Christchurch Pettys - now with photos

On New Year’s Day Mark and I walked up Mount Herbert from Diamond Harbour. It took 2 hours 45 to get up there, almost all of it uphill. Then about 2 hours 15 to get down. We had lunch at the top. The views were wonderful, and it was VERY hot. There was no shade anywhere and I had to ration my water. Still it was a great sense of achievement. The backs of my legs are all red and crispy, but the rest of me was well protected with 30 spf sunscreen.
Mark and Jonathan and I biked over to see Bronwen and Genevieve and Peter Knowles and their new baby, Benjamin, who is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. He could be a baby model.
We have been working hard on the Rogo venture, so that I am a little sick of making Rogos just now. But then I realised that I probably won’t ever have to make so many at once – we are just building up our supply at the start. Mark and I went to the Arts’ Centre market on Saturday, and thought about how we would do the display. We thought we might offer iced water for while they are trying out a puzzle. And a free pencil if they buy two books.
We also went up on the Port hills in the early morning to take photos of tracks to put on the Rogo covers. It was amazingly beautiful. I hope to attach a photo or two, or you can see some on the Rogo website: www.rogopuzzle.co.nz.
On Sunday we had a fun lesson at Sunday School as I had made up a quiz, a bit like a pub quiz, which went well. It was nice for the members to mingle. One of the questions was “What mission is William Petty serving in?”. 

Now back to the real world... Mark and I watched “District 9” last night, which is a rather gritty alien movie, in contrast with Avatar, which was a very pretty alien movie. They were both largely filmed at Weta!! Go Peter Jackson. Maybe William could work for him one day, I think he’s got the talent. We still need him to work for us too.
Mark and Jonathan and I went away for a few nights in the caravan. Jonathan didn’t bring any tapes or anything to amuse himself, so spent the time interacting with us. It was lovely. At quiet times I read “Farmwife” out loud, which is a book Nan’s mother wrote about her life as a farmwife in Wales. It mentions Rosemary quite often as she is the oldest. We stayed up at the Staging Post at Hawkswood (Near Cheviot), and were the only ones there in the camping ground.  They had very nice showers. We went for a couple of bike rides, a couple of walks, a trip to Kaikoura and a farm visit to watch sheep shearing. The farmer was a total stranger, but the sheep belonged to a man I chatted to at a party over a year ago. The farmer (Lindsay) was a man in his 70’s and was really lovely and got Jonathan to stand among the sheep etc. He also had a couple of old WW2 vehicles – an American army jeep and a Bren gun carrier, with caterpillar tracks and guns and stuff. He also had a collection of jacks, all painted in silver paint.
We had a great time, and then went over to the farmhouse for a cold drink and a piece of fruit cake. I felt as if we were in a time warp. I even helped herd the sheep a very little. They were perendales, and some of them were probably descended from perendales my father had on his farm in Oxford when I was a girl. I really like perendales, as they are smart and lively, and, as he said, take a lot of fencing. It’s funny, I was rather reluctant to bother people, but I’m sure he got a real buzz out of our visit too. Jonathan is so much more accepting of new experiences these days. He is great. The only glitch while we were away was when I wanted to put a sticking plaster on a boil on his knee and he threw a total fit and said he wanted to die. Somewhat of an over-reaction, in true Jonathan fashion. One day I must find out what he has against sticking plasters.  It was a wonderful holiday for all of us. We did have to do a mosquito hunt one night at 2am, but that was all part of the adventure.

We came home on Friday morning, but left the caravan up there so Mark and I can go up there in February.  On Saturday we went to take photos of paths in the Botanic Gardens. We had sushi for lunch – I’d got two packs of eight pieces from Maki Mono the night before for $5 as it was near closing time. Brilliant!
I made a video. It was just over a minute long, telling how to solve Rogo puzzles. It’s on Youtube, and is like the ones William made, but not as funny. I used Audacity and Premiere and Corel to make it.
Great news – the Press (our local newspaper ) is interested in Rogo. They will run a story first, and then gauge whether to run the puzzle. So we will be working hard to have 4 booklets ready to sell when the publicity comes. Shane has developed a useful engine to do it on, and I have made two booklets full so far. He has also set up the website, which is looking good.

It was back to work for Mark and me this week. It was a bit of a strain after the holidays to get going, but I really am so lucky to have such a good and flexible job. It was fine. Mark had to do the landfill first day back, but that might be the last time he does it, if we can get Rogo making money! He is just finishing off some jobs, and then he will stop working for Sinclairs’ for a few months.
The weather here is ridiculously cold. I have the heater going all day and I wore my winter clothes to work. My computer says it is 15 degrees (about 60 F) but it feels much colder. It says it is 21 degrees in Auckland, which is better. (about 70 F). We are hoping for some nice weather at the start of February.
William is happy to still be staying in Otara. He has completed one year in the mission! He is halfway there! He has lasted one year, so unless some sultry maiden leads him astray he should be able to last the next year, and hopefully continue to learn and grow as he has done to date.
It was very exciting to hear about Ellen’s mission call.

One Saturday we went to AMI stadium (used to be called Jade Stadium) open day. We figure it must be an almost spiritual experience for a rugby fan to go to a Crusaders game there. They had the theme music going while we were there, and it was pretty rousing even for us rugby atheists. It is an impressive rugby temple. We even went in the changing rooms, and through the players tunnel. It was surprisingly spartan, though they do have a spa pool in the warm up room. One day we must all go to a Crusaders game, just for the experience. I think you would need to dress for the cold. It was pretty exposure inducing even at this time of year. Jonathan spent the whole time thinking up Spanish phrases he had learned on Dora the Explorer as we had just told him about Ellen’s mission call.
Another Saturday we had Gran to dinner and I cooked a barbecue – chops and patties and LOTS of yummy vegetables, including red onion, mushrooms, capsicum, aubergine, courgette, and corn on the cob.  We had the Moores Limonata Cheesecake ice cream for dessert. I found out it won the award for Premiere Ice cream flavour last year. I’m not surprised, as it is very good. That and Divine Brown Deluxe is pretty darn good too – also by Moores. They  come in a gold coloured container, and you can get them from Countdown or Foodtown - not sure about Pak n Save.