Eggshell Green

Another freak storm

It wasn’t a snow storm this time, but today Wellington had what the media has called a hail storm of a decade.

Icy pearls

I certainly hadn’t seen such big hail stones before. One moment it was the usual small balls of ice, the next I heard what sounded like stones being thrown at our window. I looked outside and the deck was covered in hail the size of chickpeas. Impressive. (Apparently they were marble-sized in the city.)

Ooh, I'll have some thank you

Abby wanted to go outside, but yeah, nah. I scooped some up and took it inside for her to play with though.

This weather isn’t doing any good to our seedlings. I noticed some of our seeds had germinated and then this happens.

Tough time for our seedlings

There’s also a trough next to the pot in the picture, but I purposefully didn’t include it – why? Because our dear little dog decided to take a dump on it because he was too wussy to venture out onto the lawn. Little SOB (and that’s literal too, ba-boom!)

Tags: hail, weather, Wellington

Abby Update at 15 Months

Abby quite enjoys blobbing on the rug at the moment. She’ll just lie there and watch telly which is nice when I just need a quiet break for things like blogging! Though I hope I’m not encouraging couch-potatoness. Don’t get me wrong, she still zips around the house all “Eee” and “OOh” and climbing and creating all sorts of havoc.

Just chilling and watching some tv

The other day she managed to get her head stuck through the deck rails – in fact she was more off than on the deck and that scared the bejesus out of me. I couldn’t get her unstuck and back onto the deck, so ran around the other side and pulled her out from the high end. I’ve been saying we need to trellis our deck because I know her head still fits through the gaps. Might have to be a little project in the next couple of weeks.

Loving the slide

I try and take her to the park every few days. It’s nice for her to explore and use up some energy without being told off all the time! We really do need to make our house more child-proof, especially as she’s an expert climber now, and getting tall enough to reach things she couldn’t before.

Elbows on the table? How about legs?

Abby’s getting so good at feeding herself. She can manage almost her whole bowl of food or pottle of yoghurt by herself without making much mess. Quite often she doesn’t want us feeding her because she wants to do it herself. That’s fine by me!

Her favourite way to drink her milk or have a snack is sitting on her Abby Cadabby chair at the coffee table. God forbid if anyone else is sitting in her chair when she wants it! You will be pushed away.

Tags: baby, parenting, Wellington

Playtime with Abs

It’s great watching Abby play on the slide all by herself. She’s a bit shy when other kids are about but when she’s by herself she goes for it. The baby playground in Kilbirnie is perfect because it’s quite safe (so big pregnant ladies don’t need to do much but supervise) and just the right size for a toddler.

She’s also a pro at riding her rocking horse now – complete with hat and a “Yeeha” at the end.

Unfortunately any time is play time and Abby still won’t stay in one place to get her nappy changed. Today she took off while I was trying to clean up a sticky poo, and then sat her dirty butt down on the rug. I picked her up to reveal a nice brown butt-shaped patch with some chunks, which Fez promptly ate – EWWWWW!

Tags: baby, play, Wellington

Share and share alike

There’s been a bit of flack about the new bus lanes in Wellington city. They’ve cost lots of money, ripped up a popular pedestrian mall, and cars are still allowed to share most of the new road after all that.

However when it comes down to the risk to pedestrians (three have been struck while crossing the new lanes), why can’t people just use common sense? If you cross a road, you look both ways. You cross at the crossing. You don’t weave in and out of buses to save a couple of minutes or a few metres of walking. The number of people who just casually walk out in front of buses and traffic in general is disturbing (as well as damn annoying and frightening when you’re driving).

Having said that, I also think bus drivers need to share the road better as well. Having been a public transport user for years, there’s a lot to complain about. Despite the slow speed limit in the city, in my experience, bus drivers do speed, and often. They go through yellow and even red lights, often accelerating to do so. They don’t give way at pedestrian crossings. Of course I’m not saying all bus drivers do these, but certainly some do.

I can’t really comment if these new bus lanes have improved public transport and congestion as I have not had to use them, but as it stands, the mall is now a normal road. It should be treated as such, and buses and pedestrians need to act responsibly as they should on all roads everywhere.

And to all drivers everywhere: don’t be a dick and block pedestrian crossings – that does not help anyone and makes you look like a stupid driver (and I may take a photo and share it with the world).

Go Wellington - isn't it ironic that I can't go?

Tags: buses, public transport, Wellington