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Here is an official picture of Dave.

and an unofficial one of Pearl. She had her first lesson in the new dog obedience class and was not brilliant.

In other news, school, work and violin happened.

it was the queen’s birthday today so that’s a public holiday.

(enjoy the angry lady in the picture above)

after a quiet morning we drove in to town to go to a celebration of britishness in a long tent on the wharf

this is our new car (it isn’t)

it was interesting to see what was typically british

like rubbish bins

and crazy mirrors

pearl came along for the trip and was very well behaved

then this evening there’s been domestic sortings

back to work/school tomorrow

 

much laughing at muriwai today with the Eaverys who let us share some of their last weekend with them.

church and some skyping first thing this morning and then tim and helen came over for lunch (they had spent a morning packing whilst we had their girls for a sleep over).

then this afternoon we went to muriwai for a walk with pearl

 

they’ll be missed

well, my photo made it on the graham norton show.  here’s a clip which i took with my camera of it playing on iplayer in case you missed it:

anyway, back in new zealand …

 

jane took kezia to her early morning swimming lesson and went for a walk with pearl

then we all went in to Albany and bought a new car as jane’s car is showing signs of starting to become expensive.  we’re trading in her current car for an identical one which is 5 years younger.   we haven’t actually seen it but it should arrive by the end of the week

then this afternoon was house tidying and domestic sorting

then this evening our friends the eaverys came round for a last supper as they head back to blighty on friday

 

jane cooked up a great roast dinner

and we had some christmas pudding …

… which we set on fire

much to everyone’s delight

 

there was giving and receiving of presents and then the parents went home

and the girls are staying for a sleep over

not sure how much sleeping there will be!

here is pearl and indy.  they are related somehow (2 degrees of separation applies to animals as well as people in new zealand it seems). 

indy belongs to kezia’s swimming teacher who was keen to go for a walk with pearl, and jane and kezia

and because kezia had a teacher training day they went for a walk at the beach

and then back to belinder’s house where the dogs continued to play

glad i wasn’t there

instead i was at work

 

on the way in to work i stood and watched a sun rise

 

and at lunch i had my photo taken by a photographer who was doing ‘school portraits’ of business people which you can then use as your profile picture online etc.  i’ll let you see them if they are any good!

 

rumour has it we’re moving desk location next week so we went to see the place we’re likely to end up and it’s no where near as nice as our current location. which is a shame

this evening kez had swimming, we all watched the apprentice and then skyped jane’s sister and family

 

3 day weekend though as monday’s is the queen’s birthday

i woke up this morning to an email from the graham norton show asking if they could use one of my photos on this week’s show.  not sure if it’ll make the final show, but nice to be asked!

i also felt quite well this morning so went for a 45 minute walk up and down the hill near my office making for some nice photo opportunities

jane did various errands then spend the day with Helen to make up for the failed day on monday when the car went wrong.

this evening kezia had swimming

i had lots of meetings including one which i was chairing which i was expecting to be a disaster, but actually turned out ok.

Hello. School for girls today. Dave had meetings nears to here,so worked from home and popped out to them. I had Mainly Music this morning and pre-school French this afternoon.

This evening I have been to ladies’ night at our local mega DIY store! Esther went to the church youth group where they made an ice cream sundae in a gutter.

hello. 

i’m definately starting to feel less painful, so that’s good.  combination of lots of different drugs and some diet changes.  yay

jane’s car broke today which meant her day out with Helen was aborted as Helen kindly followed jane’s jiggery car to the garage for mending.  bizarrely the garage have fixed it for free saying that we spend a lot of money with them !  Might be time to think about changing the car i think as things are breaking more often with it.

somewhere along the way jane picked up my car from the park and ride and i managed to coincide my arrival back from work with one of the bus stations she was driving by on the way to/from violin/swimming.

and it’s been very cold today with hail, thunder and big winds in auckland.  the picture above is from the national weather forecast so you can see how many weather warnings are on the go.  it’s caused by a big high over australia causing a wind tunnel direct from the Antarctic fired at New Zealand.

so now you know

this is the big sugar ship going by on the way to the sugar refinery.  it’s the height of these boats which determined how high the harbour bridge should be.  how’s about that then fact fans?

esther had orchestra practice before school so needed both her violin and her trombone and her sports kit and usual school bag.  so we both got the bus together and i carried her trombone.  then i got on another bus to get to work.  that system seems to work well.

esther got an ‘excellent’ for her badminton test and the teacher said she was a natural.  that’s good.

kezia went to zumba after school and esther had her tennis lesson.

jane went to meet the new owners of the language teaching franchise this evening (the one we didn’t buy).  nothing much to report from that.

and i managed to make it through my first day in the office in over a week without too much pain or illness.  my presentation went ok this morning

this afternoon i went back to the doctors to see about my continuing pains.  the doctor was good and thought i could have passed a small kidney stone or something last week which was the pain, and the pain generally had triggered my IBS hence the ongoing pains.  I’ve been given some muscle drugs to go with the other drugs and hopefully should see some improvements in the next week.   The x-rays didn’t find any kidney stones and the all my other tests came back ok this week (unlike last week) so the doctor didn’t seem too worried.  and  i think i’m a bit less painful than i’ve been before

so, all good i think.

jane was singing this morning at church which went well 

i managed to get to church but then felt too ill same came home and slept for much of the morning and afternoon.

late afternoon we had various church friends round for an afternoon tea (some of the remaining cakes shown above in the out of focus picture). Jane did a brilliant job at making the house look fab and being the hostess with the most-ess.

otherwise, usual combination of music practices, home work.

 

early nights for all