Author: dave

busy days at school for all

esther and anni came early with me.  we’re having to leave just after six halfty-brilliant these days (6.30ish) to get a decent parking space at the park and ride carpark

anni met up with her friends after school.  esther had orchestra (i think) and possibly some singing lessons or violin or something musical

i had a nice walk to work in the sun and saw the remains of the volvo race village before it’s packed away.  the boats go off tomorrow morning

there’s also a nice reflecty sculpture around at the moment

and of course being st patricks day there were people drinking and dressed in green all over town

i heard i did manage to get my Associatieship of the NZ Photo Society so that’s a shame.  but i did get a broken lightbulb replaced from the shop where i bought it so the day wasn’t a total failure.

the morning started quite wet but warm and by the afternoon it was nice and sunny again.  new zealand looks to have avoided any real damage other than a few power outages around auckland which didn’t affect us.

everyone had school and kezia had choir

jane and me went for a walk with pearl this evening

Just in case you were worried,  the night passed without incident, in fact it wasn’t very windy at all.   But it was rather rainy and quite soggy on the way to work.

The storm is still tracking down the coast though so we might see a bit more wind later today.  But nothing untoward.

 

jane was up early to walk pearl

then we were off to church

we had booked to go kayaking this afternoon but that was cancelled due to the weather moving in

so instead we had a family competitive sailing event in the pool instead

the rest of the day was spent at home.

the weather is meant to windy and rainy over night, but hopefully won’t be too bad where we live.  but the headlines are exciting!

(we weren’t actually on the boat, but this is actually the round the world boating trophy)

esther and i went to a korean festival this morning for 30 minutes.  we were a few hours early before the real fun (traditional korean arm wrestling, pumelling rice, tea ceremony etc)

esther had tennis this afternoon but didn’t win today unfortunately

asian people often have fancy toilets

this afternoon everyone did their home work and jane and kezia found a slither of time to do some shopping while esther was tennising

this evening we went in to town to enjoy the festivities

there were the usual night markets

and lots of arty things for the Auckland Arts Festival White Light Night

and this was also the last night of the Volvo round the world race as they are packing the race village away this evening in case cyclone Pam veers toward auckland (unlikely)

the other thing we could see from various points was the flashing harbour bridge.  unfortunately it was just out of time with the music making it look rather dissapointing – especially compared to last week’s Skin of Fire fireworks!

we got home at 10.30, everyone a bit tired!

the dishwasher man came this morning and (we think) finally mended it.  hoorah.

i then rushed in to work and spent about half an hour driving round various multi-story carparks trying to find somewhere to park.  then went to my meetings

after work i wandered round the waterfront for a bit to avoid the rush hour traffic.  along the way i saw the singer of the Exponents singing his songs as a three piece and some people doing some charity thing where they had to sit in a bucket of freezing water for 3 minutes

jane and the girls had school

anni is having a sleep over with a friend tonight

jane and kezia had fun in the pool after school then took esther and pearl for a swim in the sea  which sounded like lots of fun

then this evening we’ve watched two hours of british sewing on the television

and there’s lots of talk in the news about the incoming storm, which has meant esther’s geographic trip to the Tongariro Crossing on Sunday has been cancelled.  which is probably a sensible decision.

my friend sam from university days is currently in Auckland so it was great to catch up with him last night for fish and chips on North Head

we then drove down town to watch the bridge flashing along to music we couldn’t hear (but i later found out you have to listen on you mobile phone, so i’ll go again with the family a different time)

the volvo boats are nearly getting ready to depart for their next leg of their round the world race.  the next few days are racing the harbour then they’re off on Sunday i think – right at the same time the cyclone is meant to hit.  fun for them – although i’ve just read they may be delayed

might be fun for us too:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11416435

this pink boat is crewed by ladies

i’m not entirely sure what everyone else got up to yesterday as i didn’t really see anyone

i think esther had tennis and kezia had a choir practice. 

and jane had a busy day as she does every day, but did find time to catch up with her friend Debbie i think.

i’m writing this on Friday morning while waiting for a man to mend our dishwasher and possibly a man to mend our pool light (if the rain holds off – pool people don’t like to get wet apparently.  there is electricity involved so fair enough!)

work/school for all.   esther, anni and i went early.  kezia got the later bus which was half an hour late because the traffic is so bad on the highway due to the roadworks so she was late for school. but it was ok as she had got the official school bus.

anni did her boating after school, and also did some kayak during the day.  kayaking involved capsizing.

kezia had a viola lesson at school and her violin lesson in the evening

esther had her big band practice

kezia and i went to camera club.  i got honours for my two images (shown here).  kezia got Highly Commended for hers (not shown here as i don’t have a copy)

i had a bad experience with the work vending machine at work this morning when a packet of crisps got stuck, with no crisps behind (or spare money) to permit a double drop manoeuvre.

so i phoned the company who sent a man to release them and they turned up on my desk 5 hours later

i worked from home today because the dishwasher man was coming.  he came with the part he’d ordered last week, but still couldn’t mend it as he discovered he needed order another part so hopefully friday will be the day.  we’ll see

jane had school and did some extra lessons.

the girls had school which involved musical things i think.

anni met up with a chum after school and i went for a walk with jane.

works/school for all.  anni went to watch some school football training and swam for an hour

kezia had choir rehearsal.  esther had nothing

jane and i went for a walk with pearl

the dishwasher mendy man comes tomorrow.  woohooo!