when we were young...

‘YELLOW CAR!’ 

Punch.

‘I said I WASN’T playing!’

‘YELLOW CAR!’

Punch. Punch.

‘For the last time, I said, I’M NOT playing anymore!’

As we sped along the freeway towards Auckland city, Uncle Ollie suffered many minor injuries due to the out of hand ‘Yellow Car’ game that was unofficially taking place. Much to Mac’s disappointment, Uncle Ollie had had enough of being beaten to a pulp and was trying to put an end to the unruly game. He was struggling however because Skye and his own sister had also decided to play along and they two were jabbing at any piece of exposed flesh available to them. I’m not sure the game ever came under control, we just arrived at Mount Eden and everyone became distracted...for a while. I suppose that particular game was some relief from the mammoth ‘eye spy’ tournament that has taken place on every car expedition since we got here. Most of the time the game runs smoothly, but every now and then Skye will become fixated by one particular word, e.g. chair and repeat it continuously until some would finally take a turn and say ‘something beginning with C’, at which point she would guess...‘Steering Wheel?’. I haven’t laughed so much on a car journey since the days of Ollie singing along to a Gwen Stefani song many years ago!

From the top of Mount Eden we could see pretty much the whole of the city. The sky tower looming high above any other building (long gone are the sky scrapers of American cities), the marina and harbour, the big bridge, the viaduct and the 2011 World Cup Rugby stadium, built for the tournament. It isn’t a huge city but it is far more pleasant to look at than most. Situated right on the waters edge and surrounded by little tree covered islands, it’s an awesome view. The land is mainly flat but every so often there is a random hill that sporadically appears. Mount Eden itself has a giant volcanic crater at the top. Ollie spent a few minutes arguing with Nigel about what rocks were or weren’t volcanic. I stopped listening part way through, it wasn’t a very scintillating discussion! After attempting to take a few panoramic shots and Ollie complaining that we need a better camera (which I suppose we do), we all got back in the car and drove down into the city to find some lunch.

The viaduct has loads of bars and restaurants, including a giant fish market that Ollie is already obsessed with. Most of the buildings were built for the world cup so the whole place looks very new. Here also was where a helicopter recently crashed while putting up the christmas tree. The story made the news headlines and Ollie, Char and I had actually been there when the crash had occurred! Deciding on fish and chips we sat outside the market. It was pretty windy. Charlotte commented ‘Every time we all eat out we seem to get wind.’ Hmm...!

We spent the afternoon at Mission Bay, a long stretch of beach on the outskirts of the city. It was a pretty place and the kids were in the water immediately. Unconvinced by the shouts that the water was ‘warmer than last time’ neither Ollie or I dared to go in. A cup of coffee definitely seemed the better option!  Back at home it was time to prepare the food for the BBQ we were having that evening. Rob and Chris, Nigel’s parents, came over and brought some very tasty homemade chicken kebabs. It was a great evening and really nice to get to know some more people here. 

Sunday it rained and rained, and oh, rained some more. Ollie, Mac, Skye and I went to a nearby swimming pool and the kids wouldn’t stop talking about the amazing ‘Hydro Slide’. Unfortunately this outing did nothing other than cement my unhappy realisation that we were no longer able to class ourselves as children or even young adults. The sad fact was that we were now...grown ups.

I hadn’t been to a fun pool in a long time. As the four of us bundled into a family changing room and Skye threw off her clothes I suddenly wished I was 4 again too. Instead I had to hobble round a corner trying to push my ever lumpier body into my bikini. Now I know I’m not ‘old’ by any stretch of the imagination but you have to admit that there does come a stage in your life when you realise you don’t quite have that perfect adolescent body that you still like to imagine you did. That lovely flat stomach that you never had to try with has suddenly turned to mush and it’s now a case of berating yourself for not doing enough exercise every time you catch yourself in the mirror after a shower. Anyway, after my deeply unconfident body moment I finished getting Skye into her togs, persuaded Mac that we ‘wouldn’t look’ and finally got him to get changed. Meanwhile Ollie had somehow changed without anyone even realising. 

Stepping out of the changing rooms, Ollie and I immediately felt like giants at a Borrowers’ swimming pool. The slides were tiny (apart from the ‘hydro slide’), the water spouts came up to our shoulders and the lazy river was thigh deep. Even the main part of the pool came up to our ankles for the most part. What had happened to us? Where had the super cool amazing fun pools with rushing water, crazy slides and water fountains like these gone? Had some cruel hobbit come in and changed all the fun pools? Had my memories been distorted? As Ollie came whirling down the Hydro Slide with Skye on his lap they almost flew out the end of the landing tube, most of the water actually did! Why was everything so small? And then it hit me. Everything wasn’t small. We were just big. We had grown up. This horrible, depressing fact sunk in even harder as after an hour both Ollie and I were panting. ‘How long have we been here? Is it almost tome to go?’ Ollie looked at me with eyes that were begging for the answer to be yes. Meanwhile Mac and Skye were still running up the steps to the slide over and over. Never tiring. ‘Come on Uncle Ollie! Take me down again!’ yelled Skye. Obviously twenty times down the big (well bigger) Hydro Slide wasn’t enough!

Then the thing that used to annoy me more than anything when my family used to go swimming happened. We would all be having fun and then suddenly Dad would say he was feeling cold and would have to get out. I used to wonder how the hell he could be feeling cold when I was boiling hot and we were in a warm pool! But now, finally, all these years later I understood. Because without realising it, I found myself wading through the shallows, shivering, and thinking ‘I’m cold’. Since when had I turned into Dad?! Or more to the point, since when did I get to the point where fun pools just weren’t so fun anymore and more of a tepid ankle paddling experience? So, cold and slightly wet I made it over to my towel to sit and watch Ollie take the slide over and over. Poor guy. To see Skye and Mac having sooo much fun made me smile. It was their turn now. But it wasn’t all bad. Chasing Skye round the lazy river was lots of fun, not so much falling out my bikini top and not realising, but some things never change.

* * *

Today was Mac’s Sports Day. Now. I thought that it was an English tradition that it would always rain on a schools sports day, but apparently not. This morning, just as we were about to walk up to the school, the clouds exploded and we were greeted with yet another bout of rain. I’m not angry at the weather here so far, I’m just a little disappointed! It’s not cold at all and when the sun is out it’s absolutely scorching, but so far I have experienced more rain than I did the whole entire time we were in America! Anyway. The rain didn’t last long and we found out the event had been moved back a couple of hours. All was not lost! The fact that the Sports Day did take place on the intended day is definitely an improvement on back home. One year I think I didn’t even have one the weather was so bad for weeks!

We cheered and shouted as Mac won almost every one of his races. He would have won the hurdles too, but tripping over one set and then crashing head first into the second and third kind of hindered him! I don’t think he finished last though. His running race was brilliant but the real surprise of the day was the long jump. Mac certainly jumped the furthest in his group but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t make the longest jump in the whole event! He was almost out the sand pit! All the teachers were very impressed and stories of his jump were soon passing between them. Overall his house won the most points and were declared the overall winners. Ollie and I were very impressed by our little sporty nephew and by the giant grin on his face I think Mac was pretty proud too! 

I can’t believe it’s less than three weeks until Christmas! It feels very odd to not be surrounded by miserable cold weather and maybe a little snow. Never the less I am already satisfying my yearly Mince Pie addiction and we’re all getting into the Christmas spirit. We have been dancing to Christmas tunes most evenings, always led by Skye! One of her favourites is Jingle Bells, and thanks to her I have it permanently going round in my head. Well, I have her interesting version of the lyrics in my head! Now please everyone, sing along...

Jingle bells

Jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Old Mc farm

It is to ride

On a one horse open sleigh

Hey!

(Repeat)!!

6/12/11