A friend sent a text message at 7:56 in the morning. She was not working and would like to bond before I leave for Wellington. The past days had been all sorting, cleaning and packing moment for me. All the hassle of moving can be stressful. As if divine intervention was guiding my moves a timely coincidence came up. Doors were opening in response to mounting concerns. She mentioned of having her box for the Philippines picked up and that shipping would take four weeks so I thought it was a good idea to do the same with mine. With my box still a quarter empty I decided to go back to the mall for some bargain so we decided to have a day out with my niece.
It was a rainy day but here comes my friend in shorts. My niece put on her maxi dress and I decided to go on my romper. We started by idly combing the mall. We compared boxing day notes and gave each other a chance to finish our half done business. Our tummies signalled for top up and we had it refilled at a Filipino restaurant in the vicinity. Very timely we met some of our cherished friends who have been from their Sabbath service. Our bellies were fully stretched that I could not think of food the rest of the day. Then we decided to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of smug. We aimed for the big screen at Hoyts but the show had started and the next was not after a couple of hours and we passed the time window shopping. We realised New Zealand Christmas was over as the guys tried to bring the Christmas Tree down with poor Elf Santa sprawled down on the ground. Christmas is more fun in the Philippines indeed. The spirit starts in September and ends in February.
We were taking a short rest when we met the family of an old friend in Christchurch. I was so amazed to see the kids have grown. They were the same family who I celebrated my first Christmas in New Zealand way back in 2006 and here they are 7 yrs later. Memories of those earliest days came back and definitely so many things had happened. The encounter re-echoed the music of friendship that went quiet but never lost. It was an exciting moment of recall and getting reconnected that we resorted to Facebook as the modern way of getting in touch. We snapped a picture and posted it in the site to complete the circle by getting the member of the family who was primarily the one responsible for our first encounter.
We realised we were getting dehydrated. My niece thought she wanted some food and we drove to Carl's Jr. We headed home for our drink. And when it was time for the movie we went back to Hoyt's Cinema just to be told that the house was full and we could not come in. The rain was still on and we drove back home slightly frustrated. For our finale of the day, we decided to do one more gallivanting by driving to Momotea for a mug of shake. Facebook was really effective as a social media. Before the day ends, my friend in Christchurch got to me via messenger and I rang her on the phone. We talked and revived old connections, looked forward to new beginnings and our group drove home. It was still raining and my packing job was parked the whole day. It is possible to have a rest day even if we are officially out of work.
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