Tuesday, March 18, 2008

My boy lies over the ocean

Our boy and his girlfriend are in New Zealand for nine weeks. These are his Mother’s Day flowers. Sniff.
New Zealand doesn’t look too far away on the map.

But they set out on Saturday afternoon, touching down in London, Bangkok, Sydney and Auckland, and didn’t land in Nelson, South Island, till Monday morning our time (Monday evening, NZ time).

It took them nearly two days, whizzing dangerously through the air, to get there. I find it hard to believe that anywhere in our earth can be so far away from here.

When I read blogs the world seems very small. When I think of my boy’s long journey, it seems very large.
Still, he has his girl by his side for company, his handy phrase sheets (see January 8 post) to help him communicate with the patients and the driving badger for all other emergencies.

The driving badger?
When he was 17, he sat his driving test. The examiner began by telling him to drive out of the test centre and take the first right. He wasn’t familiar with the area and didn’t know that the first right was a one-way street. The sign had got bent so that it was turned to the wall and he couldn’t see it. So he drove up the one-way street – the wrong way - and immediately failed. This did seem a bit mean.

Not being a lad who’d had much trouble in his life, he came home rather downcast.

His big sister, Daughter 2, was in town when she heard the news. Arriving home, she announced, “I know why you failed. You didn’t have a driving badger!” – and she produced this finger puppet.

Sure enough, the driving badger has accompanied him on all vital occasions from then on. It helped him pass his second driving test. It’s successfully sat all his medical exams with him. And now it’s keeping him safe in New Zealand.

I hope.



22 comments:

  1. What do they say? 'Loving begins with letting go, and letting go begins with walking away.'

    I wish I were a tad more convinced by that - like you I see the enormity of the world and the comparative smallness of one's child.

    .....but driving badgers are wonderful things!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How thoughtful that he gave you flowers before he left.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That badger looks surprisingly like Dog from Footrot Flats, so he should fare very well in New Zealand.
    (do you know Footrot Flats? Kiwi cartoon??)

    ReplyDelete
  4. The idea of the badger was cute; it seems she's a good sister. I couldn't have made use of a badger of my own several times in my life, LOL ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. That Badger is in All Black colours, so he will fit the bill here in NZ!

    By the way we are 12 hours before you in time!

    Hope he likes it here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. NZ may be about as far away as you can get in distance but probably not as mother-worrying as some other places.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I bet the catlets are missing him too!

    Loved your "where I'm from" post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ah! We have a small pewter pig endowed with similar magical properties. I'm sure my two boys are going to fight over who gets it when they leave home!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Diana is close to Nelson...email me and I will give you the address of the doctor friend we have in Nelson!

    ReplyDelete
  10. The blog world seems so small but even N.Z. seems closer than it used to be with email etc My daughter went off to Chile age 21 on her own for a month but she came back safe and sound. Your son has driving badger so that will keep him safe.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I know how you feel (in reverse) two of our 'children' lived in the UK for five years! I'm sure he will love his time here:-) I will be interested to hear how the travels go.

    We now both have sons in the same city!

    ReplyDelete
  12. How clever of your daughter to come up with the driving badger. And even more fun that he's now become a tradition. You know that I feel your pain! And drat! I'm worried that my little didn't take a driving badger with him. Perhaps I should send him some such item -- perhaps a krazy kanga or something!

    ReplyDelete
  13. He will be fine! I always felt my son would be fine, if he was with his girlfriend. Not sure why, but it was a real feeling with me.
    Cute driving badger story.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I should like a finger-badger, it could guide me through all sorts of things.

    Nine weeks? I thought he was in the Southern hemisphere for a year! If he passes though Sydney I will take them to dinner.

    ReplyDelete
  15. We could almost swap children. I am close to your son, you to my daughter!

    ReplyDelete
  16. NZ does seema long way away, so many hours, and out in the middle of the ocean as it is. But it's a very friendly place. Badger is cool!

    ReplyDelete
  17. New Zealand isn't far away at all. Well, not from where I am in Oz, anyway. Son and Girlfriend will be fine over there. The natives are very friendly, even if they do have some odd relationships with their sheep...

    ReplyDelete
  18. I arrived here via Two Lime Leaves. It was the Foorot Dog/Badger that did it!
    And I see you have feline encumberances! And a passion for English!
    A year now since I was in NZ...I have that old urge again...

    ReplyDelete
  19. I will spend some time reading your blog. It does seem very interesting. Is your sons "doing his elective" in NZ. My daughter did hers in Sydney. The time passes very quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Awwwwww. Thankfully, I'm still aways from this happening.

    ReplyDelete
  21. They are going to have a wonderful time. What a thoughtful guy to get you flowers before you left!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Australia is half a world away from us, so I know about those horrendously long trips over the ocean! My hubby and I wanted to go to visit NZ while we were living in Oz, but didn't make it. You should take that trip to Oz, and perhaps take in NZ while you're at it.
    I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time, especially being equipped with the handy phrase sheets and the driving badger :)
    I too failed my first driving test. I'm sure if my 'Brownie' had thought of that mean trick he would've used it. He scowled the whole time and scared me silly. I wasn't a nervous driver until I rode with him!
    I had a much nicer fellow the 2nd time and passed that one :)

    ReplyDelete