by We’re about to head off to Mum and Dad’s holiday home – you could hardly call it a bach – in Moeraki. On Thursday I’ll drop in on my friend in Naseby whom I haven’t seen since 2016 when she still lived in Auckland.
Last night I had my Romanian lesson in which – predictably I suppose – I talked about New Zealand. When prompted by the teacher to talk about a news item, I said the wildfires in Hawaii which were horrific – the death toll, currently at about 100, will climb substantially. I got the impression that the fires hadn’t received the same level of coverage in Romania as here. After Romanian, I had my first English lesson with a woman in her late thirties who lives just outside Bucharest and works for Deutsche Bank. As is often the case, she underestimated her level. She’s a very competent speaker.
I don’t have much time to write because we’re shooting off any minute. I will however say that traditional New Zealand showers – the zinc ones with the big intuitive red, blue and black dial – are amazing. When I came over as a kid I thought they were in a different league from the pathetic drizzly ones we had in the UK with mastic surrounds that always eroded. My parents have a proper Kiwi shower in this place, and when I first stepped into it following my two-day journey, I didn’t want to get out.
On breakfast news this morning I heard “if it gets back into power” (referring to the Labour Party) and that Chelsea (the football club) “has been spending up large”. Oh, is that how we do things in New Zealand now? I go away for seven years and now you go all American by treating clubs and teams and political parties as singular.
Yesterday I took Dad’s bike for a trip around Geraldine and Orari, going back via their old house. Here are a few pictures:
