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i know you like looking at spiders, so here’s our latest spots.  all harmless, so don’t worry.  this first one is a grey house spider. 

they like making spiders around car wing mirrors.  they are good at it and build really quickly.  the spider’s in the middle somewhere

    

and here’s a daddy long legs.  just like the ones back in the uk, but perhaps a little longer in the leg

esther caught this one in her pot and was going to leave it outside until we looked it up on the spider identification website and found it lives in the house.  at that point esther decided it should live in a cupboard rather than outside.  we compromised and left it in the garage

and here’s another good new zealand news story.  last time we had a dog stuck in a tea pot. this time a toddler stuck in a teddy-picker at Auckland’s airport.  full story (and perhaps some video) here

and in life news, the girls had school, jane helped out with kezia’s class and i had a good day at work.

today is mother’s day in new zealand which was a bit of a mix of emotions, with jane and i being so far away from our mothers.

church this morning was good.  here are esther and kezia with two of their chums – the two girls on the right are in esther’s class at school which is really nice as they go to our church too.  the chap making a run for it in the top picture is in kezia’s year although they’re not in the same class

this afternoon we went geocaching in a posh place nearby called greenhithe.  it’s somewhere we thought we might like to live before we moved to new zealand, but none of the places to available to rent were suitable so we passed it by.  it’s interesting to wander round and see it though.

there was a nice play park

here’s a view over the harbour to herald island

and this was interesting. it’s a south african praying mantis.  its front legs are bent down so you can’t quite see them.  and it’s back body was quite fat and looked a bit like a corn on the cob.  this was the best photo i got i’m afraid as i only took my small camera.

there’s lots of very posh houses around there as well as a few arty run down places, like this one which had one of the best letter boxes ever

after our geocaching we popped in to a Dutch cafe for a drink.  i’m sure we’ll go back there for something more substantial like chips with mayonnaise.

here’s greenhithe from the sky.  click on the minus sign to zoom out and see how it fits in with downtown auckland and albany (where we live, just 10 minutes away)
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this evening esther’s off to play flippa ball.  i’ll let you know how she gets on !

STOP PRESS:  Esther’s team lost 0-12.  Down on points but not on spirit

the girls had their mini-orchestra this morning, but other than that we mostly stayed in all day today doing domestics and catching our breaths after a busy week.

this evening we had our church minister, his wife and teeny baby round for a raclette which was really nice.  much laughing which is very good.

and jane found a book which i bought just before leaving britain which i was very excited about reading but which got put away again in a box in the garage.  it’s called ‘who on earth is tom baker’ but i was asking ‘where on earth is tom baker’.  it turned out he was in the garage.

  

i read the first couple of pages this afternoon and it stars with him trying to get a plane to a lovely place called new zealand !   right.  bed.

there’s some great tree colours going on at the moment and the leaf changing seems to have gone on for weeks

if you wondered where all these leaves come from, then the answer is here – this skip

girls had a good day at school.  jane has an interview for a teaching job next week so that’s great news.

sadly i heard i’m not needed for the comedy show tomorrow (because they’ve decided to stick with the same content as the week before which sounds fair enough). but they are ‘keen as’ to have me on the radio show so we’ll have to sit if we can fit that around church.

here are some ice cream cones on the streets of auckland.  the local homeless people were enjoying the free supply !

here’s a local chicken i passed on the way back home this evening

we had some friends round for tea this evening and had a lovely time.  see ya

 

hope all is going well in the Great Kingdom.  we didn’t register to vote in time so can only enjoy watching the fun from afar.  we had planned to vote so that was a bit of a shame.

esther had a good day today as she went in to Auckland for a ‘national young leaders day’ with her school. not everyone got to go, so that was good. 

they had a large number of famous speakers from sport and telly, but unfortunately we don’t watch much local telly so esther didn’t know who they were.  sounds like she had a great time though.

meanwhile kezia’s class had a democratic vote to see who would be the class leader, and kezia won !  hoorah.

jane’s gone out this evening to her crafty chicks thing and i think she had a jolly day wandering around our garden with a friend who knows about native trees and bushes talking about pruning.

and apparently i should hear tonight whether i’m needed for the comedy show thing on saturday.  if i am it’ll be as a serious guest rather than a comedy slot.  probably for the best.

right.  time to head to the very chilly bedroom.  see ya

 

it’s the last week of our work 10,000 step challenge which has involved teams of 10 wearing pedometers and logging their daily scores.  i’ve averaged over 10,000 steps each day which is good, but we’re having a last push this week.  so i’ve been getting off the bus down town and walking up every day which has been good actually as i’ve got a better idea how the town fits together

it was home group this evening at someone else’s house and it was as random as it ever is.  last week we talked about hats.  this week it was hamsters. there’s some God bits in there too though so don’t panic.

meanwhile jane went out to her new choir.  she was picked up by the mum of a friend and should be back soon i think.  but it’s too late for me so i’m off to bed.  see ya

i knew it was going to be a good day when i looked out the bus this morning and saw this white car with a bare leg on the front mantel piece.  it was only as we passed it that i could see this was the leg of the driver !   That’s the advantage of automatic cars of course.  you can sprawl right across the car as much as you like

then this morning i headed back out of the office to have coffee with a local journalist David Farrier  He co-hosts the show i went to a couple of weeks ago and we were meeting to see if i can be a guest on their live show as part of the comedy festival.  He’s now got to ask Rhys Darby himself (gulp) and they’ll get back to me to let me know if they want me.  how funny (hopefully).

jane had a good day too.  she met some fantastic music lady who gave her a vocal audition to be in a choir.  jane passed the test and has her first rehearsal tomorrow nice which is excellent.  she might even have some voice coaching lessons too.

i discovered my morning fruit colour is the same colour as ajax today too which is nice

then this evening i walked down town to an evening comedy show.  i passed the sign above which is stuck on a University wall.  what’s happening to education these days ?

on the way i met jared christmas in the street.  he did a standup comedy spot at Mr Boon show we went to with the family on saturday.  we had a quick chat then i continued on my way to see Al Pitcher who does a show where he puts up photos he’s taken with his camera of amusing signs and quirky occurrences.

he’s a proper standup, so although i think some of my photos are better (some where of exact same things i’ve taken pictures of in auckland) he was much better at the comedy banter. a little bit rude, but very very funny.

and now i’m home.  jane is on the phone to the UK trying to sort out degree certificates and i’m heading to bed !

see ya

well here’s a thing.  someone brought some biscuits round to have with their cheese at last week’s home group and they were huntely and palmer (of Reading).  so that was good.

esther and kezia have been entertaining japanese dignitaries at their school today.  esther as a school leader and kezia as part of the kapa haka display.  all went well apparently

jane had a good day meeting chums but has found that registering to be a teacher here is a bit trickier than what we expected and is going to need some international phone calls to get the right documentation i think.

and in weather news it’s started to feel quite cold in the house.  jane is wrapped in a big blanket on the sofa as i type and we’ve had the big gas heater blowing earlier.  and it’s dark when i leave home at 7am, and dark again when i get back at 6pm so we’ve definitely got the ‘hard yards’ ahead.

hope you enjoy(ed) your may day festivities in the Great Kingdom.  No holidays here unfortunately.  oh well.  see ya

church was jolly good this morning, although getting there was a bit of a challenge as everyone had been up late the night before.  esther got invited back to a friends house for the afternoon so we asked kezia what she’d like to do and she said crazy golf.

so we used a coupon to get a bargainous discount and had a good round.  jane won on the final shot of the game so well done to her.

after that we came home for a bite to eat and then went to our local beach for a sunday afternoon wander

this was a very popular thing to do and being low tide we climbed over the rocks to a couple of bays further on before heading back to the car

the beach is great and there’s some excellent geography about (if only we knew what it was !)

when we got home again kezia finished off her presentation then esther came home.  and then this evening esther went out for her flippa ball which has started the new season.  sadly the team lost 0-6 but spirits seem quite high

here’s some more geography

and here’s some hermit grabs we saw in a rock pool trying to claim ownership of a new home (shell).  i’ve swapped the audio to some music, but it may not be to everyone’s taste so might be a good idea to lower the volume before pressing play !

back to school and work for everyone tomorrow.  no May day for us.  just good old fashioned solid graft !

it’s been a bit rainy today making for some great rainbows.  here’s one outside our house (looking across the street from our driveway).  i learnt today that rainbow light is polarised meaning if i wiggle my head around whilst wearing my polarised sun glasses i could make it disappear or increase its intensity. nice.

then esther and kezia went to their ‘orchestra’ which was taught by their old teacher which was a shame.  but there are plans afoot apparently and the girls said she was better organised so hopefully they’ll carry on.  meanwhile jane and i went to a caff and had coffee and cake.  note how yucky my hot water looks.  the bits were there when i got it.

here’s another rainbow.  this time oil in a puddle

kezia spotted this reflection of sky tower so took this picture for you.  here’s what it looked like behind us.  that AA shop is where i got my driving licence.  interesting hey ?

we also saw the 50,000 strong ‘march against mining’ protest go by which was impressive.  you can read more here

lots of people dressed up in fancy dress and drums banging

 

i’ve had to blur the words on the sign for you on this really funny skin head character

after that we went to see the Mr Boon comedy show which also featured Jared Christmas but sadly not rhys darby who featured in it last week.

after that we headed back home to prepare for the Dunnings to come for tea.  after dinner (10 of us round a table) the grown ups sat round the jigsaw and made good head way whilst the kuds played board games.

an excellent day !