Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down (Crosby Stills Nash)

Well - I've just done my 4th 40 minute workout since the end of December, showered and made a cuppa. 

It's time.

The Christmas period is done and in the books. 

SWMBO and I went to New Plymouth when school finished for the year and had a merry ole time celebrating an early Christmas dinner with the in-laws and visiting friends Pat and Randy (more on these things soon).

We had only been home a few days after that and were busy planning for Jade/Adam and Ashleigh's Christmas day visit when I learnt of the sudden death of one of my Year 12 students. It was like the world held its breath for a few seconds and time was suspended.

In thirty years of teaching I have known two students who have died while they were students at the school I was teaching at. That's two too many.

For the next two weeks I found myself waking at odd hours of the night with an active brain and seeing her face as she handed me work on the last day of term.

I've known my share of death - all four grandparents (although I never met one of them), all my uncles and both parents - but it blindsided me. 

It was a relief that Adam and Ashleigh visited us for Christmas and joined Jade at the Christmas feast; normal in a strange sort of way. We haven't seen Adam and Ashleigh for a year (they visited us in China). They return to Japan soon. We had a phone call from Samantha (from Scotland) and Keegan (from Auckland). It was good to touch base with all the sprogs.

We have continued to be visited by a number of the whanau around new year which has been cool - more on that soon too. Sadly we weren't around when Steph and Dunc treked north (giz us a heads up next time guys).

Love and peace - Wozza