8th February, 2009

Dear Reader

It is Sunday evening, and there is a red sun shimmering through a grey sky.  You feel that the Tasman Sea is literally the “ditch” which it is so often called when you realise how influenced we are by the Australian weather patterns. “The sun with sunglasses,” was how my son in law so succinctly described the sky as the weird haze covered the city of Dunedin yesterday.  We were so lucky to only have the seemingly ominous green tinge which seemed to make colours more vivid later in the day.   This strange effect has come to us through the horrific bush fires which have wreaked havoc in the Australian outback, resulting in the deaths of thirty five people, including a family of six who were trapped in their car as they fled the area, obviously leaving their escape too late.  We are so lucky to be living in such a temperate climate, so we should never complain about our fickle weather.  Give me an unpredictable cold snap any day!

This past weekend has been Waitangi weekend, the weekend when we celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document.  We were watching a documentary on the British colonies, and the researcher had obviously become confused as the presenter talked about the Waitangi Treaty in relation to the Aborigines in Australia.  The poor Aborigines certainly never had a Treaty which gave them any course for redress of the many wrongs done to them.

It is wonderful having a four day working week, and a three day weekend.  Han and I decided to leave early on Friday morning so that we could make the most of our time with our daughter, Suny, and her family in Hawea.  We had had a late night the evening before as we had a big barbecue to welcome a couple who had often come to our home when they were in their late teens and friends of our children.  They now have a child of their own, and they invited some other friends who had also visited us so many years ago.  The years peeled away, and it was wonderful to eat good food, and drink good wine as we caught up on all the news of years gone by.  The time flew by, and it was after midnight when I hopped into the spa before retiring to bed.  Han was already snoring, but I love having a spa before putting my head on the pillow.  With little sleep during the week, I wondered how we would wake up, but I was very excited about seeing my three year old granddaughter, Indi, and six month old grandson, Seth. Han and I left Dunedin before six o’clock, and we had to travel through thick fog as we travelled south before emerging into the clear air of Central Otago.  We stopped only once to buy cherries and apricots, and then arrived at the beautifully crafted stone home which Suny’s partner Nathan has built with such love and care. Although they overcapitalized on the building of their dream home, they already have an amazing place which they call home, and work very hard to keep up the repayments. I felt so at peace, and Suny commented to Shahan in China that she had never seen me so relaxed in the twenty four years she has known me! I spent the time playing with Indi and Seth, helping out where I could, but spending a lot of time sitting on the couch reading a book my good Brazilian friend, Claudia, had given me when she was here.  I have so little time to read, and it was good to put everything else to the side, and just focus on the printed word.  We also went into the comparatively busy town of Wanaka to look around the huge “holiday house” which Nathan is working on, and it is obscene how grand it is for two people who will spend so little time there.  It is a mammoth four bedroom house with massive rooms overlooking Lake Wanaka, and just the concrete alone for the swimming pool cost $130,000!  I think such people should give some of their money away. I am not saying we shouldn’t do what we want with our money, but I find such flagrant extravagance sickening, and I am truly not just saying this out of envy! The green eyed monster only reared when I saw the pool, as I would love a swimming pool, but I really don’t envy anyone or anything. I am so blessed with my family and home.

I have just popped outside, and it is balmy with a slight breeze which wafts the perfume of jasmine around the deck. The scent reminds me of Han and my wonderful honeymoon at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. That was heaven on earth!  I am going to go out for a walk in the dark, it being ten o’clock, and recapture the mood.  It may be a little hard without Han, but he is happily watching television.  I would love to sit outside and write this, but I have no battery power, so I will sit in bed and continue writing after my stroll around our garden….

I have just returned to sit in bed, noticing that it is almost a full moon, though partly hidden by cloud.  Han said he hated the haze which was caused by the fires today, a constant reminder of the destruction being caused in Victoria, the Australian State in the grip of a national emergency.  We are so lucky, and my mind travels to my Palestinian “son” Tamer, with whom I have kept up email contact over the past three years.  As I write the word “three” I wonder if it could possibly be that long!  He had sent me photos of his beloved house, but unlike the beautiful two storeyed house made of concrete and marble, all that is left is a pile of rubble.  The Israelis showed no mercy, destroying the houses of innocent people in their latest rampage through Gaza, and killing his neighbours on both sides of his house.  I was so upset, I picked up the phone and called the number he had given me in Egypt where he is now studying.  It was a relief to hear his voice, and his usual wise words made me smile.  Tamer still hopes for sanity to prevail in the world, and let’s hope his dreams are fulfilled.  He is studying in Alexandria, the city in which I first cut my teaching teeth, and I told him that one day we will walk the streets of Alexandria together. It will be five years till he graduates as a doctor, and God willing, we will hug each other in that time.  “Inshaalla,” as they say in Arabic.

As I walked up the drive of our home after my very short walk around the garden, my mind transported me back to the time when the real estate agent drove me up the same drive to look at the house for the first time.  It was twenty years ago, but that day is still vivid in my mind’s eye.  It was a comparatively humble house, but I knew it was all I wanted.  I was on my own, having worked almost every hour God gave me for three years to have the money to buy a home for my five year old daughter Suny.  They were halcyon days in Japan, and I was lucky to have been there in those boom days.  The pace would probably have killed me, but I managed to get out without too much damage having been done to my body.  Working long hours never killed anyone, I believe.  It is stress that does the damage, don’t you think?  As I looked at our home and garden, which has increased four fold in size, I know that a lot of hard work has gone into its creation.  Again, hard work hasn’t killed us, and it is only the stress which wears us down at those times when we lose sight of where we really want to go.

I feel I have so much to tell you, and as I write, there is a documentary on David Dougherty, the man who was wrongly convicted of rape, but served three years in jail after two unsuccessful appeals.  There was DNA proof it wasn’t David’s, but the doctor who looked at the DNA, said that she couldn’t rule out that David wasn’t the offender as perhaps his DNA had been masked.  It was seven years till he was finally cleared with an apology from the government and compensation given. The actual rapist, whose DNA matched that found on the poor girl, was later found and convicted.  How could you live in prison, knowing you had been unjustly convicted?  David Dougherty bears no ill will toward the girl, who in good faith identified her neighbour, David, as the rapist.  You have to forgive and move on.

This weekend, we have celebrated the birthdays of two of our granddaughters, Indi and Mila.  Yesterday, we were in Hawea with the other grandparents to join in Indi’s celebration, and as is wonderful in blended families, there were three sets of grandparents!  The same was true at Mila’s party, although only two of the four sets of grandparents could make it to Mila’s eighth birthday. However, she had eight friends and two brothers to celebrate with her, so she had a wonderful day.  Mila looked so small beside her friends, and she will probably be like Jan, and grow tall when she is older.  Jan had trials for the Otago team today, so he couldn’t spend long at the birthday party.  However, he sees a lot of his niece and nephews, often babysitting them when Jo and Andy go out.  Jan also now does the dishes at Jo and Andy’s café, so he is very much a part of the family business now as well!

I am now going to go to bed, it being almost midnight.  I don’t know where the time has gone to!  I think we will sleep with the door open tonight, so that we can enjoy the breeze from the harbour.  It was 33 degrees just south of Dunedin, and it was certainly hot when we returned from the party this evening.  It was great to see people swimming in the sea, and it still feels like summer on days like today.  Who knows what weather each day will bring, but that is part of the magic of this place.

Love

Sharron