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Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Old Feb 29th 2008, 10:45 pm
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

So we were in the poo, well that’s what people in the UK must have thought, especially Steven. But I’m better than that and know I have the resolution and determination to succeed in anything I turn my hand too, so I was not scared just felt let down. I got home and had a great chat with Sharon, after I told her the first thing she said was amazing. She turned round and said “are we doing the right thing”. Well were we? Look at it; we had no job to go back too, we’d lost money on the house and we had a 10 week old little girl to take to the other side of the world, what the hell were we doing!
As you can imagine we didn’t know are arse from are elbow for the next few days we just did the routine of everyday life. We made the decision to go back and stick to the original plan of land in the UK and leave it up to our gut feeling. Gut feeling, Christ how could we leave a huge decision on our guts, well Sharon still had her baby gut so she’d have a larger part of the decision anyway!!!!!!!
We got to the day of the packers, the night before Binman and his clan came round to bid us farewell, we had a pizza and a few beers, which was nice. I called a few couples to see if they wanted to come round but didn’t get an answer, that hurt but I’ll tell you a bit more about that latter. I think you make friend here but you also go through a difficult sort of courtship with people and we had not bothered asking a few people for another dance.
The packers came and the were three bloody big pacific Islanders, they were bloody good and very fast, Sharon started to clean the house, like you know we like to leave the houses we have sold spotless. It’s just so know one can call us dirty!
About an hour latter the bloke who was buying the house turned up to collect Ben, we had a chat and I loaded all the food in to his car, gave him the plastic bag full of Ben’s toys. I then went for a half an hour with my best mate, that was hard I felt terrible. I knew he’d be fine but it the fact that I was leaving him again. Its daft I know he’s a dog but he’s like no other Lab he’s ace! I could feel myself filling up and knew I would cry, just then I thought to myself “there’s no bloody airport gates” that made my giggle to myself. Ben pushed me over with his head, he does that typical Manc dog head butts you when your not looking! I walked him round to the front of the house were the bloke had the tailgate of the car up ready for Ben to jump in, yer right he doesn’t know our Ben. He looked on as Ben put both feet on the back of the car and watched in astonishment when I went round the back of him and lifted in him, he’s not soft why use your energy when you have a mug of an owner like me!
Sharon burst in to tears when the car drove off, I just went silent for a few hours. I knew staying with this bloke would be better than staying in quarantine for 6 months, but at the back of my mind I was still unsure if we had done the right thing, he could contact us and say that Ben had been in an accident and we owed him thousands of dollars and we'd be ripped off yet again! oh well what would be will be I suppose.
The packers had done their thing and that was it we now had our entire gear en route to the UK, well it would be in 3 weeks, I’d arranged for a slow boat! Sharon didn’t know but I’d told the shippers that we were in no rush, infact it would be better for us if the container did not go for at least 3 weeks, this would be more than enough time for us to make up our mind. What would we do, would we stay in the UK or come back and have another go on the South Island, at that point I did not have a clue and to be honest did not care. I’d gone past the point of caring and just wanted to go; basically I just wanted to get on with our lives and did not care if it was here or the UK. At the end of the day we’d left the UK for no reason what so ever, we just wanted a change so I could not see it being that hard to slip back in to our old ways and old routine, in fact I could not wait to go to a decent pub and watch the football with my mates, I was looking forward to a good Sunday dinner and I know this sounds daft but I was looking forward to chips, pudding and peas from the chippy!
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Old Feb 29th 2008, 11:28 pm
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Originally Posted by Ian & Sharon
What a hatrick from the man hey "H"


I'll do some more in a few day's, just have people here at the mo!
Yea,he is quality! Need a few better results like that though
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Old Feb 29th 2008, 11:37 pm
  #78  
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Great to read next chapter Ian, its gripping stuff and i must admit it pulls at my heart strings all the emotions that your family must ave gone through!;

Same here with the dog emotions too!! I love my dog like you wouldnt believe and he does the same when getting into the back of the car!

Helen
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Old Mar 1st 2008, 12:47 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Nice story Ian keep it going mate. Our PR visas to NZ have just ran out. Nice 3K for a blue sticker in our passports. We had to pay a landing fee too and we have not even landed there. Not see that money again either. Could scream my head off, but never mind we are in Oz (Tassie) now and are better off. Weather here is waaaayyyyy better than Christchurch and we have loads of pretty sceanery and beaches and a very relaxed life style. Just got to sell our bloody house. Wife has to go back to the UK on Monday again to try an sell the house. Will be hard as ever but it has to be done. Look forward to the next installment.
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Old Mar 1st 2008, 3:43 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Hi Len,

Good to hear from you again, glad everything has worked out. You still have my number give us a ring sometime!

ian
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Old Mar 1st 2008, 3:44 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Originally Posted by hjmilligan
Same here with the dog emotions too!! I love my dog like you wouldnt believe and he does the same when getting into the back of the car!

Helen
Bloody dog's eh!

They are your best mate after all
Our Ben still stinks, we had a BBQ for him last week, he'd turned 10
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Old Mar 1st 2008, 9:49 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Ah that brought tears to my eyes excellent read now we have to wait on till the next bit
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Old Mar 3rd 2008, 11:07 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Ian you are soooo out of order, poor sharon doesnt deserve to be written about like that, after all it was your baby she had therefore you are partly to blame for her gut. I am really enjoying reading your adventure and can't wait to read more, PLEASE DON'T keep us waiting too long
all the best natalie
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Old Mar 13th 2008, 11:51 am
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Umpity bumpity bump . Them chips, pudding and peas will be stone cold by now.
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Old Mar 25th 2008, 12:31 pm
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

We are waiting, come on what happens next???????????
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Old Mar 25th 2008, 7:39 pm
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

So it was time to leave the house and head for the motel, this would be home for the next 2 nights, we had one last look round to make sure everything was in order locked the door and got in to the car. Did I feel sad? Yes and no, I felt that a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders and felt a bit gutted that if we were going to stay in the UK we would not be able to afford a house of this size, but I was looking forward to gas central heating, double glazing and not wiping the inside of the windows every morning, I hated doing that! I know you can get one of them things that supposedly stop that, but if you look at it it’s just shifting the condensation from one part of the house to another.
One thing that I wouldn’t miss was the annoying Kiwi accent, it was kind of cute at first but after 9 months it started to annoy me and there was many a time I had to bite my lip, sometimes I could not help myself, especially when they insisted calling Ben “Bin” FFS it was a 3 letter word how could they get it so wrong!
So we moved in to the motel, what a crap hole that was, just the thing before a 20+ hour flight with two kids under 2 and a wife who did not know if she was coming or going, that was it with Sharon I think at first she just wanted her Mum, but now she knew that she could do everything without there help and now it was going to be hard for her to accept help form them, you see she had grown both mentally and emotionally, she was a new woman, so if we had got one good thing out of this NZ experience it was a new Sharon, well with the baby a new Kiwi as well!
The next day it was time to drop the car back at work and say my farewells, well sort of. As you know we might be back!
Brendon took me back to the motel; it was next to the airport which in turn was next to work!
The strange thing was that he had not bothered to meet Sharon which did not really go down to well with both of us, he tried to start up a conversation with her but she was very abrupt and quite cutting, that’s what Shazzer is like when she thinks people who could have been more help have not bothered their arses and then try to be all smiley and nice, fair point. Brendon said to me outside that he thought she had been very abrupt with him, I turned round and said “what do you expect” after all what had he done to help us, he’d not even bothered sending a card when the baby was born, stuff him and his feelings I do hope he felt small, I had come to a conclusion that he was the type of person that looked after him self and to hell with others.
Anyway that night was a bundle of fun, not! We knew the next day we were for the off and that was a weird crappy feeling. That morning I woke up early, I just wanted the make sure we had every thing ready. I had a shower and got ready; Sharon got the kids ready while I packed the last of the three cases. She had got everything sorted to do with the baby, she’d found some plastic circle thing that held 6 individual servings of milk, she’d also found some sterilizing stuff that did not need water so she’d done very well.
We checked out of the motel and ordered the mini bus to take us to the airport; I looked outside and guess what? Yep it was raining, typical Auckland, I won’t miss that!
I helped the driver load the stuff in to the back of the mini bus, 3 cases, a pram, a baby car seat and 4 hand luggage bags with enough baby bibs, nappies and other odds and ends, any one would have thought we were going away or something!
We did not speak going down the road to the airport, not even our Harry and amazing as it sounds the baby didn’t murmur at all, I wonder if she was gutted that she was leaving her Country or was just thinking she was going on her OE 18 years early.
We checked in and walked though, yes them bloody airport doors! Did I cry? Nope, as you know I just wanted to get on the plane and go.
We waited with everyone else for the “ping” of the lady who would tell us to board the plane, this happened quickly and in no time at all we were sat in our seats waiting to take off. The good thing about taking a baby on a long distance flight is you get the seats behind the toilet block which as you might know has exceptional leg room!
I thought of Sharon’s Mum and Dad and how excited they would be seeing Sharon and the kid’s, not me because I was more than likely still “The Bastard” that took them away!
Just then the engines got louder and we were thrown back in our seats, Harry started to giggle I looked at Sharon and said “that’s it then love, were off”
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 6:57 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

"after all what had he done to help us, he’d not even bothered sending a card when the baby was born, stuff him and his feelings I do hope he felt small"

This seems a bit harsh - maybe if it was "after all we had done for him and he couldn't even send a card"

Sorry i know there's not supposed to any negative comments about your story and I have enjoyed reading it - but this does not show you in a very good light . . . . was it worded wrongly? . . . .was it the other way round
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 7:30 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Dissing the entire thread per se is one thing . Asking for clarification about one post is an entirely different thing altogether.
Bugger to do with the very annoying terms for posts 'negative' and/or 'positive'.
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 7:37 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Originally Posted by Ian & Sharon
we had a BBQ for him last week
I so mis-read that. Thought it said "We had him for a BBQ" and was expecting "he was delicious" afterwards. Sorry, that was really sick of me to think that. That's what happens when I scan ahead too quickly!!! *runs away*
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Old Mar 26th 2008, 9:04 am
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Default Re: Got a bit of a story to tell..........

Originally Posted by weebossyboots
"after all what had he done to help us, he’d not even bothered sending a card when the baby was born, stuff him and his feelings I do hope he felt small"

This seems a bit harsh - maybe if it was "after all we had done for him and he couldn't even send a card"

Sorry i know there's not supposed to any negative comments about your story and I have enjoyed reading it - but this does not show you in a very good light . . . . was it worded wrongly? . . . .was it the other way round
Nope, cannot fathom that post.

Personally I appreciate Ian's honesty.

Maybe you would like a more P.C account of events, perhaps?
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