Part 27: Day two in a locked down house (you should read this title in the Big Brother voice)

So we're on day two of lock-down, and we have a minimum of four weeks of it.

It's taken some structure and scheduling to get us working remotely - and simultaneously parenting sufficiently.

For those who read this and don't know us:

• I work at a University and I am working remotely; some of my work involves participating in online calls, committees and meetings, I also have a team of people who I work with, some of my work is self-paced; creating, connecting and planning.
• My partner works at a pipe and climate control company and he is also working remotely; he is usually out on the road.
• We have a four year old daughter who usually attends daycare, she is (obviously) home too.

That presents some pretty challenging dynamics.

In preparation, I wrote a schedule prior to day one. Then we trialed it. Then at the end of day one I rewrote it. It's now the end of day two and I will rewrite it again this evening. The timing of some activities need to be matched with energy levels (of our daughter and of us) and that's taking some manipulation to fathom out. I take my hat off to childcare workers, you are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Our daily schedule version 2

Our schedule needs to be flexible (due to the demands of work for both of us), so it is designed to capture specific activities that our daughter can do independently, and activities that we parents can divide between us - to give each other time to focus on work - as well as a daily walk / bike ride, which we do as a family (while maintaining physical distancing).
Note: I am taking on the daily PE lesson, I could barely walk when I woke up this morning.

Balancing parenting and remote working is hard. We are, and have always been, very mindful of screen time. However, we have also had to relax the rules a bit so that we can dedicate time to focus on our work. That brings a fair dose of guilt with it (doesn't anything related to parenting?!). However, we are focusing on what matters, we are realistic about what we can achieve, and we are thankful that we have employers who understand.

An obstacle course in the garden

We also have perspective. We are not unique in this situation, there are plenty of families out there who are all locked down together, some have several children of varying ages at home, some are separated (which adds another layer of complexity), others have children with serious conditions and special needs, some are caring for elderly relatives, and there will be many many more in situations way more challenging than ours.

This unique, historic event that we find ourselves part of requires us to be kind, caring, patient, open communicators and trusting of others. Something that we can all find within us if we dig deep enough.

Kia kaha💗

Part 23 - Billy Connolly, Storm Ita and My first ever detox: how the GM Diet worked for me!

I can't believe it's been 10 months since I wrote my last blog entry - we have been busy bees and clearly just enjoying life in Auckland!

I won't go into detail about everything that we've been up to as that would take forever for me to write and ages for you to read so I will spare you :)

Heaps of celebs have been making an appearance here too which has been nice, I was lucky enough to see Beyonce at the end of last year as well as Dolly Parton (legend, it's got to be done!) earlier this year and Bruno Mars not so long ago! We also had tickets to see the Rolling Stones last weekend but this has been postponed due to the sad death of Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott so we'll be seeing them later on in the year. Last weekend Billy Connolly was here in Auckland and we had tickets in row 5 which was awesome and I was SO EXCITED ABOUT!!! I have some great memories of watching my fave ever live DVD of Billy with my Best friend in Wales when we were younger ... I think we both know all the words to it ... "GIANT ANTS ... ARE EATING MA' HEED!" Ha ha ha - makes me smile even as I type it!

Waiting for the Big Yin to make his appearance ...

We've come through summer so there have been lots of outdoor activities going on which has been awesome and now we're in autumn ... that said we've had a cracking autumn so far (that is ... until the royals showed up!) On that note, it is lovely to have an air of excitement around about Will, Kate & Baby George - everyone seems to have nice things to say about them.

We had a crazy storm on Thursday (it's now Saturday) and that seems to have cleared the air for even more sunshine!

Tamaki Drive in Auckland during Storm Ita
 

People trying to get to work on Tamaki Drive, Auckland during Storm Ita

Anyway, I decided to do my 1st ever detox a couple of weeks ago and I used the General Motors (GM) Diet plan to do it. I wanted to share what I thought of it with you guys, I hope you enjoy:
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Day one Tuesday (also went to gym at lunchtime)

Made a batch of soup the night before I started which consisted of:

• 1 tin of tomatoes
  
• 2 onions
  
• Cabbage
  
• Green beans
  
• 1 green pepper
  
• Celery
  
• Peas
  
• Vegetable stock (3 cubes)
  
• 1.5 litres of water
  
• Chilli powder
  

Today wasn’t too difficult, I am allowed to have fruit only all day (no bananas) and as much vegetable soup as I like. I am feeling motivated and keen to shake off the addiction to refined sugar that a lot of us have!

Today’s menu looked like this:

• Breakfast: 2 apples
  
• Mid morning: kiwi fruit, orange
  
• Lunch: papaya, soup
  
• Mid afternoon: kiwi fruit, 2 apples
  
• Dinner: papaya
  
• Drinks: over 2 litres of water
  

Day two (Loss: 1kg) Wednesday

I woke up feeling bright, thirsty and hungry.

Just the smell of the soup put me off when I was preparing meals for work! I actually quite enjoyed it when I ate it though. I went for a short walk at lunchtime to buy supplies ready for the next couple of days.

Today I am allowed vegetables only, and non-starchy vegetables at that (so no parsnips, pumpkin, squash, corn, etc) and the soup.

Today’s menu looked like this:

• Breakfast: celery, small amount of soup, genmaicha Japan tea
  
• Mid morning: soy flat white (not allowed!!) 1 Kiwiberry (not allowed! Got asked to try one)
  
• Lunch: salad leaves, pepper, tomatoes, cucumber. Balsamic vinegar, celery, cauliflower & broccoli (fried, no oil)
  
• Mid afternoon: soup
  
• Dinner: Baked potato, butter & mushrooms
  
• Drinks: over 2 litres of water
  

Day three (Loss: 0.4kg) Thursday

Woke up bright eyed and surprisingly energetic. I also have a constant feeling of hunger. This is the most difficult morning so far and I am really looking forward to lunch! I am having intermittent small headaches (not prolonged, very short).

I went for a 30 minute walk at lunchtime and felt drained at the end! I have also been quite drained all afternoon.

Dinner was a complete disaster ... I’m really not feeling it today. Ironically I preferred the days when it was all fruit or all veg – not the combination (not sure why). I actually think this diet is putting me off vegetables, which isn’t a good thing as I eat a fair amount of them usually anyway. I tried to abate my hunger in the evening with water, but still went to bed quite hungry.

I made a new batch of soup tonight and it’s not as nice as the original one I made. This one has less stock it and uses fresh cherry tomatoes instead of a tin ... wishing I’d stuck with my first recipe! The original GM soup recipe calls for just using water! Ach y fi (disgusting) as we’d say in Wales, I couldn’t have eaten that. This soup batch was made of:

• Fresh cherry tomatoes
  
• 3 onions
  
• Cabbage
  
• Green beans
  
• 1 red pepper
  
• Celery
  
• Vegetable stock (1 cube)
  
• 1.5 litres of water
  
• A touch of cumin
  

Today’s menu looked like this:

• Breakfast: soup, half a nashi pear, 1 apple, feijoa, herbal tea
  
• Mid morning: Satsuma, kiwi fruit, herbal tea
  
• Lunch: courgette, carrot & mushroom fried in a little olive oil with sauce (made of balsamic, mustard & Nando’s hot peri peri), tomatoes. Had to have half of this at 11.30am. Apple, plum.
  
• Dinner: half a nashi pear, half an apple, soup with fried broccoli and cauliflower (not good! Ate some of it...yuck)
  
• Drinks: over 2 litres of water
  

Day four (Gain: 0.6kg) Friday

After a strict day yesterday and not enjoying it at all – I put on 0.6kgs! It was pretty demotivating, even though I was doing this to cleanse as opposed to losing weight. I actually think my body may have gone into ‘starvation mode’ yesterday – I know little about this but have heard the term banded about when people go on extreme diets your body clings to everything it gets.

Still ... I’m sticking with it – I know I will be cheating on Saturday night as I’m going to see Billy Connolly live and it would be rude not to have a cheeky wine or two while appreciating the Big Yin! (I am SO EXCITED about this!)

That said I woke up feeling very bright eyed and bushy tailed again today (this is definitely the theme) AND I get to eat bananas and drink milk today.

I have been looking forward to this day all week. I love bananas! I can have up to 8 bananas and 3 glasses of trim / skimmed milk throughout the day, along with the soup. I can also (‘legally’) have an espresso coffee with milk (known as a flat white here in NZ) to start my day. I am not a huge coffee drinker, I am more into all sorts of tea – however, I have missed being able to fill up on a flat white. One change though is that I would usually have a sugar in my coffee, I didn’t this morning and I could easily get used to sugar-free coffee having not had refined sugar for a few days. This is a good outcome!

I prepared for the day by making a banana smoothie with 2 bananas and a tall glass of trim milk (half for morning tea and half for lunch). When I had the first half of this for morning tea it tasted lovely and extremely sweet – the sweetest thing I have eaten in 4 days!

I felt very satisfied after lunch with my soup & have a smoothie ... plus after everything I said yesterday about my new batch of soup it was actually OK today – I had put heaps of pepper in it before I went to bed last night and that definitely pepped it up a bit (spot the unintentional pun)!

I had 6 bananas in all and was feeling reasonably satisfied by bedtime. This is usually the day that people put on a pound or so, so I'm frustrated that happened to me yesterday.

Today’s menu looked like this:

• Breakfast: Coffee with milk!! Yum (no sugar)
  
• Mid morning: Half a smoothie, genmaicha Japan tea. This left me feeling satisfied – not full and not hungry :)
  
• Lunch: Soup, other half of my smoothie. Feeling full!
  
• Mid afternoon: 1 banana
  
• Pre Dinner: 1 banana
  
• Dinner: soup, 1 banana, 1 glass of milk (smoothie)
  
• Evening: 1 frozen banana
  
• Drinks: over 2 litres of water

Day five (Loss: 1.5kg) Saturday

This is going to be tough, it’s Saturday. Work has kept my mind off food for the past 4 days and now I have free time to play with. However, I am so excited that I can have brown rice for the next 3 days!! I am also going out on a limb this evening and having alcoholic drinks so we’ll see how that goes. I know, I know – alcohol is not detoxing ... I am happy not to call it detoxing if it makes the reader feel better :)

The lesson I learnt overnight is to trust the process. So glad I didn't give up yesterday as I lost 1.5kgs – there is definitely something in the starvation thing I was taking about on day 3.

Today I am allowed 1 cup of brown rice and tomatoes. If I ate meat then today and tomorrow I would be able to eat beef, but I don’t so it is substituted for brown rice which suits me just fine.

I prepared last night for today's menu of brown rice and tomatoes. I read that it should be 1 cup of brown rice but can't find anywhere if that's supposed to be 1 cup measured uncooked or cooked so, having checked the label and seeing that 1/3 of a cup (uncooked) is a serving and gives you around 250 cals I made the educated decision that it must be 1 cup measured uncooked as that would be around a 900 calorie allowance which is low for normal daily amounts but relatively high on this diet. 1 cup of brown rice is around 210 grams and when I cooked it, it looked like a feast! I cut up 3 large tomatoes and dropped them in and also threw in some cherry toms for good measure (apparently tomatoes are foods from the gods … as are eggs usually).

Breakfast was more of a brunch time wise as I had it at about 11.30am – it was absolutely divine eating rice (I love brown rice anyway) – my taste buds came alive and it was amazing to be eating something of substance. When you heat the rice with tomatoes it turns the toms mushy and I know this dish will become a regular for me, I really like it.

I knew we were going out Saturday night to see Billy Connolly so knew that it was no longer detoxing – what with drinking alcoholic bevvies … plus we ended up going for dinner first! I ordered a small portion of battered fish with smashcut fries (fat wedges of potato deep fried!) and it certainly was a small portion when it arrived, I ate the fish and only had 2 potatoes before I felt full! Usually I would have finished my meal and this time I didn't – my needs were met and I left the rest :) Had an amazing night at Billy Connolly (High Horse Tour), he is so funny and it was also sad to hear of his battle with cancer and the ongoing fight with Parkinsons.

 

Here he is!!

 

We got home at 3am on Sunday(!) and I was feeling peckish when I got in, yet instead of reaching for the rice crackers I heated a bowl of brown rice and tomatoes, perfect!

Today’s menu looked like this:

• Breakfast: brown rice and tomatoes with a squeeze of lemon, salt & pepper.
  
• Lunch: brown rice and tomatoes with a squeeze of lemon, salt & pepper.
  
• Dinner: battered fish & smashcut fries
  
• Evening (actually at 3am Sunday!): brown rice & tomatoes
  
• Drinks: 1 litre of water, 4 glasses of wine, 2 Canadian club & dry ginger ale, 1 vodka lime & soda
  

Day six (Loss: 0.1kg) Sunday

Okay so I weighed this morning and still lost 0.1kg … that said, I think it's dehydration so I will take it with a pinch of salt and see how it's looking tomorrow!

Again I am allowed 1 cup of rice today with veggies (this would be beef with veggies if you eat meat). I am glad I can have the rice, my body is screaming out for carbs after a night on the town last night and I am trying to shut it up with yummy brown rice.

Woke up this morning and there was a tiny amount of yesterdays brown rice and tomatoes batch left so I was able to curb my hunger pangs with that before making my new batch for the day. For today's rice dish I cooked the cup of brown rice then fried some peas, grated carrot and yellow capsicum (no oil) and tossed that through along with some tomatoes and salt & pepper. Yum!

 

My daily allowance of brown rice & veggies

 

Today's menu looked like this:

• Breakfast: Brown rice and tomatoes with a squeeze of lemon, salt & pepper.
  
• Lunch: Brown rice and veggie mix with hot sauce
  
• Dinner: Roast vegetables (parsnips, sprouts, pumpkin, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans) with a tiny dribble of gravy (not allowed!)
  
• Drinks: over 2 litres of water

Beautiful roast veggies

Day 7 (Gain: 0.8kg) Monday

It’s the last day of the diet and I am excited to be allowed fruit juice – even though I very very rarely drink it as part of my usual regimen! I bought the juice on Friday in preparation and have been looking forward to it :) I went for the Simply Squeezed Super Juice (apple, pineapple, mango & passion fruit) as it was one of the few I could find with no added sugars or dairy.

Simply Squeezed Super Juice

 

Having woken up and weighed this morning, I put on 0.8kg ... I knew the weekend shenanigans would rear their head at some point. Need to remind myself that I am doing this for health reasons and not for weight loss!

I only ate half the rice yesterday because I had the roast veggies for dinner so I have brought the other half in to work … and only eaten half of that (for breakfast).

Safe to say that from lunchtime I had stopped the GM diet – not because it was too difficult, more so because I was taken out to lunch with my boss and then later on in the evening I though it would be silly to revert back to making some rice with veg when I hadn’t stuck with it all day so I made a Quorn (vegetarian meat alternative, not soy) curry and had brown rice with it. Very nice it was too!

I thin I was mentally over it by this point, as you'll see by what I ate. Today’s menu looked like this:

• Breakfast: 1 glass simply squeezed super juice, bowl of veggie rice
  
• Lunch: 1 glass simply squeezed super juice, salmon salad (taken out to lunch)
  
• Dinner: Homemade Quorn curry with brown rice (Quorn is not allowed!)
  
• Evening: CurlyWurly, handful of almonds (very naughty indeed!)
  
• Drinks: over 2 litres of water
  

Tuesday

So it’s the 1^st day of officially not being on the GM diet. Overall I lost 1.6kg in 7 days (after losing, gaining, losing, etc) and the main outcome was the change in my mindset and the realisation that fasting is not a bad thing and my portions can be smaller and still fill me up. I have actually started listening to my body as opposed to letting my portion size dictate how much I eat.

Not that I ate badly or HUGE amounts previously, it just could have done with a bit of a review and the GM diet provided that. It also curbed my sweet tooth – I now longer have sugar in my coffee and I don’t need it, I am also rarely craving sweet foods as yet – I just need to keep that under control.

One final result from the GM diet has been that I have realised that I don’t eat enough for lunch – I would usually make myself a green leafy salad with tuna or pumpkin and it’s not enough for me to feel full all afternoon, heck it barely covers the hunger at lunchtime! I will consciously ensure that I eat more at lunchtime and this will in turn reduce my hunger at dinner time and reduce my ‘eating so much that I go to bed feeling stuffed’.

I started day 8 with a coffee to have on the way to work then 2 boiled eggs and a handful of almonds for Breakfast / morning snacking – 3 things I hadn’t been allowed to indulge in for a week and it was amazing! Eggs and tomatoes are going to be cornerstones of my diet from now on – I love them both and they are packed full of nutrients … perfect combo!

I have also decided to dramatically lower my intake of potatoes, pasta and white rice … in fact, I’ll happily never eat white rice again, if I could just get the Other Half (OH) onto it too then I could ban it from the house!

Anyway, don’t panic – my blog is not going to be focussed on food from now on, I’d bore you all to tears. I just wanted to share my experience of the GM diet.

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It's now Easter weekend and I just want to wish everyone a very Happy Easter :) We have Good Friday and Easter Monday as public Holidays and on the 25 April is ANZAC Day so we have taken the 3 days off in between and got 10 days off for the price of 3!

We spent yesterday (Good Friday) out checking up on our boat (that's another story for another blog post!) and ensuring it was still on it's mooring following the storm this week, luckily it was and I feel for the owners of the 2 boats below which didn't fare so well.

We stopped in town and had a beautiful lunch at Federal Delicatessen which is owned by the Chef Al Brown and the food was absolutely glorious. Then attempted a walk along Takapuna Beach but the wind was a wee bit chilly!

Looking forward to spending some time with the Other Half (OH) in Whangamata for a few days and enjoying some good food, good NZ wine and good company. I hope you all have a fantastic long weekend.

Part 19 – GOOD MORNING Cwmbrân!

So after a few hectic months came the greatly anticipated month of April. Rightly so as I was heading back to the UK for my best friend's wedding and 3 weeks of catching up with much loved and missed family & friends.

I had a completely crazy week in work preparing for my time away from the office as I was initially taken on to cover maternity leave because 2 girls in the team were off for a year....from March! So 4 months into my new role I found myself fully immersed in work, the 2 gorgeous mums-to-be had gone off on parental leave and I was busy preparing to go off on my trip so it was all systems go. I was sure to pre-empt anything that could happen while I was away and that was that – I left work on the Friday and flew back to the UK the following morning. Unfortunately I was travelling without the OH (other half) – any ex-pats who live in New Zealand will know that the cost of flying from NZ to the UK and back is dramatically different to that of UK - NZ - UK – and travelling alone is a pretty normal thing for ex-pats here – for that very reason.

I had only told a few people my real return date to Wales (conveniently the 1^st April!) because there were a few surprises up my sleeve! The truth keepers were:

• My mum (she was picking me up from the airport, so that would have been a difficult one to get around!);
• The bride-to-be – Jo (I didn't want to add to any nervousness she already had by saying I was arriving the day before the wedding!);
• My dad's wife – Kim;
• One of my closest friends – Becky;
• One of my other closest friends – Hannah's husband (not Hannah herself!)

And that was it. Everyone else was told I'd be arriving the following week – around the 6 April (sorry if you were one of the ones I white lied to...I couldn't risk the real date getting out!)

Having a secret like that is one of the hardest things I have had to do. My dad's birthday is on 2 April and this year was his grand 50^th...and I told him I wouldn't be able to make it (what an awful daughter I am!) all for the sake of a surprise. So...after around 34 hours of travelling I landed at about 11:30am and was absolutely delighted to see my mum & her partner – Mark – who picked me up from Heathrow airport. After lots of hugs (cwtches to the Welshies!) and tears we headed back to Wales. I have never been happier to see the 'Welcome to Wales (Croeso i Gymru)' sign on the Severn bridge. Knowing that friends and family were mere minutes away was so exciting.

The Welcome to Wales sign

We made it back to mum's for 2:30pm where I jumped in the shower, freshened up then text Kim to see where she and dad were. I knew that they'd been out for a meal the night previously with a group of friends for his 50^th and they were heading for lunch at The Greenhouse on the Sunday followed by a few drinks at The Crows Nest. They'd already had their food and were happily seated at the pub. So mum drove me to the Crows and as we drove passed I could see them sat outside chatting to friends...so we scooted around the back of the pub and my heart was thudding in my chest as I got out of the car and weaved my way through the pub to head out the front. Dad had his back to me so I put my finger over my lips to signal to the others not to say anything and give the game away – which they didn't – and I just leant down by dad's ear and said “have you ordered a beer?” He looked at me like he'd just seen a ghost! Shocked just isn't the word, I honestly thought he might have a heart attack! That would NOT have been a good result! After many questions (namely: 'how did you get here??') and lots of tears we settled in for a fabulous evening of catching up and enjoying a few drinks. While we were at the pub the weather forecast came on...SNOW ALERT. I kid you not – snow....in April! Needless to say I hadn't packed for snow so I made a mental note to go shopping the next day for jumpers and tights!

After a great night with dad I had another surprise planned for the next day – Monday. I had contacted one of my best buddies Hannah's, husband – Chris – to tell him when I was coming back and that I wanted to surprise Han. He was well onto it, we arranged for her to have the Monday afternoon off work (dummy meetings in her work diary & everything!) so that we could catch up. How he managed to keep it a secret I will never know – especially with someone like Hannah to fool! To give you some indication of how hard she is to fool – everything was going swimmingly with my surprise plans while I was in NZ. As long as I didn't speak to anyone face-to-face (or rather, on Skype) then I found it easy enough to fool them. However, when I landed in Amsterdam (1 hour away from the UK) I got a text from Hannah asking if we could Skype prior to my trip...I panicked! I called the OH who was in NZ and he said to say we were out with friends – this meant he couldn't go on FaceBook or Skype until the surprise because she'd see him on there! I was sure she'd rumbled me.

So I took the train from Cwmbran to Newport (where I used to work with Hannah) and got the receptionist to contact Lyndsey to come and meet me. She took me up to their office and I chatted and caught up with their team and then one of the girls called Hannah into their office 'urgently'. SO in came Hannah all smiley and said 'what?' then she clocked me and SHE CRIED! This is no mean feat, Hannah cried (I'm really going to rub this in!). It was so lovely to see her, then I broke it to her that her husband knew all along and that she didn't have work that afternoon. So we wandered down to Revolution and had lunch and wine and a jolly good, long overdue natter!

Following that the gorgeous bride-to-be Jo met us in a pub in Cwmbran and I thought she was going to strangle me. I have never been cwtched quite so hard in my life! Hannah & Chris headed home and I went for a meal with Jo, her husband-to-be – Jerry and Jerry's dad (I think they'd been out sorting out suits!) It was a truly lovely day.

My final surprise was scheduled for the Tuesday (I had to cram all the surprises into my initial days back for fear of them falling through!) The beautiful Becky-Do (that's not her real name) had arranged for all of the girls I used to work with at UDEX to get together (we used to meet regularly for dinner, in fact they still do!) - unbeknownst to them I was going to join them. They are such an awesome group of girls and I was really looking forward to a thorough download of information about what they'd all been up to. So Becky picked me up and drove to The Greenhouse where we were going for dinner.

The plan was for all of the girls to already be seated inside...but we all know that the UDEX girls are NEVER on time! So Becky had a master plan...I was to sit in the passenger seat of her car with her coat thrown over me to hide me – while she went into the pub to make sure everyone was there. So off Becky went. As she got out of the car Lex turned up with Neasha and Lucy in the car and PARKED NEXT TO US! So I'm trying my hardest not to move (or even breathe) underneath the coat for fear of being found out! Apparently Neasha asked Becky “what's all that in your car?” to which Becky (thinking on her feet) said “just boxes, for Lexie to have later. Come on, let's go in” and was being quite forceful getting everyone inside (later on Neasha told me she wanted to tell Becky to 'chill out' but she refrained!). So I'm in the car peeping out from under the coat each time I hear a car, wondering if it's one of our girls – when I realise there's an old woman in the car next to us! I bet she thought I was from the local mad house and that my 'friend' had left me in the car while she went for food, hee hee!! Bec came back after a few minutes – under the guise of getting some books for Rachel – and we giggled our way into the restaurant. Their faces were a picture. You know when someone's looking through you and not registering who you are? Well – it was like that at first, some of them clocked me walking towards them but it took a moment to register! It was hilarious. Another fabulous evening with a gorgeous gaggle of girlies ensued!

At this point I just want to thank each and every one of you who either knew my real date for coming back and didn't tell a soul – or those of you who saw me in those initial few days and didn't mention it on FB or any other social networking sites. The surprises were amazing and I really enjoyed them – but I don't think I could do it again, it was so stressful!

My initial week was dedicated to surprises, wedding planning / rehearsals / preparation. Then Jo & Jerry's wedding on 7 April which was a truly spectacular day – I only wish the OH could have been there. It was just perfect, and I can't imagine there being a couple more perfect for each other. Thank you for asking me to be your chief bridesmaid – I was privileged.

Over the next few weeks I caught up with so many people who I had missed over the previous year, friends, family, The OH's family (and the cat we used to own – Minky!) and my littlest brother – Wallace. He had grown so much! When I left he was shorter than me and when I returned he was a fair few inches taller! It's amazing the changes that can happen in a year. My 2 other brothers live in Beijing so it was a shame not to be able to catch up with them. Hopefully it won't be too long before we're all in the same country at the same time!

My bed partners in the UK: Lazy Girl & Naughty Kitten

It was a great trip and I am already looking forward to the next time when I will have the OH by my side. I am also excited that so many people are planning to come out and visit us here in NZ. It will be lovely to share our new life with you all (and hopefully encourage you to stay!)

I left the UK on 17 April and was so sad to leave people behind (despite finally finding out what it means to be so cold that your bones feel cold!) It helped that I was coming back to the OH but it was still difficult. It's times like that when you're really tested as to why you did this in the first place, seeing everyone unhappy and feeling it yourself.

My case which was only 14 kilos on the way to the UK (and half of that was gifts) was pushing the limit at 23 kilos on the way home. Filled with clothes, books (very very expensive in NZ compared to the UK) and DVDs (we have a region 2 DVD player....the things you don't think about when you emigrate). When I was waiting to board at Heathrow I was surprised to see a guy in a high-vis jacket who worked at the airport and on his back it said 'Silence Team LHR' … I thought things must have got a lot stricter in the UK since I'd left originally – until I rubbed my eyes and looked again to find it actually said 'Service Team LHR' … I blame the emotions.

After another 34 hours or so travelling I was greeted at Auckland airport by the OH and I must admit it did feel nice being able to wear flip flops (despite the fact it was autumn!) and not being cold. It was so lovely to see him and to be back in New Zealand. Despite missing everyone it really is such a beautiful place – you can't help but be bowled over by it. Straight from the airport we headed to the dentist as I had a dental appointment for a check up and polish. Quite overwhelming when you're tired and disorientated, to say the least. Bad planning on my part there.

I always seem to have quite intense jet-lag coming to NZ from the UK (via Kuala Lumpur / Singapore) and this time was no different. By 6pm you're struggling to keep your eyes open and feeling quite sick from tiredness. I got home on the Thursday and didn't have work until Monday so I had a few days to orientate myself again.

On my 1^st day back at work it was evident how much I had been missed...the amount of time that had been dedicated to decorating my desk (and drawers, and phone, and divider) with England flags was impressive. Obviously they know that I'm Welsh and know how frustrating it can be when people ask which part of England you're from (not that I have anything against the English but I am just not from England) – which they inevitably do because to the untrained ear I just sound 'British' – so they used this knowledge to their advantage and my desk was awash with St. George's Cross. The Kiwi's / Aussies have the same issue – people hear the accent and just assume one way or the other (usually assuming that NZ'ers are Australian).

You can't leave your desk for a minute... 

Very funny girlies!

I also came back to some pretty random conversations in work. One which stood out particularly was being asked what a 'swede' was (the vegetable, not the race of people). Honestly, I mentioned a swede and 2 of the girls in work asked me what it was. Then one of the piped up “oh I think I know...it's like a courgette right?” Very funny indeed and not something I was expecting to have to explain. I resorted to Google images. They do have them here (as you will know from my previous posts referring to buying them via an honesty box in Invercargill) so it was very entertaining. That said, there are lots of veggies here that I do not have a clue how to cook but I am determined to learn (silverbeet is first on that list!)

Following my trip we had a few quiet weekends as we settled back into normal routine. We had a drunken Skype call with friends from the UK – the joys of being 11 hours apart! We were having breakfast on a Sunday and drinking tea while friends of ours had been out for the evening and wanted to show us some dance moves on Skype...very very entertaining – you know who you are!

Andy & Heni came up from Tauranga one Friday night as Andy had an interview in Auckland so they met me from work and we all went into Howick for a few drinks then headed home to compete on the Wii!

The following day we were preparing for a new house guest. Ange & John were relocating from Tauranga to Auckland so we went for lunch and Ang moved some of her things into ours. It was lovely to have Ange staying with us for a couple of weeks while she started her new job and John tied things up back in Tauranga. Then 3 weeks ago we helped them move into their new home on the North Shore....closely followed by us moving to the North Shore! Plus, Andy & Heni are moving to Auckland too as Andy has just landed a new job – perfect!

We stayed with them for a few days during their 2^nd week in their new home and then last weekend we moved into our own new place. The house is quite the sun trap and it means that I leave the house 40 minutes later than I did in Howick in order to get into the city for work. I always thought the North Shore was a nightmare for commuting but it turns out it isn't at all (I suppose it depends where you are). I catch a bus from our street and it take around 20 minutes to get into the heart of the city. Not bad at all!

In other goings on this month Stef left work to move back to Melbourne with her husband (she's Australian, he's British) so that was really sad. I'd grown quite close to Stef as she sat next to me and was my assigned 'buddy' when I started my new job so I was upset to see her go but at the same time I knew how much it meant to her to be back with her friends and family so it was bittersweet really. Also gives us an excuse to head to Melbourne for a visit! We gave her a good send off and went out dancing so that was lovely.

Well, this weekend has been a glorious weekend of sunshine for us despite it technically being winter (sorry Britain), and we've certainly taken advantage of it (although we are also eating wintery food!). Friday night we had a lovely Quorn chilli, then Saturday we headed out to take a look at Brown's Bay then had a nice 3 course meal at home and this morning we had eggs benedict for breakfast then headed out to have a look at Halls Beach & Little Shoal Bay where we had a picnic. I also went for my 1^st run on the 'Shore this morning. A nice gentle 4.38 miler and I didn't get lost – result! The temperature here for winter is very very mild. We've had the odd day starting out at 3 degrees but I can count them on one hand so far and by the afternoon it's usually around 14 degrees. Saying that I think you do acclimatise pretty quickly! I have been known to say“Oooh it's SO COLD this morning” only to look at the temperature gauge and it's actually 11 degrees...I know I know...I've gone soft! Don't get me wrong, we have had some rain – and occasionally it's been quite monsoon-like, but by and large it's been a good winter by my standards. Plus – I don't mind it raining so much here as we seem to have THE BEST rainbows. Just take a look at them in all their glory...

Gorgeous NZ rainbow...

...and it's reflection in the sea

I even got a rainbow as I landed back in NZ