For the 5 days away in New Zealand I spent most of my time without devices in my hand… because I didn’t have a roaming plan nor an OS sim card.
I’m usually always in front of a screen; my computer, my iPad, or my iPhone. When something comes up that I don’t know about, I’m Googling away to find out more. But I learnt that maybe I don’t need it. Maybe all that extra info I take into my brain isn’t really making my brain better, it’s just cluttering it up.
A vital lesson perhaps?
Meanwhile, had a great time with the NZ family. Didn’t see any of the sights, but that’s not what this trip was for, it was to catch up with family we haven’t seen in person for almost 2 years. 5 days wasn’t nearly enough and I’m missing them already. While I’ve said just above that I maybe can be away from tech more often, I’ll be forever grateful for things like Apple’s FaceTime for giving me face-to-face time with family so far away.
Had an awesome time hanging out with the kidlets. Em and George are so much fun to be around, after they have warmed up to you. We played lego, and boardgames, and I even participated in a mock shop for their dolls (those dolls have a LOT of shoes). Got to go and pick them up at their school and watch them excitedly point us out to their friends. And listened their theories of life.
I also learnt, when a 7 year old is telling you she knows where to go and is giving you directions to a shop, believe her and follow her directions… I may have got lost and needed her to direct us back (told you, I didn’t have data, so no GPS). Kids are smart and so cool!
We also got to go on a quick road trip with mum on her birthday and had a nice lunch at a little cafe, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and had a good dinner at a local restaurant. We also tried the local pizza, burgers, and stopped in at a Denny’s for breakfast; and enjoyed a couple of nights of home cooking.
Home now, looking at our doggins as if they are giants, my view of them skewed from the 5 days looking at mum’s Yorkshire terrier puppy. The dogs are very happy to have us home. The cats don’t like us, they are looking at us as strangers. Doing 5 days of washing and about to get back into the busy days of work.
Time to start planning a sightseeing holiday to NZ to see its glory; though it’s hard to pass up more time with the family.
Massive thanks to Kathryn who took care of our house and the menagerie of pets while we were away. Our trip wouldn’t have gone anywhere near as smoothly without her taking care of our home while we were away. It was one massive thing we didn’t have to worry about. Our friends are the best!