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esther was in two concerts this evening.  i went to the one that started at 3.30pm where esther’s concert band was playing.  this was the finale of the KBB music festival which has been going on all week

The concert band won the competition.  And the westlake chamber orchestra (which esther isn’t in) came joint first.  not bad.

i was at the panelbeater’s for 9am which is the time they said it would open. but it didn’t.  so after 45 minutes i went to church instead.  i went along after church but it was still closed.  shame.

esther’s concert was excellent but ran on so long that she only had 10 minutes before she needed to be back for the next concert so we whizzed round to subway for a sandwich and back

meanwhile kezia was at a swimming competition where she won one race and got personal bests in all her races so that was good.

and here’s a hard disk drive i tried to destroy, but it shattered and fired teeny bits of sharp metal all over the kitchen.  not good.

kezia had swimming early

jane had a haircut

we had a new washing machine delivered.  the chaps who delivered it made a mess in our hallway but didn’t have anything to clean it up so they just said “sorry about your floor dude“ and left.

this afternoon there was lots of homework doings

and then we went for a chilly walk on takapuna beach

this evening it’s been supermarket shopping and fish and chips

there’s a big moon

and i scrapped my car in my neighbours post box which made a big mess on my car and needs fixing.  oh dear.

Telecom changed its name to Spark today.  And did this lovely thing

there was a nice party atmosphere all day

esther had more of the music competition.  her big band got through to the final as well as the concert band so she’s in both finale concerts on Sunday

 

 

 

(this is one of my favourite pictures – esther blowing her trombone.  the boy in front despairing and the boy to the far left also despairing)

she also chosen to be in a special concert band made up of top musicians from the different schools

they had a two and a half hour rehearsal then a short concert this evening

this morning i walked the long way to work as jane mentioned i hadn’t done much exercise

school, work etc.  i got a very long straight banana from the dairy which was a bit weird

kezia had a swimming meet this evening

and esther had another music competition

school, work, violin lesson, photo club mini-group meet up.

party on the bus this morning as i was joined by esther and mike my photo chum.  esther was at school early for an orchestra rehearsal

work and school for all

esther’s orchestra (which is the not the top orchestra) was competing in a competition this afternoon.  they were competing against lots of auckland school orchestras, including the amazing one from her school which went on the tour and won the gold medal in the international competition.

esther said she did lots of moving to the music so it looked like she was enjoying it and also make her play better, which it did.

only down side for someone (quite literally) was when someone of her orchestra fell off the stage and hurt themselves so badly they had to lie there surrounded by worried teachers while the orchestra played!  i think she was alright, but they had to call the medics

i spotted esther at her school bus stop as i came home so we coordinated ourselves and i took her to violin and back home again

kezia had swimming. jane had a good day at school

and i went and sat by the beach while esther was at her lesson.  bit chilly and windy.  but it is winter.

school for all and work for me

i had a little photo assignment at lunchtime which i don’t think i did particularly well at.  here’s a rough example above.  thankfully they’ve got someone else doing the photoshopping so they mightbe able to save the day.  oops.

this evening kezia had swimming which included shaking hands with Commonwealth Games gold and silver swimmer-winner lauren boyle (see here)

as i walked in to church this morning the sound person asked if i could stand in for them as they had to take their daughter to the doctor.   it went ok though and i wondered if i should un-hand my notice in!

kezia and i were meant to be helping prepare the reserve near our house for the planting in a fortnights’ time, but (thankfully) it was chucking it down with rain so it got cancelled.  it’ll probably be on next week instead, so we’ve not completely avoided it.

the rest of the day was spent trying to mend the washing machine.  i found a service manual for repairers which said it was either one thing (easy to mend) or another (expensive as a new one to mend).    turned out to be the expensive option.

jane was up early to take our washing to the launderette which was a brilliant experience apparently.

this afternoon esther had a music workshop and jane bought a new washing machine

esther and jane went out for a pearl walk this afternoon and kezia slept for hours after lunch before waking up and doing her homework

Jane was at school today for a teacher day.

Kezia had her early morning swimming then she and me went to a cafe.

Kez then slept for four hours while I mended some of our home computer wiring with a thing I bought cheaply off the Internet.

This afternoon esther had an orchestra concert at an old people’s home and kez and i went browsing round the local retail Park.

This evening jane and me are at a quiz night which is going on very late.   Hence me writing this from my phone last while there.

my birthday today.  that was nice

i took my car to the garage to see if they could find out what the strange noise i’ve been hearing intermittently was.  they found it and replaced the bare brake pads and all is well

while they were mending i did some work in Albany Library and also looked at some new cars.  but now mine is mended we’ll not bother with a replacement

this evening i dropped off kezia at swimming then went in to town to take some photos

i had three hours of solo wandering, watching the strange fog over auckland CBD (giving the weird blue effect over the boats thanks to the tungsten lighting of the foreground)

then i drove back and picked up esther and her friend from a Chinese evening / concert at school

jane had a busy day with school and her german friend and preparing this evening for a full day of teacher training tomorrow