Blog

first things first.  we got off quite lightly in the storms. not even a power outage here so far.  elsewhere it’s been a lot worse and winds did reach hurricane force at Auckland Airport. 

you can read the weather ‘highlights’ here

here are some cake kezia made yesterday.

i took the girls to their orchestra lesson and read the paper in the car.  jane meanwhile went to a church ladies breakfast meeting which was very good.

then we all rendezvoused back at the house and zoomed off to the cinema to see Despicable Me.  As a special treat we went to the Gold Class showing which meant massive reclining seats, fold up tables, a teeny cinema with around 20 people and meals brought to us during the film.  Excellent stuff.

when we arrived at the car park esther said ‘excellent, gold class is the ultimate in laid-back cinema luxury’.  we hadn’t realised she’d read it off the sign so it sounded quite funny.

it was an excellent film and i’d go and see it again, perhaps in 3d (they only have 2d in gold class at the moment which is a shame)

then, this afternoon we went to watch kezia performing a violin solo at a concert.  she was very excellent.  

our friends Janine and James from church’s daughter was also in the concert so we all came back here for afternoon tea (which involved the cakes seen at the top of the page).

then this evening there’s been numerous skypings and both kezia and esther played their violin to their cousins internationally.

i thought i’d post the family blog a bit early in case we get any power cuts later.

here’s auckland looking quite dry this morning, but by lunchtime it was rather wet.  and windy.  there’s reports  on the news of a roof blowing off a few minutes drive from here in takapuna, but that doesn’t really tell you anything.  they might have had a loose roof to begin with !

once the storm had blown through it went quiet again, but in the last hour it’s gone quite mad rainwise.  and very windy.  and meant to be more so this evening, then should calm down a bit but still pretty rough until mid week.

hopefully it’ll be nice by the time we go to ‘windy wellington’ next weekend.

jane went to the cinema this morning and had a nice time.  and the girls seemed in good form when we passed as they were heading out to their swimming lessons.  i’ve just this moment let them in through the garage door to avoid them having to run through the rain to get to the front door.

kezia said “good, we’re all back together”.

 

i’m sure i’m making it sound more dramatic than it is.  but you know, get ready, get thru .  And here’s a more measured review by a man what knows

the big news of the day is that esther is now a published journalist.  esther wrote an article about writing articles which is very self referential.  This is the one she had to write with a 20 minute deadline because the teacher had forgotten to tell them.

i know you care about my illnesses, so i can tell you my cold went through its runny stage and is now in to the blocked sinus agony stage which isn’t too great.  band practice this evening though which was a good distraction

jane’s now broken up for the holidays.  as luck would have it jane and the girls both get two weeks off, but as luck wouldn’t have it, only the middle week overlaps.  which means she has tomorrow and all next week to herself and already has lots of things planned.

there’s local council elections on soon so the world is full of these advertising boards which seemingly can be placed everywhere.  the campaign has reached a stage where they are being comically defaced and altered which makes things more fun.

this being new zealand some of the candidates have got rather fruity motos and slogans.  you can read his manifesto here. not one for the kids, but typical kiwi (unfortunately)

this evening’s it’s calm but there’s a sever weather warning for tomorrow.  apparently one of the largest weather storms on the planet is heading our way.  it’s the size of australia apparently (which is big).  read the warnings here

there’s been so much happening in the world of my work and i’ve not mentioned any of it here.  but if you want to get the fully skinny (as the hip people say) then you’ll get an idea from here  It’s really interesting and completely crazy all at the same time

anyway, everyone had a good day.  usual mix of nice sunshine and occasional rain storms, although the balance was firmly in favour of sunshine today which was nice.  plenty more rain scheduled for the rest of the week and even the locals are getting a bit sick of it.

when we arrived last year it was still legal to drive your car whilst using a mobile phone.  that’s changed and it is now illegal.  i spotted this chap on his cleaning trolley zooming along the pavement veering about whilst chatting on his phone.

and my walk to work was slightly shortened today because the path down the back of the town hall has finally reopened.  soon the whole square will be open.  exciting hey ?

 

i’ve now got a stinking cold.  so unfair.  oh well.  see ya

 

i left my cameras at home today by mistake which of course meant i saw loads of excellent things including a lovely little praying mantis crossing a footpath, but ho hum.

highlight of the day was going to a seminar on ‘happiness’ as part of the corporate health program for the legal team.  it was jolly good, although i can’t remember anything about it now of course.

then this evening i went out to the church men’s group.  here’s our pastor sitting on the back of a chair puzzling about end times.

the girls did their sponsored test-athons at school.  kezia got 19/25 on her very tricky quiz and esther got 24/25 in her easy one !    It’s not too late if you want to sponsor them – money goes to their school.

to ensure i give you the correct information (unlike yesterday) i asked jane if she had a good day and she said ‘yes’.  so there you go.

we landed in this fine corner of the planet 11 months ago today.  that’s good.  seems like forever and yesterday at the same time.

nothing much to report day-wise.  girls had school, jane had a tricky lesson and then met with debbie whilst i had an uneventful day at work.  still, that’s ok.

the picture is of an advert for funky ice-cream lolly thing which is on bus stops in auckland. it’s yum as !

 

church this morning was good.  we’re having a three week course on marriage so that’s jolly good. our friend debbie came back for morning tea, then we all pootled about doing various things.  i took a pictures of rebecca (the puppet) for my photo course

then we got in the car and drove 5 minutes up the road to go in to the Albany Scenic Reserve

this is a bit of local ‘bush’ (rain forest) which has a hard to find path in it.  although once we found the path it was obvious

it was quite muddy and slippery due to the amount of rain we’ve been having, but that’s all part of the fun

  

in the middle is this giant kauri

it’s a healthy one which is good.

then we had to climb all the way up again

 

the final bit of the walk was round the road to where we started.  here’s a public telephone for cows only

 

then we went for ice-creams at a beach which is possibly our closest as the kiwi flies (even though they don’t). 

we did a couple of geocaches and enjoyed the warmth when the sun was out

then we drove back down some streets which must be having their inorganic waste collection this week. there looked to be some great stuff but we didn’t stop

then jane went out to some charity event for her friend’s child’s synchronised swimming which involved a meal and a film.  we dropped jane off in the village at 6pm and she got in a car full of ladies and that was the last we saw of her

that left kezia and me to take esther to her flippa ball.  esther’s team lost 4-1 but esther was quite fantastic when she was in defence.  the poor lad she was marking didn’t have a chance – the couple of times he actually managed to get the ball, she knocked it out of his hands.  excellent to watch.

it’s been raining most of the day so our original plan of a lovely walk in the bush somewhere got washed away

so instead we headed for devonport for a bit of a mooch about the shops and art galleries

this was an amazing fig tree which has air roots hanging from giant branches way above your head.  very strange

then we popped in to a cafe for an early lunch.  there’s kezia and my green spirulinas and my toast and bacon and sausage

here’s kezia

we also found an excellent bohemian second hand bookshop where we bought a few books

  

once we’d done as many art galleries as we could find we headed home

 

the girls got on with some crafting whilst i attempted to see whether i’ve got time to finish my photo course.  i’ve got until mid December, but haven’t really made any progress so that’s not looking too hopeful.

here’s esther tidying up her paints

    

then we played ‘The Great Moa Hunt’ which is a board game involving geographic knowledge of new zealand.  future visitors would be advised to learn where the major towns and cities in new zealand are located before coming to visit …

and i noticed my charles and diana commemorative tankard is slowly fading away with only their heads left now really.  (spot the kezia)

i worked from home today which was good, although the house was meant to be full with ladies this morning doing their church group.  i let the first couple in then told them i was hiding/working in the back room if they needed me.  i hid there for a few hours working, but i thought the place was quiet.

when i eventually came out for a glass of water, the place was empty.  so i think they’d left not soon after they arrived and didn’t tell me, leaving me cowering in my own house !

i popped out to the doctors this afternoon and described all my symptoms to the doctor she said ‘ah, you haven’t had a flu jab have you?’.  turns out i probably have had/still got a bit of swine flu. 

a few things about our doctors:

They come out and collect you from reception and shout your name, then you have to have a little conversation as you walk to the insulting room:

“hi, i’m catherine”

“er, hello, i’m dave, but can i call you doctor as i find the first name thing a bit informal for the doctor/patient thing”

(actually, i stopped after the ‘hello’ bit)

It cost 55 dollars for the appointment (about 25-30 quids) so i made sure i had a number of ailments to discuss

They were playing ‘Sexual Healing’  on the intercom.  surely that’s not appropriate ?

Anyway, i came away with some hayfever medicine and the knowledge i haven’t got tonsillitis or pneumonia (i was glad about that as i can’t spell either of them)

then this evening we went to auckland cathedral with our good friends fleur and bruce.  much laughing on the way there and back, and much good music whilst we were there as it was a concert by kiwi superstar Dave Dobbyn.  All good stuff

the girls went to a school disco and then went back to Janine’s house to sleep, then we woke them up at 11.30pm to take them home !  They also had violin lessons and swimming today (Kezia has moved up to her new class). 

And kezia did an audition at school with her friend emma for the school talent contest.  their act is a dance which kezia made up to Mamma Mia.

so there we are.   all good

it’s been a day of mostly rain and cloudiness (mainly during the working day which was handy).  here’s the view from my window most of the afternoon.  it’s a big cloud hiding, well, everything really.

 

jane seems to have had a good day at school.  some senior teacher came and observed one of her lessons which went well, and the girls had a good day at school.

this evening i went for a walk for fitness with esther so we did some good chatting.  during the walk i learnt that esther has submitted an article to a local newspaper about creating her school year book, and also that she played squash at school in some temporary plastic structure they put up in the hall.

here’s what they are doing with the moved pub.  they’re digging up the rails they shuffled it along on.

and finally, here’s an abandoned jandal which suggests summer is on its way.  in fact i knew that yesterday as kezia did her sports lesson at school on the muddy playground in bare feet (which meant she spent a long time cleaning under her toe nails in the bath last night).

i’m working from home tomorrow as i’m off to the docs in the afternoon as i’ve still got my sore throat and generally feeling illness from my illness two weeks ago.  at least i can get a bit longer in bed in the morning.