Blog

I don’t really know what Dave did today, but maybe there is a clue in the picture.

Girls went to school. Esther had netball after school and has been trying to choose what options she should do at school next year. Kezia had swimming after school and we are doing a great lift share, which involved me in nothing today – excellent.

Home group this evening and now it’s bedtime.

a bit of a quieter day today after yesterday’s rushing about.  i was at church early for some sound related stuff, and i also did the communion devotion which was exciting.  went ok i think.

some snoozing and tidying this afternoon with flippa ball mid afternoon (kezia’s team won 6-1)

this evening we watched some Mary Queen of Shops.

jane and kezia were up early for kezia’s swimming lesson whilst esther watched some lympix highlights.   then esther and i went to pick up loads of bread, light bulbs and some ink for the printer (no detail is spared dear reader)

most of the rest of the day was spent preparing for the party, although kezia and i spent a few hours in silverdale at yet another swimming pool as she was doing some races.  she won one of her races and did well in the other.  she got at least one personal best time (which is what the races are for) and i think she did for the other too, although she wrote the numbers down wrong so it looked like she was 40 seconds slower than her personal best which made no sense.  anyway…

then this evening we had the music and sound team party with about 30 people.  people arrived around 6.15pm and left around 9.30pm, so that’s good

here’s the decoration i put up.  i then took it down and put it up somewhere better

and here’s jane lifting out the giant ham and multiple potatoes from the oven.  it was a REALLY big ham

and eleanor made a joint birthday cake for four of us who have had birthdays recently.  it’s a sound desk

so that’s it.  a rather busy day.

i met an ex-colleague with a current colleague for breakfast this morning, then we headed in to work.  otherwise just usual stuff

jane did school and spent the rest of the day preparing for the music team party tomorrow

this evening jane took esther to her swimming lesson at the millennium pool and i too kezia to takapuna pool for her lessons.  there’s a place up in the sky where i can sit whilst kezia is swimming so that’s good.

then we watched some lympix highlights.  that’s that.  very busy weekend ahead.

i left home at the usual time this morning to get to the blood test place for an extraction at 7am.  that went well then i headed over to a nearby cafe for breakfast with someone from church

 

this afternoon i spent the day at a rather packed conference (both in terms of how many speakers were fitted in to the time available and the number of delegates squashed in to the room).

this is the famous novelist Douglas Coupland. One of my heroes actually, so it was great to hear him speak.

the venue was weird though. quite a few people thought they’d been an earthquake at one point as the room rattled followed by a slow roll a few moments laters.  the wobbles continued through the afternoon without any cause (and geonet doesn’t show any earthquakes nearby) so who knows what that was about.  it was definitely wobbling though as you could see the projector screens and water in glasses swaying!

jane fiddled about, met her chum fleur, went for a run, cleaned the bathroom, had her one pupil/teacher appointment at her school. 

this evening esther had netball (they won!) and kezia had swimming at the new venue.

 

i don’t know whether my birthday still is the first of august.  esther’s technically moved a day later when we moved to NZ as she was born in the afternoon uk time. i forgot to ask my parents what time of day i was born.  anyway, today is my official birthday.  and means i am now officially 40 years old.

my colleagues had decorated my desk up nicely.  and someone bought a load of cookies (my favourite sort) to eat at a presentation i was giving first thing.  it turned out another colleague had also bought us all cookies so we ate those in the afternoon.  i also ate some of the chocolate display i found on my desk

And Jane had cooked me up a load of cookies to give to people, so i’ve saved those for tomorrow

we also went out for lunch with work colleagues which was really nice

then this evening i picked up kezia from violin as jane and esther went to hand her application forms for a secondary school. we’re out of zone so it’ll be a lottery whether she gets in.  but if she doesn’t it doesn’t matter as her current school is plenty good enough

jane did her mainly music, had lunch with her friend alex, mucked out the guinea pigs, went for a run and did shopping and got some things ready for birthday celebrating

this evening was birthday present unwrapping (thanks to everyone for the pressies), and home made burger and chips eating.

i’ve giving blood in the morning as part of an old person’s routine check up and have had to stop eating from 8pm-ish this evening.  but my stomach is so full of cookies, chocolate bars and 2 lots of burgers and chips that i will still feel completely full up tomorrow morning!

someone commented that i’ve eaten so much sugar that my blood will come out more like treacle.  that is a risk.

here’s me unwrapping things

i’m overdue a haircut

and this is a kids cake.  but i loved it.

i had a meeting at parnell this morning so i drove in to auckland, left my bag at work then walked over a couple of hills to my meeting location and had a bit of a look round the area.  very nice.

it was nice to wander around early in the morning in sunlight taking pictures before the working day began properly.  just like olden times in the britain.

jane had her church job and both the girls had english exams at school

i walked up to ponsonby at lunchtime for lunch with buzz.  we had lemon drinks and i ate a kebab with a knife and fork as i’m posh like that.  great conversation as usual

then this evening i went out with warren.  we went to a bar which was quite busy (surprising for a Tuesday night).  it turned out there was a quiz on which was quite noisey so we went to an empty bar next door and had a hot chocolate and a coffee.  then i had a go on the karaoke machine as there was no one else about.

i was dreadful.  really dreadful.  i apologised to Warren who said “oh no, don’t apologise, it was actually fascinating”

and with that i go to bed leaving my 30 year old self behind …

bit of a communication break down between jane and me with blogging arrangement.  i think everyone went to school, then some swimming in a different location.  cancelled netball practice, mad rain most of the day, some skyping.  and some watching of lympix highlights.

oh, and we had our life group which was expertly compeered by jane.

 

i was at church at 7am for the sound set up.  lots of things i could tell you about, but unless you are interested in the detail of broken MP3 recorders, old radio microphones and mains hum i’ll share the detail.

whilst i was doing that jane and esther went for a bike ride and skyped jane’s parents before picking up kezia and coming along to church

kezia did some crafting this afternoon, i had a nap, we all watched some olympics highlights (everything over night here, although you can catch stuff live if you wait until the late evening or in the morning).

kezia had flippa ball and won, then we watched some more ‘lympix. i skyped my dad and esther facetimed Katie

a day of the two –ics.

jane and kezia left the house at 7.30am to take kezia and some of her friends to a robotics competition.  they didn’t win, but had a good time.  they finally got home around 3pm i think.

esther and i stayed at home and watched the olympic opening ceremony.  then we did a spot of food shopping. 

then this evening kezia has a sleep over at her friend’s house so we watched some of the highlights of the opening ceremony again with jane and then watched Mary Queen of Shops.  so, it was quite a british day tv-wise.