1) Favourite colour RED (does that make me an aggressive person?!)
2) Favourite movie Call me soppy but 'On Golden Pond' is still my favourite, I haven't seen it for about 20 years now and can't remember the characters names but the stubborn-ness and humour of Henry Fonda's character is wonderful. I was fascinated by Henry and Jane Fonda playing father and daughter. How much did it reflect their real life relationship? The wonderful scenery, and of course the devoted love of Henry and .... oooohhhhh... I can't remember the really famous woman who played his wife.... anyway... it was great. How I romantically picture Eric and I at 75!!!!!! It's just come to me, Catherine Hepburn. I also loved The English Patient - Ralph Fiennes, sssoooo sexy.
3) Favourite animal. Difficult this. I love having cows and pigs.. and of course Ben and Inca but I adore dolphins and whales (doesn't everyone?) and watching big cats, elephants and giraffe in the wild is fascinating (giraffe in the zoo are boring but in their own environment....). But this says favourite animal, singular, so I have to say gorilla. Now I have not seen these wild, and that is one of my 'dreams'. but I have sat for hours and watched them at Howletts and Port Lympe. Absolutely wonderful.
4) Favourite book. I have just lost lots of sleep as I could not put down a gripping crime thriller called Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult (a mother, who is also a prosecutor, takes the law into her own hands and publicly kills the perpetrator of a sexual assault on her 5 year old son. The local priest. A big twist comes later and you wonder all through how she can get away with it. A study of a mothers love that one can really relate to (not a bad thing to read when my own mother-daughter relationship is under such pressure with a seriously hormonal child in the family!!) Never heard of her before but I certainly will be digging out more of her books. But favourite.. really hard this one. I'm not 'well-read' and have read far more text books than literature. I can't answer this one Carol, sorry.
5) Favourite passage from Q4A (if you don't have one, lie). Well it has to be the fire - doesn't it!!
6) Favourite photo from Q4A (ditto). Not the horses or the flowers!!! I know it appears conceited as I am in them but the 2 pics taken with Ben, Inca and me in August. I also love all the scenery, sunrays through the trees and Tauranga (which is actually taken at the Mount!).
7) Favourite smell. Freshly washed hair. I love snuggling into Alice's neck at bedtime when she has just washed (and dried!) her hair. Harriette also smells good but has short hair, Alice's is long! Ben and Inca smell decidedly better after a hairwash too!
8) Most essential quality in a friend. I'm not sure about 'quality' but it's knowing that no matter how erratic the contact and how long the separation, when you see each other again it was like you were last together yesterday. I've lived in 3 countries in my adult life and that's what I have with my dearest friends. I don't know if that is called loyalty or trust, love or what, or maybe it reflects something rather than being a quality as such.
9) Most desirable quality in a partner. Again this is not 'sum-up-able' in one word or quality. All of the clichés (GSOH, loyalty, trust, etc) are important but it's that 'knowing' feeing. I know Eric loves me, I know I can trust him, I know how he will respond to something, I know he will always be there for me, and our children..I 'know' him. And that is the greatest gift, along with children, that one can have in life.
10) Most embarrassing moment. I don't know if this was 'the' most embarrassing but it is recent. I popped into ICU to see the crowd I used to work with. One girl there I had always thought of as an elegant woman older than me (I'm 44). In front of her someone asked me how old she was. Always difficult this. I 'conservatively' estimated 45-48 so as not to embarrass her if she wasn't the 53'ish I thought. It turns out she was 35!!!!! I managed to keep a straight face and say I was joking, and I think I got away with it. But I couldn't get out of there quick enough!! (Carol if ever this is published you are banned from putting this in context!!)
11) Proudest achievement. On Wednesday I helped out on the last day of a music camp that Harriette was on. It was a morning of fun activities and I was helping on the flying fox. We were in the bush (it was so beautiful) and this went over a river, pretty challenging as the kids had to drop of a platform about 30' up. There were 3 ways over the river, a log bridge, the flying fox and a rope bridge. ie a steel cable tied between 2 trees with 2 cables at arm height to hold on to. All 30' in the air. It took me ages, I was absolutely terrified and my legs were killing me afterwards (I am very unfit) but I was sooooo chuffed with myself. That was very recent, but graduating from my first degree was pretty good as well. I was the first person to get a degree from anyone in my whole, extended family and was chuffed for my parents sake. Giving birth and surviving labour has to be the best though. Holding that baby and thinking 'we did this'!!!
12) Saddest memory. The saddest things in our lives must always be loss. Losing my partner of 3 years in a car accident was more than sad, it was devastating, as was the loss of my brother in a drowning accident. But these things gave me strength as I survived them. Love lost is also very sad, and we all have that experience. But, I once worked as a Health Visitor and one of my moms was a young girl who had a more tragic life than any of us could imagine. Confidentiality will not allow me to go into details as her case was so awful any details would immediately point to her for anyone who knows her. However, she was pretty, intelligent and so desperate to better herself, and life for her son. She was however on drugs and born into a family where she was abused and stood no chance. She did well to get to where she was, but sadness is looking at her and seeing so much potential wasted.
13) Happiest memory. Easy this one. Our 2 daughters were born 12 months apart. When Eric bought Harriette into hospital to take me home on the morning of Alice's birth, Harriette could not wait to get unstrapped from her pushchair. Eric lifted her onto the bottom of the bed and she crawled, as fast a her fat little legs would carry her, up to us at the top of the bed and threw her arms round Alice with such force and love that Alice bellowed. It was wonderful!
14) Hero. Superman. Well Christopher Reeve, as Superman, and in real life. But my real hero is Eric. You may cringe at that but he is. And it's official, after he was shot, (yes he really was, bank robbery we got involved in - long story) a friend entered his name to a competition (run by Hero aftershave) asking who is your hero and why. And they won.
15) Buried or cremated ? Where ? Why ? No really strong feelings on this. I, sort of, do prefer burial but Eric wants to be cremated and ashes scattered at sea in the Channel. Well he always used to want that. In view of our emigration to NZ I wonder if that's changed, I must ask him. Anyway, I'd sort of like to think we'd be 'laid to rest' together, so I guess it depends on what he wants. If I am buried I'd like to have peace and quiet and nice views!
Friday 16th April
Location : Taupo
From memory
Today we headed of for KRS (Kiwi River Safaris) & the white water rafting we had booked the day before. Another glorious day & after our 1030 pick up we had a surprisingly long journey by minibus, to the river. I think it was the Rangitaiki, but will have to check with Bloo.
After the quick but thorough safety briefing 'Don't try & breathe the green stuff, it's water & won't do you any good' we were on our way.
The very good-looking guide (young John Travolta) oozed confidence & assured us that although the rapids looked scary, only 3% of people ever fell out of the rafts.
It was after the scariest section of the river that I decided to take a dip after the boat gently nudged an innocuous looking rock-face. The stupid thing was, I had let go after hitting the rock, thinking that was it. The way I fell off was similar to when one person is already on a lilo & another, larger person jumps on it. I just got pinged off in a sitting position.
I knew even before surfacing that Bloo would be collapsed with laughter & sure enough, as my head broke the surface he was weeping uncontrollably. Bugger. He did offer me his paddle though & denies strenuously he was trying to push my head under.
What he didn't know is that I had worked out that if you fell in, when the guide pulled you back on by your life-jacket shoulder straps, your face would naturally end up in their groin.
I threw myself overboard with monotonous regularity after that until one of the girls spoiled my fun, by offering to pull me in.
The guide cheered me up substantially by deliberately flipping the raft over some rocks whilst trying to 'put it up on 2 wheels'. We all got a dunking & wouldn't you know it, whilst I was stuck under the raft & unable to exit because someone was blocking the way, just who was that someone. You guessed.
'There you are Briggsy' he said as he lifted the raft up to let me out.
'Where's your paddle' ? Some people are never satisfied, fancy expecting me to think of that too, whilst having a sky-water-sky moment.
The white water rafting lasted for over 2 hours & 14 km. It wasn't the scariest thing I've done in NZ, that's definitely hunting, but it was an unmissable experience. Drifting down a jade glassy river, surrounded by lush forests & accompanied only by bellbirds has made today simply unforgettable.
Making everyone laugh by deliberately throwing myself overboard was just the icing on the cake.
After the rafting, we took a short trip to Huka Falls, there's no point me trying to describe the colour of the water there, you'll just have to wait & see the pictures.
Once again, the Irish pub beckoned for dinner & we are now seen as 'regulars' & were served free food. It's true. We retired to bed very early at 2000 to prepare for an early start as we had to be, up, have the tent packed away & ready to leave at 0750.
At 2330, we were still talking.
Cx
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