Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Beck'nd for a Capital Visit

Yay, Wellington today!! After a busy morning of packing and cleaning we left around 11 am giving ourselves a huge pocket of time to get to the airport for our afternoon flight - or so we thought. I hadn't worked the hour-before-check-in into the equation, nor had I made allowance for emergencies...one hardly thinks you're going to have a ruptured spleen happening on the way, or a burst appendix - either of which could have been the case when Caleb started crying in pain about 40 minutes into the drive. His pale and grimacing countenance gave us cause for concern, so after a quick and fruitless stop in Heinz, we found the doctor's rooms in Ashburton where Caleb was seen fairly quickly. I had visions of sending Nick to Wellie on his own while Caleb and I spent the night in hospital, but by the time he was seen the pain was already easing and we just had to put it down to posture, seatbelt and cramp-inducing belt-tightness. Hurried off again and tried to ignore the speedometer; arrived in Christchurch and got the car sorted out with Peter and Michelle Moore who graciously hosted it instead of our leaving it at the airport, thereby saving many $$$, and checked in suitably timeously. Phew! Boarded the plane, took a deep breath, exalted in the take-off, and then nearly fell apart during the very turbulent climb. I do not like hurtling through the skies in a large and heavy tin; when said large and heavy tin shakes and rattles then small boys' arms must endure death grip from mummy dearest who was all the while assuring them that there was nothing to fear. No worries, they were loving it. We were in the air for all of about 15 minutes before beginning the bumpy descent which ended in a tame version of the notoriously rough Wellington landing. Ugh. Happy to be on land again. And after that extensive preamble, let the sweet times begin!! Mike and Candice Beck and little Charis were there to meet us; our friendship was instant and the bond of brother- and sisterhood strong! The men headed off in one car and us ladies in the other to their home in Porirua, which is actually not in Wellington at all but is an entirely separate district with its own council. Spent a very relaxed first night together chatting, chatting and chatting - the gals swapped recipes and I guess the men discussed the finer points of theology. Caleb and Aaron had their first taste of x-box...racing cars and skateboarding had them hooked. This was mostly how we saw them over the next few days - and that was okay by us as it's certainly not the norm!

1 comment:

Raymond said...

I must have missed the part about why you went to Wellington?

The photo of the guitar-playing-man is very nice. Striking lighting and great use of DOF.