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esther got a ‘pewter certificate’ today.  we also got an email from her teacher which said:

Hi

I just want to send you this e-mail to inform you that your child has completed a Static Image of an exceptional high standard. You can be very proud of the work he or she has produced in class.

the teacher obviously hasn’t worked out whether esther is a boy or girl, but nevertheless, that’s good.

kezia had her swimming squad after school, and jane’s been busy with school.

i did a presentation down a phone to a group of telecoms operators who supported what i was hoping they would support in quite a painless way so that was good.  (the real challenge will be the repeat version on friday to a more senior crowd).

we’ve had quotes from moving companies back so hopefully we’ll get that booked tomorrow along with our mortgage arrangement and then we can start really planning for the big move!

kezia had her first swimming race today.  she was in two races, one of which was butterfly!  the objective was to get a decent time so she can move up swimming group. she seemed pleased with how she got on.  she’s entered in to another race or two on saturday where esther and i will get to watch.

busy days at work for me.  not sure what jane was up to.

 

esther had a day off school so spent the day with her friend amy.  apparently they did mini golf and went to a poodle parlour. then this evening she had

like all good parts of the empire, new zealand proudly celebrates the queen’s birthday with a public holiday

jane went running with her friend mara at 6am i think and the rest of us got up late.  the morning was spent doing various homeworks

then after lunch we went to wenderholm park to walk up the hill there

it’s been on my to do list for over a year, and although the walk was mostly uphill (except the downhill bits) we all had a nice time

the sea was so completely flat it was amazing

  

this evening we’ve been back to the normal routine with music practices etc

and here’s kezia’s home work which she’s been working on for a week or so.  the fishes stick out from the background so it looks even better in real life.

esther has a teacher training day today so is going to her friend amy’s house tomorrow whilst the rest of us are back to work.  feeling even more exhausted that we were before the long weekend!

 

we’ve been meaning to go to Miranda for ages. Today after church we finally got there

it was a 90 car journey and there’s a fantastic bird sanctuary area when you get there.

we saw a few birds, but we would have seen more if we went at high tide

 

kingfisher

we also saw what we thought were loads of big cockroaches running about, but as we got closers it was dozens of little crabs

each time we got anywhere near they would all dive down a hole or slink under in to a puddle.  very funny.

 

we eventually made it to the hide

esther and i sat round the front as it was nicer

 

birds here have often flown down from alaska

after the hide we went for a drive about and found our 500th geocache …

… and a few curious

 

and then we headed over to the hot pools at miranda for a couple of hours.  the water was really warm and we all went in this time

on the way back through the dark streets kezia noted there were lots of stars out.  so we parked by the side of the road, switched off all the lights and were totally amazed by the sight of the milky way.  quite incredible.  i didn’t even attempt to photograph it. 

it’s taken me nearly 40 years to see.  and i’m sure it won’t be the last!

 

bank holiday tomorrow for the queen’s birthday.   excellent.  see ya

busy day today – esther’s friend sunny came round this morning whilst kezia and i went to watch the prize giving at a local art gallery.  the subject was rabbits/hares and kezia’s school got a $100 merit award for their rabbit stuck down a giant hat.  they were very pleased.  she was one of only a couple of people who made it to the ceremony so that was good.

this afternoon kezia went to play with her friend and jane and i took esther round to our friends layne and lorraine’s house so esther could show their daughter what violin playing was all about as she might be starting lessons

and then after that the three of use went to our new house to look at whether we wanted to buy their fridge.

we ended up spending nearly an hour with the current owners.  they had the house built themselves and were rightly pleased with all the features.  we were pleased to still like it!  And delighted when they greeted us at the door in bare feet.  it’s definitely a warm house so that’s good news

 

we got home just in time for kezia to arrive back from her friend’s house where they’d be practicing dance moves i think.  then it was free time for an hour until it was time to get ready for our fondue with buzz, wendy, robyn and maisey.  we had a great time with them.  buzz and i shared a couple of bottles of fuller’s ale which i found in the local bottle shop.

after the art show kezia and i had a quick look round a nearby run down shopping area to see if we could find anywhere for lunch.  we didn’t find a cafe (we later found a McDonalds up the road) but we did find an excellent charity shop where we bought a couple of jigsaws (we weren’t tempted to rifle through the bra and underwear boxes!).  then we went in to a laundrette to watch clothes spinning about in the big washers.  kezia thought it was great fun.  and so did i.

the gale force winds seem to have died down now, and our trampoline hadn’t blown away.  so that’s all good.  plenty of rain though.  see ya

i worked from home today and so i walked kezia to school which was nice.  she updated me on her teeth extraction and in fact she lost 4 teeth yesterday – one fell out in the morning and the other three were extracted.  She seemed completely unphased by it all so that was good.

we had someone round to quote for moving our house this morning which was 30 minutes spent opening cupboard doors.  And then jane and i went for lunch

jane spent most of the day exam marking both at school and at home so i took the girls to their swimming lessons this evening.  it worked well as i just sat and read a book whilst the girls did their thing. 

no sign of kezia watch which she lost there last wednesday though which is a shame. whilst she was swimming esther and i got to look through all the lost expensive things out of the swimming pool office safe which was good fun but fruitless.  we even had a look through the lost clothes basket at the side of the pool which involved us having to pick past various underwears which was a bit disturbing for both of us.  at one point esther said ‘why isn’t kezia doing this’.  good point.

esther had a school visit from the school dentist in his little van.  it sounded very cramped in there.  ask her next time you speak to her.  she’s got no serious work to do, but has an appointment for some cleaning in a couple of weeks.   And she had a celebration afternoon tea at school for the queen’s birthday (public holiday on monday) and had to take their own decorations.  here’s her glass.

this evening we watched the final instalment of North which was all about Auckland, and then jane and i watched Cemetery Junction which was jolly good.

kezia had two teeth out at the dentist today to make some space for some other teeth to descend.  apparently all went well and she phoned me shortly after to say she got a free pencil and a couple of erasers shaped like teeth she can take to school. 

jane said her cheeks were all numb so it was like she had been botoxed!

i can only report this back second hand because i’ve been out at a work leaving do this evening where i ate all sorts of strange unmarked indian food.  it was quite tasty actually.

otherwise, all was good i think.

i drove to work this morning and it took 30 minutes door to door.  it takes about 45 by bus.  the cost of parking is the same as the bus fare.  interesting.

kezia was the star of the day at her swimming squad this evening, but then lost her watch so wasn’t star of the family. hopefully it’ll turn up in the lost property in a day or two.  she also published a poem here

jane did more invigilating at school.  i had a busy day at work and esther’s sponsorship money is still flowing in.

here are a couple of nice kiwi spellings

mediam coffee and a chunk of parmescan

busy days for all.  kezia and esther have both entered a story competition to win an ipad.  jane had coffees with chums.  And life group was a social as most people couldn’t make it.  Thomas came along though and brought a load of persimmons with him.  esht er was the bravest and had first bite. 

her verdict was quite juicy and sweet, but ultimately fairly tasteless.  interesting

there was a cruise ship in the harbour today which was a bit of a surprise.  they don’t come by so much in the winter.  this is the pacific pearl which is based in auckland.

jane had a great day today, having coffee with various chums and doing good things at school.  she also escorted a lady from a different estate agents round our house as our landlords might try selling using a different agent.

that’s it for today really.  it’s starting to be quite chilly in the mornings, but you probably don’t need to hear about such trivialities.

we got confirmation we’re on the electoral roll which is exciting.  the general election is on the 26th November (i think) and there’s also a referendum on the voting system.  we have MMP at the moment, so we’re going to have to learn all about different voting systems like you went through in the UK a few months ago.  be interesting to see what happens i think.  you can read a little more here