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i had a really busy day at work and the chances of me spending much time at the conference i’m enrolled on for the next three days are rapidly reducing.  it was only $35 though and is right by my office so that’s not a big problem!

jane had her first full day of extra lessons today.  sounded like a frustrating day, but nothing that was her fault. 

the girls had good days at school.  we had some serious rain and thunder at work leaving time and the adults are all tired and chilly! other than that, all good.

winter has properly arrived – it was 5 degrees as i drove to the bus station this morning and 10 degrees in our bedroom.  we can’t wait for the new house with its proper heating!

after school jane took the girls to look round a secondary school which had an open day.  so that’s another possibility for esther in a few years time perhaps.  there was also various skypings going on this evening.

here is vintage advert for NZ tourism (aimed at local NZers who hadn’t been out exploring their own country).  It appeared in our paper so i thought i’d share it with you. Go There Now !

jane was going to go running at 5.45am but texted her friend mara at 5.30 to call it off as it had been absolutely chucking it down all night.  so she had a bit of a lie in before taking kezia for flippa ball practice at 7.30am! 

esther and i met them at church at 9am, and one of esther’s friends from her class also came along for the first time so that was good.

after church we we came home, finished the jigsaw (yeah!), did some chores and then went to debbie and warren’s for afternoon tea.  Then i took kezia for her flippa ball match (they won 6-2) and then this evening there’s a load of skyping going on.

jane starts her extra lessoning tomorrow (although i think tomorrow is an easy-ish day), so you can be thinking of her this week!

today we went to mangawhai heads (pronounced ‘manga fie’) as we haven’t been on an adventure for a while which was a source of much sadness.

so, after a load of mad tidying for another open home, we hit the road for the hour and half drive up north

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first off we went to the information place where the volunteer called beatrice seemed a little unsure of what to recommend we saw (other than chocolate factory which she mentioned twice).

she did recommend we walked up a big hill though which wasn’t actually that big, but did have a great view. 

 

then we went for lunch at a lovely place which had been recommended in the news paper and in various guidebooks and things.  it was a french bistro type place with a genuine french couple working there (with fantastic cute french accents).  we had to wait a fair while for our food to arrive but it was lovely.

it was called frog and kiwi.  the salt and pepper were appropriately shaped.

then we went to the chocolate factory which wasn’t factorying, but was showing a video about making chocolate and did have a shop.

then we went to a lovely art shop place where they had these fantastic bird houses on a stick!

finally we drove down to the ‘heads’ and walked along the beach

 

kezia collected paua

 

and we saw what is a dead puffer fish. 

 

 

we then drove back in the pouring rain.

and this evening we’ve been having a final family push on the jigsaw.  we’re not quite there yet, but hopefully will be by the end of the weekend.

 

here’s a charity which sold everything including the kitchen sink.  in fact it had two kitchen sinks

and i got this hat for jane as a surprise birthday present.  but she found me with it in the shop and told me she hated it even though i’d just paid for it.  it’s made out of old shopping carrier bags, rolled up and tied together. 

 

we left it on the parcel shelf of the car and kezia said it made my car look like an old lady’s car.

 

there was a lovely but weird pinky sunrise this morning which was really lovely but needed a tripod to capture properly.  it was probably in part caused by the chilean volcanic cloud which is making its second pass over New Zealand. 

much of my day was spent in cafes.  i had my regular catch up with my boss in a cafe, then we had a team get together in a cafe, and then i met buzz for lunch in the food court.  that was all going well until buzz accidentally got chilli in his eye.  that’s exactly why you should always wear a precautionary eye patch to lunch (probably)

 

jane had another good day at school and got her final instructions from her boss who is off to Wellington College in the UK and Geneva for a few weeks

 

i met everyone at the swimming pool after work (finding a short cut from the park and ride bus station that everyone else in the family already knew about)

then this evening we watched the final episode of the antarctic documentary and then jane and i watched a film.  well, i watched half of it and then gave up.  (which is only fair as jane gave up on napoleon dynamite last weekend!)

everyone seems in a jollier mood in our house today which is nice.  the weather promised wind and rain and possibly tornadoes but we just got the rain, so that was good.

jane had a good day at school and they all went to tracey’s house after school.  i chaired an industry meeting this morning then spent much of the rest of the day writing another document so that kept me busy.

this evening there’s been much jigsaw doing.

and the pound continues to fall in anticipation of us moving a large sum of money across from the UK when our house sells.  poo!  http://secure.currencyonline.com/charts/GBP/NZD

really busy day at work for me.  i seemed to be writing document from the moment i hit my chair this morning.

the girls seemed to have a good day at school and i picked up kezia from swimming this evening. 

jane’s had her briefing from her boss about the extra lesson she’s covering over the next few weeks.  sounds like the lessons are on something jane enjoys teaching so that’s good.

jane and me are very tired, so it’s lucky the night is so long.

i’ve felt too hot for most of the day.  i think it’s because the outside temperature has dropped to the point where the heating in various buildings has been switched on and turned up.

And when the sun’s out it’s still lovely and warm, so a lunchtime walk turned in to a nice adventure over by where the harbour to look at some fishing boats and see where they are doing some excellent building work which should be done by the rugby world cup

meanwhile esther had some tests for her international school competition test things (one was spelling which she reluctantly entered, but found it quite easy).  She did them last year two and it took months to get the results back so hopefully she’ll get something by xmas!

kezia was in a jolly mood this evening too and is making great headway with her piano practice.

and it turns out esther has been learning japanese without me properly realising.

this evening we had our life group.  Jane went and got a new DVD for us to watch from the church office by a chap called Jeff Lucas.  It’s about Jonah (the Whale guy) and the first episode was filmed at the Majeski Stadium in Reading!  

I was delighted to see a pile of british bollards in the background at one point.

and of course today is our longest night which means you southernhemisphericals can enjoy our longest day.  a fair swap.

see ya

esther’s trombone lessons was in the middle of test so she had a to reschedule it, but that ended up being a test day too.  but it’s all sorted now, so don’t worry.

we got a letter home with kezia saying she’s been picked to do the ICAS English thing which is a some advanced studying competition thing which esther also did.  you can read more here http://www.eaa.unsw.edu.au/about_icas/english

it was very rainy this morning and quite chillsome meaning thermals and hat in bed.  but the day time is warm enough.  And by chillsome i mean around 10 degrees Celsius (inside and outside) so not dreadful.  And it was mid teens coming home this evening.

progress is being made on the jigsaw

and we tested some different sorts of rice pudding this evening.  The girls had never had it before.  i described it as ‘milky slop with rice in’ but that didn’t really help.

they rejected both their varieties so i ended up with a number of bowls to work through.  i did 4 then stopped.

And i think jane had a fairly quiet day

church, rain, friends, jigsaw, skype and flippa ball