Yachts. Looking down on the harbour as the plane flew into Sydney-huge numbers of yachts crowding every little indentation of coast for miles and miles round the harbour.

Trees. On the trip to Katoomba-trees, trees, trees. So much of the landscape in and around Sydney is trees, mostly eucalyptus. They have trees there like we have grass here. West ( Read more... )

My passport arrived by courier this morning!!

How to insult your grandfather: If he shows you his passport photo and asks, "Do you think it's a good photo?" say, "Yes."

Waiting, waiting ( Read more... )

Yesterday, Wednesday: Isaac's sixth birthday. Also the day of my CT scan. I now have an appointment for next Monday with Shaun Costello, the radiologist, and I think this will be the kick-off of my radiotherapy. According to the lady in charge of the scan, it should be pretty much life as normal-folk festivals included.

Little highlights from the past week:

Saturday, at the Waihi Bush Folk Festival, An old guy comes up to me and says, "Were you at the Tui Festival? Are you going to sing? I really like Flanders and Swann." I put my name down on the board for the blackboard concert.

While I'm standing by, waiting for my turn on stage, Martin Curtis comes up to me and ( Read more... )

It's a weird thing to find your birth family. Working out where they belong in your life. And where you belong in theirs. When you know only the parents and siblings you grew up with, there's a sort of ladder of kinship priorities which shift as you go through different events that bring new categories of relative into your life-getting married, ( Read more... )

 It's been an exciting and weirdish week, the weirdest bit being introducing my sister to my sisters in Wanaka on Monday afternoon. My birth mother and two older sisters came over from Australia and arrived here in Dunedin on Friday afternoon, after spending time in Timaru with my nephew Shane (whom I haven't yet met) and his family.

On Saturday ( Read more... )

My sister Suzanne's birth sister Suzanne was on Wheel of Fortune tonight. Weird. Weirder than Daniel's cousin Daniel. I've known about our Sue's half sister for a good many years now, but never realised they had the same name, spelling and all.  And, naturally enough, the same diminutive-Sue.

I learned of the existence of my nephew Daniel in April ( Read more... )

I have just found a large number of photographs of myself online, quite a few of them with Sandra, but a disproportionate number where I am at too great a distance to be identifiable as I climb up and down Lion Rock at Piha Beach.  Most of them I've never seen before.

"The baking soda is for on the house! The pig will sting you!"