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jane and i went to see Nick Cave this evening

i was on sound this morning at church and our neighbours came over for afternoon tea this afternoon.

some holiday preparation was done.

we were given a mini citizenship ceremony today by some of friends today which was lovely

we had them over for afternoon tea, and they sprung it on us

the afternoon tea was to show some of them how our house works as they’ll be staying here while we’re away.

jane had her hair done this morning

esther had tennis – she won her doubles, but lost her singles

esther got a certificate at the school prize giving today for being joint first in music and a badge for her european trip

i got there just in time to watch it thanks to some work meetings and rushed back to the office as soon as it had finished.   esther also got to play tambourine in the orchestra!

pohutakawas are out.

this evening esther was at her friend lauren’s birthday party and kezia was at the church youth group

so jane and i went in to town and sat by the waterfront watching the world go by

i had a ridiculously busy day today followed by the industry group drinks

after that i headed up to K-Road to go to take some pictures at a street party type thing

at 8.30 i headed down in to a bar under the street to watch one of my new favourit-ist bands play a donation gig as second support for another band.  that was great as they’d finished by 9.15 and i could be home by 9.45!

there was only 8 people there at the start – one of those was the sound man and hte other three were in the band.  it had filled up a bit more by the end though.

jane had her school christmas dinner this evening making it the treble this week

the girls had school and put themselves to bed as jane and i were both out partying.  modern parenting.

kezia did her dance performance in assembly and got a certificate.  she said she was disappointed because there was meant to be a prize and she only did it to win the prize!  i think she was joking.

it was the photo club christmas do this evening which kezia came along to

work is completely busy for me at the moment.  and jane is busy with school stuff and also thinking about our holiday

busy day at work.  school for everyone else

i went for a walk at lunch and got a few photos

jane is out this evening at a book club christmas dinner

and we got given a date for our citizenship ceremony, but it’s 3 days after we fly to the UK, so it’ll have to be rescheduled for february.  oh well!

the average time to get assessed for citizenship is 4 months.  ours came through in 6 weeks!

kezia had some tests for westlake today and was back there again at 3.30pm for a choir practice

esther had her tennis lesson

kezia won her year 8 dance competition with two of her friends so has to perform it in assembly on wednesday.

jane had school and her final french plays went well.  hoorah.

sorry, i spent the day doing holiday admin so didn’t get round to taking any new photos.  so i just took this to show you my beard instead.

the girls took pearl for an early morning walk and a cafe trip, then jane went for a run with pearl.

esther had tennis and won her match this afternoon.  and this evening esther and kezia went to a church youth movie-a-thon.

i spoke too soon about the nice weather.  lots of rain today with a bit of sunshine at lunch.

we all got letters today from the department of internal affairs saying we have been approved for citizenship.  we’ll officially become citizens once we attend a ceremony next year.

kezia found out she got in to the orchestra that esther was in last year.   that’s a really good achievement as they had so many applicants they’ve had to create a third orchestra.

and esther found out she also got in to the top orchestra with her trombone as well as her violin, but they knew she wanted to play violin in the orchestra so put her down for that!

some of jane’s classes did their french plays to the parents today and they went well

kezia went to a church youth music night.

and i saw stan walker and melanie blatt who are judges on x-factor in the street

and the sun came out at lunchtime

work, school, opticians etc

getting nice and warm here now