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hello.  jane and esther went shopping early on.

whilst kezia and i cycled over to the bike shop to get esther and her bike checked before their triathlon next week

by the time we’d got home, pooch and party were up and at ‘em, so we headed over to the west coast to go to karekare

being a west coast beach it’s got the black volcanic (and magnetic) sand

on the way to the beach we lost pooch and party

but then we found them again

we had a long walk and esther and i spotted a common gecko under a rock (it might have been a skink, but neither of us saw it’s head, though we’re pretty sure it had one)

we found a geocache in this

 

and did a bit more walking

 

then we all waded back through the river to get back to the car

then walked through to the famous karekare waterfalls

 

then it was back home for tea.  this evening jane’s mum, jane and I went to the cinema to watch the king’s speech which was jolly good.

 

and here’s a car like i had when i was growing up.  my memories of it are a) the colour b) the seats which i used to get my legs stuck on.  in fact that’s probably why i’m not a great short wearer even to this day 

plenty of boats at the viaduct today. here’s a cruise ship and a big cargo ship

and here’s another big cruise ship

i don’t really know what everyone else got up to today, though i think jane took her parents to posh takapuna for lunch

then this evening i took jane’s parents to pick up the fish and chips and headed down to long bay to meet esther and kezia after their swimming lessons for fush and chups on the beach.  (sorry, that was a dreadful sentence)

whilst we sat there we saw one of the cruise ships and the big cargo ship head off to their next destination.

Apparently Kezia swum over 1km in her swimming lesson this evening.  everyone exhausted.  bed fred

i worked from home today because the letting agents were doing their regular house check

i didn’t really need to be here, but it was a good excuse since there was an empty house

jane had a good day at work which seemed to involve no teaching and going to a cafe

 

esther had a meet the teachers session after school which jane went along to.  and kezia walked back home and got on with her homework as i finished off my day’s work

then this evening i went for a walk with warren.  we decided to do some geocaches which took us in to a nearby walk.  the map doesn’t show it’s on a big hill, but it is.

jane’s parents are now on their way back from the airport (i know because the taxi man phoned to tell me he’d retrieved them because he’d phoned me earlier to ask for a visual description as they hadn’t been able to find them)

 

here’s a map of where we walked this evening.  scribbly blobs are where i stopped for some geocaching. red blob is our house.

one of my colleagues sent me a copy of the Dominion Post from down in Wellington which published my picture last Saturday

i was pleased as they printed it nice and large !  And the commentary was good too 🙂

the latest edition of the company magazine came out today too, although the pictures i took of my colleagues weren’t as big !

(but i got paid for the pictures in the magazine, but not the newspaper)

anyway… i went out for an explore at lunch and found all these fuel tanks and got a nice view of the harbour bridge

jane had a good day at work and thinks she’s cracked the seating plan for one of her tricky classes so that’s good.  and the girls had a good day at school

this evening jane and esther went to school to look at stalls advertising various extra-curriculum sports clubs, and jane’s also been busy round the house as the letting agents are coming round tomorrow for their half regular inspection.

well, sufjan stevens last night was excellent.  kezia said she loved it.  esther thought it was noisy.  jane thought we were staying out a bit too late and was worried something inappropriate would be said or shown on the screens, but still enjoyed it.  but it was a great concert !

it was a great space rock adventure with some amazing lighting which was totally 3D thanks to a clever see through curtain which dropped in front of the stage

you can listen to one of their songs here

the girls had good days at school today, and jane had a double french lesson converted in to a tent setting up session in preparation for the school camp the kids are off to some time soon, so that was good.

after school (and work for me) we headed over to layne and lorraine’s house for our first life group meeting of the year which was a family and food evening.  that was nice.  now i’m off to bed because it’s really hot and i’m tired.  goodbye

early start this morning as i took granny and party down to get their train to wellington

 

i left them once they’d located their seat and were making themselves comfortable for the 12 hour trundle across the scenic centre of new zealand’s north island

 

they’ve got 3 nights down in wellington and we’re looking forward to hearing how they got on

 

the water was so still as i walked round to my office from the train station, making the reflections from the giant duck look amazing

 

the local wildlife is still quite confused

 

we’re now all heading off to a concert which is meant to finish at 11pm.  not sure if we’ll make it that long.  kezia seems very excited which is exhausting for everyone before we’ve even started !  We don’t know much about Sufjan Stevens so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes !

 

here’s the rest of the photos jane took when she was down in rotorua with the girls and her parents. 

looks like lots of tobogganing fun and lake swimming was done.  and they got some nice weather once i’d left too !

 

 

 

 

 

 

this morning started off with all the ladies and me going to church for the morning service

then kezia went to a ‘p’ party.  p is the name of  a drug with a very bad reputation in new zealand, but it wasn’t that kind of party (at least i don’t think it was)

whilst kezia was at her party, the rest of us went to the country market in coatesville and looked at badges

 

and home made fruit

and ate kebabs under a tree

then we came home and a cicada landed on esther.  so she stroked it a bit and it became her friends for a short while

then we drove up to orewa for some cycling, walking and ice-creams

here’s an oyster catcher with a shell of some sort.  possibly even an oyster

 

then this evening we had a barby and P&P are preparing for their 4 day jaunt to wellington which begins with a 12 hour scenic train trip tomorrow morning

here’s some cicada fun in video form

it was kezia’s 9th birthday and she got cards and wishes of wellness form all around the world in both paper and electronic form

 

she spent a happy while opening paper presents and cards

then we hit the mall to buy her a birthday watch and some art materials.  kezia went for a digital watch so that’s interesting.

we had morning tea in a cafe with some unnecessary cakeage

then we came home and kezia got straight on using her birthday art materials from granny and party in the garden

then we went bowling

 

then it was raclette for tea

and a coffee birthday cake

and finally, here’s my old favourite beer in the local paper

and it’s really hot here and gonna get hotter tomorrow.

hello.  how are you ?  good.

 

i got the 6.15am bus this morning to get in to work early as i was leaving the office early today for a medical appointment

i had myself mole-mapped which is a big thing here thanks to the vicious sun.  people have annual photos taken of their moles and each year they compare the results and check all is well.  all seemed ok with me, but i’ll get the proper results from independent experts in a fortnight’s time.

pooch and party spent the day in the shops of browns bay.  jane meanwhile had a rather tricky year 10 class and then had lunch with her job share chum Alex.

the highlight of the day has been a trip to the zoo this evening to watch the auckland philharmonia orchestra play in the bandstand

we took a picnic and chairs

any enjoyed the atmosphere

jane’s dad said it was one of the most enjoyable classical concerts he’d ever been to.  jane’s mum had some quality concerns, but also enjoyed it i think !

then it got dark, the concert ended and we all went home

here’s kezia listening to the music.  click on one of the files below which may work (they are both the same, just different formats)