Blog

today Telecom (my employer) finally published its prospectus on separating in to two separate entities which it aims to do by end of November (subject to share holder approval).  still not sure what that means for my job though, but the job opportunities in both the two new organisations should be published in the next few weeks.  whatever happens my job won’t be stating the same, so we’ll just have to see what happens …

meanwhile jane is really busy at school doing her normal work and also covering for a colleague who is off this week.

 

here’s a hairbrush i saw on the way back home from work.

my day started early with number 2 of the 8 part lecture series on economics and law at the university.  that was jolly good.  highlight was a lady in the audience asking how economists factored in to their calculations that an animal might not want to be killed for its fur.  The lecturer said it was the same question as how you take account of the feelings of tree on whether it wants to be cut down”.  i suspect that’s the influence maori culture.  After that it was braving the wind and rain to get back to the office.

 

the weather has been quite wild here with winds strong enough to knock our heavy big barbeque sideways on to the ground.  jane and i managed to right it this evening much to the disgust of the numerous cockroaches who are wintering out under its covers (we’ll give it another clean before we start using it just in case you are worried!)

otherwise everyone had good days at school etc

kezia said she was happy for me to show you these photos.  the glasses and nose were from a party bag (the eyebrows are her own – just joking)

kezia was player of the day at flippa ball scoring two goals.  excellent work

this morning was church during the maddest wet and windy weather for a long while (causing another tornado not too far away)

 

the girls went to their friend logan’s birthday party which was a trip to a bowling alley, then parents went round for afternoon tea and chatting which was very good too

 

another exhausting weekend before the new week begins

hello there.

we went to the rugby at the local stadium this evening.  it was japan vs france and we supported both teams.  although i think, like most of the crowd, we quickly sided with the underdogs (japan) who put up a good fight.  there was a great turn out from both french and japanese supporters and the stadium looked mostly full.

 

below is a colleague from work (with the hat on)  i spotted a few rows away.  he’s normally really quiet but was busy jumping up and shouting random things during the quieter moments!

here’s us watching the all blacks last night …

 

this morning jane went out for a run early and then kezia had a music party at a friend’s house to celebrate the fact her friend had reached the end of one of her music books!  So the girl’s piano teacher came along and they had a little concert and kezia did a couple of pieces and that was all good

meanwhile esther and i went to play mini golf where there it was just us and 4 drunk (but good natured) rugby fans at 11am ! 

esther and i also went to a swimming pool shop to start our mental preparation for getting the pool ready for swimming (when it gets a bit warmer).  we also went for lunch and ice creams and browns bay and took a book about memory back to the library which i’d nearly forgotten i had.

we parked near our old house to get the stadium so were able to use some local knowledge to find a good park(ing spot). it turned out perfect for getting back home after too!

finally, i’ll leave you with one of the many mexican waves which came washing by

the rugby kicked off today so there was/is a massive party in downtown auckland.

things were being set up as i walked from the bus station for work, and there were already loads of people all along the waterfront when i popped out at lunch time

by the time we all left work at 3.30pm (let home early due to transport issues and people wanting to party) it was completely heaving

but in a good natured kiwi way

but there were so many people that you couldn’t really get anywhere.  And with the activities spread all along the water front, people who weren’t standing still waiting for something to happen were moving very slowly in random directions

 

i decided i wasn’t going to get any great pictures so i headed home on a rather empty bus (unlike the buses still heading in to town which were completely overloaded)

these are the tribal war boats arriving

people took any vantage point to see what was going on

 

 

this is ‘the cloud’ (or ‘slug’) which is the location of ‘party central’

lots of south africans

this is where the waka’s parked up.

here are some french people

 

english fans seemed to be the one drinking the most.  there was coverage on the news warmup show before the match from a place down south where lots of english people are staying and whenever they went across live to the presenter there were topless fat english drunk blokes jumping in front of the camera. 

 

at one stage an england fan completely removed his trousers whilst singing sing low sweet chariot (luckily his immodesty was covered by a fellow supporter).

some pictures from earlier in the day

  

 

kezia had a rugby parade at school which went well, and jane’s cover lessons today were ok too.

new zealand is often called the land of the long white cloud for good reason (it’s occasionally called the ‘land of the wrong white crowd’ but that’s another story).  today was a good example.  here are some pictures from the bus window

esther has today and tomorrow off school so went to her chum amy’s house and had a great day.  jane had a busy day too with school and housework.  She’s covering for a teacher who is off work for a week starting tomorrow so is going to be very busy.  it’s good though as hopefully she’ll be able to do more cover work once her maternity cover finishes at the end of the year

the rugby world cup start tomorrow and the build up is already in full swing.  i’ve not really been exploring this week so apologies for the lack of pictures.  i’ll see what i can manage for tomorrow for you!

i was back to work today which was good.  here’s the view out of one of our conference room windows with a big picture of the rugby world cup on it. 

jane had a busy day zooming about the place and the girls had violin and swimming after school.

esther had compulsory face painting for some rugby world cup thing which involved having a green face as they had adopted the south african team.  unfortunately it didn’t scrub off properly so the class spent the rest of the day looking quite ill

at lunch i spent a happy half hour in the bank shuffling money.  exciting.

i was off sick today but ended up doing half a day’s work this afternoon anyway.  kezia’s friend from next door came round after work and jane had lunch with her chums and did some teaching.  

just school, work and stuff

our church met for the first time in its new home – the school gym.  i was playing bass, so thankfully wasn’t on sound.  i say thankfully as it was a morning of  a multitude of sonic gremlins as the 10 year old equipment fought its last fight, knowing it’s soon to be replaced.

the rest of the day we’ve been mooching about the house doing homework, UK tax return (finally submitted, hoorah), filling in an immigration form which we need to submit once we’ve been here 2 years (less than 6 weeks time)

kezia’s team fought the good fight (second use of the word ‘fought’ in today’s update.  and there’s another one) but lost their flippa ball match 4-6.  that’s the first time they’ve lost this season though.  and like last week the team they were playing had a lad so tall the water was only up to his waist which gave him a bit of an advantage.

this evening it’s been rummikub and family skyping.