Author: dave

i worked from home after last night’s late editing.  esther was also at home reading books and the entire internet.

jane had another teacher only day which sounded good

esther cooked dinner for her and jane

kezia spent the day in takapuna with a friend then went to her church youth group

and i had camera club this evening which was about phone photography

i was also contacted in the day to see whether i wanted to do some photoing at a music concert this coming weekend – photoing cans of cider rather than musicians!  but it’s a paid job so i’ve put in a quote (based on a conversation with a friend who does that kind of work a lot) and we’ll see what happens!

the only picture i took today was of a dead baby pukeko on our front garden which i won’t share with you.

work still hasnt got busy yet after the summer holidays as people are not yet completely back at work (i suspect that’ll change next week when kids are back at school)

that meant i could go and have lunch with an ex-colleauge in aotea square and watch a couple of bands who were performing.

i knew quite a lot of the crowd from various musical things i’ve done which was a bit funny seeing that world during my working day.  this evening i popped home, got changed and then went out to photo PJ Harvey which was excellent (a few pictures below). i arrived half an hour early and saw a nice cloud formation, so popped across the road with my camera to catch it emerging behind one tree hill

jane had school (teachers only week) and a hair cut.  i think esther and kezia did things too – sorry, forgot to ask

not forgotten – late night.  will update tomorrow!

jane had school which was just for teachers

esther went in to town with a chum to celebrate their favourite korean pancake place opening up after the christmas break.  it was so good they went there twice

kezia went to takapuna with a friend which i think involved the supermarket, mini-golf and the beach

i had work

esther is out at a party tonight

wild storms last night.  no damage here but lots of people had power cuts and trees fall down in auckland

i had a web meeting at 8am with some international concert photographers which was fun then family skypes then church this morning

then this afternoon kezia and i went to the zoo.  this is her last few days of being able to get in as a child

we got to see our favourite rat running around the capybara cage

meanwhile jane and esther went to the cinema to see Lion in goldclass

the ostriches were ‘off display’ according to the signs at the door, but kezia and i found them hidden away, and they seemed quite pleased to see us!

and the flamingo nests are getting higher and higher

jane and i went out for a coffee in auckland as esther was going in to town with a friend anyway so we dropped them off.  unfortunately the latin dancing festival i was expecting wasn’t starting for another couple of hours so we walked up through Myers Park to K-Road where i do many of my band photoings.

on the way back we bumped in an anti-trump protest where a couple of thousand women (and some mens) were expressing their concern about President Trump’s attitude to females.  It’s a global thing so New Zealand had the first protest so it got a bit of media attention

this afternoon jane had her book club so i went to Kumeu Hot Rod show which is a sort of car junk festival.  lots of funny things to photos, including a jimmy hendrix band.

kezia spent all day watching some legal drama

at one point a car was going to be dropped from a crane on to the ground.  that’s a very kiwi thing to do.  just as they were about to launch it a big gust of wind came along so in a rare display of health and safety they cancelled the drop so it didn’t end up in the car park)

here’s a motorised picnic table

i’m not sure what everyone did today.  probably met with friends and did domestic things.  jane did lots of school prepaations.

jane found out janine’s best childhood friend from her South African days has moved to within 10 minutes walk of our old house in the UK (in Twyford) and she’s going to visit them for a couple of days in June.  small world.

as it was friday i went for a bit of a longer walk to work this morning

work, rain storm (but not hurricane force like they had in Wellington/south island) and i dodged rain drops (not very successfully) to meet with buzz at lunch

jane did millions of shoppings/sortings with the girls

kezia got her new viola bow and chin rest and rosin for her new viola

then she went to a trampoline place with the church youth followed by a meal

jane did tell me what esther did but i forgot

work for me

skyping and friend meeting for jane

esther went out with her friends and kezia had a friend come round

both girls got their exam results yesterday and did really well!

(sorry no pictures today – too tired!)

ps turns out esther went to karaoke with four of her friends, who between them represented 4 different countries

sorry if you had to log in again today.  just updated the server to make it a bit more secure