Blog

 

i saw this melon on the way to work.  there was another bit in a plastic bag round the corner.  and there’s been some slight progress on the office wall project.

meanwhile jane took kezia to the doctors and came back with a barrel of various eczema creams.  kezia also found out that she’s in the inter-school swimming next week.  she found that out at school, not the doctors.

jane’s gone out to the meeting which she went to a week early last week to talk about her thoughts on how children made the transition from primary to junior school and what could be better

still really gorgeous weather here (in case you was wonderin’)

we all had a nice lie in this morning before heading over to camp for a 10.30 start.  more retro songs which was jolly good and a good talk on how we can be a better church community.  all excellent biblical stuff.

the camp ended after lunch, so after packing stuff down we headed off homewards.  Esther went with her friend sunny to see Rango and was disappointed by it (as kezia had been on friday night).  meanwhile kezia, jane and i went to a cafe next to a funky playpark where they are about to build a new min-town.  we’ve got no intention of living there, but it’s interesting to see it before it’s built

then we headed home and kezia watched TV like only a youngster can (dangling upside down from a sofa).  esther came home, did loads of homework and music practice.  i think kezia might be a bit under the weather so she went to bed real early.

here’s a video i made of the church camp

it was our church ‘camp’ today.  it was at the same place as last year, and we decided just to be day trippers rather than stay over night

this year the theme was ‘retro’ and the day started with some rather retro church songs

for our church these are REALLY retro

 

i left home at 7am with the giant amp we’d picked up last night from the church centre, which of course we didn’t end up using,  but hey ho

here are some more pictures from the day

there was a bit of tsunami-ness round new zealand today due to the japan earthquake and apparently weird water patterns throughout the day.

i walked to and from the park and ride bus today so that was good exercise.  the girls had swimming after school and kezia then went to a birthday party which was a trip to see Rango (i think that’s what it’s called).

meanwhile i went to the church office with jane and picked up an incredibly heavy speaker and some other stuff for church camp tomorrow

 

apparently there’s a tsunami on its way to new zealand due to the dreadful japan earthquake, but it’s not thought we’ll have much to worry about (although those in japan are obviously in a very different situation).  Our tsunami updates are here and the official emergency info here

 

Meanwhile and on a much lighter note, this fantastic show of kiwi ingenuity is causing a bit of a media splash here at the moment:

A long drop toilet is a non flushing toilet.  often a do it yourself thing where you dig a hole in the ground.  many people in christchurch still don’t have any sewerage pipes so have been making do.  this website catalogues some of the best designs.  have a look through the site. some of these are absolute genius.

this morning started with a fork in the road as the sun rose over auckland town

 

and the aurora was parked up looking all nice

we’ve all been feeling a bit better, although kezia is covered in bites which is a bit itchy

esther’s entered a load of international maths competitions through school which will happen throughout the rest of the year

i had another day at work, including doing my first meeting as chair of an industry working group.  that all went well, so that was good

jane took the girls to move their bank accounts to the same bank we use which should make everyone’s life easier with pocket money.

and now jane and i are going to watch ‘The invention of lying’.

i went to the supermarket to get my lunch and had a free sample of precooked smoked chicken.  it was very nice so i’ve taken a picture so jane can see it and buy us some !

everyone is exhausted and i think jane and i are a bit under the weather.  i’ve felt pretty rough for the last week and have been busy popping the ibuprofen. jane is really tired too so i suspect we’ve got the first of this season’s lurgies now the mornings are dark until 7am. 

kezia had her swimming club after school and these boxes were on the floor at my work.  we also had a fire drill at work which turned out not to be a drill, but there didn’t seem to be a fire either.  who knows.

sorry for incomprehensibleness.  early night for me.

not too much to report today.  esther had a ‘mufti’ day with various entertainment and cakes to raise money for christchurch.

my buses are getting really busy thanks to the students being back at university.  4 went by full this evening before i eventually managed to squeeze on one.  that’s not so good.

i got back (late) to see everyone enjoying their pancakes

and we’ve been out to our church lifegroup this evening.  and now it’s now.  see ya

 

it felt cold getting up this morning which is a shame.  it must have been in the low teens thanks to a cloudless night and southerly winds.  But by the end of the day it was 22degrees.  that pattern looks to continue for the next week or so

everyone had good days at school

i had my 6 month review at work and all is going well and on track which is good.  this evening jane went to a meeting at esther’s school only to find she was a week early, so she regained her evening !

Here’s a light (or perhaps heavy) story from Christchurch

here’s jane’s homework from esther’s teacher !

this morning we went to church. skip and bruce were doing video recording and sound and had inadvertently ended up with matching jeans and t-shirts

the girls and i watched despicable me this afternoon whilst jane was out at a church meeting, and then this evening i went for walk with warren round long bay

kezia had her second flippa ball competition and was less successful this week.  at least she got to touch the ball this week

the weather finally sorted itself out late this afternoon.  just in time for going back to work tomorrow !

sadly today was bit of a day for milling round the house and generally be annoying to each !  

i met up with a chap who is regulatory consultant in a cafe to chat about the New Zealand market and longer term career opportunities.  He’s a friend of a friend from church and provided some good advice about when life at Telecom eventually comes to an end.  All is good at the moment, but it’s always good to plan ahead, especially as i don’t have as many industry contacts as i had in the UK

meanwhile jane and the girls went shopping for kezia’s crafting party next weekend and spent most of the day doing various preparations for that.

they also popped out to look at sofas, potentially for this corner in our house.  question for those who have visited our house – what do you think ?  good idea.

this evening esther is out at a church youth group thing and jane and i are going to watch a film.  hopefully all the way through this time (because jane picked it and it’s more likely to be a good one !)

Ah, yes.  the dinner at the top contains a big slice of fish courtesy of our friend James who caught so much fish he had to share it around a bit.  it was very nice.