Not for me but for my daughter-in-law. Apparently it is a common, do it every day, operation now but it sounds seriously scarey to me! The operation was yesterday on the back of the neck and they go in through the front of the throat, do they use a cut throat razor??? So glad though that the problems she has been having have been halted and maybe, fingers crossed, reversed. I'm going up to stay tomorrow so when she comes out of hospital she can relax, rest and revive - back to the three r's again...
Life continues to be busy. I made it to WOMAD this year after missing 2 years in a row. A group of 8 women friends went and had a blast, we all enjoyed it at differing levels of course but it is always an amazing event. A friend who we met through couchsurfing in USA arrived and came to WOMAD with us then stayed a couple of weeks whilst organising herself to travel around New Zealand until June. She is now in the South Island no doubt having lots of adventures, I am envious and my feet are itching.
Speaking of feet, I have broken my left little toe two or three times in this last year, no idea why, it's not like it sticks out or anything but I do manage to catch it on things. The last break it didn't settle down as it should have and even though it looked fine I felt like it was sticking out and it continued to be sore. When I rode a friend's Motoguzzi I found as I went to get off that it was too high (it had a bag on the back of the seat) to lift my right leg over so I needed help and went up on my toes with my left foot and bang! Sore! Pain!!! Not sure what happened but after that it settled right down and is now back to normal. I figure it was dislocated before and is now back in it's proper place, YAY!!!
Our weather continues to be wet with periods of fine tucked in when we are reaching insanity point. Two big storms have come by one of which was going to be the doozy of all doozies but it didn't come as close as forecasted and we were spared the worst. After the storm I rode around the East Cape with my son and his friend. We expected there to be problems with the roads but no, it was a wonderful ride. We had radio intercoms and it was great to be able to talk as we rode about the scenery (which is spectacular) the weather (which was beautiful) the road (amazing curves and now and then a bad camber). It was a ride over 3 days and one of the best I've been on. We swapped bikes so we each had a turn on each of the other bikes. For them it was a first time to ride a 1690cc Harley and for me a first time to ride sport bikes, a Yamaha 650 and a 750 Motoguzzi, we all loved the opportunity. I wanted to immediately rush out and buy myself a sport bike to have the choice that opposite style of riding, buy as well, not sell my Harley lol.
I have started learning Maori, I started learning years ago when the first push began in our country to make sure the language was not lost as they realised the older generation who spoke fluently were not going to be around forever and not many of the younger generation spoke Maori. We now have a Maori television channel, radio channel and lots of opportunities in the community to learn the language. So I'm diving in again as I love the sound and cadence, it is similar in sound and sentence structure to Spanish which I am also trying to keep up.
It's almost May and with May comes my birthday, I will be 61, that is I will be celebrating the end of my 61st year. Wow, I feel maybe just 50 or even a little less. May also means a descent into winter so time to head off on some adventures :) We are off to visit the Gold Coast at the end of May and then in July we go to the USA for a couple of weeks visit with my sisters and to trace some family history. More on that later...
