The nights are well and truly drawing in now, getting dark about 5pm. It is getting pretty chilly in the mornings and of a night time, but when the sun comes up it heats the place up and it is still t-shirts and shorts weather, which is pretty good for the start of winter. Winter time means business is a lot quieter now and we take the opportunity to have a holiday. So next week we close the cafe for a week or so and head to the warmer northern climate of the Gold Coast and Brisbane. I quite like Brisbane as a City, it is full of life, bustling with people, exotic birds in the trees, large Ibis birds in the parks begging for chips (they are great to watch), lots of shops and a bit of nightlife. After a couple of days it is off down to Surfers. If you haven't been, it is a bit like the Costa's of Spain only a bit classier. We will go to a couple of the theme parks we missed last time we were there. There is a good beach there but if I wanted a beach I would just stay at the Mount, so we try to do all the things that you can't do round here. We booked everything via the Internet so lets hope it all goes according to plan. So I wont be blogging for a week or so (will you miss me).

On a sad note our pet rat died last week, he was a great friend and companion and will be missed, he died peacefully in his sleep, aged 3, RIP Ratty.

Education

I want to talk about education this week. We have real mixed feelings about how things are going at Georgia's school. It has come to a head this week because Georgia has been in contact with an old friend back in the UK who has just taken her SATS. As a matter of interest we had a look on the Internet to see if we could find some year 6 past papers, we did. Now looking at what questions were being asked and the subjects being covered we quickly realised that Georgia's education is miles behind. Now Georgia is very bright and is becoming bored at school, the work is too easy and it just does not challenge her. She gets disappointed when she does extra work which never gets looked at. Maths is a rare subject and although no one likes maths, the theory behind numbers is a must for everyday life. We keep teaching her but she gets no practise at school, and forgets. When she looked at the SATS maths papers, she panicked and thought she must be thick because she couldn't do them, a couple of lessons on how to work them out, and she has answered the advanced questions. I just wonder, should I be worried? she is as happy as can be, there is no pressure at school, does it all really matter? you try to think back to what you were learning at Junior school (but it was a long time ago) one thing is for sure, I was never as happy as Georgia.

Going Back To England

Our good friends Norman and Linda are going back to England for a 9 week holiday. They have at last allowed themselves to be excited about the trip having had some real mixed emotions about the prospect, I will explain. Although they do love it here, their Son and Daughter both live in England and earlier this year their son had a child of his own, thus making Norman and Linda grandparents and I think that they both fear that once they lay eyes on that child, the old parental instincts will grab hold, and they will stay in England. They have made plans which mean they have to return to New Zealand, but I think you will understand their dilemma.
I am often asked the question by new English immigrants if I would go home, I reply that I always go home after work! There has been a real change in the way I feel now that I have permanent Residency in New Zealand, I am, and feel at home here. I have no desire to return to England. I am asked if I miss friends and family, and yes I do, but my closest family is here with me and to have the time to watch my daughter grow and be incredibly happy, I would trade for nothing. When the time comes for her to fly the nest, what then? If she went abroad, what would I do? let her go? follow? I can see a dilemma coming on.

Drunk Driving

A crash happened last week that has affected me quite badly. It involved 2 Motorcycles and a car. The two bikes were out for an afternoon ride, a drunk driver crossed the centre line and killed 3 motorcyclists and himself. What made this really hit home was that both Joyce and myself rode bikes for years before coming to New Zealand, we had a few close scrapes over the years but in a situation like the one last week you have no chance. We also knew the woman pillion passenger on one of the bikes. She was the tenant of the house we now rent and kindly showed us around. She has two girls aged 13 and 9, both nice kids, their mum is now dead and so is her partner, what are they going to do? This crash has been big news in NZ, the driver of the car had 4 previous convictions for drink driving and had no license, but it gets worse, he had his son and two grandchildren in the car with him! can you believe it? I just struggle to understand the mentality. The kids were injured but survived. The thing is, there just is not the social attitude here that drink driving is abhorrent. It seems that so many think that if they have been drinking and can still stand, then they are fit to drive! The Police do their best, we have random breath tests where you are pulled over into a checkpoint and asked to give your name and address into a device that detects alcohol on your breath, it is quick and simple, we have been stopped 3 times now (no problems for us as we NEVER drink and drive). On the last occasion as we approached the checkpoint, the two cars in front of us did manic U-Turns and disappeared in the opposite direction at high speed, does that mean out of the three cars in our group 66% were over the limit? I am sad and angry, so I will leave it here.