Author: dave

we didn’t get up too early on Christmas day as we didn’t get back until after 1am. the day started with presents then Debbie and Courtney arrived for posh christmas breakfast

when they had left we opened family presents. after some napping jane and esther went for a wet weather stomp with pearl and saw people having their christmas days in their house garages (kiwi Christmases are usually out doors activities and it’s very wet).

one comedy moment came when we gave pearl her christmas duck. she loved it and ran around the house, then started crying a little to be let outside. intrigued, we let her out and watched as she walked meaningfully round to a spot in the garden and promptly buried it in the muddy ground. it hasn’t yet reappeared so she’s obviously saving it for later.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

This evening we’re out for an Xmas buffet

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

and here’s the buffet

• 

• 

• 

• 

LOTS of rain so not much happened other than domestic pottering.

In the afternoon Kezia and i went to the wholesalers to get some xmas snacks. we accidentally bought lots of maltesers.

Jane picked up Esther from town as she came back from Matt’s house then we all went to a rather random church service at our church, which i took some pictures of (see below)

After that we had some dinner then watched a Christmas film before heading in to Auckland through a thickest of rain to go the catherdral of midnight mass. It was good, though quite long, with lots of incense and chanting. just what we needed to accompany the wet!

It was so wet when we drove there that it looked like all the city lights were off as we couldn’t see anything through the thick rain!

here’s the photos of our church service:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

church this morning then a fairly quiet day of domesticing due to the rain (wet but warm). It’s going to rain for a week now which is a bit of a festive shame.

This afternoon the three of us went out in the drizzle to play frisbee golf. kezia got hers stuck in the tree at one point but we got it down eventually.

jane and i watched a weird arty film this evening, otherwise, not much to report!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

nice to sleep in on the first day of the holidays !

in fact kezia was up earliest as she spent the day at the shopping mall with a friend. she then popped back for a while before she went out to a party this evening

jane took pearl out for a walk then jane and i went to hobbonsville to have a wander round the boardwalk. we were going to walk further, but i’m still feeling quite tired from the flu.

after the walk we went to Mitre10 to buy a couple of chairs so we can sit and have breakfast just outside the kitchen which will be great for the summer. Jane then did some great work in the garden and hung some outside lights. i even did some soldering of some broken lights (which actually worked!)

The pohutakawa trees were incredibly red (they all seem to be this year).

And i did some re-edits of last night’s concert (see here: https://www.davesimpson.org/twenty-one-pilots/ )

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

esther and matt went to the art gallery then got the intercity bus to his house. she’ll be back on xmas eve

kezia and jane had fun at home i think

i went to work which was the crazy busy considering it was the last day of the year. the office is now shutdown until 14th January which is nice.

in the evening i went out and photoed Twenty One Pilots which was a chaotic 10 minutes of fire, smoke, darkness and noise!

i don’t think i did a great job, but you can see the photos here if you like: https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/search/2/image?events=775271845&family=editorial&photographer=dave%20simpson&sort=best#license

so i finally made it in to the office on Thursday much to the delight/horror of my colleagues. it was good i was there though as lots of stuff needs to be done by the end of the year and some of it can only be done in person

esther had work during the day and in the evening kezia, esther and matt all went in to town to enjoy the late night shopping spectacle.

i’d checked out a few of the musicians on the way to the bus in the evening (pictures below)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

i had after my night in the car i decided i was too tired and coughy to travel in to work so stayed at home instead. but that was fine and i got lots done.

kezia was around at home all day and we popped out for a quick lunch

esther was at work then met up with Matt who is staying with us for a couple of days before she heads back to stay at his house. In the evening Matt and Esther went in to town to look at all the fancy lights on Franklin Rd

jane spent the day with a work colleague preparing stuff for next year

here’s a picture from earlier in the week when it was still sunny

i went to the doctors and got some blood tests for my croaky voice.  i also videoed in to the meeting i was meant to go down to wellington for but really could only give a thumbs up/down to points rather than join in the discussion!

kezia had a friend over and put up the christmas decorations before lazing by the pool

jane did lots of school work in preparation for next year

esther went out shopping and in the evening had a concert with her big band.

i photoed Shania Twain which was my first proper trip which went well and i even managed to get to esther’s concert before that had finished and got some photos of that too (see below)

You can watch some videos of esther’s big band here on their website i see: http://www.queencitybigband.co.nz/

unfortunately when i got home my cough was so bad i had to sleep (or at least try to) in the car so i didn’t keep the whole house awake!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

i went in to work early (got to my desk by 7am) and managed two hours work until i got sent home for being too sick!  spent the rest of the day working from home.  so much to do after the week away!

kezia went out for the day with various friends and got a bit sun burnt walking around town

esther also saw a couple of friends, using a Lime electric scooter to meet one of them when she missed a bus.

jane had a dinner with her book club friends in the evening

girls went to church and in the evening jane and kezia went to an outside carol concert.  i did nothing but mope about feeling ill and coughing and not being able to speak!  i did shave my beard off though to see if that would make me feel cooler to counteract the fever.  it did a bit.

it was a very hot summer’s day though which was nice.