Out of Recuperation!

So I have had a really nice week recuperating in Milton..
I went to Milton on the catch a bus which is a really good door to door service and basically just fell into bed. I got up for dinner and then fell into bed again and then it was Thursday.
On Thursday I helped clean the house and look after Ryan before my afternoon nap and another early night (when I say early I mean 7pm and then I dont get up till 8:30am!)
on Friday Jen and Steves friend Susie came over to watch the netball, shes really nice but I obviously couldnt stay awake to socialise even though I had, had a long afternoon nap after babysitting Ryan (which was very easy as he was asleep!)
Saturday Jens and Steves friends Bryce and Lynn came over for the afternoon.. I had made Pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins which were incredibly popular so that was good for my self esteem! I made banana and chocolate chip muffins a couple of days later at Steves request! and I have to say it is a great compliment when all the muffins have disapeared a couple of hours later!!
I babysat Ryan for a while which once again was very easy as he was a sleep again! Jens often times it so she can go out and I can babysit but she knows he will be asleep which is great!!
Also on Saturday we woke up to loads of snow which was very exciting!! I am like a small child where snow is concerned and was straight out there building a snowman!! It was great!!!
On Sunday we had lunch at jens mums, alll the family were there so it was like Christmas or something!! Alot of food though.. I was completely stuffed!! I was also shattered so was straight to bed when we came in!
On Monday Ryan went to creche and Jen and I went into Balclutha (its weird going tinto Balclutha as it was my nearest town when i was living in Owaka so its like dejavu or something!!) anyway while jen washaving a massage I has a good wander round town and bought myself fluffy socks to keep warm etc!!
Jen had mentioned that they had a freezer full of ducks since duck shooting season was the other week and when I said I loved duck she got 3 out the freezer and said I was in charge of cooking them! No I've never actaully cooked duck before but I've watch mum prepare ones bought from tescos so it was quite scary roasting 3 wild mallards!! (but I did pretty well, even making orange stuffing for one of them!) and Jen and Steve seemed to really like it! It was a pretty amusing sight seeing me sitting eating my dinner with a whole duck to myself on my plate!! (I can safely say I have been fed well and looked after very well!!)
On Tuesday I had a very productive day and made lots of phonecalls arranging my travels ahead..I booked my bus from Mitlon to Dunedin, my accomodation in Dunedin, my bus to Mount Cook and my accomodation in Mount Cook, and I phoned Shortbread Cottage in Nelson which i managed last winter. They are looking for a weekend wwoofer which is great for me so now I am waiting for Jimmy to call and hopefully it will all slot into place.. if not then I'm sure something elsewill work out!
I have told the childcare centre I will to be back in Nelson by Monday..
I dusted the house and then Jen and I went out to these huge sheds on the farm and had a huge sort out!! Tehy are full of crap collected my Steves family for the last 50 years so its very dusty work and hard to get things past Steves dad lester! It was good fun though but exhausting so I had a very early night.
and now its Wednesday, I got the 10:15am catch a bus which brought me straight to the Central Backapckers in Dunedin.
I wandered round and looked at the Kathmandu sale. I had looked at the flyers delivered in Milton and really wanted to buy sme stuff but even half price I decided I couldnt afford it..
I treated myself to getting my legs waxed. I say treat myself but torture might have been a better description!! I think my pain threshold must have gone down dramaticaly because I used to be fine when I got them waxed years ago but it really hurt!! But I feel better about myself ans I looked a bit like a gorilla as I havent had the strength to shave them while I've been unwell.
So tomorrow morning I am leaving Dunedin at 7:15am for Mount Cook.. (you'll be glad to know I'm getting a bus so you dont have to worry about whether I get there or not!)
Now its time for tea and hopefully people will be watching friends on tv..
Oh I saw Glastonbury onthr news, it looked very wet!! But I really look forward to going to it someday again! Anna was telling me it was 10 years since we first went!! How did that happen?!! But maybe we'll be able to go to the one in 2 years time!?!

More of the farm in the snowstorm and a classic shot of Ryan reading one of his dads tractor magazines, he's obsessed with tractors, buldozers, trucks and diggers!!(oh and Thomas the Tank Engine of course! I got him a little Thomas the Tank Engine book as a leaving poresent and it was really cute as he really really liked it!)

Steve feeding the poor freezing deer and more snow coming down!

The farm I have been staying and the snowman we made!

Me enjoying the snow (like the kid I am!) and Jen and Ryan

Meand Ryan in the snow!

I am going back to Milton to recuperate for a while so will be out of contact as their internet has been down for a while now! But just so you know I am somewhere i am being looked after!

Does this make me part-kiwi?! (Now I have kiwi blood inside me?!)

Okay so I havent mentioned on here much abut the horrendous 2 months I have had.

Firstly getting out of Kaikoura wasnt as easy as I may have said it was. Getting away from Garen was incredibly hard.
What do you say when a man laughs in your face when you try to end your relationship and informs you that "you didnt think you had a choice in this did you. I say when and how babe?" and that was it we apparently had to stay together..
Garen is the cumlination of every bad trait of every man I have ever gone out with put together in one package. He even things the repuation he has of "making jake from 'Once Were Warriors' look quite nice is funny" -only kiwis or people who have seen the film will understand that..
But I am okay, I never have to see him again for the rest of my life and do you know what? I dont think I can be trusted to choose a man. My taste is clearly terrible and I think any future man I may date needs to go through an interview process with my friends and family first. But for the moment you can be sure there will be no mention of men for a very long time..

Anyway.. apart from all this I have been feeling very unwell, hence me hanging around Dunedin for a while when I dont really want to. However, they have a good hospital and I had to have a few appointments and tests etc (a couple of weeks ago I joked that if they did any more blood tests I would run out of blood - turns out to be a rather apt joke!)
They gave me some medication on Saturday and I had a reaction to it. It was the most horrendous experience of my life. Luckily I was in hospital as the bathroom looked like a horror film crime scene and I was losing such a huge amount of blood that my sheets and blankets were soaked through and had to be changed every 30 mins.. needless to say I was rushed to emergency surgery and have sunsequently had 3 nights in hospital and alot of blood transfusions.. I am okay now. I cant be more than an hour away from the hospital for 2 weeks and have to take it very easy but on the bright side I can now wash and dress myself! I am staying at a backpackers owned my one of the nurses on my ward and am much, much better.
Sometimes we need bad times and a scare to make us appreciate life and start afresh.

I forgot to say.. have you seen the adds or are you watching the new series of castaway? they are marooned on Great Barrier Island this time, that little island I stayed on 4 hours from Auckland! Cool aye? have to admit havent actually got round to watching it but thiught it was quite interesting since they have to learn to be self sufficient and thats where I learnt to live on power created my a wood fire or a wind power..

This was my last sunrise in Kaikoura, unfortunately it wasnt that great a one as there was a line of cloud in the way (but still pretty mice I think!) and I hadnt motivated myself to get up in time before my last day..

Just digging out old photos on my old broken camera before I send it home. (not sure why I'm sending a broken camera home but I'm too scared to throw it out so i'll just send it home and then when I get back one day I can throw it out. I think I dont want to throw it out because sometimes it works.. but then of courseit never works when I want to take a photo of something good!
Anyway, I stopped being a wuss and bought a new camera, it was on sale so I went betweenthe camera shops seeing who could offer me the best deal.. so in the end managed to blag a free 1gb memory card and camera case. (pretty impressive I thought).
Anyway I guess these photos are of Jakobs last night in Kaikoura when he was pretty tipsy.

Its been ages since I stayed in a backpackers as a paying customer in a dorm. Its going to take some getting used to sharing my room with complete strangers again. I am trying to be as little trouble as possible to the manager since I know how much it used to annoy me when people were difficult.. but since I asked for a girls share room and ended up only sharing with boys.. I'm not sure how that happened. The guy on the bunk above me was fidgetting so much I thought the entire bunk was going to topple over..so I am knackered today, but I guess I will be so tired tonight I'll sleep through anything.. (I can but hope).
It is a nice backpackers though with the obligatory cute cat who curled up in bed with me.
As it was "cheap day" at the cinema yesterday I went to see Becoming Jane which is Jane Austens lfe story, really enjoyed it, it was great! I love the cinema.. working in a cinema is definately on my list of jobs to try out..

Am in Dunedin today, Dunedin is not my favourite place in NZ, its generally dark and cold.. am very much looking forward to getting to Nelson for the Winter. Looks like there should be some work as have been in contact with the Childcare centre I worked in and their partner nursery has a maternity cover job going.. I didnt particularly like this other nursery but i am quite sure I can out up with it for a few months as it will be very good money and that way I can go and have a great time in Australia and maybe even see a pacific island or 2 on the way! Anyway, I will see whta happens I am sure something will work out with one or both the nurseries, the manager of tasman st nursery is going onholiday for 6 weeks so have also been offered her job..
Its quite nice to be in a city today, I wandered round the shops and cought a merino top (which will be good as thermals).
I have been staying in Milton the last couple of weeks at Jen and Steves. They have a deer and sheep farm and are absolutely lovely. They also have a 2 year old son Ryan who is very cute.
Its a great place to stay and lovely being able to look out the windowns and see all the deer, sheep and alpaca (alpaca from next doors farm). I stayed with them back In January so it was nice to stay somewhere I already felt at home.. the food is great too, lots of fresh meat from the farm..Its been absolutely freezing and there was lots of snow which was really pretty! So we did alot of indoor jobs. I sorted out all of Jens cupboards and larder, and the garden sheds on days it wasnt snowing.. I also looked after Ryan as my main job. It was nice for jen and steve to go out together without Ryan as its only happened a few times since he was born and its great for them as they know they can trust me with him..
As I said I always give up planning as something always happens to chnge things so I havent yet been to Mount Cook. I plan to go there is a few days (and hopefully these plans will happen!!)
I went into an opticians today to get someone to look at my glasses.. they have gone all funny. it always looks like they need a really good clean.. they looked at them and said the coating is coming off the lenses which cant be repaired so I would need new lenses and as I have such a high prescription it would cost about 300 dollars. Hmff, not exactly cheap.. I am going to shop around and see if there are any cheaper opticians around but I have a feeling its going to be expensive wheerever i go. I've been putting up with it for a while.. but the this morning on the bus a perfect stranger informed me I should clean my glasses and that it was amazing I could see anything.. so perhaps its time I should be doing something about it!
My camera also seems to be on its last legs, I havent been able to take any photos the last couple of weeks as it doesnt want to turn on.. so I shall try to get that looked at too.. have a strong feeling they will tell me to buy a new one which will be another couple of hundred bucks... Better start working hard soon and saving madly.. so I can see and take photos!

just to reassure people I am okay, sorry havent had opportunity to update in a while. Am staying on a farm and havent got any email access, probably wont have much access over the next couple of weeks or so, so dont panic if i dont update..!