Chantalle Smith

First I was jealous of my cousin when Tūranga opened.

Then I was jealous when my home town got their new library, Marlborough Library Te Kahu o Waipuna. My son loves it there.

And now I cannot wait to take him to this one!

Govt is replacing a key violence-prevention tool with a racist, transphobic & homophobic curriculum - please sign our petition to show current (& future) decision-makers we care about rights, respect & joy our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/br...

A bird cage on a stand in front of a window. Outside is a rainbow over the sky with a house and more houses on the hills in the distance

Lying on the couch feeling meh. Look out the window to see this 🌈❤️

I wish my Mum could! But she can’t carry a bag easily due to her health reasons.

We try to get there early enough to beat her getting off the ship. Send her to the car and we wait for her bag.

And Luxon thought tourists were worried and focused in the homeless…

And what this photo doesn’t show is the “temporary” baggage claim building for when you arrive in Wellington.

It leaks, it’s cold, there’s no seats and has been there for ages now.

My Mum always struggles waiting for her bags there when she comes to visit.

Luckily for Mum, she had family that helped with paying her bills and food for the couple of weeks she had no income. But it’s insane it had to be this way.

This system is so broken.

I learnt about this when my Mum stopped working due to health reasons. Her partner at the time earned too much (only just too).

When he got terminal cancer, we knew Mum would be without an income when he died. They still wouldn’t let us process her paperwork to get the benefit until he died…

The 7yo has gotten back into making videos of himself.

I just found a bunch on our tablet.

They are hilarious 😂

But I am being a good parent and not sharing online. But am keeping it saved, to embarrass him when he’s older 😁

I saw a post on FB about this today, but now can’t remember what it was about 😂

I hear ya on wanting to help out on that! Glad to hear you can pay and go.

Hope it’s a fun camp

That doesn’t seem right not to tell you.

I’ve only volunteered for day trips at my son’s school. But I know when they’ve asked for volunteers they always tell you everything involved (e.g if there’s costs/you need to get yourself to the place/even if younger siblings can come!)

I had to ☺️

His Mum invited us around a couple of times while we were between houses to cook us a “proper” dinner. So have definitely felt like we need to thank them more and reciprocate

Since things have finally felt like they’ve settled down in the new house. I invited the 7yo’s oldest friend (& his Mum) round for a playdate & dinner.

They became instant friends as babies at day care. Now go to different schools, so don’t see each other often. I needed to book another playdate ❤️

I have to say, I’ve had the join the Green Party page up on my phone for a while. Every time I thought about it, I wasn’t near my wallet to pay!

Seeing the list tonight finally got my arse into gear and filling in the form and paying for my membership

Loved seeing your name there! Would be fantastic to see Greens get enough votes to bring you in ☺️

I’ve had 3 glasses of wine since having my booster. It’s made my arm not feel sore anymore. And I’m feeling happy 😂

Hope I don’t feel like rubbish later though!

Absolutely. When I tell people about my situation, often they are shocked. I wish it wasn’t that way.

I also look at my Mum, who has COPD. Not many people realise what that means for her. She can barely walk down her long driveway without getting out of breath!

Absolutely!

That’s sad ❤️

I get sad I can’t be active with my son anymore. When I see him getting sad that I need to rest because I got out of breath just walking somewhere, it breaks my heart. My wish is that I could play football with him. He loves it, but I literally last 2 minutes (if that)

I’m sorry to hear that about your partner. Must be hard ❤️

I consider myself lucky that I can still work. But I do need to do things differently to do my role. And often need help from others.

But my partner has his job because the person prior to him had to take medical retirement due to Long Covid

My partner has the job that he has currently because someone took medical retirement due to Long Covid. He took medical retirement after having nearly 2 years off trying to “recover”

Sure it says that. But they know a lot of people these days just read the headline..

I hope it gets changed soon

Oh FFS.

I have people tell me covid isn’t that bad. Then I tell them my story of how it fucked me over.

These headlines are dangerous. It will cause damage to people. While putting immunocompromised people like me at further risk.

We got an email at work about how covid is going around again and to remind us to stay home when sick.

While I already had my covid booster booked for today.

But I’m also still masking.

I cannot risk getting covid again. I really do miss being able to breath properly…

7yo: “you’re so smart Pa. But not as smart as Mum”

😄😂

Doing spelling with the 7yo, he wanted us to spell words too.

So I asked my partner how to spell “ferry”.

He always spells it “fairy”

😂

Good choice!