A Waterbed Sunday

As I read of how many of you are enjoying spring, with the anticipation of summer to follow and here in New Zealand we are feeling the tug of winter ahead of us. Leading me to remember with fond memories "Summer Sundays".

Though we are part of a global village and we are very much in touch with the rest of the world, we have managed to still keep our Sundays. I admit it isn't quite like 20yrs ago, when NZ shut down on the weekend. Now in the cities and tourist spots we have welcomed "Open Sunday" with open arms. But Sunday for most New Zealanders is still a day of rest and family FUN. A classic New Zealand summer Sunday that I remember, from what feels like it was only yesterday but was a two months ago. Was a great reminder of what it was like to be young and carefree, even if I have to close my eyes to some of the results. It was one of those busy Sundays, that is typical of a relaxed NZ family lifestyle. But I will admit that if you value your space and don't have kids, you have no idea about.

To start with, my son had a friend to stay Saturday night, so I was already part way down the road to chaos. Next another of his friends appeared so with the ultimatum that they all played together nicely, I gave the OK. First I sent the boys up my large plum tree to collect plums before the birds all got them. This they took great delight in doing, especially when they found very ripe ones to throw at each other. These plums are huge about the size of apples – no joke, and make an awful mess if contact is made and they are ripe.

Next they did more boy stuff; trying to catch fish in the river, making a makeshift net out of a coat hanger, sticks, lots of tape and a plastic bag. An interesting construction to say the least. They had lots of fish tales when they came back, but it was the one about how they had made friends with a River Rat – that topped them all!!.

Now the day really started to get busy. As the it was looking to get hot, they pulled out a waterbed bladder that I had in the garage. They then proceeded to fill it with water, which makes a great wobbly thing to play on. Next they got two tarpaulins and laid them on the grass in front of the filled waterbed. After that they got a hose and sprayed water all over the waterbed and tarpaulins. Adding large quantities of soap powder to make everything soapy. They then put on togs or old clothes and ran along doing these great spectacular slides onto the bed. Trying to out-do each previous one. Fun at its best.

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