Disco Inferno

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Ronan had a dance tonight at school. The theme was disco, so Sherry and Karla went all out and picked up some appropriate accessories for Ro and MJ. Decked out in afros, aviator shades (weren't those from the 80's?), and plenty of plastic bling, they were the hit of the party. Everyone wanted to hang out with them, with the notable exception of Ro's latest crush, Bria (?sp). Ro's teacher noticed him looking forlornly at her, but she was too shy to dance with the rambunctious boys. Of course, at the kindergarten level, dancing and a grand-mal seizure don't look much different. Ro continued to expand his culinary horizons, wolfing down a sausage roll like it was a PB&J. On the way home, Sherry & Karla stopped at Starbucks and treated the boys to fluffies (flavored steamed milk).

The princes on their way to the ball

Too cool for school. Note the surfboard-shaped benches

No, the goal's not missing a backboard. It's for netball, the original "women's basketball"

Chatting up the birds

The Little Rugger

Wednesday May 6, 2009

Ronan started rugby training today after school. After meeting his coach, Carlos, he discovered that there were two mates of his from school, Reuben and Jack, in the club. The "Under-Seven's" Club (aged four to six years old) plays nonthreateningly barefoot, but they're required to wear mouth-guards. Just watching the entire lot of them running around with often ill-fitting and jutting-out mouth-guards provided jocularity enough, however the training itself was the real treat.

Ro's first rugby practice

In the first practice game, the team was divided in half, with one half given belts to wear to denote that they were team Stripe. On the non-striped side, Ronan would've gotten a "try", or score, right off as he caught the toss from a teammate and bolted down the field ahead of everyone---except he was going sideways OFF the field, through parents, etc... with all the kids following him, instead of DOWN the field. It was priceless. However, all of the boys proceeded to catch a toss and run the wrong way, or toss to the wrong side at one point or another. After the first practice game, they spent the majority of time on skills training, learning to toss to each other correctly, and also to correctly touch a teammate to "tackle", instead of actually tackle, as most seemed wont to do.

Ro giving chase

Invariably, toward the end of the practice, kids were dropping like flies and just lying down on the field to rest before getting their last wind and rejoining for the end-of-practice game. Most of them, like us, had come to the park right after school let out at 3, and had been already running around for nearly and hour and a half before practice had finally commenced at 4:30. Ro and Sherry walked the klick home from Blake Park, and the entire way Ro was complaining of being tired, sleepy, and hungry. Indeed, once home, he ate an entire pear, half a carrot, a big bowl of pasta, a banana, and got treated to a cup of Hokey Pokey ice-cream for dessert. All of this within 30 minutes of getting home. Even then he wanted "more pasta", but Sherry wisely gave him a glass of milk, bathed him, and put him to bed. Usually up by 6 am, he slept in until 8, and would've slept longer, but Sherry had to wake him up for school for the first time in recent memory. Thank goodness for the 9 am start time!

Ro sacked out hard Thursday morning

In Case of Emergency, Dial 111

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Karla got stuck working an ambulance shift by herself today (one of the volunteers didn't show), so she invited Sherry to join her on a ride-along as an observer. It was a pretty quiet shift at the Te Puke ambulance station; they only had one call while Sherry was there, a COPD'er who they took to Tauranga hospital. Since Sherry wasn't really allowed to drive the ambulance, she got to take care of the patient in the back on the way. Karla introduced Sherry to the ED nurses, and it was revealed that Sherry was married to someone who worked in the ED, but no one could figure out who it was. Sort of surprising that they couldn't make the connection, really, since there aren't many Yanks working there.

Sherry & Karla after a not-so-hard day's work

Paramedic in training

Meanwhile, Mark wasn't about to try to entertain Ro at the apartment all day, so they headed for Rotorua to get in a little luging. It was a crisp, sunny autumn day today and the fall colors were showing up nicely inland. Sherry packed some snacks for them, so they had a little picnic on the lawn underneath the gondolas before heading up the mountain. Ro enjoyed waving to all the Japanese tourists passing by overhead, and they found him equally fascinating. He happily clowned around for them while they snapped photos of his antics. He's becoming quite the little daredevil on the luge, too. Fond of sharply zig-zagging his way down the track at high speed, he and Mark crashed on several occasions. No major injuries, at least.

Ready for a full day of luging. Lake Rotorua in background

Ro enjoying the expansive view

Ro enjoying his chicken nuggets at the outdoor cafe

Two birds squaring off over Ro's last nugget. Does that make them cannibals?

Heading home. Ro showing off the dandelions he picked for Sherry

Not a Dry Spot To Be Had

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Today was chilly and rainy. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard for Sherry and Karla to convince the kids to get out to the beach anyway. As the women sheltered under a tree in coats, Ro, MJ and Tori built sand castles, chased each other around in a sand-throwing fight, and played in the waves. Although they were only in knee-deep water, they were knocked down several times by the heavy surf. Mark had the foresight to wear his rashie (swim shirt) and bathing suit, so they were never more than a few feet away in the forceful rip currents. Karla hadn't expected her kids to get in the water to begin with, so they were fully clothed; MJ was even wearing shoes and socks. Needless to say, they were all freezing in short order and looking like drowned rats, walking stiffly with arms outstretched to try to keep their clothes from touching them. Changing them into dry ones under the trees was a twenty-minute comic ordeal. Even the surfers in their wet suits were saying the water was cold today. When we finally got home, we ignored the rain again and headed straight for the jacuzzi to warm up.

Tori defending herself against a sand onslaught. Those black dots in the water are surfers

Bracing for impact

A chilly soaking. Moturiki Island in background

A waterlogged MJ with sand in his hair from getting tossed by a wave

If Only He Could Breathe Fire...

Friday, May 1, 2009

Today was "Storybook Day" at Ro's school, where all the kids come dressed up as their favorite book character, with the book in hand to show it to the class. Despite Sherry's best attempts at persuasion, he didn't want to be Ben-10 or any other character she could buy off the rack. He wanted to be a dragon from his Dragonology book, specifically a basilisk. So, he was in need of a dragon costume. Of course, the very nice dragon costume he wore last Halloween is back in the States. As luck would have it, there's a Bernina sewing center in Tauranga just down the street from the hospital. So, with some thread, a few meters of disco fabric, some plastic angel wings, and a hired sewing machine (NZ$10/day), Sherry mucked in this week and set about making Ro into a dragon.

Sherry painting Ro's dragon wings

Sunrise from our deck

The dragon contemplates taking flight

At first, Ro loved the costume when he tried it on last night, but given a chance to think about it overnight he decided it looked too much like a dress and balked at wearing it this morning...lol. After a little coaxing, he finally went to school in it, and it was a big hit. His friend Mark ("MJ") went as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

The dragon finally takes off on the flying fox

Tramping in the Rain

Sunday, April 26, 2009

A few pics from Ro's vacation days earlier in the week:

Hanging out with a friend at Drury Park

Ro in the middle of a slide train at Drury Park

Portrait of Sherry as taken by Ro

Ro in his makeshift fort on Mount Drury

With rain off and on for the second day in a row, we were anxious to get Ro out of the house, so we put on our rain gear and headed for The Mount. We ambled along at Ro's leisurely pace, watching him climb trees, walls, small cliffs, etc... Our plans originally were to walk around the circuit track at the base of the mountain, but we never got more than a fifth of the way around before Ro started getting cold. We detoured onto the beach on the harbour side of The Mount, which is mostly barnacle-clad boulders that Ro loved climbing on. We even found a swing that someone had recently put up hanging from one of the wind-gnarled trees along the beach.

Ro & Sherry on the harbour side of Mount Maunganui

Look what we found!

Ro enjoying the beach at the western base of Mount Maunganui. Note the sheep on the ridge above

Getting soaked again on the way home, we found a sea star on Pilot Bay beach that was about a foot across, which of course Ro wanted to keep. Hopefully it will sun-bleach nicely on our deck; at least it's more aesthetically acceptable to Sherry than that rat's skull. Searching for something to keep Ro busy without resorting to Morrowind, Sherry picked up a deck of cards at the store and Mark taught him to play War, which he absolutely loved. We're thinking that blackjack might be a good way to teach addition.

Ro enjoying a hot soak after coming in out of the rain

ANZAC Day

Saturday, April 25, 2009

For all of you who ever looked at your calendar and saw "ANZAC Day (Aus/NZ)" and wondered what it was, well this is it. The shared national holiday commemorates the memory and heroism of the fallen soldiers in WWI, especially at Gallipoli, the first major combat action (an unmitigated disaster) seen by the old Australia & New Zealand Army Corps. It has since come to encompass all the military campaigns in both countries' histories. Some say it should be the national holiday, not Waitangi Day (commemorating when the treaty with the Maori was signed), since WWI is when New Zealand really found it's national identity, separate from the UK. It's become sort of a combined Memorial Day/Veteran's Day, but it seems to get a lot more attention here than those holidays do in the States, at least by the general public.

Gathering crowd around 5:45am

One of the nurses at work tipped Mark off to the Dawn Service at the Mount Maunganui main beach this morning, at the cenotaph right across Marine Parade from Mount Drury. Not relishing the thought of waking up Ro to drag him to a solemn ceremony on a blustery soggy morning with the distractions of the beach a few feet away, Mark let Sherry and the little guy sleep, wolfed down some breakfast, put on his jacket and jeans for the first time we've been here, and set out on foot for the beach. There was no point in driving, because there was no parking to be had much closer than where we live anyway. Every conceivable parking spot (including sidewalks) was filled two blocks from the beach at 5:30am, and the line of cars looking for spots looked like it stretched all the way back to the Tauranga bridge.

News reporter at the service with sailors marching past

The crowd was enormous (wearing their ubiquitous paper poppies), the TV news crews were out in force, and Mark couldn't even see the dais until after the ceremony was over. Of course, all the WWII vets marched in followed by more recent vets, surviving descendants, fire brigades, Boy Scouts, etc... After they all marched out at the end, everyone came up and laid poppies on the cenotaph. The overcast skies prevented any dramatic ray of sunshine peeking over the Pacific, but it was still a memorable morning.

View from the slopes of Mount Drury of the crowd dispersing

See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Day

See link: http://www.rsa.org.nz/remem/poppy_hist.html

Near the end of the ceremony, Rev Chris Haines asked New Zealanders to keep their recession hardships in perspective and not look for somebody else to blame. "The inevitable cycles of less than plenty have much more to do with our common obsession with self-interest than with a particular person or political party," he said. "We can, individually and as a people if we will, remember the gifts of freedom and peace that was brought to us by so many thousands of young New Zealanders who, on the sharp end of war and terror and death, gave us their second chances."