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the day started with a lot of manic tidying ready for the house photographer and the open house.   hopefully we’ll see the fruits of the photography soon enough on leaflets etc.

meanwhile we drove up north to Matakana to enjoy the shopping and the saturday morning country market.

 

after much browsing, and a hot drink by the wharf, we drove over to tawharanui which is our favourite beach

 

we normally go there in the height of summer so it was interesting to go on a bit of a windy day.  it was freezing by any means (there were people in the sea in their bikinis and plenty of blokes in shorts and jandals) but it was a bit windy.

we had a picnic then went for a walk up and down the beach a bit

 

that’s a kingfisher in a tree.   when i was looking for a better picture of one for you to look at i found this page of common birds of the new zealand forest you might find interesting.  we also saw a wax eye this afternoon.

then this evening my mum kindly babysitted whilst jane and i went to the Wine Box and had a lovely meal

that’s my meal above which was called something like three wild meats.  from left to right it’s kangaroo, ostrich and lamb.  i know what you are thinking, lambs aren’t that wild.  and i think you’re right.  it was all very nice though.

 

(some of the faces on today’s pictures are wonky due to camera distortions rather than physical deformity)

the day started with a trip to the dentist to learn about what work needs to be done in kezia’s mouth.  quite a lot by the sounds of it.  i didn’t pass out in the explaining room, but it was a close thing.  i did have to run off to the bathroom at one point, but all was well.  next step is to receive a CD with various photos and explanations of the plan of action.  it’s not going to be cheap friends.

after that i drove mum in to town and she spent the day doing a great boat trip round auckland harbour whilst i was busy at work.  we met up after work and had a drink before heading home.  here we are at sunset, and here’s mum with a rainbow on her face.

esther and kezia both had friends round today and jane did school prep.  this evening esther’s been out at a dinner party with her friends and then we all watched the royal wedding for various amounts.

tomorrow we’ve got another open home and also a photographer coming to take proper pictures of the house so we need to tidy up early then be out for the day.

the ladies went to a cafe first thing this morning and then esther and kezia both had friends round for the rest of the day.

various lights in the house tripped as a result of the heavy rain so that made us pleased we didn’t buy this house.  although hopefully someone else will!

i got given my ipad at work and had to pose for a photo.  bizarrely though it’s a first generation ipad but they gave me the receipt so i could pay to replace it with a second generation one.  that was going to cost me $160 or something which didn’t go down very well with jane! 

i went by the shop on the way home to understand the options and decided on a more basic second generation version which ends up costing the same (but won’t have 3G).  And it may be a few weeks before i get it as they’ve not got any in stock. 

embarrassingly they’ve put a photo of me with a cheesy smile on our company intranet page so everyone knows i won it now.

and we’ve got this sign outside our house now.  apparently a proper photographer is coming on sunday to take some professional pictures so that’s encouraging.

tonight we watched a couple of episodes of South and now it’s now.

mum took the girls to a pottery painting place today and then this afternoon mum and kezia went to feed the birds

i went to work, paid the final deposit on our house, posted a letter to the tax people and then felt ill so came home and worked here for the rest of the day.  actually it turned out very well as i needed to use my big screen at home for some excel stuff.    unfortunately it meant i missed a computer society event in town i was going to go to with Warren.  ho hum.

photos today are from my mum.  not bad!

i went to work and was busy.  the ladies went to various shops.  this evening jane, my mum and I watched the 2004 Kath and Kim Christmas special.

we’re living the dream.

(the picture above is of the easter present vitamin drink given to me by my boss)

Today it was very wet all day with very wet Auckland rain. Kezia went to a friend’s to play, while the rest of us stayed in and watched NZ Masterchef, played on the computer and played Rummicub. We had a brief sortie to the sales, along with the rest of NZ.

 

It was also ANZAC day today. Kezia made some delicious Anzac biscuits in celebration.

See ya

the easter bunny left small eggs all over the house this morning which delighted esther and kezia

 
jane spent many hours at church this morning as she was in the choir.  it was a great easter celebration

this afternoon we took it easy whilst grazing on chocolate then headed over to long bay beach for a walk

 
then it was back for a slap up roast dinner with warren and debbie and ngahuia then much laughing etc

the day started by us rushing round the house tidying and hiding things in readiness for our open home.  this is where the house is open to the general public for an hour to allow perspective buyers to come round.  we obviously want this house to be sold so the new owners can let us out of our lease, so it’s in our interest to make it look as good as possible.

despite the lack of adverts for the house, it had 4 visitors and one stayed for 30 minutes which is hopeful.  we’ll see what, if anything happens next.  we’re resigned to being here until end of July!

here’s my desk tidied up for the open home which happened whilst we were having lunch in browns bay.  the house is now advertised on the web here with rather bad photos i think.

after the tidying we headed off to Brown’s Bay to go to Shirley’s funeral.  it was a real church affair with lots of good memories, although i found the open casket a little surprising initially.

whilst jane and i were at the funeral, my mum looked after esther and kezia. ‘looking after’ meant a trip to the toy shop, hot chips and chocolate !

then we all went together with our friend debbie (that’s not her above) for lunch in a cafe until it was safe to head back to our house again

then this afternoon we went to shakespeare’s park in the lovely sunshine

spot the esther

here’s a marshmallow that jane dropped

 

here’s my mum

and here’s a picture she took of kezia and me yesterday

happy good friday everyone

 

this morning we all got up late and jane and esther headed out to the supermarket as we’d run out of food.

unfortunately it’s good friday and, like easter sunday, christmas day and ANZAC day morning, only local dairies (7-11 shops), eateries, pharmacies and petrol stations are allowed to open.  so the trip wasn’t very successful.  although she did come back with pastries for breakfast which was good.

other quaint quirks about good friday is there are no adverts on the television or radio all day, and you can’t buy alcohol in the shops that are open.

if you have a shop and you open you get fined $1000 (about 500 pounds) so a few shops recon it’s worth it and open anyway!

then it was over to auckland cathedral with our friends bruce and fleur for their family good friday service which was really good

 

mum loved the cathedral building which she thought was very much like coventry cathedral, although in fact the old bit of it is a copy of guildford cathedral.  we had tea and hot cross buns after the service and hung out with the vicars like spriritual groupies (or something)

we drove home in the rain, had lunch, then headed out to brick bay sculpture park.  It took a while to get there due to holiday traffic, but the place itself was quite empty

the weather cleared up as we arrived and stayed good for the rest of the day

 

both kez and i had cameras, so today’s photos are a mix of shots.

here’s some sculptures

 

then this evening mum showed us her photos from her new zealand tour on the telly screen so that was good to get the full story too.  she took some rather good photos.  i’ll see if she’ll let me put a few up on a gallery somewhere

finally, here’s a picture of kezia taking a picture of autumn colours

the ladies went to the zoo today and had a great time by all reports

i had a busy day at work, but left a bit early thanks to jane driving back via my office on the way home.  there was lots of leaving early for the long weekend so that was ok

at 5.30pm i got a call on my work mobile which i answered only to find out i had won an ipad !  it’s a was a lucky dip for all the people who had signed up to a health challenge thing at work, so that’s a bit of a result!   i’m very excited about that.  not sure when i’ll get it though.

this evening jane has gone out to her choir rehearsal for the church services on sunday

and the rest of us played the ‘great moa hunt’

here’s an easter present i got from my boss.  wasn’t quite sure what to think

the animal pictures are all taken by kezia (jane took the ones which include kezia)