farther!  It was a little bit surprising because I'd never been sat on in a yoga class before, but I could really feel the extra stretch.

The other difference was that the class lasted just over 2 hours!! Something I did not really expect, nor did I realize was happening until I checked my watch at the end.  It was almost 10 past 8pm and I THOUGHT the last ferry back to Bayswater was at 8:25.  So I ran outside to wait for the bus back.  The bus got me to the ferry terminal at about 8:28, so I thought I'd just missed the ferry, turns out it was at 8:10 anyway, but I had looked at the last ferry leaving Bayswater, not Auckland, so fortunately there was another one leaving a 9:10.  I was surprised to see most places had already closed for the night!  I wandered back down Queen St for awhile but it had started raining again and was kind of chilly at this point.  I found a Kebab/Pizza/Coffee place open so decided to try a BBQ Chicken kebab for dinner.  It was pretty good, but not something I want to eat every Thursday night, so I think I'll have to work out a better routine for the Thursday yoga evening.  Anyway, I had a text from John asking if I wanted a ride home from the ferry, seeing as it was dark and kind of rainy and I hadn't walked back yet in the dark, so he was there waiting for me when I got off.  Apparently Reuben was wanting to come pick me up from the ferry at 7, was worried I wouldn't make it home, I guess, or before his bedtime anyway, which pretty much means the end of the night!  Nice to know I was worried about, though! 

Now I am off to watch the season premiere of Glee, which has taken ALL day to load on this not so speedy internet connection...let's hope it was worth it!  The down side to being in the reverse season is that most shows here are not only behind, but have just finished for the summer!!  So it looks like I will be following them all online.

Not a Single Tear!

Today was the first full "real" day that I've had in terms of kid responsibilities!  I had all three to pack into the car this morning to drop Reuben and Libby off.  Tessa and I returned home and she didn't ask for muma once!  She was so happy all day and just kept telling me to "sit down" at her Tessa-sized table with her while she cooked some food and went shopping for more, and put a baby to sleep.  We made some puzzles and played on the bean bags for awhile, and when I suggested it was time for her nap she kind of said no, and said no to milk, but once I fixed her bottle for her she happily ran and got her "gaga" or blankey ("dada" is her dummy and "baba" is baby, doll or human).  We did the nap-time routine and got her into her napping sack and she went down without any complaints and slept for about 3.5 hours!  She woke up with a smile on her face happy to see me and we played some more until it was time go pick up the other 2 from school. 

After school they all had snack together (perfectly cooked popcorn this time! 2 min and 10 seconds) and did some biking down the driveway.  It was a very successful first day of keeping 3 kids happy and occupied!  Tomorrow Julia said she may take for a social experience to one of the other supermarkets.  Apparently, there are some pretty strange and intriguing people who shop there and it can be entertaining go and see what you can find!  I also may go on another exploring adventure of my own to some places they suggested I check out.  

Jonah and the Whale

Today I dropped the kids of at school without mom.  They even just wanted to be left off, usually Libby likes to be walked in, so that was easy!  Their Nan brought Tessa back later in the morning and put her down for a nap, then took off to see the afternoon showing of the school production of "Jonah and the Whale".  Tessa was bit upset when she woke up asking for Nan and she wasn't there.  But once I suggested we play she was fine and forgot all about it.  Nan brought Reuben and Libby home after their show and we played soccer on the trampoline for awhile.  Now that I've done it once I think Reuben will be asking me everyday from now on!  We had an early dinner of spaghetti bolognese, which I had prepared the sauce for earlier in the day.  It was a huge hit with Tessa, she cleaned her plate!  Then we were all off to see the 6 o'clock performance.  It was really well done and I found it funny that they served beer and wine to the audience before the show as a school fundraiser.  Not too eventful a day, but exactly a typical Tuesday either.  I may end up with one typical weekday before the school holidays this weekend.  Then the next two weeks will be a bit all over the place, trying to schedule in activities for the kids to do when we get back from the start of the week vacation.

The "Backyard" View

This morning I was supposed to be the ones dropping off the kids, but unfortunately Big Red was waiting for a new battery!  So after the kids were dropped off we went to the garage too see what they had to say.  Something was wrong with the old "new" battery so they had to put in a new one, fortunately they had the right size in stock!  There was only one, mainly because there aren't too many of the huge cars around anymore!  She was up and running in no time and brought me safely to the post office/Kiwi Bank.  The bank desk was behind a wall in the corner of the post office and when I went up to buy stamps the same man came around and sat down at the desk to get me set up with an account!  He was extremely friendly and even copied some forms and helped me apply for a tax number for free.  The account is up and running and will have my EFTPOS card in a few days.  I can even withdraw from my account using the card right at the post office while mailing things!  Pretty interesting!

Smudge has officially decided that my room is also her room! Any time I'm in my room she is there too curled right up next to me on my bed!  She even spent the night last night.  Today when I was the only one in the house she made it a point to follow me everywhere I went! Even when I went outside to take some pictures she stayed right by my side!  Definitely happy to have someone pay her a little attention.

My first school pickup went successfully as well!  I brought Libby and Reuben home, fed them a snack, one of which was popcorn, as suggested by mom, "put on for 3 minutes", also on the bag it said 3 minutes on high....half of it was black and smoking when we took it out!  Reuben and Libby took note, 3 minutes is too long for popcorn!  After a snack we went out to play on the trampoline in the crazy wind!  Also climbed on the tree hut in progress and went on the swings for a bit.  They were both very well mannered and behaved.  Even though it was a bit windy and chilly it was really nice to be down by the water looking out at Auckland and the other towns and cities across the bay.

Auckland Harbor bridge at low tide from backyard!

Oh and p.s. the yoga photo is not me....yet!  For those of you who were asking!  It was just one of the background options that I thought hopefully I could recreate eventually!

Cruising in the Merc

Otherwise commonly known in the family as "the big red", this 20 year old Mercedes, 7-seater wagon, is mine for traveling around in, as well as transporting the kids around in (photos soon to come).  Today was my first driving experience on the other side of the road!  Luckily, it's an automatic so I really only had to focus on staying on the correct side of the road and obeying the new rules of the road.  One thing I ALWAYS forgot was that the turning indicator was on the right side of the wheel.  Every single time I went to make a turn I would swipe at the left and wonder why I couldn't find anything sticking out!  Also reversing down the driveway I still needed to turn to my right...even though the view wasn't quite as good, it felt really weird to turn to the left and look down the middle of the car...will practice that one more.  Apparently, the deal with this car is that it just refuses to die.  But before I arrived it had been awhile since it had been driven and the last time they tried to use it the battery had gone dead.  So they jump started it and figured that if I just went exploring for a while before stopping and parking in Takapuna that it should charge up enough...well I did the drive to school to make sure I knew where it was, and then around Devonport a bit, back in the other direction to Takapuna and around that town for a bit before eventually finding the mall and parking.  I guess I didn't let it run quite long enough because when I got in it to head home it didn't want to start!  I had to call home for a ride!  Ooops!  Now it's waiting at the garage for a new battery in the morning!  Other than that I had a successful first solo adventure.

I also purchased a sim card and got my blackberry up and running for any of you that were waiting for a pin! Other things that took place today...work began on a tree hut that Libby can't stop talking about, Libby's touch rugby practice, Reuben's alphabet homework assignment, this week-- W--WWII was the decided topic.  Tessa dropped off at Nan's, the usual Sunday routine and I got a mini tour of central Auckland and Newmarket, New Zealand's fashion capital and hopefully where my yoga will be taking place!