Blog

 

Esther is our special guest writer today:

I don’t know what that is – an umbrella maybe?

This is the cool thing to order your food at Dennys which is where we had lunch.

And the whole family was there!

 

People at telecom got free ice cream. Lucky them…

Just been shopping for Christmas presents.

This is the spooky doll who is always in the window of a shop.

And look at the other dummies in there!

 

Bye!!! P.S. It is a bit rainy here but not too bad. Christmas seems like it will be a nice day though.

we had a choir at church this morning alongside the usual loud electric band.  jane sang and sounded (and looked!) great

i was doing sound and to be honest i found it all very stressful as the band were so loud and the choir weren’t so ! but all was good

then this afternoon i went with esther to see the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  We won tickets from the local newspaper so it was free.  hoorah. 

meanwhile kezia and jane went to see Megamind again because some friends invited them

and then we all got back just in time for jane to take both the girls across town to watch a church dance thing.

back to work for me tomorrow, but everyone else is off.  still, the weather forecast is rain all week 🙁

the girls wanted to go to the climbing wall place to celebrate their recent successes (their school prizes and kezia’s swimming recognition)

 

it was a rainy day so was an ideal opportunity.  can you see esther (wearing a green top) in the pictures above and below

it was a bit easier this time as both jane and i went which meant we could belay a girl each and both the girls could climb together

we had a picnic in the car watching elderly surfer dudes packing away their kite surfs in the pouring rain then headed to the DIY shop where we saw lots of wheels and bought some picture hooks and mosquito repulsing candles

 

then we’re had an afternoon of tidying and filing.  And kezia and i built some bedside tables for the pending friends and family visitations after christmas

after lunch we played rummikub.  jane didn’t win (i did.  whoo!)

Here’s a santa with a toothbrush

it’s rained all week and going to rain all next week too.  big wet rain.  but nice and warm with it (though that makes it humid)

my car went in for a service today and i had lunch with Buzz, and drinks after work

meanwhile jane had a nice day with buzz’s wife and family

 

and then at swimming the head of the swimming lessons talent-spotted kezia and invited her to join a special swimming club where she’s have lessons twice a week and a competition once a month.  so that’s very exciting for her. we just need to see if the logistics will work

then this evening we watched some joanna lumley going down the nile documentary and the highlights of the christmas concert in the park we didn’t go to last saturday night as we were all too tired.

we’d planned to go to one of the lovely beaches up north a bit tomorrow but the forecast is for showers and thunderstorms, so we thought it’s probably best to construct a plan B

i went to wellington today for a training session and managed to find time to meet up with my good friend eugene and his wife cathy

 

they gave me a huge pile of presents to take back to distribute to various friends in Auckland.  not only were they very heavy, but also they were wrapped up and could have contained anything !

 

at the airport my bag got rescanned as the security person was a bit worried about something.  luckily all was well and i didn’t have to say that i had no idea what was in my bag !

i also had a quick ice cream for afternoon tea with eugene (hence the video above).  and being wellington there was plenty of food involved throughout the day and some after work christmas drinks before flying back.  Wellington was eerily calm weatherwise and i didn’t get stuck in the lift for once.

jane can tell you about her day now:

 

Life is like a box of chocolates! Well I had coffee with my chums, went to the school assembly, went to a friend’s and went shopping for Christmas presents. It was the last day of term for E and K. Then this eve I went to a music prac first one since we have been here. I was a little nervous, but turns out I knew most of the people there already – phew. I’m in a little Christmas choir for this Sunday. Music teacher on one side, professional singer on the other – eek. And I have to do all those high harmonies in carols that we learnt at school.

See ya

there’s a french bread shop near my office so i often see exotic pastries about the place.  here’s a french stick.

it was all freebie day at work with various stalls set up in the entrance area giving out free ice-creams, drinks and crackers.  but not free vespas sadly.

esther had a class outing to the local snowdome and spent the afternoon snowboarding which was mostly fun i think (though they only had 4 goes down the slope because their instructor was a bit rubbish (he was the same chap we had as a family when we went last february))

jane had a nice day having coffee and spending money, and when i got home i found a package addressed to me

and it was full of free chocolate i got from cadbury’s via their twitter account which was a nice surprise

and then this evening i went out for a walk with warren from up the road

here’s an electric car being charged up

it was esther’s prize giving tonight and she did us proud !

the whole evening was a much more suitable affair than the middle school event last week with proper sung items and some speeches from various governors, teachers etc

and then esther won the prize for creative writing (or something like that) and got an engraved parker pen

 

and then, she won the final trophy of the evening for over all academic achievement !

not everyone got a certificate or trophy, but all of esther’s closest friends did.  here they are looking normal and weird

and in other news it absolutely chucked it down with rain today which was jolly exciting but a bit wet

after the prize giving this evening there was a school disco so we went to McDonalds with the proud parents gang for late night burgers.  it was like being teenagers again sneaking out whilst the kids were boogying the night away !

(and now we’re tired-er than ever!)

here’s a couple of pictures of the Fall gig last night just to keep the blog up to date.  the whole thing was quite excellent. 

 

i got home at midnight and it was still around 20 degrees and really humid

 

apparently at the moment it’s 88% humidity or something like that which makes it feel like 28 degrees C

Hi readers, Jane here. dave has gone to see The Fall in concert, so has left the blog to me but has left me some photos to use. I imagine his day can’t have been very exciting, given the photos he has left. My day was not exciting either. It was a teacher only day for me ay school. We got taken out for a nice lunch, but otherwise I just faffed about. I have got my timetable for next year tho – sadly no days off, although 2 days with just one lesson in them – one of those is at 1.30  grrr. Then the girls went for pre holiday haircuts and that’s it.

There is a man who seels strawberries from a gazebo near our house every day. He does a roaring trade and here is his sign

Here is some cheese made from kiwis