Starting off the Easter Weekend

Saturday 3/4/2010

So another week has gone by without me updating this blog, so I will do my best. On Wednesday, I went to the Botanical Gardens. I have not been there in quite a long time, so it was a nice treat for me. As soon as I entered, I felt more calm and could somehow breathe easier. I saw a family of Wood Pigeons in a tree, and they are no small bird. About the size of an obese duck. Things are starting to get brown as we are in the fall and heading into winter. It is still warm out, but we get really cold days.

I met Alison and we went to the Cathedral to listen to the choir. It was Gregorian style singing and the choir was made up of 20 boys and 12 men. I have never heard such high singing, male or female. It was incredible. I had goosebumps for a long time. It started to get monotonous as they started singing in a long overdrawn note that would be more interesting if someone read it rather than sang it. We had an outline of the songs, psalms, reading...We did a lot of standing up and sitting down. Fortunately this time we could expect it as it was written in the outline. It lasted 1/2 hour and then we returned to the flat.

On Thursday (first day of April!), we got up and walked into town together. I took the shuttle to get to work, and there was major construction on the normal route, so we had a shuttle detour. Fortunately, the stop I wanted was still accessible. We had a fire drill in the preschool, and as soon as it was over, the preschool director asked me to take a group of kids in to clean a room. Well, that was fine, but afterwords was Whanua time (family time) where the kids break into groups and the teacher does something with them for 1/2 hour before lunch. The teacher came in and told me to do a song or read a book with them for a bit and she would come back. I had no idea what songs they knew, so I looked in the closet and found one song and did it with them. The teacher did not return. So I taught them a really easy song. The teacher did not return. So I grabbed the only book I saw in the room and read it to them and started conversations with them until the teacher did return. Although, at this time the 1/2 hour was up, so I asked if I should have them go to the bathroom. She asked if I was done, in a surprised tone. I did not know what else to say, but she said I could have them go in. So I did. I would not have had a problem with this, but it was kind of thrown at me, and I was not sure what I should do in this situation. Later, the same teacher told me to write stuff down of what we did. Then she asked if I would like to take every Thursday teaching. I said yes, but I really don't know what is expected of me. When it was time to clean up, the preschool director put all the "Lost Clothes" out on the front table in a huge pile. Well, parents just looked at the pile and if they saw something they recognized on top, they took it. They didn't sift though it as the director had hoped, although I don't blame them. They were not clean. I had the privilege of folding them and putting them back in the cupboard. A little girl threw up right before most of the kids were going home, so I rushed to get paper towels and a bucket of water as the preschool director was cleaning it. The smell was overwhelming. After the day, I walked back and just missed the shuttle. So I waited 15 minutes for the next shuttle. After that I just started heading back, but saw the shuttle come by on the next stop. So I boarded that shuttle and the traffic was HORRIBLE due to the construction. I realized that I would get home faster if I walked, so I got off. I arrived in the flat and saw that Alison had been working hard cleaning our room so that we will return to a clean flat. It was really sweet. Then we packed and left the flat to go house sitting. We walked to the house and I tried to work the key (it is an electronic key with an alarm and everything). So it didn't work for a long time. I finally got it to lift the garage, but couldn't close the garage. We manually closed the garage, and it landed with quite a loud THUD! Making us quite nervous. We have never gotten the key to work since. Fortunately, they gave us another key we could use. We quickly looked through the house and put our stuff down and walked to the store (which was quite an ordeal on it's own). We found a really tiny one and asked if they knew where a bigger one was. Well, we walked to the bigger one, but it was quite a ways down, so we quickly just bought pizzas you can throw in the oven. We walked back in the dark. Kind of made us nervous, but we got through it okay. While we were waiting for the pizza to bake, we took showers. I was first, and of course the water was FREEZING. I stood in the shower and waited for the water to get warm. When nothing happened for a while, I turned the knob. I wouldn't have believed it, but it actually got colder. So I switched it the other way thinking it would get warmer. Somehow, it got colder still. I kept switching the knob around (getting hypothermia in the process as my limbs were numb and purple) to no avail. Finally, I just put the knob in the middle and waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, it somehow turned warmer. By this time my feet were so cold, the warmer water made them hurt. Anyway, we ate the pizza...and it was...interesting. It was kind of like a ketchup pizza weird thing. I don't know how to describe it, but we were not very impressed. We went into our room and the bed is AMAZING!!! It is so nice and comfortable and the pillows are so nice to sleep on....So nice...

On Friday, we got up early, but felt like we were very well rested. Better than any other time. We were getting ready to leave, when we heard a knock on the door. There was a guy who was going to make plaster and asked if we were planning on being there later in the afternoon. I said I wasn't sure (not feeling comfortable saying no, but knowing more than likely we would be out). He said he would get key arrangements from the builder. So he came in to make plaster saying it would take 1/2 hour. We did not want to leave him alone in the house, when we were the only ones with the key. So we stayed while he worked. It took him more like an hour, and then he just left without saying anything. So then we left and went to a cafe to read. We finished both of our books, returned them to the library, and started new ones. We have really been doing a lot of reading lately. We decided to eat at a Greek place we haven't been to since we first moved here. Of course it was closed (most things are closed since it was Good Friday). So we found a Mexican restaurant and decided to try it. It was pretty expensive, so we got appetizers and split it. It was pretty good, but quite spicy, and not enough of it. They were really small appetizers for the price. We also drank a lot of water there. We got our moneys worth from the water I think.

So today...Saturday, I heard a knock at the door and heard someone say hello, but I was in bed. It just turned nine o'clock and was not ready to go greeting someone at the door. I went down, but he was already gone. I have no idea who it was. So then I got ready and walked into town. I walked around and then returned to our flat to do some laundry. Not a whole lot has happened today, but Alison and I will meet at the flat to get a few more things from the flat to the house we are sitting. I don't know anything after that. Tomorrow, we are planning on going to the Sunrise Service in Victoria Park. Kind of appropriate name, I think. Also, we will have to remember to set our clocks back. We get an extra hour of sleep!