No pictures today dear readers. I don’t think I have written a post since we were fibre to the homed last week and the shared photo place doesn’t seem to work and Dave has gone to bed. Sorry about that.
We all went to work and school. I also did chores including mowing the lawn and grocery shopping. Life group too this eve. No big news I don’t think.
Byeee
church this morning was good. i was playing bass and jiggled about so much whilst playing i did over half of my daily 10,000 steps by the end of the service.
we then regrouped and drove 20 minutes to a sculpture park which has been set up for a few weeks
there was some really good art, including these kiwis.
this appeared to be Pongo Stonks new abode (he was a made up character who the girls made up who used to live on the verge off Lodge Road, new Church Hill in Twyford – he had his own song and everything)
then we did some geocaching on the sea bed (the tide was out)
this evening kezia had flippa ball. it was the semi final and her team won 6-3. it was a tricky game. another one of those funny ones where the other team had a deadly serious coach with a clip board and a coat. and our team is run by a couple of teenagers, and the kids are jumping in and out of the pool randomly before and after the game. but they still manage to win each week and seem to enjoy it !
this evening Biffy and Malcolm popped round which was very nice
only other news is that we had lunch outside today but it was a bit windy so all the crisps blew off my plate and down the table. luckily my sandwich was less aerodynamic and stayed put.
and there were various family skypings by and to various family members throughout the day, including a chance to catch up with my new nephew Finlay who is making some lovely gurgling baby sounds !
we were all up early for swimming and tennis this morning. i took kezia to swimming and walked to birkenhead again whilst she was in the pool to get my steps up (source of most of today’s pictures)
we then drove home and i tried to work out where the wiring in our house goes for the ethernet sockets in the upstairs rooms
i liked this fish and chip shop (‘the codfather’) and gym
esther did excellently in her tennis match, winning both her doubles and single game. she played some great shots according to jane. it’s a shame the season is ending next week
jane and i spend the rest of the day sorting boxes. i ended up with a giant pile of stuff the loft (mainly old UK power cables), a pile of electronic stuff for the next ewaste collection, a load of plastic recycling, a load of paper recycling and plenty of stuff for the usual bin.
i know at least one premium subscriber to the blog is interested in what the shelves look like. well, here’s the answer
nice aren’t they?
jane went out for cake with her chums this evening whilst i tried to get various computers and phones talking to each other with varying success
here are some excellent origamis we got in the post from the girls cousins. i wasn’t listening properly, but i think Thomas made them.
penguins (above). crabs (below) and a spooky hybrid (above the one above)
another busy day working from home for me. and esther went off to school in a very relaxed way.
for the second night running our doorbell woke me loudly at 1.10am which was a bit worrying. so again i ignored it despite it playing a horrible loud tune, although mysteriously not its normal tune which was a little spooky. anyway, this morning i realised esther had inadvertently (i think) set its alarm clock feature for 1.10am. it certainly work me up
jane and kezia got back mid afternoon with stories of adventure and fearlessness. they had such a good time they both looked exhausted and headed straight to bed.
i took esther for her swimming lesson and pounded the streets for an hour to get my pedometer up near 10K which i did.
then this evening it was a family game of rummikub
kezia got a bulls eye on the air rifles at her camp. where else in the world would you shoot proper guns at a christian camp. probably america i suspect.
esther and i were up early so we had time to fit all the usual chores in before she went to school. all worked nicely i think
i had a really busy day at work, working from home. funny mixture of hecticness going on in my email account, with an empty house around me
although ryan the electrician came round with his dad (also an electrician) this morning to put in our ethernet patch panel for the broadband, a new power outlet next to the fibre equipment and a light in the loft
whilst esther was at tennis i speed walked round the local beaches to hit my 10,000 steps which i just did. we grabbed kebabs on the way home because we only had a short time before we had to go to my music practice. with all the jiggling whilst playing i added another 3,500 steps to my total!
we finally made it home at 9.15pm which was a bit of a late night for esther, but she got to watch a music practice
meanwhile jane has been having all the fun at her camp. She’s been on the flying fox (death slide for the you brits) and dropped off a rope swing in to a freezing cold water hole (a natural pond in a stream) which doesn’t sound much fun to me. she’s going in again tomorrow apparently.
particularly hectic day today. i realised i wasn’t going to hit my 10,000 steps target today unless i walked about 8,000 steps before work, so i walked (in the rain) from britomart, up queen street, along k-road, down ponsonby, franklin road then along victoria park to work (just in case you wandered).
then followed a day of manic meetings, rushing home in the rain to pick up esther, make our tea, tidy up, empty more water out the pool (still mad rain) and had a meeting for the church sound team (in my new capacity as sound coordinator)
esther went to auckland museum today to learn about the first world war (i think), but it sounded a little disorganised (the museum trip, not the war) so wasn’t great. but she did have a look at the volcano exhibit.
the big news of course is that jane and kezia went to kezia’s school camp. i had a call from jane this evening to say all was well, although the afternoon’s activities were indoors due to the rain. she’s the only female parent help, but there are two lady teachers there too.
i’m working from home tomorrow so i can get esther off to school and back again
very rainy this morning and all last night. we keep having to empty water out of the pool to stop it flooding
jane had her morning working at church and was at Kristin this afternoon. Lessons went well i think.
both girls had violin after school. And jane and kezia finished off their packing for school camp
i made and cooked some pizzas for tea which was exciting for all involved.
and our friend john finished off the shelves in our office wardrobe and put up some coat hooks which was all jolly good.
at lunch i went for a walk and had a nice chat with the guy who drove the cleaning van who asked me why i was taking a photo of his company car.
today we got a speed boost to our broadband and now have a high speed connection. i’m not allowed to tell you much about it as it’s a secret trial, but it does seem quite quick. I only had an hour to play with it after the people went, and am still working out how to get our printers etc working. But other wise all is good
the highlight of my day was riding in a Chorus van up to the street cabinet and watching my fibre get plugged in.
jane got some more last minute supply teaching so i picked up the girls from school as it’s been bucketing it down with rain all day.
and our friend john came round to put some shelves in our cupboard too so that’s very good.
then this evening thomas and edmund came round for a meal and a geographically based game. esther won.
exhausting day today – we did the round the bays walk this morning and kezia did her orchestra conducting this afternoon.
we picked up debbie just after 7am and got the bus in to town, walking to the starting line via the volvo boats which were leaving auckland today
the walk itself was great. took us around 100 minutes i think
unfortunately the number of people meant the roads were rather jammed getting home – the 40 minute journey ended up taking nearer 2 hours, but we got back in time to eat, change and head out to kezia’s orchestrating
here are loads of pictures because we thought she was brilliant (you can watch the video at the top of the page too)
then it was back home for a bit of sorting. it’ll be an early night for everyone as we’re all exhausterated!
bit of a quiet day today punctuated by some excitement.
here’s my nephew Finlay via Skype. (aka edd-e-boi). we had a great impromptu skype with him, brother edd and jacqui and they are all in remarkable fettle given their lack of sleep and everything.
esther and kezia had some friends over this afternoon. jane went to the gym this morning and pushed herself to the limit on some cycling things. and i moped about in an irritable mood as i tried to work out some tax things)
then this evening we drove over to the other side of Auckland to drop jane’s car off so we have a vehicle at the end of our walk tomorrow.
whilst we were there we had some fish and chips in a park up a hill
which had some nice views
kezia wanted me to take this picture with her hiding in it. can you see her (bit more of a chance in the more zoomed in version)
then i had to go for a 40 minute stomp round the neighbourhood to reach my 10,000 steps. which i did.
