Blog

i drove in to work today for the first time in a year.  i left the house at 6.15am and was at my desk by 6.45am.  And i found some free parking near my office. 

i wondered if i could have saved a lot of time and bus fares if i’d driven in every day over the last year ?  not as much fun though.  i drove in because my weekly bus pass had run our and i was finishing at lunchtime thanks to the office move.

 

after an hour of work i headed down town to have lunch with Buzz in his new office (well technically upstairs from his actual office but you know what i mean)

there’s a fantastic view from the 17th floor restaurant even on a cloudy day

and now we know why council workers are always so happy:

then it was back to my office for packing and some more work and we were all thrown out at midday as the movers were coming in.

i did a bit of work this afternoon and then managed to nearly finish my last assignment on my photo course.  Then a bird got stuck in kezia’s room whilst she was out at her swimming lesson so i had to let it out, but it seems to have pooed over quite a lot of the house which is pain in the avian bott.

esther and her friends organised a food collection at school for the Salvation Army and got a nice haul today.

and esther and kezia have brought home a poi each this weekend to practice for their kapa haka.  i’ve uploaded a video to youtube, but seeing as it’s just them and they are wearing their school uniform you have to be a youtube member to see it (and i think i might have to authorise you).  drop me an email if you have a youtube account and want to see it.

weekend.  hoorah !

i worked from home today to get a document written.  which i did.  so that was good.

 

the weather was a bit rainy, and a bit not rainy

 

jane was at school most of the day doing exam invigilation and being a reader/writer

 

we had the church prayer meeting at our house and packed out our lounge which was jolly

the girls were still awake when they’d gone so we had toast

and now jane is writing reports

you might wonder how they stuck the car on the sky tower.  well, here’s the answer

i’m not entirely sure i understood how this worked, but somehow jane swapped some tins of food for some cinema tickets.  it was a salvation army thing so the food goes to a good home(less).

so, straight after work, i went with esther and kezia to see the truly awful film ‘The Last Airbender’.  kezia enjoyed it the most and seemed to have understood more of the plot than both esther and me.  one to avoid (in my opinion, but i suspect i’m not the target market).  i’m not alone in my opinion

i went to my favourite local cafe for the last time at work today as i’m working from home tomorrow and i suspect we’ll go somewhere for a team lunch on friday. 

i was struck by the picture above which is advertising Telecom and has our ‘spark’ logo.  someone has decided it looks like a snow flak and is using the sign to sell ice too

 

not sure i agree with the above pub theology, but it’s a start i suppose

 

finally, here’s a new sign that’s appeared on k-road where i work

the thing to note is that it’s VERY high in the air as it’s stuck on the top of an already high pole.  so the chances of anything being able to see the sign at the top is quite slim.

jane’s head has gone all fuzzy thanks to all her school report writing and she met a couple of friends during her tiny moments of spare time in the day.  now she’s out at choir.

kezia had a homework science project involving hot water and cold water a balloon. 

 

we took some pictures this evening for her report

jane did some exam moderating today and that went well.

and  i had a busy day at work which is jolly good.

 

here’s some people cleaning my office window last week

they looked like they were having big fun in the sun

and here’s this week’s quiz (quuz)

today was my first day of the last week in my old building which is quite sad.  i’ll really miss the view.

other than that all the girls had good days at school and jane’s got to work on the christmas letter so we can hit the last post dates which are quite soon.

another fun pack sunny day in auckland …

esther’s friend sunny came to church with us again this morning which was great

and after church we went to a cafe with debbie and warren which was jolly good

then we made a picnic and drove out to shakespear’s park

shakespear’s park is at the end of a peninsular and we were on the south side so we could look back at Auckland

 

here’s a map of where it is

we had a family game of frisby then pack up the picnic

then we went for a walk to the lookout

it was a bit of a strain to get up the hill

but the views were great in all directions

this is looking toward tiritiri matangi where we went to at the beginning of the year.

and of course more views back to auckland

i think you could probably make out my office in these pictures if i told you where to look.  but seeing as i’ve only got a week left there before we relocate i won’t

here’s a boat going along the top of a hill

and here’s tiritiri matangi with the Coromandel in the background

and here’s rangitoto, our most famous dormant volcano

you get the idea …

we did a couple of geocaches – but only found one

 

there was some amazing bird song down by the beach which we assumed must have been particularly musical tuis.  but it was actually a couple of bellbirds.  they were both singing the same song in time with each other in adjacent trees.  it was quite magical.    bellbirds are quite rare on the mainland so these must have flown over from tiritiri matangi

here’s not a great video of it where you can just about making out the sounds

then there was time for a bit of bucket and spadery before heading home

and esther’s team won their flippa ball this evening 9-0 !  hoorah

i’m exhausted after the weekend and have lots of ulcers on my tongue.  so now you know.  byee

yonks ago i bought a couple of grabone vouchers for a day of indoor rock climbing. 

it was $20 (about 10 quids) for two for a full day’s worth so we thought we’d give it a go not least because they run out in a few days time

it was just me and the girls as jane stayed at home to do write some school reports

it was quite a fab place.  we were there for 5 hours

we ate pizza which we got delivered to the place !

and the girls spent the first half of the day climbing up these walls which had automatic dangly rope things

then after lunch i put on a belt and spent much of the rest of the day acting as ballast (as a belayer)

 

there are strict instructions for belaying including not talking gibberish or blowing kisses at people

this rope wasn’t in use

 

it was quite a funky place where proper climbers go to do proper practice with their proper shoes and bags of chalk and all that stuff

they even had a signed picture of an astronaut (just in case you climb too high i suppose)

on the way home we popped in to the mall to go to the bookshop.

one of the bookshops was selling all its CDs for $10 each or 4 for $30 which was a bit bargainous.  We bought 4, 3 of which were of kiwi bands that we’ve got to know and like since being here so that’s good.

and then we came home, ate tea and the girls then spent half an hour jumping on the trampoline.  i think they may have used every ounce of their energy up today

this shop is 2 cheap

 

here’s a big moth i nearly stood on.

 

it was like a giant butterfly and nearly dead

but on closer inspection it had a little body underneath like a teeny mouse !  i think it was this 

anyway, jane got to watch kezia’s performance at the school talent contest.  it sounded like a mammoth show to watch and lasted all morning. 

 

jane got to watch kezia do her thing and she think she came 4th with her abba song which isn’t bad

on the way to work i noticed this in aotera square.  this set of photos and the giant map laid out on the floor is travelling the world and was in Bath just before we left the UK.  i remember standing on New Zealand and thinking, ooh, we’ll be living there.

jane did some cool stuff with her classes at school including taking them on a virtual google earth tour of Paris with the street view of the various monuments

and here’s the view out of my office on the chilly rainy day that it was today.  there’s half a christmas tree drawn on the bit of the sky tower you can see below the cloud.  i suspect they’ll draw the other half too

it cleared up a bit as i walked to the bus at the end of what has been quite an exhausting week.  the girls had swimming then we watched that Pacific program and that’s that !

here’s my story from the last couple of days.  i’ll try and keep it short.

on tuesday morning i got a mid morning flight with a couple of colleagues to wellington.  the plane always flies along the sea-side of the coast on the way to wellington, and the land side on the way back up. this is the west coast (volcanic black sand)

 

excitingly john key, the prime minister was on the plane just two rows in front of me.  he’s such a jolly chap  and only had two people with him (one obviously a security chap) and no other special treatment.

there then followed a busy day of meetings and final preparations for wednesday’s off-site meeting for my wider team which i’d organised.

 

after work i went out for a coffee with eugene, a chap who used to be in our church small group but then had to move to wellington with his family with work.

when i got back to the office to get my bag, my work access card wouldn’t let me in to the building to get my overnight bag so i slipped in when someone came out, but then got locked in the lift as it wouldn’t let me go up to my floor without the right pass, and then the doors wouldn’t open.  but eventually i managed to get them open (more on this later).  so climbed up the stairs to the 9th floor hoping i’d be able to get in.

luckily i managed and could get out ok again.  then checked in to my hotel and headed out for the evening with my colleagues simon and sasha.  we went to an indian restaurant then a bar near the beehive where we went as a family last month.

then the next morning it was up to the 17th floor of a building on the water front for the day of presentations.  everything went really well.  i used chocolate fish as bribes to encourage participation in the discussions, and even the regulator was well behaved !  (it was the first time we’d invited anyone external so it was quite a scoop to get the head of the regulator in to present to us)

i was exhausted after the day so i decided to go for a long walk.  so i walked to the airport round the bays

it was really lovely, and on the way i listened to various podcasts including one which included Dawn French which included a bit where she mentioned the primary school which her daughter went to (it’s in arborfield and jane’s mum is a governor) so that was a bit home from home

along the way there were some very strange places.  the one above is drawn on a wall, but the one below is real. it has a garage at ground level and a funny bubble lift thing to get to the house.  how cool is that ?

after a couple of hours walking my legs decided to give up so i sat and enjoyed the view back from where i’d come

then i went in search of a bus stop, but walked a very long way without finding one, and when i did find one non of the buses stopped so i got a taxi back to town

then i went to one red dog for dinner which was another place we’d gone to when we’d done our wellington visit last month

this is a sculpture

then today i checked out of the hotel as Hilary Clinton was about to arrive which was exciting (although i didn’t see her)

then i had breakfast with a colleague which was great

and as i got back to my desk the team in the office were having morning tea which involved pies and sausage rolls

and just after that i went for lunch with the excellent eugene (as mentioned above)

it’s funny going back to wellington after our holiday there.  it means i’ve got a much better view of how it’s all laid out.  and sitting in the office i could see the windmill on the hill where we’d driven up to last month, both directly (today )and reflected in a window opposite where i was sitting on tuesday

then as i rushed to catch the bus to the station this evening i got stuck in the lift.  with a lift engineer and all his tools !  Ah, i thought, at least he’ll know how to get us out.  which he didn’t.  he pressed lots of button combinations and did some rather worrying jumps and stamping to try to get us moving.  all it did was make me very scared as the lift wobbled all over the place.

after about 5 minutes i suggested he pressed one of the buttons he’d not yet used and the door opened and we were freed !  hoorah.

i got my bus, arrived in time for my flight and that was that.

 

i got home in time to find out our water is all brown and jane’s now gone out.

 

here’s that nature reserve we visited in wellington

 

and here’s the countryside near the waitomo caves i think and hamilton

and the pilot announced we were flying over raglan where we’d visited 2 weekends ago (with the caves and hamilton) when we were near here

so all in all a successful trip.  although i’m now pretty exhausted !

I was just about to have a look at the blog to see what we had done today and then realised I had to write it. Well, Kezia was still ill today. Luckily my kind friend Janine was able to look after her at her house as I had to go to work. With organising everyone and having to get to Janine’s and not having had much sleep, I felt like I had done a day’s worth of living by 8.15 this morning when I got to school.

Kez much better by this evening and will be back at school tomorrow. Dave’s life has probably been more interesting.