Behold: another decade fresh and new, just waiting to be sampled! As is the case with many of my fellow bloggers, I am going to do a wee review of this past decade.
Warning: Please click away now if you're sure this is going to bore the frickin' bejesus out of you.
2000 - Started with what would have to be the shock of my life, so far. I was working late at my job as an accounts manager in London, and thought to myself, hey, I'm feeling a little bit queasy. A bit...dodgy. Have been for a few days now. And speaking of which, when was the last time I had a period? Aw-ohhh....
One test kit at Boots the Chemist and two thin blue lines in Debenhams' ladies loos later, the world crashed in on me in spectacular (think: don't want a baby, don't think I ever will, just got promoted, did not plan this at all, do not want this AT ALL! Sh*t oh no oh no oh my GOD!) fashion.
Oi.
Yep, our life had flipped on its lid and a month later I had quit my wonderful job, realising that I had to, had to go home to have my mother and my sister close by when this baby came. A month after that I had moved back to New Zealand. It would be three months later (we had three buyers pull out of buying our house) till my beloved Other Harf could join me for good, waiting in eager anticipation in Arrivals with a gigantic basketball-sized bulge up my top,
When he copped sight of me his mouth dropped open so wide I swear a double-decker bus could of garaged itself in there. I will never forget his face, ever...
And a month later, on the 7th of September 2000, after 28 hours of labour (yikes!) our little Miss was born.
This is the oldest photo I have on my PC (thanks Jen, I've always adored this one - taken by you in September 2002) - anything earlier than 2003 is pre-digital (there was such a time?) and packed away in boxes - all currently inaccessible due to the Other Harf's lastest overtidying up efforts!
Missy grew into a gurgly, happy baby and was a complete hit when Aunty K and Uncle K came from the US and the UK to visit us in March. Later that year the OH and I changed roles, and I took on the job of breadwinner as an Accounts Clerk for a local manufacturing company and he stayed at home to take care of our daughter.
He was an awesome stay-at-home dad, just like he is now.
2002 - With the health of the OH's parents failing dramatically, we decided that we should go back to the UK to live for a year. It was to be the toughest year of the decade. Not only was living in a tiny second-story flat difficult with a toddler; the drudgery and grind of the daily commute, combined with the long hours Missy spent in daycare (as both of us worked full-time) took its toll. It was just not easy, at all.
But most of all, the death of the Other Harf's best friend K in a tragic accident in July of that year was the hardest thing we have ever had to deal with. Saying that, there were good times, and we celebrated the OH's 40th birthday in grand fashion that August with our wonderful friends - lots of sangria and toasting of those who could not be with us and who were missed so, so much.
And Missy got herself a gorgeous li'il East London accent!
2003 - It was wonderful to step off the plane and see our family and friends in March! Sunshine, our big backyard, the chilled-out Kiwi existence - it all was waiting for us. We settled quickly back into Kiwi life, and I started my English degree by correspondence while the OH got himself a great job working for a big retail chain. Missy turned three and started at part-time daycare, and I started my first blog "ScorpioGirl" in July 2003.
2004 - A happy, mellow, relatively uneventful year, with me
getting great grades for my uni papers and dragging my best mate L
along to join a netball team (it was her very first time playing
netball) and the OH joining up with an indoor footy team with his mate
S and Bruvinlaw. The OH's Dad passed away in June, so he made a quick
trip back home for the funeral. My parents sold their house on Waiheke
Island and moved up north to live rurally. Missy turned 4 and I was
able to document her priceless announcements ("Mummy, when I grow up I
want to have my own chewing gum and have big bipples, just like you!")
on my new blog which for reasons I can't quite recall I named
"Kiwifruit".
The original pesky puppy came into our lives in February - Pippa, soooo cute but soooo naughty!
What
else...we went up north for my birthday and stayed in a motel right on
the beach at Cable Bay and had the best fish and chips ever, and I got
a really cool digital camera as a prezzie.
2005 - I started full-time at Auckland University and loved
every minute, especially the "Tolkien's Worlds" paper I took in the
second semester. In April, the OH took Missy back to the UK to see his
Mum, who was very ill - sadly she passed away that September.
(Miss 4.4 outside her Aunty's and Uncle's house in Gatehouse of Fleet, Scotland)
Missy started school in the September and didn't even give me a backward glance that first day, and in November the OH and I celebrated ten years of marriage with a Womantic Weekend in Tairua.
That Christmas we (and Lil'Sis and family) went up north to stay with Mum and Dad and while we were there, we sisters made a big decision...that we were going to sell up and move away from Auckland.
We were gonna live in the country...
2006 - That January, chock-full of enthusiasm, we slogged our guts out to get our house ready to put up for sale. During the weekends (leaving the OH to the more difficult bits) Missy and I went up north, scouting for a new home. With Mum's help we found the perfect place (a 100 year-old villa on fourteen acres with room enough for everybody) in April and within a matter weeks we sold our house, made an offer on this perfect place, and (with the addition of Lil'Sis and Bruvinlaw's finance while they waited for their house to sell) had our offer accepted. On the 19th of May, we moved in. That is, Missy and I moved in (Mum and Dad's place was still on the market - they were going to join us too, living upstairs in the villa in what was eventually to be their own self-contained apartment, and the OH had to see out his notice down in Auckland for the next three months).
It was pouring with rain but it felt so wonderful. I had found my real home.
While the OH worked his notice out, commuting up in the weekends, I
found myself a job and Missy a new school and we settled into our new
rural life. I built my first vegetable garden, rounded up my first herd
of cows, mended my first fence and experienced the joys of never-ending
power cuts. Mum and Dad moved in for good late August, and set about
transforming the second story rooms into their own little piece of home.
2007 - The OH and I both worked full-time during
the week, and slogged it out DIY-ing, gardening and landscaping in the
weekends. I continued studying English by correspondence. Missy loved
her new school and started playing the recorder and going to Brownies.
In April, the three of us flew to Rarotonga where the OH and I were Best Man and Matron of Honour for our best friends L & S. It was a gorgeous wedding and the most relaxing holiday I've ever had. We can't wait to go back!
2007 also saw two of the worst storms ever to hit Northland.
It flooded in March, causing our driveway to give way and a huge slip
to rip through the front paddock, and in July an incredibly powerful
windstorm hit us, downing trees and knocking down fences. Scary times.
And, in August, in a rather bold move that had the in-house accountant tut-tuting, I traded up to my first DSLR, a Canon 400D, and fell completely in love.
Finally,
the day before Christmas, Lil'Sis, Brunvinlaw and their family of three
kids came to live with us for what was to be the next 18 months, while
they built their perfect home on the section next to us.
2008 - With a little bit of courage I applied for a new job internally at work, and started in February - more money, more experience, more of a challenge! In May my lovely friend J and her husband visited from the UK, and later that month the whole whanau made a marathon trip to Gisborne in a twelve-seater transit van to attend my Mum's/Uncle's combined 60th hooley. July saw me jet-set across the ditch to visit the lovely Deeleea and drink fabulous margaritas. Thanks chick!
In September, the recession struck, ka-pow! and I learnt that come December my job would be no longer. After the initial "Woe is me! Why me!" angsty bit, I grew to accept that it wasn't me, it was them, and anyway, it would be the perfect opportunity to take the whole of the summer school holidays off to spend with Missy.
And that's what I did.
2009 - We spent a week in Raglan in January, most of which was rainy and overcast, but hey, it was still a holiday and there were photo ops galore. Plus, we got to see a part of New Zealand none of us had ever seen before. Bewdiful!
Lil'Sis gave birth to Nephew F in February and in April, after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and fart-arsing about I finally got myself a new job (and the Other Harf quit his job after months of working weekends and putting up with the crap that comes when a company gets taken over).
However, things soon turned custard-like with the new job and even a weekend away at a gorgeous historical house overlooking a stunning harbour couldn't cheer me up. I hated that job, so much. I dreaded going back.
That Monday, I quit that job, and two days later, I was offered a new position back at my old company. I was over the moon; It was just meant to be!
Later that year, we had another visit from my lovely friend J and
her husband from the UK and several 40th birthdays rolled past,
including mine, themed "1969"...
The actual weekend of my birthday the OH whisked me away to a stunning place called Castaways Lodge
where, somewhere over my lamb rack and kumara mash dinner on the
evening of the 22nd of November, I got over the fact I was a whole 40
years old. It just didn't matter anymore.
Christmas? It was over in the blink of an eye and New Years, just four days ago, seems like months ago. I had my three oldest and dearest friends and their families to stay and just as predicted we danced, we drank and we Singstarred into the early morning.
I wonder what the next decade will bring me...?
WOW. It completely freaks me out that some of that was nearly 10 YEARS AGO. How the heck did that happen? But, glad you still like the pic! She was so cute that day...
I know! It's surreal!
And I was feeling like this past decade was a little less exciting than the one before, but after writing this, I feel it was just as exciting, but in a different way :)
Woah, what a decade!
You sure did deal with a heap, hope this coming decade is even more amazing and full of fantastic memories.
Lovely retrospective, Fi. Great pics. I remember ScorpioGirl and you posting that priceless moment.
Bex: I'm hoping so too!
Rob: Thanks! I am considering putting a little photo book together with some of her priceless little moments - a gift for her ten birthday in September :)