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Here’s a good new story:  Invisible Utility Vehicle  Trademe is the local version of ebay

as i walked home from work this swallow was zooming around me in circles which was good.  here’s an attempt at a photo as it whizzed by.  it was quite blue and purple.

by the way, this is all the rage in new zealand and you can understand why.  it’s been resurrected as it appears in the film ‘Boy’.  you must watch the video all the way through.  many of the things in the video are sites and sounds that we’ve come to love whilst being here.  in fact it neatly sums up modern life in new zealand.  (sort  of).  Click on the picture of the chap to watch it on the NZ On Screen website.

it’s jane’s dad’s birthday to him so we skyped him at jane’s sister’s house to sing happy birthday.

it’s starting to get quite chilly here now so jumpers are mandatory house wear.  and hats a recommended optional item.  i’ll tell you all about that another time.

for now, good night all

exciting today as jane drove in to town and we went out for lunch together.  hoorah

and here’s an apple i ate (before i ate it).  you’ll be pleased (amazed?) to know that i haven’t had chocolate for breakfast for nearly two weeks now.  instead i’ve been having a banana thus saving money and chocolate intake.

this evening i (briefly) went to the leaving do of the person who played a big part in getting me the job at Telecom (i used to work with her in the UK back in the day before she came back to New Zealand).  here’s a view of Sky Tower i saw on the way to the bus stop.

jane’s out at choir practice and i’ve just got back from our church life group.  good night to you all.

i went to a conference at work today about the government’s plan to roll out fibre to nearly every home in new zealand so we can all get whizzy broadband speeds.  i had a conference call from 8-9 though so i stood at the end of the wharf and watched the world go by whilst i was on the call

here’s what i saw – a very heavily loaded boat, and a luxury tramp’s takeaway dinner

the girls did some cross country running at school to see if they’d qualify for the inter school championships, but they didn’t.  kezia’s came 9th but you had to be in the top 8, and esther ran round with her friend.  

and this evening i had a conference call back to some colleagues in the UK who we might commission to do some work for us so that was a bit strange.

i’m not entirely sure what jane did today, but i think it might have involved photocopying. 

we woke up to a cold morning today.  only about 9 degrees according to the car-thermometer (how posh am i – i’ve got a Toyota thermometer i can drive to the bus station).  but as we started getting closer to the city we started to go through the fog.  there was a gorgeous sun rise over the harbour fog, but of course i was whizzing by on the bus so mist (!) it. 

here’s the view from my office window on the 10th floor.  the clouds were mostly below us giving this strange view of Sky Tower poking out the top.

here’s what it looked like under that thin layer of cloud.  weird to see plants growing these giant tendrils in the middle of town.  triffids anyone ?

jane’s had a really busy day today, which at one point involved coffee with a lady who has just moved to new zealand with her daughter.  it’s funny to think we’re already becoming old hands (well, no old hands, just not the youngest hands)

and we’ve got a bit of a cryptic letter home from school saying they’d like to get esther to do some special maths and english exams for some reason which i think is good (and she does too).  so that’s good.

here’s a big fire engine.

i was on sound at church this morning which made for the usual long morning – i left the house at 6.45am and got back about 1pm.  Still, all went well i think (if you ignore someone telling me it was too loud and the video guy telling me one of the singers sounded terrible (sound-wise). still, nothing went on fire

this afternoon we went to do some geocaches near where we went last weekend as a new one popped up at lunchtime.  we dropped esther off at a swimming pool party so it was just jane and me and kezia on a bike.  when we got to the cache we found three people from church who are also geocachers so that was good fun.

then we went back and picked esther up who had time for a quick snack before heading out to her flippa ball.  she’ll be all wrinkly by the end of the day after an afternoon in water.    here’s an open backed lorry we saw on the way.  these dogs were completely loose and the van was going at a fair speed.

tonight is pizza by the telly and some friendly skyping for the girls.  take care all.

we had friends from church over this evening and played the junior version of cranium called cadoo.  it was very good.

we did kids vs mums vs dads.  dads were rubbish and the kids nearly won, but one of the mums called a technicality on one of kezia’s answers which lead to the mums winning !

the girls had orchestra this afternoon then i took them to the mall to buy esther a new watch

meanwhile jane went to a church ladies breakfast meeting thing where one of her friends gave a talk about her life which was very moving by all accounts.

then this afternoon we went in search of some geocaches.  we found one but gave up on the second one when we had to cross a stream.  we weren’t really dressed for such scramblings and jane needed to be back to put the chicken in the oven

this fantastic little reserve was really dark because the forest was so thick.  it’s also next to new zealand’s highest security prison, so you could never be sure what or who might jump out at you !

night all.

the big news of the day is that jane got her job at the local school !  So, in a couple of months time she’ll be teaching French at the local public school working half a timetable.

to celebrate jane and i went out for a meal whilst the girls were at a school disco.  we only had an hour so ended up at the food court in the local shopping mall.  luxury ! here we are eating cheap curry.

esther was also celebrating this evening as she got a certificate from school for being excellent.  the certificates are given out in assembly but esther wasn’t there because she was doing some special reading instead which she was also pleased about.  tonight she helped out at the younger kids disco selling glow bracelets, and then went straight to the other disco

here’s today’s animal.  it’s a hedgehog running across a park near the school.  perhaps trying to get away from the noise of the school disco.  it didn’t look very well.  they certainly have more get up and go here.  although this one was looking a bit threadbare and spineless as he ran off in to the night.

that’s all.  good night.

this was the message on our work coffee machine today.

after work today we had a church prayer meeting at our house.  it was the first one they’ve done like this i think and it was on 7-8pm so a bit of a funny time.  we had no idea how many people we’d get.  it could have been as high as 50.  but it was actually 8.  which was fine and nice because we could sit on the sofas rather than hard chairs

one of the elders took his shoes off to reveal these rather strange looking socks which on first glance looked like high heel shoes !  in fact they were ‘secret socks’.  no wonder you’d want to keep them secret

now, i know you like this daily feature, so here’s the latest insect to enter our world.  this came in to our house as the prayers left.

these squares are half centimetres, which makes this quite a small ‘large centipede’.  but the do bite apparently but we only found that out once we’re thrown it out the front door (and esther accidentally dropped it on herself!)

after the prayer thing i was meant to be going for a walk with Warren but instead we went for a drive to buy our wives some coffees.  unfortunately none of the 11 or so petrol stations had any decent coffee (nor much petrol in this particular location)

so instead i came home with a couple of ice creams.

jane did things with her chums and the girls had good violin lessons.  and that’s today.  i thank you

it was very windy last night and a bit rainy so this little chap came in.  i know you like to keep up with the insect movements.  jane caught him with my supervision because she’s much braver.  i went and got the catching pot, so i’m not a complete scaredy cat (mostly)

jane had a good day doing various churchy things and meeting a new chum.  all i know about the new chum is that she’s a slow runner and has a daughter esther’s age who also plays flippa ball.

esther had her friend Sunny back to play after school and then jane went out to her choir which is mostly old people.  but it’s very good apparently.  jane was rebellious by singing whilst sitting with her legs crossed just to prove she can still be a little dangerous even at her age.

and i wore my jason donovan t-shirt at home this evening to show i can also be rebellious at my old age.  i wear it once every 10 years or so, and it’s been festering down the bottom of my t-shirt drawer (hence the crinkliness).  i’m glad it made it to new zealand though and wasn’t a victim of my t-shirt cull.

I went out to lunch with my work colleagues today to celebrate the end of our pedometer wearing competition which has been going on for the last 10 weeks.  here’s my colleague Simon demonstrating the stickiness of his sticky rice.

goodbye

here’s a moth.  i think it’s a house moth. the caterpillars of which scoff carpets and clothes.  but not people.

i missed this great bargain.  10% off for lady.

at lunch time i headed over to New Market for lunch with Buzz in a Vietnamese restaurant.  those who know of my restricted palette can be impressed now.

then this evening after work i went to the latest instalment of the 24 hours challenge at church.  Karl, the leader, had a lot of popping pencils in his top pocket.

in other news jane had her interview at a school today for a teacher job, and should hear back from them by the end of the week.  all prayers welcome (as usual)

and kezia fell over twice and grazed her legs whilst at her tennis lesson.  jane thinks Kezia has the same problem as me, which is when she hits a certain level of tiredness she turns clumsy and crashes in to things.  just as she was telling me that Kezia crashed in to a banister and knocked a big book and my car keys on to the floor.

such fun

see ya