Product in NZ

 As you know, New Zealand is this beautiful little country at the bottom of the world. We have a small population of just under 5 million people. We have a lot of green space, and most people live in the main cities, meaning we have some vast open space that you can wander in and find no one.

Unfortunately, because of our size, we don't manufacture a lot of products and most of what we have, comes from another country. It is not that we haven't made things in the past, just that when production has become too expensive (with obtaining the materials to start with) then they have inevitably moved the production to another country (Australia & Asia) where it can be completed in bulk size which is faster and more cost effective for all. Then, obviously, it is shipped back to NZ for us to buy.

When it comes to variety, then no, NZ does not do this well, but that is due to the lack of population to have sufficient turnover of stock. Inevitably the smaller company just can't make enough sales to stay viable and so they end up closing.

I found this quite difficult when I first moved to NZ in 1998. I was used to the UK and having so much variety to choose from and then suddenly, I was in a country that gave you the choice of A or B. A lot of popular brands do not make it here as there just isn't the population to sustain them, even if they are big brand names in other countries. The cost of getting the products to NZ and then making it a price that we can afford is half the problem, people just aren't prepared to spend heaps on a product that they know is so cheap in another country and astronomically expensive here, due to shipping.

IKEA is one such company. Everyone raves about the simplicity of the company, their flat pack furniture, their cost efficiency. I know, I have been to IKEA and spent many a Sunday afternoon wandering the store like everyone else and having meatballs for lunch, because you just have to. And yes, I always walked away with some odd little gadget that you just had to have!

They are still aiming to open a store here in NZ soon (that soon has been on the cards for the past 5 years!) But, I know, when it does finally arrive, it won't be as cheap as everyone is hoping due to the cost of shipping the products to us in the first place.

So why am I writing about this today?

Jigsaw puzzles, yes, this all has to do with jigsaw puzzles.

We didn't have the variety of product or design. We had one main company Holdson.

Yes, they are a New Zealand brand and yes, they are manufactured here in NZ. As they say, they have been since 1939. They do great puzzles with some reasonable variety. Ok, not so much when they do a series of 4 and the picture becomes boringly the same, but they try, and it gives us something to do. However, they don't do large. They do 1000 pieces well and that is about it, unless you want to go smaller. After a while, 1000 pieces is boring, you want a challenge and something different and that is not them.

Obviously, we do have Ravensburger

They offer size and variety, but man were they expensive and it was difficult to justify the cost of the puzzle. They do great quality pieces too, but when you looked at their catalog of products and then saw what was available here in NZ, then you could only dream that someone, someday would bring more variety down here.

And suddenly, that has happened.

Jigsaws are definitely making a comeback. I think Covid may have had a lot to do with it, people are suddenly all into jigsaw puzzles, they are not for the reclusive person, the older generation who stay home on a Saturday night with no social life. It is almost like this secret little life that people are afraid to admit to as they are scared of what people will think, but they have cupboards filled with variety, colour, size and they are eagerly completing puzzles into the night.

This has also been shown in the variety of puzzle available in New Zealand, the different companies that we can get, the different sizes to tempt us. No longer want 1000 pieces, then fine, how about 2000, 3000 or even 6000. At one point, I did even see the large Ravensburger Disney puzzle in the shop window, a box holding all 40320 pieces (my dream puzzle) although I have also noticed that it is no longer about $600 to obtain, more like half a mortgage!! I think I saw it online for about $2300, yikes, just keep dreaming, just keep dreaming!

Suddenly we have variety of company to choose from & sizes and I for one, am loving it.

Every company makes their jigsaws slightly differently, the pieces fit well or sometimes, not so well. The colours are vibrant, bright and shiny and the cost is reasonable. Suddenly Ravensburger is not out of reach of the average person. We are getting lots of eeBoo, Cobble Hill, Clemontoni, Gibsons and some little brands that are smaller companies and they are selling well and fast.

We have a local party/cake product store here in town that decided to create a small jigsaw section, they sell online too, and they are selling fast and furiously across NZ. Their shipping costs are reasonable and their prices competitive. Luckily for me, they are local so I can order online and pick up close to work, but that also makes it dangerous lol, as checking their sales and seeing something I want gets expensive on the credit card, especially when it is going in the cupboard to join the other 30 waiting to be completed!!

Just 1 pile of many!

So, long live the jigsaw puzzle, the variety, colour and shape. The excitement of completing one, that sense of achievement.

2 years ago, at work, we had a few spare desks and so I set up a green felt and started a jigsaw puzzle on it, it took a few weeks to get completed but it was lovely to see people slowly stop and fit in a piece here and there. It was never distracting but a great mental wellbeing area for someone to take 5 mins away from their desk and focus on something else, whilst they calmed their brain or thoughts, or just needed time out from the difficult moment they had just had in a classroom.

If you haven't completed a jigsaw since you were younger and at school, then maybe consider getting one and giving it a go.

You won't regret it, I promise

Interflora

 As I spent half my life in the UK prior to moving to NZ then I still have many connections and family back home. I completed all of my schooling in England, and my nurse training. I was 27 when I moved to NZ.

So, when I heard that a very dear friend had lost their mother then I needed to pay my respects. Now for obvious reasons, attending the funeral was not going to be a happening thing, so the next best was to let them know they were being thought of.

With online shopping a way that has made the world so small nowadays then sending flowers was never going to be an issue. Although I am always wary of what I am going to pay for and what actually arrives?

This time, I was happy with what arrived, and the flowers received were appreciated for the gesture that they were intended.

Transport

 Now that I have moved back to the family home, I have realised that using the car to get to work each day is becoming expensive.

By the time I have paid for the daily parking ($6), not always guaranteed either! The petrol and wear of the car then I am looking at about $7-8 a day.

Now I only live about 5-7 minutes (about 4 km) drive away from work, in the morning it is quicker to get there as I leave before all the traffic but in the evening I end up taking maybe 10-15 minutes due to traffic, which for the city I live in is not bad, so I really have nothing to complain about, compared to some others around the world (joys of living in NZ with only 4.5 million other people and only 180,000 in my city).

I am happy to walk, which would take me about 30-45 mins but I usually have a heavy bag to carry and I found that this just wasn't suitable and then I had to take other shoes to wear once at work plus you needed a coat/jacket when you start out, because it was cold or raining, but by the time you got there you had taken it off as you are now warm. I decided that I didn't need that amount of crazy stress at 7.30am just to get to work.

So, I took at the bus

It is a 1 min walk to my choice of 2 bus stops and both buses run every 30 minutes. The price per journey is alright and I actually save $1.20 per day on parking costs and guess I save all the wear and tear on the car, plus petrol costs, so a win win all round.

Does it mean I can do a quick stop at the supermarket on the way home? Yes, if I want to walk there and then catch the bus from there, which is totally do able but carrying 6L of milk is not such joy, so someone else can grab the milk!

The extra steps I get in the day walking to the bus stop and getting off the bus a stop earlier and walking up a large flight of stairs to work is also good for me, especially as I am trying to maintain my steps per day.

Guess I will be taking the bus more often. It will take some good planning and ensuring my calendar is up to date and correct, nothing like realising that you forgot an appointment and then realising that you don't have the car to get there! But I don't have appointments too often, well apart from on a Thursday, so I guess I can take the bus 4 days a week, which I will be happy doing, even in the rain (I have several umbrellas)

Christmas Ornaments

 I do like to create things, and this year I found an awesome little pattern for tree decorations made out of felt, so I gave it a go.

Simple paper/card templates that you use to cut the felt

A quick whip stitch around in a matching colour, obviously this was just a simple two colour design but there were others that had other parts to them so many different colours.

Add some stuffing and some beads to make it stand out more and voila....a gift for someone.

They are not difficult and do not take long to produce. I got the pattern from Whatacurlylife on Instagram.

I made a gingerbread man for my colleague

Computer Games

    Computers came into our lives so many years ago. I remember the BBC computers at school in the 80's and the cassette tapes that you had to load to get something to run. At school, that meant Frogger, a computer game that got you having to get the frog across a busy road and the river via logs or things floating and of course, as you progressed the road got busier, and the water ran faster and the chance of dropping the frog in the water got higher. 

As we know, computers still took time to come into our lives. When I moved to NZ in 1998, I brought a laptop with me to enable me to email my parents. I had moved 12.500 miles away from them, on my own! At the time Compuserve was the platform of choice but it was not the best.

However, compared to today than anything was clunky and slow, just have to remember dial up broadband to make most people have heart palpitations!

And so today computers are everywhere and in everything that we do. Just look at what you are currently doing, reading about someone else's life on a computer.

Gaming is something that is huge, not just as a recreational aspect but as a money-making growing company aspect. Gaming is astronomical in how it has grown and the impact it has on people. You want to grow something, farm something, shoot something, build something, drive something slow or fast, create something, run something or live someone's life then computer games will let you do this and there are many to choose from.

Apart from the basic games of Minesweeper and Solitaire, the classics that are still great to complete then I ended up with The Sims

The game that allows you to create a family and live their lives. I started playing back in the early 2000 and still play it 24 years later. Ok, not all the time but it is still my go to game of choice.

Until someone introduced me to Disney Dreamlight Valley

An animated game with Disney characters where you run around a land, meeting Disney characters and completing missions as you become friends with them. It has some farming, some creating, some building and can be addictive at times. Ok it is not going to sustain as long as Sims, because once you complete all the available missions then there will be limited gameplay to complete and unless updates become available, which has been happening, then there will be times of no play or anything to log on for. So, it will definitely become an occasional game rather than a daily habit.

However, it suddenly became my game of play this year. Something new to focus on when everything else has been crumbling around me, getting out of hand. I am enjoying the lighthearted no cares happy side of life that it creates, the little life lessons that Disney like to teach, having fun, loving family, taking care of and think of others.

So, whilst jigsaw puzzles have taken a slight back seat to technology at present, it won't be forever, just whilst my brain focusses elsewhere for a moment.

Life, Marriage and Life

 Life is a funny thing, everyone wants different things out of it.

Some are after achieving career success, others want a large family or no family. People chose careers for totally different reasons and then all end up together. What one student takes away from their time at school is totally different to someone else, but they still went through the same classes and subjects. Some know exactly what they want to do, others have no clue and never really do.

I never knew what I wanted to do in life, I had no career aspirations or amazing moments of enlightenment. My work life just developed but I knew I always wanted to get married and have children.

I loved children and for a period when I was younger then I wanted to be a nanny looking after children. It never transpired but I did go into a profession that deals with people and considers them, although it wasn't my choice, it was a direction suggested by a careers lady when I didn't get all the exam qualifications from school that they felt I needed? Well, all I can say is look at me now....I have a Masters degree and pretty sure there were people who never expected that when I was little.

As for family, then yes, all I ever wanted was to have a family. I wanted to meet 'the one' when I was young (20's) and have a settled life. Obviously it never happened that way. I did eventually meet someone when I was 29, I can honestly say that I don't think he was 'the one' or 'the love of my life' but we worked and it was good and we supported each other. We did go on to have children, 2 gorgeous boys, that I think amaze him all the time, especially as he never really was that interested in having children. So I am always grateful for what I was able to give him and experience, which he had never thought he would do.

We did everything backwards, we met, we moved in together, we got a mortgage, we had children, we got married

And then we separated after 22 years.

My decision, my pushing, and I followed through on all of it. He never totally understood why, but he was supportive enough to let me go so if there was any chance of a reconcile it was in a supportive environment.

We have now been apart, in some form since Oct 2021. But through it all we have still been mum and dad and an amazing family unit. In fact we have got on so much better since I left. I think the boys have seen a better parenting unit in that time. I know their relationship with their father has developed better in the past 2 years than they actually had before I left. We have family dinner together, at the house, at least 1-2 times a week. We still have activities that include both of us and I have stayed at the house on many occasions in the past few years because we do not hate each other, we just can't do marriage.

I have to admit that in fact leaving the house has been the worst thing for me! From a marriage point of view then no, it was the best thing, but from a mother point of view, then I cannot even start to fathom how I ever got to a point that I walked away from the family home and left my children there? They were 16 and 18 at the time. We were always safe and there was no threat, but I was very unhappy, and I had to show my children that sometimes you have to put yourself and your own mental wellbeing first and then it will assist the relationship you have with others.

Whilst we temporarily separated in Oct 2021, there has been some talk over the past few years, but we needed it to all take its own natural way and despite words from him expressing how he doesn't want the marriage to end and he was honest that if I left then it would be the death of the marriage, I always knew the marriage was over. I just couldn't go backwards with how I felt and how he was.

Today, he finally admitted that he is happy with how things are and lets keep it this way and I agreed.

So today, our marriage officially ended.

No more trying to tip toe around each other with having difficult conversations, no thoughts of why something isn't happening.

The thing is, we get on so well that I am moving back to the family home.

Yes, you read that correctly, I am moving back to the family home and no one has moved out, but it is not a backwards step because in an unconventional way, different to many others in our situation, we do well in the same house and can live well together as long as you take out the marriage part. He just doesn't have what it takes to sustain a relationship whereas I love being in a relationship and want someone who will be with me and alongside me. So as long as the expectations are removed, which has now happened, then we do living together well.

I am going back to be with the boys for a little longer before natural progression of life happens, to work on the house, to have some company after living on my own for the past few years, to pay off the mortgage and do you know what....it works really well. We do living together in the same house very well. We did it amazingly during Covid lock down.

It will seem odd to many people but we are doing our life and not anyone else's. We are doing what works for us. Even if the boys move out, which is on the cards for one of them in the next month or two, I can see us happily living together in the house as flatmates for quite a while. Obviously if things change in life for either of us then things will change, but for now, it works, it suits everyone and we are both happy.

Isn't that what life is about?

Jigsaw 7 - Birdwatchers

 And yes, it was only yesterday that I finished the last one and suddenly I am posting about another one.

Well, as mentioned yesterday, I am off work for the Easter period and I was in the mood, so I started the next one and had nothing else to do.

Sometimes you have to work on you and if that means staying home, seeing no one and working on a jigsaw in 24 hours, then take the moment and enjoy the time.

Ok, this was not a difficult one to complete so that may have been half the reason it was finished so quickly

Jigsaw 6 - Yesterdays

 This Easter weekend I am off work and I have decided to chill back and relax for the whole 5 days I am off.

That has involved completing this jigsaw. Now I am aware that it has been several weeks since I last completing any jigsaws but this one took time. It took me a while to want to start another one, told you I go in phases with jigsaws, sometimes it is full on and then suddenly I have a month off!

So I started this one and it was not easy. The pieces were clear and reasonably easy to locate on the box to identify their location but then it was a case of just putting them on the board where I thought they went and hope to find other pieces to build around them. There was no ability to chose a section and find all the pieces and work on that section before moving on to the next part. This involved just going piece by piece.

It worked though and eventually it came together really well and was fun to complete

Loving Me

 Loving anyone is hard work but I love this...

I got this off of Facebook and there was no author supplied but on further searching I have found that it comes from this beautiful book

Jigsaw 5 - Strawberry Jam

 Just 1 week later and the next one is complete.

I brought this one for myself as it was fun and cute and sometimes that is all it takes for me to like a jigsaw design.

I am currently working from home this week, so a little more time to play.

Delight

 Some days you just need some fun

Get so big

 One day they are little and then one day they are huge, and grown up and working the coffee machine themselves, for themselves.

But I would never change anything because at the end of the day he is my baby and I will always love him to pieces.

parkrun weather

 Saturday morning again and parkrun day

This was the weather across the countryside as I drove to parkrun at 7.30am!

Think we are in for some gorgeous sunshine today when this all burns off, which is does very quickly and easily at this time of year here in the Waikato.

Oh, and yes, I was stopped on the side of the road to collect these shots.

Extra Work

Many years ago, whilst still working for the same company as I do today, I was on a different contract. I was casual and hourly paid. Whilst this worked fabulously whilst growing the boys, as life moved on and things changed then it didn't work well for us. So when an opportunity arose to pick up some fun casual work on the side, I took it.

Not 100% sure on how many years I have been doing this now but I still do kind of love getting out there and doing something different.

What do I do I hear you asking?

I work as a gate supervisor at some rugby games.

It is 4 hours of watching the people come through the gate and ensure the tickets are being scanned correctly and problem solving any issues with the tickets.

I always love the view of the stadium as I walk through to my position before anyone enters the venue

Overall, it is a fun thing to do and always makes me smile

Jigsaw 4 - Soda Cans

 And another one down.

I do have work and I do have a life but suddenly, spending some time each evening working on the jigsaw is my thing, so I am going with the peace and quality 'me time' whilst I am in the mood for it.

This was a fun simple one, and after the initial set up, actually very easy to complete.

I usually have the tv on, playing something that I don't have to concentrate on too hard and can half listen to whilst working on the jigsaw

Jigsaw Storage

 The thing with completing so many jigsaws is what to do with them after you have finished them, or obtained them and waiting to complete them? 

If I have enjoyed and loved a jigsaw then I will continue to keep it to complete it again another time (maybe a few years later) and this then means that you need storage and a lot of it!

Where I currently live then I have a sneaky storage gap behind my tv

And then I also have some storage in the top of a cupboard.

The ones in the cupboard are probably ones that it will be a while until I complete as I am not enthusiastic about the design, or they were given to me and I will complete them, but need to be inspired to complete the design.

Saturday

 In the last 2 years I have marvelled at the wonder that the world gives us every day. I am appreciating all that I see, all the beauty and the shear wonder of colour and pattern.

Today the clouds had an awesome pattern effect with the sun shining

This was at 7.30am on my way to parkrun (31)

Yes, it was a hot morning but so much fun to be out in the fresh air, setting me up for a great day ahead, refreshed and exercised.

Morning Balloons

Here in the Waikato we have perfect conditions for hot air balloons and this morning, on my walk to work, I could almost reach out and touch this one. I honestly thought they were in trouble and were about to come down in a populated area!

Obviously they were just trailing along on the wind path and did eventually rise more into the air 

Horse Games

I currently live on my Aunt's horse farm. Now I am not much of a horse person. I will happily say hi to them and stuff as long as there is a fence between me and them! 

I have learnt many things since moving here but have no desire to want to ride them. Fell off of a horse many years ago, and yes, I have got back on another since but riding is not something that I have ever been particularly interested in. I am still in total awe of anyone that does ride and the ease with which they make it look spectacular and fun.

However, doesn't mean that I won't help with the horses so when asked to help at an event then I was more than happy to.

Here are the bales that the horse and carriage had to enter and then move around in a certain order.

They again, made it look so easy but I know it wasn't and yes, a few did manage to mess it up.

Sorting Pieces

Whilst starting a new jigsaw is exciting, the sorting of pieces can be monotonous and a little boring. Somehow, I always manage to miss at least 1 edge piece and find it halfway through completing the jigsaw.

I also don't very often buy brand new jigsaws. We have a very good active Facebook marketplace running with people selling jigsaws so I always buy from there and I happily sell mine on there too.

Of course, when you get a secondhand jigsaw then some people are very good at putting the pieces in a plastic bag inside the box, some are not!

However, this person kindly put everything in a plastic bag but also separated the edge pieces! 

To me, half the fun is finding the edge pieces at the start. I almost made the decision to mix everything together and fully start myself. I didn't, I accepted the found pieces, just wish they had fully separated the pieces, not sure what the point was of separating the edge pieces and then mixing in a few middle pieces in the same bag?