Sock Angels and volcanoes

Hi All,

We went to a wedding at the Temple this week and you have to remove your shoes and put on socks to enter the wedding area. You go into a special room to remove your shoes and a lady helps you negotiate how to put on the socks. Yes, I know. Who on earth needs help with putting on socks? But there was a lovely lady ... a French lady, who instructed us on the intricacies of sock etiquette and into my head came the song "Sock angel, sock angel will you be mine? My darling dear. Sock angel, sock angel for all of time." Okay, I know its not really a song. I am mixing it up with the Bobby Vee song 'Earth Angel.' And all the way through the wedding this song kept on coming back to haunt me. The wedding was lovely and the officiator was amazing. From the Temple steps you can see across New Zealand to the distant volcanic plateau and Mount Tongariro .. or is it Ruapehu? With its covering of snow standing out against the Winter blue sky. The officiator, Rolly, said that marriage is like taking a walk across the Tongariro crossing. Where you start at the bottom of the mountain all eager to reach the heights and then, as you climb, there are obstacles along the way that can hinder your progress and you need to have the endurance to reach the top. Our friends are well experienced in stumbling blocks of life and I am sure they will be there to support each other through the crossing. How long is the recommended hug one should give the bride and groom ... because quite frankly I could not let go. I wanted to hug and hug and hug. Luckily for me, the groom was very accommodating and hugged me back just as hard. In fact, I don't think he wanted to let me go? Which was fine with me.

Last week we bought the grandkids some new socks. We usually buy them some winter pj's each year. But this year their mother informed us that they were well stocked in the pj department and didn't need our buying them more. But socks are always welcome. We bought a few pairs of them and delivered them to the family. Omani, the eldest grandson loves wearing odd socks to the frustration of his parents. On opening the sock packets Omani immediately took one sock from each pair and put on a grey and white sock on the left foot and a green and brown one on the other. Our daughter had thought that the reason he always wore odd socks was that he could not find the matching mate to his socks. But no, Omani just likes being different and will go out of his way to be unique in his clothing sense. I had to giggle as he made his odd matches. We had bought the socks at a sale. They usually come in sets of three. Sadly the 'light-fingered lot' open the packets, remove the sock of their choice and then sometimes put their old dirty socks into the packets, close them up and replace them on the shelf. Walking out of the store with brand new socks at no cost to themselves. And yes, they even do that with undies! Yuk, yukkedy yuk. Can you imagine buying some undies and getting them home to find that they are more holy than righteous? We did buy a pair of Batman undies for the boys, only to find that they were size enormous when we opened the packet. Way too big for our grandsons. But the socks were great. I can rest easy knowing that their toes will be warm and toasty.

I myself am not a sock angel. Poor Barry has to battle through unmatched socks each morning. And I often don't even bother taking them out of the clean washing basket so that he scrounges through the washing to find a pair. One day I decided to be a 'good' wife and roll socks and put them in his drawers. Wow, the confusion the next morning was huge. I lay in bed watching as Barry tipped the whole basket of washing on the bed in a mad search for clean socks. Not one to lose his temper, Barry had to finally give up and say "Did you wash my socks?" I had totally forgotten that I had been a sock angel the day before so had been watching the whole saga for about ten minutes before it dawned on me that I knew exactly where the socks were. I told him they were in his drawer.... an answer that confused him even more. His drawer never housed his socks from one year to the next and the idea of them being all nice and neat was a new concept. For a moment he looked at me as if to say 'Who did that? Obviously not my sock challenged wife.' I myself don't wear socks. Not because I don't like warm tootsies but rather because I am allergic to them. I come out in rashes that are momentous in their itchiness. The warm tootsies are nice but really not worth the discomfit. Did I ever do the sock angel stunt again? No. Once was more than enough. Not because I was lazy or anything, no, I felt sorry for Barry and did not want to cause him any more confusion. Yes, he does sometimes complain that he can only find a navy blue sock and a black one to wear. I tell him no one will notice but he doesn't believe me and spends the day worrying about mismatched socks. Omani didn't get his sock mismatching from his Granpa.

We were supposed to attend a scavenger hunt this morning. But we didn't. Again, not because we are lazy or too cold to go outside. But rather because it's a young person's game and we don't enjoy it. Yes, aren't we a sad bunch of old folks? Anyhow, we had just sat down to a hot cup of cocoa when there was a knock on our back door and some scavengers wanted to know if we had a winged insect and an umbrella for their find. Did we have a winged insect? Yes, it is a mechanical one and not a living, breathing, creepy crawly. It's solar powered and sits on our window sill waiting for sunshine to wake it up. Scares the beejeebus out of us when it does. All of a sudden you hear this weird whirring sound and it takes ages for us to realise that its the toy that keeps on giving. Anyhow, the question is ... should we have joined the scavengers or stayed home with our mugs of delicious hot chocolate? Sorry folks but the hot chocolate wins hands down. We had spent the morning tramping around a cold wet yard that our daughter is considering buying and were in desperate need of sustenance and stuff. Tonight we are going to a musical fireside and I have to share my singing skills which are really non-existent. Ear plugs might be needed. My long suffering husband cringes as I warble along with the rest. Thank goodness it's not a solo outing!

Well folks, keep those toes warm in the chilly weather and remember if you need a sock angel that I am not applying for the job and if you need a winged insect we have no more in stock.

Lots of love

Pat