kerplunk

I learned reo Māori at the Wānanga about 15 years ago and it was a great experience. The resources were great and they use a lot of different teaching methods. I imagine their resources have only gotten better over time. Plus Olly Ohlson was a guest teacher!

The greater good (the greater good)

Ayyyy, I’m never here at the right time for one of these because I’m in Europe. Kia ora all! It’s 34° right now at 9.20PM and we’re all melting. I could do with a little bit of winter to balance it out. How is lambing season kicking off?

My (now passed) kitty would smell when I opened a can of tuna from several rooms away and sprint in screaming “YESSSSSS FUCKIN TUNAAAAAAA” despite knowing he was on a diet. I miss his screaming.

Fell asleep to fireworks, woke up to cannonfire on the Allmend. Happy 1. August. Nothing big here today. Normally we go to a farm brunch and then grill and let off fireworks with the neighbours, but this year is a quiet one.

I used to live in a house with a big back yard and lots of garden. One day in summer I was digging weeds with my back to the house at the far end of the yard. My toddler son was inside with his dad, my baby daughter was napping. It was a quiet afternoon. After a while I heard little feet thudding on the grass - my son running across the lawn towards me. I turned around expecting him to come up and jump on me. There was no one there.

That’s still a catch phrase between my husband and me when we go somewhere crowded.

The Good Place helped me understand that being a good person isn’t necessarily about being good all the time. It’s about being a better person than you were yesterday, for the right reasons.

I listened to Mike Schur’s audiobook about what he learned about moral philosophy in the process of making the show, and that really influenced my thinking and behaviour as well. Really worthwhile.

Principal was fired by the board, and then immediately sued the school for wrongful dismissal. It was a landmark case and ended up on national news. The principal won and the school went broke. It was the best school in town until then: all the good teachers quit and went elsewhere taking many students with them because parents didn’t want their kids in a broke school with only the crappy teachers left.

We had a work opportunity that gave us the chance to live in any of a few different cities. We chose Switzerland so our kids could learn another language and we could travel from a fairly central location. Definitely achieved those!

Switzerland (more like sweatzerland am I right)

It’s been 34-36 degrees over here the last few days and we’re all melting, but last night we had a doozy of a thunderstorm which broke the heatwave. Such a relief. Not that I’m missing winter at all - we get -10C then.

I’ve been here for more than ten years now. It really is beautiful, and the opportunities to explore Europe have been incredible. But Switzerland is a notoriously unfriendly country and maintaining friendships here is work. Plus our parents are ageing, we miss being close to family, and I especially miss living by the ocean. Going back was always a possibility as an early retirement plan - it’s also too expensive to retire in Switzerland.

Mountains and meadows are nice for a while, but driving six hours in the era of carbon footprint reduction to get to a warm bathtub (the Mediterranean) gets a bit stale.

(I might have some strong opinions)

Originally Invercargill, most recently Christchurch, currently Switzerland, soon to be Marlborough. Can’t bloody wait.