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busy day at work but i did manage to meet up with buzz at lunchtime

there were various abandoned christmas trees on the walk in to work

a project i’ve been working on for the last year finally launched and appeared in the paper (see here)

after work i went to hear a lady from Ghent in Belgium talk about broadband

jane did nothing interesting and neither did the girls apparently

this evening we recreated the christmas story with the church’s roaming nativity which was stopping off at our place (as seen yesterday)

the church roaming nativity set arrived at our house this evening

we had church this morning

and this afternoon esther went for high tea in cornwall park for her friend lauren’s birthday

meanwhile kezia had a friend over and they went in the pool

my photoshoot in piha was cancelled due to the weather, but the person who organised it still attended with three models (!). 

John (pictured above) is the chairman of the photo club. he was giving me a lift to the photo shoot, so when i was cancelled we decided to go and do some street photography in auckland

our day of adventure started at 8am when pearl was dropped at doggy day care for a day and night

we then headed north to get eaten by lions

first stop was breakfast at the dome cafe

then a mooch round whangerei basin

before finally reaching our destination – Kingdom of Zion big cat park

a keeper got eaten there a few years back and there’s all sorts of scandal and intrigue involved with the owners, so we weren’t entirely sure if it was safe

we went for a 2pm tour which was when they feed the cats by poking food under a flap

some got quite excited by the prospect of being fed

it was one of those places where you are impressed by the animals, but left a bit unsure about the quality of their lives in cages.

luckily there were bars in the way to stop us being eaten, but also preventing us getting decent photos

one of these lions is famous for being the model for aslan in narnia

on the way back we stopped a waipu which is where we stayed a night back in may

we saw a car get stuck in sand again which is always amusing to watch

and the girls had a good game of hoppity

and did some handstands

here’s an outake photo from the handstand competition

jane had a day in the sun at shakespear park supervising kids doing a community day building footpaths or something

kezia had the day at an outside swim park for a ‘big day out’ day

esther was at school and i was in the office first thing to meet a man about our pensions, then worked from home this afternoon

debbie came over this evening to watch the choir

torrential rain, really busy days at work for jane and me

school orchestra for esther, swimming for kez

john key the prime minister spent an hour at kezia’s school this afternoon at a fairwell assembly for the head master. 

kezia said the prime minister and me have the same forehead

i won best projected image of the year for my grade at photo club this evening with my photo of emily

i also came second with the baboon image in the wrong grade due to an admin error!

in fact all my images were shortlisted in each category among the best 6 images, so i was very pleased.

jane went out for a meal with her book club (i think) and esther had youth

here’s me with two photoing chums.

and esther got this today.  exciting!

usual combo of tennis and swimming (kezia forgot her swimming kit but was able to borrow a friend’s spare kit)

manic day of busy-ness for me at work, but that was ok

oops, forgot to update yesterday. don’t think anything too exciting happened!

i’m back

the girls had an amazing time at a labrador club christmas party today

both girls wons rosettes and pearl won some ribbons

there was a spare dog around the place so esther entered her in lots of the competitions and won things

meanwhile i went to church, did the podcast, did some admin, had a snooze.  when esther came back we watched the doctor who special. and now it’s now

excellent pictures are from jane’s camera phone!

oh, and i shaved my moustache combo off

esther went to a ball thing with the church youth group this evening

here’s a colour one so you can see what, er, colour the dresses were

kezia has spent much of the day doing a project and the two of us went shopping this afternoon

our neighbour’s umbrella blew over our fence and got stuck.  the neighbour came round to collect it and he was also doing movember in a similar style which was amusing!

and it’s the last day of movember