You are all full of wonderful ideas. Thanks for your contributions, I have lots of ideas now!


I was smiling to myself earlier thinking about my grandchildren.

"Nanna, where are you going tonight?" "Pole dancing sweetie"

" Nanna, where you going tomorrow night?" " Belly dancing bubs"

In Aus:
"Nanna, where are you going tonight?" "oh, just teaching the local taxi drivers a thing or two darling"

In UK:
" Nanna, where you going tomorrow night?" "i'm spending the evening in M&S sweetie, perusing the ready meals section in something close to ecstasy!"

Mrs Harbord-loving it Rab!

You like dancing then? There's nothing in the world to beat Scottish dancing (reels), or international folk dancing, or barn dancing. I've lived all over the world, done so many many things, and the things that I did that introduced me to the most people and put the biggest smile on my face were Scottish dancing (god I love it - I just can't wipe the smile off my face while I'm doing the reels. And you don't need even need to come with a partner, will always find one, everyone changes partners anyway); any kind of folk (East European, Middle Eastern, American Square, English, Japanese, whatever) or barn dancing, especially with live band; playing tennis or squash or volleyball or any sport; book clubs - 'course they would have been a bit boring without me there, I always spiced things up with my comments, LOL! Broke the ice as it were with lots of humour, and then what a blast! This was in Africa , and it was more a get-together where we'd talk generally about books or lend books out to each other and then chit chat about fascinating stuff - really! - We didn't all read the same book then discuss it. I shared a house when I was a single mum with a couple my age who did book club nights of that sort, and god the conversations sounded boring sometimes, so serious!; playing bridge - I used to play with really competetive types though of int'l background - wow! tempers could really flare! My French partner stood up, threw his cards down and swore loudly in disgust at me for everyone to hear once when we were competing in a big competition - because he was French though we weren't disqualified and we ended up winning, LOL!!

OK, I'm just reminescing now. But seriously, there are so many things you can do where you'l meet and be involved with like-minded people, and you can take those things far far beyond the ordinary, be creative and make up your own 'thing' for instance. Sometimes we forget that there are things that we really enjoy doing, and we need to go out and try to figure out what they are again, test stuff out. Once we figure out what those things are and become involved in them, we tend to easily meet people that we actually LIKE - common interests and all that.

I know now, but only now, that there's a group of people 'on the fringes' here in NZ that we could have gotten to know better with just a little effort, in the music/dance side of things, that would've made life a lot more bearable here for us. THese people, because of our common interests and 'tall poppy' status, were very interested to know us and take things to 'friendship' level (unfortunately we've found ourselves with only enough time in NZ to spend every waking hour sorting out problems, and have never had the breathing space to make time for pursuing these friendships. Took a while to find these people though, we didn't know that we'd have to look 'on the fringes', our experiences with NZers here in Chch 'in general' were not very good to say the least where friendliness/friendship or conversation of any interest to us was concerned! We didn't stop to think that of course!, there must be other people around somewhere just like us!! ) Point being that even when you're new somewhere and people around you all seem to have long established friendships and don't seem to want or need any more, you will always find people in 'sub groups' of interests who are actually quite KEEN to meet new people who share those interests. You have this immediate connection through that interest (choirs was a good example, or theatre, or all the things I and others mentioned), so are already considered a 'member' of this minority 'club'' and are therefore welcome in that group. Always. Everywhere. Pretty cool when you figure it out!!

Dont discount the WI - I admit to being a stitcher (nothing better than a good stitch and bitch IMHO but we are not your run of the mill domestic godesses, far from it). One of my friends just went on one of their photographic courses and has come back with some skills that have yielded some absolutely super pics. Others have been on various WI courses covering a range of interests. I think if I went back, I would look at the WI.

Otherwise U3A always appeals and you would not get me dug out of family history groups or local appreciation groups for love nor money. Failing that, campanology always had a bit of an appeal - I do so miss your typical bell ringing here in Aus.

Seems like the world is your oyster really!

Can you cook?(Or do you need to learn how to cook!) If so, you could get involved in this as soon as you get back home:

http://www.jamiesministryoffood.com/pdf/PIO_Guide.pdf

(the above url goes to the 4th page when I click on it. If it does that for you, scroll up to page 1)

Main web page:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/jamies-ministry-of-food

Funny you should mention that, I have been looking at the WI and townswomen guild for when I get back looks really interesting getting involved in environmental and community issues also looking at history groups and holidays dry stone walling.