Family or the inlaws - what would you choose?

When I first moved to New Zealand eight or so years ago, it was, for me, only ever going to be a temporary arrangement. Unlike the thousands who emigrate to Australia and New Zealand every year to get away from the UK and its problems (and weather) I  actually still enjoyed my life and the Country.  It was for love that I eventually stayed here and that is where I felt quite isolated from my fellow Brits as I hadn't actually fallen out of "love" with my birth country. Equally when you are in a relationship with someone from a different country they can't, however much they protest otherwise, fully understand how much you miss "back home".

It has therefore taken me a long time to appreciate what I now have, and I think that has been a lot in part due to having my children here, and it is where another can of worms then opens up............. the in laws.

I miss my parents and siblings everyday, but I know, heart of hearts that if I lived back in Britain, the reality would be that both my husband and I would be in full time employment.  It would be a case of having to, if we were to afford any half decent house, and the children would be in full time daycare or school. I would therefore not have the time to spend visiting all my relies ( relatives in England), or sipping flat whites with my old friends in coffee shops or perusing the latest Zara collection, after having my latest haircut and manicure, we would not be able to afford that type of lifestyle. On the other hand, here, we have been able to build a house and have very little debt, and I can be at home full time for the children.   But the down side to this is that my English family are not really involved in our day to day lives and this is where my little rant lies.  Do we really listen and take on board In laws advise as much as our "own" families.

We live very close to my husbands Grandparents, and his sister and parents are only 20 minutes or so away by car. In NZ all local calls are free which basically means his family were initially in contact a lot by phone. This has now become substantially less but they are still heavily involved in some shape of form, much to my dismay. I am quite a proud and rarely ask for help, even if I really need it, and this constant involvement was at the start very suffocating, it felt we had transported back 50 years back in time. However as the years have rolled on, I am need slowly realising how lucky we are to still have my husbands Grandparents ( the kids great grandparents) and to a lesser extent his parents and sister to lean on. In this busy hectic life that we all now lead it is very refreshing to have an extended family, even if they are not my own. There has been many a time I have strongly disagreed with the advise I have been given, but on the whole I have come to realise that whatever suggestions and knowledge they have thrown my way, I know they have only done it because they love and care for my family.

So when I am dying to say "bugger off" or that's a heap of crap, which I would to my own family back in the UK without the fear of upsetting anyone, I do have to hold back here, but for me it is a small price to pay.

Ill leave you with a few photos of my own slice of paradise,  THE SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND and promise to be back with a "lighter" subject next!.

LARGE FRAME GLASSES

GEEK OR CHIC 

When I was 15 at my High School in England, I had just started to feel comfortable in my own skin, my previous protruding teeth had been corrected by braces, and my once nondescript hair was now a lovely shade of peroxide blond and I thought I was the bees knees. In fact if the producer of Beverley Hills 90210 ( the original series I hasten to add) had rung and asked me to be Jason Priestelys new love interest, in my own innocent naive little way, I wouldn't have been surprised.  However, this state of euphoria turned out to be  short lived, after a routine eye test I was told that my short sightedness now needed correcting by glasses. How could this be, why was life so cruel 

Believe you me 20 odd years ago the choice of prescription glasses was VERY limited in the high fashion stakes and anything remotely nice or trendy , was way out of a normal families price range. So up until the point I started working and could afford contact lenses I have always been very negative about glasses. But now it seems geek glasses are all the rage. Take Kate Winslet last night, she sported a very fetching pair of large black rimmed glasses   Kate Winslet in glasses. It seems that if you what to look "of the moment", the geekier the better in the glasses stakes. Now as I have mentioned before, my nights out are now very limited and if I am to wear any of my more fashionable items, and believe you me I have a few, then the school run, or even the short walk to our mail box at the end of the road is where newly purchased things are likely to be outed for the first time. 

So after all these years of hating glasses am I really contemplating buying a non prescription fashion pair to wear with said contact lenses, I think the answer may well be yes, Here are my selection of whats around and what I am tempted with.

What do you think, any of them take your fancy. Till next time.

    

  

MY NEW OBSESSION............... CHEAP CHINESE WEBSITES (Have I gone completely mad?)

When I lived in the UK I had the cell phone, the laptop etc, through my job, but leaving work and coming here meant I gave all that up, and to be honest I didn't really mind for a while. Cell phones still don't work where we live  so it would be pointless having one on contract anyway, so we just have a cheap one when we go to places where there is cover.

We use a mac and laptop now for business, but my little lovelies are becoming more and more into technology, and for a while there I was completely against this and thought that their childhood should a) either mirror my husbands or mine where we disappeared for hours on end with our mates with just a rope tied to a tree and a wee ditch to swing over for entertainment, or b) Shun away from all the Nintendo's Playstations and instead really embrace toys, you know the ones that have really evolved such as Playmobil, Lego, and Meccano.  ( actually if I am really honest I would have loved them to be into wooden train sets like Brio and Schleich).

Sadly neither scenario seems to be taking place in our household, as the boys are more and more exposed to technology either through their friends, at school, or through seeing their parents using computers . So for Christmas this year I relented and purchased two leap pad 2   for the eldest two DS's. In my mind these are not cheap, and the games you then purchase separately are expensive and  quite basic, so in a nutshell I am not that impressed.

So with the youngest son's 4th birthday looming I have been looking at cheaper alternatives, and have stumbled across a very interesting website  dx.com, having been enticed by the free shipping I have ordered a  7" Freelander Android tablet  for $67 US, along with a new remote control key fob for my Toyota,  rechargeable AA batteries and  and some polarised sunnies ( for  $4.80 US including shipping - are they kidding!) the reviews on all the items I have purchased seem good, I believe the shipping is slow, so as long as you factor that in then I think you could get a great deal if you are buying something you actually Need, rather than just WANT ( as my dear old father would say). So am I a mug, should I be worried about the working conditions at the factories these items come out of, the jury is still out.

Ill let you know if and when my purchases arrive and how they fare. Let me know what your thoughts are about cheap overseas products but in the meantime I dare you to check out their website.
Till next time  x

Gwyneth Paltrow & no carbs for Kids

My nearly 8 year son has always been a lively little boy, he seems to be constantly on the go and only ever rests when he is tucked up in bed at night. He has also, over the years, displayed certain other characteristics associated with dyslexia and ADHD  amongst other things, but I am still not unconvinced that a large part of his behaviour is to do with his diet, and in particular with refined white carbohydrates, IE bread, rice and pasta, of course, all the things children love.

Gwyneth Paltrow has recently been criticised by saying she avoids giving these so called white carbs to her children. Apparently a whole host a top government nutritional experts  have testified that these carbs are vital to our children's diet and they are at risk of nutritional deficiencies by restricting it.

So do you think Mrs Martin is right, or is she just another rich celebrity preaching on about their faddy diets.

www.amazon.com/Its-All-Good-Delicious-Recipes/dp/1455522716


Well here is my two pennies worth, sorry 2 cents worth, I have to agree with Gwynnie.  We are constantly bombarded by TV adverts saying our daily white bread our breakfast cereals give us energy, but all foods give us energy surely.  The problem with  starchy refined carbohydrates is that they give a quick burst of energy, they are burned quickly and make our blood sugar levels rise because, of course they also contain high levels of sugar.  I have over the years noticed along with the other more  well know culprits such as additives, that when DS1 has high concentrates of Starchy white Carbs, especially where they are not balanced out by protein, then he is far more likely to have a sudden outburst and an increase level of hyperactivity, and time and time again we have witnessed this.

 Is it just me or since we were all convinced to drop the high levels of saturated fats in our diets we have just replaced these with the highly refined starchy carbs which also contain large amounts of sugar, the net result is that on the whole societies are getting fatter but also there has been a huge spike in the diagnosis of ADHD or other learning and behavioural diagnose in children both in NZ and overseas.

So as I stumble off my soapbox, I am very pleased that all 3 of my little wonders love their fruit and vegetables, which also contain carbs and natural sugar, but also contain fibre, which is also seen in unrefined carbs ( IE brown rice)  and because these all take that more chewing it does put a break on the amount they can eat at one sitting which hopefully means I will not have overweight children on my hands in a few years time, and the best thing is we grow most of what they need ourselves which means I know that we have also not used any harmful sprays or pesticides.

So who would have thought Gwynnie and I would have so much in common, were are virtually besties.xx

Till next time

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink.....

Living in the north of the South Island of New Zealand the words drought restrictions rarely crop up  unless you are talking about are Aussie neighbours, but once again the weather has been very kind to us this summer, unless you in the farming or horticultural sector, that is.  As of today we have barely had a drop in 3 months 

Hailing from the UK the main topic of conversation  was always the weather, and its still a subject close to my heart. I arrived in New Zealand 8 years ago with absolutely NO knowledge of the country or its weather apart from what I learned on a brief 2 week holiday. Eight years later I am happily ensconced in  a very isolated rural area with my OH and our 3 very feral young sons. 

Having pondered starting my own blog for a very long time, I have decided the time now seems right to chronicle my life here, the good the bad and the down right bloody (or 'friggin' if you hail from here) frustrations of living on the other side of the world. A world away from your family and friends and learning to love a country when the first 30 years you have lived in another.  



MY NAME IS LIZ AND I AM ENGLISH, NO, BRITISH, ACTUALLY I AM A KIWI .........

Who the heck am I.  When I am back in England I am very proud that I live in New Zealand, however when I am in NZ  I am proud of my British heritage but I will always think of myself as English. Our 3 little boys are Kiwi's through and through and  although I try my utmost to instill some of my English quirky ideals on them and constantly find myself repeating my Mothers little sayings,  they remain true to their birth country and for that I am  secretly proud, even when they call football soccer, but prefer rugby. Saying all that it is the everyday things that I still find myself hankering after, but with the Internet explosion I am now a lot closer to my birth country in every way than the thousands of ex pats who have emigrated to NZ over the last 50 years or so.

This blog is about how I have adapted and how I live in the Country I now call home. I hope you will follow me along this journey,  I hope it will be an entertaining read.