Coming home, even the one and a half hour waiting in line at Auckland airport for bio security checks to see if we were smuggling in fruit, animal bits and pieces or dirty camping equipment, didn’t faze us. Tired and hungry we may have been, but we were still chilled. With no food in the cupboards we broke our journey home with a Thai curry and glass of wine. The holiday mood was still flourishing.

Next day with vigour and a renewed zest we returned to work. And bam. Another day, and we entered another world. Two weeks’ worth of pent-up drama unfolded. Every broken-down device, every query, every request – possible and impossible, every mishap, every shortage, every loss – everything. The drama called ‘living’ hit us.

The mantra ‘everything is exactly as it should be’ was repeated incessantly as we bounced off the walls. David started to plough through over 1000 emails, mine was only slightly less. ‘everything is exactly as it should be’! We couldn’t make coffee because the machine is in Jo’s office, and she was heatedly on the phone to NZ post because their label printing machine wasn’t working, causing the huge pile of orders to be grid-locked. Caffeine deprived but ‘everything is exactly as it should be’. No stress. Yet?

I sneaked off for a couple of hours to see my ninety-seven-year-old mum, and a sly take-away coffee. Wham. Bam. Straight into more drama. Mum was not happy, felt neglected, I’d had a good holiday while she has seen no one and was bored silly. ‘Everything is exactly as it should be’, now said through slightly gritted teeth. I reminded her that she had been out with my brother the day before and Jo had taken her out for lunch on Saturday. After which they went op. shopping. Can you believe it? Ninety-seven and still looking for a cheery-little-number. She perked up after having leached some of my energy, I, on the other hand felt depleted having lost it. But then ‘Everything is exactly as it should be’. No stress. Well not much!

After leaving a happy, energized mum I got a phone call from my son. He was having a crappy day. I listened wishing things were easier for him – but – I could do no more than provide a listening ear, give a little energy and say, ‘Everything is etc, etc’. My shoulders had become tense. But only a little! No stress.

After the supermarket dash we had a light dinner interspersed with filling and un-filling the washing machine. How come holidays make so much washing even though I constantly rinsed out t shirts and undies? By now I was feeling a bit less than super, but it wasn’t stress it was merely being a bit tired. My back ached. Also my head.

It started during the night – David’s upset tummy. The whole works, fever, the lot. The heating was turned up full, and with hot bottles, blankets and tossing and turning neither of us slept much.

This morning I gave up. Stress rating through the roof, and feeling like I needed a holiday, I switched on my QSB and lay back. ‘Everything is exactly as it should be’ mantra, even if true, chucked out the window. I really enjoyed the Solfeggio frequency 417Hz –facilitating change. It was like being on holiday again – Fully relaxing. Lovely. Stress rating back down to ‘chilled’.