Author: dave

i’ve spent pretty much the entire day in front of the computer – from 7.30am to 10.15pm – sorting out photos from the work onsite day.    I think i’ve mostly done and they’re currently uploading somewhere.

along the way we nearly broke esther’s ipod by updating it to IOS6.  but we managed to sort it out (thankfully everything was backed up so it was just a matter of restoring it)

i still had the nice camera lens so i took a few snaps of esther cooking cookies. And the garden

jane took kezia to swimming this morning but didn’t go running because her legs still hurt

and this afternoon i did pop out briefly to take my dinner jacket back and buy a couple of plastic mini sledge things (all be revealed)

then this afternoon we all popped out for an hour to kezia’s piano concert

this evening kezia went to a party in dairyflat.  that’s her first evening party

seems to have gone ok i think

today was the second and final day of our work ‘on site, off site’ and it was a team building day.  after giant wonky jenga, wii, blind folded tent building and a quiz to win bike bits, we finally put it all together.

the bikes themselves were then donated to some local school kids who came along to watch them being built.  our little guy had never owned a bike before, but was quite excited and as we left i saw him actually manage to cycle on his own a bit.  excellent. 

we then went out for lunch with 10 people in my team (including our boss) before half of them flew back to Wellington.  unfortunately one of my colleagues got ill and was eventually taken to hospital so hopefully she’s ok. 

meanwhile jane taught a lesson, the girls had school and both girls had their swimming lessons (but jane didn’t go to her gym class as she’s got hurty legs)

here’s my colleague sasha at work this afternoon wearing his new bike hat.  he’s doing the world triathlons in a few weeks time (the same day his wife is due to give birth!), so needs a hat to shave valuable minutes off his time.

ah, and we heard the dog isn’t coming tomorrow as the owner’s vet has suggested they need to grow a bit more before they are sent home so they get a proper health check

i spent most of the day taking pictures (exactly 550 in face), but did manage to appear in a couple too.

Dave was on a work jolly today and this evening he will be wearing his dinner suit and taking photos with the posh lens.

I had done housework and puppy prep.

Girls had school and Kezia had swimming.

See ya

jane had mainly music and usual stuff.  girls had school

esther found out her trombone teacher also teaches at her new school, so that’s great.

 

my day started outside a german bakery at 6.45am.  it didn’t open until 7am though. 

and my working day ended at an obscure shop tucked away in a corner of auckland so i could pick up the lens i’m hiring for photo taking at work all day and night tomorrow and friday

this evening i’ve been busy trying to remember how to work my big camera and its flash.  and to be honest my brain is tied up in a big knot. 

i’m hiring the lens over the weekend too so hopefully i should get some pictures of the Milky The Dog and kezia’s piano concert too before i take it back on Monday.  Batteries permitting.

meanwhile, here’s esther acting out receiving a trophy so i could practice some action shots for tomorrow.

Well done to avid blog reader Julie, who had noticed that we forgot to write an entry for yesterday. Sorry about that. People went to work and school and tennis and skyped various family members. That’s all.

Hello. School and work today. Dave went out for lunch with his colleagues for one of them’s birthday.

Kez was swimming this evening and we had a worship leaders’ meeting here.

today was our last completely free day for a few months as we’re expecting our dog next week and she’ll need lots of supervision reducing our potential for days out

jane went out for a 10 mile run first thing then we all loaded in to the car for breakfast at our favourite cafe

we then went in search of a geocache which was about 20 minutes down a dirt track then along a track in the bush.  it took us a few minutes to get our walking shoes on, and then about 30 seconds to find the first stream we had to cross had turned in to a river and wasn’t safe to cross.  so we abandoned it.  but we’ll be back as it looked very nice.

Kezia looked pleased at not having to do a walk

so then we went to sheep world which is somewhere i’ve wanted to go to since we moved here

this pig was brilliant at begging for food (see video at the bottom of this post)

it’s still too cold for eels apparently

but the sheep show was still on and it was excellent

and included some handy tips on how to train dogs, so we’ll give that a go

and the highlight for the girls was feeding some lambs

esther’s got quite attached to her and we sat around for quite a while with it on her lap!

then this evening kezia had her last flippa ball match of the season.  Her team were in the final but were beaten 3-1 i think. but they held off well against the other team.

the pig:

jane took kezia to swimming and went for her run. they were back by 9.30am by which time esther and i had driven up Fruit World for a load of oranges which we shoved in the juicer.   we also had some par-baked croissants and pain au chocolates (i bought them before my chocolate give up), so we cooked them up too

then i headed out to the shopping maul to look round some $2 shops for props for some table decorating we’re doing at a work event on Thursday but failed.  instead i picked up my hired dinner jacket for next Thursday evening’s dinner.

then this afternoon we went in to auckland to see a photography exhibition which is on at the museum.  it was really good.

this evening we watched the Lorax

the weather has been pretty rubbish today but is meant to be better tomorrow so we’re having a day out somewhere.  yay.

i had a breakfast meeting at a cafe near Smales Farm

i got there early so i could go for a walk to lake pupuke (an old volcano hole)

and a big black swan nearly attacked me (but didn’t)

 

the meeting was good and the rest the day for me was busy. 

jane dropped in esther’s acceptance letter at her new school today

and this evening kezia and her friend Emma spent ages making pirate costumes for the school disco.  they even made up a little dance routine.  but the disco turned out to be a bit rubbish so they came home again!

everyone is a bit exhausted!