General Chat

Well done to Evan Persie, I bet you were a proud grandma

Eve was an angel in her first nativity play today

The presentation sounds good Persie. I like watching the Hakka. We actually watched it done at the Edinburgh Tattoo in 2000. Please give the new baby a little hug from me.

Did you enjoy your Christmas dinner Linda?

I am back in good time for the service.

I hope you have a nice time Persie, it will be lovely to see the new little one and great fun to see August of course

Hello friends :-)

I hope you both enjoy your Christmas dinner, Linda. See you later.

I am sure we are all feeling sad at the moment but I have been thinking about how I started this thread. It was meant to be a little bit of fun and I certainly didn't expect it to last this long. Some people have joined in and then left but a group of us have remained on here since the beginning. We have become steadfast friends and this thread has become an important part of our lives. We have been through ups and downs and supported each other through some difficult times. We have also rejoiced together through the good times. I will always be grateful for your friendship and especially Berona's motherly influence on here. Berona was a lady of great kindness, wisdom and humour. I think we have all been 'told off' by Berona at some point :-) Her son told me that his mother greatly valued the friends she made here. I let him know how much we loved our dear Berona. I am thinking of her family now as they prepare to say goodbye. Knowing how I feel at the moment I can only imagine how Berona's beloved family must be feeling today.

OH is out mowing the lawn. The lawn here has lots of weeds and the dandelions are the tall variety.. I will have to attack at some stage with my weed spray. I am not going to bother with the back corner of the section.. seems to be overgrown with all sorts of weeds. A lot of them are fighters and difficult to remove permanently unless you want to spend hours and hours on it.

Prize Giving went well despite being 2 and 1/2 hours long. Was not a lot of boring old speeches.
There was a Maori welcome .. Karanga.. and we had Maori singing and Polynesian singing and dancing.
Evan won a class award for Excellence in Effort and citizenship. Each class had 8 people that got awards. He also got a Design Technology award (I know he could make all sorts of things out of his lego other than what was on the packet from quite an early age)

They have a couple of excellent sports achievers at this school that top the country for their age group.. one boy is being closely watched by Rugby and Rugby Sevens selectors.

When the girl and boy who excelled in Maori studies went up for their prizes.. there was an impromptu haka from a member of the audience and the girl responded .. boy could she belt it out. The lad was holding his awards so could not... but he was up and out of his seat later leading a haka.. with two members of the audience this time. Even the teacher doing the presentation shook his head and said wow. The Maoris are very good at impromptu. If you go to a 21st, a wedding or engagement party, after each speech there is a Waiata (song or haka) given.

Tomorrow, I shall be away, we are heading down to Masterton for a night and then on to Lyall Bay in Wellington. They had two nights together not booked so we will probably see Stellan sometime Sunday after lunch.. We will head back to Huntly (nearly said Auckland) on the Tues morning.

And both girls and friends say he looks like my OH and seeing a photo of him this morning where he is awake I tend to agree. He is also more like his mum where as August favoured his father's looks.

Persie

It is absolutely freezing outside but we are going out to a Christmas meal. We won't be late,so I will be back in time for Berona's service

I was only thinking of your hips Sue :-D

I told you that in confidence Miss Linda :-|

Morning Linda,

I like Lindt dark chocolate with strawberry, the thin type. I can eat the whole lot in one sitting, horrible stuff lol for your hips :-D

Not that I like to tell tales - but...

Sue has lots of boxes of chocolates at home and she isn't sharing with us :-0

I think you are right Linda - the noise of the wind is making me feel cold,

I'm also off to bed,

Sleep well Linda, keep warm,

Enjoy your day Sue, Persie, and Sylvia,

Goodnight,
Tec :-)

Goodnight Linda <3

I will also sign off as I have Berona's flowers to organise for Friday.

Goodnight Tec <3

Enjoy the rest of the day, Persie and Sylvia <3 <3

Oh dear, I have just seen the forecast for tomorrow

Time to retire to bed to keep warm I think, so I will bid you goodnight

I think most people have cut back due to postage costs. I remember when the Royal Mail used to employ thousands of students to deal with the Christmas mail.
I don't think that they do now, possibly in the cities maybe.

I have very little to do for Christmas as it's only me here. No point buying in food that won't get eaten. Though I have gone mad and bought myself a small Christmas cake :-D Whoopee

I have a book going back to the year 2000 where I write down who sent all the cards every year, so I know who to send them to the next year.

So it was "swops" then Sue :-D

In previous years we've sent cards to neighbours we knew decades ago, but other that the annual Christmas card, no other contact. All a bit silly, other than to know that they are still alive.

For years after we moved here we had a card for the previous owner, who had actually died before we bought the house.

It is a silly ritual sending cards when you have no other contact, we have a few like that, but they have dwindled off over the years

That's part of the reason Tec but also because I felt that I was sending cards to people we barely knew anymore. We would receive one back almost straight away and when I stopped sending a card to various people we. wouldn't get one at all.

My neighbour and I always give each other a box of chocolates or biscuits. Last year we had a laugh because we bought each other an identical box of chocolates :-D

I must set to and start doing the cards tomorrow.

I always feel that Christmas is like a train coming in and you're not ready, nothing will stop the train, and if you're not ready - tough :-D

I have also cut down on cards, not least due to the ridiculous cost of postage.