More Mice and Maori Boy

So, 5am wakeup this am with Mike coming to bed declaring his heroic rescue of a mouse from the depths of our slippery bath tub.  No pic to share, but mouse droppings to corroborate his story in the tub. Sigh...

Learning something of the Maori culture from living here.  Here is a local Massey University student's music video. "Maori Boy".  JGeek and the Geeks were also on NZ's Got Talent in Sept 2012.

 

Also, I learned from a Maori jewelry store shop girl that a GreenStone necklace has to be gifted to you by friends or family, or it would be against the culture and bad luck.  Also, if you find a Green Stone necklace, you must either return it to the origin or bury it in the dirt, or bad luck will overcome you.  Interesting. 

 

 So, I told Mike I want him to get me a GreenStone necklace for Hanukkah.  We'll see if I luck out and he gets one for me.

We trekked a few blocks to the mall for some groceries and an iced latte ( a hot latte poured over ice) and the kids liked the selection of NZ chocolates. 

No one here can believe that a real American family has moved to their city- we are 4 of a dozen Americans total in town- including the yogurt kiosk couple from Florida, the Lane Bryant type store clerk lady, and a couple of visiting professors at Massey from Boston.

 

It was sunny and nice today, so I got sunhats for all of us.  There is a hole in the ozone over NZ and Antarctica, so the sun is "burny" here.  Surprisingly, only 19 percent of NZ people wear sunscreen daily. According to Malcolm, they have a "She is right." philosophy which means, "it won't happen to me."  Consequently, many people get skin cancer and the dermatologist office is always busy.

 

Here is laundry- version II- today, made possible by the "burny sunshine".

 

I also hired a new nanny, Ameera, from Sri Lanka,who starts part-time on Tues.  Yay for babysitting!