It has been a cold June for us. The weather has actually been milder than usual, but as we still cannot use our woodburner, we have had to put up with a cold house, and an outrageous power bill. However, hope is in sight. The hearth is half down, and Mark has the inspector booked. Meanwhile, I (Nicola) will be disappearing to Slovenia for ten days, and hope that after a brief sortie into summer, the woodburner will be keeping me warm on my return.
William spent June in the Far North, but got shifted at the beginning of July. He has been having some personal challenges of testimony and seems to be coming through them well. His latest comp was from Brisbane and seemed like a good worker. William describes himself as a chameleon, who is just as lazy as his companion. Honest, if not overly inspiring!
My iPhone continues to bring enjoyment and wasted time. The app is making progress, but it is difficult to be patient.
Jonathan has teeth removed and other news
Jonathan had all his wisdom teeth removal under general anaesthetic. Mark and I were both there in the recovery ward with him. Some of his first words after he woke up were, “You were right – I didn’t die!” We also discovered a couple of days later that he was expecting all his teeth to be removed, or certainly more than the four he did lose. (Most of which had not yet erupted). Poor Jonathan. He was very sweet in dealing with the medical people too, who found him totally endearing. On the Monday before the operation he gave a Family Home Evening lesson about courage – what it is and how you get it. Again it was very sweet. The whole operation reminded me a bit of William’s terrible operation, and watching House with him for hours on end.
Very sad news – Libby Laurent, Jonathan’s teacher-aide and friend for six years has inoperable cancer and only months to live. She is 49 and has three teenage children. I find that very sad. Jonathan says we will be able to see her again after we die. We pray for her and her family.
Jonathan has been going on his own to music now, and has started orientation and mobility training for around the chapel. About time! He writes to Rachel, Jessica Prisbrey’s sister, and discusses American events and children’s television programmes. He now has porridge instead of Nutrigrain for breakfast. He visited a studio with one of his classmates and had a play on a full-sized keyboard.
On Queen’s Birthday Monday, Mark and I went for a walk up a hill. He intended for us to do a 4 to5 hour trek from Kennedy’s Bush, up to the Summit Road, along the Crater Rim walkway and down through Victoria Park (site of the murder in Heavenly Creatures) and some very posh houses to the bottom of Colombo street. The weather was hideous and I was less than keen, but obediently geared up and drove over to Hollis Ave, where we intended to leave one car, ready to walk back to. Fortunately on the way over Mark had a change of heart and instead of the big trek, we went up Bowenvale track and back down via Victoria Park, which took about 2 hours and was about 5.5 km. I was totally wet by the end, so thought it was plenty long enough. On the way up through the rain and mud I had fantasies about a week long holiday in Hawaii.
The following Saturday it was a beautiful sunny day, so we did the trek we intended to do on Monday. We parked one car in Hollis Ave and the other car at the Halswell Quarry and walked from there up to the Summit Road etc. It was a lovely walk and very beautiful, with great weather and pleasant company. We found two geocaches and couldn’t find a third. We don’t seem to have much luck at finding them in rocky outcrops. It was a total of 12.2km, and took us five and half hours, as we stopped and looked and messed around a fair bit. We went from about 50m above sea-level to about 350m. (A rise of about 1000ft) I wouldn’t be surprised if we one day buy a house on the hill. The views are wonderful.
What makes all this adventuring possible is that Mark is now able to look after the housework and other errands during the week, so we have our Saturdays free for recreation. Now I see why it’s good to have just one spouse working outside the home.
The following weekend we headed off for a walk and couldn’t find my boots. They had been left at the side of the road the previous week. Someone put them on a fence for someone to find, but they had gone by the time we realised they were missing. When I went to buy some more, we found that brand was no longer available in NZ. This was a problem as those boots were the first I had ever owned that didn’t cramp my feet. My feet are cylinders! So we spent a very frustrating morning trying to buy some boots as I would need them for the following Saturday. We got some in the end, but ended up swapping them for half a size smaller a few days later. They are fine, though not quite as good as my Dunham ones.
The last Saturday of June, Mark and I went in the Heights of Winter Rogaine again. It was based east of Amberley, about 45 minutes north of Christchurch. We climbed a total of 1100m (about 3500 ft) and covered about 18 km (11miles) in six hours. The last hour was rather dire, bashing through gorse and pine trees, and escaping from steers through an electric fence. (Rather like WoW, but with pain) The following day my legs were covered in red spots from the gorse prickles. (What were the immigrants thinking, bringing that pest into the country?)
But the other 5 hours were pretty fun really. We found all the marks we were looking for except for the last one (grrr) and had some lovely views. After two big climbs and then facing another steep one I found I had no energy left. So we had a little rest, sucked on a tube of condensed milk, chewed our way through a protein bar and drank some water, then headed off again to conquer another hill. Just like last year there was a lot of mud, and some of the streams were just a bit too wide to jump. There were quite a few electric fences, two of which I thought were off, but turned out to be live when I was halfway over. Mark is better than I at all those things except for electric fences. I tore my leggings on the first barbed wire fence too. What fun! We were late again – only 15 minutes this time, and we came about 10th to last. But if we had just made a different decision on that last checkpoint we would have been a lot further up the ranking. Plenty of room for improvement, as the guy on Dr Drago would say. I think I have to practice my fence climbing and stream jumping.
On the way back to Christchurch we stopped for an Angus burger (thinking of William) and then had a spa at the O’Neills. We also had some of Linda’s ice cream. Mmm.
Mark's birthday observance
It was Mark’s birthday observance in June. He got a handheld GPS device that will help us with our rambles and rogaining (but only for practicing as you are not allowed them in competitions) and geocaching. He also got the usual chocolate, and Jonathan gave him series 3 box set of Doctor Who. He was pretty excited about that. And I found a NEW Bill Bryson book called At Home, which is a short history of everyday stuff. I got that for him and he is pretty excited about that too. Bill Bryson is so funny. Recently I bought the recorded version of “Down Under” and put it on my iphone and we listen to it on long drives to Timaru and similar. We visited Timaru for their Branch Conference, which was lovely. They make us feel so welcome. I mentioned something about moving down there, and Chris Lenz-Reid was saying we should. PLEASE! It’s nice to feel wanted.
Mark fixed the outside shower, but I didn’t like the new showerhead he bought. It had about 6 settings, none of which I really liked. And if you changed settings mid-shower, it stopped the flow, so the gas turned off and you got about 10 to 30 seconds of cold water. He has humoured me and got one just like the old one. He fixed the crack in the floor too.
This month Mark has been wiping condensation of the windows every morning, chasing the sun with the washing, biking to the gym with Jonathan, except when he had a cold or when it is frosty. He wrote to William once, and has enrolled for some photography courses at the Uni. He works hard on his Stake Clerk stuff. He has been writing his journal. He put mudguards on the bikes, and bought three tape decks on Trademe to have them in storage for Jonathan when they are hard to come by.
New Zealand events
It was an exciting time for New Zealand when the All Whites football team managed to draw all three of their games in World cup Pool Play. Mark and I even got up a bit early to watch the second half of the game against Paraguay. Our team played with real heart.
And that is our exciting time for June. In July we will have news and photos of my trip to Ljubljana.
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