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hi.  it’s been a couple of weeks since my last update.  sorry about that.  But like handing in home work late at school, it comes with an excuse.  and just like that same home work, there’s no increase in quality due to the extra time it took me to complete it.  sorry about that too.

so, since my last update i gradually reduced my pain killers for my teeth to the point where i only need a couple of paracetamols per day.  i went back to work and it’s been really busy since then. i’ve still got a headache (migraine type thing) but i’m sure that’ll go at some point

the day before i went back to work, Esther and i went to the local crematorium open day which was really interesting.

kezia had millions of choir rehearsals before her trip to Italy.  There was lots of stuff to organise before she left too including the huge pain of trying to change the pin on her prepaid money travel card.  but we got that sorted.

her other choir also got through to the final of the national singing competition so she’s got another school trip to wellington in a few months times.

esther had a couple of solo trips out in my car including one where she drove herself to work in Takapuna which was a successful trip!

the parts for my car repair finally arrived so that’s been in the garage all this week and i’ve got an even smaller courtesy car to drive round in which has made me appreciate my own car.  it was due back last friday but apparently not all the bits have arrived yet so they think it’ll be mid week instead.

jane brought forward her trip to the UK by a week and is now in the UK enjoying the sun and hanging out with her mum and dad.  she had loads of last minute sorting too as well as kezia’s sorting so last week was completely hectic.

esther has been around a bit.  we all went out together for a meal last saturday evening to a posh restaurant, and then esther stayed a couple of nights as it’s her mid year break.  she also came with us to the airport to drop off jane on wednesday and to drop off kezia on thursday morning.

on thursday night i popped in to auckland for an hour to photo some fun on K Rd which was having it’s half year’s street festival.  and on friday night i photoed a local country music legend at the tuning fork.

on saturday i went to a poultry festival with buzz and did lots of photo editing

today i had to admit defeat with looking after pearl and took her to the kennels where she usually goes. i think she’ll have a much better time than if she stayed here.

anyway, here are a load of pictures

ice storm

frosty and misty morns

kezia’s concert last monday night (followed by a long admin meeting)

waving goodbye to jane on Wednesday night

my last coffee with kezia before she left on Thursday morning

i’m feeding myself at the moment.  meat and two veg

music from Friday night

sorry it’s been a while since the last update.

i had my wisdom teeth out on Thursday so that took up brain thinking time in advance and i’ve not really been up to much since.  although my face has swollen up a bit and my mouth/face aches.  Hopefully that will get better with time.  i’m off work until Thursday so that’s a good thing.

kez has been out to various church youth things this weekend and has been having lots of choir rehearsals and concerts in readyness for their Italy trip which is just a week and a half away now.

jane has been super busy at school.

esther has had the last of exams and is on uni holidays at the moment so we’re expecting she’ll pop back to spend the night here at some points.

last saturday night i photoed a band (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) who were excellent, and then on Wednesday i photoed another band to distract myself from my operation on Thursday.

here are some pictures:

sorry for the delay in updates.  been another crazy week

monday jane went out to kezia choir concert in the evening which finished late

tuesday jane and i went out to watch esther perform at the auckland jazz club with her big band which finished late

wednesday jane and kez spent the day at the town hall watching/being in choirs then jane and i met for dinner before another late night watching choirs

thursday i managed to work from home which was good as i was quite tired.  jane and kezia were also tired but had to go to school

work/school wise it’s been busy too with a few assessments for kezia.  she got a great school report this term.

friday night kezia went to church youth and jane went out late to collect esther from work.  esther has been here all saturday, mostly studying.

saturday morning i had my street photography workshop and the 6 students seemed to enjoy themselves.  i even saw one of the musicians i’m photoing this evening wandering by.

friday was work and school. jane went to the zoo with her class and they all had a nice time.

after school kezia watched some boys playing football with some of her friends (!) then they went in to town and ate pizza.

jane and i watched some british telly.

Saturday – jane and i went over to pick up some heaters we’d leant to a scottish family who have been in new zealand for 18 months and are leaving today.

i then went in to town for lunch with my friend buzz.  then i spent the rest of the afternoon in the gallery for the last afternoon of our exhibition.  it was a ‘meet the artist’ session and i was delighted to have a quite a few people i know come and look at the pictures.  including a scary chap who is in one of my pictures!

this evening jane and i went out to some people from church’s house for our annual church meal get together thing.  there were 4 other couples there and the chat was good!

kezia stayed at home and watched netflix and cleaned the kitchen!

just school and work and things

here are a load of pictures i got off my camera from the last week or so

sorry for the slow updates.  lots on.

Kezia had lots of music rehearsals.  Jane has been busy at work where she’s been teaching mindfulness in addition to her usual stuff.

We saw Esther on Friday night after her work as she needed to pick up her new NZ passport on Saturday morning from the post office.  That was a good excuse for her and jane to walk pearl on the beach and also for esther to give us a little trombone concert as she has a performance exam at uni in the next couple of weeks.  then she has lots of exams so she’s busy studying for those.

After that we all drove in to town to drop esther off at halls.  we went via my photo exhibition for a look.

This weekend was a public holiday but it was wild wet and windy with lots of flooding round the place so we mostly stayed in.  kezia had a couple of trips out with friends.  jane and i did manage a walk at takapuna between showers though which still involved us getting a bit wet as we had to scrabble up and over various rocks to get between beaches.

Monday was holiday day and i did my business tax while jane did school work. Lots more rain.

last night kezia had a concert in takapuna with her various choirs.  It sounded quite amazing – the competition they are preparing for is next Wednesday day day so they are the peak of their powers.

Work for me including popping out for a mole map. My moles have changed loads in the last few years. It’s just what they do. Interesting.

Jane had school which has been very cold as we’ve suddenly had an antarctic snap.

Kezia had school then went in to town to watch an opera. I’m know sitting in the theatre foyer in the relative warmth waiting for it to finish.

i worked from home today and took my car to the panelbeaters for them to inspect it.  apparently it’ll now take up to a week for the insurance company to agree to the repairs and then i’ll have to wait a week for the car to be booked in.  fun times. but at least i know it’s safe to drive in the meantime (although it might leak in the rain!).

jane and kez had school.

kezia has a long music rehearsal after school.

church and then this afternoon the three of us went to watch esther play with the Auckland Youth Orchestra at the town hall.

sorry for the long gap.  here’s an update.

i was quite under the weather with my teeth thing.  wisdom extraction booked for 21st June.

Kezia also got a stinking cold and has had a couple of days off school.  she’s also been really busy with music rehearsals and performances ahead of the choir competition in a few weeks time.

Esther’s trip to europe with the auckland youth orchestra has been on and off.  i think it’s currently off. but she’s fine with that.   She played with the Auckland Philomena Orchestra (i know i spelt that wrong) on Thursday night  which jane went to and said was excellent.  great experience for her too i think.

i bumped in to esther in the street on thursday morning as she was on the way to westlake girls to supervise a music rehearsal so we had a quick catchup  then.  and then jane saw her after the APO concert.

I also saw her last night as she was working the coat check at a venue i was photoing at!

jane is having fun at school but really busy.

i’ve been stupid busy at work too with lots of writing of documents to government and meetings about stuff.  all interesting though.  but quite hard when i was feeling painful from teeth.

last night on the way to a concert i got rear ended on the motorway which was very annoying.  young girl driver who admitted she was fiddling with her radio when it happened so it’ll all be covered by her insurance.  i went to the docs this morning to get my back checked out though as i think i have a bit of whiplash.  That kind of thing is covered by a weird thing public fun for accidents though so i can get some free physiotherapy, so may as well.  shame as i’d just stopped taking pain killers for my wisdom teeth and now i’m back on them for back pain!

jane and i went to the body worlds exhibition today which was really interesting.  before that we sat in a posh cafe and watched the world go by

i’ve also been busy photoing things.  i photoed a light exhibition / festival in town and an australian music hero (boring!) and Imagine Dragons (amazing) and last night after the car crash i managed to get there just in time to photo Marlon Williams.

on, and i had my exhibition opening on Thursday night (which was why i didn’t go to the APO). so that was a bit of a logistical thing getting my photos printed and framed and in place.

i went to the auckland literary festival and saw Robert Webb with my friend buzz

here are a load of photos.  you can draw your own conclusions

robert webb

royal wedding

Gallery opening

Body Works

marlon williams

Imagine dragons

Jimmy Barnes

light festival