Getting Reacquainted

Well, I set myself goals for the year, and promptly lost interest in them. I'm not beating myself up about it. I realised that I have certain obligations, and I don't need to make further obligations out of activities that I choose for myself.

I've been working full time for over a year and contributing a large part of the family budget. While I don't do so much of the meal preparation any more, I do most of the housework (as much as any housework gets done, that is) and I do all the laundry. I have commitments to the administration of Takahe magazine.

As for the family history, poetry, orienteering etc, I do it because I want to. And if I don't, I don't have to.

Here is what I am up to at the moment instead of pursuing the goals I announced earlier:



You can see my sewing machine manual on the left hand side of the photo, because it was so long since I had used the machine, I found I had forgotten how to turn it on. (In my defense, it was a fairly new sewing machine when I last used it. I can still remember how to turn my old machine on, the one I had for twenty years or more).

I also couldn't find the switch for the light. After searching the manual for a while, I found that the light should come on automatically. It doesn't. Or at least, it does sometimes. When I twitch my nose properly, or when the wind is in the east, or something. Grrr! I can still sew though, with a carefully placed lamp.

The idea was to make a quilt with fabrics on hand. There are two black and white fabrics and twelve coloured strips in each block of this quilt. I've made eight blocks so far - ninety six coloured pieces. Despite starting with a big stack of purple, turquoise and pink fabrics, I still find myself wanting more variety. I'm trying to resist the urge to buy too many more (besides, the ones in our local quilt shops all seem to look the same).

I'll show the quilt again as it progresses, and tell you more about it.

Meanwhile, there has been a little excitement in our household. One of the young people in this news story is someone rather closely related to me...

Travel Stories, But Not Mine...

A few years back my daughter was teaching English in New Caledonia for seven months. The school where she was teaching arranged her work visa. Unfortunately it expired on her last day of work. Which wasn't very helpful, since the next flight out of the country was two days later.

It took several months of French bureaucracy to get it extended by a few days. In the meantime, we joked about it: "What's the worst they could do? Send you out of the country on the next available flight!"

Well, apparently that's not the worst that can happen if you find yourself with an expired visa. Not in the United States, anyway. This story recently hit the newspapers here (although in a very minor way, compared to the All Blacks not making even the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup).

Apparently Rick was trying to leave the US for Canada, where he had a job lined up, thinking his visa expired the next day. He had made a mistake, it had actually expired 6 days earlier. He asked a border security officer where he could catch the bus over the border, and was promptly arrested and held without charge on antiterrorism laws.

I gather he is now back in New Zealand, having had to pay around $3000 US for an air ticket (they come very expensive if you have to buy one at short notice). What happened to the job in Canada, I don't know.

Everyone, be really, really careful with your visa dates. But doesn't it all seem a bit heavy-handed for someone who was on his
way out of the country, anyway?

(Yes, I will continue with my travel diary, in a day or two. It's coming to an end and I feel the urge to drag it out a bit).