With a triple shot flat white in hand, after a class of hot yoga and a cool shower, third week down and it is almost enjoyable…..

A year of very little exercise, apart from wandering the pavements of northern Europe, the rest of my body is finally awakening….or at least letting me know there are some muscles somewhere in there.

Do something for yourself, they said! And I decided time to go back to yoga. Maybe a trip to the hairdressers or a nice facial would have done the trick, but no, yoga it is and as the saying goes “no pain, no gain!”  All I can say to this is that there must be alot of gain going on here, maybe I can win the New Years Day Riverhaven races again if I keep this up!

Time is ticking on towards Christmas, and Summer (we are led to believe), while the temperatures are telling us a different story, barely in double figures this week, we do believe that Summer is just around the corner.  Work is definitely telling us that Christmas is coming, with the frantic last minute orders flowing in!

The Cottage is rolling along, Dan and Mike installed the shower in the weekend, and last bathroom painting underway ready for the all important hand basin and Toilet! Then there is no stopping us… it will be a project in motion from there, but not having to visit neighbours to use the bathroom will definitely be a plus.  With our long weekend looming, a big clean up is the plan ready for the next stage of painting and floors.  Russ and I bought a new Pantry weeks ago and they were holding it for three weeks, I must visit them and make sure they haven’t onsold it to another punter.

And not to forget the all important Rugby World Cup, with our infamous “All Blacks” coming up against the might of the “English heavyweights” (well in their words at least) for the semifinal on Saturday night.  Thinking this may be a quieter event than the quarter final last weekend, wherein my middle son and my cousin decided they needed to see the bottom of the whisky bottle (well two actually) while cheering on their team…as Allan said, louder than Eden Park.  But Russ would have been proud of their efforts and encouragement from afar!

On that note, I need to focus on work, I have my HR cap on this week, recruiting a warehouse person and so far so good….but back to sales now as this is what makes my world go round, and only one thing is certain right now is the world will continue to go round, despite the Yoga Pain, Rugby games, cottage renovations and wind and rain!

 

 

Almost a month since Russ left us to fend for ourselves….we have been battling the changes and trying to get our feet moving forward.

The Kiwi kids are back at work, I am trying to get back into work (and yoga!) and George has returned to his Norwegian home and new job.  We had a frantic week before the celebration of Russ’s life, trying to get this just “how he would have liked it” a famous saying from the world of Russ….

And another week of gathering ourselves….not too many fun or happy times.

George and I holding each other up, balloons still hanging from the celebration for Russ’s birthday…must say looking a little weary.

And the week after was my birthday, and not in the mood for celebration, they boys and their girls joined us at Dad and Sandys house for dinner.

George sporting all the hats.  I was treated to a massage by the youngest offspring…a slightly bruising exercise when all the shoulder knots were attacked and made sure I had a cake from the “Cheesecake Shop”.  I was also spoiled with the mandatory chocolate scorched almonds and Speights!

Renovations have been ongoing at the Cottage at Waiwera, Dan has been putting in hours and making sure this is ticking along so I have a home for the summer….

A trip to Placemakers (hardware store) saw Floyd holding the fort in the drivers seat of the Ute while Dan collected supplies…. to keep the project rolling along.

The Kiwi spring has been terrible, with cold and lots and lots of Rain, we are still in winter clothes and as George says the weather here is Bi-Polar – every day is littered with Rain, wind, sunshine and sometimes hail!

My Pal Trudi has taken over her cottage at Waiwera, and we had the first Saturday night there enjoying familiar territory….and new sights.

These miniature donkeys visited our little patch of paradise on Sunday and created a pleasant distraction for the locals, Trudi and I included.

While I don’t feel like writing much these days, I will try and continue the stories and I’m sure there will be more adventures in the future, so the blog keeps alive: we have a wedding to look forward to in January and a catch up with lots of old faces. We are very blessed that we have a supportive crew around us and keep taking baby steps forwards….

 

 

 

The world of the kiwi travellers has been turned upside down, inside out and flipped sideways.

Russ lost his battle to this terrible disease IPPFE…a little over a week ago and we farewelled him on his next journey on his birthday 21st September. A day filled with sunshine, sadness(for our loss), music and beautiful words! And humour!

From around the world, Russ’s friends have shared their love and stories and here at home my family has surrounded me with love and support.

The hard bit starts now, and living without my travel buddy, my best friend and my partner in everything in this world, from the first thing in the morning “are you awake” call to last thing at night “rehash of the day and plan for the next one”.

Wherever my journey takes me from here Russ will be travelling with me and discussing the “where to next” with me, and probably changing our minds several times.

The Tag team looking after Russ waiting for George from the other side of the world!

George and Dan on the beach, collecting the treasures to make a non floral bouquet!

The Artwork, labour of love, painted by Daniel to send with Russ…and the Kingi (fish – which Russ is good at catching)…

A few of the favourite things – Texas Longhorns, Heineken, and his sons!

Kitchen time – lots of this! I was mainly on dishes! Food just seemed to appear.

Daily visits with Nanna to keep her in the loop. This day she had horses in the hospital! Yes they do all sorts to relieve the boredom!

From adventures to mis adventures, Russ is loved around the world, and I can’t say the tears have dried, as I’m sure they will flow for a very long time (for those who shared the service – my calmness was due to a solid shot of Jaxon’s, very expensive, scotch) Not a whisky girl, but it worked!

Russ touched the world and hearts in so many places, and will always be with us all! We always promised each other we would travel until we couldn’t fly any more! We took this to the 11th hour….and nearly became flightless kiwis stranded in Berlin!

I’m still standing at the end of a very hectic week, the first week of spring! Bringing with it, rain (like sideways flooding rain!), cold, (outside that is, inside the boarding house at colonial drive, its bikini weather temperature), more ailments for the team, and….

Trudi! She has finally made it to the hibiscus coast, in time for summer activities! Now we just need summer!

Work on the cottage(our summer abode) continues, the boys are ticking away at a brand new bathroom.

Ok so that’s the good news!

Dad came down with the “bot” (flu, cold,etc affectionately known as the “bot”), yours truly developed the cough from hell….mainly disturbing the household at night with loud barking! (you know: one of those coughs, no matter what you do just goes on, uncontrollably, until it’s ready to stop, and you’re left with eyes watering, and body temperature 5 degrees hotter!)

Russ decided he was missing all his friends in hospital and a visit was long overdue, so back in on Monday to try and get back on track again. So it’s been early starts (to beat the work traffic), coffee and the morning with Russ, into work for the day (a short day) and back to the hospital, either to Russ or Mary for the week!

Sandy has been getting dad back on his feet, and Trudi has slotted in wherever needed, catching her breath before she’s into her new job next week!

Sue continues to battle with Qatar airways for a refund on the business class (x2) tickets from Berlin to Auckland. Have been offered a miserable $507 New Zealand dollar refund of the airport taxes! That’s like a slap in the guts with a wet fish….so no, the battle goes on….so far I have put my case to Germany (too hard), they transferred me to Qatar Australia, I phoned the Australian contact and got put through to India! Now India wants the story! So Qatar is certainly spreading its wings to all corners of the world, with the most unhelpful and miserable employees they can find in “Customer Service!”….. “Fair go” here I come (if only I had the energy).

So this weekend looks like, driving, coffee breaks, hospitals, more airline battles, rugby (the small matter of an all black test mid afternoon) and maybe just a little R&R in readiness for another busy week.

The first of September, and the weather gods gave us a beautiful spring day, which also happened to be Father’s Day in the Southern Hemisphere!

The tulips are blooming, and the sun has been shining…

Pop and Floyd are soaking up the midday warmth.

The day has been a busy one for the Bonnici Carter household. Call from the youngest son at 7.00am, Russ receiving visitors for morning tea, Sandy doing a beach clean up and Sue off to spend the morning with Mary! All before lunchtime.

Dan, Al and Russ post lunch pic, Dan, Lex and Floyd visited Russ and Pop for lunch.

Floyd patiently waiting outside for the leftovers!

Then it was the excursion to bring back the electric scooter from Orewa to Silverdale…Sandy dropped me over and first stop was to the garage to pump up the tyres. One went up the other went down, until a couple of very kind men helped the damsels in distress and got the flat one full!

Off I tootled, battery went down quite quickly, so a coffee stop and scooter recharge at our friends Don and Russ’s en route! Feeling confident I was ready for the ride home, all the runners and bike riders giving me a very cheery greeting as they roared past my 3km an hour scooter!

Last hill and power getting low….and then a very nasty noise as the machine stopped three houses from my destination. Seemed locked in gear and Sandy and Sue shoved and heaved it close enough to home to run an extension lead to charge!

Not to be! I think I have killed the battery or something – will need a man to check it out!! Good intentions to give Russ a walking machine but he will have to wait a little longer!

Jax and Steph turned up for the promised butter chicken (the scooter episode having taken a lot longer than anticipated) so Jaxon ended up making it!

Anyway, even though not all things run to plan, it has been a good Father’s Day with Russ talking to or seeing all his boys! And the promise of summer is around the corner.

Our little piece of paradise, Waiwera, in New Zealand… cool sunshine today but a promise of a great summer ahead.

Dan has been getting our cottage ripped apart and new bathroom and a spruce up for summer – bringing it into the 21st century and retaining a taste of retro! Doing a great job.

While Russ has been lounging in hospital, familiarising the kiwi experts with the German knowledge. All is getting better day by day and we hope that our doctors will start joining some dots!

Right now we are all at different ends of Auckland, watching the All Blacks (NZ) play the Wallabies (Australia) in a rugby test…this week it’s looking good for the home team before the World Cup!

While it is still well and truly winter in our country, it is so good to be here and have our support network!

Today I took Russ a newspaper to read, I hope that someone is looking after Hans in Berlin. It’s the small things that make our world a better place! (This side or that side of our planet).

One week back in New Zealand and we are back in the system….rather than wait for an appointment for 6 weeks, Russ decided a visit to the Hospital (cloud pillow in tow) to get the ball rolling was in order!

So here we are and so begins another story…..by the way Russ is doing ok just needs access to some oxygen management, so will be a guest here for a few days while they get this sorted!

The Story….we will call him Lorrie (not his name) named as such, as we are in the assessment ward and Lorrie is a very busy man, roaring around with his walker and refusing to sit at any point! Indeterminable age, somewhere between 75 and 90 at a guess. He has a lovely keeper who is very kindly allowing him to crouch on the floor, put his walking frame on the bed and very politely do exactly the opposite of anything the nurses ask. He is a peaceful old chap and just quietly says “No” to everything suggested. Obviously a very active man, who does not have an afternoon nap! And no amount of coaxing will convince him this may be a good idea!

Some of the most wonderful people visit these places….And we are joining the ranks!

As we sit safely back in the New Zealand winter, the events around the world, that happened overnight, just proves that someone is actually looking after us.

The Qatar flight that we were scheduled to be on and could not get clearance (medical) to fly, left Doha last night and had a mechanical emergency! A big hole in its motor! Circled for an hour or so, dumping fuel (so as not to overrun on landing) and headed back to Doha stranding all its New Zealand bound passengers, waiting for another plane. That would have been Us! But as they made it very difficult to fly, we sneaked away on another airline! Still waiting for refund, but a good position to be in.

Then overnight….

The home we owned in Auckland, before moving north to the hibiscus coast five years ago, was hit by a freak localised tornado, ripping off the roof, blowing in the big glass ranch sliders and bowling all the boundary fences and trees! At the time of selling Russ was a little apprehensive, but five years later, we have escaped this event too.

So I joined the northern motorway traffic jams this morning and headed to town to get my head around work, Russ had a quiet day at home, knowing we had dodged a couple of bullets here.

Karma, the universe or whatever has been keeping us safe!