"These are the days of our lives"Meme

Knitabulous tagged me…so here goes

10 years ago: I was living in my wee house on Waiheke Island,a sole parent to my three girls, studying a fulltime course in machine knitting design and technology, commuting by boat, working part-time, and putting the finishing touches on a fashion parade, I moved in a number of circles, my coffeeklatsch friends, boat friends, all-inclusive, generous, loving, quasi-hippies, esoteric intelligentsia, tech kids (the 21 year old who pined for me) I was enjoying every moment, immersed in fashion, music, interesting conversation, making wonderful memories of cicada filled summer afternoons on our red dirt road, taking the kids to the beach almost every evening, huge communal dinners, a short but tempestuous love affair, we didn’t have much money, but the kids were always dressed well, fed well, had plenty of books and a home of our own, and to paraphrase knitabulous…I was skinny. Blaise had just been diagnosed with congenital scoliosis, but her Drs were positive about her future. My best friend Leonie and I relaxed in the knowledge that Mr Right was out there, he was just busy doing other stuff, as were we. I was happy.

5 years ago: The girls and I were living in our restored villa in Waihi, having moved from Waiheke 4 years earlier, I was selling my knitwear, Flash’s eldest daughter Melanie was living with us, Flash and Maria were in Auckland and we were searching for a house in Auckland that met all of our criteria: size, style, suburb, and our time and price limit, we didn’t find it, and settled for big enough, and close enough. Flash and I had been seeing each other for almost a year (300 km round trip every weekend) and had decided to take the plunge and take the 5 kids with us. I was learning what it was like to be loved and I was deeply happy.

1 year ago: Flash came home with the news that he had been offered a job in Sydney, we were excited and nervous, we had wanted this. I was working in a highly stressful but fulfilling job as a case manager, living close to the extended family for the first time in years, the kids were (as always) doing well at school, I wondered if we were doing the right thing. I was anxious, and had psoriasis.

Yesterday: Bled like a stuck pig at the hospital, worked a half day, knitted on the sock, and wore my Leona Edmiston tights with the red flowers up the back.

Today: Tuesday I phone my big girls in NZ, and catch up with their news, I want to make dinner for the first time in weeks, Flash has a work thing, so I am planning spaghetti cabonara ala chloresterol with cream, the way we like it, and can’t have it when Flash is around. Sock knitting will probably feature. Oh and it is Thai Tuesday at work…mmmm.

Tomorrow: pretty much what I did today…without the Thai, but “House” is on TV

5 snacks I enjoy: rice cracker with hummus and tomato, yoghurt and fruit, french bread dipped in oil and garlic, homemade chocolate chip cookies, homemade onion bhajias with tamarind dipping sauce.

5 bands/singers that I know the lyrics of MOST of their songs:
Finns in all their incarnations…but you knew that
Sarah McLachlan
David Bowie
The Exponents ( knew them as the Dance Exponents – long-lived kiwi band)
U2

Things I would do with $100,000,000:
Build a holiday camp for families under pressure of all kinds, financial, emotional, whatever, a safe place where they can learn the skills they need to be successful as a family, staffed by amazing, talented and dedicated professionals. Society will get better when families do.

Ensure that my family are looked after, give the kids a good start, the ultimate of whatever they want in education, a house, and a basic income so that they can follow their passion, but not enough money to turn out like Paris Hilton ( I would love to buy a vineyard for my eldest, she could make wine, Charlotte would run the restaurant, my Mama would run the cellar door, my Dad would get involved in the infrastructure of the local town and my Grandparents would potter)

Give away most of it.

5 locations I'd like to run away to:
Phinda in Africa
New York
Tierra del Fuego (where the sparrows hop sideways)
Ha Long Bay Vietnam
Wales

5 bad habits I have:
Shedding hair
Ignoring housework
Forgetting to buy bread or milk…but I remembered the pancetta!
Shopping…especially internet shopping…and not being completely honest about it with my life-partner…
fidgeting

5 things I like doing:
Shopping
Walking with my family, especially if there is bush, rocks and animals involved
Dinner parties
Drinking nice wine
Holidays with my husband

5 things I would never wear:
Mini skirts
Vinyl
Boob tubes
Stilettos
A bikini

5 TV shows I like:
House
CSI (the original)
Pingu (particularly Pingu and the knitting machine)
Seinfeld
The Young ones




5 movies I like:
French Kiss is an old family favourite…it just take a “twisted steel, naked baby crying for it’s mother” , “all you bastards know each other” or “fester, fester, fester, rot,rot,rot” to have the kids in fits.

The Princess Bride
Love Actually
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
His girl friday

Theres a lot of mushy movies there…

5 famous people I'd like to meet:
Cynthia Heimel – a big bundle of nerve endings
Clive James – but I’m not his type
Paris Hilton – so I could give her a slap from the collective us
P J O’Rourke – to see if he does have a sensitive bone in his body
The Dalai Lama- but I would probably fidget too much

5 biggest joys at the moment
Feeling healthier than I have in weeks
Lace knitting
Long deep and meaningful talks with my beloved on the deck, him with wine, me with ginger refresher.
Knowing that my Mama is visiting for the weekend.
this knitting community


5 favorite toys:
Laptop
Blackberry
Sweatproof cd/radio/mp3
Breadmaker (I only make dough in it, and finish things off in the oven, but it takes all the hard work out of it, and people think you are so clever)
Knitting machine, ok so it is not a toy, but I like playing with it.

now that is over, I am tagging:
Anita
Lucia I am loving the cute cat contest!
Sonja
The skirt