All those online for NZ timezone!

[buzzybee]

Hi all. Used to be a regular on MN when I lived in London but since moving back to NZ have found it harder to make the connections due to all the brits being asleep when us down under are online! So if anyone is keen to start a thread for those of us in this predicament please reply! My DD has just turned 5 and started school last week (scary). Have just found out I'm expecting number 2 - due roughly Xmas day...

She's asleep at the mo but she gt some lovely pressies.

I expressed lots of milk so I can have a few glasses of champagne! Unfortunatley is raining here too but we have five people round for Christmas dinner nad all having a great time.

we had THE most fabulous weather here in ChCh today - warm and unbroken blue skies

had a good day at my parents' and DD seemed to enjoy all her presents including the dolls' house I slaved over (bought in kit form, painted and constructed over many, many days by me)

Well I think a nice Xmas day had by all despite it all being a bit ad hoc as didn't feel I could plan anything.

DD seemed to like all her presents and not get too antsy about be stuck inside most of the day with 3 relatively boring "olds" and no kids. Skies cleared about 3pm so went down to local school playground - to find requisite quota of kids on new bikes and with kites!

No twinges at all today. Told my mum we might be waiting another 10 days yet - and she groaned loudly like it was seriously painful to her! [hmmm]

To be fair I suppose it must be a bit of a pain to be "on call" all the time to come and get DD.

Wow, MrsJC, I'm so impressed with the dolls' house present! HOW did you find the time?!

Good Christmas day for us, fairly quiet with lots of yummy food. I think we need a good long walk tomorrow!

Buzzy, have you started getting "haven't you had your baby yet?" phone calls?

Yes am getting rather bored with them - although to be fair I have probably done the same myself in the past

I actually had a text today which read "when will they induce you"?!!! This after I ignored a text (late) last night from same person which read "any signs yet?"

Glad you all had nice days, especially you Anna.

MrsJC I have loads of plans for while I'm on mat leave but doubt I will get close to doing anything like as organised as painting a dolls house!

it nearly killed me (which is why I have stuck pics of it on my profile in a pathetic needy way) and I was up til 1am this morning and then spent hours putting the sodding thing together this morning - had to sand all the edges down as they didn't fit in the precut grooves, grrrrrr. I even made little gingham curtains

basically I have been doing it every evening over the last couple of weeks

She does seems to appreciate it though thank goodness

Hi
I'm not in New Zealand, but Japan, so almost the same time zone, even if our seasons are upside down!
Always up for communicating with people on the same side of the globe!

Merry Christmas by the way.
Enjoy what's left of it!

Hi RuthChan. Are you a kiwi/Brit by any chance? What's Christmas like in Japan?!

Hello RuthChan, hope you enjoyed your Christmas Day in Japan

Mrs JC (or should that be MrsJCSFOP at the moment?) I'm very impressed with your dolls house - tis lovely. And am envious of your weather yesterday, our run up to Christmas was lovely and today is nice again but yesterday was rainy!

Am trying to resist saying "Not had that baby yet, Buzzybee?"

Had a lovely day here. Lots of good food and wine with 5 friends round who all stayed the night so they could enjoy the booze. Wasn't as sad as I'd feared it would be. Phoned all my siblings this a.m. and one of my sisters and I did have a little cry on the phone together but it was a good cry iyswim.

oh I'm so glad you had a lovely day Anna. And I do know what you mean about a good cry as well.

it's completely different today, has been raining and is quite chilly. mad weather. Oh look, it's raining again....

Lovely and quiet here this morning. DD colouring in some pictures she got from Santa, wind has died down and sun trying to come out.

Anna, sounds like you had the best Xmas day you could have wished for - even the little cry on the phone.

Might try and go down to the botanic gardens for a walk soon. Happy Boxing Day everyone!

Hi again
I'm a Brit.
Have been in Japan for 8 years now.
(Only planned to be here for one, but never made it home)

Christmas in Japan is a huge non-event.
They have adopted the lights and decorations, but it's not a Christian country so they have no concept of the reason for it all.
It's quite bizarre how unchristmassy it all feels despite the music being on the radio etc.

This year DH took the day off work and we spent a quiet day at home with DD. Very relaxing.

In Japan New Year is the holiday when everyone goes home to see their families and eats traditional food etc.

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmases.

Still nothing happening here sigh

On the bright side DD1 and I managing to keep ourselves reasonably well entertained and weather is much better today

MW came and went, nothing much to report same old same old. Have been fairly active etc, oh well!

Hope you're all having lovely breaks and your DC are enjoying their pressies.

Are you a bit over it now, Buzzy?

Amelia doesn't have a clue about her presents of course but I have been waving some Maisy books she was sent in front of her and she looks vaguely interested - I think she likes the bright colours.

I got her a little token pressie from dh ande me, one of those stackable ring things. So I bought it, brought it home, wrapped it up, wrote a little message on it, put it under the tree. Then on Christmas Day I picked it up, said "Ooh, what could this be Amelia?", opened it and said "Ooh, a lovely toy, look at this, blah blah blah" to my totally uncomprehending 7 week old daughter. The bizarre things motherhood makes you do...

Hello Antipodean girls,

Sounds like you all had lovely Christmases. Freezing and foggy in Shanghai so we had one final veg-on-the-sofa-with-Spooks-DVD-box-set festive season. Next year will be very different with a sticky-pawed 11-month-old getting into everything....

I am going to zip in under the MN radar and hijack your thread as I don't want to start a 20-page state vs private education war thread. I know it's a long shot because most of you seem to be Kiwis, but has anyone got a DD or knows of friends' DDs at Ascham?

We need a non-religious private school in inner Sydney and as far as I know, Ascham is the one and only. Bump arrives in five weeks, so before we plonk down a vast holding deposit, I was just wondering about anyone's experience with the school - good, bad or indifferent.

Cheers!

Hi ninedragons

I don't know anything about Sydney schools I'm afraid (I did spend a few months there when I was about 26 but it was way way way pre-kids and my memories seem to consist of stumbling out of pubs in Kings Cross at about 5am...). However, there are quite a few Aussie MNers - I don't know if they have a thread like this one but they are about. SHould be threads by them in the Living Overseas topic - or you could always start one. Hth.

Lovely city to move to, hope you enjoy it and good luck with the rest of the pg.

Anna, ahem, yes well there are actually 2 presents still sitting under my tree for LO!!

Am now actually resigned to be induced sometime next week as NOTHING seems to be happening. I know this baby has quite a big head from the scans so am now thinking she's not descending and that's what's holding things back...

My Mum's birthday is next Friday so that's another date that we'd ideally not conincide with!

Sorry ninedragons don't know anything about Sydney schools but I'm sure you'd get replies if you posted a new thread as Anna suggests. One thing I do know in Australia is that there is a very strong divide between private and state schools - much stronger than in NZ. More similar to the UK I suppose. Private schools girls for example still often wear straw boater hats! And are intensely competitive - the whole private coaching thing is very big. So you're likely to get divided views from Aussie MNers on whether a prestigious school like Ascham (I assume it is from what you say) is "good" or "bad". Good luck!

Sorry ninedragons, read that back and realised I sound like I'm passing judgment on Aussies and the schooling system there! I lived in Melbourne for 3 months in my teens and found the public/private school thing a bit bizarre - but that may be more so the case in Melbourne...so I'll shut up now!

Thanks ladies. I was trying to avoid starting a thread in case I got crushed in the stampede of people on their high horses about the educational choices of others. There's one thread asking about a specific school in London that seems to have been rumbling on for over a year!

I am actually from Sydney (religious private school, hence my keenness to find a non-religious one) and while Ascham was regarded as excellent when I was a child, I thought I might fish around for anecdotes about its current reputation.

I think there may not be that many Sydney MN-ers - I've noticed the occasional thread always dies pretty quickly.

But thanks anyway. As you were, ladies....

Hi all (and a wave to RuthChan in Japan)

Haven't you had the baby yet How are you getting on, Buzzy?

Sorry, am not a proper Kiwi so I don't know anything about Australian schools, ninedragons!

Lovely day here, going to make the most of it and get the children running around outside as much as possible.

Better go actually, dd2 is kicking me in the arm which is making typing tricky... gone are the days of peacefully bf-ing/mumsnetting!

Happy Christmas everyone. Hi to Ninedragons and Ruth Chan. Xmas on sofa with Spooks sounds rather wonderful. We went through about 4 box sets of the West Wing last winter in lieu of a social life. It was good!
Have had a good Christmas here in Chch with parents. Lots of help with baby and big kids. She's still not sleeping very well but is gorgeous to make up for it. Whats the plan for induction Buzzy?

MW not at all keen on induction.
Apparently you go in first thing in the morning for gel, wait around until about 1pm and if nothing much has happened they then break waters and put you on a drip.
I don't think she likes much as there's loads of hanging around for her as well as me and you can't leave the hospital. Also quite a bit more monitoring etc although can still use bath.
Doesn't sound particularly good to me either but I have to say I'm now very "over it" and can see absolutely no signs of action so am resigned to that outcome - so it may as well be sooner rather than later...
Anyway, see her again Monday and then will probably book in. I'm thinking next Thur 3rd when I will be 41+5 as I assume they won't want to do it on 1/2 public hols.

I'll quickly plug uknova.com for those of you missing British TV. It can only have a certain number of subscribers at any given time, so keep trying to sign up and sooner or later you will coincide with someone leaving (it took us about a week).

You can download anything that's not going to be released as a commercial DVD, so we get the Antiques Roadshow, University Challenge and Property Ladder every week.

As far as we can tell it is all legal, so if you have been jonesing for British telly it's a godsend.

Think something may finally be happening! But probably shouldn't get too excited...feels quite like last time tho.
Woke at about 4am, been having regular-ish contractions since 5am. Definitely not BH. Have taken 2 panadol and called MW - who unfortunately has someone else in labour! Oh well, will call my Mum out shortly to come and get DD1 and she can probably take me to the hospital. Here's hoping my next post is avec bebe

Oooh, Buzzy!

Hope all's going well, and you know you can call us anytime...

Thanks for the link, ninedragons, might try it. I never used to watch much tv in the UK - now that I can't, I miss it...