Taui

So I have a few major changes to annouce over the past 5 months. Finally I've filed the dissertation, so it's Dr. Claridge now, if you please! Actually it's Dr. Teuruarii, as Viri and I have also formally tied the knot by signing papers at the mayor's office, so now I'm a married woman - even if the actual wedding festivities are yet to come in December. We've moved 'house' too (I put this in inverted commas, because where we're living now is only almost a house!). We moved onto our land in early May, but are STILL WAITING for the nice man with the heavy machinery to come and build us a road and finish the landscaping and terracing that he started way back when...........It's stopped being funny now. Every time it rains very hard we are either stranded at home with the car, or can't get back to the house without traipsing through a sea of knee-deep mud.....a charming experience that we have had the pleasure of re-living multiple times, thanks to the crazy weather we've been enjoying this year. The rainy season has just gone on and on and on and now it's about time for the rainy season to start again, so I can only hope that we get some dry weather instead!!!!!!!! The irony of the whole thing is that when it rains very hard our water usually gets cut off..... so not only are you soaking wet and muddy, but you can't even get clean despite the quantities of water everywhere.




What else has changed....well, the biggest change I'm feeling is 7 months of baby. As if getting the dissertation done, tying the knot, the family-style wedding and building the new house weren't enough upheaval for one year, I'm going to have a little girl in early november (or that's what they tell me), just to top it all off. It's definitely going to be the highlight of the year. I didn't think I was really maternal, but I'm certainly feeling all rosy at the thought of the little ball of trouble growing in my belly, even the smudgy ultrasound pictures are unbearably cute! Now that I'm over 7 months she's actually not so little, in fact she's definitely making her presence felt in many ways. If it's not dainty little hiccups it's a good swift kick in the ribs or the three o'clock wake up call. I fancy that the accommodation provided is beginning to seem a little bit cramped to her. I'm certainly feeling as huge as huge can be.