Christmas 2012

Happy Holidays!

Self portrait while squinting at sun looks 

like smiling.

Yet again an attempt to contact one and all.  I’ve missed the post…while in the supermarket last night I saw that the 21^st was the last day for domestic mail – let alone anything going overseas.

I’ve had lots of comments about winding down to the end of the year.  The last term is the busiest time for schools. And I’m sad to say that I spent the last afternoon after everyone had gone, working in my office until 6pm, and back to school the next day.  Still, I am now satisfied that I can take a break for the next four weeks before winding up again.

Philippa 21, Claudia 1`9 & Georgina 16.

A break means getting the garden in shape and spring cleaning…but also some fiction and boating, especially in the warm, light evenings. The summer is predicted to be a good one, and so far hasn’t let us down.

It’s been a year of realising that the next chapter of our lives has started.  I turned 50 in March and Philippa turned 21.  She keeps reminding me that I was married at her age…

School ball in June - Martin starts calling Ollie "Ball-date" & it sticks!

Georgina is the only one living at home and has one more year at school.  She decided that it was time to do her best effort at school rather than cruise and went into exams with an overall excellence grade under her belt.  She now talks about heading towards a law degree. 

She has got into fitness and exercise, looks great, and is still rowing. She has a boyfriend called Ollie who is a lovely, thoughtful boy and has managed to impress the rest of the family so that we see him quite often.  Martin has had to mellow on this angle – the other two also have boyfriends in tow. 

Fiji - lucky things!

Philippa is in her second year of a nursing degree after shifting from Otago.  She LOVES it and has a penchant for geriatric care (“Thank God for that…you can have Mum and Dad,” said Claudia).  She has a great flat in Epsom and a useful permanent part time job at the aquatic centre here in Rotorua, which has allowed her to buy her own car; we see her nearly every weekend. She’s home for the summer. 

She and her bloke, Nigel (a local who we’ve known for years through rowing), have just spent a week in Fiji, luckily flying out the morning of the tornado in Auckland before the flights were cancelled, and returning before the cyclone hit their island! Photos show the devastation that has now hit the Octopus Resort.

Five hour run from lake Okareka, to Lake Okataina & Lake Rotoiti, 

starting from home.

Philippa has run her second marathon and is currently training for an ultra marathon.  The photo at left was taken after she had been for a 5 hour solo run over the hills  to Lake Okareka, over to Lake Okataina and out to Lake Rotoiti. Hardly exhausted!

Great Race in Hamilton day after my birthday - number two seat.

Claudia is the one I have to nag to “ring your mother.”  She’s in the Waikato Regional Performance Centre for rowing and we don’t see much of her.  I spent the weekend at Karapiro last weekend improving my suntan while she and George rowed at the Christmas regatta.  Claud raced against the NZ summer squad and scored the finals.  She and her rowing partner won the premier double skulls and she was seventh in the premier single final.  She’s rapt with how she’s going and especially proud of her low body fold test (i.e. fat pinch test - second best overall), something her mother can only dream about.  Claudia has a house on a farm out of Cambridge, with a group of rowers and a new cat.  (“No Claud, you are NOT bringing him home for Christmas.”) We’ll see her for only a few days at Christmas, and her man Dan, another rower and uni student, will be here for Boxing Day. The first photo of him I saw showed a ute and a rifle; he wasn’t unduly worried when Ollie told him that Martin had taken him out to the rifle range! 

Glee at finding Coke bottles with their names on - two minute wonder!

Claudia’s first priority is rowing, but she has also completed some science papers. She’s now looking at an Agricultural Science Degree with Commerce.

Martin, not to be outdone, is a qualified rowing umpire, which allows him the opportunity to drive a boat and boss everyone about on the water.  He’s apparently held in high esteem and has had his first chief umpire’s job.  Lots of early practice in bossing us, of course.  It means a weekend in Napier at the start of the New Year and I’ll use the opportunity to enjoy Hawkes Bay.

Martin is now Chairman of the Central NZ Road Transport Association and still GM at Rotorua Forest Haulage. I’m in my third year at Mokoia Intermediate as deputy principal.  I’ve completed the National Aspiring Principals’ course which put me in touch with a lot of amazing educators around NZ.  I’ve also run the ICT professional development cluster our school is in and furthered my passion for elearning by becoming a twitter fiend, much to non-believers’ chagrin!

Overseas holidays are still on the bucket list, but I have enjoyed several conferences away with fun people and a blissful girls’ weekend in Napier where we biked around the vineyards.  

My aunt Effie Tinga passed away in October, after being incapacitated and in a nursing home for a number of years.  Her last gift to us was a special few days in Christchurch with the extended NZ Tinga family – the broods of Nicky, Tony, Julie and Robin. Tony lives in the old family home and it was great to get together there with a new generation.  Martin and George made the trip too.

Kaikoura on the drive to Christchurch.

We looked around Christchurch while we were there; very strange to see through to the hills where once there were streets of buildings; Shag Rock which I once saw from my bedroom, no more.  However, there was a feeling of optimism and “getting on with it-ness”, wherever we went.

A deserted Hereford St in the centre of Christchurch.

So here we are at the bottom of the page; no more because you won’t read it!  I still need to wrap the parcels and make up Claud’s bed – she is due home this evening for the first time in ages, probably with a tonne of washing.  (That, I haven’t missed!)

Robin and his family are due sometime at New Year and hopefully I’ll visit friends who I’ve neglected over the work year.

All the best for another one, the Hydes X

The extended NZ Tinga family, October 2012.

My New Job

I had my first day at Mokoia Intermediate today. Protocol required that I head across town where my malfroy family met together and travelled back to Mokoia. We were led on by our spokesperson, Iwi Te Whau. Nick and Jenny, Teina, Tuinui, Jo, Vaughna and Jamis made up the party, with eight members of my class and five others from the kapa haka group. An ex student from Lynmore, Jesse, met us with an amazing challenge before we, the manuhiri, were called in and went through the ceremony. A number of ex students in the tangata whenua tried to catch my eye. After a cuppa, we showed everyone around the new admin block and my Malfroy children - Lee, Cassidy, Trent, Phoenix, Vyna, Alicia, Dejah and Riccardo - had a good look at my office. After hugs and kisses we said our good byes. I tidied up my office, had a chat woth a non compliant customer, ordered furniture and took a prospective family around the school. At the staff meeting we had introductions and Bernie went over the life education stufff. She was surprised to see me at a new school! Final chats with Liz the other DP who is on leave to work with NEMP, unpacked a few more papers - and time to go home....where upon I set off all the alarms...never mind!

Here We Are Again!

Just to say I'm going to get back with this family diary - i love writing and I need to diarise what we do! It's my last day at Malfroy school. Tomorrow I begin my new position as DP of Mokoia Intermediate!

Christmas 2008

BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games. Hello from the Hydes - Another year is stored away in memory and we all mutter and shake our heads because yet again, it has passed by at breakneck speed. The children are growing up and we are starting to see ourselves through their eyes – older, fatter, shorter and often not on the same wavelength. Last year I wrote the Christmas letter and then it remained locked in the memory of only my laptop. I’ll put it on our blog – which I have better intentions of updating this year – and hope you give us some feedback so I can collect all those email addresses which disappeared when Martin got rid of our x-tra address (sick of being asked to buy Viagra and to support the population of Nigeria!). The last few months of 2007 were filled with the turmoil of renovations, which are complete and worth the dust, mess and turmoil (amazingly still married). We were even pulling up carpet on Boxing Day in an effort to get everything done so that at least part of the summer break could be enjoyed without extra male faces around. There was one amazing morning when I shared my bedroom with five men – made a good story. I loved and hated the redecorating, ably supported by Claudia, which also involved finding that we had a lot of bits and pieces that just had to be relocated in different rooms. This summer I still have to get the pictures back on the walls! We are still zipping around the country using the girls’ sport as an excuse for weekends away. Philippa and Claudia are both rowing and the trip to the National Secondary Schools’ Champs (Maadi) in March coincided with a family wedding. Georgina and I went to witness Jonathan and Kristie marry in Hawea and catch up with Turnbulls, Caplens and Wards which I loved! Family is family is family. Martin drove the boats down to Twizel, and before we came home, Di drove us over to see the girls for a day (see the blog). It was our 25th wedding anniversary so Martin presented me with an eternity ring before we left (“See ya, darling, bit busy now”). Martin and I also joined Ingrid and Bill Fisher for a weekend at Stanley Bay which was lovely. In May Claudia and I made our way to Christchurch where we dossed down at St Andrews College with the rest of the Bay of Plenty Under 16 Hockey team. I had agreed to the role of manager, and while it had its hilarious moments (I never realised there were prostitutes who hung out on Kilmore Street!), I’ll leave it to someone else in 2009! The team came 8th, our best result in years. I caught up with Nicky and Geoff and Robin and Fredericka and the children. Georgina has enjoyed her speech and drama again, and is up to Grade 5; Rotorua has a large competition which takes up the first four days of the holidays at the end of term 2 – read “numb bum”! After a year of saxophone she’s still keen to continue and is lucky that music is very strong at the college. I also continued with the relatively easy role of soccer manager and bought a new pair of gumboots. Imagine my delight when she put herself forward for the Rotorua rep squad which meant Sundays as well as Saturdays! We visited Wanganui for the first time in the third set of school holidays, to support Philippa and Claudia who both made it into the interprovincial team for Bay of Plenty. They rode in a quad and an eight together and fortunately are great mates. What a grey place Wanganui can be, but I loved the old architecture. “Landings” by Jenny Pattrick, a New Zealand writer, is worth reading to find out about its early history. Coincidentally she mentions the old steamer which still takes tourists up and down the Whanganui River, and the inaugural sculling race in the contest which Mahe Drysdale has just competed in. As well as sport and extra curricular pursuits, the girls have worked hard at school. Philippa has worked out that universities and courses will judge her on this year’s results so she has been really focussed on her second year of NCEA. She has just come back from a summer science school she and two friends attended at Waikato after winning sponsorship from Rotary. Although her heart has said fine arts her head has led her into the sciences. Yes, and there is a boyfriend, and yes, Martin’s reaction has been entirely predictable. Claudia obtained some top results in maths, science and…religious education. She still loves her athletics, attends sprint training twice a week, but rowing takes most of the time. She came away again with the top sports award at school, which little ol’ un athletic me takes great delight in. Can’t say she is unpopular with the boys either (I’m not allowed to write that). She is always taken for the eldest daughter, but only goes into Year 11 next year. The funniest accolade she received this year was third place in the Young Designers’ awards in Christchurch, for a quilt depicting the Eiffel Tower. Georgina has been invited to join the accelerate class for the third year and goes into year 9. After a dismal winter, summer has come early to cheer us up. We’re enjoying weekends on the banks at Karapiro (“Is that them? Can you tell? Where’s the binocs . . . bother, just missed them.”) The school holidays have started earlier than usual and we’ve just got back from a few days with the Fishers at Ohope (that blog post coming next). I took the girls there at the end of the last holidays for a few days time out and wondered why I’d avoided it for twenty years! Ohope is a mere hour away, over the hill from Whakatane which was our main town when we lived in Kawerau. I’ve now discovered that I love the relative lack of infrastructure and people, both which bombard you at Mount Maunganui; we think that we might make it over there a bit more often now. BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing Professionally this has been one of the most challenging years ever. I was given a Year 4 class with a small but challenging group of potential criminals. I’m proud of the way we ended the year, but I’m counting the grey hairs (even eyebrows!), staring at the wrinkles and weight gain and amazing myself at how desensitized I’ve become to my enhanced four letter word vocabulary. The school is part of an ICT cluster and my team next year will be a digital team with extra computers, hoping to make inroads into how ICT can enhance learning. I’ve had great fun with my class blog and Web 2.0 tools this year, only limited by the hardware. The conference in March this year really blew me away. Martin had the extra challenge of being on the organising committee for the Road Transport Forum which held its annual conference in Rotorua in October. I took some time out to play ladies with the wives and partners not involved in the business end, and had a ball listening to guest speakers, learning how to decorate presents, shopping in Tirau and lunching and coffee – ing all over the place. Sadly, when you are young you have neither money nor opportunity to party every night. When you get older you don’t have the stamina! One perk was top floor accommodation at the Millennium, which we decided to use although I still went to work and home to check up on the girls. Next year the conference is in Brisbane. . . We’ve also said goodbye for now to Ingrid Hyde and Emma, our five year old niece. My Christmas letter, which you didn’t get last year, outlined how they had bought a local kayaking business and shifted up from Wellington to a house up the road from us. Sadly, Paul decided it was more profitable to be a computer nerd in Wellington. As Ingrid had won her first teaching position at a top school here, and Emma had started school at Lynmore with me, they decided to stay while Paul commuted every two weeks. The year is over and they returned last week to a new house and new teaching job in Wellington. It is sad to see them go as it has been fun to have family so close. Family is family is family. . . BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images. We are looking forward to a much-needed, restful summer break. Martin’s new passion is fly fishing so the boat is still out on a lake as often as we can get there. I still haven’t opened my first book, but when the last Christmas card has been written. . .! Have a lovely Christmas and we hope 2009 is good to you. Love and best wishes, Martin, Annemarie, Philippa, Claudia and Georgina xxxxx

Jon and Kristie's Wedding in Hawea

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The Girls at Maadi

Georgina and I have been leaping about at home, wishing like anything that we were down at Twizel with Martin, Philippa and Georgina. They have done really well. Philippa and her rowing partner reached A finals for their under-17 double and quadruple sculls, and consequently achieved a sixth place and a fifth place.

Claudia and her partner Shawn, took out the silver medal for the under 15 double and competed in a B final for their quad. All round, John Paul College and the Rotorua high schools pulled out top rate performances. After the wedding in Hawea, George and I drove to Twizel with Di on Monday and saw the heats for the doubles; we flew home on Tuesday from Queenstown. Martin drove down with Tony and all the boats, so he's been lucky enough to be part of it all week.

The finals were on webcast (see the link above for details and results) but we had the worst luck! Andrea came round this morning to watch the double final. Just as the race started, the screen went black. We raced to school, just down the street, to set up my computer in the hope of better luck but no show either. Another rowing mum lives across the field, so we ran - George in her pyjamas and bare feet - and saw the end of the race.

Andrea returned this afternoon to watch the quad final, only to find that we had a power cut! We watched the battery on the laptop lose power and kept our fingers crossed. Just as their race started, the webcast froze! We got it back but it was all over. Everything went fine until the medal ceremony, when we hoped to see some results, and it froze again! Talk about bad luck!

The girls complete the week with a Maadi party tonight. They drive to Christchurch tomorrow and catch a flight on Monday. Martin and Tony will start the long drive north tomorrow morning.