I bid you welcome to my Shadowland

Holiday in Nightcaps

2012-01-07T08:15:00.000+13:00

The journey down was rather warm. We were expecting it to be wet but no rain appeared. Still, there was a storm coming so we'd cool down at some point. Unfortunately not on the drive down.
Whilst travelling down through Geraldine, Tekapo, Twizel, Cronwell, Frankton, Kingston, Mossburn to Nightcaps, I had forgotten how beautiful New Zealand was. Lupins, wild roses, dramatic scenery, snow capped mountains, dry tussock, lush green pastures. It must've been a good 10 years or more since I last travelled alont this route.
When we arrived, we were shown around the garden and the traction engine (above) and the implement shed. There's is definitely alot of projects in that shed to keep someone going for 50 years. Lots of stuff. I was certainly impressed by the lawn too. A much nicer lawn than mine. After that it was tea and bed.
The next day at around breakfast time we heard the coal train come past. It arrives with empty containers, gets filled up with coal and then goes away again. The kids rushed their breakfast and we all went out to see what the fuss was about.
They were taking the containers off the train with a huge forklift, then putting 2 of them onto a truck. That truck went to get the containers filled with coal whilst another truck got 2 more empty containers. The filled container truck came back and the full containers were put back onto the train. The train moved forward a little and empty containers were put onto the truck for the second round. as that truck sped off, the other arrived to have the full containers tranferred to the train and empty ones loaded onto the truck. And so on until the whole train was loaded with coal. Then off it went.
Whilst the truck drivers were partway doing this, one asked if Jamie and Bees would like a lift in the truck to see the other end and enjoy the ride. They jumped at the chance and so off they went. Meanwhile the other truck driver gave me a lift on his truck and I too saw the other end. I was expecting a huge hopper that poured coal into the truck from above. It was a front end loader that did it.
In the afternoon we went out for a drive around the area, driving through Tinkertown, Ohai, Tuatapre, Clifden, where we saw the Clifden suspension bridge and Monkey Island where we wanted to walk over to it where a seal was but the tide was in so couldn't. The kids had fun at the beach though. There was a very interesting house there too with it's turrets.
On Tuesday, John Esther's brother, got the steam engine warmed up and by the time we were out it was sharting to build up pressure. It took a few ours to get there but eventually it was ready to transfer that steam into useful movement to get a log chopped up into planks.The kids, being kids, got bored with the setting up and went away, then came back for the sawing, then went away again. One thing you can't appreciate in the pictures was the smell of the steam engine and the smell of the freshly sawn wood. It was fun but as a job, taking 2 hours to start the machine and 2 hours to tidy up, and however much sawmilling you had to do, whether it would be worth it now. Good to watch though. A few people came to watch the spectacle. The steam enging is on some herratige trail so if you're ever out and about and in that area you can go have a look. It might even be running.
On the last day there we went to John and Lallie's daughter and son-in-law's (Alison and Mark) place. They are managers on a farm and get to live there too. Being a farm, they were always working so after some lunch we went out to watch what they did. It's the largest sheep milking plant in the world supposedly and it's not long in being created so alot of ideas and processes are still being tweaked. It was interesting to watch the sheep being herded up and fed through the plant. Many of it being mechanised and comuterised so they can calculate how many litres of milk each sheep produces...etc. On the property were also a few barns with lambs which are born throughout the year and specific times to help feed the milking process. All the male lambs at only a few weeks old are sent off to be the meat under the mint sauce. We tried some cheese they made and it tasted OK. Like cheese really. Nothing too out of the ordinary. They also make powdered milk for the asian market where it's sold as an expensive luxury. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera with me but I have a feeling it was probably not the done thing to be taking photos of their plant when they're the pioneers of sheep milking and processing so all good anyway. It would have been nice to have taken a couple of pictures of Bees helping out and Jamie being thoroughly miserable because he wasn't allowed to watch TV and had to come watch the sheep being milked. The joys of parenting.
Thursday was the long drive back, taking 10 hours to get home but stopping along the way for food, grocery shopping and pictures.
A nice little holiday and here are the pictures to see if you're interested.

It's Christmas!

2011-12-26T10:05:00.003+13:00

It's that time of year again. I awoke at 06:30 and decided to send a few text Christmas messages and make a cup of tea. Whilst the kettle was boiling away, I went back to bed for a quiet moment before the kids got up. 2 minutes. That's all I got. The kids must've heard the sounds I was making when getting thew phone and putting on the kettle and awoke and ran out into the living room. Then Bees shouting "Santa's been here. Santa's been here". Sweet.
They of course wanted me to get up but I said there was no opening of presents until Nan arrived so they might as well have breakfast. Bees was too excited to bother. Jamie made himself a sandwich.I got up out of bed about 07:00 and got a few things ready. I set up the webcam so that family back in Europe could watch the kids opening the presents if they so wished. Rik and Leny did but Dave, Carole and the twins arrived just as we'd finished. Bees handed out the presents and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. After Jamie got a bit stressed over trying to put together a cheap Chinese Lego copy of a racing car. The instructions were a bit vague and incorrect and the bricks would not fit together smoothly like Lego bricks. Ah well. It happens. I decided not to buy any Lego (or cheap imitations) for Jamie as he has enough already.
After a few cups of tea, Esther went back home and as the kids played with their presents, I got a few things ready for the day, the final thing, picking the peas from the garden.
Off to Esther's for lunch and then the kids had fun on the water slide that they got from Esther. It took them a good hour to two hours to be brave enough to get under the water with their heads. Water on their faces is just too scary. after that and a Barbie video and a slight kip from me it was off to Amy and Iain's for an evening BBQ.
We arrived, we drank, we chatted, we ate. The kids played on the water slide again and had a nice evening there before coming home exhausted and needing sleep.
There are some photos of the day.

The best Christmas present ever

2011-12-25T01:00:00.000+13:00

What more could a father ask for than a wonderfully compassionate daughter, who misses her mummy. Needless to say it had me in tears. Click on the picture to read what it says. I am so lucky to have a wonderful family.

Run Away!

2011-12-23T13:43:00.001+13:00

I broke up from work for the year on Tuesday. The kids were staying at Nan's, idea being that I could pop into town and do some Christmas shopping and just chill out and enjoy some time on my own, without having the kids about. So I did just that, popping into town and getting some presents. I also caught up with some friends for a chat whilst I was in town which was nice. When I got back home I wondered what I could do Thursday. I decided to run away. Esther was going to look after the kids Thursday night so I decided on Wednesday evening to book a room at a motel in Hanmer Springs and spend Thursday there and come back Friday. Which is what I did. After I dropped Jamie off at Esther's place at 07:30, I took a leisurely drive to Hanmer Springs. It was a nice sunny day and I stopped off occasionally to take some pictures. As I couldn't check in before 14:00 I went and had a cooked breakfast at Robbie's and then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon in the pools, hopping from one to the other. It was surprisingly empty which was good as a crowded hot pools would have been annoying and no pool was cold. So I left there after a few hours and went to the motel. It was very nice. I sat in the garden reading and having a coffee and then after, went into town late afternoon for an early tea. I had fush n chups and a couple of dark beers at the Montieth's pub before going back to the motel for a read and some TV in a nice, quiet, no kids atmosphere before going to bed. I woke up nice n early, which is always the case these days, and left there at 08:00 on the slow drive back home. I'd spotted on the way up 4 places that I wanted to take some pictures of. As it was, 1 I couldn't and another I couldn't find again so missed out. Back to Hornby, coffee and brief food shopping before coming back home. It was a nice time away and I'm definitely doing this again.

RIP Caleb - 1998 - 2011

2011-12-08T19:09:00.001+13:00

This afternoon Caleb died after a short time with a heart condition. A few weeks ago he started to be short of breath and have what looked like seizure episodes. This was related to his heart which was wearing out after a long and happy life. The kids were upset but not as much as I would have thought. I think they're realizing that death, after all, is a part of life and it happens to us all in the end. Now that he has died, the kids like to think of Caleb with Audrey, going mental as he used to when he met anyone for the first time, when every time was the first time. Receiving lots of hugs and cuddles and "getting in behind" on long horse rides.
Caleb and I had rather a love hate relationship but I will miss him, not only because he was British (mad dog) or that he was Audrey's and there was still that open connection there that has now closed but he was part of the family. We buried him in our memorial garden next to Possum and Audrey's tree. Bye bye Caleb. We love you. XXX.

Sweeties for Breakfast

2011-12-06T19:20:00.001+13:00

Every morning, I'd talk loudly, shout or scream at he kids to get ready for school at some point. "Hurry up and finish your breakfast", "get dressed", "what are you doing standing there, go clean your teeth". It was in effective because it was just annoying. Not just for the kids but me also.
"Got dressed before 07:00? Have a pascal swirl"
"Ate your breakfast before 07:15? Have a pascal swirl"
"Hair brushed, teeth cleaned, lunches in bags, shoes on and hi-via jacket on before 07:45? Have a pascal swir"l. Not sure about the third for 3 reasons. 1. Too many reduces effectiveness. 2. Too many and they'll become lardy. 3. Not just after they've cleaned their teeth, surely? As Jamie has a behavioural/psychological issue with the toilet, I think he'll get one for doing a poo.
For those that don't know what a Pascal Swirl is...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3aPo9mVyLY

Too much!

2011-11-27T15:46:00.001+13:00

Well, I've decided that all the gardening and all the mowing and all the house cleaning and the looking after kids is too much. So I'm selling the kids. :-) Not really, who would have thought that it was an option? So I'm going to look for someone to do some mowing and someone to do some house cleaning. Get some time back into my life. This would not have happened if it was not for 2 things. 1. Lifehacker sowing the seed and 2. my ride on mower not starting.OK, the mower could be just the battery but it doesn't even click which suggests the starter ...again. I went to the local place that services mowers and they have stopped doing them and I have to travel further to get it serviced now. Perhaps they're telling me something. I went out to mow the garden with the flymo which was fine but 3 hours, it was hot and so I had to frequently come back indoor, and only half what I wanted to do getting done, I decided that it would be better to spend money where it counts for a better quality of life. I've yet to find out how much a mower will charge me for mowing the grass verge and the garden area and for a cleaner to hoover, wash, tidy and anything else I can think of that a cleaner does. We shall see.Of course another step will be to get rid of alot of the CRAP that we're all keeping. I can't just say the kids are storing rubbish, which they are, but I have some things I could throw out too.

Care to lend a hand?

2011-11-22T12:59:00.001+13:00

The picture says it all. I should be a comedian. I could make a routine out of this.

Container Shops

2011-11-16T13:23:00.001+13:00

I took Monday off this week as Friday was a holiday in sunny Canterbury. I always like to extend the holiday periods when I can. So after dropping the kids off at school it was into town to drop the car off for a service and a warrant. From there I had a wander into the city, checking out all the empty spaces and half broken buildings. The centre, with all the newly planted grasses, trees and container shops is.... funky. Very nicely done I thought and for 8 months since the DAMAGE caused in Feb, I'd say it's been put up quite fast. I found it funny that there was no graffiti in the container toilets but we shall see how long the untouched chipboard walls last on that note. I had a coffee there. Sat down and was about to read some downloaded article on my iPod when , bong, I received post. Free WiFi. Nice. so I checked the online stuff I usually check whilst I was there because my internet at home has been going slower than the real post. I could have phoned the Library and asked them to send a map over and would have been able to plot a route to the city faster than it would have taken to go to Google maps and do it that way. Internet at home can be non existent. Especially on weekends. What does that tell you? Anyway, after a look around - there's not much to see really - I wandered to South City Shopping Centre and checked out the shops there, making notes of Christmas presents for the family. After that I went on meet up with a friend for lunch at The Coffee House on Montreal Street. Then onto have a wander around Hagley Park and check out some roses that I could use in my garden. I have 2 that would be nice I think. Dublin Bay, a deep red climber and Old Master, a pinkish red poppy looking bush rose. It would look nice against white.
After that it was back to South City to get the presents and free WiFi and a strawberry milkshake and then through the container shops again before going off to pick up my car, which failed its warrant. Bummer! Just a couple of things but it'll cost. :-) Still, there you go. It's my hobby.

Show Day

2011-11-12T09:06:00.001+13:00

Friday is a day off in Canterbury (No? Really?), so we got the day off and went into town nice 'n' early to the Canterbury A&P show. Initially, I went to Mitre10 because Gaby, who has a plot at the show selling oil skin coats and raincoats and bush jackets and the like had her gazebo wrecked by the Canterbury winds, required a new one and they were on special. Once at the show we took the gazebo over first. I didn;t fancy carrying that all over the place. We wandered around for a bit, checking out what's there. Coffee huts, farm machinery, animals, coffee trailers, amusement rides, food, coffee, entertainment, balloons, help and information, police, political parties, TV cameras and oh, coffee. You could smell it everywhere. Well, it is the no.1 traded commodity in the world, after all. I liked the Bavarian sausages which I thought I'd have for my lunch but it was out of the way so didn't end up going back there. The kids were hungry from 11:30 but I only had a $100 note and people wouldn't change it. I finally went back to Gaby to see if she had some change, which she did. Then the first (disgusting hot dog and chips) place we got to we (they) had lunch. It happened to be right next to the Lincoln University tent. I thought about going there and grabbing a ....coffee. :-)
After lunch, we had a wander and waited in line for an hour for Bees to have a jump on a trampoline for $10. Like she can't do that at home. Kids are strange, but then I can make a long sandwich and a coffee at home too so I can't talk. Jamie saw a great car model stall there but we couldn't find it the second time around wandering and we left with Jamie very very sad and crying. Lesson 1. You can't always get what you want.
After that I asked them if they wanted an ice cream. It was a very windy and sunny day and my face was red and I was hot. So we popped into Hornby MacDonalds for ice creams....and I also had a coffee. The kids played for a bit and then I said did they want to go to the Hub shopping centre there. They said yes so off we went. As we got down the escalators from the carpark at the top, we passed the $2 shop, that's not $2 anymore due to inflation. Jamie had wanted a curly straw for ages and I thought I'd get him something from there seeing as he'd missed out at the show. He picked something straight away for $39. I said "no way". He said "I doesn't want anything then" in a loudish voice and went all huffy, as he does. I don't put up with this shit. So I said "Come on, we're going home" and we marched out of the shop, up the escalators, into the car and off home, with a crying screaming shouting kid in tow. Lesson 2. Have a paddy anywhere and we will stop what we're doing and go home.

Gardening Gloves

2011-11-09T11:17:00.000+13:00

I was weeding the other day, surprise surprise, and thinking "what I need is a glove with hard tips on the fingers to dig into the ground". Ok there are plenty of tools out there to can do this with but none have the refined dexterity of your own fingers. What I need is a Freddy Kreuger glove but with much shorter 'nails'.
Either a tight fitting glove, or a skeleton frame to hold steel nails, or even just finger tips,
That way I could get around those small delicate seedlings digging the ground and ripping out the weeds. My nails would be good I suppose but I just cut them. Bugger!

Guy Fawkes Weekend

2011-11-06T18:54:00.000+13:00

This weekend I was all set for a BBQ with some friends but an aching head, nose, stomach, and tiredness from waking up too early and not being able to get back to sleep put paid to that and I had to cancel.
The kids and I were looking to be off out in the evening too, to Motukarara to meet up with some other friends and watch the fireworks. Thankfully the aches and pains died away so 5 mins before 7 I asked the kids if they wanted to go. Stupid question. So we went. It was at some park there and they put on a few things to make it an evening. Nice evening too. Music, that kids were dancing to, there was a playground, sausage sizzles (BBQ), the now obligatory coffee van, with obligatory queues, bouncy castle, sweeties and toy stall which really sold glowey lights and things. The fire and ambulance were also there. The fireworks were good. Not done by Audrey and my favourite firework guy, Anthony, but not bad. 21:00 and there was a loud bang. We had found a place to put the picnic blanket down right at the front. Poor Bees. She was scared. Jamie wasn't too pleased at the bangs either. My poor overly-sensitive babies. So holding onto Bees so she wouldn't take flight, we watched. I watched and listened, Jamie watched with hands over his ears. And Bees hid. For a bit. Slowly she got the courage to watch and by the end she was enjoying it. Loud bangs and all. At 21:30 there was a mad push to get out so we stayed back and enjoyed the bonfire which some pyrotechnic through boxes into, setting off more fireworks. Not sure if it was a special treat to those staying or whether it was a mistake. We left about 22:00, and got home with 2 sleepy children in the back.
We never did meet up with our friends. Not sure if they went.
Still, I managed to hoover the house, wash the sheets, wash the kids' car seats and some floor mats and other such things.
Sunday and after a little texting on the phone, we organised a BBQ at home for us and the friends that we went to stay with in Hanmer Springs. So a little tidying up and out came the garden furniture. Perhaps for the last time this year. :-) Also some gardening, planting my cucumber and courgettes and a spot of weeding. They arrived a little later than lunch time so we held off as all the kids had eaten a little anyway. Sitting outside, chatting and drinking whilst the kids were inside, outside, in the fields, and generally all over the place. We ate about 15:00. I nicely burnt the sausages but everything else was OK. More chatting and the kids jumped on the trampoline, ran through the mowed paths in the field I'd made (I made the whole field!). Just as they were all leaving the southerly breeze that had been gently flowing through for an hour picked up and started to blow. Great timing. It was a lovely day.
Bees had another visit from the tooth fairy. Only just in time too as she woke whilst the transaction was taking place. Rather slack of me really but I forget these things. The tooth fairy tends to take a while to arrive at our place. :-)

Turning over a New Leaf

2011-11-03T17:40:00.001+13:00

I want to turn over a new leaf.... in the front garden. There's a patch of grass that's annoying as it's too small for the ride-on mower and it just gets in the way and looks a mess. So I'm looking into digging it all up and planting bushes and flowers and lots of meadow flowers. I want to put in a bird bath, a bench a couple of small trees and even a swing. All of this more for show than anything else but also for low maintenance as in, tidy it up in autumn, let it look bleak in winter, sow seeds in spring and get it ready for summer, enjoy the summer view. I took a couple of pictures here and here of what it looks like before the change. I bought $300 worth of plants a weekend ago and got them all in. I had a few vouchers that I needed to use up by mid next year. I didn't realise that it would be that expensive for plants though. Especially as you need to buy a few of the same to have that mass effect in some areas. Another issue I have is weeds so I've bought some ground cover too. I shall see what that does. I might go and buy some more if it seems to be stopping the weeds from taking over.

Weekend at Hanmer Springs

2011-10-03T17:27:00.000+13:00

On Saturday morning after weeding and gutter cleaning and folding up the washing from the day before, we packed the car and left for Hanmer. A friend had rented a house there and offered us the chance to come up and stay. Jamie goes to One Day School with James, the eldest of the 3 kids. The middle being Henry and the youngest being Elizabeth. On the way we stopped for lunch at The Mud House. I thought it would be nice to take it easy travelling up there. After lunch it was another 45 min drive to Hanmer and we arrived at the house (bach) about 15:00. It wasn't a very well designed place but it had all you really needed and the views were nice. Later that afternoon we all went into the pools. I have no photos of us in the pools because I didn't want to take the DSLR in with me. Just in case. Started off in the kids' pool, then moved over to the lazy river and then onto one of the really nice HOT pools for a warm up. After the kids got bored there (grrrr) we went to the rocky river part (not sure what it's called) and then finally back to the kids' pool before changing and grabbing a coffee.
The evening was spent cooking. I'd put on a pork roast (mmmm, crackling) before we left for the pools but it hadn't quite cooked. Vegetables took a little while too. Shame it wasn't a fan oven. After the kids had gone to bed it was wine and good chat.
The next day off we went to Animal Farm so the kids could run about and get their fingers bitten off feeding the animals. I forgot my camera on this leg which was a bummer really. So no photos of anyone or anything. Supposedly Henry went around with his mum's camera so we'll see if I can get a copy of those. Back to the house for cold pork sandwiches for lunch, followed by a trip to the pools again. We got return tickets. The agenda there was pretty much the same as the day before.
Whilst the others stayed on another night, Jamie Bees and I left about 16:30 to drive back home, stopping off at MacDonalds in Hornby for tea.
The few pictures I have are here.

Castle Hill

2011-07-25T09:08:00.000+12:00

We went to Castle Hill Saturday. Probably a good ideas as it's snowy Sunday/Monday. Anyway, we went to have a look around and explore the area. It's quite interesting with all the rocks up there. Sunitha and Geoff did some rock climbing. Or is it boulderring? They didn't have mattresses like the bouldering people do so not sure what they did. Jamie and Bees relaxed. Anyway, we had a wander around. Jamie and Bees and a toboggan ride for a bit. Not too much snow there on Saturday. We climbed up to the top of one of the hills and had a picnic there before wandering back down. It was a cool day but not too cold. The views were interesting.

Snip Snip.

2011-06-20T20:52:00.000+12:00

Well, it was all supposed to be simple and quick and all sorted in a week. But I've had a painful weekend and a day in hospital. What? Let me rewind....doodle-oodle-oodle-ooo. doodle-oodle-oodle-ooo.
It all began a couple of Fridays ago - Friday 11th June. I had the day off to pop into town and go to the family planning clinic. To get a vasectomy.
I went into see the doctor who would be doing the surgery. She explained what was to happen and what I was to expect before, during and post op. Then I was called into the de-manning booth. I got undressed and sat on the bed which turned into the operating theater table. They put some green sheet over me and set about with the procedure. The worst bit was supposed to be the stinging of the local anesthetic as they stuck the needle into the scrotum and injected it in. It didn't sting but was more of an itch. So that was OK., They then set about with the keyhole surgery. Hunting down the vas to chop was fine but the local didn't take effect that quick so putting on the clamp was a bit of a pinch. OUCH! I had some more local and then I was fine and felt nothing. I wasn't really watching but I suppose I could have done. They clamp it up and then cut out a section and then weld the tubes shut with a hot iron. Thankfully no nerves were around at the time of welding. The smell was a bit off putting though. They also sew it up somewhere inside with disolvable stitching. All in all a very simple and quick procedure. 45 mins. They leave the opening to the scrotum open for it to heal up all by itself. No stitches. Quite interesting I thought.
I was hoping to go past the tyre place to get my wheels balanced on my car and past the Jaguar dealer so I could get a spare key cut as I had been meaning to do this since Feb when I got the car. Unfortunately the doc said straight home. So I did and saw out the afternoon sitting in front of the fire with a small pack of frozen corn (peas are overrated) to cool things down and reduce swelling. Paracetamol was the drug of choice for pain relief.
I was to avoid anything of any nature which could affect the wounds and weak spots. Like heavy lifting for instance.
So I went a week without putting any strain on them and suddenly out of the blue, on Saturday (18th June) morning I started to feel pain. Nothing too bad but as the day went on it got worse until I was waddling around. There was also a largish lump growing on the left side. The pain was as if someone had kicked me down there. Lying down was relief. but standing seemed to bring on the pain. So I left it at that. On Saturday night I felt like I had a temperature. I had paracetamol throughout the day paracetamol but that didn't seem to get rid of the pain or my headache either. I slept a rather restless night. In the morning it felt better. I didn't feel hot and things looked like they were picking up but the afternoon came in and it started to hurt more. So I went into Christchurch to the closest after hours clinic (45kms away) and saw Doctor James (Jim?) Broadbent. He had a poke and a prod and then prescribed me paracetamol, codeine, augmentin (antibiotic) and voltaren and told me to go back on Monday to the Family Planning Clinic to discuss it with them. I took the latter 3 when I got back to the car. By the early evening I wasn't feeling anything as painful as I once was. Things were looking up. I took some more of what I was supposed to in the early evening and went to bed about 21:30. 1 hour later I awoke, feeling like it had been a whole night. My hands started to itch and my stomach was really sore. I went to the toilet and whilst I had diarrhea my feet started to itch, my arms got a rash and my chest felt tight. I didn't like where this was going. After an hour of this the itching started to subside and I turned to Professor Google and searched for the voltaren and the augmentin and their side effects. Sure enough, it could have been either. So I phoned the healthline (0800 611116) and got a real professionals' answer. They basically said that if things don't get worse, then I should be OK but go to my GP in the morning.
Monday morning I felt fine. A little pain but not much really. I took a codeine had a couple of cups of tea and went into see someone at the Family Planning clinic.They saw me pretty much straight away. Checked it all over. The doctor that did the operation then poked and prodded and then told me not to have the drugs. Well I wasn't for a start. She then got me a place to see the urologist at CHC hospital. I went over to the hospital. With all the earthquakes that have gone one, the parking building over the road was closed and you could part in the tiny teenie tiny car park in the hospital grounds. Well, they were all take weren't they. In the end I drive to the Jaguar dealer and asked if I could get my new key. I would have to leave my car there all day. They were fine with that so a 5 minute walk to the hospital and I was in. I got a gown on and was seen very quickly. Everything seemed to be great and very smooth running...booking in, getting a room in the emergency ward, getting a line put into me just in case they needed to stick me full of antibiotics and such but then the doctors came involved. After some poking and prodding and telling the same story I'm telling you to about 5 different people I was told about 11:00 that I would get an ultrasound scan. At 14:00. So I cancelled a very important meeting I was to attend at work. I was hoping to have been out of there by lunch. So tum-ti-tum, some drumming of fingers, listening to AIOTM (aiotm) and The Now Show, I was taken up to get an ultrasound scan. It's a boy! After that things picked up speed again. The doctor came in and said that I was fine. The lump in my scrotum was a blood clot and would go away in time (weeks to months). They would give me some other antibiotics but I was to watch and be careful and notice anything untoward (you betcha matey!) and to see them again if need be. By about 16:00 I was outa there to pick up my car and then see a woman about One of Jamie's problems.
So with hindsight, would I have a vasectomy? Yep. It was probably lifting some firewood. Although not heavy really, it was probably a little too much for my boys to cope with. Anyone out there thinking of having one. Just take care. The information I was given said 3-4 days. I think it should be more than that to be on the safe side. Sit on the couch with your feet up for at least a month and be treated like a King.
2 good things came out of this though. 1. I got a second and spare key for my Jaguar. 2. The dealer also washes the car and it really needed one. :-) Of course it's raining and the roads I take are full of cow muck so it's probably dirty as a dirty thing again.

Bees' 6th Birthday Party

2011-06-18T09:08:00.001+12:00

We had few things happen over last weekend. It was Bees' birthday party from midday to 4pm on the Saturday. The kids came over and so did 1 teacher. Bees invited her class teacher too and it was wonderful of her to turn up. So the kids generally jumped about and shouted and had lots of fun. Jamie was playing with the kids at the beginning, then went off to read through the middle of it all and finally found the 2 boys with whom he played, racing Jamie's cars up and down the hall. They had Pass the Parcel. We were going to do a couple more games but the kids seemed to be enjoying just messing about. Some were putting on make up and others jumping on the trampoline. It was quite cool outside but a nice roaring fire meant inside was very warm. The cake was a 'B' for Bees or Birthday. You choose.
On Monday it was actually Bee's birthday. I got her a scooter. She really wanted it man and she's been scootering to and from school every day this week. Good on her. We also had a nice quake or 2 again wrecking even more of Christchurch. More pictures here.

Inspiration and Chai - Regrets of the Dying

2011-06-03T09:21:00.000+12:00

I found this in the What's Cool section of my Google reader feed and thought it quite interesting. Perhaps it's a 40's thing, perhaps it's just me but I seem to be more in tune with these statements and the understanding of it all. Of course the other side of the coin, one could say about these common regrets is that there's always room for more happiness, more feelings, less work, regardless of what you do. Anyway, here's a preview and the link to the original article.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:
Inspiration and Chai

One Day School

2011-05-26T09:19:00.001+12:00

I took Jamie in to One Day School yesterday. There was a white board which he had to read and is something everyone has to read when they arrive. On it was explained the theme for the term and the day's agenda/schedule. It also welcomed Jamie from Southbridge to the school. He was so happy to be there, beaming from ear to ear.
I went off back to work and then went to pick him up in the afternoon. The teacher said Jamie was bored for most of the day. This she believed was down to the way they think or get students to think there and Jamie, having just started out, hasn't got the hang of it all and it was all new and different. Anyway, apart from the boredom, Jamie seemed to enjoy himself. We shall see later how he progresses. It may be awful for him. I've scanned the agenda (see the above link) so you can see what they're teaching these 'freaks of nature'.

Dressage Day

2011-05-17T07:41:00.000+12:00

I took Bees to the second biggest horse event of the year for Ellesmere Pony Club. The Dressge Day. "And in a packed programme tonight", there were lots of entrants. Bees had a lot of fun even if the day was rain and drizzle and cold. I only stayed for the first test that Bees had and took these photos. I then went to Ashburton to get some new shoes for Jamie and Bees and do some food shopping. Bees got a 5th for that test and a second for her other test in the afternoon. Well done Bees.

Easter Road Trip - Part 3

2011-05-11T10:16:00.001+12:00

Day 11. Janet n Stevens to Auckland.

After a lengthy pack and waiting for the tv files to get copied to the 1Tb drive, we left with a first stop at Steven's dads place for a coffee and to hand over his laptop which I added an anti virus. Then we started the lengthy drive down to Auckland, stopping in Albany (where the tornado struck just recently) to say Hi to Logan, Azusa, Walter and Kaye for an hour or so. Then onto Nicola and Brian's to say 'hi there' see the kids and have tea. IT was then I noticed that I could not lock my car. It said there was a door open but there wasn't. I played around but it was getting too dark so couldn't see what I was doing so left the car unlocked. After tea at Brian and Nicola's, we ended up at the Top Ten Holiday Park where I unloaded everything out o the car and left the car still unlocked over night. In the morning the car locked and unlocked fine.

Day 12. Rainbows End.

Rainbows End didn't open until 10am so we drove back to see Nicola and drop off her purse which she'd left in the car when we went to pick up the Chinese we had the night before.

When we got into Rainbows End, we went to the 2-5 year old area where Jamie and Bees enjoyed the little kiddie rides for a bit. Jamie unsure of going on anything really but managed to get onto a few things. Bees was trying it all out. After taking pictures of them on these rides, we all went on the bigger ones. Goldrush, Whatever the water ride is called. Jamie went on the bumper boats (Bees was too small), and we all went on the Dodgems. At lunch we stopped and watched some acrobats and after did a few more things. 3D cinema experience, Dodgems again, Goldrush,. We were going to go on the go Karts but because it was wet, they weren't going. The track was a little slippery. Never mind.

After all that, we went across the road to Manukau Mall and I as I got paid, I could pay off some of my credit card. We had an afternoon snack and then went back to the holiday park where the kids played and I rested before reheating Chinese.

Day 13. Auckland to W(h)anganui.
Nice and early, we left Auckland for a long drive. on the way we stopped to allow Bees to be sick. State highway 4 is a very nice road to drive. great scenery. Unfortunately I did not take any photos. I slowly gave up on the photo front as the holiday went on. We stopped just before lunch at the Waitomo Caves info centre and bought tickets to go into the caves. There was an information place about the caves and who found them and other such stuff and in the display was a small hole for kids (and adults) to crawl through if the felt like it. Jamie wasn't keen at all on the caves until he had a go at crawling through the rockspace. So off we went to the caves and as we walked to the entrance, Jamie had a fit. He was scared. Not at entering the caves but of the trees surrounding the area. Jamie doesn't like trees. Thanks Janet for making him think the eucalyptus "tree skin" were snakes and giving him the willies when he was a baby. When he seems to have got over his fear, I shall show him Lord of the Rings.
After the tour which was nice but I don't really think it was worth it to be honest, we went to W(h)anganui Top Ten holiday park. We ate food and I drank some wine. Then some more.

Day 14. W(h)anganui to Picton.
W(h)anganui actually looks very nice in daylight but we didn't have time as we had a boat to catch. Off we went all the way down the coast to Windy Welly and stopped in the city as we arrived an hour early and grabbed a bite to eat. Then we went to wait to get onto the ferry but it was late. about 2-3 hours late so although we could have wandered back into Wellington, we just hung around, grabbed a bite from the cafe there and hung some more. After hangin' some more, the ferry turned the corner and we could see it in the distance, on it's way. ZZZ. This was the boring bit.....
So we got on the boat and whilst the kids played in the kids area and picked up who knows what, I sat and read some magazines. Into Picton late and off we went to the Picton Top Ten holiday park where we grabbed some noodles and broccoli for tea before watching the start of the Royal wedding. Bees wanted to see a real princess getting married. Aaaah. Sweet. Bees fell asleep so I turned it off and we all hit the hay.

Day 15. Picton to Southbridge.
Hmmmm. A nice 4.5 hour journey. Bee and Jamie fell asleep through part of it so I tried to minimize the swerving around the roads so as to keep them asleep for as long as I could. But it wasn't too good. And then Jamie was sick. Not once on the journey but 5 times. I thought it could have been food poisoning but later on I got it, then Bees and now Esther has it. So it must have been a bug. Every time Jamie was sick, we stopped at the next petrol station, washed out the bucket and got ready for the next installment. We had to get some food shopping just before getting home like milk and the like so I made it quick because Jamie wasn't too well. Obviously he had to come into the supermarket with me, infecting everyone there. Nice. Anyway, he was sick again whilst we were there. Poor wee thing.
So that was the trip. a bit quick at the end but it always gets boring at the end of holidays and people want to come home. A shorter one next time I think. 4-8 days perhaps.
Now to the cost of the holiday. I kept this up so I could find out if it would be cheaper to have a nice time elsewhere for the same price. Perhaps not 2 weeks but a week, for sure.
Food - $645.27 , Entertainment - $329.00 , Accommodation - $1355.40 , Travel - $757.27, Spending (toys..etc - $139.96. TOTAL - $3226.90

Easter Road Trip - Part 2

2011-05-06T19:39:00.000+12:00

Continuing from where I left off, what we did whilst we were at Steven and Janet's.

Day 7. Russell.

We drove to Paihia in the morning, and once there picked up a couple of cheapy fishing rods. We then stopped for a coffee. They did a white chocolate coffee so I had to have that. Yum! We then went to Opua and caught the ferry to Russell. We were going to drive straight to Russell centre but ended up in a quiet bay at Russell Boating Club, where we went fishing. Bees caught the first fish. She wanted hers dead. Then Jamie caught one but wanted it thrown back. Steve caught one in his bait catcher and they I caught 2 in one go. I got Janet to unhook mine and throw them back but 1 had hooked one in the eye. When I was thrown back, it had a definite issue trying to swim. A seagull no doubt picked it up later. Then after a packed lunch and fishing, we went into Russell. Jamie and Bees went for an afternoon swim. Then we walked along the sea front and onto the jetty where we saw loads of fish in the sea. Then all of a sudden a very large Stingray appeared from under the jetty and floated about a bit pretty amazing. We then went back for the car and took the ferry back to Paihia where we had fush n chups for teas with shop made fudge for afters.

Day 8. Cape Reinga

I woke up this morning and noticed that the previous days blogs had gone. Bloody technology. I should have written it down on paper 50 times and posted it all out.

Anyway, Off we went to Cape Reinga, through to top of the north island. We stopped to get a new card for Janet's camera but ended up getting a new camera as they don't do fuji XD cards anymore. Along the way Bees was sick. We stopped to clean it up. Thankfully Janet stopped most of the sick from falling on my car seats with her trousers. After that episode, we went off again to the Cape. Next stop was the Ancient Kauri Museum where they had lots of Kauri sculptures, bowls and other such souvenirs on sale. At the Cape, They've done the road up there and it's now all sealed with a newly built footpath too right to the lighthouse. We arrived, walked the walk, took the pictures and then on the way back to the car, had lunch. Then we got back into the car and came back home. We stopped at Houhora tavern for a coffee and then came home. In the evening we went out to the local for a drink and a bite to eat. Well deserved. Whilst there Bees said to Jamie "I found a man who can talk to us. He said "hello" to me. In English!". Then back to Steven & Janet's to copy films, tv series' and photos.

Easter road trip 3

Day 9. Easter Sunday

I took the kids out of the house to the supermarket to buy stuff for the journey back. Of course everything is closed. So we went across to the park for a play whilst Steven and Janet hid some Easter eggs ready for an Easter hunt. When as got back we had some lunch and then let the kids loose on the hunt. They seemed to enjoy the experience. It was a lazy afternoon doing nothing in particular. I sorted out a couple of PC things on their PC, we had tea, tv and then bed time. I managed to catch up on my rewrite of the holidays and emailed it to myself for backup.

Day 10. Easter Monday

We were going to check out Tane Mahuta (pron: Tain Ma-Hooder, if you're from the US of A) but it was wet. Very wet. So we decided to visit Steven's dad and take a ride on Gabriel, the old steam train at Kawakawa. After that it was back to Steven's dads for lunch and coffee and then onto Kerikeri where Steven bought a 1Tb external hardrive to use for backup. He also copied some films I had with me and TV shows. Again, a lazy day.

Easter Road Trip - Part 1

2011-05-01T20:21:00.001+12:00

This Easter we went to the bay of islands for a couple of weeks. One, to see Janet and Steven, two, to have a holiday and forget the quakes & three, to enjoy the Jaguar. This story will be told in 3 parts, mainly because the 3rd part what I wrote, seems to have disappeared along with all the other 'notes' from my iPodulator. Ho-hum. Photos by the way, can be found here. So, on with the show.
Day 1. Southbridge to Kaikoura.
We left about 11:00 and stopped to fuel up at Hornby, Christchurch. Then a nice rainy drive with minimal traffic to Cheviot for lunch, sandwiches. Then another wet, minimal traffic drive to Kaikoura where we checked into our tiny roomed 3 bed cabin and then checked out the playground. The kids played on the jumping pillow for a bit before we went to the seal colony. No seals but we had a look at the rocks and walked up the hill. Then back for tea at Subway and onto our room for quieting down and reading. I was told I missed a 5.3 quake, which I would have felt in 'bridge if I had been sitting down I reckon.
Day 2. Kaikoura to Wellington.
I made these eye-spy style books for the kids where they go through them and do the activities like draw a picture of something, write down what they saw on the journey or do something. They seemed to want to do it all straight away but soon dropped it for something else and filled in the activities as they remembered it again, which is what it's all about. So, The wonderful thing about going to bed early is that everyone was awake at 05:30, and wanting to get up. So we had breakfast and left on out way to drive the 2 hours to catch the 13:10 ferry to Wellington. We didn't stop along the way but wandered around Picton, had some mid morning food & drink and the kids played in the park at Picton seashore. The ferry journey was uneventful with all of us exploring the ship before settling down in the tv room which gave me some time to have a kip without needing to keep one eye open on the kids. Lunch was sandwiches I made at breakfast with some fruit and chocolate thrown in. Probably 2 mins from the top 10 holiday park Bees fell asleep. So Jamie played in the playground while I unpacked and Bees slept. Sweet little Bee. I awoke Bees and we went got the local fish n chip shop. I like the Chinese run fish n chip shops they sell loads of other things besides fish n chips. The kids had fish n sausage n chips and I had nasi goreng. That evening we played Dr. Who Top Trumps before bed time. The day/drive was sunny and warm but in the evening the cold southerly rain caught us up.
Day 3. Wellington.
Windy Wellington. And rainy. We drove into Wellington and parked on the quayside. Then walked from there to the Wellington museum. Not Te Papa. This museum was reasonably interesting but it had something special. A 12 minute video show but it was better than anything I've seem before. This 12" projection of a woman came out from behind a prop, talked and then went behind a glass bottle which was there and began to tell her story. She lit a candle and the projection of the flame flicked on the candle which was there. She then sat down on a book. A porthole swirled to life and out jumped a man who was part of the story. It went on. It seems the designers had mixed the film with real life projecting onto a thin mesh you couldn't see so it looked very cool. After this it was Te Papa where Bees didn't want to go into the earthquake house, understandably and then a late lunch at MacD's where I caught up on some emails. 37 of them. As it was such a rubbish day we then went back to the place we were staying where the kids played for a bit and later I made pasta for tea.
Day 4. Wellington to Taupo.
Up nice and early today as we had a lot of things to go through. Firstly I had to get out of lower Hutt. It was harder than I thought, doing a figure either a couple of times at least before finding my way out. Then taking a back road which was very scenic, over the hills back to SH1, and onto Southward Car Museum. They had some interesting cars there, ranging from the old 1890's models to 2005 Model Ariel Atom.
Jamie's favourite was the DeLorean. I rather liked the Bentley.
From there we then stopped off for lunch at the Mangaweka international airport cafe before heading to Waiouru to the military museum they have there. To be honest. I thought they'd have more tanks, more armored vehicles. However they did have a nice selection of guns through time.
We then went to Taupo to stay at the first non top ten holiday park and as such it cost a little more. Nice place separate rooms for me and the kids. We also had a tv (which didn't have prime) and our own kitchen and bathroom. So I cooked sausages, tatties and corn. Simple bur nice. One thing they did have which was exceptional in any place I've been in so far but I suspect is an up and coming item being added everywhere to hotels and motels around the world is... Ground coffee. So I used that both here and in Auckland because I don't have it quite so strong.
Day 5. Taupo to Auckland.
Next day we had a time scheduled event so up nice and early and off we went to the Huka Falls. To be honest, I was expecting a waterfall shaped waterfall. After getting back Esther said it used to be more of a water fall but because of dams built further downstream, the waters have backed up, creating a shallower fall. However having said that there was still immense power and water going through that narrow gap and over the lip to create the falls. 200,000 litres of water every second. The water was ice blue and clear too. Just off the volcanoes I suspect. Nice. Then from there we went to see a show at Candyland. Where they showed you how they make sweets and then we all god a chance to make a Lolly. Unfortunately, we were the last ones to go through, and the mixture was getting cold and not at malleable as it was earlier so we made blobs on a stick.
From here we stopped off at MacD's again, this time in Huntly to meet Colleen and her daughter, Olivia (Livi). Colleen was Audrey's study buddy whilst Audrey was off raising kids, looked after horses she also did accounting and management papers from the Open Polytechnic. Colleen and Audrey would chat over the 'net and help each other out and through it all. It was good to catch up again.
In the early afternoon we went to Auckland. It was busy with traffic bur the place we were staying was easy to get to except the reception was off on a one way side street so I took a few loops around the roads before I found the entrance to the side street and arrived. I parked the car, dumped our things and then went out to the sky tower. Just before though we did watch 3 girls scream their heads off on that reverse bungy they have there. So up the tower we went, glass floor panel in the lift. Wandered around up high. Jamie took a while to get used to the height, but Bees was jumping on the glass floors, scaring people. We had a drink up there and Jamie started to enjoy playing Grand Theft Auto in his mind with the cars down below. We went out for tea at Denny's. We were heading to Tony's steakhouse but I saw Denny's on the way and I like their Nasi Goreng, and it's alot cheaper. Kids don't care about quality. They just like the experience and Denny's is more of an experience for kids. So I skipped my steak for the day.
Day 6. Auckland to Janet n Steven's
It was supposed to be a 3 hour trip according to google maps, however it was the day before Good Friday. Every man and his dog was on the road. We stopped at Albany shopping centre more to fill the day than anything but I bought the kids a toy each. Bees had an Ariel costume and Jamie, a tub of soldiers. Onwards and upwards towards Steven and Janet's, stopping for lunch and a comfort break, for Jamie, just after passing a few campervans. It was a nice place close to Welsford, and the food was very yummy. Then onto see Janet and later Steven. The view they have outside their living room is very nice. Great because I slept here and watched the day break every morning and listened to the rain on the corrugated roof.
To come....what we did whilst we were up there.

One Day School

2011-04-04T20:02:00.003+12:00

Jamie and I went to One Day School today. This is a school for "special" children. :-)
The boss of Southbridge school gave Esther some info on one day school because he and Jamie's teachers felt Jamie might progress better if helped differently. I don't like to use the term 'gifted' because he ain't no Mozart.
So we got there at 12:30 ready for the start and 7 other kids were there also. All "special"'in their own rights.
We watched as the teacher took the kids through the intro and today's topic was space. Not just outer space but space we live in, personal space... Etc. This way of teaching isn't really learning abc's or times tables or dates, but getting the kids to think for themselves.
It's called one day school because if Jamie goes to it, it will be one day a week. Of course he has to be "special" enough.
We, the adults, were then taken to the next room and we sat down (kids chairs are sooo uncomfortable) and discussed the fees, the curriculum, the ideas etc behind the whole thing.
The difficulty for Jamie and me would be getting him into town for 09:00 and picked up at 15:00, because Esther does that for Bees. However there are ways around it.
I'm happy that it's only one day so that Jamie gets to keep his friends at school who are the same age. Audrey had problems being "special" when she was at school, being promoted to a higher class and not fitting in with those kids because she was too young and not fitting in with kids the same age because she didn't hang out with them and all she wanted was to be loved. :-(.
This is all dependent on Jamie passing the assessment. Of course Mr. Cynical here knows Jamie will pass. The school body will then get their fees and government funding.
Will it be good for Jamie? Perhaps. But I can't see it being worse. Hopefully it will help him in some ways to be more social and express himself more betterer.

Road Trip

2011-02-14T20:02:00.052+13:00

I left work on Friday at about 15:00 and drove to Dean's and left the car there. Then Dean and I took a taxi to the airport and we got the plane to Auckland. After a mix up at Auckland waiting for Mark who was selling the Jag to me, we met up and he took us to pick it up. Shiny, shiny.
From there we filled it up with petrol and I drove down the motorway to Cambridge, where we stopped for something to eat and to swap roles so Dean could have a go at driving. It was dark by now so he drove in the unfamiliar car on the unfamiliar roads. It also started to rain so we tested out the wiper controls which seemed a little complicated because it was difficult to see in the dark as to what setting they were on. However, they worked without incident, and we found out later that there was an auto wiper setting so it was wiping when it felt it was necessary. We arrived at Taupo without incident and got to the cabin. Dean didn't bring any toothpaste and upon opening my gear, I found out I didn't have any either, so after a water brushing we went to sleep. The next day, nice and early-ish we drove to the lake front and had a slap up breakfast before I took the controls and took us through the desert road past the volcanoes all the way to Hunterville where we filled up with fuel again. Every so often I'd take some photos but not too many really. I also jotted down some places where Jamie and Bees might like to go sometime. Dean drove then from Hunterville to Wellington, arriving at midday. A dog decided to jump out at us part of the way there. That gave Dean the chance to test out the brakes. They seemed to work fine. At Wellington we had a look around the museum, which, to be honest, I found particularly uninspiring. We checked emails using the free WiFi along the waterfront, and looked around the shops before going for a beer (stout) at an Irish pub. Why do they always play the Pogues? Do the Pogues have some kind of pub franchise or something? After that we ate at MacDonalds for a quick bite, hoping to get a curry in Picton in the evening, and then onto get some beer and snacks (and toothpaste), just in case Picton was quiet. We then drove to the Interislander and boarded the ship after waiting for it to dock and let the others off and us on.
The 3 hour sail over to the Mainland was smooth, and started off warm but got a little chilly due to the wind blowing through Cook's Straight. It was great though as one young lady, in a lose flowing dress was obviously unaware that the wind could lift her dress up in an instant. The view over to the South Island was interesting, looking at not only the scenery, but the action too.
In Picton I drove off and as we passed the curry house we saw that it was closed, so onto the cabin we had booked where we sat, drunk beer, ate crisps and watched Mock the Week on my iPod. The cabin here was much nicer but it was more basic in it's features as in there was no fridge for the beer and no covers for the beds. Just sheets and pillows, but then it was a cheap cabin. Just before going to bed I went to clean my teeth. I had left my toothbrush behind in Taupo. It was only one I used for travelling that I picked up from Singapore airlines many moons ago so I want too worried about it.
The next morning, Dean drove to Kaikoura where we stopped and got brunch. We then moved onto where the seals were and ate it. A few photos later, Dean took the honours again and drove us all the way to Christchurch.
The car was great to drive. Smooth, air-conditioned and speedy when needed. It seemed to be about as economical as my MR2, even with using the more expensive, higher octane petrol. Quite impressed. However, the test will come when I drive it to work and back. We'll see then.
I filled the car up on the outskirts in Hornby where there was a bit of a commotion. Some young ruffians were rather unsportingly ganging up on this young man in an unfair bout of fisticuffs. Very quickly the staff of the petrol station came to the rescue and separated the guys and sent them on their way, whilst phoning the police also, just in case they returned. Then I drove home.
The photos taken are here.

RIP Possum

2011-01-29T16:20:00.017+13:00

Possum died today after what seemed a very uncomfortable time. We believe she ate a poisoned rat (or bird) and in turn, got poisoned herself. At the beginning of the week it looked like she was trying to vomit but her jaw was not quite right. Then as it went on she got more and more dehydrated and her mouth drier until the tip of her tongue was almost solid from no moisture. Esther took her in to the vet who gave her a drip and she recovered somewhat wand was eating OK and drinking. But when she came home, she started to cough up blood which we were told later, were from her lungs. She went back to the vet for a blood transfusion and seemed to be recovering but died over night. We buried her under the Kowhai tree that we got to remember Audrey. She was a lovely friend and will be missed by us all. RIP Possum. XXX.

New Car?

2011-01-19T17:13:00.000+13:00

I've had a previous blog post called 'new car?' before but this time it's close. I spotted this one on trademe. Finally, one I like the look of AND it has everything I was looking for. CD, preferred colour, light interior, no hood ornament, 2.5l engine. Unfortunately, it's in Auckland.
Roll on Thursday 27th Jan when I travel up to Auckland to check it out. I don't rush into things. When you've spent the best part of 7 years looking, and the last half year or more seriously (see my previous blog on the subject), and finally find one that seems right, you have to check it out don't you. The only other one that came close but no cigar is in Whakatane, That's also miles away. So, a day trip up north to go through the checks and see how it all goes. Hope it feels right.

Christmas Day - 2010

2010-12-25T22:27:00.002+13:00

Christmas Day started off about 07:30 when we started to get up. I was awake at 04:30 to let the cat out but wasn't wanting to get up for the day and went back to bed. Esther turned up about 08:00 and the kids got dressed and had breakfast and got ready for opening the presents. Nice to get them sorted in that order because as soon as the presents would be open it would be difficult for them to do anything. So we opened the presents, had a cuppa, opened more presents and then whilst the kids were playing, us adults got things ready to go to Esther's for lunch. Esther took the kids down apart from Oliver and half an hour later we all trundled down there. We had lunch and then kicked a ball about outside. I had a little power nap. Well, I'm calling it that. Then Dave, Jamie and I went back home to pick up the van and off we went via Hororata to Dyane's place for BBQ Tea. We were there a few hours eating and talking and playing with the kids before coming home by about 21:15. Carole just drank all day.
Jamie was very happy with his Lego. Until we found that one part was broken in one set and another part was missing in the other set. Bees Loved her Barbie stuff. Oliver lives for Football (Arsenal) and was enjoying all things football. Georgina loves Hello Kitty and so had few things there. Dave got an ipad & stand and a few things, as did Carole but she got a netbook instead of the ipad but they got these coolio things before they came out so they could use them on the journey here. I got a magicians wand. It's cool. I can wave it about and it'll turn on the telly or change the channels...etc. Dave said the idea was on Dragon's Den in the UK. I've got to program it. I had a go and it seems to work nicely.
That was it really. It was a lovely sunny day and it went by very fast. Time for bed very very soon. All the pictures are here. Enjoy.

Janet & Steven's Wedding

2010-12-05T19:12:00.000+13:00

Friday, Jamie, Bees, Esther and I got onto a flight to the airport. Before we checked in we waited for Stacey. Stacey was a bridesmaid and was taking up Audrey's space on the plane. Before we caught a plane to Auckland I used my iPod and had 30 minutes free internet access. I say this because Auckland are far too stingy and you have to pay for it. Well done Christchurch.
We hopped aboard and went on a calm flight up north, arriving on time. It was quite a hot day in New Zealand and Auckland was a little muggy as we crossed the road and got in a hire car. I wanted to check out a large family saloon/sedan to see what a grunty machine was like to drive before I considered getting one but I couldn't. They upgraded me. Probably a good thing as the person (Esther or Stacey) who would have sat between the kids on the way up would have been a little squashed. Not too much, but a little. Just enough to be slightly unpleasant. We got a Toyota Highlander instead. I was impressed.
This paragraph is a rant about cars. move along to the next if you don't want to know. The Highlander was amazing. The engine was quiet. The cruise control, which I was told should only work over 80km/h was cool, so I'll try our landcruiser's cruise control now. It had a tiptronic gearbox, load of little compartments to put things. Plenty of cup holders, although they had a rubber inset that you could take out which made them too small for the bigger bottles of drink but still OK for a coffee or can. Once out, the cup holders were OK for the big bottles. What else. 7 seats, some wrap around mirror thing to look at everyone in the car so you don't have to adjust your rear view mirror, lovely air con, V6 and was about NZ$30 more expensive on a tank of fuel than my MR2
Whilst at Auckland airport we had some lunch and got some provisions. So as we drove up to the Bay of Islands, we were met with many, many, many roadworks. I'd driven that route before years ago and didn't really remember the roads being as windy as they were. As it was we got to Paihia, 2 minutes away from where we were going to stop and Bees was sick. Close but no cigar. The room we had was a family one in which you could squeeze 7 people if you really wanted to. We unpacked and Jamie and Bees went out to go swimming. I was going to until I realised that I forgot my swim gear. That was a bummer I can tell you. The pool looked very inviting. The weather was hot and humid. I also found out that I'd forgotten a shirt to go with my suit so I went around asking a few people and then thought I'd leave it up to the best man to sort out. Which he did, which was excellent.
That evening we went to 'isolation' bay where Janet and Steven were going to get married. It's not called that but it was in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive along to the end of the road, where it turned into a gravel road. Then after that it went onto some farmland track, where we went through farm gates and dusty track, passing fields with horses, sheep and cows. then the road ran out and it was up a grass hill to the top and back down again, to the bay. It was a very lovely place. quiet and peaceful. Jamie and Bees went through the practice run of what they had to do, being flower girl and page boy before we took the 20 minute trip back to the camp site/motel where we were staying, for a BBQ.
The next day, at breakfast, Janet got up earlier than her bridesmaids and so decided to come over and spend breakfast with us. It was nice to be able to spend some relaxing no-pressure time with her before everything got mad and the wedding started. After, Esther, Jamie and I went for a walk along a track following the river and up to the top of the falls. Then along the track some more until we decided that it was probably best to turn back before the kids got too tired. The kids had another splash in the pool whilst I went into Paihia to get some lunch to bring back for us. After lunch we got ready for the event. Esther and I got the kids ready and then ourselves and when the bus came back from dropping of the first group of people we all boarded it at went to the bay. The ceremony happened. Tears were shed for Audrey. Janet and Steven got married. Photos were taken of the happy event. Bees got grumpy having to hang around and wanted to go back to the motel, which, after photos were done, we all did.
At 18:00 the reception started. There was a 3 course meal, very nice, and speeches were made after which I was getting rather tired. I'm getting old :-D. So after a couple of wines and a wedding in the heat of the day in a suit, I decided to go back to bed whilst the party, partied on.
The next morning we had to leave. We packed up and noticed a few people worse for wear. It must've been a good party :-). We said our goodbyes and left at 10:38 (I'm 1.3 today) and arrived at Auckland Airport with a journey time of 1 hour less than the time it took to get up there. We even stopped off in a rest area to have lunch.
After getting to Auckland Airport and dropping off the rather excellent Highlander, we had a coffee and a bite to eat, before I lost my credit card. I cancelled it whilst I was there and now I have a chip 'n' pin which takes longer to process than just using a mag strip 'n' pin. Ah well, the price of progress.
So that was it. A very quick, very packed but very entertaining and wonderful day. I hope that Janet and Steven are as happy as Audrey and I were and they have some excellent fights too :-D.

Brisbane 2010

2010-11-13T22:03:00.000+13:00

Dan Quagmire Is Gay.
That was one of the many things I found out about whilst on holiday/at the conference. Dan is Glen's dad, Dean.
It was a fairly calm flight over with interesting tv's and the option to watch what you want, when you want, which was a change since the last time I went international on a flight. Sunitha and I chatted most of the way about this 'n' that and nothing in particular. We got to the apartments we were staying at which were reasonable. Sunitha liked the bed in her apartment. She said she had a really good nights sleep on it. I kept waking up about 2am which would have been 5am NZ time. The norm for me.
So after checking in and finding out we were on different floors and needed a pass for the lift to get to each others' floor, we decided to ring each other when ready to go where-ever and meet in the lobby. As it was, I found out on the Wednesday that we could have used the stairs. I used them to go between the gym/pool area and my floor which was the next up.
So onto the conference. It was good. Not necessarily in the breakout streams that were set up. More the networking between the sessions at tea breaks etc. For the talking to people who had done what we were looking to do at LIncoln. The key note speeches were very good though. That's not to say the sessions were bad though. Just not as productive for us as networking. True, we could have emailed the forums for our issues and questions but it's never the same as meeting face to face.
In the evenings we both went out for meals apart from the Monday which was the day of the organized dinner. The good things about the dinner were that we networked some more. Met new people and discussed our work situation and what we needed to do. We also were told by someone (Praj) who had been on this cruise before to eat the snack food because the main meal might not be up to much. The view as we floated down the river was nice. And the last good thing was that the cruise stopped halfway through the evening so people could get off if they wanted to.
The things I didn't like about the cruise/meal were the meal, the loud music and because I kept waking up at 2am I was very tired and wanted to sleep. So. Sunitha and I got off the cruise halfway through the evening and went back to our respective apartments to sleep. I would like to say that I wish I had not wasted my time going on the cruise as it wasn't really my cup of tea but the networking made up for the rest.
To be honest I wasn't too impressed by the food at the conference either. The coffee and tea were good though and I could top up my apartment sugar supply which always disappears too fast.
Wednesday, and I went for a walk through the botanic gardens and along the river across to the south bank and back along the river again and crossed the Story bridge. The Story bridge looks ok but what I found interesting was the fact that it felt like it was shaking all the time traffic was crossing it. To those in the know, it felt like a 3.0-3.5. Constant shaking. Freaky. After a lunchtime snooze, because I can, I went to buy some jeans and have a look around town.
On Thursday I went for a walk around the south bank of the river the other way this time and I found that the library had free wi-fi Internet access, so starved as I was for checking on my rubbish, I spent an hour catching up on my 70+ emails, 200+ news feeds, and social waffle.
Late afternoon I was picked up by Alex (a friend I've known for a long time) who took me to a couple of places to see some sights. Then driving through town pointing things out about Brisbane, After which it was onto a Japanese restaurant for dinner in the evening. We chatted about many things. My life, her life and what's happened in between. On my side we talked about Audrey, Jamie and Bees and a few other things. We also talked about some numerology stuff that Alex is interested in. A very wonderful evening to catch up after 16 years. I hope it's not another 16 years before we catch up again.
Friday, and an early morning walk north to some gardens and have a look around, then south, over the river to my free Internet cafe. Then a wander back for a lunchtime snooze before off out again to do some shopping. I had to buy another bag as mine was full due to it being full when coming over and now with jeans, Christmas presents, kids presents and a heavy jacket that Sunitha accidentally left in her apartment, I had no room in my original bag. $10 wasn't too bad for a bag really. I must remember to always take a bigger bag.
One of the reasons for coming over was to spend some time by myself and do some thinking and clear my head a little. I haven't really had any time to myself since Audrey died and I felt I needed to.
Just some side things I noticed whilst I was here. Tv is shite. Starsky & Hutch, The A Team, Rockford Files, and my favourite so much so that I had to watch it, George and Mildred. Classic. It looks like crap TV is a global phenomenon. Either that or my interests on what is available for me to watch have changed.
Evenings are great here. Warm, alfresco dining weather in t-shirt and shorts.
There is probably enough to do here for me and the kids for a week with a couple of trips to places like Australia Zoo and the like. Maybe I'll come over here next year. All the pictures I took are here.

Swearing

2010-11-01T20:15:00.012+13:00

Bees came home and said Jamie said the 'F' word. I was intrigued. Certainly not angry. Very interested to hear what they had to say and when I asked Jamie what the F word was, he didn't (wouldn't) tell me.

However, Bees was quite happy to say it again and again and again. That was until I asked her to stop and asked her if she heard me say the 'F' word and perhaps it's not a good idea to say some words all the time but use them when really necessary.

Not that she'll understand.

East Club

2010-10-22T17:41:00.000+13:00

Today was E.A.S.T. Club day. EAST stands for Ellesmere Agricultural Science and Technology. Bees was showing the people there her pony, Chocky. Bees has to go through an obstacle course whilst riding Chocky. She then had to talk to a man about Chocky to show her knowledge, presentation and handling of her horse. After the morning when all was done, Bees got First in Presentation & Handling, Knowledge and Project Book (whatever that is). She came second in the obstacle course. Well done Bees. Mummy would be proud of you. Nan certainly was.
Jamie also received a certificate. Although he was not participating in the E.A.S.T. Club day, he got a certificate for his recount of the earthquake. Very well done both of you.

Audrey Yates Memorial Cup

2010-10-04T21:28:00.000+13:00

Well, it's finally arrived. The Ellesmere A&P Show Audrey Yates Memorial Cup for Champion Novice Cob. Huh? You say. Well, what better way to remember Audrey by than to have a cup in her honour. Audrey 'showed' cobs and was a very active member of Ellesmere Pony Club so a trophy celebrating what Audrey loved doing is a great idea. Thanks to Ellesmere Pony Club for being very accepting and a very wonderful thank you to Audrey's horsey internet mates for thinking of the idea.
Kelly Garland, Maryanne Jefferies, Delwyn Burrows, Anita Exley, Fran Barcham, Joanna Prendergast, Sarah Wyeth, Jill Pederson and Veronica Wedlake. A couple more photos (at the bottom) here

Havelock

2010-10-04T21:08:00.000+13:00

The drive up was very windy. In the van this meant concentrating just a bit more than normal. It was also very sunny and warm because of the norwester. The strange part was it was sunny but raining too. It took slot longer to get up here this time. We left at 09:00 and got here at 16:00. It usually takes 5 hours. It would have been because we stopped extra for an ice cream but an extra 2 hours?
Once we arrived I found out that the clocks went forward on the weekend. The bad thing was, I'd set up the video recorder but forgot to set the clock forward. Never mind.
Monday we didn't do too much. Went for a walk through town and back along the marina, stopping for a coffee as it was such a lovely warm day. The kids were played in the park. Gaby showed me her new business which was making oilskin and raincoats from her garage. They looked pretty good to me. she also makes hats and wine cooler bags and other things. She aims to sell these coats more to specific markets like wine growers, horsey people, farmers... Etc. That night the kids slept out in the tent they put up but Bees decided to come back into the house after a while.
Tuesday, again we didn't do too much. The kids went to the park to play ball and us adults went to Heidi's cafe for a coffee and a chat. Heidi makes great cakes.
Wednesday and it was into Blenheim for a little shopping and swimming with the kids. Well not really swimming. More carrying the kids about until they got used to the deeper water. I bought some timers for when I water the plants and some more candles after using a few up at quaketime.
It rained Thursday.
Friday we went shopping in Blenheim and a general day out. It was cool but very sunny.
Saturday was my return back home. The kids decided they wanted to stay so after some considerable thought I let them. This is the first time they'll have been away from home for any length of time. It'll do 'em good. It also means they will be looked after when I go back to work next week. Although Esther is always there, it's nice to give her a break as well.
I didn't take any photos this time. Well, 3. Maybe one day I'll stop lots and take pictures of the scenery on the way.

Lucid Dreaming

2010-09-25T07:05:00.001+12:00

I've just had a dream about Audrey. We were chatting about something to do with the kids as we stood either side of the sofa. It then occurred to me, I was dreaming. "Hang On." I said. "You shouldn't be here". and I ran over to Audrey, places my hands on her cheeks and gave her a big kiss and then a hug and didn't let go. Then I woke up. It was short and sweet but wonderful. What a great start to the day.

Mike Portnoy

2010-09-10T23:05:00.001+12:00

Last Mike Portnoy interview before leaving Dream Theater from Jon Mikel Caballero on Vimeo.
I saw this video on Facebook and thought it was interesting enough for me to share. I was particularly interested in the Twelve Step Suite which was about Mike Portnoy's engagement with alcoholism and the twelve step programme to overcome his addiction. This completed the circle of why Dream Theater would add a slightly altered version of the Alcoholics Anonymous Declaration, the altered version being "I am responsible when anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want my hand to be there". Possibly a phrase worth living by.

Canterbury Earthquake

2010-09-05T14:48:00.001+12:00

So what have I been up to these last few days. Nothing much due to the earthquake.The picture is probably one of the most severely hit buildings of Canterbury.
Bees and I were awake anyway when it hit. She had come into my bedroom 20 mins earlier after a nightmare so we were slowly drifting off again when I felt the earth shake. Ooh. A little earthquake I thought. Oh!. OH NO! and Bees and I scrambled under the bed. Jamie called out and Jamie said he was already in the doorway. We waited for the first shocks to subside before I got out and got Jamie to come under the bed with us. I then got my emergency kit out (not quite complete yet) and got the dynamo torch/radio and tuned in. We stayed there, sort of half awake half asleep, feeling some of the aftershocks until about 07:00 when we got up and started to get sorted for the day.Jamie was loving it. Very exciting for him, however Bees was not enjoying it at all and she was shaking alot. I was halfway in between. Interested, fascinated by the power but a tad nervous at what could happen.
Dean was supposed to come out and help me secure the fence between the trees and the paddocks with the sheep in on Saturday but due to unforeseen circumstances, he couldn't make it. I had a go myself. I could do it but it'll take 3-4 times as long. It really needs someone else there to help out. I had a go because we had no power. This meant not TV, no internet, no water. I was expecting to to be off for 2-3 days but the power came back on about 19:30 Saturday evening.
The Kids decided to go with Nan to her house for the day which was good. As it was a very nice day outside, I weeded over a couple of vegetable beds. They're ready for planting although one already has potatoes within. I'm thinking of sticking parsnips and carrots in the other one.
I have a load of seeds that are old and may not germinate anymore so I'm thinking of sticking those somewhere and seeing what happens. Not sure where to put those just yet though. I don't want to mess up my vegetable beds with stuff that might not happen.
Saturday was a long day. The kids didn't want to go to bed so we all watched a film until 22:00 when we all made our way to my bed to sleep. Needless to say, I didn't get a decent nights sleep. Kids poking me in my back with their knees and elbows. There were a couple of shakes through the night but nothing major.
Sunday we decided to have a lazy day. We watched a film together and felt the earth move again. Spooky possums!
I don't know why and perhaps he's ill but Jamie has been feeling very sleepy these past couple of days. Maybe it's the change in pressure too as we're now in a strong Norwester.He seems a bit odd.

New Car?

2010-08-30T22:42:00.000+12:00

I've been looking for some time at a new car. Probably for over 5 years but recently it's become more in the forefront of my mind due to the MR2 getting more ..er.. loose. It's starting to feel as though it might be in the process of failing. However, having said that, it still continues to go. So what have I been looking for? Mainly a hatchback. They're great. You have the seats of a car and the space of an estate, but not together. Not that it's important.

So I had a look at a Ford Focus, a Toyota Corolla, a Mazda 3, Suzuki Swift, Hyundai i35 and many others. However, I saw a Jaguar (in the picture above) and it looked good. I thought, rather than go for a hatchback or a sporty type, why not go for opulence. For luxury. Checking out the prices, the Jaguar X-types are about the same price as a hatch anyway. So I went to 73 Moorhouse Avenue to check this car out.
I was disappointed. Some of the electrics didn't seem to work. The back seat had a squeak and I mean a LOUD squeak and instead of a CD player it has a mini disc. Why? The leather seats were hard and uncomfortable too.
I did check out another with cloth seats. Much better. It did not have electric seats either and considering I'd be the person driving it, it would be a set and forget, Why bother about electric seats. Plus to add to the cloth seated Jag, it was $5000 cheaper. But a Jag should have leather seats, right?
So I'm thinking, because I also saw that I could add 5-7 years onto a Jaguar X-Type and get a Ford for the same price. Better equipped and probably more fuel efficient.
So I wait and check all the different cars again as I really don't know what to go for. I've been a hatchback fan and a sports car fan for ages. I feel like a change.

The Kids

2010-08-12T22:31:00.003+12:00

I thought I'd mention a little about the kids. A few people seem to be asking so here it is.
Jamie and Bees are fine and I'm sort of coping with them. Knowing I have to to most of it all myself now with some help from Esther, Audrey's mum, means that I've have to go from being the hardliner that I was to being a bit more relaxed about a few things. Trying to take the middle ground between Audrey's position and mine.
Weekdays are relatively OK. It's getting them up and ready for school, which can be an issue as they just don't listen. They're kids right? It's in their job spec not to listen. So I have to try not to shout too much asking them to finish eating their breakfast and get dressed, and clean their teeth. Whilst they're doing (or not) that, I'm making their lunches and getting myself ready for the day.
Esther comes over at 08:00 and I leave for work.
When I get home at 17:00ish, I might chop a bit of wood, sit with them and have cuddles, talk with them about their day, surf the 'net, or start tea early. Just something short until I start tea by 17:30, ready to eat at 18:00. The kids are being themselves and occasionally help getting the place mats, knives and forks and cups for drinks. Teat at 18:00 and then I try to get them in bed by 19:00. It's usually 19:00-19:15. Occasionally they'll stay up a little later.
Bees will fall asleep within minutes unless she wants to sleep with Jamie. Jamie will read or get back out of bed and play quietly with his lego until he decides he's tired enough around 21:00 - 22:30. It's usually about 21:30 when he'll get back into bed or put his book down and sleep.
As I write this, it's 22:10 and Jamie has just come out to see me. The inside of his mouth hurt. I shone a torch in there but couldn't see anything and he's gone back to bed. Hopefully nothing serious like an infected tooth due to him not cleaning his teeth properly. He takes his Lego to bed. I hope he was just lying on that.
Just before I go to bed, I'll get the lunch stuff out and ready to make in the morning, get the tea pot and kettle ready and the breakfasts and clothes for school. It saves a bit of time in the morning.
So far, at weekends, we've been busy doing things, visiting people, shopping. I'm not sure what's going to happen when we have a weekend at home, doing nothing in particular.
I know I'm no good at arts and crafts. I had an attempt at making a small theatre with characters (bears) on long sticks. They were having a go at Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Or, as they say in NZ, beers. However, there was a twist and extra characters and one of the extra characters died and they had to bury them. There seems to be a theme of things dying and having to be buried. I'm hoping that these stories that Jamie seems to be initiating mostly, are their way of coping.
As far as how the kids are, they seem to be coping fine with no mum. They still squabble. Maybe a little more than normal. I'm not sure. They perhaps aren't getting as many kisses and cuddles as they're used to now that Audrey is gone.
There is no substitute for a mum's love but I try.

Audrey's Funeral

2010-07-25T11:31:00.009+12:00

After Audrey died, Esther stepped up to the mark and helped greatly in organising Audry's funeral. For me, I did not mind at all what happened. Audrey did not express any preferences other than to be a donor for her organs, which she has done and gone on to so far help 3 guys in New Zealand with her liver and kidneys.
Esther requested that at the funeral that Psalm 23 was read/played, that the Lords Prayer was read and that there was a poem, that Audrey liked when she was younger, be read. I wanted Amazing Grace because I liked it and for no other reason. The minister was Audrey's uncle. We videoed it. More for me as I might not be there in mind at the time and want to look back on it. Also for the kids if they ever want to look back on it and also if anyone who could not make it wishes to see it, let me know.
We got there around 10:00 for an 11:00 start. We set up the photos and horsey stuff and then I went into see Audrey. It was very distressing seeing her there.
The funeral service went well, from what I can remember with the hymns and readings going well. Then off for a cup of tea and a chat after carrying out the casket to the hearse. I didn';t have anything to eat (later regretting that as there were some rather tasty cream cheese, chocolate bits and kiwifruit sandwiches), but I did have cups of tea and chatted to many people. Close to the end Bees sai to me "Can we go and bury mummy now?". "Soon Beesie", I said. "I wanna do it now!" she exclaimed. It was great to hear her directness which is something Audrey had whenever she wanted to do something.
So soon after we followed the hearse at 60 and 80km/h up to Kimberley (darfield way) to the burial site for a 14:00 burial. It was cold and rainny and miserable. Once we were there Kenneth, Audrey's uncle said a little speach and then people covered the casket with flowers. Thank you Judith for giving Audrey the cryptic crossword book. She loved doing those. Then there was a discussion about the grave itself. It was dug in the wrong place! I walked away as I didn't want to know about it all and was too upset to care. Esther and her family are buried there and quite understandably were upset at the hole dug in the wrong place away from the family. Council guys came over to say that it was correct and perhaps the others were in the wrong place.
The result was that Audrey was taken back to the funeral parlour, there was no burial and the "Yates" family went to the council to discuss what went wrong.
People came back to Audrey and my place to eat, drink and chat and remember Audrey and catch up with the rest of the family. Friends came too. Later, the "Yates'" came back and it was decided that Audrey would be buried on Saturday at 13:00.
On Saturday, we took off to bury Audrey for the second time. There was cloud interspersed by sunny periods and the day felt a lot calmer and less rushed than Friday, which was good. We finally got to bury Audrey in the right place and at our own pace. We stood around to chat and after that we went up to Dyane's (sister) place for a cuppa.
To all the horsey people out there and to others that understand, it looks like Audrey got her re-ride.

Audrey Yates 1968 - 2010

2010-07-25T10:42:00.010+12:00

Please note that this blog explains the events up to Audrey's death. It's not nice to write and I expect, therefore, not nice to read. Why am I writing this? Partially to keep a record the events that occurred. Partially to let those that don't know what happened but also I hope as some form of therapy to help me through these sad and difficult times. It might drag on a bit too.
On Sunday about 19:30, Audrey went to bed. It was not an unusual time for her. At 20:00 I popped in to see how Audrey was. I then noticed that she has sick down her front. I asked her if she was alright and what was wrong. I then noticed that her hands and arms were moving in a distinctly seizure fashion. I called out to Audrey to see if she would respond. When she didn't I started to get worried. Audrey then went into another round of vomiting and gurgling. I threw her laptop out of the way and dragged her off the bed onto the floor and turned her over into some form of recovery position to keep her airways clear. I called to her constantly. I got up and phoned Audrey's mum, Esther, and told her to come up as there is something wrong with Audrey. I then phoned the emergency services and the ambulance was despatched. They arrived promptly and started what they do. I answered their immediate questions regarding medication Audrey was taking and timeline and the like. When they did a pupil dilation test there was no response. I felt perhaps rather than a fit, Audrey had a stroke. They got her on a stretcher and into the ambulance and I followed them into town. We stopped just before the Selwyn river bridge where we met another ambulance with paramedics who had more experience and were able to administer a wider variety of drugs to Audrey.
We got to Christchurch hospital and took Audrey into the Emergency dept. When I got there they took me through and told me what was happening and that Audrey was very sick and they'll take her to get a brain scan later once they had stabilised her.
Once stabilised and done the scans she was taken to the Intensive care unit. I was told to get the rest of the family in as it was serious, so I phoned Esther who came in with Russell (brother) and Dyane (sister) also came. Phil, the other brother was in Auckland so could not come in until the next day anyway. Jamie and Bees were at home with Cousin Amy and her partner Ian looking after them.
We finally went in to see Audrey. She had the usual tubes to help her breathe and to monitor her vital signs. We were then shown the CT scans of her brain. The area affected was huge. If anyone would like to see these, I have a copy.
At about 03:00 after realising the worst, that Audrey would either not survive or if she did, that she would not be anything like herself anymore, I had to get out of the hospital and see Jamie and Bees. I went home.
In the morning we went back into town with the kids to see Audrey and see what could be done. There was a lot of waiting around for the whole family. We were allowed to see her and wander back and forth. The Doctor (Dr. David Bowie) said that there were tests that they do. 2 rounds of tests, of which Esther and I watched the first. The second round performed twice by separate doctors. If any of the tests were positive then they look further into what they can do. Dr. David Bowie did the tests and told us said that all the results came back negative and there was no brain response at all from Audrey. At 16:30 on Monday, by law, Audrey was pronounced dead.
To me, I believe Audrey died at home or on the way to the hospital and died on the Sunday. It was quick for sure, with the seizure causing her to black out. I like to think she would not have felt any pain.
As I wandered around Hagley Park next to the hospital when they were doing the second set of tests, I saw everyone going about their business, it really told me the world still turns. Life goes on. It also said to me at that point that how can such an insignificant event in the grand scheme of thing mean so much, until I realized that I too am insignificant and us insignificant events need to stick together if we are to mean anything.
Jamie and Bees seemed to take it relatively ok. Whatever ok is. Jamie blocked his ears when we talked to him about Audrey not just being very sick but that she will die. He didn't want to believe it. He was very reluctant to say goodbye to Audrey. Quite understandably so. Bees was looking to help everyone through these difficult times.
It was at least comforting that as Audrey lay there, she just looked as though she was sleeping, the machine doing the work of keeping her body alive. That helped the children say goodbye, feeling like she was sleeping.
So now I look to the future. A life with Audrey only in our hearts and minds. A life with 2 children that need me to be there for them now more than ever.
I have told some people this, and thankfully followed it too long before Audrey's death. Give everyone in your family a hug and think of each moment you spend with them as a gift and when you kiss your partner, kiss them like it's the first kiss... and the last.
Audrey died at aged 42 and for me at least, she was my answer to life, the universe and everything.
Audrey, you will forever be in my heart. I will never forget the wonderful times we shared and the 2 beautiful children you gave life to. I love you. Love you always Audrey. Night night sweetie.

Holiday in Havelock

2010-07-11T09:43:00.008+12:00

After a bad start to the holidays where the van wouldn't start on Saturday morning, we were finally on the way to Havelock. The journey up was pretty non eventful, stopping just for a bite to eat.
Sunday evening, Chris and Becs came over for a chat with Chris bringing some of his homebrew. I guess it's just me but everyone else's brew seems to taste better than mine.
I decided that it would be nice to go to Picton on Monday to have a look around and to let the kids play out in the park. The rest of the week was looking grim. So once there we went to the park and let the kids play on the swings and slides. They had a go on the train and merry-go-round there, we had fish 'n' chips for lunch and the kids went back and played whilst we had a coffee. On the way down to check on the kids, Jim slipped on the steps and fell about 8 steps down to the bottom of the entrance of the park, hitting his head at the bottom of the steps. Gaby called an ambulance which arrived quickly and after a clean up, they took Jim into Blenheim hospital for a check. He came out with a clean bill of health. So rather an eventful day.
Wednesday and we went to Blenheim. I was looking for a case and a screen protector for my iPod, which I found. We had a wander around the shops and then to the heritage museum for a wander. In the evening I was invited to a lovely play/puppet show about 'friends' by the kids.
Friday we came home. When I awoke I could hear Jamie waking. He murmured, he sniffled. He then spoke. "chilblains". "What?" I thought.
So anyway, the journey back home was uneventful. Not much traffic but a little windy. One day I'll stop on that journey in many places and take lots of photos. Unitl then, here's the rather small amount of photos from this trip.

Tooth Fairy

2010-06-19T12:20:00.002+12:00

Bees lost her first milk tooth this week. She was eating a banana and after a bite it came out, still stuck in the banana. Quite funny really. We told her about the tooth fairy and she got the tooth wrapped up and put it under her pillow. This morning, when I woke up at 04:30, I remembered that I had forgotten about the tooth fairy exchanging the tooth for a gold coin so rushed into her bedroom and exchanged it. Literally, 1 minute later she was awake and shouting that the tooth fairy had come. Close call.
Jamie says that the tooth fairy does not exist but the tooth changes (morphs) into a gold coin. There's a new spin on the whole story I hadn't heard before.

Bees' 5th Birthday Party

2010-06-12T17:44:00.007+12:00

Saturday and we went to pick up Paige from her nan's and took Jamie, Bees and Paige into town to Lollipops Playland, where we met the others. Rebecca, Tilly, James, Paige (another one) and Jade.
The kids had a great time having a play. Then the food arrived and they all stopped for a little bit whilst they ate nuggets and chips and small sausages and sweeties and crisps...etc. All washed down with lemonade and ice cream for afters. Us adults who supervised, Esther, Audrey, Catherine and myself had sandwiches, bite sized cakes and coffee. Then Lollipop the Cat came in and presented Bees with a present (a water bottle) and we then lit the cake for Bees to blow out. Throughout the whole time the kids came and went, eating and playing. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Bees, got a torch, some makeup, a craft book, necklace, toy ponies, a hair band and some stickers. I took some photos of the occasion. Bees' Birthday is tomorrow but she will be at Pony Club so we had the party today.

The Macc Lads Story

2010-05-26T16:43:00.002+12:00

There have been a couple of films that are crap. They take the songs from a group and make a story. Abba (Mamma Mia) and The Beatles (Across The Universe) spring to mind. I think we should have a Macc Lads Story. But what should it be called?
Beer n sex n chips n gravy?

Beesie's first horse show

2010-05-16T07:45:00.009+12:00

Today we all went to Leeston Showgrounds to watch and help in Beesie's first horse dressage show. It was a drizzly affair and the temperature was rather cool but then it is autumn. Whilst Audrey and Janet read out the tests that Bees did (there were 2 in total), I took some pictures as did Janet and Jamie sat on the side lines and watched. For the first test, Bees came 6th out of 8. All through the second Bees was giggling when she got Chocky to trot. Bees came 3rd out of 9 (Mmmmm. 7 of 9) in her second test. Here are the photos of the occasion. Well done Bees.

Kids, happiness and your brain...part 2

2010-04-28T18:39:00.003+12:00

Following on from the last blog, if the left is selfish and the right, selfless, then I believe we need the selfish side in order for us to survive. To answer Rik's question.
I do wonder what certain drugs do to each side of the brain. Have there been tests to see. I'm sure there have but only to see what effect it has on the brain. Not to see what effect it has on left/right brainied people. Group the people into left and right first. Then do the tests.
This also starts to make me think, are arty, romantic, free spirited people more right brained and the concentrated, individualistic, logical people left brained. So are labour/ democratic politicians/ supporters left and conservative/ republican/ national right? Should they be?
As for religion, are they more spiritual people? Are they therefore more right brained?
And lastly, sex (politics and religion are done). If opposites attract, is this so that when a left and a right brained person procreate, that their offspring are more central? Should opposites attract? Is there a reason for this phrase? What happens when 2 lefties procreate, or 2 righties? Do we get exceptional people in their field?
What happens when you die? Does your right take over as perhaps it controlled when you were young as to make you feel free from worry and individualism and help "let you go"?
This has lead me down a questioning track which also makes me think of the 3 types of knowledge.
It's all very interesting (to me) and something I won't follow up on but if anyone out there has any interesting thoughts on this, I'd like to hear them.

Kids, happiness and your brain

2010-04-27T18:34:00.008+12:00

I watched a remarkable video a few years ago on Ted about Jill Bolte Taylor having a stroke. She's a neuroanatomist and studies the brain so it was an interesting time for her. In her talk she explained that the left side of her brain had a stroke and after intense pain she would then see that her body would blend with the environment around her and that everything was connected in some way. Then her left brain would kick in again and she's be herself, 'trapped' in her own body.
So now to some things that I thought of about children. They seem not to realise that they're separate individuals and that perhaps their right brain is evolving faster so that they too feel connected with everything. Especially parents :-D. Two other situations I've seen that seem to back up this theory of mine (maybe someone else has though of this too. Who knows). When kids colour in a drawing, they don't care about the boundaries of the picture. The lines that separate the individual items in the picture are not important. The other situation is that kids can be ecstatically happy for no reason or the simplest of reasons. Perhaps in our development of the right half of the brain, we lose the fun, the romance, the spirituality at being one with the universe.

Dunedin - Easter Holidays

2010-04-17T20:38:00.011+12:00

The trip to Dunedin took alot less than going to Havelock. It was a nice journey, stopping at Timaru and at Oamaru for rest stops and a chance to take some pictures. Unfortunately, Just half an hour outside Dunedin and it was spitting with rain. This wasn't really an issue for what we're wanting to do here in Dunedin but the place we're staying at has a kids play area with slides and swings, mini golf, board games and it would have meant getting wet to enter in these activities. The holiday 'park' was a nice one. The unit we're in was clean but it would have been nice to have more storage space or even a coat hook or two. Tea for me was a curry with red wine. The kids had corn, sausages and potatoes.
On Tuesday we had the trip to the Cadbury factory to look forward to. We popped into town rather early and as my phone was dying I didn't have anyway to tell the time, I had to rely on the clocks in and around Dunedin. At 10:30 we went to Cadbury's and got the tickets. They gave Bees and Jamie some chocolate and made a ssssh-ing motion. The tour started at 11:00 and we wandered around for a while, checking out how they make the chocolates from the bean to the edible stuff. At certain points along the route, we stopped and were given chocolate bars which the kids thought was great. They didn't much like the talking about the factory and the processes there but that at least kept me interested. You weren't allowed cameras in the factory, or jewellery, watches, and we all wore hair nets wich Bees was complaining about as it kept covering her eyes. That was until we made a game out of it. They will only be storing stuff there for making chocolate in the future as well as making assortment chocolates. The chocolate bars will be made in Australia and the slabs I believe they said Tazzie. At the end I took a couple of pictures of Jamie and Bees in the old trucks they have there. After going around here we went to MacDonalds for lunch and the kids played in their play area for a while. We're on holiday and I wasn't going anywhere that afternoon. We got back to the holiday park at about 14:00 and then we all went swimming/splashing in the pool. We had the pool to ourselves for about 30-45 mins which was great. Older kids can be a real pain. The pool also had some water jets and when mixed with air made the whole pool all white water foamy and gave it some waves of sorts. Good idea for swimming against and Bees and Jamie enjoyed being pushed along with their water rings. For tea that evening I had a curry with Elderflower champagne and the kids had potatoes and sausages.
On the Wednesday we went on the train through the Taieri Gorge. The scenery was great. I wouldn't say fantastic because much of New Zealand is like this anyway but compared to many other parts of the world it was. At the start I received the tickets and when we sat down at our allocated seats I said as I looked at the tickets. "Look. One adult. That's me. One child. That's Jamie and one child free. That's you Beesie". "But I'm four" Bees replied. You gotta love those moments. So off we went along the track, through Dunedin and out towards the gorge. I didn't take any pictures on the way up but took plenty on the way back. We stopped to turn around at Pukerangi. You can go onto Middlemarch but that trip was another day and more time spent thinking the kids would get bored, which they did on the way back. Fortunately, the generator supplying the electricity to the train died, so Bees was at least entertained by waving a glow stick that was supplied to some people in each carriage to stop the carriage going pich black. The trip was certainly worth going on. Great scenery and a nice restful sit down after walking yesterday.
Thursday and we went to visit the Chinese gardens in town. I took a few pictures. After that we wandered around the shops for a bit before having a coffee/ice cream and then onto some more shops where Jamie and Bees got some water wings and goggles and a hotwheels car each. In the afternoon we came back after a pizza and went swimming. Leftover pizza for tea.
Friday, the last day of the holiday before the trip home and we went for a drive along the penninsula. We stopped a few times and had a look at the scenery, but I didn't take too many pictures this time. We took the high road right to the end to the albatross colony and then back along the seafront, low road. After that we went to the settlers museum. It had a couple of trains in it so Jamie and now Bees were very interested in those. However, after looking around at much of it, the kids got bored and jumped at the chance of playing with the toys they had there for kids. No interest was made from then on at trains or anything. After I finally dragged them out from the museum, We went for lunch and then a last look around the shops before coming back to the room. Jamie and Bees went outside and played in the playground for some of the afternoon and later on we went swimming again.
On Saturday, we got the car packed and drove home, leaving at 09:00. Along thw was we stopped off at the Moeraki Boulders for a lookie. Then onto Timaru (sophistication!) which allowed the kids some play time and finally home at about 16:00. It doesn't take that long to travel to Dunedin like it does to Havelock and if you're doing it all yourself and not stopping then 4 hours is easy I reckon.
So a good holiday for the kids and for myself. The pictures are up on picasa.

Pony Club

2010-04-11T17:10:00.005+12:00

Today Bees got up nice and early. It was a special day for her. It was going to be her first day of Pony Club. She's been looking forward to going to Pony Club with Audrey and Nan for a long time but she was too young. At 2 months until she's 5 she has 2 free visits before she has to start paying. It's only NZ$45 a year so nothing much. She seems to have picked up the Yates gene for horse riding. It also gets her out and about with mum which I think she enjoys. Another couple of pictures here.
Meanwhile, Jamie and I went into town and got some board games (battleships, connect 4 and Guess Who?) for Dunedin in case it rains (it's gonna) and I got myself a Mitre Saw. The games were only NZ$20 the lot and they were an 'El Cheapo' brand so no loss if they get damaged too quickly. You gotta love 'Made in China' when it comes to kids.

Red Wine

2010-04-09T09:44:00.003+12:00

6 Kilos of red grapes from a vine up at Havelock and using the usual method, I've got a brew on. Seems to be bubbling away nicely. I might turn on the underfloor heating to get it a little warmer later this evening. After this batch I might make some stout.

Havelock at Easter

2010-04-08T08:31:00.007+12:00

The journey up to Havelock was busier than usual but uneventful. Except after we had stopped for lunch at Kaikoura Bees said “mumble murmur mutter”.
“You’ll have to speak up louder Bees” I replied.
“MUMBLE MURMUR MUTTER”.
“I can’t hear you Bees. LOUDER”.
“I NEED A BUCKET!”.
I indicated to stop and ran out of the van and around to where Bees was. Unfortunately, she was already sick. So I got her out of the van and she threw up on the side of the road whilst I tried to clean up the mess. We have this really cool collapsible bucket in the car for just such an occasion. Shame we missed using it.
As it was Easter a lot of places would be shut so the only real opportunity to check out a town would be Saturday or Tuesday. On Saturday, Jamie, Bees, Angel, Sapphire and I went into Nelson. We had a look around the shops which were just the usual chains. We could have gone to the market but I’d been there before at Christmas and on passing through this time, and I mean passing through, the market was the same old stuff too. The man who makes things out of soda cans was there as was his can aeroplanes, helicopters, trucks and racing cars. There was a great german sausage shop when I had to get some things for Gabriela and I suspect a few other Nelson specific shops but I’m not into fashion or the like which is what it would mainly be. We went up to the top of the hill to the church there and had adventures in the gardens. We went to a playground and the kids had fun on the swings and slide and spinnging wheel. At the end of the day we had an ice cream as eveyone had been good and then we came home to Havelock along the twisty turney road. Bees felt sick, but wasn't. In the evening Chris and Bex, the neighbours, came over and we played some games of cards. Chris is English and was playing with me on our team against Jim & Bex. We managed to thrash them, easily. What is it they say? History is written by the victors. We lost really. We were the ones who were thrashed. By a Kiwi and a Scotchman.
Easter Sunday and apart from the clocks going back, it was also Angel’s birthday. The morning was a cooked breakfast and then an easter egg hunt for the kids. I did tell mine to not eat too many eggs or the will get a poorly belly. In the afternoon Angel's Oma and Opa (Heidi and Albin) came over and she then opened her birthday presents. A computer, telescope, and more.. Bees came over to me and said, partway through the afternoon "My egg was melting so I had to eat it fast". Kids excuses are great. About 10 minutes later Jamie came out and said "My small red egg came unwrapped by itself so I had to eat it". Kids played. Adults chatted and fixed all the worlds problems. We had ice cream birthday cake and then for tea, a Sunday roast. Very, very, very nice.
Monday was a day spent in Blenheim. Many shops were shut but plenty were open of the usual chain stores to make it worth spending the day there. We wandered around and bought a couple of items. Then went down by the river and I took a couple of photos. Jamie really really wanted some more lego but he managed to keep himself composed when I said that he would have to buy it himself with his pocket money which he didn't have with him and so we'd have to get it in Dunedin when we go down there.
We left Havelock to journey back home at about 12:00. Unfortunately, the van wouldn't start. After some pushing, we got the van in a position to get Jims car battery onto it and it started fine. I think perhaps with the van being parked on the grass it had a little problem with rising damp. The journey back home was uneventful. Stopped in Kaikoura for petrol and a late lunch and we got home at around 18:00. Here are some pictures. Next stop Dunedin.

Hearing Test

2010-03-20T12:23:00.006+13:00

I read some article a whie ago about teens getting a ringtone for their phones that adults could not hear but they could. Today, I was reminded for some reason and because we have dogs and kids, I thought I'd test it out. There's a frequency test page hear. :-D
Very interesting results. Jamie Bees and I can all hear at 16000MHz. I can only just hear it if I position my ears at certain points around the speakers. The dogs ears twitched clearly at 20000MHz. I'm not sure about above that. Of course, my speakers might be useless at higher levels anyway.

End of an era

2010-03-12T17:17:00.004+13:00

If you follow my tweets/fb status's/buzzzzz'z then you'll know already but I thought I'd blog it. Bees is growing up. She can now pronounce her J's and G's and Ch's. She can now say "Simon Jeremy Gee eats some cheese". She was so happy and came out of her bedroom after going to bed to tell us both. It's certainly a happy day for Bees and a mixed one for me. My little baby girl is growing up.
I guess for me, it's not that Bees can now say her J's and G's and Ch's that makes me happy, but the fact that when Bees is happy, I'm happy.

Who is the best drummer?

2010-03-12T17:03:00.004+13:00

I was listening to The Count Of Tuscany on my way home today and I thought I'd blog about something I've probably been thinking for some time. Mike Portnoy is better than Neil Peart. There. I've said it. Now let me clarify before someone whines on. Mike Portnoy is not a better drummer than Neil Peart. They have different styles and people who are different play different so you can't really compare. However, for sometime now, I've preferred Mike Portnoy's style of drumming to Neil Peart's. I suspect (hope) that someone will come along later on in life and topple Mike Portnoy. If they don't then I'm stuck in a musical rut. Just like most people who listen to the same stuff they used to listen to when they were teen to 20-somethings. Nothing wrong with reminiscing, but to be stuck in one era whilst the whole world moves on must be quite sad, says the bloke who wears the same style of clothes he wore when he was a teenager. Touché.

Valentines Day Flowers

2010-02-16T18:24:00.005+13:00

"I hope you realise that's the only way you're going to get anything like this from me. Two days late and discounted, twice."
That's what Audrey said to me as she handed me a red rose for Valentines Day +2.
One rose - NZ$7.99, discounted to NZ$2.99 and then again to 99¢.
Ain't she a sweetie? We truely are the last of the romantics..lol.

Kids

2010-02-15T17:30:00.003+13:00

They don't dissapoint. When Jamie was 4 he wanted to be a fireman. Bees is 4 and she wants to be a ballerina. Ain't it great that they comform to these stereotypes? I have no idea where they get them from but it is very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Back to School

2010-02-05T22:35:00.003+13:00

Jamie has started his new year at school this week and all seems well. He's moved on to a new classroom and the first day home he brought a few more exercise books than the previous year. That evening Audrey helped Jamie cover them in what I can only describe as "stickybackplastic".
Bees meanwhile has started her final 6 months at pre-school, going for 2 full days and a half a day. It'll be a big day for her when she starts at Southbridge.
As it's their first week back, it's take a toll on them, Bees, crashing almost as soon as she gets home. Today, she didn't even manage to get home, after crashing at Nan's place where she's staying the night. Jamie meanwhile, is starting to realise I think that he cant stay awake in bed and read if he has to get up nice and early for school. He's also starting to get to sleep earlier.
As for Southbridge School's web site, I'm sure a wordpress site could be better than what it is currently. Ah well.

Why do Business Analysts love drawing on glass?

2010-02-03T06:56:00.005+13:00

That's my question to any business analysts out there. On so many blogs/web pages, when it comes to talking business analysis, show a team or an indivdual drawing on glass. It does loook modern and fancy but it must be a bugger to see the picture with the view through the glass showing, as well as reflection.
Yes. I know. It's not really business analysts. It's how Marketing perceive business analysts, wandering the corridors of offices only to stop, and draw on the windows.
Bloody Marketing.

Swimming

2010-01-17T17:47:00.004+13:00

Over the last couple of weeks, Jamie has been having swimming lessons. He has yet to put his head under water but he's enjoying it. Enough that he would like to keep going so I believe there will be more lessons when he's back at school in Feb.
The weather on the other hand has not been nice enough to warrant me popping in to Southbridge pool for a swim. Still, a month or so to go before the seasons start to turn.

Homemade A5 Compendium

2010-01-13T22:45:00.003+13:00

I spent 2 hours this evening making myself an A5 compendium (folder/portfolio/filofax) from cardboard and duct tape. Alot of the time was spent trying to figure out how I wanted the various pockets and how I was to finish off the corners and avoid using too much tape. A couple more pictures here. The only thing I have to finish is the latch. I'm thinking of a tongue through a loop and fastened with some velcro buttons. It was an interesting project.

Havelock for New Year

2010-01-03T12:46:00.010+13:00

After Christmas, on the 27th Jamie was sick. Throwing up sick. Not just poorly. We believe this was because he was excited at the thought of going to Havelock to see his friends. We thought about putting it off for a day or so but he turned around. So first stop was Christchurch to the Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House as we got some tickets to go there as a Christmas present from Amy and they had to be used up by the end of the year. This was the only time we could go. It was quite interesting and it's amazing to HEAR a kiwi let alone see one so close. How close? a couple of inches. It screeches and squawks. After this Bees went on some bungy thing whilst Jamie checked out the trams. Jamie likes anything with wheels.
From here we drove up to Havelock, which seems to take about 5-6 hours with some stops. After a relaxing doing of nothing the first day we went for a walk the second day to a couple of waterfalls which seemed just a little too far for Jamie Bees and Audrey. The next day we went to Blenheim to have a look around but mainly to go to the Riverside Railway as a big treat for Jamie. OK, all the others enjoyed it too but as I said, Jamie likes anything with wheels. Like the T-Shirt? - For those in the know.
On New Years Eve we didn't do anything but at 20:00 we went off to Picton to watch the Fireworks display. I have no photos of that and I suppose I could have played with the camera and it's shutter speeds and ISO settings but it was dark and I couldn't be bothered trying to take pictures. The fireworks were great. I did notice that the playground for kids was all spongy soft on the ground but my shin noticed that the actual bars and climbing frames were very nicely solid metal. On New Years day we took another short walk to the suspension bridge and a loop around the back of that. Many people were out at the river swimming and jumping off rocks. A couple of guys there were taking it nice and easy after a hard time the night before. On the 2nd of Jan we came home, with 2 extra kids, Angel and Sapphire, who are here and tidying up nicely for us. Child Labour. Ain't it grand.
More pictures can be found here and here.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T06:34:00.005+13:00

So Christmas has come and gone. Yet again it seems strange having Christmas in summer but then growing up in the northern hemisphere would give one a certain outlook on life.
This year was the first time that the kids really got into it. They knew about Christmas before but this year was very much about Father Christmas, presents, being good..etc. Jamie got lots more lego from Father Christmas and Bees got a lot of craft and dressup stuff as well as a dolls house. Very stereotypical. There were many other small presents to make the whole thing feel close to a Christmas at No.10 (Petlands Road).
The picture, above, was taken Christmas morning. More photos of the day here.
I hope you all had a great Christmas for 2009 and have a happy New Year.

And so it begins....?

2009-12-15T21:05:00.004+13:00

We've just come back from the final assembly of Southbridge School for the year. There were 2 things to note. The first is that Southbridge school will NOT be following the National Curriculum but will be a local curriculum that will reflect the unique needs and wishes of the Southbridge community. The second is that Jamie received a Certificate of Achievement for his class. There is only one presented for each year. Well done Jamie.
NB. After arriving home he turned from happy chappy to a prima donna and was NOT going to bed. The joys of parenting.

Dream Theater - Review

2009-12-02T21:09:00.023+13:00

The hall lights go down, the strobe lights flash and there is a sound of rolling thunder. Everyone is in their seats. Yes. IN their seats. No one stands up. Dream Theater come out and start with 'A Nightmare To Remember' and gradually, people rise to watch the show. Very different to the UK where everyone would be up on their feet when the house lights go down. I did wonder if it was a New Zealand thing. New Zealanders are a tad more reserved than people in the UK. Yes, I know. Throughout the evening I noticed people were sitting down to rest their weary legs. Is this a sign of things to come? People are fat and lazy and can't stand for 2 hours at a time? My feet were killing me about three quarters of the way through but then I'm an old git so I've an excuse. Not that I sat down. I wasn't going to miss anything.
James LaBrie said that they had not been to New Zealand for 20 years, so unfortunately, this show wasn't a Black Clouds and Silver Linings show. The set was more a CV of Dream Theater's last 20 years, playing the likes of Pull Me Under, Constant Motion, As I Am, The Mirror...etc. I was pleased that they did play 'The Count of Tuscany'. For some reason, I expected this one to be played. There was the obligatory solo (keyboard) with an enjoyable 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' battle between Jordan Rudess and John Petrucci. John Myung was as he ever is. Moving about a bit with his fingers going mental on the bass. I don't know why but I got the impression that Mike Portnoy was a tad aggressive on his outlook that evening. He was great, as usual, but I felt that he didn't seem to be enjoying himself. James LaBrie kept disappearing behind the screen. I cannot remember if he did this at previous concerts. Perhaps he did this to let the other members of the band take centre stage but it was happening quite a lot and I believed he should have stayed to urge the crowd on. That's what a front man does right? He also seemed not to be enjoying his stay here. Looking at the back of my T-shirt I did notice it was at the end of a long tour. Perhaps it was just fatigue. Perhaps I misread it all.
The sound was excellent. The engineers did a great job and hopefully made easier by the fact that The Civic is a great auditorium. Lighting was great too. I could see and hear everyone in the band, individually and as a collective.
Dream Theater started just after 20:00 and played for 2 hours, finishing just after 22:00, which is good for a band. Well, it was in the old days.
Please don't get me wrong. It was a great show. An excellent show. I'm glad I went. I think at the end of the day I was hoping for a Black Clouds and Silver Linings show and was disappointed at Dream Theater for not playing more from the album. Seeing as they hadn't been in New Zealand for 20 years, I can understand them wanting to play more of a mix for the New Zealand audience. I guess, being English, I've been spoilt, when I lived close to London. Maybe I'm getting old and analysing things too much now and not enjoying the moment. Well, I am a business analyst after all. :-D
Man of the day? The 'Old Skool' fan with denim jacket complete with band patches a-plenty. Kudos to him. I am not worthy.

Trip to Auckland

2009-12-02T19:38:00.010+13:00

On Tuesday morning, I drove to Deans' and he then took me onto that airport. It was cheaper leaving my car at Deans' than at the airport. A short wait and then off on the relatively smooth flight to Auckland for the Dream Theater concert that evening. I arrived in Auckland at 11:00 and took the bus into the city. It's probably the cheapest way to get there at $16.
When I checked into the hotel they could not find my reservation on their system. I finally had to log onto gmail and show them my receipt from their booking system. They were grateful and gave me a complimentary room upgrade. This was basically a queen sized bed into a king sized.
After dropping off my luggage - my karrimor handlebar bag from the '80's - I went to get some foils for my electric razor from the shaver shop. It's the only shop I know that WOULD have spare parts for electric razors actually in stock. They did not disappoint. I bought 2. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the shops looking for Christmas presents.
Wednesday morning was a nice lie in. Mmmmm. That's the great thing about going away and no kids. So when I did get up I phoned Nicola and arranged for a time when she'd pick me up. For those that don't know, I used to flat with Nicola when I was working in Auckland for Unitec. So I had time to pop down to Starbucks and get a White Chocolate Mocha, more Mmmmmm, and whilst I was there, I jotted down some notes for my Dream Theater Review. Nicola picked me up from the hotel and we went back to her lovely house for lunch and a chat. It was great to catch up and see how little Carter was doing. Nicola then took me to the airport where I flew home. My arms are very tired now.

Angry

2009-11-27T17:01:00.003+13:00

I've been in an angry mood for the past few days. Last night I found it difficult to get to sleep. The reason? I could post a picture but I won't as looking at it will just keep me angry. After constant telling that they are not allowed felt tip pens without asking us and they're not allowed to use them except on paper, guess what Bees did? Drew all over a chest of drawers. The nice ones. Not the rubbish ones that they use. and I've noticed blue on the carpet and the bedside table and a small table next to a living room chair.
Note to self. Only shop at Briscoes, the Warehouse and the $2 shop. There's no point in having anything nice anymore. Cheap crap will do.

My next brew

2009-11-25T18:27:00.003+13:00

Friends in the UK will know about Parma Violets. Although it says they're a violet flavour, I've always though of them as more lavender. But what do I know. So on that thought, my next brew will be lavender flavoured wine. I watched "River Cottage - Summer's Here" last night and they talked about gorse flower wine. I have gorse bushes so one day I might give that a try but for now, lavender. So what will it taste like? Perfume. Still it's better than rose flavoured wine. That would taste like soap!

Courtenay AandP Show

2009-11-23T17:22:00.004+13:00

Audrey went to the Courtenay A and P show on Saturday whilst I was gardening and looking after the kids. She went there to show McLeod in the cob section. Audrey entered various classes and got first and second in those and then at the end of that she got the overall winner of her section (Champion). Click the picture for a slightly bigger one.

The Weekend

2009-11-15T17:44:00.005+13:00

This weekend was nothing special. Friday was a day off from work. It was Show day in Canterbury and Christchurch was having it's annual A and P show. So I was out clearing grass from my gum trees to allow them to 'breathe', weeding the garden and general tidying up.
Rather interestingly, 4 people (2 couples separately) came around to talk to us about elderflower champagne and ask if they could have some elderflowers. One was going to make cordial and the other to make champagne.
We had a great southerly blowin' through (see picture). These things are amazing. You can see the trees blowing from a way away and then the fields blow and you can see it hit as it goes through.
On Sunday the kids and Audrey went into Christchurch to get McLeod to get is back looked at. I caught up on some videos and also weeded the garden a little and FINISHED (YAY!) the tree clearing.

Mixed Ramblings

2009-11-08T07:48:00.006+13:00

This weekend started off very busy. I've been removing the grass surrounding the gum trees all week and did some more on the weekend. I also sprayed the remaining grass with weed killer. Mowing was a large part of Saturday, mowing a path to the gum trees by the side of the fence and mowing the grass around the house with the flymo. I still have 1 tree to chop up that came down in some high winds we had and a branch from an apple tree than came down a while ago.
Whilst relaxing in the bath after a long day outside, tending to the garden I had a few thoughts. What to so with the surplus vegetables that I'll get this year. I usually freeze the tomatoes. That, I shall do again, but I might try for a few more tomatoes this year and see what tomato beer/wine/cider tastes like. I'm not sure what you'd call it really. The garlic I might break up into cloves and submerge in oil to preserve them which means getting some oil and some jars. Maybe some of those flip top thingys. About a month ago, my yearly garlic supply dried up so I have to wait for a month and a half before my next years crop. Thankfully I have some spare garlic given to me. I then had a rather interesting thought and searching for it on the web found nothing. Alcoholic Cola. Cola has water, sugar and flavour. All I need add is yeast, surely? An interesting project which I'll have a go at when the really cheap cola is on sale. It'll cost about NZ$16 for the cola, NZ$5 for the yeast and I get all the bottles ready to bottle it too. Worth a try I reckon.

Why reinvent the wheel?

2009-11-04T21:12:00.002+13:00

In my time at programming I created or used any number of routines over and over again that did a specific job, from just a small function like adding a number of days to a date to writing out an error report or selecting data from an SQL database. Now I'm a business analyst and there are many process modelling applications out there that follow a set standard (BPMN for example). I know there's more than one way to skin a cat, programming has taught me that, so what I'd like to know is why can't I find a library of process model routines that I can import into the BPMN application of choice and build up a simple library of my own to create processes faster?
So many different systems perhaps? Yeah right, like there's no HR or no Help Desk. OK, I'm working in the education sector, but receiving an application for study has similarities to receiving an application for insurance. I shall continue my quest for processes I can scavenge but it seems odd that there's nothing out there.

Wind

2009-10-31T07:54:00.006+13:00

On Wednesday I got up at 04:00 to catch an early flight to Auckland for business. Networked, watched presentations and got some useful info to take back to work. My flight home was expected to be off at 18:30 but as I was at the airport earlier I managed to get onto an hour earlier flight... thankfully. I got back to my car and drove to Hell to get dinner and then drove home. as I was driving home the wind picked up a bit. Enough to push my car around more than normal. It was about the time I would have been coming into land at Christchurch Airport if I had not caught that earlier flight. The next day, after work Bees took me over to show me a tree. It had blown down in the wind. I'm glad I wasn't on my scheduled flight coming home. Scary. Still, on the bright side, more firewood.

Labour Day Weekend

2009-10-30T19:17:00.011+13:00

Over Labour Day weekend we all took a trip up Marlborough way to Havelock where Jim, Gaby, Angel and Sapphire now live. On Friday afternoon at 14:00, we drove off north along SH1 towards Picton. We stopped for a couple of comfort stops and once for fish n chips at Kaikoura before arriving about 20:00 at Havelock, knackered and in need of a drink. Saturday and we were going to go to Picton but decided to go to the market at Nelson. Nelson is full of rich people or hippies (exaggeration here). We had a wander. Bees got a white hat. Jamie got a truck made out of coke cans. On the way back we stopped off at Pelorous Bridge for an ice cream and a wander around the river. That evening Gaby and Jim invited Rebecca and Chris, their neighbours around for a few drinks. It ended up many, many drinks.
The next day, Sunday, with some, a little worse for wear, we went off to Linkwater for the Linkwater School Fair where the kids went on the bouncy castle, bouncy titanic and had their faces painted. There was a band playing (teenagers) who seemed very good, especially the drummer. I watched him and after about 10 seconds I decided he was alot better than I, but then I haven't played for 15 years. Later that afternoon we went for a walk in Havelock and the kids played on the museum train. Monday afternoon we came home, all knackered. It was a great trip and apart from the driving, it was a relaxing break. I took a few photos.

Ellesmere A&P Show

2009-10-17T17:02:00.008+13:00

It's that time again. The time when we take a trip into Leeston to the Ellesmere A&P Show. I took Jamie and Bees into Leeston and met Suntiha there and we went to the showgrounds. We had a wander and whilst the others went on the rides, I too photos of the event. We had lunch and had a look around. It was the same as it's always been but considering that nothing much happens around here, it's a nice change from the norm, even if it is the same change as always.
One of Jamie's pictures was on display in the "school" shed which Audrey seemed very proud of as she did with all her horse riding that day. Very happy at the end when the Grand Parade wandered past. Bees also took part in the parade thanks to Chole and I also saw Jan with her winner. There were also other interesting sights.

Jamie's 6th Birthday

2009-10-09T22:15:00.006+13:00

Jamie was 6 yesterday. He woke up nice and early do I was able to watch him open up his first present, Dennis from Thomas the Tank Engine, and a card.
I left work earlier so I could catch the end of his party. He only invited 4 girls along and they were all waiting for me to arrive so we could cut the cake.
Jamie also got some walkie-talkies, Lego, cards and money
I believe they all had a great time.

Albums

2009-10-09T19:14:00.004+13:00

So why, in this day and age of the internet and rapidly changing music industry, iTunes and other sites for downloading tracks, do artists still produce albums? When I say albums, I mean a group of tracks collated together as opposed to a CD or an LP.
I know the answer already for many and that's because they schedule a studio, producers and other key staff to help create the songs, so it's best to get a group of songs together to get the most effective use of staff and studio time.
It's a wonder though why groups don't perhaps create demo's and spit them out one by one until they decide to create an album from the demos.
Maybe a new way of creating more sales? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Playing YouTube after downloading

2009-09-27T11:27:00.010+13:00

Want to save a YouTube video onto your PC? Hate installing things on your PC for that one off time that it'll be used and when you decide to use it for a second time you find it's a trial version and you can't use it again?
Then, when you go to play a video you've downloaded, you find your player doesn't support the YouTube format.
This is one way you can sort this out.
1. Go to LiberKey and download it and install it onto a USB stick. That's what it's for.
2. Make sure you have VLC Player in the download. There are others but this is a good one to pick.
2a. If you don't, go to the applications page and at the bottom, click the little box next to the one you want. That will download and install it direct to your USB stick for you - assuming you have your USB stick plugged in and running that is.
Note: VLC Player, if you're not familiar, is Open Source so there.
3. Go to YouTube and find the video you want.
4. Copy the URL (eg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gnFbwRmkc4)
5. Go to Save Video Download, paste in the URL and select the "Get Links" button.
6. Underneath the box where you pasted the URL, a link or two will appear. One that's in .FLV format and maybe one that's in .MP4 format.
7. Select the .MP4 format because you're more than likely to have a player that plays it. You're Done.
8. If there is no .MP4 format, select the .FLV format link and download it.
9. Once downloaded, and you have LiberKey running from your USB stick, Open VLC Player and drag the .FLV file into VLC Player. You're Done.
Note: If you want, VLC Player will also convert the .FLV video file into .MP4 or other formats.

Nothing installed on your PC. No annoying trials, no advertware. Enjoy. LiberKey also has many other useful tools to play with which you can take around with you wherever you go.

UPDATE: Or you could just go here, paste your URL and click the mp4 hyperlink.

Hanzel Und Gretyl

2009-09-26T17:23:00.003+12:00

Grrrr. I've just found out that Hanzel Und Gretyl are coming to New Zealand. Playing Auckland only on 13th November. How annoying. I would have loved to have seen them but I can't keep flying up to Auckland to see groups every month. It's start to cost a bit too much. Ah well. I guess I'll have to pass this time.
I think I need to move to Melbourne.

Blog Updates

2009-09-20T13:41:00.004+12:00

You may have noticed a few slight changes to my blog. I've highlighted most of them in the picture.
1. Added a skype notification and contact link.
2. Added a 'share' button.
3. Started adding labels to my posts
4. Added a labels 'cloud'

Something not in the picture is the top navigation bar that usually sits on a Blogger page. It's gone. I was searching for Blogger plugins and came across this site which had some interesting articles and plugins for Blogger one of them being how to remove the navigation bar.

Ticket is here.

2009-09-04T07:14:00.004+12:00

I have my ticket to Dream Theater. Roll on December. Looks like it's filling up fast too. Wooo hooo.

Dream Theater Concert

2009-08-29T09:25:00.003+12:00

Well, I've booked my ticket to Dream Theater in Auckland on 1st December. Just me. Should be cool. It's at the Civic too, which, for all you film fans , was where King Kong (Peter Jackson remake) was held captive and on show and where he broke free and went on the rampage at the end of the film. I've been there before for films and the acoustics are pretty good, compared to "other" places.
I fly up on Tuesday morning, hopefully spending time with Brian & Nicola and checking out Carter (baby) then off to the concert and back home the next day, late afternoon. It gives me time to check out the city again and have a sort of mini break.
Wooo hooo!

The Science of Motivation

2009-08-25T17:20:00.003+12:00

Most of the time when I find something interesting on TED, I usually tweet or fb a link. This time though I thought I'd mention it on my blog. It's not over the top amazing but for anyone in business who is interested in incentivising their staff or perhaps wanting some incentive from their boss, it might be an idea to watch this first. You can click the title above or access the video here.

My Office

2009-08-23T16:38:00.005+12:00

I thought you might like to see what my office looks like. Rather drab and dreary but it does the job. I have an exceptional view don't you think?
What's the time on the clock? 21:12?

August plantings

2009-08-23T15:48:00.012+12:00

Apart from the gum trees for firewood, I've also planted a few other trees, shrubs and plants this month. Going to the gym certainly has made it easier to bend and stretch and dig and churn but it still does my back in. The weather these past few days have certainly felt like spring and today with the birds singing and the warm sun beating down, it was great to get out there and do something. Anyway, rather than waffle on, check out the pictures.

A New Police Truck

2009-08-14T18:03:00.004+12:00

There was me, arriving home and seeing Jamie smiling. The proud owner of a new lego police truck. He gets plenty of toys so I'm always on the grizzle about it, saying that he spoilt, saying that Christmas will mean nothing to him, or birthday's for that matter.
So when he finally showed me it didn't look quite right. The box for instance where the 'robbers' are held, looked from a technics set. It then dawned on me. It was made. I said to Audrey that it looked pretty good. Audrey then told me Jamie made it all by himself. Now I found that really amazing. He's certainly got an eye for design. Click on the picture and check it out.

Firewood Plantation

2009-08-10T08:35:00.010+12:00

On Saturday morning I got some water into white containers. Then some digging implements and the gum trees and packed them all into the trailer and took them over to where Dean and I were going to plant the trees which we're both going to use for firewood. After unloading them I went back and loaded up the trailer with manure.
Dean arrived just after lunch and we went out there and started on the long back fenceline. We got most of this done on Saturday, planting 80 trees but digging the 100 holes ready for planting. The twitch grass was very difficult to dig through and pull out, even after spraying it with weedkiller.
On Sunday we got out there nice and early and carried on. The planting of the seedlings in the paddock was alot easier as the grass was less deep rooted and the ground, being not on the boundary, was used to being dug up every year for planting crops so was less compacted. Every 15 trees planted we'd have to get more manure in the ride on mowers' trailer. Audrey took the only vehicle with a tow bar so we couldn't use the trailer on Sunday. Every 30 or so trees planted and we have to refill the water containers back at the house.
At the end, we had 200 trees planted and we have 10 left which I shall put somewhere else. Not sure where just yet though. Probably between the gorse and fenceline here.
The only dangerous part now is if the sheep get in to graze, but I will get the last of the fences sheep proofed and all the sheep that used to go through fences are now in freezers so we should be fine.
Here are a few photos of us working away on the plantation.

Eucalyptus Nitens

2009-08-06T16:40:00.009+12:00

I thought I'd better update my blog with the next major step this year. The planting of 210 trees in the far field and along the boundary. These trees - Eucalyptus Nitens - will do 3 things. Provide us with firewood, stop the wind a little that comes from the north east and produce a nice smell to waft over when there is a north-easterly.
Dean has bought the trees through his bartercard account and he will be sharing half the firewood when it grows large enough. They're currently about 10cm tall. This weekend, Dean and I will be planting them and the day looks like a nice one to do this.
They're quite fast growers so in about 5 years we could possibly be looking at chopping some of them down to burn the year after. The trees also coppice which helps.

Them thar hills.

2009-07-18T17:43:00.016+12:00

This weekend I did a few things. It was a spectacularly sunny and clear day and once the sun was up and shining, it got warm very quickly. Whilst I was getting the firewood, I saw the mountains, so I thought I'd take a couple of pictures for you to see. Snow!! Lovely. I sometimes see parts of New Zealand and do feel lucky to be living here. Today, with the sun shining down, snow on the hills and the kids playing happily, it was certainly a day to feel lucky.
Afrer the firewood gathering, came the weed spraying. Well, not so much weed as in grass. Dean and I are going to plant a load of gum trees in part of the field to be used eventually as firewood. we're getting about 200 of them. So soon it'll be back breaking work one weekend.
After that I planted my garlic. A bit late this year but only by a couple of weeks.
Sunday was spent weeding and pruning. OK, nothing spectacularly exciting but it did take a while as the weeds were around the roses.

Free Shadow Puppets for ALL!

2009-07-11T15:54:00.005+12:00

What is the world coming to when people stand up and fight for the right to bring back puppetry? I can understand to some point what with Punch from Punch 'n' Judy fame being ousted for wife beating and the classic funtime stories either being rewritten or not shown at all. However, when the world goes mad and demands that shadow puppets be brought back and people rally to the streets in protest against puppetry demise, there has to be something wrong with the world.
"Ain't there more serious issues out there people?".

Wedding Anniversary at Hanmer Springs

2009-07-04T06:59:00.011+12:00

We'd booked a couple of nights away from everyone at Hanmer Springs to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was just to get away from the day to day things and relax and do nothing. Which is exactly what it was and it was great.
Monday, and I got up to let the cat out. She had pissed on the carpet in the doorway. So I cleaned that up. I went to look for some kitchen roll to cover it up but we didn't have any, so I wandered about doing tidying things and stepped in the cold wet carpet cleaner. Grrrrr. I went to look for my slippers and couldn't find them. Not in the living room. Not in the hallway, not in the...Grrrrrr I stepped again into the cleaned up cat piss. I changed my wet socks. Eventually I found them in the wrong place in the walk-in-wardrobe. I then went to take out the rubbish as it was rubbish day, I put my shoes on and went into the kitchen to get some more rubbish and I noticed dog shit in the kitchen and I had stepped on it. GRRRRRR. I checked my shoes and they were OK. No shit sticking to them. I cleaned up the kitchen poo and went to the back door. There was more shit there. I had dragged it across the carpet. GRRRRR. I cleaned that up and took out the rubbish. I came back in and did a few other things. Then I decided to hoover the floor. I got out the hoover and plugged it in. I turned it on and it died on me. AAAAAARGH! I tried the other socket and it wouldn't work. So I picked up the curtains that needed fixing and took them round Gaby's and destressed there whilst having a coffee. I got back home and checked the hoover in a 3rd socket. It went. Looks like we have a dud hallway socket and not hoover. So after that, all my packing was done, I decided to get the car out. Guess what? It wouldn't start. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! It whirred over and over and drainied the battery more and more. It doesn't exactly have a great battery in the MR2. In the end I floored it and turned the engine and it spluttered into life with plumes of white smoke out of the exhaust. Before that it had been fine. After that it has been fine. Just that one day. Just that one time.
So we packed the car and left, leaving the kids and Nan to look after themselves.
It was a nice drive going north. Not too much traffic. We stopped just before the turn off towards Hanmer at 'The Mud House' which was a very large winery building, for lunch. It looks fancy but when you look close, it's all show. a concrete monstrousity with stone cladding and very poor pointing. So we ate there. The food was nice. Then off on our way towards Hanmer, the roads got more windy. Nice sweeping bends than were great for the MR2. As we crossed the bridge to enter Hanmer we saw goats on the very steep rock face. We decided not to stop for pictures as the camera was deep down in the boot. We arrived about 16:00 very easily to the Heritage (picture) and checked in. Then Audrey decided to have a relaxing bath so I went out and took a couple of photos. It had just started snowing, that wet snow, and it was grey and overcast. But I got some taken. That evening we went to Robbies for a meal.
The next day after a 12 hour sleep in, we got up nice and late and went out to see around town. There's not much there but it was a nice wander. Audrey bought some things and I grumbled about money. Hanmer is a tourist town for skiers and more importantly, people wanting to hang about in their hot pools. Then we lazed around in the room watching SkyTV for a bit and then went to get a massage. It was great. I've never been touched like that by a man before. I liked it. :-D I did think that he had that extra force and strength to get into those muscles and soften them up but then I would have thought that massage was about technique and not strength. Audrey enjoyed her massage.
So we left there and wandered down the street, taking a long route back to get something to eat for tea. We had a look at many places, the prices were all about the same and the food was also. We stopped at a Monteiths bar and ate there. I had steak and their Winter Ale which was quite nice. Not a patch on Real Ale though, but OK for NZ.
The next day it turned out sunny-ish. I took a couple of pictures and was going to take some more on the way home but in the end I didn't. So there's not alot of pictures to see. They would have just been mountains, just like the last 2. So nothing new really.
It was a lovely time away. Just the right amount of relaxation and doing nothing.

Happy 70th Birthday Esther

2009-06-20T09:23:00.012+12:00

Driving past Esther's house on the way home I saw many cars parked outside her house. Looked like all the family were there. I drove past and arrived home to a house smelling of yummy cooking. Helped get stuff ready and about 19:00, the family turned up for the birthday gathering. The food was nice, there was chatting here and there and general jolity for all. After eating the food the cake was cut and desserts were eaten. Photos were taken by me and Petra to record the event.

Happy Birthday Bees

2009-06-13T21:53:00.006+12:00

Bees had a birthday today. She's 4. We had cake and jam and cream bannocks, fish 'n' chips, coke and ice cream. Bees got a kitchen (picture), some kids makeup, a hat, clothes, books, colouring in books, puzzle books and lots of hugs and kisses. At the end of the day, she was a very happy, but very tired little Bee.

Liberkey

2009-06-12T14:17:00.006+12:00

I was reading gool ol' Lifehacker today and they had an article about Liberkey. It's a useful software repository that allows you to install the software they have in their repository onto you USB. When you run the .exe, set it to a USB drive and folder, not on your PC, although you can also install it onto your PC if you so wish. The idea with it is that the whole thing is portable. It also has a very nice untility to enable you to collate and install the latest updates. All done automatically and happily, through a proxy server if you have one of those. With USB 3.0 just round the corner (already there are USB 3.0 drivers for Linux) with it's increase in speed of USB file/application access, Looks like an interesting way to store your apps.

Deep Fryer

2009-06-08T11:59:00.006+12:00

Whatever happened to the word FAT? These things were called deep fat fryers. It seems, just like KFC, people are shying away from the word "fat" and do not want to be associated with it. I don't care. I came home Friday evening and saw a deep FAT fryer in the kitchen with chips already waiting to be loaded into the machine. They take 10 minutes at 190 Celcius. I'd probably give them 12-15. We had fish 'n' chips on Friday and sausage, egg 'n' chips on Saturday. I'm getting some more oil of the olive kind tonight when I shop for food. It seems to cook OK with olive oil.
On a connected thread, I dug up loads more potatoes on the weekend. About 6 bucketloads. Some of them were sprouting already so I broke off those sprouts (avec roots) and planted them (4 rows of 7). Not sure what will happen but if they grow, Ba-DOING! More tatties for nowt. I have plenty of potatoes that I can use as seed potatoes in spring.
Next job, clean up the tomato bed. It's a mess with rotten tomatoes. Still, that means more for next year.

VirtualBox

2009-05-23T17:56:00.004+12:00

I've installed VirtualBox on my Linux machine. I then installed Windows XP within VirtualBox. Whilst I was trying to find out how to do something, I noticed a state called 'seamless windows'. What it does is layer the windows desktop on the linux desktop but hide the windows background so it looks like you're running windows applications with Linux ones. Very nice idea.
Only one problem for me. I need more memory.

Jamie's Learning Portfolio - Update

2009-05-21T12:35:00.005+12:00

Audrey and I went to see Jamie's school teacher yesterday and she went through various bits n pieces with us on how Jamie is doing or isn't.
The good news is that Jamie is way above his age for reading and spelling. However the results I gave were old. Out of date. They have this chart thing which has grades. Not ages. Most students generally fall around the grade 2-4. Jamie doesn't fit on the graph. He is off the scale at 25. I don't know what this means other than I don't have to teach him how to read of spell. This also means that the teachers are aware of his ability and are helping tailor specific programmes to suit. He's also got some conference thing he's going to be in, asking a question to some group. This conference thing is for more mature students and Jamie is very young compared to the rest. Hopefully he'll cope and get used to mixing with many age groups.
The not so good news is that Jamie is an ideas person. His mind wanders off on it's own and he stops what he is doing and thinks..I don't know what he thinks. So whilst he is engadged in reading out sentences, hs stops frequently. Not because he doesn't know what words. More that perhaps he's wondering what's going to happen next in the story. So Jamie has to concentrate on the task at hand.

Jamie's Learning Portfolio

2009-05-18T18:54:00.003+12:00

WOW. We never had nuffink like that when I was a kid. In it it goes through some 'standard tests' and measures that against others in the country and probably historic tests also and gives results.
Jamie's results are.

Spelling age: 8.2
Reading age: 9.06
Numeracy: ?

Not sure about the numeracy. He may not have done the test yet however it says that his 'stage' is 4 and his expected stage is 2-3. I'll update you on this when I find out what Jamie's level is at.

Cloud Computing

2009-05-18T18:22:00.004+12:00

I like computing in the cloud. It means I store nothing on my PC and someone else can look after it for me. It basically turns my PC into a dumb terminal. So we head on back to the good old days of the power of computing run from somewhere else. Good for the companies moving their software onto the web. It means no more product packaging and that for a fee per month/year, you can use their software and the company finally gets cash for their efforts and bootleggers finally lose out. Not that it really matters anymore as I'm using Linux.

Homer3

2009-05-16T21:59:00.005+12:00

I watched the Simpson's episode Homer3 the other night.I remember watching it the first time. It was good because they turned Homer into a 3 dimensional computer graphic when he went through some Twilight Zone place behind the cupboard. It was my favourite episode because they did something different. The ending was that Homer ended up in the real world as this 3D computer graphic and he wandered along the street in his usual innocent way and popped into a chocolate shop, because of who he is. I remember the first time I watched it is was a little sad to see Homer in some strange place and no sign of how to get back. Fast forward to this week and there I am watching it again and enjoying the graphics and at the end Bees says "awwwwww". "What Bees?" I asked. "He's all alone". she said. I was stunned. I didn't think Bees would have seen that and didn't realise she was so empathic.