Winter in ZQN

It’s nice to be distracted from everyday life, and what’s a better distraction than to get out of town for a long weekend to the winter wonderland that is beautiful Queenstown. Yes, we woke up at 5am to catch a 7am flight yesterday morning, and after checking in to our hotel room and blobbing out for a few hours there, we were up at Coronet Peak throwing snow balls at each other.

These snow mobiles are so cool. If I lived in the snow I’d would want one of these - and maybe dogs pulling sleighs. That would be awesome!



The last time we were here it was dry and empty. Now the place is buzzing, and wet, and (almost) white.







I feel so fortunate to be here in this amazing place. We are lucky to have this experience, and this view from our balcony at the Heritage Hotel.

Honesty vs over-sharing

I flicked back on a few of my blog posts recently and I realised that they sound a lot more upbeat than what I've been experiencing on the inside. That is the conflict I have here on this blog. I often present the best side of our life here. I am conscious that family and friends are reading, and I don't want anyone to be worrying about me (and really, you don't need to worry about me after reading this!) - hence I hold back on pouring out my er, um, stuff/neuroses/internal dialog. Some of it sneaks through, and sometimes I want to write and share more of myself, but it's a fine line between being honest online and over-sharing. So what ends up in my blog posts is a snippet, a fraction of what is going on, and it more or less comes across like we are always happy and our life is bliss. Man, I wish that is the truth, all of the time. But this is life. This is a normal part of the ups and downs of being human, and I pretty much only ever want to recount the good times here, because that's what I want to remember and document. That is authenticity too. If I want to pour my guts out online I need to do it elsewhere, not here on my family blog.

Lately the best part of my life has been parenting Kien, and a close second is being Jef's partner. Both those aspects are the most important, right?







Oh, and this is pretty exciting.


Before any work has been done to our new house.

Work in progress.

More on that later, sometime.

Our afternoon stroll

We are usually out of the house early and gone all morning; going to swimming lessons, stopping at parks and playgrounds, going to the library, walking around the city, occasionally meeting up with Jef for lunch (which we did today) - so by the time we get back home it is normally around 1:30 - 2pm and both Kien and I want to kick back and relax for a bit. We had planned on catching a bus to the Auckland Domain later in the afternoon, so I let him play with the iPad while I did some laundry. I've got a tonne of housework to catch up on, so after about an hour or so when I asked him if he wanted to go do what we had planned, and he said he wanted to stay at home, well I was glad I didn't need to rush out of the house again. Come 4:30pm however, and Kien was begging to go to the museum. By this time it was too late as they close pretty much on the dot at 5pm (I know this because we are always the people they are shooing out at that time). So he sat on the couch begging and crying for me to take him to the museum "for just a little bit, please Mummy, please please take me for just a little bit" - it was pitiful. Okay, time to put our walking shoes back on and lets go up to Ponsonby Rd to look at the flower stalls, I enticed. His face lit up. "Can I buy a flower for you and Daddy?" he asked. If you are very lucky I might have some money in my wallet for you, I told him. So off we went.

Our stroll to Ponsonby Rd consisted of:

=> Finding fishing rod sticks



=> Rolling around in leaves



=> Only walking where the leaves are



=> Befriending a pussy cat



=> Playing Rolly Polly



=> Oh look, the cat has followed us



=> More Rolly Polly



=> Running and kicking leaves





=> Proudly purchasing our favourite flower



=> Waiting


=> The finding of a love heart shaped leaf



=> And last but not least, skipping.

Skipping from Lien on Vimeo.

This was an unexpectedly pleasant afternoon stroll, and for us to get out and enjoy the very beautiful but extremely crisp autumn air.

Do you want to buy me?

I am going up for auction this Wednesday 28th May 2014. Unique innovative urban development, Freemans Park consists of apartment blocks, maisonettes, and courtyard houses built between 1960 and 1967. I'm a sun drenched spacious 2 bedroom apartment (and a carport) with a north-westerly aspect. I have large windows giving loads of light. With polished native timber floors throughout, floor to ceiling windows spanning the entire width of the open living layout, I've got a real 'home in the city' appeal with character, warmth and potential to refurbish and make your own. Extensive park like grounds with mature trees and well cared for lawns and gardens are a true bonus, and rare in city living. Stroll up to Ponsonby Rd, or meander down to the Viaduct just a short wander away - what a great lifestyle.

If you need further convincing click here to view the video tour.

If you are interested or require any further information please get in touch with my agent: Gabrielle Hoffmann 021 0216 6611.

Flow and glide

I've been meaning to write something witty, contemplative and anecdotal about motherhood, Mother's Day, mothering - and I've even got a blog post a third of the way through to completion but I just don't feel like finishing it. I could go on to explain why I don't want to finish writing it but I don't have the energy for explaining it either. So instead I'm just going to flow and glide my way through to the end of this month and hopefully when June is upon us all the dust will have settled.

Here are some pictures to compensate for my lack of words.






















The last 2 photos were actually taken on Mother's Day. We went for lunch at Limon on Princes Wharf. Kien slobbered all over my face thinking it was a fun way of giving me a kiss.

Time does not stand still

Whew, time has just marched right on forward and there has been so much to do and still so much more to do and everything happens all at once and then you try and catch your breath for a bit so you sit down to give yourself some peace and quiet and then you just stay sitting down, you know? Like you give yourself permission not to stress too much and then you end up not doing anything! I feel like I've done that a bit, lately. I guess I knew it was going to be pretty full on in May so I decided to have some calmness before the storm.

So anyway, this is what we've been doing for the last 2 weeks.

I painted my toe nails the other Tuesday morning - something I hardly ever make time to do, and as soon as I got the nail polish out Kien immediately became interested. Immediately. The iPad he earned time to watch that morning was cast aside as he hovered over me, watching and commenting on the colours of my very limited collection. Then he begged me to give him rainbows. So rainbows it was.



That day we also went out for lunch with Rod and Grandma Gun. Afterwards Kien went for a run along Mission Bay (with his plastic saw).



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Then on Thursday it was my friend Naadia's birthday. We went and had lunch up at The Sugar Club in Sky City. If you've seen the recent series of NZ Masterchef then you would have seen one of Peter Gordon's dishes being cooked by the contestants (and I only know this because Naadia told me). So we ordered that as one of our dishes.



Don't be fooled by the photo - the serving was small, but oh boy was it delightful and flavoursome. The Sugar Club only do "small dishes"; the write up says, "Our menu is a selection of small dishes - encouraging you to order, and taste, a wider range of flavours and ingredients than you might otherwise experience at one meal. Three dishes are the equivalent of a starter and main meal." Anyway, Peter Gordon was wandering around when we were up there, as you do when you are a celeb chef and own an award winning restaurant with fabulous views.

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On Saturday Kien went to a birthday party held at Chipmunks.



I asked Kien to smile for one photo so I could send to Jef, and he gave me this:



After the party he really wanted to go to the beach, so we went and hung out at Sentinel for a bit.



That's a pirate ship flag by the way, and here he is digging for treasure.



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On Sunday Kien went to another birthday party held at Rainbows End.



All I can say is that my son has gotten over any fear of going on rides, and the faster and more exhilarating the better. Luckily (or otherwise) he was too small to be doing the big rides, and the party was in the "Kids Kingdom" part of the amusement park so all the rides were suitable for the little people.

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Tuesday was the start of a new term for swimming lessons. Kien was so excited as he really missed not doing lessons for a whole 2 weeks. We were at the pools for ages that morning. Then in the afternoon we went to the museum.





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Yesterday I went to Jef's apartment to take the marketing photos for the sales advertisements. This weekend is the first open home. This photo will soon be in circulation in the NZ Herald, Property Press, on sign boards and posters in our neighbourhood.