Cornwallis

Saturday was a gorgeous hot day so we headed to the beach at Cornwallis which is barely a ten minute drive from our house. It's one of those beaches that stays shallow for miles and it doeesn't have the wild waves and rips of places like Piha or Karekare. Ethan started his day out in style by stepping in mud up to his groin. Check out the photo which was taken after the sea had washed most of it off. There was no point in putting on a swimsuit by then! I hope you like my fetching hat (Christmas present from the beloved).

I forgot to mention in my previous post about Walk Across the Room that the premise is that if you are going to develop friendships with new people you have to make new friends - talk to strangers (aaaaggghhh!). I find that concept so uncomfortable that I had to do take the rather dramatic steps of having a baby and emigrating to the other side of the world. But I'll tell you, it works! It's really hard - and really easy at the same time.

This chap in the last photo got chatting to us at the beach, found out a bit about us and then later in the afternoon came to find us to give us his business card and his phone number so that we could hook up some time as, having emigrated 10 years ago, he knows it can take time to make friends. We have so many stories of meeting people like that! I have had to cope with my fair share of snooty unfriendly mums in playgroups but also great people who have made an effort to get to know me and others whom I have been able to help out as situations have arisen (for example one friend lost a lot of her merchandise for a new business she has starting when her parents' home burnt down. Our home group (the St Pauls one) provided a meal for them. A very simple thing to do (although I did feel foolish giving it to them) but it blew them away). Just today I met a young Korean woman in the library and we got chatting about playgroups as she hasn't found one to go to yet with her son of 9 months. I'm hoping that i'll see them on Thursday at our Titirangi group. Of course making the friends is just the start!