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A really fantastic shock.
So the other night, my sister Jo tells me that she's pregnant. Shock enough in itself, but more shocking still is that she is precisely twelve days less pregnant than I am. And they have kept it secret for three months, even from my parents and her husband's, in order to give Steve and I our moment in the spotlight. That's love. And about the ( Read more... ) -
A long time in coming
Every single year for the last four years, I have written the same blog entry at about Christmas time. Every year, I have posted it under the private setting, looked at it, read it over every day for a few days, and left it private. Today is the day to post it; I wrote this last one on the 18th July 2010. Part two tomorrow ( Read more... ) -
Just because
Christmas Poem ( Read more... ) -
Three guitars + three bogans + an adoring audience =
At my brother-in-law Richard's engagement party yesterday, as things were winding down; two of my four brothers-in-law and Steve. (This is mainly for Robyn and Gran!)
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Life or something like it
So here I am. Back in my country. House all set up. Freezer full. The container arrives next week and after it’s unpacked, that’s it. Life, in a sense, begins again. And awfully long it does seem right now ( Read more... ) -
Fear and loathing in suburban Auckland
So... I’m in Auckland. Yep, Auckland. Aaand that’s about all there is to say about it. I was doing something today and was suddenly lost in a piercing memory of Oxford - the night that we went to the Christmas concert at the Sheldonian. It was utterly freezing, and I remember how painful it was because I couldn’t feel my toes. A crystal-clear night ( Read more... ) -
Farewell to all that
Well, here it is. The last day in Oxford. This week has been great; superb dinners out, long warm evenings with friends in pubs eating till bursting point, wide-ranging conversation and fits of hilarity. I went to the Kilns and sat for a last time in C S Lewis’s study, marvelling yet again that I was part of the place. I’ve said goodbye to Betty ( Read more... ) -
The end of all things
I should absolutely be asleep, seeing as I only got to sleep at 1:30 this morning, but here I am in Summertown Brown (our friends’ name for their apartment), overlooking a quiet Oxford street, decorous Victorian houses all around me. We finished the last of the cleaning and moved out of the flat yesterday, jettisoning rubbish every which way (even ( Read more... ) -
Packing, Punting and er... running out of other P activities.
Am all sad because the men are here packing up our stuff for the long move home - all my book friends and china friends are gone, and they’re starting on the vintage. :( See how it’s affecting me? When do I ever use those little happy/sad face things? NEVER ( Read more... )