Remembering!

Russ ….. on the 14th of September three years ago Russ physically left us….

Here we are 25 years ago embarking on our journey of “raising boys” – before the grey hair and wrinkles. He is daily in our thoughts and hearts! We then celebrated, a week later, what would have been Russ’s 65th birthday and a day he was going to relish – when the govt finally paid back some of his tax money (nz pension age) …. He would be cross he isn’t here to celebrate this one!

Outside memorials, it’s been two weeks of adjusting to nz traffic, nz workalike, nz human stress and nz weather!

All of the above a lot more challenging than Malta life!

Traffic and travelling is a part time job in itself – at least three hours on the road Monday to Friday ( most days longer especially if it rains ) and that’s just getting to and from work!

Work had been huge – leaving home at 4 am and returning home not before 6pm most days with staff shortages and other issues!

This leads to human stress, everyone here seems under the pump and a little cross! Bring back the laughter shared with my Maltese family!

On a positive note! The butterflies flew home! All the goodies intact- bag not so lucky and took its final journey to the rubbish dump!

Two frantic weekends of getting house sorted, garden planted (lettuces are still $6.00 each) and the plants have doubled in size in a week! Lots of cleaning, more cleaning, moving stuff, trying to sort cottage, and squeezing in some family time!

…..and Dad time – he has had a couple of turns and is feeling a bit anxious about leaving home, so just when I was about to have a couple of hours Sunday afternoon relax time, I was summoned to visit ( another three hour round trip) before dinner and bed on a Sunday evening ready for work this morning! A later start thanks to the queen…. Public holiday for most – late start for me!

Today is work, tomorrow is work and remembering one of mums best friends with an afternoon trip south to Thames..

Sylvia in the middle has gone to join mum and auntie Norma – seen here enjoying mussel fritters at the infamous coromandel caravan campsite (where we had our retro caravan) – Sylvia never liked mussel fritters and we always cooked her sausages!!!

My new (fully renovated) house is fantastic – Dan has done an awesome job getting it ready for my return. I’m hoping we get a temp at work this week and I can do some work from home days! The price of diesel and road user charges only adds insult to injury to the three hour daily round trip!

Now it’s coffee time! Have a great week everyone! Looks like it’s a windy wet one in my part of world.