church this morning was a rather different affair with us all together in the sports stadium and then people working their round the various different ‘stations’ (or activities) around the room
the girls sang a song with some of their chums to the backing of the band which was jolly good
here’s the rehearsal. the score board in the background wasn’t used to see which of the sides was the best
then after church there was tidying away all the stuff we helped put up the day before
then we whizzed home to change our sweaty clothes and then went out for lunch to our lovely friends Gareth and Amanda’s house for lunch
we sat in their garden in the scorching sun, but had to leave eventually to take esther to her last flippa ball games.
and esther’s team won 9-1 ! It was their last match of the season, and also as a team as a few of the players (including Esther) move up to senior school next year.
And best of all they won against the local private school, Kristin (where jane teaches). And even funnier is that the Kristin coach is the sun of one of friend’s who are also the people who rented this house before we did !
anyway, as soon as the swimming was over we whizzed in to auckland and parked up by my office. we then walked along the waterfront to the arena in town
we had seat really high up, but that was ok as we got to enjoy the view
as this was a ‘glow stick’ carol service where all the various thousand people each had glow sticks
so everyone waved their glow sticks with the lights off for the whole concert/service
it really was quite a remarkable sight, which you can’t really visualise from the pictures. but i have a video i’ll post once it’s uploaded
the girls did some really funky dances in the dark to the various christmas songs which were sung by some local celebrities (or at least i think they were)
here’s kezia looking spooky
then dave dobbyn was a surprise guest. he’s a modern kiwi icon and a christian
he sang ‘welcome home’ which is a christian song and/or a proud kiwi song (or both). you can watch here if you like mellow songs (or even if you don’t)
we sort of went with ‘the gang’ though we arrived and parked somewhere else as we’d travelled directly from the flippa ball
and then on the way back to the car we drove to look at the christmas lights in franklin road which is famous for its lights. and we also had ice-creams.
and now’s it’s 10.30pm and we’re all sweltering in our boiling house. time for bed zebedeee. boing.