Kiwi nana…

I missed my grandmothers (From here on refereed to as kiwi Nana) birthday on July 21st…she turned 83. I feel bad that I didn`t send a card so I am hoping to print some photos for her and send her a letter sometime soon. I will definitely remember next year as I have put a note in my phone already for ten days before so that I won`t forget! That reminder will be in there for at least another 20 years too because I know my kiwi Nana is waiting for her letter from the queen at 100, and she will make it too (Her mother made it to 97 if I remember correctly…Granny Foy!). She is my last surviving grandparent.

Why kiwi Nana you might ask? Well you see my mother was born in New Zealand and so while I grew up in Australia I had one set of grandparents in New Zealand and another set in Brisbane. The Australian grandparents were always nanny and poppy and the New Zealand set were always kiwi Nana and grand-pop. I do not know who originally gave her this name, it might have been me or it might have been my mum. But she has always been kiwi Nana….and when I post letters to her I address them to kiwi Nana on the envelope and everything.

I learned three very important life skills from my kiwi Nana (Among many other things!)

1. How to make awesome pikelets/pancakes. I still have the recipe written down in the back of one my childhood recipe books at home in Australia

2. How to knit (Although I am a bit rusty…although I do have an olive green scarf started last winter)

3. Lastly, how to lipread.

I was talking to a friend on Friday night about this because I have recently discovered that i can also lipread Japanese. My kiwi Nana is deaf, she went deaf at 18 and has lip read ever since. My mum can lip read and for some reason it is something that I can do too (Although I am not as proficient as my mum, and certainly not as proficient as my Nana). Apparently as a young child, even when I was as young as a year, I knew that to speak to my kiwi Nana that I had to tap her arm to get her attention before speaking…I also know that my mum and her used to speak to each other without talking so that my grandfather wouldn`t here or whoever else might have been trying to overhear their conversation…I guess that is how I picked up my lipreading skills.

You would be surprised how handy the skill lipreading is. I think that with my knitting, pikelet making and lipreading skills that I would make an excellent international spy!!!

Anyway, Happy Birthday Kiwi Nana! I am sorry it is late but I do hope you had a good one!I hope you are doing well! I will be sure to pass on my knitting skills, pikelet making talents and lipreading ability on to my children, your grandchildren, just like you passed them down to mum and me! Although I am sure you will be around to teach them yourself…

Popularity: 6% [?]