After Karl's 18th birthday party last night Mandy and I had the opportunity to spend the day sightseeing around a couple of Sydney's icons.We started off at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked around the shoreline until we came to the Opera House. It was great to spend some time with Mandy to sit and chat and talk about stuff and about our mothers and family and kids. My little old knees held up to the walking well.
I am on a Boeing something or other sitting in cattle class, flying at so many thousand feet above the earth with only Mini-Dylan, our geocache toy, to keep me company. I am off Sydney for an Adobe Asia/Pacific regional meeting. The whole invite thing only happened a dozen days ago so it was all a bit rushed and ever such a little bit stressful as the tickets arrived by email yesterday lunchtime. Fellow NZ AEL Colin Gover from Auckland isn’t joining me on this one. I shouldn’t say cattle class today as there are only about 30 people in our section of the plane built to hold heaps. If we wanted we could all stretch out and have a lying down nap which I might actually do when my laptop battery runs out.
Knowing Mini-Dylan’s love of travelling I invited him along this time round instead of having to stow away in my handbag.
Lessons learnt already- Before you try and fill in three hours of flying by playing on your laptop make sure before you leave home that it is fully charged. I will know this one for the trip home.
It was good advice not to buy a 17 inch Mac Book Pro as light is good and my 15 inch sits nicely on the tray table in the plane.
I had a little weep as I left my homeland thinking of how Mum would have loved to know about this trip. I like to think as I write this that she is with me now but it is not the same as her being here. But then I also think that I can go and enjoy myself without looking over my shoulder and worrying about how Mum is faring on her own in New Zealand.
I am feeling a little whakama as regards the Adobe get- together. We are supposed to present a 15 minute number on our favourite Adobe application. Adobe has promised me a wonderful range of software to pick from but none of it has arrived yet so it is a bit hard to pick just one- apart from Photoshop Elements that I got for my old PC that I haven’t fired up in ages. So I went to the net and am going to show the participants Buzzword, ConnectNow and Adobe Photoshop Express which are all on line tools that anyone can access. Anyone with internet access that is. I am not sure how much access we will have during the sessions so I have done a little screen grab with Keynote- not very inspiring though with me saying, “Imagine if you will the power and wonder of the these on line apps that you can’t see.” We live in hope that we will have decent access. I am sure the other people are way more knowledgeable about Adobe apps than me- I feel like a bit of a fraud.
What I hope to get out of the meeting…
Meeting up with a group of like minded types from the Asia/Pacific Region- apart from Chris Betcher I don’t recognise any of the names of other participants. Learning about the sort of products that Adobe has to offer will be magnificent.
Meeting Chris face to face will be a highlight. Chris, Chrissy Hellyer, Simon Evans and I did a hilarious get together via Skype a while back that was podcasted. We were in an irreverent mood at the time and it was lots of laughs. Chris is very skilled with Adobe applications so that will be fun.
In support of Adobe the good folks at Wacom have offered us an Intuos 3 tablet to use with the Adobe software. Getting to grips with this ‘new for me’ technology will a highlight also. Cool bananas- a new toy to keep me going until I can buy my new G3 iPhone on July 11.
I am looking forward to the whole thing. Bring it on.
Amy recently had a quick break over to Belgium. She is obviously making the most of her opportunities because last weekend she was in Ireland visiting the Guiness factory. Her Grandad would have loved it.
I have my doubts about putting this on my blog but I thought what the hell. I had my very first singing lesson at the School of Music tonight and thought I would make a podcast of it to be able to replay the noise I make and hopefully learn from my mistakes. Scary stuff and not for public consumption.
Danny recently was visited at work by Precious McKenzie- Commonwealth Games and Olympic athlete. Precious had come out to NZ from the UK for the Commonwealth Games as a power lifter. The country loved him and the feeling was mutual. He now tours about giving back injury prevention seminars.
You may have noticed the slight height difference!
Here I am sitting at the car wheel alignment place waiting for the wheels to be balanced. I haven’t blogged for ages as a lot has happened and I haven’t felt up to the challenge. Best blogged in a place where my tears are only on the inside.
On Thursday 1 May I was at the Nelson airport about to head up to Whangarei for the ICT cluster mini-conference. The plane was delayed so I thought I would give my dear Mum a quick call on her cell phone at the rest home to say farewell before I left. As I rang a new voice answered saying that Mum had had a fall and was having multiple seizures and they had called an ambulance.
I was able to get my suitcase back from the flight attendants and call a taxi. The driver was great and I managed to beat the ambulance to the rest home and go with Mum to the hospital. The doctors at the hospital were fabulous and got Mum all the attention she needed immediately. A volunteer of the St John’s Ambulance stayed with me at that time as well and told me it would be all right- there was going to be a way through this.
After the necessary CAT scans and X-rays we were transferred to a medical ward. Mum nearly died just then but hung on in a coma from which she never emerged. I called my good friend Nikki who dropped everything and came immediately to be with Mum and I. She stayed a while and prayed with Mum and I which was very comforting. They jacked me up with a fold-up bed in Mum’s room and my vigil began.
Danny was able to fly over from Wellington to be with us for the weekend and was able to share the load as I whipped home for a quick shower each day. He flew back to Wellington on Sunday and I called for my cousin, Chris, to come to be with Mum. He was wonderful during the week as good friends came by to give comfort and support.
As I went home each day and via Twitter through my cell phone I was able to keep contact with my on-line friends and I was humbled and comforted by the support offered from people I had never met. These people were so warm and caring and I felt uplifted by their direct messages.
Exactly one week later Mum passed away as I wished her well on her journey to join Judy, Dad and her tiny grandson, Jeffery. I was so pleased that I was there for her right through to the end.
Mum’s funeral was lovely with a mixture of love, laughter and tears. I had whipped up town to buy a decent iPod set of speakers and I made a iPhoto slideshow of photos from Mum’s life that started the service. My new MacBook Pro let me down with the slideshow I had prepared skipping during playback of iTunes- I felt like chucking it in the river but Sherryn did maginicently through trembling hands to operate the computer and iPod.
The celebrant for the Methodist Church where Mum and Dad got married was excellent- she just led the service and tied the pieces together and let it flow. Sherryn and Janice did the computer work and Liz videoed the service for Amy in the UK who has just started her big OE and was not able to come back home.
We sung Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art, Dad’s favourites. Chris, Tom, Danny and I spoke to Mum and it was very moving to hear how Mum had touched the lives of so many people. Chris, Alan, Tom, Danny, Ruth and I were pall bearers and as people left the service for refreshments we asked them to place a momento for Mum on her coffin. Ruth, Colleen and I had made scrapbooked cards featuring some of the joys in Mum’s life- photos of family and friends, bubble plastic to pop, crossword puzzles, Mainland Banner, our rugby heroes, Woman’s Weekly &Woman’s Day magazines, talkback radio, knitting, sewing, baking, her garden, bowls, collecting recipes, netball, our afternoon teas, life.
This video shows the slideshow we showed at the beginning of the service.
Here is what I said for Mum...
My Mum was my best friend. She was the kindest, cutest, funniest lady. Everytime that Grandma said something so quick and clever Amy would let her know just how very cute she was. She cared for her family deeply and would never want to be a trouble to anyone.
These last six months since Mum first got sick I have come to grow ever closer to her as our lives became more intertwined with visits and outings. She was always grateful for the little things I was able to do for her and every night she would say thank you for tucking her in with her bean bag for the night. She often asked me to hold her tight and I did my best to do just that. We looked forward to our afternoon tea outings and must have visited every combination of afternoon tea place twice in Nelson over the last six months.
I was particularly pleased that I took leave for term three of last year to help her get settled into the rest home and also for me to take stock of my own health as well. In a way Mum’s illness led me to be able to make better choices to look after myself.
She was so proud of her children and grandchildren. Judy’s passing affected the whole family deeply and Mum did her best to be there for Tom, Danny and Amy during that difficult time. Danny and Amy are the light in our eyes and Grandma loved them to bits.
She loved me and nurtured me and was so proud of my achievements- encouraging and interested always in what I was getting up to on my ‘video’.
Mum had a hard start in life and was determined not to let anyone repeat the mistakes of her parents. She worked hard to make a life with Dad and our photo albums attest to how hard she had to work to do just that. When they bought the house at 39 Collingwood Street from her maternal grandfather it was overgrown and neglected. Mum said that the hydrangeas were almost that big that they overwhelmed the back garden. It was a small two bedroom house with an open verandah where the lounge room is now and Dad relined it and they built a third bedroom so Nana could live with us while Mum reclaimed the garden.
Mum worked in a variety of jobs to support the family and I remember her supervising us after school through the window of Freeth’s furniture shop next door.
When Judy’s twins were born and Jeffery was ill Mum left her job as grocery assistant to go to Wellington to be there for Judy and Tom through that difficult time.
There is supposed to be an order to the cycle of life and watching your tiny grandson and then a husband and daughter pass away was so hard for her to bear.
My Mum was my best friend. She was the kindest, cutest, funniest lady much loved by her friends and family. Every day she made me laugh and my life is so much richer having her as my mother. Thank you Mum. I hold you tight in my heart always.
About three weeks ago Mum had said that she thought she had done her dash and was ready to move on. She told me I was her best friend and I was not to grieve for long. I think now that she felt she was getting weaker as Parkinson’s Disease was starting to grasp her more firmly in its grip. She had told me that Amy was not come back for a funeral but I didn’t think it would be this soon.
We had a big rain and wind last night and the river was up this morning- it had been higher over night as I could tell from the high tide mark of sticks. The noise is the rush of the river flow. It had gone down by the time I got home from work. It is good the river gets a good clean out from time to time. This morning I saw a kotuku and two spoonbills on the way to work- they obviously liked the wet.
Danny is here for Easter break. Yesterday we headed over the Takaka Hill for a spot of salmon fishing. Things started slowly but we got the hang of it and soon caught 2.65kg of salmon.
It was a great arrangement- you only pay for the salmon you catch and they smoke it while you wait. Click on the play button to watch a little video of me catching a salmon.
Tonight Dame Kiri Te Kanawa came to Nelson's Opera in the Park. The event was held in a nearby park. I am not overly fond of that sort of singing so gave it a miss. I was busy doing my homework when it sounded like a bomb going off- fireworks! I rushed outside with the nearest camera I could find and captured this rather nice photo. I know it's blurry but I like it anyway. I uploaded at a fairly big size so you can see the detail- click on it.
Have a look at my edublog to see what I've been up to lately.
We started off at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked around the shoreline until we came to the Opera House.
It was great to spend some time with Mandy to sit and chat and talk about stuff and about our mothers and family and kids. My little old knees held up to the walking well.
I am on a Boeing something or other sitting in cattle class, flying at so many thousand feet above the earth with only Mini-Dylan, our geocache toy, to keep me company. I am off Sydney for an Adobe Asia/Pacific regional meeting. The whole invite thing only happened a dozen days ago so it was all a bit rushed and ever such a little bit stressful as the tickets arrived by email yesterday lunchtime. Fellow NZ AEL Colin Gover from Auckland isn’t joining me on this one. I shouldn’t say cattle class today as there are only about 30 people in our section of the plane built to hold heaps. If we wanted we could all stretch out and have a lying down nap which I might actually do when my laptop battery runs out.
Amy recently had a quick break over to Belgium. She is obviously making the most of her opportunities because last weekend she was in Ireland visiting the Guiness factory. Her Grandad would have loved it.
Danny is here for Easter break. Yesterday we headed over the Takaka Hill for a spot of salmon fishing. Things started slowly but we got the hang of it and soon caught 2.65kg of salmon.
It was a great arrangement- you only pay for the salmon you catch and they smoke it while you wait. Click on the play button to watch a little video of me catching a salmon.
Tonight Dame Kiri Te Kanawa came to Nelson's Opera in the Park. The event was held in a nearby park. I am not overly fond of that sort of singing so gave it a miss. I was busy doing my homework when it sounded like a bomb going off- fireworks! I rushed outside with the nearest camera I could find and captured this rather nice photo. I know it's blurry but I like it anyway. I uploaded at a fairly big size so you can see the detail- click on it.
