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Our News
Last year, if you remember, we let each member of the family have their say. This year, with some input from the boys, this letter has been composed by Catherine and Tom. Generally, we remain a happy lot - happy with each other, happy with our house, happy with our home and neighbours, happy with our various activities within and without Wellington and Hawkes Bay.
2002 - A beginning and an end - much the same with nothing in between. Well not quite -not in the Laing household anyway.
We have continued to grow together and individually. Our family life gives us the well being, the strength, the base to meet our world and its challenges. And what a challenging year it has been. A year of change and transition, providing the fuel for growth in both the worldly and the inner realms. The constancy has been our relationship. We have kept the rhythms going - morning time cuddles, mealtimes like breakfast and dinner together, stories and prayers before bedtime. We have talked openly with each other about our feelings, our sadnesses and our joys.
The major event this year that has affected all members of the Laing family has been our shift to Wellington - yes folks, out with your address books (again), the Laings do it again, if you can find space The Laings, Tom, Catherine (who? you ask) Solomon and Harry are now domicile at 29 Horoeka Street, Stokes Valley 04 977 5500 or post PO Box 37124 Stokes Valley New Zealand 6340. Email is now tomlaing@paradise.net.nz
The year has also been marked by a number of significant deaths. Firstly, Bifu, the cat that gave us kittens at the close of last year was run over ěn January while we holidayed in Taupo. Tom's Auntie Nan died in February and his Uncle Keith and Auntie Nell in August.
We moved to Wellington in a mad rush in May after Tom was appointed Lecturer in Business Management at The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand based in Lower Hutt, Wellington. The move, and the events surrounding and during it, require a dedicated letter just for that. The painting, the selling then not selling, but renting of 1010. The contracting and the ups and downs of 29. The moving in to 29 and starting work on the same day May 6, 2002.
The year began with us painting 1010. The initial idea was just to tidy the paint work up a bit and ended up being a full scale paint job turning our white box into our yellow and green cottage. Catherine spent a lot of time on the cutting in on the windows to great effect.
The year has ended with us clearing up the back garden at 29 and the garden having a much lighter feeling to it, complementing the existing lightness of the home.
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News and Love from Solomon
Solomon turned five at the beginning of the year and just as he was settling into his second year of kindy we let him know that we were moving. He took this on board in such a way that Diana, his kindergarten teacher said that on the second to last day of kindy he was already gone. She describe Solomon as "a very special child with an inventive mind".
Solomon left behind all his mates and his beloved teacher and his wide open spaced kindergarten. He has found in its place a new kindergarten with new wonderful, wonderful teacher (who is returning to Australia). He has had a hard time of it and took a while to settle in. He has made a couple of friends and is enjoying himself. He has another year of Kindy and Harry will be joining him.
In the first four months of being in Wellington, opportunities took us back to Hawke's Bay once a month, which meant the boys could see Jim and Georgina, their adopted Grandparents. Jim and Georgina send down boxes of oranges and lemons with the occasional coloured snake hiding in amongst the fruit, and keep in touch with the boys, not the parents, through many a phone call. God bless them.
Solomon has become very demonstrative in his affections. He loves giving hugs, cuddles and kisses and telling you that he loves you. He surprises both his parents with his sensitivity towards others - it is almost a supersensible sensitivity as Tom can attest.
He has also been having swimming lessons. He and Harry both used to get colds after being in the water, that is until we did a HR session for him. After that he has been able to go into the water without getting a cold. His whole attitude in the water changed - before he was like a fish out of water and now he is like a fish in the water.
In December, Solomon got and got over Chicken pox and is looking forward to a holiday with the family at the bach in Taupo over the new year.
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News and Love from Harry
In July, Harry turned four. He didn't appear to mind the move because we just moved from one yellow house to another yellow house. He really enjoys being in Wellington because he is close to his aunts – especially Clare and there's lots of new things to see and do - like train rides, steam trains, fishing, drives past the airport and even a visit to zoo. They both miss the balloon hunting excursions that they did in Hawke's Bay.
Harry, like up in Hawke's Bay at the last butter box, loves poddling around in the garden. He is very good at finding things to do. Harry has spent a day here and there with Solomon in kindergarten and he is thoroughly looking forward to starting kindy next year. We tried him out in Hastings for a couple of weeks at the beginning of this year but it soon became apparent that he was not ready for it.
Harry has begun to let his sensitive side out. More close cuddles and snuggling, singing to himself and his language is more expressive and clear. He has some regrets about the year - though with a four year old it is very hard to appreciate what they are thinking or feeling. He does say that he misses people and animals and would really like a dog.
He really enjoyed going to Taupo with Ingrid and Sophie. He enjoys the matchbox motorbikes he was given by Rhys. He is starting to ask for practice rides on bicycles.
Harry had something that resembled whooping cough - though not diagnosed as such - which lasted a good five weeks - Thank God no longer. Whooping cough is known as the hundred day cough as it often lasts that long. He handled it extremely well - reaching for his bowl whenever he felt he would be needing it. By the end of it his 's' lisping had disappeared.
As we write this in December, Harry has got and is getting over Chicken pox.
They are both looking forward to a visit from Mutti from Australia in January 2003.
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News and Love from Catherine
Catherine - no longer Kerry but Catherine - has taken a long time to settle in here. To my delight we have been told by quite a few people down here that the foul weather the winds, the rain the cold is NOT normal.
2002 has been a year that on surface has been an easy year - everything falling into line - painting the house in Hastings, Tom getting a job in Wellington, our finding a house in Stokes Valley and our moving down.
Solomon in kindergarten, Harry at home and me pottling along with it.
But on the inside, it's been a year of emotional ups and downs. Falling in love with our beautiful butter and green newly painted house only to have to leave her behind. Leaving a climate of lots of sun and warmth and clear skies and coming to a wet, cold, windy place where in the depths of winter the sun only reaches the house by half past ten at the earliest. The outer weather reflected my flatness in not being able to emotionally settle in. Moving to Wellington moved me out of my comfort zone and into positive, though at times uncomfortable, change.
Leaving friends behind and finding it difficult to find new ones and then in October meeting my middle name - Catherine - in a very powerful way where in the space of fifteen minutes I knew that from now on my name is Catherine and no longer Kerry. Since changing my name I have become far more settled and I'm starting to feel more at home living here in Wellington.
My work with HR has been a great help for me personally as well as for other people who I have done sessions for - whether in person or by proxy with Tom. I am a level one practitioner working towards becoming a level two practitioner. The next step is to become a teacher which only a few people get to do.
Since being down here I have had eight piano lessons from my wonderful Aunty Sue and she had persuaded me to play Bach's Prelude in C minor for the family Christmas concert on Boxing Day. Thank goodness my sister Jen will be singing with me. And all of this has come about through a good friend, Diane, who has lent us her piano, which we brought down with us from HB, instead of putting it into storage.
It has not been an easy year, but it has been a wonderful one.
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News and Love from Tom
Tom- older, wiser, heavier, healthier...well?
I have struggled to find the words to describe what has happened this year - this year full of transition and change. Last year it was Brotherhood. This year there has been a deepening - in both my inner and outer work, made more potent especially by the deaths of my Auntie Nan (the last of my father's family) and Uncle Keith (the last of my mother's family-apart from Mum who will outlast us all). I was surprised by the depth of grief I experienced with Keith's passing. Everything has contributed to a deepening of my spiritual as well as my worldly work.
I am very much aware that it is I who has driven the change for the family this year - even though finding a job, with a regular income was a necessity. I was, and continue to be,excited by the position and the challenges ahead.
The new job has provided me with the opportunity to explore the theory of what I have been doing as a small business adviser for the last sixteen years. There is an emerging entrepreneurial theory, but there is also a disturbing acceptance of management theory that has grown out of large corporations and as being acceptable and appropriate for the development of small and micro businesses. One has to question why?
The challenge is made all the greater because, most of what I have done has been face to face and now I am working in distance education - dealing with students via correspondence. The Open Polytechnic is New Zealand's leading tertiary open and distance education provider with lots of changes afoot in government policy and management assuring that 2003 will be a challenging year.
It has not been easy to make the transition from self-employed consultant to being part of a system, but I feel comfortable that next year will be easier. I am looking at undertaking higher study the year after next and looking at the role of resilience in enterprise development in regional economies.
I enjoyed a visit to Australia in September to attend a conference on Small Enterprise and to catch up with family and friends. It is always good to see them and to share and be refreshed by their company. In Jan a friend from Melbourne visited and in March we were also visited by Harry's god mother Helen. With the move to wellington we have seen less of our friends in HB, and that saddens us. However, we are slowly creating new friendships in Wellington. With our larger house we are looking forward to hosting more visitors.
The challenges have served to spur on the inner journey - a return to prayer and the Christian Community. Some powerful HR sessions with Catherine and Marilyn, another HR practitioner, have assisted greatly. Unfortunately, I have had limited time to be as involved with White Eagle as I was in HB but I have made a number of visits to the group on the Kapiti Coast and the boys have enjoyed the visit to the beach and sand.
I continue to be actively involved in voluntary and some paid consultancy work. I was elected Director to the Harbour City Credit Union in Lower Hutt and am their vice-chairman and also on the Audit Committee. I am on the union committee at the Polytechnic and experienced my first day on strike earlier this year. I've been putting the finishing touches to the Wine Country Credit Union website www.wccu.org.nz which was commissioned over a year ago and have been actively involved in the project administration of a Community Improvement Through Youth programme in Hawke's Bay which brought me back in touch with a old friends from my Flinders University days. Find out more at www.eccdt.net.nz I have used a very easy to use web content management tool called MoST from www.e-xpert.co.nz for both these websites. I recommend it for small businesses who want a web presence under their control.
My interest in Genealogy continues, spurred on by the recent discovery of, and meeting with, a long lost third cousin, Eric Caton, living in Whakatane, New Zealand and the visit of a second cousin, Ken Perry, from the UK in Jan 2003. The Laing Family Genealogy pages have been updated a number of times since last I wrote. I have recently added a resource centre to assist in our collective search.
I continue to enjoy my family and the love between us. Catherine and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary this month. It is a joy to be with the boys in the morning sharing a cuddle, making preparations for the day and making breakfast and to be raced down the road by Solomon on his pushbike and Harry on his tricycle as I head off to work. It a joy to be rushed at as I return from work and pestered to read a story out of Thomas the Tank Engine, Peter Pan or one of the numerous Library books that pass through our house.
Life is full, life is good and we are coming into Wellington and I am about to enjoy my first paid holiday in five years.
Merry Christmas, dear readers. I pray, as I expect many of you do, that 2003 will indeed be peace full, safe and prosperous. May it be so.
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