Author: dave

work for me

jane and kezia have been on holiday all week doing various things.  jane has done lots of good work in the house and garden. kez has been out with friends, shopping etc.

after a busy day on friday jane and i went out in the evening to an art exhibition opening (very briefly) then went in to auckland to watch a band.  it was a venue i’ve not been to before but it was great as we got to sit at a table and watch.  it was also nice that both the support act and main band came over and said hello to me as i know them from photoing!

i had wednesday off work so jane and i went for a walk out in east auckland.  someone asked jane is i was her granddad which was funny (for her).  It was something like a 10km walk which ended on a small volcano called Pigeon Mountain.  not really a mountain.  more of a mount.  and no pigeons.  but a nice view.

when we got to pigeon mountain i got an uber back to fetch the car to pick up kez and pearl

kezia went to a friend’s house during the day

work in the day for me then in the evening i photoed the Taite Music awards which celebrate New Zealand musicians.  i had to photo people arriving on the red carpet (which i made a bit of a mess of) and the show itself.

At one point a band emptied some ashes of one of their deceased members on the stage which caused a bit of a stir!

i had work, girls had holidays.  in the evening i did preparations for my photoing on tuesday evening

all is well.  just busy.  will update soon!

oops, looks like i haven’t updated for while

Thursday – school/work then in the evening Kezia’s Proms Concert which was a fund raiser for her Italy trip this year.  Photography wasn’t allowed so no photos, sorry.  Esther came along to the performance and caught up with her old teachers.

Friday – work/school. Esther was working at a venue in Takapuna on Friday night so came here after for the night.

Saturday – we’re now in school holidays for jane and kezia.  Esther’s term has started again.  Esther and i went to her trombone shop in the morning to get a teeny piece of metal which costed $200 but make it easier to play a trombone!  Then i dropped her off in takapuna for more work.  she worked 12-4pm then 6pm- 2am then got a taxi back to our house.    Rest of the day was chores i think, and jane had a hair cut

Sunday – i did sound at church which was a bit of a disaster due to a new radio mic doing weird things.  after that i had a sleep then spend the rest of the day charging batteries for a photo thing i’m doing on tuesday evening.   Jane went to look at decorative owls in town and kezia went to the mall with some youngsters from the youth group (she was the old one being responsible for them!).  esther went back to hall.

kezia went to school but it was closed because of powercuts so she came home and did some homework and popped out to the mall with some friends in the afternoon

jane had school (sports day was cancelled) and i had work (new computer and new giant monitor yay!)

much of the morning was spent with people telling each other stories of sleepless nights in the storm.

i forgot to mention that Esther was working at the Bruce Mason centre for the show Mama Mia on Tuesday night.  She got a taxi back to halls after as per the staff policy which meant she had to go over the harbour bridge in the storm.  her taxi driver said it was his worst experience in 12 years of taxiing!

After last night’s winds we’re promised more tonight, although not quite as bad apparently: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12030156

work, school

Kezia had some choir practice until late

i went straight from work to kezia’s parent’s evening.  because kezia had her choir practice i had to go and see all her teachers on my own which was a first. and quite intimidating!  I took lots of notes

anyway, turns out kezia is the perfect student and doing really well which is great!

we were all quite tired by the time we eventually got home.

the weather had been quite wild further south across New Zealand during the day and by about 8pm it had reached Auckland.  It was the loudest most violent wind i think i’ve experienced.    The news says it was the equivalent of a category 2 cyclone / hurricane so it was no wonder lots of massive trees fell and houses were damaged.   we were ok though thankfully and our power stayed on although the lights were doing weird things.

the temperature also dropped 10 degrees which was quite a shock.  after having months where the daytime temperature was maxing at >20C today 12 degrees max was a bit chilly.

i’ve not got any photos, but here’s some pictures of trampolines and pets:

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/11-04-2018/cat-astrophic-aucklands-pets-and-trampolines-left-traumatised-after-major-storm/

work / school for all

i thought i might be photoing Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge but it still hadn’t been confirmed by 6pm even though we had to be there at 7.15pm.  The word then came we’d been approved so over i zoomed

Sheryl Crow was excellent.  we had three photos from the sound desk so we all stood in a line and took our shots.  i stood on a stool and that went well.

i then edited my photos in a funny little room with all the electricity cables.  i got that done in time for us to go and photo Melissa.   We had one song for her and we could stand in the pit

Unfortunately it was a seated gig and the people on the front row had spent a LOT of money to shoot the concert.  so we had to kneel on the floor to take out photos.  It was like an SAS exercise as we all shuffled around to get different angles for the one song we had to photo her!

anyway, here are some of my photos:

i was on church sound this morning so had an early start.  i also had to take some portraits so that was a bit busy

this afternoon i droive kezia and a couple of her friends to a school show across town then drove back via town.

and the rest of the time i’ve been editing photos

esther and jane went to an open day at an outdoor pool where dogs were allowed to go in the pool.  i think it must be their last day of summer before they drain the pool.  sounds like they had lots of fun though . 

here are some signs from a local takeaway.  appetising

here are photos of pearl swimming from esther.  it turns out pearl is a fantastic swimmer and went really deep to collect lots of balls!