Forgotten blog

With all the changes in blog hosts and with several other blogs on the go.....not only did we forget about this one, but we also forgot how to log in! OMG ... age is taking it's toll no doubt!
Well, obviously we figured out the combination of email and logon (not simple when you have 5 email accounts and several favorite logons! ) as we are posting these comments!
I am not going to attempt to update you on everything that has happened since the last blog as that would take 3 or 4 days of typing to be sure and besides, I don't really think that anyone is still following this posting. (If you are, send us an email to whichever email account you have for us..we actually do check them all every few days! )
Instead, I am going to post a story that I read some time ago and only recently was reminded of. It really is rather appropriate given the difficulty in signing in. Enjoy!

The other day a young person asked me how I felt about being old.

I was taken aback, for I do not usually think of myself as old. Upon seeing my reaction, she was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let her know.

Old Age, I decided, is a gift. I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful memories or my loving man. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 &70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.
They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.


Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it).

Sooo ..We have been busy!

It's been ages since I added anything to this blog ..almost forgot I had it!

I have finally added a new album to our "Webshots" pages and for those of you that didn't get the message, you can go to http://community.webshots.com/user/travellinglifestyle and click on the 'new' album to have a look at the building of our new house on the river.

It had been months since we started the adventure of moving off the old house and replacing it with a new one that will look out on the river. Lots of comprimises from the "dream home plan" as we must keep 're-sale value' in mind and not over-capitalize as we know that this is not the final resting place and will be sold one day ......ah...a new meaning to the 'one day'! Have to admit though that all the moving from B&B to rental to another rental has me reluctant to even think about moving again once we finally get into this house but...??? It was so much easier when all we had was our suitcase/backpack!

Building here is more expensive than in Canada ...I keep getting a shock when I go to price things ..light fixtures, even paint ! And they have different names for building materials too ..the builders, two fantastic guys that we were so lucky to find , are still teasing us about refering to timber as lumber! " Like Lumberjacks?" they joked when Jim said something about moving the lumber. And we have taught them a couple of things too...like how to convert meters to feet and inches ...I can't visualize 1.5 meters but tell me it is 5 feet and I've got it!

It's been a real learning experience and the next house (listen to her..she is already talking about the next house!) .well, the next one I will know not to count on the knowledge of an architect, how better to build stairs, make the bathrooms bigger and a whole lot of other things that we sort of learned as we went. I sourced our own kitchen, flooring, lighting fixtures, and plumbing pieces (tubs, showers etc) as a way to save a bit but it has taken alot of time and of course, I have accepted a 20 hour a week contract just as it really gets hectic with electricians, plumbers and builders having questions for me every day. Naturally, to do it any other way would be too simple and boring right?

We are still using our mobile phone to access the internet and it is slow and painful doing this so I will close for now. I promise that I will get back to it and add all the interesting little stories about the last few months and the 'process' when I have a better connection.

In the meantime, keep those cards and letters coming folks ...okay..how about emails?...and think about your trip down here as we soon wil have lots of room for visitors!

lots of luv
J and J

Spring has Sprung in August

Wow!!!

It's August, and the daffodils are blooming.

This is a first for us.

The days are lengthening, and the weather is warming!! We have almost beaten winter.

Judy has taken her leave of New Zealand and gone back to Canada to catch the last bit of summer there.

She is organizing our storage unit and getting it all ready for packing into a container and shipping to New Zealand. It's quite a daunting task. I don't envy that part of her trip to Canada.Judy will finish up organizing, then take a few days to head to Saskatchewan and visit with Anita and Jake. She's quite looking forward to that. It's been over a year since she has seen them.

As for me, work is plugging along. We have just completed week 3 of the school year's 3rd term. The kids actually seem to be coming around. Our worst day last week was better than our best day in the last term. The kids seem to be focusing on accomplishing something. The next couple of weeks will be interesting though, as the woman who has been teaching the kids is off to the UK for 6 weeks. We've got a substitute teacher. Hopefully all works out well.

I'm now down to coaching just 2 basketball teams. The under 14 girls have been taken over by a woman who has coached that age group for quite a few years. I now have the grammar school boys team, and the under 15 boys. The grammar school team has made dramatic improvements through the season. We're in the playoffs now, and whilst we are on the consolation side, we beat a team last week that had beaten us 67 -14 during the season. I figure,  that's quite a turnaround .

The Under 15's is an interesting group of kids. They're quite enjoyable, and they work hard and listen well, but I know some of the teams we're up against are much more experienced. Our tournament is on the same weekend as the New Zealand Federal Election. September 17th & 18th

Judy and I are now both registered to Vote here in New Zealand. One doesn't need to be a citizen to have that right, we just need our landed immigrant status.

Seems a bit odd.

Some political parties seem to be willing to give the entire country away in order to be elected. That's pretty similar to Canadian elections, but New Zealand's absence of the "fear mongering" that has prevailed in North American Elections is quite refreshing.

Hope everyone is doing well.

All our love

Jim and Judy

 

Life resembles Normal

It has been quite a while since we last updated the Blog. Where has the time gone??

As most of you know, Judy stayed here in New Zealand after the residency came through in March, to begin her job and Jim returned to Canada to tie up a few loose ends and to make a quick trip to Nicaragua. He had the company of Allan Earle, Judy's cousin, on the trip south and they had a great time ..... great scenery, good old friends and the fishing was fantastic! Jim had a brief visit with the Kirkland family (no longer of Kirkland as they have moved by now to their new home), had a wonderful Easter with new and very dear friends on the island and a whirlwind visit in Vancouver before returning to NZ to put an end to his experience as a "kept man" as he has been fond of saying!

We are settled, to an extent and life has begun to take on the resemblance of normal. We are still in a rented flat and it will probably be a while yet before we change that. Property here is dear and the dollar is still quite weak against the Kiwi dollar, so no rush to change our funds and jump into the home market. But, although we don't have much furniture, we now live out of closets rather than suitcases and yes ........ Jim is employed! He started work a week ago and has returned to working with kids at risk ... kids who don't fit the normal education system ..... and although the adjustment to working hours has been a bit difficult (first few days he couldn't keep his eyes open past 8:00 pm ) he is enjoying it. The nice thing is that he works 3 1/2 days a week (leaving time for us to still spend together ..... after all , 6 years of 24/7 is not an easy habit to break) .. and he has all the school holidays off which will still give us some time to move about. Probably one of the hardest parts of settling in has been facing a long length of time without moving about. That may sound strange to some of you but even though we were ready to land for a while, with some roots once again, it has been a major adjustment not to have the suitcases on standby! His first school break is in early July and we have decided to postpone Judy's trip back to Canada until after that so that we can visit friends on the North Island and spend the time off together. It will be easier to be apart during the time that he is working.

Jim has also returned to coaching basketball and is really enjoying it. After a slow start, he has gone on to coaching three teams! A rural school team, a group of u14 girls who are new to the game (he can never figure out how they seem to be amused at everything and giggle all the time ????) and a very young and small under 16 boys team that he recently took to a tournament in Christchurch. They got beat quite soundly, as expected, but the attitude of the boys and their keenness and willingness to learn, made the whole weekend fun. Imagine 14 year old boys coming up after a practice and saying thank you to Jim for being there to coach. Makes it all worth while!

Our first winter in a long time! Can't say as that has been a highlight of our new life ..... bit of softies we are! .. but as winters go I guess it isn't all that bad! Nights can be pretty cool ( -2 to 4 or 5 degrees Celsius) but daytimes can still be up to 16 (the other day) and mostly sunny so could be worse I guess ???? Have to admit that one of our first purchases was a bed warmer (electric blanket that goes on the mattress) and I bless it nightly! The fall was quite beautiful and some of the new photos that I will post on the webshots later today will show you the wonderful colors of the vineyards and valleys near here. It's just too bad that winter has to follow fall ..... 3 seasons a year is really all anyone needs!

We have just passed our 3 month anniversary as residents and having met the only condition of being granted residency, (3 months of working for the employer who we named on our application), we are off this weekend to Christchurch to have the conditional visas in our passports changed! Yeah! We can't say enough about the terrific people who have helped us land here in New Zealand .... can't say alot either as you never know who reads this stuff ..... but hopefully they know how much their help and friendship mean to us! Thanks guys!

We will let everyone know once we have set some plans for Judy's trip north and in the meantime .... keep us in your thoughts and stay in touch. check out the photos http://community.webshots.com/user/travellinglifestyle in a day or so.

luv to all

Cheers!

Life in Blenheim has begun!

Happy Easter Everyone!

We have been New Zealand residents for just over two weeks now and we are starting to settle in to our new life here in Blenheim. We are currently living in a rented flat (owned by friends) that is conveniently within walking distance to downtown. We should be here for another month or so and then we will have to find a longer-term place to stay as this one is being sold! Still moving! Rentals are not easy to find here and so we will have to start looking soon. For now, we are lucky to be in this one as it is partially furnished and we have not had time to find much furniture of our own and do not plan to ship our stuff over for awhile yet.

As I write this, Jim is in Seattle on the beginning of his 3 1/2 weeks in North America that we had planned before our residency came through. He will hopefully get a chance to see some of you as we do not know how long it will be until he returns again. While there, he will keep a doctor's appointment that he has had scheduled for about 7 months now and will make a trip to Nicaragua on tickets that we earned last year in our crazy "cross America" marathon...remember that? It earned us our Platinum status with American Airlines for another year. We had planned to go together, (I was to fly to Canada on April 6th) but as the residency came through and I have already started my job, I will not be returning to visit until late June or early July. I sure am not use to watching him fly off. And he almost didn't actually. I must tell you that story as it is such a great example of Kiwi ingenuity and the attitude of the people in our new home!

As new residents of Blenheim, we did not know that the worst time to book a flight out of Blenheim to Wellington, or out of Wellington for that matter, is early in the morning at this time of year. And this year has been even worse than usual. FOG! For four days prior to Jim's flight, fog had shut down the capital city's airport (Wellington is the capital, not Auckland for those of you who might have thought otherwise!) We were nervous, to say the least, as the day was approaching. Jim's International ticket started in Wellington and we had booked a separate flight to get him there in time for it. We were using the little airline that we had used before (we took the photos already posted from that flight). They were friendly, the plane was fine and it was better priced than Air New Zealand (national carrier) who also has small planes flying in to Blenheim. We made the RIGHT CHOICE! Here is the story that begins with our 35 seconds of "life as the rich and famous"!

It was 6 a.m. and Jim is driving to the airport, flight due out at 6:50 (small airport, remember?) and the cell phone in my purse starts to ring! Surprised, I answer it and an unknown voice asks for Jim. I tell him that Jim is driving, ask if I can help. He identifies himself as the pilot of the plane coming from the Wellington side to pick Jim up and asks about the fog in Blenheim. I tell him it is fine (and it was at that time) and he says that Wellington is in trouble again (no landings due to fog) but he will come and we will play it by ear once he gets there. WOW right? Jim asks who is was on the phone and I get to tell him "that was our pilot dear, saying he is on his way. Now drive James!" So this is how the rich and famous live?

By the time the plane landed, the fog was rolling in and I had to explain to the pilot that I really didn't make it up ..... it HAD been nice when he called! He asked how badly Jim needed to get to Wellington and we explained the international flight. We had called Wellington to see if he could get on a later flight and still make his connection in Auckland, but there were no available seats. The pilot is willing to give it his best shot and says he can fly Jim in to Paraparaumu, which is a small airport close to Wellington, and rather than take their shuttle (as traffic in to the city, at that time of the morning, would be horrible) , they would get him to the train station going to the airport. Are you with me so far? pretty amazing!

Quick kiss goodbye and Jim and the pilot, Peter, head for the plane (yes, Jim was the only passenger for this flight). A few minutes earlier, an Air New Zealand plane had headed out to the runway. As I stood outside to watch them leave, I saw Jim's plane taxi to the edge of the runway and stop! Oh no! They don't have time! What are they doing??? Finally, they took off and I crossed my fingers that they would make it okay and Jim would get to the airport in time. Jim phoned from Wellington to fill me in on the parts that I didn't know. Apparantly, the AirNZ plane was just sitting on the runway, waitting .....so OUR pilot (he's ours now) knowing that they did not have the time to wait, radioed the tower for permission to take off on the grass! And they did! And when they got to Paraparaumu, HE (our pilot) drove Jim to the train! Jim made it in time but only because of Kiwi ingenuity and the "above and beyond" customer service of the little local company! This is an example of why we are so taken with this country!

I had planned to write more about Blenheim itself, but it is getting late so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I will post some new photos of the town then too, so be sure to check out the 'webshots' site (see link in March 4th journal article) My computer has decided it is tired too and a few of the letters are sticking so bye for now
Judy

Photos of flight to Blenheim added

As most of you now know, we have been accepted as residents of New Zealand! We will post the entire story of the last three months efforts to achieve this in a few days when we have better access to the internet, but for now we have posted some pictures of where our new home will be. Be sure to have a look at: http://community.webshots.com/user/travellinglifestyle.

We will be living in Blenheim, a small community on the north east corner of the South Island once we have all the paperwork in order and our passports stamped with "resident" so that we can come and go from New Zealand without the restrictions of a tourist visa.
The beginning of an exciting new chapter in our lives and we look forward to the next adventure.
Check back in a few days for an update and more information. For now, Kia Ora

Collage of Blenheim

this photo is the property of Travelling-lifestyle.com

A Collage of photos taken on our recent flight to Blenheim

Wellington, NZ

this photo is the property of Travelling-lifestyle.com
The capital building in Wellington, New Zealand is known as the "beehive". This photo was taken as we flew from Wellington to Blenheim in a small 9-seater plane. The scenery was fantastic!

The old and the new of Shanghai
this photo is the property of Travelling-lifestyle.com

Shanghai

Shanghai City

It has taken us a while to get back to updating this. Shanghai was our last stop on our tour of China and, as many of you know, you could say that Jim and I had rather a shitty time there! (pun definitely intended) From there we returned to Bangkok for a few days and then on to New Zealand, where we are now renting a place in Blenheim (north end of the South Island) More about NZ later, but now a little about Shanghai.

When I say that Jim and I had a shitty time there, I am referring to the fact the law of averages finally caught up to both of us and after a long time of beating the odds, we both came down with a bug. And boy, did we make it a good bout of the trots as well as nausea! We were gratefully staying in a hotel in Shanghai when the worst of it hit us, as it could have been soooo much worse if we had been on a train (that much time in a squat toilet would have made it unbearable! not to mention very uncomfortable!)

A couple of days saw both of us feeling much better but unfortunately, it did limit how much of Shanghai we actually got to see. A shame for there is much to see and do in this cosmopolitan port that is the gateway to the mighty Yangtze River. Shanghai (which means on the sea) is a city of 16.7 million people, and has a fascinating history.
One of the amazing things about the city that we did notice though, was that just as in Beijing, growth and new development was everywhere. If anything, Shanghai appeared to be developing at an even faster pace. The contrast between the few remaining hutongs (small side streets) and the modern skyscrapers and apartments is somewhat evident in the photo that I have posted which was taken from our room.
When the British opened their first concession here after the first Opium War in 1842, it was little more than a small town supported by fishing and weaving. Change has been rapid. The French followed in 1847 and it wasn't long before an International Settlement was established. By the time the Japanese arrived in 1895, the city was being parceled up into settlements, all autonomous and immune from Chinese law, creating China's first fully-fledged Special Economic Zone. The world's greatest houses of finance and commerce descended on shanghai in the 1930's. The place had the tallest buildings in Asia and more motor vehicles on its streets than the rest of China put together. Shanghai became a byword for exploitation and vice in countless opium dens, gambling joints and a myriad of brothels. Guarding it all were the American, French and Italian marines, British Tommies and Japanese Blue Jackets. By the time the Communists said enough was enough in 1947, they had the huge task of eradicating slums, rehabilitating hundreds of thousands of opium addicts and stamping out child and slave labor. Interesting to learn the effects of the big-power progressive and enlightened countries!
But since the 1990's, invitations have gone out once again to capitalist business interests as the central government hunts foreign capital to help reinvent this whirlwind metropolis, and fuel the most modern stock exchange in the world, but this time with control remaining in the hands of the Chinese!

The Bund is probably the most famous location in Shanghai. Stretching 1 1/2 kms along the riverfront, its grand old buildings, with incredible facades and interiors, were once European, American and Japanese banks, trading houses, clubs, consulates and hotels. We took a walk down there at night to see the amazing lights that would not have been outdone by New York or anywhere! A few of us went up the tower of the Hyatt hotel (read posh) for cocktails and a fantastic view over the city. For about the same money as a drink at the hotel, we could have gone up the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the upside down needle-like building in Pudon, across the river from the Bund to the viewing platform.
A ride back to the hotel on the very easy to use Metro took only a few minutes and for about $.50, you can get to pretty much anywhere on either of the two main lines.

Every conceivable culinary delight is available in Shanghai from the local specialties of Huntun or Wanton soup, to the offerings of the street stalls to fancy restaurants. Karaoke is still alive and well in Shanghai and our group made their marks as instant stars on our last night out together! I heard they were all very good, well, at least to their ears, but unfortunately, Jim had to represent us as he had recovered first and I was still guarding the porcelain in our room!

We have plans to return to China to visit the southern areas and will likely fly into Shanghai as a starting point, which is a good thing. We did not get to visit all of the many markets, the Jade Buddha Temple, museums, the old Jewish Quarter, where European Jews flocked during WWII, or the French Concession.
For now, it is "Zai Jian", goodbye from China

We will post some info on where we are now in New Zealand in a few days.
Be sure to check out our new posting of photo albums at: http://community.webshots.com/user/travellinglifestyle

Enjoy!