rachel.blog

Author: Rachel M

  • Elizabeth and her accessories

    Elizabeth loves accessories. In particular, she loves her hat and “sunnies” – as she likes to call them – and never leaves home without them. She always wears her goggles at the pool, even though she never puts her head under water and is often seen decorated with an assorted mix of necklaces, bangles, rings…

  • Conversations with Elizabeth and I want an iphone

    Me: I love you Elizabeth. And we love Daniel. And we love Daddy. And we love Freud.Elizabeth: And we love the computer. That’s my girl. She’ll be programming iphone apps in no time. Speaking of iphone apps. I desperately *need* an iphone. It’s tricky learning how to program for the iphone when one is not…

  • Paying for air

    I met a woman here this week who moved up from Christchurch following the February 2011 earthquake. Not long before that quake, she and her husband bought an inner-city apartment in Christchurch. The entire building got red-stickered shortly after the earthquake and has since been demolished. While their apartment has now gone, the mortgage has…

  • A new feature for my app

    My clock app was rejected by Apple again. I was kind of expecting this since I really hadn’t added much in the way of features to it so I’ve been brewing another really cool feature which is now up and running. Now my app displays the time, day of week and the current alert status…

  • Monogenetic volcanic fields

    Auckland sits above a monogenetic volcanic field. This means that rather than having one visible mountainous crater, there is an assorted mix of craters, lava flows and scoria cones spread out over a large geographic area. While each vent tends to be smaller in size than if there were just one vent, they can pop…

  • We gotta get out of this place

    There are three volcanoes erupting in New Zealand at the moment. Mount Tongariro in the central North Island has awoken from a 100-year slumber; White Island in the Bay of Plenty is erupting, and an undersea volcano (miles and miles away from New Zealand) has produced 25,000 sq km of pumice. None of these pose…

  • Tennis, prostitutes and triangles

    Daniel has started taking tennis lessons. We thought it would be fun for him and a good way to develop some bat and ball skills and so far he’s enjoying them. His first lesson was last week and I haven’t mentioned anything to the coach about his suspected autism but one thing about autistic children…

  • Relatives

    We’ve had some lovely visitors this past week. Our niece, Frances, was with us for a whole week and we all enjoyed her visit very much. She sketched a picture of Freud for us before she left. I love it! Thank you, Frances. She’s a very talented young lady. Then we had the pleasure of…

  • How many features does a clock need?

    Over the past year or so I’ve started teaching myself how to write apps for the ipod and iphone. I’ve made a couple of very simple ones which were accepted into the App store which is a feat in itself. I don’t know how many people know this but every single app is checked by…

  • Sheep in Auckland

    We visited a friend of ours today and she has some pretty cool neighbours. Sheep! Lambing season has begun Checking for dags Freud has completely bounced back and is practically 100% again. How does he do that? Now he’s back to scavenging for food in the rubbish overnight, lungeing at cats and barking at dogs. 

  • A day at the beach

    Freud has perked up again. He’s a bit of yoyo. One day I think, this is it, he’s going to die, then the next day he recovers and continues onward. He’s not 100% but he has started eating again. The Vet gave me some acid-reducing medication as kidney disease can cause ulcers and gastric bleeding,…

  • Freud

    Freud has stopped eating again. He has not eaten anything in more than 24 hours. We do not know why because he had some blood tests this week and his kidney levels, although abnormal, are similar to the test from a couple of months ago. There must be something else wrong as well. Yesterday afternoon…

  • Fairies and butterflies

    It’s a busy weekend of birthday parties this weekend. The kids were invited to a fairy party yesterday and Elizabeth dressed up as a fairy. Boys were not required to be fairies. We’ve got another party today. There was face-painting too. Daniel understood what this was about but Elizabeth was a little unsure until… …she…

  • The perils of wearing designer fakes

    Since moving to Auckland, I have become more acquainted with my iron than I’ve ever been in my entire life (aside from the short stint I had working on a private motor yacht as an ironing lady). How can this be? For the first time in a long time, I have a burgeoning wardrobe of…

  • Zero shades of grey

    I’m not referring to the notorious book, although I have read 50 or so pages of that book and it was 50 pages of dreadful drivel. Instead, I’m referring to my hair and the increasing number of grey strands I keep finding. Do I keep them and pretend to be proud of them or should…

  • Cousins and The Tepid Baths

    Ben’s nieces, Frances and Jessica, came to visit us this week, all the way from Switzerland where they live. Daniel and Elizabeth both had a ball with Elizabeth particularly sad to see them go. Fortunately Frances is coming back to stay with us for a week at the end of the month, once they’ve finished…

  • Nappies, Auckland and the beach

    Elizabeth is completely toilet-trained. No nappies anymore, ever. Not even to bed. Daniel on the other hand wears the biggest, most-expensive night-time nappy which still fails to hold everything and he often wets his bed. How long will this go on for? It’s always depressing coming back to Auckland after a trip away because it’s…

  • Mount Ruapehu

    We are back from our little adventure and it was a bit of a disaster because we were all so sick. We just felt rotten for much of the time and depleted of energy with sore throats, chesty, phlegmy coughs, headaches and all the rest. We’re still not right but have passed the worst of…

  • Speech therapy and some videos

    Daniel was finally assessed by a speech therapist yesterday morning and he qualifies for Government support which is great. Starting next term, he’ll have weekly sessions with her and she’s confident we should see some improvement in his speech. We have all come down with the dreaded lergy here which is very bad timing because…

  • Freud and Matt

    When you have an old, sick dog whose days are numbered, you spoil him: Having a blow-dry after the bath. It is winter after all. He’s not trying to kiss me. I’ve just put some chocolate in my mouth. Matt Harding has a new video on youtube.  For those who don’t know who Matt Harding…