My errands have diminished in scale as the big items have been ticked off and I'm running round ticking off details. Saturday domestics take till 2pm. That's typical. In the weekend Kahu doesn't get up till I get him out of bed. My first stop in Vintage Wonderland to pick up a pair of cast iron shelf brackets- they've come from the recently demolished Ballentyne house. Alistair shows me some pics- great and glorious in its day. These brackets are a piece of Christchurch history. They were covered in layers of paint. Isn't everything old? Kahu and I drop in on Nikki who is puzzling over carpet swatches of varying shades of brown. It's enough to do anyone's head in. Eventually you've got to point at one and move on. Glad I don't have to go there. Her house is coming together at much the same pace as mine and it makes me realise we are getting there. After all the money we've spent and all the running round we've done, we must be.
An old flatmate, Jenny, arrives for a catch up. We flatted together in 2005/6. Kahu and Kaia were babies and Jenny was mid 20's. It seems like a life time ago but our relationship is one of those which is surviving a lifetime. Jenny and Kaia used to come and stay off and on after they left. Jenny had an itinerant lifestyle and I would pick one or both of them up at the airport. For some years they lived in a house bus. Jenny still has a gypsy lifestyle but she's looking for a base. The door is open. Well nearly. There's no door handle on the front door yet but it's not far away. Feels like Jenny and I have a sisterhood from shared circumstances and sharing the load. It's what women with babies do. Create a family. Jenny recently nursed her mother through a terminal illness in Germany. Security and belonging are part of what she's looking for. Through living together at 22 College, we're bonded for life.
I leave without getting much done in the garden but it doesn't matter. Forefront in my mind is the need to move trees I plonked in the back garden to save from demolition. I began three years ago on a spring afternoon after a particularly hard day with a difficult Year 11 group. I was energised, got the spade out of the garden shed and dug. Now I want to locate them permanently but it's hard to picture how big they'll grow in the next 20 years. I'd also like to plant along the front berm for privacy. I'm not going to put up a fence. I'd rather sit on the verandah and people watch.
Night time...eating again...I'm going stir crazy. Or maybe it's living with Chris so long.
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