Blog

i spent the morning at kezia’s school spending the time talking about the photos they took last time and giving them a new challenge.  it was quite wet and windy but they spend a good hour taking photos between showers

this afternoon i worked from home and this evening went to a bar with Warren whilst kezia was swimming.  meanwhile jane and esther went to the gym/swimming.

jane did some teaching today and the girls had school

now it’s the long weekend with our first public holiday on monday for 6 months.  yay!

Wet and windy day today.  And some of the holiday weekend too i suspect.   Work, schools etc

then this evening jane and i went to see the Bootleg Beatles who were really good.  We won tickets thanks to a competition in the local paper.  It was really lovely to be able to go out for the evening with Jane too!

i had coffee with Phil and Buzz this morning which was good.  then i went back to the same cafe for a coffee with our team, then moved table to have a coffee with another colleague.  each time the waiter kept bringing me a new mug of hot water without me even asking.  They know me too well!

apologies, wednesday got lost halfway between tuesday and thursday due to excessive tiredness of the various authors (thanks Binky for point this out as neither of us would have noticed it was missing!).

 

anyway, yesterday the girls had school, esther had new tennis coaching and kezia had violin.  jane went out to her book club and i mostly prepared a photography lesson for kezia’s class which i’m doing on Friday morning.

 

i had an appointment at the gastro specialist this morning and decided to walk from my normal bus car park to the appointment.  it was an hour’s walk, but it was a sunny crisp morning and i allowed plenty of time.  you can see the hospital in the picture above – it’s the square white building standing on its own, and the appointment was near there

all went well, though i’ve got a more invasive appointment for 8th November.  i’ll save my jokes for then.

 

there were lots of interesting things to see on the way.  it reminded me a little bit of my daily stomps across london

(can you spot the ninja house number?)

and how’s this for a bench to wait for the bus to come.

 

it’s a bench with a plank of wood on it.  very kiwi

 

jane did some kristin work and some church work. the girls had school

 

and we went out for lunch when i eventually arrived at work today to say goodbye to a colleague who is moving down to wellington

the girls were back at school today.  jane saw her friend fleur and some other chums too i think.

i had a really busy day at work with lots of deadline and writing things. 

then this evening we had our life group which is rapidly depleting as two people will no longer be attending.  nothing we said or did i think.

kezia and i went on a photo course thing today.  we spent the morning at auckland museum and the afternoon at the zoo

we ended up taking nearly 1000 photos between the two of us (fairly evenly matched).  Kezia hasn’t sorted her photos yet, so here are a few of mine for your amusement

it was meant to be a leisurely start for kez and me this morning with a later wakeup and skyping jane’s parents, but that all went wrong when i got a call from church saying the sound person hadn’t turned up and could i come down and help set things up.  so i did, and it was all ok by the time we left (and the sound man had arrived)

jane was singing at church this morning.  after the service they took Pearl round to see Janine’s dog and i think they did some bakery this afternoon.

it’s back to school for everyone tomorrow.  that’ll be strange for Pearl having had everyone to herself for the last fortnight!

good night

Kezia has been practising with my old SLR camera for a photo course we’re both doing tomorrow.  here are some photos she took of Pearl

Meanwhile i’m wondering if i can convince jane to spell pearl’s name as Perl:

it’s our three year anniversary today.  three years ago we touched down and jumped in to life on the other side of the planet

jane went out for a massive run first thing and then we went to our favourite cafe for a celebratory brunch on the normally calm east coast

the weather though has been rather wet and windy (but not too cold).  in fact there’s currently a severe weather warning in place for Auckland.  the wind is coming from the north west, which is our exposed side due to the creek’s position.  the electricity is off in a neighbouring suburb apparently, i’ve taken down the trampoline net (which acts as a sail) to minimise the chances of it leaving the premises.

and this chap flew over the fence in a mary poppins kind of way.  The winds should die down in a couple of hours though.

when we got back from Takapuna we were getting out the car when a couple of people walked by.  so i said hello, like you do, and then we realised it was TV and radio celebrity Marcus Lush (the guy who did the North and South documentaries about new zealand for those that have seen them).  that was exciting.

kezia had a swimming competition this afternoon and we dropped esther off at a party at 1.30pm and we’re picking her up at 8.30pm.

lovely sunny day today and nice and warm too. 

 

i had a busy day with just a small gap for lunch which was filled at the last minute when Buzz phoned to see if i was free to meet up for some burritos. i was so we did.

we sat in the square near the town hall in the sun and watched famous bloggers and other strange people go by

this man was helping a dalek.  this evening warren and i dropped off kezia and her friend off for her swimming lesson then drove over to church for an evening for blokes where a parole officer was speaking.  also there was my breakfast coffee friend Phil who himself has recently come out of prison, so there was some circularity

jane and the girls went to the beach at some point today to get some contact lenses and saw a friend from church busking.  i don’t know what else they did.

here’s a chap called David with his foot on the gas.

and here’s a sign which contains the world Pearl.

 

weather bomb coming tomorrow.

this evening i took the girls to a dog training session at the local vets.  jane was at music practice.  Pearl did very well and now has an extra command or two under her belt lead

my day started badly again with a near dead computer.  seems to have revived itself this evening though (i’ve taken the opportunity to make sure everything is well backed up)

and then i managed to lock myself in the stairwell at work when i was meant to be meeting my friend Phil at 7.30am which was a bit embarrassing.  i eventually got someone to let me out after i’d climbed back up to the eighth floor and phoned up a colleague i’d seen arrive early to let me back to my desk so i could retrieve my security pass from where i left it.  d’oh

and christmas must be on its way as there’s a pohutakawa tree sprouting in to action.  yay