esther had a teacher training day today so went to takapuna with a friend. she also built some brownies. and has now gone to the Coromandel with her church youth group for the weekend
kezia had school and then swimming
i worked from home and this evening popped in to the music team party at a very posh house
and now it’s now.
oh, and our broadband got a speed boost compared to our old DSL which we finally switched off
school, swimming etc
kezia had her braces upgraded
i had lunch with my friend phil
i think my insides are feeling a bit better than yesterday. a bit.
any guesses what the thing in the picture is?
very cold but lovely clear day this morning. church men’s group before work and the boat race was cancelled today as it was too windy, so everyone went straight to work rather than standing round televisions for an hour.
everyone had school. kez did a class speech competition and didn’t quite make the top 3 but she is in the play off for third place tomorrow so has to repeat it again.
jane went to esther’s school to meet a german teacher who has kindly given jane some resources. and she’s busy marking exam papers and being exhausted. except this evening when she’s having a rare evening off to go to her book club
i’ve been having another pain (a different one) for the last few days so went along to the doctor’s after work and got given two powerful antibiotics which have made me feel very weird this evening.
nothing related to my other pains i think, but i suspect the antibiotics won’t do much good for my already out of kilter stomach.
all good fun.
i took lots of photos today but i’m playing a cassette tape in to my computer so i daren’t upload them from my camera in case it interferes with this very sensitive operation!
school for all. work for me.
violin and swimming after school.
esther had to give a speech at school which she enjoyed i think. she did it about the TV show Border Security.
and she chose her options for next year.
i had a mention in one of the main new zealand newspapers here thanks to my egg pant picture
a man carry a picture of another man. a bit like a joker from a pack of cards. sort of
school for all
esther thought her orchestra audition went well with her trombone. we’ll find out in the next week or so if she was successful in either audition.
esther had tennis
i had loads of meetings all day including one up an 18 floor building where i didn’t even thing to take a photo.
and our new neighbours popped round to have their signatures witnessed
this evening jane made the best kumaras i’ve ever tasted
here’s our lovely friends in their fineries (most of them) for their dedication service this morning.
i designated myself as the official photographer and spent much of the service on the balcony talking pictures from above
Kezia did the communion invitation too which was excellent. she seems to have a kiwi accent when she does public speaking
that’s ken. he works for the church
after church the people who were buying the trampoline came round and i helped them deconstruct it and load it in to their van. that’s esther in the picture above having a last go
the rest of the afternoon was spent doing homework / editing photos
then this evening we went in to auckland to watch a classical pop concert. you weren’t allowed to take pictures so here’s the stage in the interval. it was very excellent.
we went for burgers afterwards and got back just in time to skype my dad.
lots of doing and zooming about today. kezia had a swimming competition all afternoon.
she got two personal bests and won both races (she’s in the top lane in the picture above)
meanwhile esther and jane were at the opticians teaching esther how to insert her contact lenses
the trampoline sold on trademe for more than we expected so that was exciting watching that happen – if someone places a bid in the last 2 minutes it restarts the 2 minute countdown and the auction went on for an extra 15 minutes or so.
somehow jane managed to do some shopping, go to the pharmacy for me and walk pearl.
and this afternoon she met up with a german speaking friend of a friend who was very nice.
then this evening we watched a british film with the girls
i worked from home and grant the gardener spent much of the day chopping things down in our garden. this is the view out of our bedroom window before he came. that was a fir tree growing in between the two bushes, so that was hastily removed!
he arrived at 10am because he’d been watching the america cup boat race (so had i) and this being new zealand he’s a good friend of a few of the blokes on the NZ boat!
meanwhile everyone had school and this evening swimming for kezia and pearl walking for jane and esther
meanwhile i went for a 10km high speed walk as vague half marathon training. it took me one and a half hours. so probably not too bad.
on my walk i saw some filming of Masterchef New Zealand
busy days at school/work. everyone’s pretty tired and easily annoyed 
i had my usual thursday meetings which i’ve been chairing for about a year now i think. we’re getting pretty close to finishing a major part of the work which is exciting.
i went out again as soon as i got in this evening to take kez to swimming. jane recommended takapuna mall as a place to wander round and i ended up buying a few things as well.
jane got a bed for pearl which she had to construct as below (poor lady’s neck seems to have fallen off).
the girls had school
esther had an audition for a jazz band with her trombone
kezia went by bus to a friend’s house after school and then this evening went to watch the school talent show
i went to the camera club but didn’t enter any pictures this week as i didn’t think i had any pictures for the theme. whilst i was there i thought of a number of pictures i could have entered if i’d thought about it properly. oh well.