Tina, Amber & Scott

Since the last entry? . We were so conscious of this blog when we first got here, trying to update friends and family about what we were doing, and trying to impart a little of the flavour of life down under to those at home. Three years on, we’ll we have friends here, and family and friends fro the UK and Germany have come over to see us and experience the NZ way, to see that we don’t live off vegemite and have tropical beaches.  I guess the imperative to write has left us, so we grudgingly jot down as a chore what has been happening of late. Especially when not much at all has been occurring. Weekly routines of work, rest, and play merge into one, with nothing to raise its head over the parapet of life to be taken a shot at by the blogosphere. Sigh, Oh well, then, what have we been up to of late,. Week days is spend trying to care for a 17 month old little girl and her demands. Not that we begrudge her, but when her highness has been put to bed we generally collapse in a heap and have to be prodded to move and prepare for the next day.  Weekends is routine also, I Skype my father Saturdays, and raise early giving Tina a change for a lay in bed, and she returns the favour on Sundays. Saturday afternoon is swimming lessons and perhaps a trip to the park if the weather holds out, and considering its winter now we’ve had some pissy cold weather of late.   Sunday morning, DR WHO !  but just for one more week, and we’ll be at a loss . I try to fit in some home improvement and DIY if I can, recently the bathroom has been finished, although I am eying the floor in there wondering if I can replace a floorboard with something from 60 years ago I found under the house, and with Brian’s help, managed to sort out the coving in the washroom. Just need to strip some skirting boards, sand the walls undercoat it, strip the window, clean the windows, paint it, and put on the skirts and door frames and be done. I hope to finish by Xmas this year, or at least by the spring time, when the garden explodes and needs a twice a month napalming to keep back the onslaught of the grass.  Tina is out at the moment at the TSB arena for a parenting expo, aimed I think at mothers, and I have a couple of hours to myself, a rare opportunity indeed. With 35 minutes left before I to have an appointment to attend, so I’m dashing this piece off hoping it will sate the need for blogging for the next few weeks. If there is any news we will of course impart it, but most is done these days via twitter and facebook.  Is the day of the blog dead ?  Enjoy the video, This is of little Amber and her visit yesterday to the Botanic Gardens, and her insistence of walking the dog, I hope she stays away from the edge though…..

Morning all, here’s a quick update on what we’ve been up to,  Amber has started her swimming lessons once more. She hates getting here head wet but we are trying to overcome that by dunking her as often as we can mothers day was last weekend, so I let Tina have a lay in bed and made pancakes, which Amber loves to munch on. She is eating well and never seems to refuse anything. We even tried her with a curry last week which she scoffed gleefully.  Al is across at the moment looking for a local job, hopefully we can get him in at work. And we have a week off at the end of the month. Travelling up to Napier for a holiday and see the country. Sam is being looked after by a friend of a friend, and should get a good run around and love for the week freeing us up which is a plus. Looking forward to Napier, and we hope the weather will hold. We might even be able to get out to the beach while were there.  We really need a break as we havnt been anywhere or had time off since last October.

Clocks have just sprung forward  in the UK, and were now 12 hours distant, just for the week though, 11 next week as ours go back an hour as we fall into Autumn.  On the good side we have a four day weekend to look forward to this week, and two four day working weeks, yum.   Ok then news, work is getting harder and a pain in the neck, but it pays the mortgage and I’m lucky to have one in the current climate.  Last week I managed to get a couple of days leave and painted the bathroom.  We were going to have the whole week off and go up North for a relax, but after Amber smashed my front tooth, and Tina had an unexpected Dental appointment, well that blew the holiday reserve money,  I can’t wait to win the lottery, must be my turn soon.   As I said, the bathroom is finished painting, I just need to fit the window trims and the skirts, then onto the Washroom, sand, paint, and trim,  then fix the loose brick over the garage, then lay the path,  it never ends.  Oh, and we managed to get a heat pump installed into the back room the other week, so we’ll use the four day weekend to move Amber’s nursery into the back. Hopefully she won’t mind the move much, and the temperature is controlled, I just hope I can fit the office desk and a double bed from the back room, into the front room.  Thank goodness we didn’t decorate with children’s wallpaper when we did the nursery first time round!

Saturday was nice weather, Tina and her mummy pals organised an outing to the Blueberry farm, near Stag lands in the upper hut.  Lovely weather, but we didn’t spend too much time picking blueberries, or at least I didn’t, I think Tina was in her element.  Amber had fun running around and exploring with all the other toddlers.  She charmed the pants off everyone with that smile of hers and those blue eyes    The two girls in the shop at the farm were from Germany and Newry. Small world indeed. Sunday was a vege day, Amber had a long nap and we both vegged out on the couch. Amber woke us both at 5am this morning, teething bless her, her molars are coming through, and she hasn’t been happy all day.  Time for bed now though, and do it all over again tomorrow   Oh, and nearly forgot, Tina won a competition at work for dressing up as a Nerd   $20 for wearing a T-Shirt, with the title of the blog on it. I don’t think many people non tech would have got it though,  As they say, "There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don’t"

Morning all,  Its been a while so lets bring you up to date.  Work, Home work home,  seems to be a repeating Cycle.   Amber is well, and toddling along nicely,  she is a fast little mover and always into things,  We had to move all the books off the bookshelf’s up a level and replace the items with her own toys and books to throw around and read.  Friday we picked up a Trade me item for her, a little pool floater she can sit in with her legs wiggling around underneath. I got home at half 6 and we got changed jumped in the car and went down to the Tawa Pool for a swim around for an hour, she had a great time splashing and playing with her new toy.   The bathroom is getting there,  the plastering is all done, and I sealed the grout yesterday and we bought paint on Saturday from Mitre Ten in Petone, after we had visited the Petone fair.  Nice day out. So I just have to pick a time to get the painting done.  This weekend was out as the weather was fine, and the grass needed culling once more. I cant wait for winter so the grass stays short. While I was cutting the grass I noticed what I thought was large rain clouds gathering on the horizon. Turns out it wasn’t rain it was Titahi Bay on fire !  A couple of little scrots had set a fire in Whiteria Park, which had spread to the whole peninsula. helicopters were dumping water all night and residents were evacuated.  They managed to get it all under control, and let people go home this morning at 8am.   Full story HERE.  Some impressive photos on Flickr though, if you want to search for them.  This week, same old, same old.  oh and a birthday Friday.  42,  oh bugger.

Yaaayy, Its Wellington day, one of our Public Holidays, so the Rest of New Zealand has to go to work, but we have a day off   I think we worked this out before somewhere, but we get one more Public Holiday a year than the UK,  probably Jan 2nd, I think, to get rid of the hangovers.

Amber could not go to the pool party that Claire and Tina organised in Tawa pool for a joint Birthday party, due to the Doctor saying that she needed to stay out of the water for at least 14 days after her bought of Gastro.  Poor thing, Tina was upset and they had put a lot of planning into it.  So instead we drove up to Param, to collect a TradeMe item, and check on Al’s rental place. 

SO because she couldn’t have her pool party, fingers are crossed that this afternoon the weather will break, the sun will come out and we can have a picnic party down at Willowbank park.  Its overcast but warm, Temp is 18 degrees C outside, but hopefully the clouds will disappear.

We’ve had a nice relaxing weekend for a change.  I managed to installed WIn 7 on my works laptop, so chuffed.  Amber took a couple of first steps,  just the two or three, and landed on her bum each time, but its progress. I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m obviously looking forward to Amber finally waling and reaching that hurdle, but not looking forward to having to chase after her everywhere.

Right the, got to baby just woke up.

Morning all,  I thought I should do another update,  two in a year so far, WOW,  OK then Tasha left us yesterday, flew out at 20:30 to the cold log winter of the UK, they seem to be really having a hard time of it at the moment. We hope the airports are actually open to enable her to land.   its been quiet at work so far this year, FJ is stood down until 11th Jan for the Summer break. Most places take three weeks off over Christmas for the Summer holidays.  it seems strange but when you consider the schools have their six week holidays over the period and that the school year starts in January, then I suppose it makes sense. What I do appreciate is the easy drive into work whilst the schools are off.  Guaranteed next Monday State Highway 1 will turn into a Car park from the Tawa on ramp.

So the weather is getting nicer, We have some storms on the horizon over the weekend. Tina is going to be busy with a baby Shower she is organising on Sunday at our place for a friend, and she starts her new job full time on Monday. Amber is being looked after by a nice lady in Tawa while Tina will be at work, and everything is good. Still working on the Bathroom and trying to get it done. it might take a few months though to crack it.  I found a you tube of a Wellington video that I thought I would share.  Very good and quite truthful in a worrying kind of way. Enjoy.