We were up reasonably early – for us today.
Was thinking of Nathan as he boarded his flight to Seoul early this morning.
And also remembering our special friend Nick who died 3 years ago today.
Supporting Sally, Kashana & Jackson with love, thoughts and prayers throughout today.
Mahalia took Bella for a walk while Azzan & I showered.
Then she made record time getting through her ablutions 😉
Azzan even had time to cook himself up a breakfast wrap.
Uncle Murray – you really have started him on something here!!
We were away by 9am so had time in Richmond to pick up rubbish bags from the TDC office and then pick up our bikes.
Thankfully this time a different guy served us, he was actually really pleasant and jovial in a nice non-condescending way.
Suggested that it is not really a good idea for Mahalia to double a heavy brother on her bike – not really built for that sort of treatment!
We got them tied on securely and then the kids walked over to the library to do maths on their iPads while they waited for the Winnington’s to pick them up and take them home.
I carried on into my 10am counselling session.
Spent an hour there, very beneficial as I am working through some stuff at present and trying to get my head round it all in a rational manner.
Afterwards I met up with Paula & Dave at La Gourmandise – a French creperie in Hardy Street.
It was lovely, pleasant surroundings, lovely staff and quiet with excellent food.
I ordered a Nordique galette – filled with Cheese, Smoked Salmon, Cream, Dill, Avocado.
It was delicious.
It was lovely to catch up with Paula & Dave as it has been a while.
From there I picked up some products from Bedelia and then dropped off some of the kids clothes that needed mending and extending to Leeanne.
She was out to lunch so I wandered down to Himalaya and had a look around.
New clothes in, some cool tops, but I didn’t feel like trying anything on today so just browsed and then chatted with Jay who owns the shop.
She recognised me – Estelle!! Have you been talking bout me 😉
Went back to see Leeanne and went through the clothes.
Basic stuff but I don’t have a sewing machine on me at present.
She lengthened the sleeves on Mahalia’s new green jacket the other day and so Mahalia was asking if she could also lengthen her new coat sleeves.
She takes after her Dad and has very long limbs so the sleeves are always too short.
Mahalia walked with Azzan down to his first Kip McGrath tuition session so I picked her up and we went to get her passport photos done.
Her old one had expired a couple of months ago.
On the way round to Roni at Harvey World Travel I suggested she go suss out a couple of shops as she has been looking for some swimwear.
The first one has nothing but suggested we try Little Boutique which has it’s shop at the back of Full House.
Both absolutely gorgeous shops which I had not discovered before.
I went into Roni with the papers and sat and tried to finish them while she was busy with a client.
Mahalia had found a cute pair of swim shorts but the bikini top she was modelling which looked stunning on her was priced at just under $300!!!!
How on earth can they put that sort of price on such a small piece of fabric – beats me??
She was perfectly ok about not getting it – just as well, cuz there was no way this side of next year that I was paying that much for it!
Left her to the mercies of the shop assistant who was really helpful, to find something more agreeable to my wallet.
Had to go back to the car to try and locate some more info from my laptop but to no avail.
It was time to pick up Azzan so I zipped round and found him in deep conversation with his tutor Andrew.
They were discussing his favourite topic – movies and reviews, and how to write reviews, and which reviewers to study and emulate, and future media career prospects, etc etc etc…….
He was so excited about it all when we talked in the car.
I could see his tutor is right on his planet – fantastic 🙂
I asked him if it was too much homework that he’d been given?
His response was, ‘No, I have been craving to have that much to do’.
He was happy to sit in the car while I went to get Mahalia.
When I picked up the folder with her passport stuff in it I could not find her photos which we had just gotten done.
I searched everywhere but to no avail.
I was so upset that I had lost them in less than hour of having them done 😦
I went to get her and thankfully she had found a top to fit which looked fantastic plus was way less stressful on my budget.
We popped over to see Roni, the photos were not there so I sent Mahalia off to a different camera shop to get some more done.
Roni & I talked and finished filling out the form while we waited for her to come back.
She eventually returned with another set of photos which she was actually much happier with anyway 🙂
Got them sorted and went back to the car.
As I went to get in I spotted the errant set of photos underneath the car parked next to me.
They must have fallen behind me as I got out – duh!
From there I did what I hardly ever do, drove through Burger King to get the kids a drink and fries.
Could not believe the queue at 3:30pm!!
Maybe it is normal for the after school parents to take kids through.
Certainly not normal for us.
I then drove to the port as I had to go and sign some papers.
It really hit me as I parked the car.
I had worked through the whole thing of selling our boat.
It is no longer needed, it has been sitting on the mooring deteriorating and needing many tens of thousands of dollars spent on it to bring it up to necessary safety standards.
But I thought it would take much longer to sell than this.
It is only three weeks since I listed it.
Unbelievable.
I sat and cried.
Parting with the ’88 South’ is almost like parting with Tim all over again.
His boats were so much a part of him, and the ’88′ has been a huge part of our lives since 2001.
Mahalia was very understanding.
Consoling me with, ‘Mum, remember it’s what we did with the boat that made the memories, not the boat itself.’
Wise words my darling.
I dried my tears, took a deep breath and walked inside to sign the papers.
To the agent it was just another sale.
To me it was huge.
I was texting with Jesika afterwards about it and she came back with her memories which I know she won’t mind me sharing them here –
“We are just remembering our last time on the boat and it was with Dad and we were catching illegal cod! And Dad made Evan eat seaweed and laughed at him when he did and wanted to hurl! Seb taught Ev to fillet fish for the first time and Dad was teaching Ev all about mussels. Yep we have some good memories”
The recent memories we have are of this boat but mine go back way further than that.
Tim and boats – they were synonymous.
Before ’88 South’ it was ‘Zebulun’ and before that it was ‘Frolic’ (which was the boat he courted me from and on, so was the one most dear to my heart) and before that…….
His first boat that I am aware of was The Seahorse which he had when he was way younger than Azzan is now.
This is an oil painting of Tim in the Seahorse painted by a friend at the original Te Kopi jetty.
He used to putter all around the bay, delivering food & mail to the workers etc when he was only 7 or 9 years old.
Boats were in his blood!
I managed to hold it together until I left the office, then I let the tears flow.
I drove the kids to the library as we had an hour to fill.
Mahalia wanted to go do some maths – am impressed at her willingness to get on with her lessons now 🙂
I couldn’t face the world , actually I couldn’t really see the world as my eyes were so blurred, so I just sat in the car for a while.
Then just before 5pm I took Mahalia to Kip McGrath, Azzan opted to stay at the library until it closed at 6pm.
I had a quick chat on the phone with Shoshannah.
She and her Outdoor Ed class had just returned from their snow camp up in the Nelson Lakes area.
In her words – “Had a flippen awesome time…I am wasted!”
They had been in snow and sleeping under tent flies in the rain.
Sounds like they had a ball.
I picked Phillipa up from work and drove her up the road to her car.
Was a good opportunity to just sit and talk for half an hour.
I needed a friend.
Thanks Phillipa xxx
Whizzed back to get Azzan and then went to get some takeout wedges from Hangar 58 to eat on the way home.
The girls greeted me with, ‘It’s just not the same here without Nathan!’
They are really missing him.
We picked up Mahalia – she had asked for much more homework and was happy with her lessons tonight.
We just drove straight home as we were all rather weary.
I heated the rest of the wedges up and had them for dinner.
The kids heated up rice and beef casserole.
While it was heating they hooned around in the dark on the bikes with Bella.
We watched some of X Factor Australia before bed.
Rabbits Nest 