I am now at the beginning of my fifth week in New Zealand and the childcare has been especially hands-on as absentdaughter and family are moving to their new home on Thursday. Consequently, I have had the grandchildren staying every weekend since I arrived - including the national holiday Monday at the beginning of June - in addition to the agreed after school care on Mondays and Fridays and all day Thursday with the little ones to free up time for packing up the contents of their house. It's wonderful, if exhausting, but I had forgotten how noisy a house full of children can be. It's not just the conversations held at shouting pitch, the screaming with laughter and the arguments and tears, but also the galumphing in and out of rooms and the constant opening and closing of the door as they go out to play outside and then come back inside. I had also forgotten how much juice they can consume, not to mention the staggering quantities of food they get through. None of the children is fat but they get through prodigious quantities of fruit, crisps, crackers and biscuits in addition to what can only be described as three very square meals per day. I had forgotten the constant stream of questions and chat, the paintings and models to be admired, the endless requests (for snacks, to go to the park, to find a prize for a treasure hunt, to play snap, etc.)
I'm not complaining - far from it - just saying that I had forgotten and I am still forgetting from one weekend to the next, once the headache has gone, the fridge has been restocked and I have refilled the fruit basket. 
The goods and chattels are not due to dock until mid-July and then it can take a while to clear customs, so we are renting a furnished house until the beginning of August. Once absentdaughter and family have moved into their wonderful brand new house later this week there should be some time to look nearby for somewhere more permanent for us to live. We shall rent (unfurnished) for a while until the housing market picks up in the UK and I can sell at least one house there to buy one here.
Loss of sense of taste and smell
