Home again

As I wrote the title of this post I thought of that old nursery rhyme:

“To market, to market to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

To market, to market, to buy a plum cake;
Home again, home again, market is late.
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun;
Home again, home again, market is done.

To market, to market, a gallop a trot,
To buy some meat to put in the pot;
Three pence a quarter, a groat a side,
If it hadn’t been killed it must have died”

Is it one that you knew as you were growing up?  Note three pence is three pennies and there were twenty pennies to the pound twelve pennies to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound;***a groat is an old coin from the days of Edward I of England and was worth four pennies.   How times have changed!
***Thanks to my big sister in California for pointing out this error.

Anyway, back to the post.  I returned home from the Golden Door in the early hours of Monday morning and immediately got stuck with an awful head cold, coughing and sneezing my way through the next few days.  So sorry, the thought of writing a blog and even reading any of yours was way beyond me.

A funny thing happened on the way home (no not on the way to the theatre).  I picked up my suitcase and placed it on a trolley.  I was waved though customs and immigration they didn’t even x-ray my bag (but they did my friend’s) and then we  went out to the concourse where we were being picked up by another friend.  So the bag was transferred from the trolley into his car and we went to his house for the night.  However, and this is the point now, when we arrived we found that the wheels had gone from the base of the bag.  How could such a thing happen?  So the next day, coughing and sneezing we went back to the airport with bag as instructed, and found an absolutely charming young lady who took all the details and my bag and informed me that if it couldn’t be repaired they would provide a replacement.  So here is a big round of applause for Virgin Australia who really mean it when they say that they care about their customers.

I have so much to share with you following my seven days at The Golden Door but before I do so I have to ask you to bear with me while I read the 900 plus emails that were awaiting me on my return – of that number at least 800 were new posts from fellow bloggers.  So I am currently catching up on my reading.

Also I am about to change internet providers so I hope to read all of these blogs, and those that have come in today before the changeover on Tuesday, otherwise I think I will lose them all.  So please bear with me.

And today’s news from our corner of the world…Christchurch is still living through continuing, and quite large aftershocks from the earlier earthquake and has now been hit with a freezing cold snap.  In fact it has been reported that yesterday was the coldest day in Christchurch in 130 years; the temperatures hovered between 0 deg Celsius and 1 degree.  Very chilly.  Adding to the problems  some houses were without electricity overnight.  Apparently the heavy fall of snow landing on boughs of trees pulled the boughs onto the power lines.  Another good reason for all power lines to be underground.

The badly damaged Christchurch Cathedral is subject to demolition. Today it was covered in snow.
Picture from The Press, Christchurch June 7/12

Related articles

• Ice warning as snow freezes (stuff.co.nz)
• Thousands spending wintry night without power (radionz.co.nz)
• On a Christchurch Snow Day…. (fiskarscraft.typepad.com)
• Musing on Monday (growingyoungereachday.wordpress.com)

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