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So, this update has been a long time coming, because a lot of stuff has happened. The opportunities to have some quiet time to myself to write about it are few and far between, but at last I am taking advantage of this quiet moment.
It all started on Easter weekend. On the morning of Good Friday, I was sleeping soundly at 5am in the morning. I was in bed, and Tai and Sabrina were sleeping on the couch as usual, because Sabrina was not a fan of sleeping by herself in her cot.
Suddenly, I was awoken by my phone ringing. I was suspicious, who would call me at 5 in the morning? Plus, sometimes I get calls from people trying to sell me stuff, like Sky TV or insurance or whatever, and those calls can sometimes come from overseas call centres, so I figured maybe someone was confused about what time it was here in New Zealand and had accidentally called me at 5am.
So I ignored the call and didn't answer,
A few minutes later, the phone rang again. 'Hmm, someone really wants to get hold of me,' I thought, 'I'd better answer.'
"Hello, sorry to wake you so early, this is the Porirua Police Department."
Okay, so now I'm wide awake.
"Are you the owner of the silver Nissan Tiida, license plate bla-bla-bla?"
"Uh..yes..."
"Do you know where the vehicle is right now?"
"...I assume it's in my driveway just outside." As I said this, I immediately got up and walked across to the window and looked past the curtain. I couldn't see the car, but from that window I could usually only see the very end of the driveway, so it wasn't always possible to see the car if I'd parked too far forward.
"Would you mind just checking if your car is there?"
I walked out to the front door, wearing nothing but underwear (it was a semi-warm night) and stepped out to look onto the driveway.
"Oh...s**t." The car wasn't there. My driveway was empty.
"As I thought...we believe we have found your car."
So, it turned out, some 'kids' as the cops put it, came onto our property in the middle of the night, broke into the car and ripped out the ignition (somehow without any of us hearing anything), drove it to a nearby vape shop and used it in a "ram job"- where they reversed the car as hard as they could into the front of the shop to smash their way in, and stole a ton of stock from the store.
Thinking my car would be relatively safe parked in my driveway (and because one never has enough hands to carry stuff when getting in and out of a car with a toddler in tow) I had foolishly left a bag with my wallet, and a handful of other things in the car. After ramming my car into the vape shop and badly damaging it, the thieves took my stuff, including my wallet, ditched the car further up my street, and headed off to Levin in another car with my wallet, which they used to purchase McDonalds and some petrol on my credit card.
After talking to the police, and filing the report over the phone, I had been considering trying to just go back to sleep again. But then, with a sudden jolt, it hit me my spare house keys had been in the car too. All of a sudden, I felt violated, it hit me that these thieves knew where I lived (because they took the car from the driveway) and could wander into my home anytime because they had a key.
At that point I realised I was 100% done with sleep. I went to the lounge and woke up Tai and Sabrina to tell them what was going on, and warn them there was possibility someone could try to come into the house.
Sabrina of course didn't understand any of this, she was just excited to see her Mum wide awake and coming in to chat early in the morning, and so decided it was time to get up and play.
But this one incident sparked a series of changes for us. We had to get new locks for the front door. I had to make an insurance claim for the car, which was deemed not worth fixing, so the insurance gave me the money for a whole new car. We now have a hybrid, it's a station wagon style too so a huge boot which is great for transporting Sabrina's stroller in.
There was all the stuff with the police, getting info on the credit card transactions they made so they could try and get camera footage from the places they went and try and track them down. Plus explaining what had happened at the bank so they could reimburse me for the expenses. It also turned out the thieves had travelled at 95km/hr on a 50k road while in my car, so I got sent a speeding ticket and had to sort out getting the cops to cancel it.
Before all of this, we had been considering leaving Porirua and moving back to Upper Hutt. I like Porirua for the most part, the beaches and parks and walks are beautiful, especially in Summer. But with looking after Sabrina, it's hard not having family nearby to help out. So this incident over Easter ended up being the boot up the bum we needed to decide once and for all to leave Porirua.
The next few weeks were crazy busy, while still sorting out all this admin with police, and insurance, and the bank, and buying the car, I was also applying for viewings at houses throughout Upper and Lower Hutt, and also putting applications in for Taina for various jobs, as it wouldn't be practical for him to continue working at 2 Degrees in Paraparaumu once we lived in the Hutt, plus we were super keen for him to move on from that job anyway, because the hours sucked and he wasn't particularly loving being in retail anyway.
Everything came together. We were offered a 3 bedroom home in Elderslea in Upper Hutt, only a few minutes drive from Dad and Jill's house. The bedrooms are smaller than our house in Porirua was, but this place has a garage and a carport so we can store all the stuff we want to keep but don't use all the time, which also makes it easier to keep Sabrina from getting into stuff we don't want her to damage too. The place has a backyard, similar size to the previous place, but less bumpy, and has a nice tall fence all the way around it so it's a lot safer and more secure for Sabrina to play in. It also has a lemon tree and a grapefruit tree in it too, which is nice.
The street is way quieter too, we're not on a main road so we don't have to deal with boy racers and idiots blasting music at full volume from their cars at 2am anymore.
Taina got a new job. He now works for Wellington Combined Taxis in their call centre in Wellington. It's full time so that's better money, although the pay rate is still minimum wage. He doesn't have to deal with customers face-to-face, and he's allowed to dress casual for the job, so that's nice, and the bosses have been giving him great feedback so far that they think he's doing well. The main downside is the call centre is open 24 hours to take taxi bookings, so he gets put on all sorts of different shifts for a variety of times.
Earlier this week, he worked early shifts from 7.30am to 3.30pm- that wasn't so bad, it's always a slight challenge getting out of bed super early, especially in Winter, but getting to finish mid-afternoon means we can all relax together for a little bit before dinner. But last night he worked a night shift, 8pm-4am.
I was super nervous throughout the day yesterday before the shift started. I wasn't sure how I'd cope being on my own with Sabrina all night, trying to get her to sleep. But it went fine. The thing is though, there are no trains back to Upper Hutt in the middle of the night, so I had to get up and 3.30am, get Sabrina and drive us into town to pick Taina up when he finished, then drive home again and all of us try to go back to sleep.
Today Sabrina is hanging out with Dad and Jill at their place on her own, and I assume she's okay because I haven't heard otherwise. Taina is having a much needed sleep now to recover from the night shift, plus he has the same shift again tonight so that will be interesting.
Sabrina's sleep is not quite the drama it used to be though. As soon as we moved to the new place in Upper Hutt, we ditched the cot she hates sleeping in and upgraded to a proper bed for her. Sometimes she sleeps on her own okay, sometimes one of us will sleep with her in her bed for part of the night, but at least she's in her own bed rather than on the couch, and she seems to be okay with me putting her to bed when Taina is at work, which is good because she used to quite particular about bedtime being a Dad-only job.
Earlier this month it was Sabrina's birthday too, and she is now 2. Her birthday was only a week after we moved in to the new place, so we rushed a lot to unpack quickly so the place would be tidy for the party. We had family and a few friends over, just like last year, Jess got us a cake, Winnie the Pooh themed. It was tasty, but not quite as amazing as the Mickey Mouse cake she managed to get last year. Sabrina had great fun, there were lots of balloons which she enjoyed throwing around. She got some toy cars and a toy road mat, plus a push trike (the ones for toddlers where there are no pedals, you just push along the ground with your feet). She loves it.
Lisa and Nerida came to the party, plus Jess and Luke, and other Luke. Lisa and Nerida were quiet as usual, but I had a brief chat and Lisa updated me on the fact she has a new boyfriend. I tried not to say much when she told me a couple of months ago about breaking up with Michael. I think she already knew I had never really liked Michael much, but I wasn't going to pull an 'I told you so' or a 'thank good, you deserve better' on her because at the end of the day, her relationships are her decision and my opinion isn't going to change anything. Maybe at some point I'll meet her new boyfriend, who knows?
But I then got a text from her just a few days ago. Her Mum died. I already knew her Mum had ovarian cancer, same as what my Mum had had, because Lisa had told me a few months ago. But I had been optimistic for her, because it sounded like they caught her Mum's cancer a little earlier than they did my Mum, so there was time to undergo treatment. But ovarian cancer really is a bee-yatch, and I guess they couldn't get rid of it for her either. The odd coincidence is her Mum died just one day after the 7 year anniversary of my Mum's death.
Anyhoo, there's probably more I could talk about, but I'm hungry and there's lots to do. I can't promise more updates soon, because well, you know what I'm like. But hopefully, more updates soon!
weezieishness · Sat Jun 26, 2021 @ 03:48am · 0 Comments |
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