1. Some friends used to tell their kids that the large concrete structures on the top of the hills around Auckland were volcano plugs. All was well until high school geography ...
2. I was told I could sleep on the one electric blanket at my grandparents' house in Waimate ... But if I moved once, I'd be electrocuted.
3. I tell my children the chickens you can see at rest stops hatch from the left-over bits of egg sandwiches.
4. When we were young, my Dad convinced us that if you planted jellybeans in the ground, they would grow into a jelly bean tree - so we did. The following week, a tree had sprung up and a week after that, I remember seeing bags of jelly beans on the tree. We were so excited.
5. I told my boyfriend, who was in his early 20s, that the pancreas was where peas and carrots were stored as they were always in vomit even if you hadn't eaten any. I didn't think much more of it until we were out with friends some time later and he started telling them what the pancreas was for. He's now my husband.
6. Many years ago, I was driving the family through hilly country close to Wairoa and drew the attention of the kids to the sheep walking around on the steep sides of the hills. I told them the sheep spent so much time on steep country that their outside legs grew longer than the inside ones. I could hardly believe my ears when my wife turned to me and seriously said, "I didn't know that".
7. When my sister was 13 and I was 21, I moved from Auckland to Christchurch and she wanted to visit. She was at that annoying stage of growing up, and I was at that stage of being a selfish young adult, so I convinced her anything crossing water was going "overseas" so she would need a passport. She never did save up enough money for her passport or airfare. Now that I live in Ireland, she needs a lot more money saved if she is to visit me - and these days, I would really like her to.
