Penguins penguins penguins rain penguins rain penguins nice birthday penguins penguins rain more rain penguins penguins rain penguins
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Wednesday, 06 May 2009
Update
Sue came home after an awesome trip to the Galapagos Islands. I have emerged from my emotional shut down after Mums death when all I concentrated on was penguins and fish. We had a rough couple of days but happily all settled down and back to normal now. Sue has gone down to Dunedin tonight in preparation for the operation on her wrist tomorrow. It is over a year since she slipped and fell on a wet Dunedin street and she has suffered delay and frustration caused by certain staff at the local hospital incorrectly diagnosing the problem. Hopefully the excellent Mr Chin (he fixed my knee and my mums ankle) will sort her out tomorrow. Life as ever is full to overflowing with penguins with good and bad experiences. Usually the good far outweighs the bad but today one we have had for several weeks was put down which is always tough to take. After week upon week of excellent sharp mornings followed by sunny great days we are now into cold wet rough stuff, yuk, well it is equivalent to a northern November.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Anzac Day
Today is Anzac Day when those who died in past wars are remembered kind of like Remembrance Sunday in the UK. Wreaths are laid, ex servicemen march etc. The big difference here compared to the UK is that whereas is the UK quite a lot of people might be silent for two minutes but life goes on in New Zealand nothing opens until 1pm. I mean shops supermarkets cafes everything is shut. At least nobody here forgets what day it is, excellent.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Getting used to change.
Well it has happened. Switch on day was yesterday so I drove through town just to experience the new modern Oamaru. We have 5, yes 5, sets of traffic lights now. We used to have just one set at a pedestrian crossing but looking to the future we got rid of the roundabouts and replaced them with lights (doh!). It did take about twice as long to drive along the main street but hey that's progress.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Bye then Mum
The service for Mum was held at Perth Crematorium Thursday 3pm UK. From the feedback so far sounds like all went well and it was a very nice respectful service, exactly what was needed. Good that so many people turned out to farewell my Mum. Thanks to all involved especially Helen & Nicholas.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Many thanks
Thanks to all the folk both here and back in the UK for their expressions of support recently. An especially big thank you to Helen, my ex, and our son Nicholas who spent Monday sorting through stuff at Rivendell. You did me proud guys. Life here has continued to be full to bursting point with the number of penguins in rehab hopefully peaking over the weekend at 22. It is a great feeling when you save one of these rare Yellow-eyed Penguins more so when you realise that if we were not doing this here most of these birds would have died. Strange that a year ago we had no plans to do this and it has just evolved to the point where we are one of only three rehabilitation centres for Yellow-eyed Penguins in New Zealand and I suppose the world cos you don't find them anywhere else. Anyway they are all on nfobb.com BTW My wee buddy for the past year, Liam, has moved back up to Christchurch after a change in family circumstances, so good luck buddy I really enjoyed our time together hope all works out well for you.
Thursday, 09 April 2009
My Mum died 9am UK 08/04/09Saturday, 21 March 2009
Just to let you have an idea of life in our little town, the front page report in the local paper two days running has been the switch on of our first set of intersection traffic lights. The roundabouts have been replaced by lights to let traffic flow better!!?? Up until now the only lights have been at one pedestrian crossing so this change is big news.
Mum is not doing too well just now so a lot of emails back and forth. Nicholas went up to see her this week and she seemed ok but then slipped back again the next day. Shame for her as she was always so fit even although her mind wasn't so sharp.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Mum
My Mum has had a bad turn and is in hospital at the moment. Doesn't sound anything too serious but will know more soon as I have asked Helen (my ex) to go visit and let me know how she really is. I have been phoning the hospital but understandably they are very guarded with the information they give out. Nicholas and I have also been emailing (every cloud......) and he will pop up and see his grandmother in hospital. Giant thanks to both of you.
Contact
LINKS
Other blogs
Blog Images
colin
- Location:Oamaru, NZ
