I've been told off.

Because I haven't put our newest addition to the family on here yet.

Meet Murphy:

The weekend

We had a great few days with Karl and Ricki home. It culminated in a dinner out on Saturday night - late celebrations for Karls 21st. We went to the Workingmens Club with family and had a lovely evening.




On Sunday we took both boys back to Christchurch. Karl is shifting flats this week, so we had to find him at least a bed. Picked one up at the Smiths City Outlet store - second hand but in good condition. Had a look at his new place - it's a bit further for him to go to work, so that means he has to get his car back on the road. That will not be a cheap exercise. Apart from the body work required, it also needs four new tyres and re-registering.

Guess that means he won't be starting to pay off his student loan any time in the near future!

First day

New job. My head is so full of 'stuff'. The Laboratory is quite a different place now to what it was 20 years ago. So many people work there - I think I remember about three names! More patients, more tests. They are currently working with two different computer systems. New one officially comes into play on Monday - they think! It's a bit daunting, to say the least. Give me a week, and we'll see how I feel then.

Lest we forget....

Poem by Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is a music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncountered:
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn*.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end they remain.

They shall grow not old....as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn*
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them

ANZAC Australia New Zealand Army Corps

What I'm listening to . . .

Rumours are about that Def Leppard might be touring New Zealand - ROCK ON!!!

I have good news . . and good news!

Firstly, Pudding went missing last Friday. Came in for breakfast and then just disappeared. Calls went out to the local radio stations and an advert went in the paper. We all went around the neighbourhood looking for him (dare I say mostly looking in the gutters). We truly thought he was gone for good.

Until - Tuesday morning - he just walked in the door as if he'd never been away! Animals and kids alike ran up to him and checked him over. He's quiet, but seems well. We have all let him know how much we missed him.


Secondly, both my older boys are home. Arrived home on the bus on Wednesday, and we'll take them back to Christchurch on Sunday. Saturday night will see us out having a late birthday dinner for Karl. He was 21 back in February, but wasn't home at the time, so we didn't organise anything for it.

And thirdly - I got a new job! I'm going back to where I was once before. Data entry in the Lab up at the Hospital. I previously worked there 20 years ago. The computer system had just been put in - there was one computer, one data entry operator. Karl was about 14 months old, and within my first few weeks there I discovered I was pregnant with Ricki.

Now there are computers everywhere and three DEO. My position is casual, but with my large foot in the door, I will be first in line for any more 'part time' jobs that come up. I'm so excited!

Baring my soul - or at least my computer desk at a BAD moment!

OK – so it’s not just the internals of the computer that I want to declutter, simplify, etc, etc.

My focus this week will be to keep my inbox (virtual AND real) empty (and if not empty, at least kind of empty) and to keep my computer desk clear. This last one will not be helped by kids being off school for a fortnight! But they are both such small spaces that it can’t be too hard – right?!?

I know - it really, really, really needs doing! But thankfully it doesn't always look this bad.

I have also started sorting out photos that I have downloaded onto the computer. As a part of trying to find the extra room to defrag, I have been deleting unwanted pics, putting others on to disk and getting others ready to go to disk.

Through Liam & Josh buying an HP computer, we got a deal online through Snapfish - www.snapfish.co.nz – and got our first 50 photos printed for free. A great deal, so I got a whole heap printed off last week (they arrived within three days) and last night finished the photo album of the building of this house. Only a year and a half late, but it’s now done.

I’m thinking I need to get an external hard drive. I worry that I don’t do back ups often enough (I know that I should, but I don’t) and we have so many photos, and all the business software on this computer, that it would be a complete mess if it crashed. I’m sure it would be simpler with another hard drive to be able just to put everything like that on to.

And just as a side note . . don't know if you managed to see this on the pin board in one of the first photos . .

The lovely lady on the left is my sister in law, Jackie. She works in the Dementia wing of a local Old Peoples Home (probably not the PC name for them these days). The article tells of how some of the carers there got "forget me knot" tattooed on their ankles!!

Jackie has gone on to get a few more, too! Her newer ones represent her son, daughter and grandchildren, and her extended family who mostly live in England.

She's an amazing lady!

Problem solved . . nearly ~

I’ve solved that extra 10% problem. Karl and Ricki are coming home this week – they can sort it!! I’ll pay them of course. Free accommodation, meals and laundry while they are here. Maybe even give them a ride back to Christchurch. I think that’s very fair – don’t you?

So Karl - make sure you bring any tools you might need, because I need you to fix my lack of sound problem too 

Love you guys!

So long, farewell . . .

Said our goodbyes yesterday. Friends of ours – Murray, Ros, Emma & Jack, are moving north. Back up to Hamilton.
Originally from Blenheim & Picton they moved back to Blenheim a couple of years ago. Now an offer to good to refuse sees them heading north again.
We have known them for ages. Murray was groomsman at our wedding lots of years ago. Then we were guests at their wedding.
I have to say that we haven’t been the best friends, though. Didn’t get around to see them often enough. Only really on ‘occasions’, and it’s times like this, when people are leaving, that you realise what you have missed out on. We have said before that we must do better – we must visit our friends (and family, for that matter) more often.
Life, though, seems to get in the way.
But, you see, the thing is you never know what is around the next corner. You often never realise who is going to be here tomorrow and who isn’t.
Make that time. Take that hour you find you have spare and contact a friend.

Murray, Ros, Emma & Jack – best wishes for your future, have fun, be safe and maybe we’ll see you for the big 50th!!

So how did this happen?

So how did this happen.

I had put on my to do list . . “defrag computer”. Sounds simple enough.

But when I tried it this is what happened . . .

It said I only had 5% free space, and that I needed 15% usable free space for the programme to run effectively. Did I want to carry on?

So after swearing under my breath at the kids for all their darn games that they have downloaded, I decided to do a bit of an internet search and find the best way to declutter the hard drive.

What I found was not only about decluttering and streamlining the hard drive, but also the desktop, the desk, the laundry , my finances . . . indeed my entire life!

So the mission has begun.

And I still haven’t found that extra 10% so I can defrag the computer . . .

It started out as . . .

It started out as the need to defrag the computer. It has, in turn, become something much, much greater.


organisation

noun
1. the persons (or committees or departments etc.) who make up a body for the purpose of administering something; "he claims that the present administration is corrupt"; "the governance of an association is responsible to its members"; "he quickly became recognized as a member of the establishment" [syn: administration]
2. a group of people who work together [syn: organization]
3. an organized structure for arranging or classifying; "he changed the arrangement of the topics"; "the facts were familiar but it was in the organization of them that he was original"; "he tried to understand their system of classification" [syn: arrangement]
4. an ordered manner; orderliness by virtue of being methodical and well organized; "his compulsive organization was not an endearing quality"; "we can't do it unless we establish some system around here" [syn: organization]
5. the act of organizing a business or an activity related to a business; "he was brought in to supervise the organization of a new department" [syn: organization]
6. the activity or result of distributing or disposing persons or things properly or methodically; "his organization of the work force was very efficient" [syn: organization]


There you have it. Specifically numbers 4 & 6.

I have an instrinsic need to ORGANISE. To DECLUTTER. To SIMPLIFY.

And I really, really need to defrag the damn computer!!