It would be a spectacular disappointment if I’d allowed myself expectations. I’ve lived through enough UK summers, though, to have formulated none at all. And because I’ve still only been back a year, I haven’t really minded the more or less total failure of summer to appear. Continue reading “Neighbourhood watching”
Stability. Settledness. A mostly predictable order to things.
Ahh.
It lasts about four days.
It’s the first week of my new nannied-up routine and I’m just relaxing into the roomy new shape of my week when the email arrives from the letting agent. The landlords won’t be renewing our lease in June. Continue reading “Unfortunately, fortunately”
It’s not Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho, not Jacha-chacha-chacha-chow. It’s a soft, shrill, wheezy cough, like a kitten hacking up a furball. Continue reading “I know what the fox says”
A whole new year, minus a week. Now that it’s here I find myself impatient to begin, to move through this pleasant, lazy, between-the-years hiatus and on to the next stage of relocating, resettling, reacclimatising, and absorbing the reverse culture shock of the big, bad, beautiful city. Continue reading “Cows vs tigers”
Ship of the desert
Poor old Aratere. Stuck in dock with her broken propeller shaft, no dry dock in Godzone big enough to accommodate her for the required delicate rummaging among her ladyparts. Continue reading “Shipping out”
So here it is, our final quarter. The ski season finally over, and a long list of other adventures to try and squeeze into our last term. To bookend the season, we were up the mountain on closing weekend, graunching our way through the thick mashed-potato snow, paying our final respects: goodbye, Cardrona! See you in a few years! Continue reading “Space cadet”
Another birthday. A year on already from that humdrum, stressed-out, deadline-ridden day last year – the day itself a non-event, but the milestone, of course, the excuse on which I’ve hung this whole wonderful adventure. Continue reading “Anniversaries and olfactory absences”
