Blog

i worked from home this morning and had a couple of phone meetings before heading in to the office for another couple of actually present meetings. 

i got back home before kezia so that was good. i also had to pop in to school in the morning to pick up a piece of paper which was too difficult for kezia to carry home apparently.  had i known it was just a piece of paper which could easily be rolled up i wouldn’t have bothered going!

this evening i’ve had the joy of jane’s tuesday evening which involves picking up and dropping off of violin, tennis and swimming, all of which seem to overlap. 

i sat on the edge of the beach for 40 minutes while esther was having tennis and watched the Cunard ship Queen Elizabeth go by.  that’s a sister of mum’s ship the Queen Victoria which is due in just over a fortnight’s time.

esther and i went for a walk down takapuna beach while we were waiting for kezia, and this evening the girls have eaten masses of the meat which was too frozen to extract from its container yesterday

exciting day hey?

today felt like it lasted forever!

i dropped esther off at the bus stop at 6.40 with her violin, trombone, school bag and some shoes dangling by their shoe laces.  kezia left at 7.40 to walk to her school having secretly done some texting to our next door neighbour …

i had a busy day working from home with a couple of meetings this morning

then after school esther had her concert band practice.  kezia realised she had a load of home work she needed to do just before we left so we took the ipad and found a wireless hot spot to sit under while esther was at her practice.  unfortunately the homework website didn’t work on the ipad, or my phone so we drove home and i made kezia do it on the laptop rather than our originally planned nice walk down the beach.  just as well as it took ages to do!

then this evening the meal choice failed as it was stuck frozen solid in its container (which i managed to cut through with a knife so will make a mess when it properly thaws out in the fridge.  ooops).

otherwise, all good!

and as far as i know jane is having an ok time away in camp with her school kids.  i discovered today my boss is on holiday for 2 weeks, and i notice he had put some picture on facebook showing him at the same beach jane is staying at!   Esther stayed at the same campsite as him over Christmas too, so we might be stalking him.  except none of the rest of my family know what he looks like.

jane went off to school camp this morning.

i was on sound at church.  it was quite lively – 2 electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, bass and drums plus a couple of singer.  nice and loud too

this afternoon kezia and i went to get a key cut and do some errands at the mall and i put a hook up for a big pipe in the pool shed

pearl was tired so rested her cheeks on the tiles before we took her to doggy day care where she’ll stay until jane is back on thursday

kezia skipped swimming this morning so we could all have a lie-in

esther had tennis – she won her singles match and just missed out on winning her doubles

pool water has been tested, lessons prepared, pool swam in, food shopped etc

i spent most of the day preparing photos for a panel to get a licentiaship with the NZ photographic society.  i’ve ended up with three potential sets of photos.

jane’s been preparing for her school trip most of the day too and had a coffee with debbie this evening.

usual story – busy work/school.  i put in a written submission to the government on behalf of Telecom and might have to give evidence to a select committee at some point

and the company i work for has announced it’s going to change it’s name to ‘Spark’. not entirely popular as demonstrated by some of the comments on this article.

we booked up our flights to the UK this evening with nearly a week in Singapore on the way back.  we’ll be out of New Zealand for a month.  exciting.

 

i had lunch with some current and ex-colleagues to mark gavin (above right) changing department

and jane went to the gym and then cleaned the pool cover which got dusty when the house washing people came on tuesday

i think the girls had a swim in the pool after school

and kezia had a swimming lesson this evening

pearl was confused

really busy day at work for me again, but very productive so that’s good

jane and the girls had school

esther had concert band, kezia had swimming

mad busy day for all.  and a birthday card for kez arrived having got lost in the bermuda triangle (missent to bermuda would make a nice t-shirt slogan)

really busy day at work for me in preparation for an even busier day tomorrow

jane and kezia had school

esther had a school sports day.  she entered shot put and long jump.

kezia had swimming this evening so i went photoing with my friend mike (on the left in the picture below)

esther had violin

jane and esther went to a meeting about esther’s trip later in the year

and kezia has moved up to the next swimming group with her age group which will soon mean 5.30am starts on a saturday !

here’s an ex-colleague i saw running round the streets on the way to work

and here are two very ex-colleagues (who are married to each other) from my UK days who are visiting NZ and Australia on a multi-week holiday!

it’s our 18th wedding anniversary today.  james and janine kindly looked after the girls (including picking up esther from her concert band practice) so jane and i could go up north head and eat fish and chips on an old volcano.  great stuff !

otherwise school/work for all.  jane met up with her german friend peggy for germanic chats

and my uncle has joined our world map as he also makes his way towards us.  who will get here first?  my mum or my uncle (we know already of course – it’s not really a race)

there’s mum – out there in the pacific somewhere!

church for me playing bass, then a church sound meeting.

jane was with kezia at her swimming competition all day (out 8am – nearly 7pm).  kezia entered 5 races and got personal best times for all.

esther and i watched a mission impossible film this afternoon

my photos from little barrier island are now online here:

video:  https://vimeo.com/86814554

pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/funkypancake/sets/72157641049651364/