February and March 2015

I had a good (if very busy) start to the new school year. This year I've taken on an extra responsibility as the school timetabler, and my workload for the first term in particular was pretty horrendous. In fact Will and I were both so flat-out busy that it was the first time for a few years that we didn't hold our annual birthday bash in February. So, in case any of you out there were wondering why you didn't get an invite this year, don't worry, you haven't done anything to get removed from the list!

However, we did manage to make it to Martinborough for The Winery Tour which is one of the highlights of our summer each year. This year it just happened to be on Valentine's day. Usually we camp with Elvie and Mike but they had recently had their first child, Finn, so this year we hired a beautiful old villa for a couple of nights. My friend Rose  and her boyfriend also came along. By coincidence, Will's half-sister Nemmy and her husband Nick also happened to be holidaying in NZ (from the UK) at that time, and were in the area. They stayed with us on the Friday night, but couldn't come to the concert on Saturday as they had an early morning ferry to the South Island on Sunday. Will left early on Saturday morning and escorted them to Wellington. He then spent the day showing them the Wellington sights, got them installed in our house for the night with instructions on how to get to the ferry terminal, then drove back in time for the concert! It all managed to work out perfectly. Below is Nemmy enjoying a NZ drop...  

 

The concert was very good, as it almost always is. This year the lineup was Anika Moa first up, followed by Supergrove who put on an amazingly fun and energetic show which belied their advancing years! The main act was Dave Dobbyn and Don McGlashan performing together. They always put on a brilliant show, and played a long set of all the favourites. It is always such a chilled out event, I mean, good food, good wine, good music, good company, sunshine, what's not to like??!

 

 

Having a young baby in the house made for lots of cuddle time. I like the photo below of Finn with his proud mum.

  

Will and I also got in on the action... It's a myth that I don't like babies, I just don't particularly want one of my own!

At the end of February we also had another big social event in the form of my very good friend Richard Roe's 50th birthday. They live in Dunedin and his wife Rach had organised a surprise birthday party for him at an outdoor education lodge in Central Otago that they have access to. Rach had done a brilliant job of planning the whole venture and managed to keep it a surprise till the very end. Rich was especially surprised that Will and I had managed to fly down from Wellington for it. It was a fun night and great to catch up with the family, along with some of their friends who we have got to know a bit over the years as well.

 

The 10th March was operation day. If you recall, at the very end of last September I managed to slip in the shower and basically tear all the meniscus in my right knee. The whole process of GP-physio-GP referral to specialist-MRI scan-appointment with surgeon-waiting list for surgery seemed to take forever, all the while I was in not inconsiderable pain. 

I was quite lucky in that although my surgery was 'free' through the ACC scheme, my surgeon happened to be based at Wakefield hospital. This meant I got all the service and benefits of a private hospital (including a nice room to myself with big windows overlooking gardens) without having to pay for it. I had a lovely nurse who just happened to play korfball with Will (Wellington is a scarily small place at times...)

The surgery went well and I didn't have to stay in overnight. I can't believe they still give you a lemonade ice-block to eat in recovery -I remember that from when I got my tonsils out when I was 11! They pumped the knee full of some serious heavy-duty painkillers during the operation, so it felt great straight afterwards! I turned down the crutches and managed to walk out.  The only minor drama was when I stood up for the first time and a whole lot of blood gushed down my leg! Turns out the watertight dressing the nurse had put on wasn't fully sealed... She changed the dressings and I was good to go.

I had to stay off it and keep it elevated for the first 3 days. I basically set up camp in the sunny window seat in the lounge which is my favourite part of our whole house. It was quite nice having an enforced break for a bit and not being allowed to do anything. I did loads of reading, I think I knocked off Veronica Roth's whole Divergent trilogy in a couple of days (highly recommended if anyone hasn't read them yet or seen the films). Will was a very attentive nurse and looked after me well. I like how one of our feathered friends has also snuck in to see how I'm doing in the pic below...

 

After 3 days I was allowed to start my rehab proper. Generally just walking round on it as much as I could, and doing exercises prescribed by the surgeon to try and increase my range of movement in the knee. I also started some light work on my reformer, which you can just see on the right of the pic above. That was my secret weapon and helped get my legs so strong before surgery. I also managed to stop taking my 'heavy-duty' painkillers that I'd been prescribed after a few days, partly because they scare me a bit and I had been doing some reading on how easy it is to get addicted to them. After a few days the pain was manageable with a combo of ibuprofen and panadol. My surgeon had signed me off work for 3 weeks, but that would have taken me all the way up to the Easter holidays. Instead I felt recovered enough to go back after 2 weeks. This meant I just had 1 week of school before my 2 and a half week Easter break. It made ACC very happy as they were paying for my time off (after the first week which the school paid for through my 'sick-leave') so I ended up saving them lots of money! It was actually really nice to be back at school again. my classes were all very sweet and concerned with how I was. Before I knew it, it was Easter holiday time.