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| Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash |
Wie geht's?
A brief pause before I get to our second twenty years together, a quick post to celebrate Jacky's birthday this week (even though she didn't want one, it has to be done).
No embarrassing photos, no gushy sentimentality, I promise.
Instead, a short clip from The Beatles!
Love, now and forever - W
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| Off on our mystery ride, 1984. |
Wie gehts?
Welcome to the first of a two-parter to commemorate our ruby wedding anniversary. First part takes in the first 20 years from 1984 to 2004.
April 21, 1984 has been the subject of a few posts over the years. Brief summary - the two of us lived at 31C Lorna Street in New Plymouth. There were no children yet. Doesn't seem real in many ways.
I was into my second year of teaching at New Plymouth Boys' High School, Jacky was modelling and working for Whites Department Store in New Plymouth.
Our first decade saw us up to our elbows in dirty nappies - literally. It was one after another until four sproglettes invaded our space. So, it was a decade of sleepless nights, single income struggles, cloth nappy rotation (if disposal nappies were around we never used them - crazy but our belts were tight. Good thing we were both skinny to start with), and vehicle upgrades.
When I first met Jacky, I drove an orange Mini. We'd moved from that to inheriting mum's Chevette, then buying a station wagon and by 1994 we needed a white Ford van. We had bench seats fitted so that we could fit our family of six aboard. This was also useful when we added Annette Sivak and her two kids to the car-pool into work while living in Wakefield.
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| Second decade, still smiling! |
Our second decade April 21st, 1994 - 2004 and our four millennials had joined us in Wakefield, in the South Island of NZ: Keegan 9; Adam 7; Samantha nearly 5; Jade 2.
During that first decade I'd gained a promotion after working at Macleans College in Auckland. So, we'd moved to Nelson for me to work at Waimea College. After ten years of babies, babies, and more babies Jacky was thinking about retraining as a nurse. Fair enough! We'd soon be on the move - back to Auckland.
We had made some great friends in Nelson and had some terrific holidays with them and our old Auckland friends. In terms of parenting, we were all flying the plane while building it. The kids were about to turn into teenagers - were we prepared? Were we eck as like!
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| Embarking on our third decade in the UK, 2004 |
In the UK I began work at The King John School in Benfleet and Jacky was a nurse at a variety of London hospitals.
Our third decade ahead had plenty of challenges but we managed our way through them together. Somehow.
Next up - the second part taking in 2004 to 2024.
Love and peace - Wozza
Wie geht's?
The next couple of posts will be about weddings. You have been warned!
Poppy Mae is 7 months old and has attended three weddings thus far. This prompted a good question from Adam - did he attend any weddings before Michelle and Gavin's? That one was 20 years ago.
Sidebar - memorable wedding that one - in that I remember it well. It ended up being very romantic: Gavin's singing at the lovely little Taranaki church, the reception during the storm that created a power outage, and the subsequent use of candlelight are all distinctive memories from February 14, 2004.
So, that got me thinking about our family and friends' weddings between 1986 (when Adam was born) and 2004.
Four years after mum passed away, dad remarried, to Nita, on Oct 3, 1987, and we used our neighbours (Rodney and Di) to babysit Keegan age 3, and Adam roughly Poppy's age. I doubt Keegan remembers much about life at Dornwell Rd., Three Kings and you were a baby.
It was a nice wedding. As best man, I gave a speech at the reception. Nita had been mum's bridesmaid and was Ross' Godmother, so she already had strong links to the family.
A second family wedding was when Ross married Lynda, April 9, 1988, and we attended, but again - Keegan age 4 and Adam age 2 - were home, still Dornwell Road, with the same friends babysitting.
That's it for family weddings during that time.
As for friends, they were either married already and having babies, like us, or else overseas.
There you go Adam. Hope that answers your question.
Love and peace - dad
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| PJ, Wozza and Annette on Jackett's Island, Motueka, 1994 |
Wie geht's?
Recently, I learnt of Peter Joyce's death in early March, from Annette.
PJ and I became friends when I joined the staff at Waimea College in 1990. I became Head of English the same year, and PJ was one of the teachers in the English department.
An accidental but excellent English teacher (he accidentally got into the wrong recruiting line at University), he was extremely quick witted and funny, quietly spoken, principled, extremely bright, a sceptic, an enthusiastic tennis player (we'd play on weekends sometimes and every Friday after school with two of his Nayland College mates), and...well, we just got on and enjoyed each other's company, really.
Together we produced the school's end of year magazine for four years, were part of an all-conquering pub quiz team, aimed to outdo each other's Tetris scores (he always beat my latest high score), laughed at all sorts of crazy things, and we discussed grammar issues and music endlessly.
He suffered from tinnitus, and one day I forgot that when he was complaining in the staff room about the loudness of a visiting rock band, I jokingly and ill-advisedly, said, "Lighten up, PJ". He wasn't impressed and told me so.
It would became an in-joke but I've never forgotten that lesson.
After I left Waimea College to go back to Auckland to work, we kept in touch. He set me up for a job in China in 2012 that saved our bacon and we often discussed the absurd case that was brought against him. PJ wrote a book about it - very Peter, that response.
Even though I've not visited Nelson in many years, I find it hard to grasp that he's passed away.
So, PJ - I'll play Jack Bruce's Songs For A Tailor album, and Emerson Lake And Palmer's Still...You Turn Me On for you today (we often puzzled over the nonsense lyric that I've quoted above), and give thanks for having met you.
As with all of the students you taught, my life is the richer for it.
Love and peace to Nida and Ken - WNP
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* I'll add this down here because Noel Forth is probably one of the few people in the universe who will get this: the records in question included an album by Stairsteps (Second Resurrection) on Dark Horse Records. It's a new copy as I've failed to ever find a second hand one. Also in the package was Andy Pratt's Resolution album on Nemperor Records.Along with Apple Records, Dark Horse Records, Ring 'O' Records, I also collect albums put out on Nemperor Records because of the Beatle connection.The Beatle connection? Nemperor was set up by Brian Epstein and his American associates Nat Weiss and Shaun Weiss in 1966. It was active as a record label from 1974 to 1986. There were some cool people on the label - Stanley Clarke, Jerry Goodman, Lenny White, Jan Hammer, and others (including Andy Pratt).
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| Maple Grove - east side, about 10 minutes ago. |
Wie geht's?
Update post:
Love and peace - WNP
Wie geht's?
Bleak House is my latest Dicken's epic novel. I'm betting very few readers of blogs in 2024 have actually read this classic, let alone any Dickens.
Hmmm. Just as I thought.
A few years ago, I was like you. Ignorant to the joys of Charles Dickens.
But no longer.
To be fair, it does take me 30 pages on average to get back into the rhythm of his writing. But by then I've laughed out loud plenty of times. He really is a very funny writer.
So, that's me for the next few weeks - enjoying Bleak House.
Just sayin'.
Love and peace - Wozza