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today was busy even by our own standards

 

kezia had swimming at 8am for an hour.  jane took her and went running whilst kez was in the pool. 

then they came home and did some tidying for tomorrow

meanwhile i took esther to tennis which took ages because both her doubles and singles matches were evenly matched and every time it looked like one side would win the other would claw back.  we were there in the scorching sun and howling rain between 8 and nearly 11!

whilst esther was playing tennis i popped two buildings along with the car to get two new tyres fitted on to my car, because the spare i’d had put on last week was borderline legal. 

it was excellent they could do the tyre whilst esther was tennising

 

esther and i got home after 11 in time to grab some breakfast (me) and get changed (esther) in time for a family trip to a county show in Helensville

it had all your usual crafty things and animally things.  these jam jars were protected with chicken wire

we went along with our friends the Irvines.  James has a new camera so we could be shooting buddies too which was fun

 

esther loved this.  but we didn’t buy it

and there was some horse jumping to watch too

then this evening we watched an episode of Frozen Planet and jane made some cakes and things for tomorrow

i leave you with this excellent service.  it’s free advertising, but i think they deserve it due to their personalised number plate and nature of their job (pun intended)

 

bye

busy days all round today

jane went to janine’s house for her new prayer meeting. esther had a teacher training day so she went too to play with her friend amy.

esther also got to speak to my mum on the phone which was nice to catch up

i worked from home today as we were expecting visitors this afternoon.  Andy (above, standing next to his name set in concrete) is a professor at University London and i’ve known him for nearly 15 years through telecoms industry things.

he and his wife Sue have been holidaying in new zealand for the last week and a half and were back in auckland for their flight home.  so it was really nice of them to spend their last half day with us.

so, whilst the girls were at swimming, we headed off to Muriwai beach for a walk and a gander at the gannets

then back home for a great meal and more chatting before they left this evening to drive back to their hotel so they can get their plane first thing in the morning.

  

kezia’s swimming is going to change a bit from end of March as her Saturday morning swimming will move to Tuesday evenings so that’s worked out nicely for weekend sleep ins (starting April at least)

 

It was super rainy today and very wet. I did lots of chores and errands and spent lots of money. But now we have a new pool net and I have a new watch and ironing board.

 

Great news – Kezia has been selected to conduct the Auckland Philharmonic. I have applied to be an overnight helper at her camp. I wonder if I will be selected?

Dave went to a church men’s meeting before work, then went to work, then came home and mended the boiler – hoorah!!

I had mainly music today, which seemed to go well. Esther and Kezia had their music lessons.  Kezia has been nominated by her music teachers to be the school representative for music and she  will hopefully be one of 6 children who get a go at conducting the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra. We were both very excited about that.

Dave went to work.

Dave was at his conference today.

I went to work and I might be getting a bit better at it.

The girls went to school and Esther and I went to a netball meeting this evening.

And we cuddled the guinies

Pumpkin

Cookie

And Betty

i’ve been at day 1 of a conference today (that’s dr pepper above).  it was good. 

also nice to see Queen Elizabeth Cunard cruise ship in town

jane met various friends all day.  quite a few of them by the sounds of it

kezia had an opticians appointment and all is well

 

then life group this evening..  just four of us.  but that’s one more than last week.

my computer seems to be ok (at least for now) so here are the pictures of my tyre on the motorway.

oops

Apologies for lack of photos today. My computer is being poorly (not good given its newness).

Anyway, much skyping first thing then church then kezia went to a new friends house in a very big house. The houses claim to fame is that they shot alien in my attic in the attic. A celebrity house no less.

Whilst kezia was there we did some speed domestics, including Esther and I driving got the pool shop for a new pool cleaning net, but finding it closed due to their power being cut off for the day (verified excuse though as we saw some peole loading a massive transformer in to a hole in the street)

Then at 3.30 we all left the street – Jane and Esther to pick up kez and take her to flippa ball ( they won 16-0) and I left to pick up a uk colleague from in auckland

Unfortunately on the way my tyre went flat and shredded itself on the motorway. Luckily I realized what was happening and slowed right down and got on to the hard shoulder successfully. The as man came quickly and changed the tyre. In the end I was just 30minutes late

Then this evening we sat around chatting until I drove them back to their hotel (without incident) at 9. The some skyping, some computer disappointment then bed.

Shame about the computer, but good news I survived the tyre thing without injury nor much inconvenience

foggy morning (as shown in kezia’s photo below)

jane took esther to her tennis.  esther gets better and better.  still no winning games yet (mainly due to some accidental creative scoring from today’s opponent) but it won’t be long.

whilst jane was out, kezia and i constructed her chair for her room (the last big piece of her bedroom furniture).  i notice on the camera she’d also taken some pictures out the window on a sunny day and of her new birthday present bed covers . 

 

i then booked up flights (complicated as we were using combinations of airpoints and at one point kezia was flying on her own, but we’re now all booked on the same flights so that’s good).  also booked our hire car and airport parking, so i think easter’s nearly all sorted.

we then all threw ourselves in the pool for a while before lunch, then we headed in to town to the Silo park to see the Phoenix Foundation.  you may remember we went to see them this time last year, but it was cancelled due to the huge rains.  storms were forecast but luckily it stayed dry

the support band were bannerman.  they had a couple of excellent songs but then were a bit tepid.  we did enjoy the chap with red trousers on in the picture above though.  he was a crazy dancing man but his trousers kept slipping down, so every few minutes he had to stop and hoist them back up again.  much hilarity for the rest of the crowd who were chilly out on the floor with their picnics.

 

phoenix foundation were good.  usual shambolic live show.  not their best ever but well worth the trip.  and it was free

they were playing on a very small stage though

we came home and the girls had another swim

then this evening jane and i went to my colleague and his wife’s 40th ‘incognito’ birthday party

we both wore wigs.  that’s sasha in the picture, not me.  we stood outside for an hour and got munched alive by mozzies.  but other than that a good time was had by all (well us at least)

we were promised crazy big severe thunderstorms today.  and they did come along.  but they were incredibly localised.  jane said there was torrential rain at home but she just went a few hundred metres up the hill in the car and it was all lovely blue sky. and in the office there were plenty of big loud rumbles of thunder but no rain at all

there were plenty of big boats out on the water today including a navy boat which caused another boat to put up some flags

the girls had swimming after school and this evening abbie and darren came round for a raclette

jane had a haircut which looks nice

here’s a good name for a panel beaters (car body repair shop).  a ‘ding’ is a ‘prang’ or scratch/dent on our car

jane and i got married 16 years ago today.  hooray!