{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 arial;}{\f1\froman\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f2\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb100\sa100\f0\fs20 Well as you may remember from part 1 , we bought a car and so far our trips on it have been a bit difficult to say the\line least. The width of the roads we have travelled have been no wider than our drive-way..LITERALLY..why? because we are still waiting on some administrative glitch [replace those last two words with HUGE BOTCHUP BY SOME JAPANESE PERSON] so we can ONLY drive around our carpark. so far we have taken the kids out for a spin 3 times and I dare say we may even be able to squeeze in one more round of the carpark before we get our official papers saying we own the car and can drive it!! What an experience in frustration.\line\line But there is an upside, we can now legitimately feel ok about staying in and watching the world cup rugby games (didnt Japan do well..and what about Reuben Parkinson..and um..dont want to name drop BUT did I mention that we met im and his family while we were out with Dylan ika..hahahahah)\line\line Not much is happening at the moment, the weather is lovely and cool and now we even need to use A blanket at night. Last night I went thru all the winter gear we lugged all he way over here and thought "it bloody better get colder than this or else Im taking all these useless thick clothes some"\line\line The kids seem to be growing up so fast here. We are always telling Maatavera not to do naughty things because Te KAonga will copy her..well last Friday, I gave Maatavera a smack because of some bad thing she had done and about 10 mmins after that Te Akonga went over and tried to hit her. Thats when Maatavera said "see mama, Te Akonga learnt that off you.he learnt that off you mama, you shouldnt hit me cos he will copy you"!! errr..i didnt have a clue of what to say to her, blingin three year old know-it-alls!\line\line Te Akonga has suddenly decided he no longer wants a bottle or his special milk (uhhh nobody tell Pam and mahina that the tins of formula they carefully lugged over may not get used!)and its just as well that we got to Sid before he bought another four tins of the stuff to send to us!\line\line Speaking of Te Akonga, he created a wee moral dilemma for me on Sunday. We had some japanese friends over for tea one fun night and the husband went to the wharepaku. This would normally not be a problem except Te Akonga really likes this japanese couple and he followed the husband..WHO DIDNT PUT THE LOCK ON THE DOOR TIGHT ENUFF...and unbeknown to the husband, Te Akonga had swung the toilet door open and was standing there watching him...thank goodness it was a standing visit!\line\line How do I know? because you can see the wharepaku from the kitchen where I was getting kai ready. My dilemma was ..\line\line A) do I sneakily go and close the door and risk our friend catching me doing it and then make myself look more suspicious by blaming it on Te Akonga, MAKING ME SEEM LIKE A PERVERT and embarrassing our friend at the same time?, or\line B) do I sneakily take Te Akonga away and not risk getting caught by leaving the door open and pretending that nobody saw anything? or\line C) quickly whip into the room and get the digital camera and shout "cheese" to our friend as he is standing there???\line\line You get 5 points for saying A, 10 points for B, and 15 points plus a heavy tsk tsk tsk for choosing C.\line\line Needless to say I did B and then me and Terry had a big laugh about it. \line\line Work is ok. Actually yesterday as we were going to catch a train for a day out, we were approached by a young couple who wanted to know whether we did private English lessons. Of course we lied thru our teeth and said "YES we do, in fact we already have two students..(this is not a complete lie cos we do have two japanese women who are coming this weekend for english conversation,but they arent students and they dont pay!..but we ALWAYS INTENDED to do private English lessons). So today I have been busily looking thru books on what kind of things we could teach these people...oh noooo. We thought we could put on "Hi5 and Barney videos and teach the kids those songs, just put those on for the kids over and over again..becasue as we all know repetition is a KEY factor in language acquisition.. which is true but perhaps an asepct not appreciated and acknowledged by all parents.\f1\fs24\par \pard\f2\fs20\par }