i was on sound at church this morning. only one person told me to turn it down as it was too loud. there may have been others trying to tell me too but i couldn’t hear them over the noise of the band.
after church we went to takapuna to a great place which sold lovely steaks and pizzas.
then this afternoon kezia and i went to pak n save with one of jane’s amazing mapping shopping lists
kezia had swimming, esther won both her tennis matches and jane/esther did lots of school work
kezia went to a party this evening
i was meant to be doing some landscape photography with a friend this afternoon but i had stomach pains so spent most of the day asleep in bed instead. i’m feeling a lot better now.
school for all. kezia swimming. jane and esther walking pearl.
me working from home and popping out to watch a little digger drive by
sorry for the late posting of this
girls had school. esther had her first exam which seemed to go ok. she’s counting the money from charity chocolates i sold at work.
kezia had a swimming competition and got a couple of personal bests
school for all
monks on the quay taking photos on the way to work
people carry televisions (or giant mobile phones?). otherwise just a usual work day
this evening i’ve had camera club and jane went to the cinema with a debbie and had a brilliant time
weird weather today. there was a bit of sun first thing but quickly the cloud came in
everyone had school and work.
i took the girls new passports to immigration new zealand to get their visas transferred across
esther only had half a day today so was home before the rest of us. but then they were all out for violin lessons, tennis (abandoned half way due to rain storms) and kezia had swimming.
weather warning tonight is more storms and possible tornadoes. usual story at this time of year it seems
jane has school today but not many lessons so managed coffee with her chums during the day for the first time in months and months
the girls had school
esther had big band practice this evening during which time i drove around various local phoneboxes looking for a nice parking space where i could use the wireless connectivity
oh, and if you can be bothered, the official photos of me from the half marathon are here. there are even some of me smiling if you look carefully (and another one of me stuffing my face with chocolate looking like i’m the only one on the course).
kezia asked me to post this picture of her school project on the blog, so here it is. the brief was to illustrate a fairy tale.
and to celebrate half marathon doings, we got a take out from burger fuel for dinner
i was up at 4am to get the auckland half marathon in plenty of time for the start. which i did
there was a great sunrise which i watched after the full marathon’s set off (half marathon kick off was a bit later)
the start is in devonport, the course then works its way north before heading south down the bus way and over the harbour bridge, before a final loop round before arriving in the park next to my office
so the finish is actually physically only a couple of km from the start, but on the other side of the harbour
i was walking, so i didn’t have to get involved in all that ridiculous competitiveness (it’s not a race, what’s the hurry was my motto)
actually, there was a hurry, because if you weren’t quick enough they won’t let you on the bridge as they need it for traffic! jane and the girls set up a cheering camp near this location which thankfully i made in time.
kezia took most of these people shots (i did the editing). most of my photos are the backs of people’s heads in front of me
the chap below came up to speak to the girls when they were cheering to ask where the 10km race started as his girlfriend was running it. bit awkward as that started on the other side of the bridge so he’d missed it! Turns out he’s a children’s TV presenter who Kezia watches
i eventually passed the girls. i could hear them cheering from half a kilometre away!
then the course went on to the bus lane and over the bridge so there were no roadside spectators allowed
i had 3 hours as my target time and did the half marathon in 2hrs 57 so i was pleased with that.
it took me 6 hours 12 to do the full marathon back in 2005 at a time when i was walking nearly two hours a day to and from work. so it’s nice to have gone a bit faster this time (although half the distance).
it started to rain just as i crossed the finish line so i got the bus back
after the girls had finished their spectating they went to church were jane was on sunday school duty. and this afternoon it’s been music practice, photos sorting and homeworks for all
(view whilst walking across the harbour bridge)
everyone had a lie in today which was nice. jane went out for an early walk with pearl.
then she took esther to tennis whilst i supervised kezia’s homework.
esther lost both her games, but her singles game was down to the last point
this afternoon kezia had swimming out west so whilst she was doing her warm up i went for a walk round the shops again. lots of interesting things to take photos of
and a dead duck in the gutter.
this evening we watched some broadcast telly (rather than online) which is very rare for us. it was this town which we are thoroughly enjoying
