Where was I this weekend when trolls were running rampant on my forums and nothing else was happening? I up in the Auckland region visiting a friend and her family celebrating her 21st!
We were dragged out of bed at 6 am (I think…I was too tired to really care what time it was) and started the stressful process of packing the cars and leaving. My older brother likes to try and keep us on time when it comes to when we’re meant to be leaving and so he was being annoying. I don’t know why he tries…it never helps anything. Our dog Molly had been taken round to Mum’s sister’s house the night before, we thought of it as a little holiday for the dog complete with disinfectant and two full rolls of paper towels! The cat is 1.5 years old and this was going to be her first ever time home alone for more than a few hours and she sensed something was going on. For starters we were all awake at the same time, that never happens. When we were set to leave Sarah bolted inside and hid under various large pieces of furnature. My older brother was not amused with this delay so our parents told us they’d get her outside and meet us in town at McDonalds.
We took two cars because our family of five are all adults now and no adult in his/her right mind would sit in a car for over six hours at a stretch with no room whatsoever to shift weight…or straighten out one’s arms for that matter. Mother dearest had just bought herself a new cell phone, and she still had her old cell phone, and Dad had his new cell phone in their car. I had my cell phone and my older brother made sure it was topped up with credit (we use prepaid). Keeping in contact with our folks to make sure we were all headed in the same direction was challenging to say the least. Mum’s ability to navigate a cell phone is very limited at best and she never seemed to respond on the same phone every single time. I never knew which phone to text her on and apparently that made her very upset and more confused.
After spending ages at McD’s and then more time at the supermarket (I can’t eat any of the breakfast stuff available at McD’s) we were on our way. Mum and Dad were in their car going crazy over the fact that their Mp3 player was dead and wouldn’t work and my younger brother and I were in our older brother’s car listening to a whole pile of crappy music that we didn’t like that much…but I was relatively comfortable so it was a price worth paying. My younger brother was sick with a cold all weekend and we had to pull over at one point so he could vomit.
Two hours and several coffee stops later (My parents live on coffee) we had stopped outside a town to regroup as our parents had stopped (again) to try and find an Mp3 player with an SD card slot (it doesn’t exist anymore). My brother’s car wouldn’t start immediately and I sensed something was wrong but when I asked him about it he told me it was normal and that the car didn’t like starting on cold days. It isn’t worth arguing with my older brother.
Three hours later we were at a stop sign at a very busy intersection on two main highways and my brother’s car stopped working. There were cars behind us that were very annoyed that we’d stopped completely and I had to get out and walk down to my parents car to tell them the car had stopped and wouldn’t go. The car had a whole pile of steam coming out of the bonnet…it had essentially blown up. Fortunately we were close to the next town and we got to spend over two hours there waiting to hear from insurance companies, mechanical warranty companies, the towing guy and the mechanics about what was going to be done with the car. Ultimately we had to all squeeze into my parents car and keep driving up to Auckland. Another three hour stretch. I was squished into the back seat with the incredibly grumpy old man and the lazy man with a cold. Oh and because our parents mp3 player wasn’t working my two brothers were busy arguing over who’s ipod should be playing and what songs should be playing. Don’t forget about the frequent coffee stops and Dad groaning about Mum and I having to stop for toilet breaks…my excuse…I was squished into the back of a car and my seat belt was trying to kill me (it’s broken and locks into place slowly pulling you back into the seat as you move around).
By the time we got to the Auckland region it was dark, raining, thundery, lighteningy and Dad was stuck behind a car transporting truck on a little back road (we were taking a short cut). All we could do at that point was find our motel, get dressed and ready for the party (my cheap pantyhose was too short and cheap and ripped when I tried to make them fit). Us kids were in the back seat trying to joke around and lighten the mood. Mum was trying to remember directions (and failing miserably) and Dad was …well Dad…getting very grumpy that Mum wasn’t giving him instructions before he reached intersections and complaining about how hard he had to concentrate on the road. We took so long to drive up to Auckland and get to this party the family who had invited us were about to send out a search party for us. God was most definately testing us that day and Mum thinks the lesson from it was that some friends are worth making the effort to support and visit.
This family we were visiting are tall, dark haired, Italian people…and I’m a little over five feet tall. I was wearing my exercise shoes in the car so I wouldn’t hurt my feet walking to the hall and when they all greeted us at the door I felt really short with them surrounding me. I raced to the bathroom and put on my high heeled sandles on. I didn’t feel quite so short any more but couldn’t walk very fast so I tried to stand around and not look like a complete noob.
The following day we had to be out of the motel by 10 am. My Dad was having his first coffee for the day and Mum was in the single bed in their living room watching TV in her nightie. My older brother was naturally nagging us about packing up and getting ready to go. We were eventually all packed into the car again and the motel lady was very amused by the sight instructing us “kids” not to fight.
Because my older brother’s car had blown up he couldn’t bugger off and do whatever he wanted that day. He wanted to go to some guitar meeting with people he’d never met before and my parents told him they’d take him there. Dad in Auckland is not a pretty sight. If you think last night going to the party was bad you shoulda seen him today. Dad was even yelling at Mum about driving on the motorway (that isn’t too hard if you just watch the signs for your exit). I made the mistake of suggesting we go to Botony Downs while my brother was at his meeting. Botony Downs is a huge shopping complex. It’s basically that suburb’s retail area all put into the one complex. It was an integration of car park, shopping mall, large chain stores and mini streets everywhere. Mum heaven if she’d had the time and we weren’t there to nag her about time. She would have been rather content if we’d left her there for the day but unfortunately it took us over an hour to get to the area, drop my brother off and find the mall so we had to factor in the same amount of time to get back again. We went to more electronic/retail stores to look at mp3 players…I tried to convince Dad if it wasn’t here he wasn’t going to find it but he still insisted on wasting what little time we had walking to all the stores that he could think of that sold mp3 players. He didn’t buy one in the end, he thought he would be able to get one online that he wanted (that didn’t turn out to be the case when we got home). I had missed breakfast that morning because I can’t eat the crumpets Mum and Dad had bought from the supermarket. I was very insistent on getting some lunch and this turned out to be a big to do as well because Dad had to make us walk all around the complex examining all the coffee shops, takeaway stores and cafes to see if they suited him. Being Auckland they were all far too busy and far too expensive for his taste.
Driving home the following day was pretty much the same deal as driving up. Us three “kids” were squeezed into the back seat and Mum was very insistent she stay in the front (she’s the same size as me). Halfway through the journey however I was in complete agony. My hip bones were being squeezed to death and there was no way of relieving the pressure while we were in the car. I’m sure if I’d been a paraplegic I would have a pressure sore on each side of my hips. We stopped in a town and had a very late lunch. Mum allowed me to sit in the front for a little bit. Mum sat in the back seat while she ate her lunch (and made a tremendous mess of it, she was sitting in the middle at the time).
Then once we’d filled up on petrol and gotten another round of coffee for our parents Dad switched with Mum and she drove for a while til the next town. By the time we got to this town it was pouring with rain again and Dad was adamant he had to drive because apparently he could drive faster without slipping on the wet roads. This meant I had to get back in the back seat again. By this point I’d given up on the seatbelt of death and stopped wearing it. My little brother wanted to know why I hadn’t done this up in Auckland and saved him a whole pile of grief (every time I had to readjust my seat belt he had to lean forwards to give me access to the clicker).
We got home at 6 pm to a very upset cat who was happy to see us and never wanted us to leave again. She spent half an hour or so wandering round the house finding clever places to hide and was eventually accidentally shut into the hallway closet. The dog was over the moon when we picked her up from her holiday and Mum was happy to hear she’d only had a couple of accidents that required the use of the disinfectant. I was so tired that night (last night) I slept from 9 pm til 11 am this morning.
Holidays with my family aren’t very relaxing and tend to cost a lot more money than they want to spend.
I got a new MP3 player last friday. My old one was an old 1 gig flashdrive style player and it stopped recharging a while ago. I bought this one for $79 and it has 8 gigs on it! Pretty good considering an 8 gig Ipod Nano costs $238 NZD! The first thing my older brother said when I showed it to him was “why didn’t you get an Ipod? This player is way more annoying to use!” At this point all I can say is I’m broke, my “budget advisor” wouldn’t have let me spend more than $100 and considering what my old mp3 player was this one is a vast improvement. The touch controls are a bit annoying. They don’t work when you always want them to then you accidentally do things you don’t want (like making the book your reading on it scroll through at 1 page per second). The USB connection to the computer is fairly straight forward but it doesn’t seem to be all that reliable. I had to disconnect then reconnect the cable several times while loading my music onto it.
General Stuff | Sophie | 
18 February 2010 9:51 pm | 
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