A Ropey Old Bird in Ohio.........: "G'day Sport!"..........or whatever they say!

As New Zealanders everywhere curse me for that title.................

Well, I booked our tickets for the Big Trip this morning. As my friend Art would say, "I'm too excited to sleep".

As you may remember, I sent my eldest son (16 at the time) "to stay for a while" in New Zealand with my brothers to sort himself out and to basically give us a break. When he left, he was - I hate to admit - an obnoxious, sulky, stroppy, miserable, lazy, belligerent, rude typical 16 year old. He was heading down the wrong path and I had to put a new direction in that path, a direction to the "right side" as you will.

My friend who took him just recently went back for two weeks to visit and I am happy to say that she informed me of the following. That 16 year old I described up there? He is fading out! He is now a hard-working, polite, happy, funny, picks-up-after-himself, 17 year old. I apparently made the right decision and I can't tell you how happy that makes me. And this is all within 4 months!

Happier than I am on the first day of Spring.
Happier than I am when I get paid.
Happier than............ You get the picture.

As a parent, sending him away to a country I have never been to was, as I described in that original post, one of the hardest things I had to do. I missed his 17th birthday, I wasn't there to console him when his Nanna passed away and hug him when he cried, I wasn't there to help him out when he got 'lost' in Australia recently on his own or to help him when he couldn't get his flight back to New Zealand. I wasn't there to see him drive for the first time.

But you know what? I think him having to handle all these things without his mum, has helped him mature. He needed this.

Did I tell you how happy and proud I am of my son? I did? Well, I'll tell you again. He took advantage of the situation, made the most of it and it has all worked out for the best. I'm just walking around with a stupid arsed smile on my face all the time!

New Zealand was never a country I fancied visiting, don't know why, just never got the inclination. Now I have an excuse. I am going to stay for 10 days (taking my other two kids with me) and will be seeing such beautiful places like these: