Blog

sorry it’s been so long since an update.  i’ve been busy and then was ill.  upshot is i need to have my wisdom teeth removed and i went to see the surgeon this afternoon to agree a plan of attack.  just need to sort the date.

it was mother’s day last weekend and we managed to arrange a surprise brunch for jane on the saturday where both the girls happened to be at the same restaurant i took jane to.  so that was good!

over the weekend, and while being ill, i managed to take some photos of local legendary musician (who i’d never heard of) Jimmy Barnes and i also photoed a light installation thing down at the waterfront on Friday night and Sunday night.  you can see some pictures here:  https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/search/photographer?family=editorial&photographer=dave%20simpson&excludenudity=true&sort=newest#license

last friday i drove down to Hamilton with a work colleague to do a ten minute presentation to Hamilton City Council on their new rating system.  i don’t normally like doing those kinds of presentation (telling lots of elected officials why what they are proposing is a bad idea and them then asking random probing questions in retaliation) but this one was ok.

i can’t remember whether i said that kezia is getting to do some solo type things.  she’s singing a solo accompanied by one of the orchestras and is playing her viola with another musician to accompany the choir!  it’s only a few weeks now until she goes to europe

esther is still having a whale of a time and has got the opportunity to go to europe with one of her orchestras but hasn’t decided yet.

jane is busy with work day and night but it’s going well i think.

so, that’s our news.

we’ve been really busy.  work/school Friday. Jane and I went out to the cinema to watch The Breakerupers (i think that’s what it was called).  was ok, but not the best new zealand film we’ve ever seen.  but was fun spotting all the local locations as it was shot in auckland.

Saturday jane and i went to a church day for married peoples which was good

in the evening i photoed three bands until late/early

on Sunday i played bass at church then spent the rest of the day editing photos

jane and kezia did lots of school work

today has been back at school/work for all.

busy week for me, apologies for delay updating.

kezia was back at school on monday

jane went back yesterday for three teacher only days

i photoed a band on tuesday night

otherwise various musical and domesty things

i went to the opticians on monday to talk about my crazy glasses and i have to give them two more weeks of trying.  but they are happy to change them if i’m still finding them too tricky by then

i’m now off to a surprise band practice as this week’s bass player can’t make it

sorry for the late update.  here’s some things:

jane and kezia had a mummy daughter night in the Cordis hotel in Auckland on Thursday in to Friday. They spent Thursday and Friday having fun, cinema, eating lots, clothes shopping etc

meanwhile i had work.

Friday night jane got back in to school preparation stuff so i went out photoing.  i shot three bands in two venues with a bit of a rush between the two venues as the second band overlapped with the first. but i managed fine.

Saturday day was editing photos and doing admin for everyone.

on Saturday evening kezia had a party so we dropped her off there about 6.  another big storm was due to blow through so we offered to pick up esther from work in takapuna and drive her back to halls.

the way it should have worked was we picked up esther at 10, dropped her off at halls then drive back to pick up kezia on the way home.  but esther’s shift ran 40 minutes late (which was fine as jane and i sat in the car chatting nicely) and so when esther arrived we drove over to pick up kezia first.

the upshot was all four of us were in the car so we had an in the car picnic at 11pm outside mcdonalds before driving esther home!  it was nice to catch up on esther’s news.

Sunday was church, snoozing (me), school book reading (kezia), ann frank exhibition (jane) and starting my tax returns.

here’s some pictures of the bands from Friday night:

today was anzac day so no work for me.

so we did a two car shuffle and the three of us walked the coast to coast walk

kezia stayed in town to have dinner with esther at wagamama’s

work for me.  jane and kezia were on holiday

i had work and took a portrait photo of a local christian radio celebrity at lunchtime.

kezia spent the day at a friend’s house and walked a dog

jane met up with her friend belinda and then read a book

church, editing sermon, 3 hours of Lightroom teaching, buzz came for dinner then we both went to watch the legendary British punk poet John Cooper-Clark who was amazing and hilarious.

kezia went to watch a local theatre group do a performance in the afternoon

jane did amazing work round the house

we all had a bit of a lie in this morning then we went in to town to meet Esther for breakfast at a nice cafe called Stench or something.

after that we went to the art gallery to see a video installation which was very good.

we then dropped esther off in takapuna where she was working on the door at the Bruce Mason centre.

in the afternoon jane and kezia went to the cinema to see Peter Rabbit and i had a sleep

this evening jane picked up esther from work and drove her back to the halls and i did photo admin

i forgot to take pictures of us all in the gallery

work in the day which ended up being a bit of a stress (and was on friday too)

after work i zoomed home then went out again to photo Halsey at Spark Arena.  We could photo the support act from the photo pit but Halsey was from the sound desk.  the lights were dark and moody, there was lots of smoke on the stage and we were a long way away so it wasn’t my best work!