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busy days for all today.  work is as madly busy for me as usual and jane spent too long in a shop not managing to get her ipod replaced, so i’ll go along and shout at them tomorrow.

we’ve also not managed to hear anything about our UK house selling via our letting agents so hopefully that’s still ok – not least because our new mortgage starts here next thursday (although we don’t move in until the friday).  and i managed to break some software on my computer which i use regularly so that’s a pain

and the exchange rate daily reaches new lows.  so that’s all the harrumphs out of the way

meanwhile esther got a glowing report from school including a loads of ‘excellents’.  three of which were for Japanese!  this evening was swimming, party preparation and cheese on toast whilst watching another program from a series about rivers.

the picture above was taken just after a dog walked across our work reception area.  dogs aren’t such a feature of new zealand so it was interesting to see one go by inside at work!

 

it was kezia’s parents evening today, except it was in the afternoon.  and it was run by kezia not the teacher.  all very good though.  she showed us what her objectives were for this year and what she’s done to meet them.  then we had a guided tour round her artworks around the room.  she did the turtle above

i worked from home today as kezia only had half a day of school due to the student-led conferences (i think that’s what they are called).  lots of meetings by phone for me though so i was plenty busy. 

and some people came to look round the house today (pre-booked before we banned ad hoc visitors) and they asked me a few questions like ‘is your house cold’ so that was interesting.

this evening i drove in to town to go to a leaving do and jane’s gone to crafty chicks

so that’s that. and jane’s mended i think.

jane seems to be nearly back to normal which is good news for everyone.  she had an ok day at school despite some dvd playing problems in one of her lessons.

esther played her trombone at a whole school assembly with her concert band which sounded like fun.

i finished a big document i’ve been working on for 2 weeks which we had to submit to the regulator this afternoon.  and of course, despite doing everything i could to avoid last minute hitches a whole raft of things sprang forth.  but all was well and the document was submitted on time

the big misery of the day though was that our letting agents brought someone to look round the house when we weren’t here and without our permission.  the house was a bit of a mess (but not hugely luckily) but nevertheless we were pretty annoyed with them.

it fell to me to get annoyed directly with them and they’ve agreed not to have anyone else round (except a family prebooked for tomorrow) until after we’ve left. so that just leaves the open home next sunday then we’re done. 

videos today are from jane and my trip to muriwai last saturday morning

poor jane’s still got the lurgy. she managed to do her lessons at school , but came home for a sleep during her free lessons in the day. just as she arrived home the people who were meant to be looking round our house yesterday arrived a day late so that wasn’t too great. however, they liked the house and are coming back on thursday to look again.

in an ideal world they’ll want to move in just after we move out to save ourselves a week or two of rent as it looks like july could be an expensive month with us paying a very high NZ mortgage, our UK mortgage (if that doesn’t complete soon) and rent here. gulp.

i had lunch with buzz which was good. and i skipped home group to help jane with the evening routine so she could sleep on the sofa whilst watching british tv programs.

kezia’s also exhausted and went to bed just after 7. she’s been out fishing with school (using rods they constructed themselves) during the day but didn’t catch anything. they had fish and chips for lunch but it wasn’t a big portion she said.

jane’s still got her stinking cold, but managed to survive a day at school.  i had a slightly depressing day at work (who would chose to work in telecoms regulation?) although we did pop out for another leaving lunch.  this time for someone on secondment.

this evening’s been homework, music, going to bed tired and some prearranged skyping of jane’s parents.  they kindly posed for this picture as i hadn’t taken any suitable ones today

at some point i managed to find out we couldn’t use a sterling account based in new zealand to offset our mortgage (it was a long shot), arranged for insurance for our house move and arranged for jane to get a new ipod because her old one has broken (but we bought an extended guarantee so we get a replacement one)

jane went running at 5.30 or something this morning, then took kezia to her 7.30 flippa ball training. 

esther and i walked up to church and met kezia and jane at 9am.    esther and i are also walked back home which is good for chatting.

this afternoon jane went back to bed as she was feeling quite ill with a stinking cold, but left instructions for kezia and me to make some fancy chicken dinner for someone from church who has just had a baby.  

so we made it then we drove over to give it to the people which was a bit strange as i’ve no idea who they are and they didn’t know me.  thinking about it we may have possibly delivered it to the wrong house (!)  [we didn’t]

i went shopping for plastic boxes in a place called ‘plastic box’ in preparation for us moving. and the rest of the day has been spent doing chores/homework/music practice and generally being exhausted.

 

jane and i got to have a morning out just the two of us today as Debbie took esther and kezia to watch laura play netball

so we set off and had breakfast in a cafe surrounded by chickens

that’s my hot chocolate above

then we drove over to muriwai and spend an excellent couple of hours wandering slowly over the walk way past the gannet colony watching the sea crashing against the rocks. 

you may remember muriwai from previous times we’ve visited – it’s the one with the gannets and magnetic volcanic sand.

 

this afternoon we spent ages tidying for yet another open home (only one more to go for us now, woohoo!). just before we’d finished tidying the doors opened and the public flooded in (well, a few did).

it looks like our landlords might sell the house by auction after we’ve moved out, but they might also rent it as there are people coming round to look round on monday during the day

during the open home kezia and i did some window shopping round the shops, whilst jane and esther did some proper shopping.  kezia and i then had a nana-nap (afternoon sleep) because poor old kezia has been under the weather with a stinking cold.

then this evening we’ve been round to Biffy and Malcolm’s house (we know thm from church) and they invited a couple of their friends.  Both of the friends work at jane’s school – one is a maths teacher and the other does all the timetable admin, so that was good.

then we played a card game and came home

can you spot the gannets and surfers in the picture above?

these are rock fishermen, seemingly risking their lives for an old fish or two

here’s a video

so, all in all a very nice day

jane’s now got the stinky cold thing too.  poor things.

guess what.  we had an earthquake this evening.   we didn’t feel it (unlike plenty of other people which makes me wonder why we didn’t!). 

we were hosting the music team party at our house at the time, so probably the weight of 30 grown ups held the house in place.  perhaps.

busy day at work for me again, with a little bit of fun in the middle of the day as we went out for lunch to celebrate one of our colleagues moving to a different department.

jane had a good day at school, then spent much of the day tidying up for the party. the girls had swimming and it was good.

here’s a fast food chip on the pavement.  goodnight

it was cold enough for frosty car windows this morning (and nearly cold enough for frosty eyelids inside!).  actually, we’ve got our electric heater set up with a timer so it warmed us up nicely this morning (sort of)

jane had a busy day with her extra classes, but i think all’s going well i think

 

i dipped in and out of the conference today, although one session turned in to an anti-telecom rant so i kept a very low profile!

and when i bought my sandwich from the french bakery today they gave me a massive free french stick which was very impractical to carry round for the day

we got esther’s school report for her languages (japanese), music (piano and guitar at school) and cookery and all was very good.  They just dip in and out of those subjects at the moment, but it’s good to know she’s getting on well

here’s a glove.  told you it was cold

and this evening i’ve been the official photographer for two of my colleagues who are leaving.  here’s a couple of pictures:

both the leavers looked pretty pleased about it!

 

just as i got home we had a call asking if we can host the church music party tomorrow evening as the hosts are sick.  we’ll find out for sure tomorrow morning.

i’ve been in and out of a conference all day.  you can read about it here.  or follow the hastag

probably about a quarter of the attendees had ipads which was interesting.  they really are quite ubiquitous now.

i skipped the cocktail reception so i could pick up kezia from swimming.  her friend’s mum has invited us to go skiing one weekend so that sounds exciting.

 

jane had a good day at school today and a teacher she hadn’t met before said jane had done some excellent reports for her class so that’s great praise.

only 16 more sleeps in our current house.  it’ll be not a day too soon as temperatures (outside and therefore inside) at night are dropping towards freezing!