Blog

the pool people came and our pool is now even more green.  and we’ve been told to fill it completely up.

and our boiler has broken so no hot water for us. luckily we haven’t needed the heating on for a few weeks so we’re ok.  there is an immersion heater, but we’re not sure if that’s working yet

jane had parents evening so only got back from school after 8pm

i had a busy day at work, then picked pearly up on the way home before going straight out to pick up esther and kezia from violin and then take esther to tennis and then wait around with kezia (by a free wireless hotspot)

kezia went straight to violin from school thanks to her violin teacher picking her up from school (she was there to give some lessons anyway).  apparently they stopped at the supermarket on the way).

esther cooked a load of brownies when we all got home which took over the kitchen.

i can’t think anymore so am going to bed!

kezia’s paper mache worked out well

The industry CEOs met today and agreed the industry Code of Practice written by the group i’ve been leading over the last 12 months, so that’s great news.  but it turns out we still need to get the individual companies to sign up, but hopefully that’s just a formality.

and another Code i’ve been working on got accepted too so that was good

i met up with Buzz today at lunch, and took the girls passport applications to the post office. 

i think jane had a busy day at work but can’t say for sure as she’s been too busy since i’ve been home to talk.  she had a parents evening after school though

esther had a last minute practice/audition for the school big band.  it’s made up a subset of people in the concert band and she and her friend were the two youngest people to be invited to ‘try out’.  they need to go for a couple more weeks to see if they are up for it.  esther loved it so hopefully she will get in.  it’s another practice in the week though …

whilst esther was practising i went for a walk round the nearby industrial estate where i saw gun shops selling fireworks and a sign for a man instantly sharpening knife axes in the back car park.

nice that it was still so bright and warm at 7pm.  but the cold / wet weather is due back for this long weekend coming apparently.

that’s all i had to tell you.  good bye

esther and jane were up early for a stomp round the cemetery with pearl

then after skyping we were off to church.  a girl in kezia’s class at school and her swimming class has started coming along to church so that’s great.  they’ve recently moved to NZ and have been looking for a church.

then this afternoon jane kindly let me go to a photo shooting trip to Puhoi

we were given 10 places to shoot and will need to ‘hand in’ 3 photos from each location.  here’s a very quick selection based on a quick skim this evening.  i went along with my friend Nori so i had a shooting chum which was good

there was so much to shoot it was great

meanwhile the girls stayed at home and all did homework/teaching preparation

here’s edd the head preparing for a day of exam preparation!

here’s a chap having fun at brown’s bay

kezia had swimming this morning so jane was up early dropping her off and i picked her up at 8am

jane had another teacher training day so we at school all day

esther had tennis this morning and won both her matches!  They were quite evenly matched so she was really pleased to have won.  her doubles was 8-1 and her singles was something similar

whilst esther was tennising, kezia and i went round the shops in mairangi bay then browns bay (to redo kezia’s passport photo as she was too smiley in the last one).  i took kez round lots of charity/op shops which she disliked despite all the second hand undies available to buy (men’s and womens’ in separate boxes)

here’s a piece of history from the days of popup paper phone diaries.

this afternoon i did various photo sorting and passport application completing.

and kezia did some paper mushy as part of a school project

then this evening jane and i went out to some church friends house for ‘dinners for eight’.  we knew most of the people already and we were looking forward to it

jane made me my own meal but the proper food looked lidicious!

kezia swims so much she’s turning green.

school for everyone today

i had a busy day at work, but caught up with an ex-colleague.  he was my desk neighbour until a couple of months ago when he left so you probably recognise him from other appearances on the blog

he’s also british and a lawyer so ideal for counter signing the girls passport application forms

there was a man sitting on a ladder outside his office

kezia had swimming after school.  jane and esther walked pearl

then there was some family television watching

i worked from home today as i had big stomach pains in the night.  still got them now, though not quite so bad.  really busy day though with some meetings handily rearranged so that’s good.

my job got confirmed at safe this week too.  can’t remember if i mentioned that.  the two people who were made redundant leave tomorrow, so that’s a quick turnaround.

jane had parents evening after school and esther had orchestra.

i took kezia to swimming and watched a movie on my ipad.  on the way back we came home via late night shopping at the mall so she could get some muscle tape which is all the rage for strains.

i worked from home today and everyone else had school

esther had church youth this evening and jane had her book club

i went for a walk with pearl and my new shoes before dinner. a couple of loops round the cemetery.  she almost pulled my arm off a couple of times as she was distracted by some smell and suddenly stopped or went in a different direction to me.

the picture above was when we stopped to ponder the brevity of life at the top of a hill

here’s a funny thing.  chinese military boats just sitting round in the harbour with people allowed to walk next to them.

i was chairing and presenting at a potentially very tricky workshop this morning which actually turned out very well despite nearly going weird when two chaps started swearing at each other! 

this was the first of three meetings for an industry project i’ve been leading, and the last that i have any control over, so hopefully it’ll reach a good conclusion when it finally gets discussed by industry CEOs next Monday (i’m not attending any of the others so i can relax – a bit)

jane had school

after school both girls had violin, esther had tennis and kezia had swimming. 

and i collected pearl from doggy day care.  i don’t know if she was more confused or i was. wrong owner, wrong car etc

oh, and the mad winds have continued in new zealand.  including hotel windows blowing out a road away from my office:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11140551

everyone was back to school / work.

we were up early on saturday to get to Orakei Korako for just after 9am

it’s a natural geothermal amazing place which you have to get a boat across a lake to reach

there was of course lots of sulphurous steam

and amazing colours (some organic)

and various geysers were going off as we walked round.  this is still a ‘live’ area and features regularly change such as geysers which haven’t erupted for decades suddenly start up!

and of course there was some gloopy bubbly mud

and some nice sunlight through steam

the walk was about 2 hours hours then we got the boat back to the car

we had lunch in an award winning art cafe

after that we drove over to the posh area of acacia bay overlooking lake taupo

we sat there so long the sailing ship we caught earlier in the week came by

with a lot more people on it than there was for us

and finally we headed in to town to visit the taupo museum and go to a gypsy fair

this singer was dreadful and was singing about having a weepy eye!

he had no audience, but was happy for me to take a few pictures

then it was back to the holiday house to start packing for heading home

and i’ve already posted day 8 of the trip so that’s all the holiday snaps posted

here’s a lady with a dramatic side boob from the holiday house.