Some Time Away

Since Monday my brother and I have been away visiting relatives. We stayed with our two cousins at our Grandparents place for five days. It was super fun! I'll try and briefly run down on what we got up to.

Monday:
     We arrived at our Grandparents in the afternoon and just basically hung out.

Tuesday:
     We played a game of RISK, which I'm absolutely useless at. Had lunch and then headed to Nana's Op Shop. We'd brought down a tonne of stuff to give to the shop and then us two girls stayed and dressed up a new style for the mannequins in the windows. I think they looked pretty good actually :) We also cleaned what seemed like a tonne of dishes somebody dropped off. Let's just say they weren't in very clean condition in the boxes....

Wednesday:
     In the morning we picked a few buckets of plums from their tree. My brother made us pancakes for lunch and then my two cousins and I went out in search of the park down the road while Nana and Grandad had some visitors. The intention was to jump on the swings, but that dream was quickly diminished when we discovered a big group of children already fighting over the swings. Luckily we'd brought along a soccer ball and played with that for a while. After that we went out in search of a dairy and got a drink each before heading over to the local Primary school to see if there were any swings there. The back of the school is 2 metre high chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. (Must be to keep the naughty primary kids from escaping school.)
     Around the front was also fenced - and locked up tight. Except for one gate that had been left unlocked as teachers were working inside. Us two girls were a little dubious about going inside. In case of the obvious - like being found and considered trespassers, or worse, locked in. We hung around for a little while, then decided to leave. But I figured we may as well just hunt out a teacher and ask if we were allowed in. We found one and by the Angel she didn't mind at all! To our dismay there were no swings, even though there were two different playgrounds! I don't know why, considering swings are the best part of any playground for any age group. So we were a little annoyed with that and on our way out we did our good deed for the day and assisted a teacher when she dropped a bunch of things.

     That night the four of us went out to the movies and watched "The Book Thief" which we all enjoyed. I'm certainly adding that book to my wishlist on my kobo!

Thursday:
     We went on the Luge which was super fun. Came home and had corn on the cob for lunch, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing card games and "The Game of Things", before the three of us went back up to the park for a little while prior to dinner. Yet again, the playground was crawling with children, which was fine. I ended up doing another good deed and lifted a little girl for her to reach the monkey bars. She must've been about five, was pretty little but still an awkward weight to hold. The three of us played hot potato with the soccer ball and some of the boys came over to play some soccer with us. It was actually rather funny. We agreed we were definitely people magnets, for what reasons - we don't know...

     My older sister and her partner came over that night, leaving Nana to cook for not two, not six, but eight people. It must be pretty difficult to do that when you're used to cooking for two. Then we watched the City of Bones. Over the course of the week we played endless games of Last Card, Scum - or P's and A's as some call it - and The Game of Things :)

     Today, Friday, we came back home after dropping the cuzzies off at their bus. We found Mum and Dad painting the house. It was a pretty good day to be doing it though, so we helped them with the second coat. I'm glad to be home with my own cats - after Nana and Grandads' cat "Sweetie" snobbed me. She doesn't seem to like me that much for unknown reasons. Although she was cosying  up to me before we left. Nana thought she was probably excited that we were all leaving!

     I also came home to discover a letter from my good friend in China. It was exciting to get a letter from her, though I was curious that she didn't add "NZ" to the address. However I soon discovered she cheated, and must've passed her letter on via her sister who arrived back in the country from China last week, who then must've sent it from NZ. Talk about cheating ;) lol

     Now I start the week of school work, attempting to get as much sent in as possible this week. I go on a short trip to visit a friend next weekend, and after that I've got a busy year ahead! Let the school work begin!