Blog

work, teaching, church music-ing, raining

tennis (esther) and swimming races (kezia)

a different fruit tea

school, work, coffees, teaching. usual stuff.

It was a bit rainy today

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10831442

But despite that aucklandi still one of the best places to live on the planet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertypicturegalleries/9477990/The-worlds-10-best-cities-to-live-in.html

i was playing in the band at church this morning, but was there from 6.45am to help set up as things were a bit more complicated for various reasons.

then after church (finally home 12.30)  we watched a film.  then i did some tidying in the garage and now have all my tools etc in nice boxes.  i’ll take a picture for you sometime.

this afternoon kezia had flippa ball (2 all draw) and esther and i went to another neighbours protest meeting about the impending destruction of a local treed area.

we walked up to the meeting through all the inorganic waste debris which was great.  and then we walked back with our neighbour taking a short cut through the forest.  which was even greater.

then this evening there’s been skyping and watching of the hotel inspector.

jane and kezia went to her swimming

new friends from church came round for morning tea.  they are from the britain and seem very nice.  they’ve got two girls the same age as our girls.

this afternoon jane went with esther to buy some swimming gear and then with kezia to buy a bed.  i went with esther to buy some plastic boxes.  our favourite shop helper was there and he was delighted as he thought we were up to some new amazing homework scheme.  but we weren’t.

it’s inorganic waste this weekend so the streets are full of chunky rubbish.  we put this bed out and even before esther got off it someone collected it in a car.  i helped them load it up as the woman was pregnant.

this evening we had a massive long game of monopoly. jane won.  which was probably for the best.

big news of the day is that i don’t have a dodgy heart.  yay.

i’d been referred to a heart specialist for a heart murmur that the doctor found at my check-up earlier in the month.  it took a few weeks to get my appointment as i was waiting on our medical insurance people to agree to pay for an echo-cardiogram and specialist appointment.

so i got to see and hear my heart pumping on the scan and there was nothing to worry about.  the specialist reckoned the doctor was just being over cautious.

but i do have high cholesterol and he’s give me 6 months to attempt to address it through diet and exercise else they’ll put me on those special tablets.

meanwhile all three girls had school.  and the younger girls had swimming.

that’s me in the car at the car park this morning.  the picture was showing on the pay kiosk.  it’s all very modern.

esther had some school challenge thing today.  they came second in one of the two challenges so that was good.

otherwise, school, work and that sort of stuff.

this evening kezia’s been swimming, jane and esther went shoe shopping.  and now jane’s off at the cinema with debbie

here’s two stories about icebergs in the paper this morning

Hello, more relieving for me today and a bit of church stuff too. Violin for girls after school and work for Dave. Esther’s school shoes fell to bits.

there’s a car in the picture above.  can you see it?

jane did some cover lessons at school today then her church music job.

this evening esther had tennis.  i watched the last 10 minutes of her lesson and she’s getting really good.  excellent.

and we paid the deposit for the dog.

esther and kezia both had a day off school for teacher training so jane took them to look at some puppies to see the dog we’re hoping to get

i’ve been keeping out of it, but i understand we’re getting a black female Labrador (one of the ones with the coloured colours in the pictures)

they are only 4 weeks old and we’ll get ours in another 3 or 4 weeks when they are ready.

on the way to the dog lady the girls stopped by my office and we went out for lunch. 

we also tried to buy a piece of furniture but the shop keeper wouldn’t let us as there’s a half price sale on Thursday and he didn’t want us to feel ripped off!  He checked the drawers would be reduced, checked stock levels and told us to come back on Thursday to get the discount!   New Zealand really is a very nice place.

i had church men’s coffee morning then a busy day at work.  this boat on a boat went along the harbour this afternoon.

then this evening we had our life group meeting which turned in to a deep debate which was good (although rather confusing).

and then i Skyped my mum who’s been away for weeks.

finally, you’ll want to watch this.  it’s the Prime Minister dancing at a school production.  Could you imagine this happening in the UK?    Here’ it’s actively encouraged.

http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/video/john-keys-dance/14609/

this is a weird circle that’s round the moon this evening.  very cool.  like a spooky moon-bow.

i was at church at 7am to do sound things, and then had to do various putting away things of the trial sound system so didn’t get back until 1ish. (that’s the old system in the picture below)

kezia came back from her sleep over party and after church went to a swimming competition where she got two personal bests

this afternoon she had flippa ball (lost 2-1) and i went to a meeting for local residents about a housing development which will make our lives noisy for the next few years which is a shame.

we also met a family at church who moved to NZ just 3 weeks ago from the UK.  funny to think that was us nearly 3 years ago.