...and I'm back!

Here I am, back in the world of wireless internet :) Although I'll admit a week away from email, fb, this blog and the internet was a bit tricky for this girl, I wouldn't have swapped the last week for anything.

This was the *resting* part of the beginning of sabbatical that I really needed. I've caught up on sleep and eaten three meals a day and avoided doing twelve things at once, and some of you will know just how much  needed this chance to stop and get back into a routine.

The week with Auntie Nanie and Mum was awesome. Here are the highlights:

Thurs - picked up Mum, went to Auntie Nanie's place
Fri - a trip to local shops (Avalon) & drive to Palm Beach then watching 'the murders' (crime shows) on TV
Sat - we head to the Warriewood Mall in Mona Vale to buy yummy coloured tights
Sun - political programmes and church music on TV
Mon - a drive to the Blue Mountains, to see the Blue Mountains and have lunch at the Paragon in Katoomba
Tues - a day at Macquarie Uni: I did a guest lecture, Mum & I had our nails done (!), and tea with M&N
Wed - an 'at home' day
Thurs - Mum and I hit Sydney (and the rain hits us!)
Fri - off to the Warringah Mall - for Auntie Nanie's first Kebab! then to the Avalon RSL yum :)
Sat - last day: pack up, have lunch, drive Mum to the airport, head to Michelle and Ness's.

Of course, this kind of list can't account for the things I'll remember:
waking up at 8am every morning and having coffee and a gossip and some knitting time with Mum;
cracking up laughing over drinks or food or while we were sitting in Auntie Nanie's kitchen;
filling the car with gas on the way home from Katoomba, when the cashier commented 'cool- you've got three generations in your car' and I realised it was true;
sitting on the porch overlooking the water with a drink and showing a CD of Amy's wedding photos on my laptop while the sun gently set;
giving a lecture to a class of Indigenous Australian students with representatives of two generations (the oldest two Te Pungas in the world now!) listening intently from a desk in the back row;
hearing my elderly aunt say to me (after I asked about someone else) 'you know, I really do believe that the reason people don't end up with someone is because the right person just didn't come along' and feeling a huge sense of relief that there is an explanation that doesn't ultimately say 'you're too this or not that enough and that's why;'
running through puddles and rain with Mum in Sydney, recounting the story to each other of the table in the Apple store on George St;
watching political programmes on TV, realising that yelling out loud at despicable people may be a family trait after all;
before going to the RSL on the last nite, spending time in the kitchen looking through photos of our trip to the Blue Mountains, along with some of the photos of Hamuera that I found in the archives and that neither Auntie Nanie nor Mum had seen;
learning things about uncles and aunties and grandparents and greatgrandparents (and myself) I would never have otherwise known...
and of course there are so many more where these memories come from.

I guess this is how it is with archives: some things are recorded and other things aren't. Chronologies and itineraries will show so much of a life, but no more. I had to google the name of the mall at Mona Vale while I was blogging this post because I'd already forgotten it, but I suspect I'll remember Auntie Nanie proclaiming my apple crumble "a triumph" for quite a while. Perhaps the words 'memory' and 'archive' are like two partly-overlapping circles, a Venn diagram of sorts, in which the nature of the relationship between the two is better understood when the dimensions of the bits that don't overlap are considered.

Like a miniature sabbatical, I suppose, the past week has been all the richer because I knew that I should make the most of it before life returned to its usual routines. I've had a txt from Mum to say she's landed safely at home in Aotearoa. It's nice to be back online, and I'm ready to get back into email and facebook and all the rest. Really ready: not burdened by the list of things to do, but keen to get back into them and with lots of things to recall, remember and think about while I do so. Te tau okioki indeed.