not much to report today. the weather forecast was a bit rubbish, so that was deliberate
kezia and jane went shopping this afternoon. esther and jane went to watch the hobbit this afternoon whilst kezia and i watched Harry Potter 1 at home.
i’ve been doing some financial things. and my new diet doesn’t seem to be working very well. good for losing (even more) weight but not great for avoiding the symptoms i’m trying to avoid. so far at least.
Lovely friends Janine and Amy came to let Pearl out at lunchtime today, so we could go on a day trip to the beach. We went to Tawharanui, one of our favourites. It was very hot, the sea was warm. The waves were quite good.
The pool was quite warm too, so when we got home Dave and I njoyed lounging on our Christmas loungers, while the girls splashed around and I invented some very fun games.
Good times!
new year’s day brought a fantastically lovely, still and warm sunny day to new zealand
so we headed to the beach with some good friends for a day of sitting around (olds) and swimming/kayaking (youngs)
it was really busy but we got there before everyone else and managed to grab us a good spot under some trees, but with a view of the beach
the girls were in and our of the kayaks
and at one point kezia and lauren swum out with john out to and round that boat with the black bottom
quite amazing!
jane had to pop back half way through the day to go for a quick walk with pearl who was home alone. and we left esther and kezia behind having a bbq as we left (hopefully they’ll be delivered home later!)
a great start to the new year
pearl had a goopy eye this morning so jane and kezia took her to the vet’s and got some eye drops.
we also got pearl this little paddling pool so she can cool off. so far she’s only drunk from it
we had an early lunch and spent most of the rest of the day at Wenderholm Park where we went for a 2.5 hour walk which we did in half the time
then we had afternoon tea on the beach followed by some swimming for esther and kezia then hoppity (all the girls)
when we got home this evening the girls went in the pool which has warmed up considerably in the last day or two
here’s some pictures of the walk and our picnic view
this morning started with a fantastic family skyping back to the UK which i managed to sleep through which i’m very sorry about. i did manage to construct my office chair though which was bought with some xmas gift money.
then we did various admin things (including thank you letters) and i got my computer backuping sorted so i can actually use my computer again.
to demonstrate how important backups are, i managed to lose 2 hours work on a blog post for another blog when an application crashed and the file disappeared (despite me saving multiple drafts along the way – blummin microsoft live writer). anyway …
there was a severe weather warning for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes so we delayed going out until later in the afternoon. in the event nothing happened weather wise other than a couple of small and light rain storms, but better safe than sorry.
this afternoon we took pearl for a walk at the end of a 10km volcano reef which spews out in the harbour. it has an area for dogs to run wild and they can walk on a lead in the rest of it. we also did three geocaches and our first two munzees.
this evening esther and i watched dr who and jane and kezia did some jigsawing.
this morning was spent tidying the house in preparation for an english christmas meal
the weather turned gorgeous so esther and i went shopping for an office chair (after we’d done our share of chores)
our friends arrived just after 3.30 and left just before 10
they bought their dog morris (maurice?), seen on the left here. he was an escape artist and pearl looked shocked (and hopefully hasn’t learnt some new tricks)
dinner was great although slightly disrupted by one of our visitors having to rush off the emergency doctor to see about an inflamed eye (turned out just to be an allergic reaction and was almost back to normal by the time they went)
pearl and maurice wore each other out
and jane cooked us a tremendous dinner
jane took pearl for an early walk, the girls did some skyping
then after lunch we went for a healthy two hour walk up and down some hills at shakespeare park
this evening esther and i went to see Skyfall and Jane and Kezia did house work/garden work
and then we all sat around watching kezia in the pool
jane and kezia took pearl for a really busy walk on takapuna beach first thing.
then we all drove in to auckland for some cookies (with some dipping milk) in a milk and cookie bar before heading over to look at rock and roll photography and other things in the auckland art gallery
after a bit of shopping we headed home where our friend Gareth brought his son Ollie to swim in the pool (more ‘bobbing about’ in a lifejacket, but had a whale of a time)
kez and i had a quick trip to the DIY place for some seat covers and Kezia spent some Christmas money at MightyApe. This evening jane and i sat on our new poolside chairs and later watched some british telly.
Today was pretty rainy. Kezia and I took Pearl for a walk to Long Bay this morning.
Then this afternoon we went with the gang for a wet and soggy walk in the rainforest with Pearl and Janine’s dog Tessa. The dogs were mad and we did the walk at about 100 miles and hour.
Pearl needed a wash when we got home. She didn’t think much of that.
More telly then a game of cluedo this evening
happy christmas everyone!
our friends the Anderson’s came round for xmas breakfast (and some obligatory festive photos)
there was plenty of present opening too of course
dinner at Long Bay Restaurant where i abandoned my diet for 12 hours (and as a result have a massive headache this evening)
followed by a walk on the windy beach
we also managed to skype loads of family today too.
yay for jesus birthday celebrations!