Train video and weekend update

It’s cold and blustery tonight, but these videos were taken on Friday, the magical and lovely day in Wellington. Here is a video of a little piece of the commute that I’m always blathering on about. Perhaps you’ll see the reason for the blather.

It’s a wild and windy night tonight—cold and howling and often pouring. We walked on the beach this afternoon when the rain cleared and bits of blue sky showed amongst the thick clouds. It was a lovely break on a weekend devoted to the beginnings of yet another house sale. Geeze. We’ve got this packing and cleaning and staging thing down to a science, we think, and the kids are nicely on board, Naomi colour-coding her books and Aidan organising his legos. This house goes on the market in two weeks, and will be sold at auction in mid-November (it’s hard not to have hellish flashbacks of the house that sold last November). The idea of the auction (apparently a good way to sell homes here) makes me nauseous. Looks like a queasy six weeks.

Other than the house selling and the tenure-portfolio producing, things are lovely this spring break. The apple tree behind our new house is still just in bud, but trees elsewhere are surrounded by flowers raining down like snowdrifts. We nearly had a four-kid night last night, but Aidan’s friend decided to go home at about 11, ending Aidan’s hopes for his first New Zealand sleepover. And while it’s cold enough to need a fire these nights, it’s also lovely to walk on the beach, and it’s perfect weather for going through bins in the kids’ rooms and deciding what to keep and what to throw away. It's not exactly Daytona Beach here. but yesterday there were two girls in togs (=bathing suits) having a water fight on our front porch, and my kids taught their friends how to play baseball in the front yard. Spring break is wonderful everywhere.