i put these up on the main funkypancake blog too, but thought you might be interested here in case you don’t read that drivel. the picture above shows mars with the moon. i think you see it above the moon in the UK ? anyway, it was below the moon here.
and the moon is upsway down for sure.
we woke to glorious weather today so headed to our favourite boogie boarding beach – tawharanui. it’s about an hour’s drive away, the last 10 minutes is down an unmade windy road. windy as well as windy. just so you know
jane was first to go in with the girls. all three are in the wave above, kezia is attempting to go through it, esther is already on it, and jane’s about to launch (esther likes to jump early so she can slide down in the crashing wave)
however, jane’s method gives here a nice initial boost, as can be seen from her hair and facial expression. Kezia’s through the wave approach had its drawbacks, but esther maintained her poise.
a seconds later esther and kezia reached the wave end
i had a go with the girls after lunch then jane had another go.
the person adult who remained got to sit up here and watch the world go by
a nice place to sit, shaded by trees and with the paper to read and people to watch
meanwhile back in the water proper surfers were able to do their stuff close to shore as the waves were so big
it was quite amazing to see the size and power of the waves
but also not to have to worry about being swept out to sea as there’s no rips in this beach
sadly there weren’t any dolphins this time
but the tide was out so we could walk round to a spit of rock which had really deep and warm rock pools that people were lying in.
there’s three parts to the beach and all three have great surf. the ones round the other side to us looked much more professional
here’s kezia acting as my guide to the rock pools
here’s the beach
and here’s me having been squirted with sun cream
finally, here are two of the surfing chicks i got to hang out with today
after all that hotness, we had ice creams from the best ice cream shop on the planet (if you visit us we’ll take you there – promise) and then went to local ski centre (which has real snow) to find out about kezia’s birthday present, which looks like being a 2 hours ski lesson for all the family. her choice !
it’s hot and sticky here but not unbearably so. in fact it was a little cool in the shade as it was so windy.
see ya
dave
the girls went over to Mission Bay again today to hire a trandem, but the shop wasn’t there so they couldn’t. instead they had big fun playing crazy golf by all accounts at a place called Lilliput, which as mini golf puns is comedy gold.
after that they came in to town and we all went to a place called Joy Bong. With a name like that, on the street where my office is, you may be worried about its credentials. But it’s actually a Thai restaurant. All ate and enjoyed. success.
after that jane gave me a lift home as there’s an office move on this weekend and my desk was being disconnected so working from home for a couple of hours was a better proposition.
this evening it was beans on toast on the deck (we’re living the dream people), then some bass practice for me. then jane and i sat down to watch Sweeney Todd. we’re thinking we might watch a lot more films here what with the telly being so rubbs and everything.
anyway, hoorah for the weekend as i’ve now got 4 days off work. hopefully anyway as a project i’m working on has just gone bad not my fault, but stuff needs to happen quite quickly, so bad timing to take some days off. anyway.
hope all is good wherever you are. we’ve been enjoying correspondence from blighty recently so thanks to those who’ve emailed. don’t forget we can’t see what’s happening with you down this blog – it’s rather one way ! Skyping and emails are always welcome 🙂
(today’s pictures are of a cabbage tree i think, and something we saw blowing down the beach at long bay last week)
see ya
dave
what a great apology there from the national new zealand newspaper !
we had a fire drill yesterday at work. except i think it might have been a proper fire which set off the alarms. but we all survived and no one saw or smelt any smoke so that’s all good.
here’s a few more paper cuttings for you. i love the unreserved comments by the Chief Exec about Mr Meier. you wouldn’t get away with that in the UK
and this next article shows how the UK is viewed from around the world – as a nation of lardy wobblers.
and in other news, i went to a band practice to night as an observer to see how it works and what songs they do. you know, that kind of thing. but the real bass player didn’t turn up so i’m now playing on sunday which is a bit frightening as they are all really professional musicians (the lead guitarist plays a vintage 1968 fender telecaster).
tomorrow is friday then we’ve got a long weekend as it’s Auckland’s holiday day on monday and i’m taking the tuesday off work as it’s the girl’s last day of their summer holidays.
i’ve got loads of mosquito bites in case you are interested. byeee
jane burnt her hand on the mower today. apparently it sizzled. seems ok now though but needed soaking in ice and coldness for an hour.
in other news they went to the hairdressers and esther’s at a sleep over with a couple of classmates (both sets of parents are part of the church gang we went with to the beach on new years)
and this evening we had the inaugural meeting of the Albany Life Group (home group/cell group type thing) which was a very kiwi laid back affair and involved eating cake/biscuits/cheese whilst talking about how often we’ll meet, what we’ll study etc.
We sat outside and got eaten by mozzies which was handy as it meant people left by 9pm ! Our first proper session will be next Wednesday
The picture above is from a recent trip to the beach where a rainbow seemed to be illuminating a bench.
jane and the girls went to the botanical gardens today with ‘the gang’. they had a great time.
the weather forecast had promised thunder and rain for the last two days but instead we’ve had two really hot sunny days. which has been lovely
so we decided to head to the beach after work for a float and a picnic. it ended up being quite cold when we got there due to the wind so i didn’t go in.
and then we all shivered eating our picnic in our beach chairs watching this giant cruise ship go by in front of Rangitoto
meanwhile i had a nice day at work building Powerpoint slides
and i saw a couple of abandoned christmas trees on the way to the bus this evening reminding us that the girls are reaching the end of their christmas/summer holidays
only a week to go for them now.
Dave got a different bus home today, which took him the wrong way, so he had to walk back to the park and ride to retrieve his car. He saw this on the way back.
Today the girls and I went to one of Kezia’s friends for the morning and then we had another friend – Maisie, here this afternoon. I have tidied my desk a bit.
Well, it’s been a day of racing.
first up jane did a 10k run round our neighbourhood in a race thing whilst the girls and i went to church
the timing of the race and service meant we could be at the finish line to see jane arrive, and we even passed her earlier on in the race as we drove back from church.
she did great ! And Esther is an absolute star at encouraging runners: we sat for 20 minutes or so in the drizzle clapping and shouting encouraging things to runners, walkers and cyclists as they came over the line
they even gave free toast to spectators
jane went back home to get changed whilst the girls and i wandered over to the local remote control racing course. it’s a concrete, permanent feature and is fab. makes you want to run out and buy a remote control car !
anyway, because we stayed a little too long there we didn’t get to the church picnic which was happening at a local beach until about 12.45. it was due to start at 12 but was ‘weather dependent’.
now, being british, we all know a picnic NEVER gets called off. it just relocated in to the car, so we assumed it would still be on despite a few drops of drizzle.
when we got there we were the only people there, but that was fine as it turned out the lady who had organised it was also interested in being sporty in races and things, so jane and her agreed to do some triathlons and go out cycling !
since we didn’t have a picnic and no one else was there, we decided to do the walk to Takapuna and the cafe where jane and i had breakfast yesterday.
it’s better to do the walk at low tide so you don’t have to scramble on the rocks. but it was high tide and the girls insisted on doing the walk bare foot. it was great !
at Takapuna we bought ice-creams and sat on the beach. whilst we sat there we were offered free iced tea by a passing ice-tea promoter and received water, hair bands, some posh sunglasses and various vouchers from a local radio station presenter who was also doing some promotion. (in fact i think i saw her giving a traffic warden some t-shirts so she didn’t get a ticket !)
we passed some incredibly posh houses which were always good for a mooch. this house even had it’s own lift to get up the beach cliff !
here are some gratuitous pictures of the girls wearing the free sunglasses !
jane’s suggested i don’t tell you what’s happening tomorrow otherwise we end up telling you twice. so i won’t. it’s more exciting that way. and in a way reflects my own life as i never have a clue what’s happening next ! See ya
the day started off rather similarly to how the evening before ended – with jane and i in a restaurant being rather full of food. this time jane and i went to Takapuna to have our breakfast in a rather posh cafe near the beach.
it seemed most of north Auckland’s posh set were out and we had great fun people watching.
afterwards we went for a short walk down the beach which overlooks Rangitoto. there was a lady doing that comedy standing up on your surfboard paddling along thing
and there was some kind of youth group doing their maiden voyage of some home made canoe type thing which was also fun to watch
The we rushed back in time for the girls to come back. Somewhere along the line our first Trademe sale was made – the flymo that we bought a few months ago proved to be too feeble for kiwi grass so we put it on the kiwi equivalent of ebay and nearly managed to get as much back as we had spent on it originally which was a bit of a result. the chap came round and collected it this afternoon.
our friends the Dunnings were attending a football match at the local stadium as one of their daughters was being a ball girl. they popped by for coffee in the afternoon before the match and took kezia with them.
Then Abbie and Darren arrived. i used to work with Abbie in the UK and she was one of the key people in getting me the job at Telecom. The three of us then wandered over to the stadium to collect Kezia, and ended up watching a very good match of ladies football for half an hour. Abbie knows Buzz through work as they do similar jobs (corporate responsibility stuff) so they had a good chin wag before heading back home via the local play park.
Kezia showed a short cut to Darren. Then we had dinner with Abbie and Darren before sitting out on the deck as the sun went down (and the mozzies came out)
so a nice day with a good mix of spontaneous and planned, fun and housework.
tomorrow jane is doing her first kiwi run meaning she’ll miss church. although the plan is that the girls and i should be able to get to the stadium in time for her to finish (a good incentive on her to be slow). then there’s a church picnic on the beach weather permitting.
(the picture above is from the cling-film warning that the end of the roll is approaching)
woohoo, jane and i got to go out for a meal together this evening as the girls are staying in a house across the road with friends
so we went for a stomp round the coast at our nearest beach (long bay)
to build up our appetite
i was very excited
then calmed down a bit
i had a dinner which looked a bit like an owl. made me think of eggs and gammon. but it was pork and bacon
jane looked as lovely as ever (edwin and deirdre quote for those that are familiar with their works)
then i had blueberry cheesecake
then a hot chocolate
i also went out with some work colleagues at lunch. there was a muffin on the counter, so i asked what flavour it was. “bacon” was the reply. apparently that’s quite common. always best to ask before you buy a muffin it seems
(the one above was blueberry)
the girls had various friends round to stay today.
tomorrow jane and i are going for another walk in the morning before the kuds come back, then we’ve got friends round in the evening who haven’t been to our house yet so that’s very exciting !
toodle pipkins