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excitement today was spotting a sugar ship going under the harbour bridge from my desk. you can watch a little video about it here which also shows you how they make sugar

 

and sure enough there it was parked up by the factory 

jane had her day off today and did lots of nice things and esther had her friend Sunny to play after school.  jane’s now at her choir.

by the way, if you are interested in the christchurch earthquakes, and in fact new zealand’s shakiness generally, here are a few excellent visuals:

earth quakes over the last 6 months in new zealand (shown over 1 minute)

christchurch quake map (another time lag map)

another visualisation of official and crowd sourced data

quite amazing stuff.

we’re still all exhausted, but life trundles on.  jane had a mixed bag of lessons and then met ‘the other jane’ in a cafe so had lunch with her which was nice. 

then kezia’s friend came to the girls’ tennis lesson after school as her parents were out somewhere so that’s nice people think we can be trusted !

and i bought a couple of t-shirts at lunchtime:

 

that’s not me in the pictures.  the one on the left is christchurch cathedral drawn in earthquake monitoring wobbles and is a charidee shirt.

you should have a look on the mr vintage website.  they’ve got some good ‘uns. 

busy day for me, but nothing worth reporting here !  same for jane who had an unexciting after school meeting.  the girls went round to debbie’s after school whilst jane was at her meeting so i think they had the most fun

here’s some more photos of the netball from yesterday featuring new zealand, australia, john key and opshop:

and i though you might be interested in this article which talks a little about North Shore (where we live) and how it’s different from the other bits of Auckland. Not the most glowing report ever !

"The place is a really funny mixture of beautiful beaches and nasty car yards. It kind of interested me, even when I was working there, what a different world it was to over this [southern] side of the Bridge," she says. "I always felt like it was a kind of cut-price California. I mean the beaches, and it seems warmer over there. It seems sunnier and people seem more upbeat."

‘pips

it was father’s day today.  hoorah

after church we came back and finished off watching coraline before heading in to town to watch a netball game

it was new zealand versus australia for the final of a mini tournament between the two teams.  it all rested on this final match, and they were both equal to the final quarter.

the teams warmed up whilst world famous (in new zealand) band OpShop played.  (An Op Shop in a charity shop)

we had good seats which was handy for photoing (which was allowed)

 

after the anthems the game kicked off.  i took loads of photos but here are a couple

john key the prime minister was there which was good.  smart casual.  that’s our pm !

this was a strange mascot that looked rather like the back end of a cat i thought

anyway, new zealand lost which was a shame, but hey ho.

on the way to the match we went to a fish market.  here are a load of signs

 

this is snapper which is our favourite fish and chip fish

 

and here are my father’s day cards from esther and kezia

see ya

after the girl’s orchestra practice we drove to wenderholm national park.  it’s only about 30 minutes away and is really very nice

here are the girls in the obligatory department of conservation picture frames

it had a certain old world charm to it.  you could almost imagine you were at a national trust landscaped garden in some places

here were a couple of oyster catchers having a wander

there were plenty of shells

and the sand was a funny texture in some places.  slightly crispy on top, but then really fluffy for a few centimetres underneath which made walking a funny experience

we found a geocache which was well disguised

and then we stopped by a fallen tree for some jumping

kezia got particularly sandy

you probably can’t make it out, but this tree is covered in red flowers proving spring is on its way despite the cold wind today

 

after our walk round the little peninsular we had a look at the historic house

we went through the big door to avoid the charge

again, for a historic house things didn’t seem that old. 

it had the kind of things your grandparents might have had in their house.  perhaps that says more about our age than the age of the house

there wer plenty of harmoniums

and some old pictures of london to make us feel at home

even even had a nice crochet’s stand for the fire extinguisher

and dressed dolls from the old country

 

on the way back home we stopped for movenpick ice creams and i had brownie and ice-cream.

jane then went out for coffee with debbie whilst the girls and i watched the first three quarters of Coraline which is lovely

then it was off to see Buzz, Wendy and family for tenpin bowling

these lanes were much more modern than our local ones, but broke down more often.  esther got some shoes which matched her jumper and my shows fitted like a glove.  or like shoes at least.

then we headed back to their house for takeaways and a pub quiz on their playstation 2

much fun and cake was had by all

so there we are.  another fun day.  good.

Just in case you are worried, we’re not effected by the Christchurch earthquake nor did we feel it (we were on holiday there a few weeks ago though).  news story here

i had a rather strange walk to work this morning as i tried to find a short cut under a road through an underpass. i did reach the other side of the road but only when i’d emerged from high up within a multi-story car park !  i’ve no idea how that worked, but hey ho.

the picture at the top is me with simon and sasha who are two of the guys in the same team as me.  we went to a ‘cafe’ which isn’t actually licensed as a cafe so isn’t allowed proper chairs and tables.  so instead it’s got lots of leaning thing as ‘art’ in case the cafe inspectors come along ! 

here’s an injured mannequin which has fallen off a chair.  i came home early this afternoon as the person sitting next to me at work was being way too loud so i finished the document i was working on from home instead.

 

great news of the day is that kezia is moving up swimming group and got this certificate which she was very pleased with

and then this evening jane and i have watched fab new zealish film ‘boy’ which came out today on DVD and i managed to get to the DVD hire shop early enough to borrow a copy.   here’s the trailer for you:

jane’s in a jollier state today so that’s good and i think her eye medicine must be working already

weekend’s here.  hoorah.

i met a colleague for breakfast this morning which involved me walking through a cemetery which was a good way to start the day.  it’s one of those typical old town cemeteries where all the stones seem to be dripping with stories.  i also saw a kingfisher i think

i also had a lunch with a chum from church who is in our home group.  it’s his last week working for Telecom so it was good to catch up.

then i started feeling a bit ill again in the afternoon and wasn’t sure i’d make it home on the bus, but i did.  just in time for jane to zoom off to the doctors herself as her painful eye problem is back. 

so the poor girls had both of their parents in a bad way.  i was alright after a while and did the bedtime routines (violin, piano, homework, stories etc) whilst jane sat in the doctors waiting for her emergency appointment.  she finally got to see a doctor and the pharmacy stayed open late just for her.

other than that jane had a usual mixed day of multiple cafe visits with various friends, tricky classes at school and that sort of thing.

and you’ll be pleased to know the pub has reached its final temporary resting place and is all braced up in its new location.  handy for the houses next to it which now have a new neighbour.    byee

a lovely sunny day today to make the first day of spring.  and about time too – pretty much everyone we know has been ill this winter with one thing or another.  perhaps it serves us right for failing to get a swine flu kit !

anyway, good day at work for me.  got my objectives set for the next year and all looks good.  and this afternoon a few of us popped down to the local pub to celebrate a colleagues victory in a court case which has been going on against Telecom for 10 years (!).

I had half a pint of London Pride which was lovely.  It was chilled which i know is probably an international offence to beer makers everywhere but it’s just how i like it, so it was excellent. 

I even spotted a kiwi celebrity out the window. he appears in shocking local drama Outrageous Fortune which is written by the wife of the colleague who was doing the celebrating so he confirmed the sighting.  interestingly we’d also seen the chap outside the art gallery place on sunday, so i can confirm it was a genuine spot.  who is he ? see here   he’s sitting outside the window in the photo above, directly behind my boss (on the other side of the wall)

and you may be wondering how the pub moving is going.  well, the answer is, very well.

it’s inched its way nearly to the top of the tracks when i went by this evening.

 

when i got home debbie and warren came round with and for fish and chips which was very nice

we chatted for yonks and jane’s now out at choir practice as the new term has kicked off.

here are all the spare chips if you want one

you remember yesterday i told you about the pub being dragged along a street.  well, it got a bit of the way, but progress was slower than expected.    you can see how far it’s shuffled along backwards above.

and this is how much further it has to go.  there was a guy adding something slicky to the runners so it would slide along nicely.

you’ll note the cigarette hanging out of his mouth

meanwhile on the other side people are digging out what is left of the basement.  which suggests only 2 floors of this three floor historic building are moving

in other news i went to a healthy eating seminar at work where they said drinking coke and eating chocolate is ok (really!).  although i suspect not to the level i’ve become accustomed to.  although i haven’t had a chocolate bar for a week and a half.  hoorah

the girls had tennis and jane did some teaching

then this evening we had our church life group at our house which was nice

so there we go.  exciting stuff

i think they should keep this pub on rollers.  that could create an extra level of confusion for drinkers.

  

move along.  nothing to see here.