Garage Sale! (by Carrie)

Maybe it is becoming spring, or maybe they just do garage sales all year here, but Friday we got a little notice in the mailbox: the area Bowling club (not bowling like big heavy balls and pins, but bowling like little balls, akin to horseshoes) was having a garage sale. I have to admit, I was excited. Emily and I got up and went at 8 Saturday morning--well, we got there about 8:10, along with lots of other people. Pretty much just like a church garage sale in the States--but one particularly rich with puzzles (we got two) and kitchen stuff (we got some miscellany). I got an iron. No exercise machine (we'll keep looking for that--seems like it should be a good garage sale item. that's how we got the one we had to leave in Kansas). I decided this morning I need to make a list of all the appliances we need, and check them off. We are already the proud owners of a toaster, a crock pot, an iron, and a space heater, all with funny plugs.

Manford and I also spent a couple of hours at our future home, meeting with a kitchen designer, figuring out what to put where. She will make up a plan and a price (yikes. but seems like less than it would be in the States to rip out the whole kitchen and put in a new one) and we will meet on Friday and pick out colors. We also measured the bedrooms to try to figure out how to fit in at least some of our furniture--a bed and a dresser is about all that will fit in our room, maybe a small chair, but it has one built-in set of drawers between the two closets. Joseph's room with be dominated by his Harry Potter bed, but he does everything on the bed, anyway. Manford is right, the yard is a challenge, but at least it is conveniently divided up into sections, and maybe we can tackle one zone at a time.

It's raining again this morning--the roofs here are nearly all steel, and the sound of the rain on the roof is kind of soothing...I think especially to Kiwis who have grown up with it. One house we looked at had a concrete roof (which sounds very odd, and looked a bit odd, too--the concrete was shaped like tiles, kind of, but still concrete colored), and the realtor was musing that concrete roofs were good, but you missed the sound of the rain...yesterday it started off foggy, and cleared off nicely in the afternoon, so that Emily and Manford and I explored a little in the reserve (park, basically big green area with grass and trees and a small gully) just behind our rental house. It was soggy, but a nice big place to run and play ball and hide in the copse of trees, where Emily was convinced there might be a kiwi. Hopefully it will dry out some so she can enjoy it before we move--there are a couple of these reserves near our new house, too, but not right out the back gate. There is lots of green space here--but unfortunately, most of them don't have what Emily calls "real parks," meaning playground equipment. Though her school has great playground equipment, and we could walk to it from the new house.

I'm halfway through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and looking forward to being able to talk to Joseph about it.

Work is getting busy, as I venture out and try to learn about the local mental health and family support services. I've been following our first-year clinical graduate students around as they do visits to the local agencies, and also making some of my own contacts. Last week I went to the Waikato Family Centre, which is run by an incredibly energetic nurse/midwife, and resides in a beautiful house that used to be a brothel...it's kind of like the breastfeeding resource center, plus--families can come and they help with nursing, but also with figuring how to put the baby to sleep (they have cribs and separate rooms, so they can get the baby to sleep, and then the mom can either sleep or talk to someone), and anything else, for the first year, free; they run postpartum depression groups, and screen everyone for postpartum depression (data!). I'm going next week to spend some time there, and later to interview some of the women about their experiences with the health and mental health systems, to give me some leads on what kind of research might work and needs to be done. And teaching seems to be going fine--I am getting off easy this term, and it is clear I'll have more teaching to do in the future, but it's great to have the luxury of some time both to figure out the university and to set up some research.

I hope you are all well and happy, and staying cool!
Carrie

Typing errors, I really do know how to spell by Manford

Thanks to all who tolerate my typing - I meant Martin Cruz Smith - and though it looks like text messaging I don't mean it to be. Today we meet with a kitchen designer to see what can be wrought - maybe we will just do an out with the old, in with the new! I have met with two landscape persons whom I charcterize as the butcher (lop off the heads of all the trees in the front yard) and the artiste (retain some, lop some, trim some, smell this wonderful scented flower) and am leaning toward him. The yard is sadly neglected and in this environment way overgrown - will take some pics and post 'em. Thanks for the interest says I to all who read this and may you find some joy each day!

Books and things b Manford

Well we came in on the tail end of the dog show (pun intended) but saw some cties, and had a wonderful meal at the hme of a coworkers of carrie Wine is relativel inexpensive and generally good ere. It has been a pretty quiet week here. I came across an amazing (to me) riff on the number 9, called Nmber 9 The Search for the Sigma Code by Cecil Balmond - check it out. And have started the new Cuz-Smith, Stalin's Ghost. Any readers have recommendations for other books? We have a meeting at the house Friday with a kitchen design lad. Yesterday I met with an arborist and a landscaper - whooee, or house is in a jungle (that needs trimming, digging up, transplanting, removal) more about this as we roll along. It has been in the 30's in the am - cool to cold depending on the hmidity. I hope all is well with those who read this. I will tr for more reflection on the move and on living here next blog.

Shopping

Yesterday we went shopping. Mostly just shopping, not buying: scoping out stores for kitchen appliances and furniture and stuff. Apparently, although they call beds "twin, double, queen, king," they are not the same sizes as ours...we shipped Joseph's Harry Potter bed with mattress, so that should be fine, but we just brought the mattress for Emily's bed, thinking we could get a bed here--she wants a loft bed so she can play underneath it. We found a great one at one store, about four feet off the ground, with drawers and shelves and a slide-out desk top underneath, as well as room to play. But it's not quite the same size as her mattress. We either need to get a new mattress, or get the "king twin" which is a few inches larger than the other, and so will be a little big for the mattress...details, details...lots of options in beds, especially if you want to spend a LOT of money. Then you could get a nice platform bed with a built-in LCD tv that pops up from the footboard...don't tell Joseph about that one. Or one with a built-in dock for your iPod. I think we'll just look for a basic model, though--but maybe a king, since the queen is smaller than ours, and the king is between king and queen, but maybe we'll just get cosy and conserve room in the bedroom, which is not going to fit both our dressers, anyway...maybe we should get a loft bed, soo, so we can play underneath...watch out, and I'll get as weird at Manford. It's being upside down. Surprising things are backwards. Door locks, light switches (up is off), and the sweater ("jersey") I just bought Manford has the zipper on the opposite side. I still get confused getting into the car (usually not driving it, any more) if I think about it too much.

They probably have this array of outlandish appliances in the States, too; it's just that we haven't been shopping for everything at once, there. The appliance store we liked (they had reasonable things, too, and a nice saleswoman) had a pink dishwasher and a giant fifties-looking lime green fridge for $5000. I think we'll pass on them. Most of the fridges are small, by US standards, but have a variety of configurations (freezer up, down, and some with extra doors and drawers for various functions), and since we're redoing the kitchen, we can try to figure out what size we really need, and make a space for it. Next week we will meet with a kitchen designer (sounds fancy, but not really) and start to make a plan. The only things we actually bought yesterday were small plastic stuff (we found a store with every plastic thing you could imagine) like a microwave popcorn popper (you can get the bags here, but they're expensive) and juicer (we have a citrus tree of some sort in the rental house. I can't tell if it's lemon or orange, or a cross they apparently have here).

We did our first baking this week--oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, kind of. They have chocolate "buttons" that said they were for baking, disks about the size of a dime. I decided to try them, and the kids liked them fine, but I think I'll get the (more expensive) Nestle chocolate chips next time...and I have to figure out how to measure butter here. Butter is very cheap--less than margarine--but it comes in a huge hunk (a half kilo, a bit more than a pound in one slab). Apparantly there are lines on the package for measuring, but I had long since discarded that. I know, I can use the diplaced water trick, but I was lazy and estimated. They are mostly metric here, but still remnants of old measures on food packaging and recipes--we will have to learn to convert both ways. The oven is in Farenheit, but about half of things you buy are Celsius. I am assuming someday we will stop converting and have a sense of metrics...

Today Manford and I will go to meeting (no kids program today) and then later we will go to a dog show with another family (of the tutor--clinical training coordinator--from work), and then have tea (dinner) with them. We are bringing cake. They have no shortage of cakes here. No shortage of bakeries, either. No, we're not getting a dog yet, but I'd be surprised if we didn't have one by Halloween...

Emily says

School is great, I'm having lots of fun, and I've made a lot of new friends. I think I like sketching best. (what's different about it?) We only have like one, two teachers, but I found out that the computer teacher teaches us, but then our real teachers teach us all our other subjects. (what's your teacher's name) Mrs Tombs. She is a really nice teacher--almost as nice as Mrs. Fisher and Mrs Schwerdt. In the playground at my school they have a giant sandbox, and the playground is really fun. We are doing cross-country and it is really hard.

I got this really cool bed that has shelves and you can take this box of the shelves out, and you can go play under it. That's all I have to say! Happy Birthday to Daddy!

happy birthday Manford

My birthday can be celebrated twice - here tomorrow, there on your Sunday. Has anyone seen Amazing Grace? Inside an egg carton is the notice "Our hens live in small flocks on lifestyle properties where they are looked after by caring farmers and are free to express their natural behavior..." I am composing a poem, Ode to a Toilet that begins "There you sit, where I sit" which is as far as I have gotten (without any other family's knowledge or awareness) and is probably as far as I should go. Hmmmm, gotta think of other ways to use my time. We were in the underground parking lot from hell yesterday - very narrow spaces, but ue survived. Carrie's coworkers don't like it either. I really value all the friendships we had in Topeka and wish I had said that more. The family is out buying the new Harry Potter book and thousands of dollars worth of gifts for me, trying to stop me from hallucinating so much! Best to all and to all a good night . Manford

Progress

We're making progress--it doesn't quite seem like home, but it doesn't not seem like it, either. We are still in someone else's house, but we can see where we're going...as Manford said, the building inspector raved about the house, built in the 60's, when they used solid materials, and it was "top drawer" then...once we get the kitchen redone, it will be top drawer again...we went to a kitchen designer store today, and saw all the fancy drawers we can get, and countertops ("bench") in all colors and textures possible. And all sorts of weird and practical sink options. The typical sink here is stainless steel, with one decent sized sink, and then a tiny one with a disposal in it, and built-in drainer areas on one or two sides...I'd kind of like a double sink, and it seems that that is quite possible, or a full and a half-sink, or any configuration, made of stainless steel, or graphite, or whatever...don't tell Emily, but you can get the "bench" in purple if you really want it. We haven't even looked at floors yet...

The yard is one of the big advantages of this house--it is good sized--about a quarter acre--in an area where many of the "sections" (lots) have been subdivided so that one house we looked at was on a section that was 200 square meters--that's a little over 200 square feet. For the land. Ours has a large grapefruit tree, and lots of other bushes and trees, some even flowering now--camelias, and we'll have to learn all of what else. It needs some attention and pruning, but provides nice privacy and should be even richer as we get into spring and summer. The builder cautioned us that when you buy plants here, and it says "grows to one meter," that means in the first year. Plants like it here.

Our weekend trip to Mount Maunganui was quite nice--it's a pretty 1 3/4 hour drive through rolling hills to the coast (the far coast), then out to a kind of penninsula punctuated by "the mount," which is a hill you can climb up or walk around. We got about halfway around on Sunday morning, then Emily had to go to the bathroom...We arrived Saturday noonish and had lunch at the Stars and Stripes Cafe--and American Restaurant. Exotic. Joseph wanted a cheeseburger, so we ordered one, but the guy convinced us that the Kiwi Burger was on sale, and a better deal, and the same thing, except with an egg on it. We ordered it without the egg, not knowing that it also had beets...I ordered a chicken salad sandwich. It was an interesting double-decker affair, with sliced chicken on the first layer, and salad (lettuce and tomato) on the second...We went to the beach in the afternoon, and found lots of shells; it is winter, and so a bit chilly, but Emily got her feet wet, and on up...then we went to the hot salt water pools, across from our hotel. They were three swimming pools--one warm, one hot,and one for kids (I didn't check how hot that was). Very relaxing, though popular. Apparently this is a VERY popular spot in the summer, and the long beach looked very inviting. There was just one lonely surfer when we were there, but two hang gliders taking off from the top of the Mount and landing on the beach.

Then, back to Hamilton, and work, and house and car...here is a picture of Manford by the house, with his new car; he is driving with impunity, and Emily likes to stick her head out of the sun roof. I am hoping this is while they are waiting for Joseph, whose school gets out 20 minutes after hers. I had my second class, and they all stayed awake, and we refilled all of Manford's prescriptions for $12. And so another week, and our first month, comes to a close...tomorrow we are having a party to celebrate the house, and the month; we will have pizza from Hell and magic bananas (Emily read a recipe in a book for chocolate-dipped frozen bananas). Sunday is Manford's birthday, and we will go to a dog show and have dinner with some friends from work.

We hope you are all well and happy, and staying cool!
Carrie