Category: Uncategorized

one of the interesting things about going to Constipation Station in the morning is that i’ve got a wider choice of buses.  And seeing as i’ve got two separate bus cards pre-loaded with cash for the different bus companies i’ve been experimenting by getting on the first bus i see which goes straight in to auckland.  i’ve ended up all over the place within 10 minutes walk of the office before i’ve gotten worried i’ll end up by the airport somewhere.  today i walked past sky tower looking like it was park of a carpark.

and when i got to work there were 4 people arriving in the quay on their paddle boards.  nice morning for it

the girls are busy with life.  esther walked her new route to school today.  she really enjoyed walking slowly up the hill then looked at her watch and had to run the rest of the way to her friend amy’s house so she got there on time!

kezia walked from jane’s school but is excited to be driven all the way to school tomorrow

jane’s out this evening at crafty chicks. 

esther has been asked to do a speech at the school open night.  that’s a big deal as there will be hundreds(?) of parents and primary school kids looking at the school to see if that’s where they want to go.  so that’s exciting.

kezia had her violin and piano lessons.  she likes the days when they are on because she doesn’t have to practice.

jane is really busy at school still now she’s doing an almost full timetable.  only another week though (i think) and she’ll be back to normal.

i had my annual review at work which went ok.  i need to be a bit more assertive  apparently.  i’ve been practising that over the last few months on estate agents the world over …

busy day for all today i think

i saw a hairbrush on a park bench

and kezia got a certificate for completing 7 tricky challenges last term.  inspired by her success she’s already started work on this term’s and is hoping to have two done by the end of next week.

it was my birthday today.  jane hid my birthday cookie cake in the microwave with hilarious effect!

i had lunch with buzz who was in good form.  we had korean and he was given what seemed like a mantlepiece to eat it off

the girls had a good day at school though kezia especially was tired this evening

this evening we skyped jane’s parents

and i got a parcel i ordered a month ago from 7dayshop which was sent to our UK house then forwarded on to our old house then forwarded to our new house.  The only bit of the original label you could read said ‘do not forward’ !

jane had an ok day at school.  usual mix of frustrating kids i think.

thanks for all your cards etc!

today was a sad day for all as all the ladies in the house prepare for the start of Term 3 after their 2 week break (or 3 weeks for jane).  both girls have said they are looking forward to going back to school!

i was on sound at church this morning which meant getting there for 7am.  we’re moving to a single service at 10am in the big sports hall, so i’m hoping that might mean an 8am start in future , but it might not quite work like that as there’s probably going to be more work needed to set up the bigger venue each week.  we’ll see.  i’m only on once a month so that’s not too bad.

kezia’s friend emma came to church after her sleepover and went home whilst i was at the second service.    This afternoon we went for a walk to Kauri Point.

then this afternoon it’s been various chores and more sorting and me being generally tired and ratty despite not being impacted by the new term

esther did a test walk of her new route to school this afternoon with jane to work out the best places to cross the road

and when we were tidying the garage we met our next door neighbours, and their mum.  they have three girls and the eldest is just a bit younger than kezia.  they mentioned the name of a girl who lives the next house up from them who goes to kezia school and asked if she knew her.  turns out kezia is in the same class as her and was in the same class as esther last year (because she is in the other half of the split class that esther was in last year and kezia is this year).  i’ve not explained that very well but you get the story.  anyway, kezia’s school friend bikes from here, but i think kezia will get a lift with jane as it’s a bit too far

kezia has a box.  here it is.  she also has a new watch thanks to brother edd.

jane went off for a run early and after breakfast we headed over to our old rented house to get the padlock from the back gate, read the meters and check everything was in order before we handed the key back.  it was just /so/ cold in there and there were some quite bad mould patches in the corners of rooms.   so we’re glad to have moved on.  it’ll be nice not to be paying for it from tomorrow.

we had planned to go to for a walk on the beach in mairangi bay after we handed the keys back, but it was chucking it down with rain, so kezia and i had a look round a charity shop instead.  the one there is an absolutely classic.  jammed so packed with junk you can’t actually see anything as you are too close, and there are big boxes to lift down if you want ‘undies’ ‘bras’ or ‘swimwear’.  my favourite items in any second hand shop

this afternoon esther’s friend sunny came round and so did kezia’s friend emma.  sunny went home at tea time but emma is staying over.  i was in charge because jane went out to a church evening which was a wedding fashion night and was jolly good apparently.

i spent the day excavating paperwork, chasing share options, collating doctor’s receipts (for partial reclaiming), scanning house documents, sorting address changes for car insurance, filling in insurance forms for the table mending etc.  what a pavlova.

it finally dawned on kezia this afternoon we don’t have any television channels to watch anymore since taking the sky box back as we don’t have a standard TV aerial on the roof.  so she played on my ipad instead.

it’s been a long time coming, but here, finally tour of our new house . kezia is your tour guide.

It’s in MP4 format and is a bit hefty so may take a while to download.  Use something like VLC to play it if it doesn’t automatically start

i was on parenting duty today as i had a day off work to keep an eye on the girls as jane was back at work.  the day started with a skype house tour for mum and brother edd.  then we headed off to do various things including taking our Sky box back so we now have no live TV in the house anymore.

the picture above shows esther, my mum, kezia (reflection) me (thumbnail view taking the picture) and brother edd’s head (behind my mum)

the library, a DIY shop, various mending shops, banks, book shops, mobile phone shops and a music shop filled the morning and then we headed back home for the afternoon

i found two letters from Sky in the postbox – one from Sky NZ and one from Sky UK.  The NZ one had our monthly bill so is now irrelevant.  The Sky UK one was informing me of a deadline to do with receiving a few shares left over from when i worked there.  Only the letter was badly addressed so had arrived 12 hours after the deadline.  I’ve written a pleading letter so we’ll see how that goes.

The address they used didn’t have the words New Zealand on it, and has the wrong postal town and postcode.  So it was quite amazing it even made it out of the UK and found our old NZ house (and then got post-forwarded to our new one).

this evening i went to the doctor’s as they won’t let me have my repeat hayfever prescription without paying a $60 visit to the doctors each year, then the girls swimming lessons, then pizza (tasting crispy and great from the new oven) then a family game of pictionary.  this evening has been more UK house admin stuff.

here are some ducks which seem to enjoy sitting outside our front door.  let’s hope they stay away from the pool …

jane had a teacher only day at school today so i worked from home to make sure the girls went to their various chums for the day.  kezia spent the day with her friend Emma and Esther was with Amy and various other friends throughout the day.

i managed to get plenty done, and when taking a break i managed to remove some water from the pool (without overdoing it) by switching the pump on and off at the right time!  And because the house was empty i sat out in the kitchen area so i could enjoy the view whilst working.

jane went to a church band practice this evening as you have to go to a couple before you can go properly on the rota.

i’ve got the day off work tomorrow as jane has another  teacher only day.  the girls and i have been given a big list of chores to complete during the day

it was jane’s last day of holiday today.  she met debbie for coffe and fleur and alex came round during the day at separate times for viewings. and some people came to collect lots of packing materials so our garage has more space.

we’re planning on cancelling our sky subscription as kezia is the only one who watches TV, so jane and esther were busy watching recordings of junior australian masterchef ( i think ) before we take the box away.

meanwhile i was in the garage building these shelves.  i did a really good job constructing them, or so i thought until i put the wooden shelves in place and they dropped straight through to the floor! I’d some how managed to build it inside out.

there were drinks after work in a freezing outside bar (with a plastic roof).  and it’s rained a lot so i think we’ll have to empty the pool a bit tomorrow.