Blog

i spent the day at a conference or a ‘hui’ which is maori for a debate. 

it started with three old men singing this song with the attendees joining in, including someone particularly animated behind me doing some impromptu shouty add-on bits (see a version of the song here )  The conference was good though my employer got the usual bashings from other attendees.  no change there

the girls went to Devonport to pick up a beach tent i got off trademe (kiwi ebay) and then went to the mall and esther bought monopoly with her holiday money.  this evening kezia had swimming and jane did some fitness.

and here’s a glove.  it’s been really very chilly here with a frost most mornings this week.

Whoops. Poor communication in the Funkypancake house meant that no-one wrote the family blog yesterday. Sorry about that.

Esther had a birthday treat with friends Lauren and Amy and Kezia. They went to a mosaic workshop and then came back here for  a birthday lunch. I had to work at the church office yesterday, so Esther and Kezia went to Tracey’s in the afternoon.

In the evening we had a video night – watching Aliens in the attic, which was filmed at a friend from church’s huge house. It was very funny seeing it in a film.

Dave had lunch with Buzz – see above

esther turned 13 today making her a teenager (and jane and i feel old). 

amazingly she waited until i got home to open her family present.

we’d been telling her for a few weeks we’d got her a violin which she wasn’t particularly excited about.  so kezia got her a teeny weeny piece of rosin for the bow and jane hid her proper present in her violin case (ipod touch)

during the day the girls went to crazy golf with debbie, laura and laura’s cousin.

meanwhile i went to work and got a ‘be your best’ prize in our team meeting for the project i worked on for a year which ended with a good result last week.  yay.

no idea why this picture came out with esther as a fire-breather.  something to do with internal reflections on my camera.  looks good though hey?

(we’re home now – normal service soon to be resumed)

we’re off to Russell until Sunday so apologies if there’s no updates for a few days.  i might be able to upload something from my phone. we’ll seee

there were great rains in auckland today and i got caught in them.  it made my socks go soggy and my shoes squelch and my suit trousers turned to a funny leather look of wetness.  i’ve dried out now though

it was an inconvenience. but quite fun.  and there were rivers running down the street.  read more here (more dramatic pictures too)

jane spent most of the day in the church office (so avoided the rain) and the girls went to janine’s house and also avoided the rain

i had a good day at work and now we’re on holiday until sunday.  yay!

this is the park next to my office looking rather wet.  there’s half a plan to convert it in to an international cricket pitch.  they might have to do something about the drainage first (and the motorway across the back of it)

and this is the road next to my office which was mostly covered in water (you can see the white van going through some of it).  the white blob near the sign post is where water is springing up through a drain rather than going down.

this evening kezia had swimming and jane went to the cinema with her chum debbie