November

November dawned.  More wind and rain with an occasional sun beam to give us hope.  The vege garden is planted with tomatoes, lettuces and zucchinis and the front garden is beginning to be attached to get it into shape.

Harry had his knee replacement.  It was delayed a week - his surgeon was unexpectedly in hospital.  Harry recovered well - in fact I am convinced he stayed in longer than necessary to get more visitors and chocolates.  All joking aside - he has made an excellent recovery and was out within 3 days having mastered the stairs and wandered up the hall way a few times.  Back home, he managed to fend for himself and on day four I left him home alone.  He wandered up the road a bit, chatted to neighbours and then decided to go to the dairy to buy a paper.  Probably a bit far - it all takes time.

Mike and Becks and the children arrived.  We had lots of fun, off to playgrounds, visiting other grandparents, eating macaroni cheese and hearing all about their next adventure - cherry farming in Central Otago.  They stayed off and on for a few weeks waiting for their furniture to arrive.  Mike took various trips to the orchard which often took longer due to the weather and once didn't happen at all.  The beds arrived and everyone is settled - first day at school went well - and crawling around the lawn is a big adventure for a little boy.

I had a couple of nice treats during the month - got given some flowers and chocolates from work colleagues.

We took Harry to a number of places for walks.  It reminded us of the time that I had mine done and we drove to coffee places, had short walks and explored wedding venues.  This time we have gone to Lyall Bay, Wilton Bush, Paremata - all reasonably flat which is far better and Harry can go a tad longer with less effort.

Went to the Wintry Welly Christmas weekend - we arrived a bit late - missed Father Christmas (Connie kept asking me if it was a real one) and then walked back through parliament.  Couldn't resist trying the new slide in front of Parliament.  Quiz question: how many countries have parliaments with a kids playground in the front?

And on one cold Sunday afternoon - I tried cooking a pavlova in a slow cooker.  It works said someone on facebook - in fact they would never cook it any other way.  Piling whipped white fluffy meringue into the bowl I was pleased I hadn't thrown out the slow cooker which doesn't get much use since we turned vegetarian.  The meringue rose, and rose, and rose in the end the lid was sitting on an enormous fluffy pavlova mix.  Yum.  Within minutes of taking it out, the fluffy wonder turned into a gooey ugly mess - tasted o.k. but asthetically not good enough to dish up to friends - enemies perhaps.

It was also a very sad month.  I said goodbye to Fran McGrath - work colleague whom I had a lot of time for. We would often sit in the cafe, sipping coffee and changing the world.  We also said goodbye to John Mills - special husband of Jenny who is a dear friend.  His service was in the little church in Makara Valley - which had a wonderful community and spiritual atmosphere.  A memorial service at the Makara community hall followed. 

Both special people who will be missed by family, friends and me.