ANZAC Day

We commemorated ANZAC Day under the ye olde Te Aroha Town clock again this year.

They have a fairly traditional small town parade except this year Hugh the Mayor made his mark and changed things up with the traditional standing arrangements- it was a bit of a shemozzle and I believe Les has already sent him a letter to give his thoughts and bright ideas.

For a while I thought the New Zealand Public were improving their standards and attendance at ANZAC parades but it would seem it wasn't so. Between the dogs, the motorbikes, and uncontrolled children, uncontrolled parent and granny photographers and the flat out plain old rude can't stop gossiping for 20 minutes once a year talkers it was all a bit of a downer. And lets not even get into the blood, guts and mud or the mayor's overly long and gory speech.

I totally believe 100% in the importance of ANZAC Day I don't see it as any sort of glorification or celebration of war. It is a mark of respect. And in a culture that thinks that the young of today have little or no respect of anything or anyone ANZAC day is an excellent opportunity to model exactly what is required, unfortunately many of Te Aroha meagre attendees failed in that task and the rest were at home sitting on their lazy butts (or preparing for a party).

I teach our kids they cannot talk except to join the hymns and I expect them to stay still-ish... no wandering around or sitting down- if an 80 year old can stand at attention then they can be on the spot too. Even Will at two is given little leeway and managed well... certainly a lot better than the 5 year old brat who looked like she was dressed for a rap video rather than her Sunday best.

After the parade Les told me of the Heli crash in which we lost 'our people' I really struggle with this sort of thing with Defence- I really feel like they can be hypocritical in their dealings with the media putting a nice spin on the all one big family thing and being inconsistent and sometimes absent when dealing with the wider 'family' in relation to the loss.

I also have issues with some of the public commentary- the 'it's just another work accident why all the fuss?' type comments.

The thing is being a member of the defence force isn't 'just another job' heck if it was they'd have an employment contract and be able to defend themselves and their personal rights and privileges alongside defending our country, it's people, it's economic zone and coming to the support and aid of other countries and peoples in their times of need. It's also not a job with a heck of a lot of perks any more and what there is being fast taken away- and what they pay is fairly crap too.

Here's the thing-and I know it's unlikely to ever happen (thank goodness for that)- but at any time on any given day someone from Les' work could call him up and say "we're going into a war zone pack your bag and be at work in 30 minutes (or less) we have no idea when you'll be home again". And the excepted risk is death- I mean obviously they hope and they plan not- but it's an accepted possibility.

That's not any other job.

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After the parade we checked the news on the net to see if we could get any details on the accident we only knew for sure that it was a helicopter- and coming from a heli squadron that leaves a heavy sickening pit in your stomach. I guess we were relieved to learn it was an Iroquoi but not much.

Then we went to Les' Mum's 70th at the Waihou Rugby club. We faithfully put on our name tags (as you do) and promised to return them after. God forbid we take it home. Les and I were naughty- we put ours at waist height rather than emblazoned on our breast. Hi I'm GYPSY STOCKLEY wife of Leslie son of Stan and Ann.

I truly hope that ours is the only family in the world that decorates each table with a fake red rose and a hunk of smoked fish.

Being the fab communicators our family are we found out about our new grand nephew Brock who is like 4 months old about a week out from the party when we booked in to stay at Helens.

This is the guy who caught all the smoked fish doing a little de-boning- Les' closest (age-wise) sibling big brother Neil. And his daughter Courtney- whose Nana didn't even recognise her- she hasn't changed much at all.

And here;s Miss Vienna catching a wee kip mid party she's wearing her bestest party dress and matching knickers- always in style that girl.

That's seconds after Les suggested to his mum that she put the knife into her face as she cut the cake- nice!

The party was what you would expect a bunch of old people and a bunch of family. Most kept to their own corners and in the case of half the family left as early as was polite. We did catch up with a couple of cousins that we hadn't seen in forever. And Les' brother David flew in from the states. The food was ok. I didn't have much fish- but managed at least 3 cinnamon oysters (MUCH better than they sound). But it wasn't exactly the jubilant family gathering you'd hope for in your 70th year- which I think is kind of sad. We headed back to Auckland mid-late afternoon with Miss Wendy tailing us to the Bombay Hills.

On the day we lost Muzz in the Skyhawk crash I took photos of the Nowra sunset from our back deck as the sun went down behind the gum trees. These are from ANZAC Day- it sucks to lose a person, any person. It sucks more to lose three.

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