rachel.blog

Daniel had a great first day at kindy today. He woke up this morning super-eager to go and there were no issues at all when we said goodbye. He's decided that the new kindy is better than the Christchurch one which he now describes as "old". It is a very good kindy. We're lucky he's been… Continue reading First day at kindy →

I am still battling the fleas. Zeki is a flea-bag at the moment and he wakes me up during the night with his scratching. It's driving me insane so I can only imagine what it's doing to him. I'm vacuuming the carpets everyday and also picking individual fleas off him and killing them. The fleas… Continue reading Fleas and volcanoes →

Lately the children have taken to playing in the hire car, which unfortunately has to be returned today. This afternoon Elizabeth fell out of it, head first onto the concrete driveway. She is fine but has some impressive grazing to her forehead. I have nothing in the way of first-aid here, not even a band… Continue reading The local kindy →

We only have the hire car for a few more days so I thought I'd take the opportunity to look at some houses and areas in and around Auckland this weekend. We went to one open home and it was a lovely place....for storing shoes. A bit cramped for a house though. Afterwards I took… Continue reading Titirangi →

There is much excitement in the house this morning as a package from my lovely Aunt arrived for the children. Elizabeth has some gorgeous girly clothes and was only to happy to model an outfit for the camera:She has been wearing some of Daniel's old clothes and a woman recently called her "he". That'll never… Continue reading A present in the post →

Ben leaves us today. I'm going to send him back with our camera so that he can take some photos of our house in the snow since I'm never going to get to see it.Apparently Auckland ranked 4th on the Mercer quality of life index of world's best places to live in 2010. I can't comment… Continue reading Best place to live? →

Zeki has taken to scratching himself uncontrollably through the night so this morning I examined him for fleas. I found and killed 10 fleas in less than 10 minutes! This is not something I've seen since we lived in Brisbane more than 6 years ago. Damn you earthquakes! I was happy in Christchurch before you.… Continue reading Fleas →

Christchurch is beginning to look very post-apocalyptic.Source: http://yfrog.com/z/kk81yufjCollapsing buildings, deserted streets and now snow. A Hollywood movie-maker's dream.I'm gutted to have missed the snow. Every winter I long for a winter wonderland and I've missed it by a few weeks.The poor old University of Canterbury has taken a battering this year. Countless teaching days have been… Continue reading The Apocalypse →

You know you're no longer living in a cold climate when you find ants having dinner on the kitchen bench and then eating dessert in the dog food bowl. This is something I never had to contend with living in Christchurch. I even saw a cockroach for the first time in many years. This is… Continue reading Insects and snow →

I got a cute photo of Elizabeth giving a reluctant Daniel a kiss last night: A friend of mine just moved up here from Christchurch, arriving yesterday. We caught up this morning and I can see how far Daniel and I have come to feeling at ease. One of my friend's kids still jumps at the… Continue reading My little kissing carnivores →

p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } People outside of Christchurch ask me “why would anyone buy a house in Christchurch?”, when I tell them we've got a contract on our house. It does seem strange but there are hundreds maybe thousands of people in Christchurch with badly damaged homes and they want to stay in the… Continue reading To stay or flee and cannibalism →

I've met some extraordinary people in Auckland like the bus driver who drove us to Mission Bay for free. Today I received another random act of kindness. We are without a car and in need of food so I walked down Parnell Rd in search of some basic grocery items. I wandered into a Dairy… Continue reading Extraordinary people →

The flat we're staying in has a garbage disposal unit in the kitchen sink which Daniel has shown a little more interest in than I would like. Today I had it running and he came over to watch so I told him never to put his fingers down there or it would chop them off.… Continue reading A Budding Mathematician →

Yesterday I took the kids to the Parnell public library. It is in a very grand, old brick building: I would never enter a building such as this in Christchurch and indeed I doubt it would withstand a Mag. 6 or greater earthquake but I know that the chances of that happening here are very remote. … Continue reading Brick library, Kermadec Trench and conversing with children →

When we were walking along the beach at Saint Heliers the other day, I saw this house across the road with a nifty outdoor lift going from the garage up the hill to the house: close-up: Yesterday we went to Point Chevalier, a suburb west of the city. The playground there is fantastic. One of the… Continue reading Some photos →

After Ben left yesterday we all went down to the French markets for some cheering up. It's a lively place with fantastic food and drink and live music. On our way back we took a short-cut through what was sign-posted as a reserve. This is what we found: This was in the middle of Parnell, which… Continue reading Rainforest in Parnell →

I am still in Auckland with the kids and Ben is flying back to Christchurch as I type. I feel very sad about it all and really want us to all stay together but I'm so terrified in Christchurch all the time. I'm forcing us all to sleep in a caravan for goodness sake! In… Continue reading Alone in Auckland →