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This is Hannah, an old friend of Jane’s.  She in New Zealand for a few weeks so we met up to do some beach hopping

jane took her to devonport in the morning

then after lunch in the garden we drove of to muriwai for a walk and a gander at the gannets

 

 

 

spot the baby chicks under the adults

 

 

other birds had to wait their turn

then this evening we went to long bay beach for fish and chips and strawberries

here’s some pictures from Friday.  jane was busy with stuff.  i had a busy day at work, but a photographic journey to get there

 

 

then in the evening we went out for christmas lunch with the church office people

here is jane wearing my christmas presents.  i’m glad she doesn’t have a moustache in real life

 

we’ve just got back from a christmas lunch and we’re a bit full/tired, so i’ll do our friday update in the morning

Hello, I got my car back today – wahay

I also got farewelled at school. This meant going onto the stage in assembly and being given a big bunch of flowers. Then I had a farewell coffee with a couple of colleagues and onto church office.

Esther and friend Lauren have also been working at the church office today.

Kez had school, Dave had work.

 

jane’s car broke down when she was walking pearl this morning over near our old house so she spent a lot of the day being ferried around by kind friends whilst trying to sort out the car.  it’s in a garage now. luckily jane could pick up my car from the park and ride and i got a local bus home and walked down the hill.

otherwise jane seemed to be busy in the church office.  esther had her last event at school.  and i’m not sure what kezia got up to at school

i had a good day at work with some final tricky meetings dealt with (at least until they kick off again at the end of January)

it’s been really nice and sunny the last couple of weeks and really warm.  the girls were in the pool this evening.  that’s nice.

esther had her last proper day at albany junior high school as she’s going to a different school next year.  she’s got to go in tomorrow morning though to play in the brass band at a prize giving for older pupils

she did have her prize giving today thoguht and got an award for curriculum achievement which was great.

meanwhile kezia spent the day capsizing boats in a swimming pool then going to the sea and practice rescuing drowning friends.

jane had her church job and school.  And i worked from home so i could go to esther’s prize giving

this afternoon some british chums came round and swam in the pool with the girls and this evening jane and esther have gone to the shopping maul for late night bargain hunting

 

we also watched this:

 

busy old life with a slightly melancholy feel. everyone (in our family and wider existence) seems exhausted and keen to get on with the summer holidays!  not long now …

i had a meeting up a high tower with a lovely view. and i saw these policemen on a balcony from my desk having a lovely time.

this evening there was violin, swimming and i went to see our friend Tim and family in their new home to see if they could get a mobile phone signal (they could but their phone couldn’t).

at church by 7.30am (half an hour lie in due to us setting some stuff up yesterday). 

in addition to the new sound systems, it was our winter wander-land service where people are free to wander between 4 different churchy activities

packing away seemed to take forever as we had all our new stuff to pack back in their boxes

then we spent the afternoon with our british friends alex and anna.  they’ve got a dog which is nearly a mirror image of pearl and the same age.  they spend hours trying to eat each other’s legs

jane got to use her special showercap

kezia had her last ever flippa ball game as it’s the end of the season and everyone is going to new schools next year. 

they’ve been playing together for over 2 years so that was a bit sad.

this evening we had tea in the garden, watched some australian border patrol, let some rain water out of the pool, had a haircut, did some skyping etc

6.30am jane and kezia at kezia’s swimming new time 90 minute saturday morning swim training.  some car trouble but all ok.

8am dave at church to take delivery and setting up of new sound equipment.  a few minor issues with what we thought/they thought we’d ordered, but all good. lots of things set up and ready to go.

10.30ish Kezia dropped off at church and jane and esther tennis.  esther did really well, but no wins this week.

11.30am dave and kezia left church to take kezia to piano

12.30 left piano, buying a mains extension cable for church and 8 charity sausage sizzles for lunch 

1.30-3pm some sleeping/more sounds stuff for dave

3.30pm-5.30pm excellent afternoon at buzz and wendy’s catching up, enjoying their marvellous house in the country and taking photos of their B&B for their website

Along the way we nearly went to help someone pack up their house from our church whose roof had blown off in the tornado, but they had enough other volunteers.

this evening it’s been food, editing photos and soon a family skype before bed time.  bit tired

those things above are chicken feet which are a chinese delicacy.  they are quite tasty actually.

my day started with an amazing presentation from the worldwide CEO of saatchi and saatchi which was a special event for just a few people at Telecom.

then we out for lunch to celebrate one of my colleagues birthdays

jane had her prayer meeting and various other busy things to do with church music organising which seems particularly complicated this week for various reasons (including one of the band members having a damaged house due to the tornado)

this evening kezia had swimming and so did esther (separate parts of town) and jane went to the gym

i was meant to be going out this evening to see two bands i really like, but the support act wasn’t due on until 11.45pm and the main act not until 12.30!  We’re all up early in the morning so i decided that was a bad plan

here’s some birthday cakes from work.