the removers brought our stuff finally…

Thursday a week ago yesterday was the big day. Everything since then is a bit of a haze. This haze was initiated in part by the huge anticipation of seeing movers again after eleven weeks plus a few days when the movers arrived in Northampton to finish boxing and loading the container with our stuff (July 10th). The level of excitement ran high--so high that some sleeping partners slept poorly and had a lower that usual threshold for snoring irritation…

some NZ usage seems verry English, some perverse…’removers’ for ‘movers’ certainly has a high cuteness quotient…anyway the cheerful blokes arrived at 8:15 AM with the boxes. Tessa was in charge of checking them off by the truck and then running inside to unpack rugs and pictures. I stuck to the kitchen-- unpacking boxes and storing things away as quickly as humanly possible for five or six hours. The guys left around 2:30 with as much paper and as many empty boxes as we could manage. I put Lily’s and Wim’s bed and bunk bed respectively together and then went off to a rehearsal at 4 PM. Our master bedroom has a closet, a bed and no chests as yet; Lily’s room has a bed, a chest but no bookcase or sorely needed wardrobe; Wim has a good-sized bookcase, his bunk bed and table but needs a small bedside table and chest. All this translates into stuff that is not still in boxes lying around.

What successfully created the feeling of a three-ring circus that day and the next was a forest fire that broke out across the valley on the other side of town. It was quite serious. We could see flames that must have been at least 20 feet high. Up to four helicopters were busy scooping up water from the harbour (sic) and dropping it on the blaze all that day and into the night. This fire flared up again the next morning and even again on Saturday, now two days later. The armchair psychologist here feels that the turmoil in clear view reflected the inner lives of the new arrivals to Waikikamukau who were experiencing reconnection and the realization of what it means to see the old things in a new light.

The office/music studio/guest room has about forty boxes of music, music books, files, CD’s and whatnot. I spent three hours on Friday and again on Saturday combing through those containers for a CV—suddenly needed for ‘casual work’...accompanying at the Uni. Not really expecting anything to happen right away at the end of this term of theirs, I was completely unprepared to find any records. (Bennington had already buried me in their archives, Karen at Westfield saved the day by faxing the documents…)

The new bed (now a two week old bed) has promoted restful nights for some of us--me for instance. Others have fared less well. The unpacker ‘sleeping’ next to me was again not sleeping too soundly, now because of twitching muscles and over exertion from the unpacking. The resolution that one would expect to experience (after the great day) was somehow averted. Life is always interesting…nu?

Are we happy to see our things? Yes. Are the kids happy to have their toys again? Definitely. We do have some tension ratcheting up a notch with the concerts next week. In case you have forgotten the schedule goes like this: ‘La Belle Alliance’, Tess and me, on Tuesday in the Otago Festival of the Arts—St Paul’s; Wednesday…Brian Bromberg’s cello sonata with Jono and me for a noon-time concert at the Uni (one movement only); Thursday…Greg Hamilton and friends—that includes Tess and me at St. Paul’s again…for me it’s the first Beethoven cello sonata (1st mov’t) with Greg, then the Dvorak D major Pno Quart’t for tutti; Friday the entire BB cello sonata in a BB concert at Marama Hall (Uni). Oh yes, the kids start their 4th and final term for the year on Monday (this is a good thing…)

Good news: broadband should be coming soon…tomorrow, perhaps...plus a day or two to sort things out. Bad news: 6-meter swells stopped ferry traffic between the north and south islands for a couple od days so the piano did NOT arrive yet. Sunday night or Monday morning is the current prognosis. (Did it occur to you how useful it would be for me to have a grand piano to practice on right now?)

It's Friday (still Thursday for you). The sun is up. There is not a cloud in the sky. The wood and coal furnace boosted by electric/oil interior heaters are dispelling the morning cool (temp. in office/study/music/guest room-43 degrees F…same as bedrooms upstairs). Dishwasher empty, table set, little feet are heard…time to make the tea and get the day started…it is all very exciting--we are alive and well!…Wim & Lily are going on a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory today…heaven can wait...