Author: dave

i had work

kezia had school then sang at the new zealander of the year awards on telly

jane came back from camp having had a good time

jane and i went to a church music practice in the evening then picked up kezia

i worked from home today as the boiler man came and replaced the pump.  was just a quick job so that was good.  i asked him various questions about things but he didn’t know.   once he’d replaced the pump he said “so, what was wrong with it”.  could have been good to ask me that before he replaced it.  oh well.

kezia went to Kawau Island on a school trip to visit the tin mine.  so that was a nice day out for her and a little boat trip. and then she had a choir rehearsal after school as she’s singing at some fancy thing tomorrow night.

it rained a bit here occasionally and felt a little cooler which was good. i walked pearl this evening while kezia did the bins (used to be esther’s job, now inherited by kezia)

work/school/doggy day care.

luckily for auckland the cylone hit new zealand at the top of the south island meaning it was just a bit blustery during the day and we did have one band of crazy massive rains late afternoon

kezia had an orchestra practice before school.  i dropped her off at the bus stop then dropped pearl off at dodgy day care.

at work i spent three hours trying to repair my computer with the help of the computer support people. i managed in the end.  And i met my friend Robert for lunch.

kezia had a practice after school and we met at the bus station where we both walked to the car which was parked in a nearby street as there were no parks left when i got there.

apparently pearl helped with the assessments at dodgy day care.  i’ve no idea what that means, but i’m hoping they can read her handwritting.

jane texted to say she was still alive, so that’s good news

and esther messaged to say her second night of training at her ushering job went well and she made it back to hall ok.

it’s still super hot and humid. and wet down south: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11997788 

drop me an email if you’d like esther’s hall address to send her a card or something interesting!

the hot water boiler pump broke again and i worked from home.

we no longer have any idea what esther is up to

kezia had school

jane is still at camp and the cyclone is coming tomorrow (but it’s a lot further south so we should be ok, but a bit windy) in Auckland.

there was rain today

so today was a lot of driving people away:

9.20 i took kezia to church

9.40 i took jane to school for her school camp

10.00 i took esther to her university hall

11.40 i picked up kezia from church and drove her to her choir rehearsal

i picked kezia up again at 4pm though.

esther’s room is nice.  lots of storage and power sockets which is what you need at university.

here’s a grasshopper / katydid green thing on the window

here is jane’s stuff and esther’s stuff ready for loading in to cars at different times

freakyly these two pictures exactly fit together on top of each other.  this wasn’t planned!

as luck would have it, esther’s friend Sam was there to help carry stuff up to her room. and it wasn’t raining which was another bonus

it looks like the cyclone heading towards New Zealand isn’t heading directly for Auckland any more which is good news.  For Auckland at least.

jane and esther went out for a long last pearl walk and breakfast

then esther and i went out for some long driving practice driving around

in the afternoon esther went in to town to watch the auckland youth choir perform with some of her old school musician friends – most of whom are also studying in auckland and one day hope to be in that choir!

jane and i met esther at the bus station at 8pm and the three of us went for a last dinner in Takapuna.  the idea was we’d be joined by kezia at 9pm after we’d had our main courses but the dinners ended up coming a bit late so i had to wolf mine down and run across town to get the car to pick up kezia, but that was fine. 

as planned we eventually ended up with all four of us in the same restaurant before it closed to celebrate jane and my wedding anniversary (22 years on Friday) and esther’s departure

jane and esther also did lots of packing for their various things.

work for jane and me

choir camp (at school) for kezia followed by a sleep over at a friends house before hearing back for more rehearsals on saturday

esther went out for a big band practice run by her soon-to-be-old trombone teacher in the evening

jane and i went out to watch the film Ladybird in a cinema near by which has had all its seats upgraded to leather reclining seats.  unfortunately it’s also got broken airconditioning so in this continued 100% humidity and temperatures it was 29degrees and very sticky.

work (i drove in as i went in a little later – it took two hours to drive in.  in the evening it takes less than half an hour)

jane had school swimming competition so spent the day at a pool with hundreds of kids.  her class won the class relay

kezia had a choir rehearsal day

esther went to the dentist and did some shopping for university things

yesterday was work/school/not sure (esther)

in the afternoon i took esther to the doctors to get her meningitis jab.

in the evening jane had parents evening at school and i photoed robbie williams (i only found at 3pm i was doing it)

work, school, pancakes. and LOTS of rain.

here’s some news on how wet it’s been:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11993754