Friday Five - Favourites

I'm sorry I've not blogged this week, again I have been crazy busy, Harry Potter at the cinema, highlights in my hair, pedicure, going to my school's end of term party, watching the Year 6 production, and today I'm packing for a long weekend away at a friends wedding. Who said this stay at home mum business would be at home?? Anyway this weeks Friday five is in response to Kat's questions. Here goes!



1. Favourite cuisine: Italian. Hands down, I loves me some Italian food! Spaghetti alla vongole, risotto, tiramisu, pannacotta, you name it I love it! Oh and don't get me started on a really good thin based pizza with artichokes, olives, pancetta and mozzarella!

Our group, left to right: Me, Andrew, Amy, Delia, Fran, Kay, Dr Mel, Dennis, Paul and in front Graham.


2. Favourite vacation: In NZ and the UK we call a vacation a holiday, but I digress. I think (and this is quite a hard choice because I've been on a lot of holidays, both in Europe and further away!) I've chosen Egypt. We spent two weeks in Egypt with 9 friends over Christmas 2007. It was brilliant, I've seen all the sights, pyramids, tombs, the Nile etc etc, but do you know what the best part was? Two or three days in a town called Siwa which is very remote, only 50km from the Lybian border. We rode bikes, ate great food, relaxed in hot pools in the dessert!! and went sand-boarding down the dunes. Sometimes its nice to get off the beaten track.

Sand-boarding.
3. Favourite hobby: I've got lots of hobbies but my favourite is definitely scrapbooking! I love recording our memories, cutting and pasting and choosing the lovely papers. Some people (Andrew maybe) might say that I've got too much stash, but you can never have too much stash surely?

Andrew and I on a sand dune enjoying the sunset.

4. Favourite Holiday tradition: I've not done this in a while because we've been in the UK for Christmases but I love the $5 present. On Christmas night we have anything from fifteen to thirty plus people at our family camp-site (it is summer in NZ remember) and that is far too many presents to buy! Each person buys one present worth $5 that fits the theme set by my mum (she's the youngest of seven and the unofficial boss) last year it was bottles. All the presents get put in the middle and the first person in the circle chooses one and opens it in front of everybody. The second person looks at that first present (still following me??) and has to decide, do I want that present or a new one? If they take the first present, the first person goes back and takes another present and opens that, and then its the third person's turn, and so on. It gets quite hilarious because some presents (one year it was some naughty dice) get hotly fought over and someone always ends up with the duds!

Waiting to go on our bike ride.

5. Favourite “the-baby’s-asleep-the-chores-are-done-now-what-shall-I-do” pastime: Drinking wine. Lounging on the couch, watching some TV and (not often enough) blogging. It’s my way to unwind. Confession, I mostly read blogs, and need to write more, but thanks to Kat for the answer to number five.

Fran on the main street of Siwa
PS the photos are from our visit to Siwa!

She's a half - Chicken's birth story

My little Chicken is a half!  Six months ago I was in hospital pacing in my cubicle, waiting for the call to go down to the operating theatre so they could get Eilidh out through the sunroof.  I'm not sure if I've blogged about this and I'm not techie enough to work it out, but I had to have a caesarean section because she was breech.

We found out just before Christmas that she still hadn't turned the right way round and the hospital told me that they would call me on Christmas Eve with a date for the operation.  By five that day I hadn't had a call, so it was a very tense Christmas.

By the 29th (the first day back at work after the holiday) I was getting quite frustrated and was on the phone at 9am sharp.  The person I spoke to had no idea, and they told me I'd get a phone call later.  At three that afternoon I was waddling around the supermarket and they finally called.  The news was not good, they had no spaces to deliver Chicken the week I was due!  I was like, "But you've got to get her out, she can't stay there forever!"  Basically I had to wait till either a space came free in their schedule or until I went into labour and I would have an emergency section.  Some how I made it home (no idea, a cab I think?) and phoned Andrew and then my mum in New Zealand in hysterics, I mean, how could there by no space??

The next day I was pottering around at home and the hospital rang.  The lady on the phone said that they had a date and that it was soon, so did I want to sit down?  As my due date was the 17th of January I was expecting it to be sometime just before then.  But no, the lady on the end of the phone said, its the 4th, like as in five days time, five days, OMG!!    Again I phoned Andrew and Mum to tell them the news and then I began to make some final plans, I was not at all ready!

Fast forward through a very quiet New Years Eve, and five days later we found ourselves driving to the hospital to have our little girl.  It has to be said I wasn't that excited that day, mostly I was nervous and sad.  I was nervous for obvious reasons, as Andrew liked to tell me, "They're gonna gut you like a fish".  But mostly I was sad because it wasn't going to be just the two of us any more, I mean, we really wanted children and I knew I couldn't wait to meet Chicken, but everything was about to change!! (Duh)

We got to the hospital and spent a nervous couple of hours talking to the surgeon, the anaesthetist, and the midwives about the operation.  We then got called and walked down the the operating theatre, which has to be one of the most surreal moments of my life, walking to my caesarean!  Not long after that, at 2:21pm to be precise my little Chicken was born.  And she was perfect and the most beautiful girl in the world!

Later this week I'm going to blog about what's going on for us at age six months, but for now here she is, six months ago, how was she ever that small?

Friday Five - My little bro

I've been thinking about my brother a fair bit lately.  We don't see each other very often, only three times in the last six years actually but I'd say we were quite close and we get on well.  It hasn't always been the case, our late teenage years were a bit tough but on the whole he's a cool little brother.  So my Friday Five today is all about my brother Scott.

1.  He lives in the USA.  Scott lives in Vermont and is the Director of Tennis at Stratton Mountain.  I haven't been to visit him there but we are going in September and I can't wait.  He's also lived in Miami and Indiana.  In 2008 my friend and I went to Miami for a week and stayed with Scott.  We were driving over the MacArthur Causeway from Miami Beach back to his apartment when he decided to stop at Star Island.  Star Island is a private man-made island that loads of celebrities have houses on, Gloria Estefan, A-Rod, Rosie O'Donnell to name a few.  Anyway there is a gate and Scottie just leaned over and asked the guard if we could go and look around since we were from New Zealand, I was sooo embarrassed and was sure we were going to get told to get lost, but no, it worked.  That's my brother for you, bold!

2.  He was the MC at our wedding.  Scottles loves to speak in public, in fact, my Mum, Scott and myself all like to, doesn't scare us.  He told funny stories, made sure everything ran on time and generally did a great job.  He also read a beautiful poem during the ceremony, The Key to Love.  About a month before the wedding I had dream that Scott stood up to speak and to get everyone's attention he clapped his hands teacher style, and everyone clapped back.  He then started to speak just like a teacher, e.g. oh I can see that Bob's table is ready to go and get their food, they are sitting nicely.  Thank goodness he didn't do this, but I was a little bit worried.

3.  He's quite tall.  6ft 5in even, yep my little brother is a giant.  Being tall has lots of advantages, and these two stories show a few of them.  Scott used to threaten to give our mum, Marg G 'The Rack'  The Rack is when you pick someone up by their feet and dangle them out in front of you.  As Marg G is only 5ft 4in it was definitely possible to give her The Rack.  And apparently one day he did!!  NB this may just be folklore, I wasn't actually there.  Sometimes when Scottle Modottle and I used to catch up when I was away at uni he would stand on my feet (without me knowing) and then push me over.  If someone is standing on your feet you can't regain your balance and you fall over, which I did.  I then went to get him and he would put his had on my forehead with his arm out straight (can you picture that?)  Basically because he was so tall and his reach so long I couldn't get at him, rather comic really.

4.  He comes home for Christmas every year.  This is quite a feat really, Vermont is a long way from New Zealand!  He runs a business with some friends selling ice to festival goers in our town and then goes to the festival itself for NYE.

5.  He is incredibly generous!  As a brother, brother-in-law and as an uncle Scott is kind and caring and we (Andrew, Chicken, and I) are  very lucky.  He also buys great gifts!  So far Chicken has been given Crocs, a Dior shirt, a giant bear, loads and loads of clothes just to name a few.  Scott is very excited about being an uncle and can't wait to meet his niece in September.

Spring holidays - the highlights reel NZ version

Hi everybody, (yes thats you Mum)
Sorry I've been away for so long, as I explained I went home to NZ for three weeks and then we went to Italy for a ten day holiday in Tuscany with the inlaws.  I've had a great time and over the next week or so I'll post in more detail about what we did, but for now, here are the highlights from NZ.

Spending time with Nana and Pops.  It was so great to introduce Chicken to her Pops, and for her to catch up with her Nana, and she totally remembered her too!

Catching up with old friends.  Jonelle and I have been friends for fifteen years now and she had her second baby a week after Chicken (they were due on the same day incidentally)  Good times.

Catching up with family.  Nic is my cousin who lives in my hometown with her husband and two boys.  I spent a few afternoons introducing Chicken to her cuzzies and catching up on family gossip.  We also had a birthday party for Leo where the whole family (and some very welcome extras) came to our house for lunch.  So good to see everyone again!

Catching up with my god-daughter and our BFF's.  Emma totally loves Chicken and it was really nice introducing her to our BFF's (and Emma's parents) Neil and Ange, and their boy Tyler.

Catching up with our Ldn friends.  Everyone came to Ange and Neil's for a pot-luck lunch and we had so much fun catching up.  I got to hear everyone's news, (how was that keg party Vicky?) and we got to meet Naomi, Rose and Jono's beautiful little girl.

Introducing Chicken to her Dad's family.  We spent 24 hours visiting Andrew's family and introducing Eilidh to her two great-grandmothers.  We also got to see my Aunty Barb and Uncle Murray - hey guys!

So that's it, a three week whistle-stop tour to catchup up with old friends and family, I had so much fun (count how many times I've used the word so, far too many!) It was really sad leaving because I really miss these guys, when I'm here in the UK there are lots of cool people to distract me, but as they say, there's no place like home.