The Clevely Chronicles

Generation V

2012-02-01T19:18:00.000+13:00

School 2012 started yesterday in full force. It was great to be back properly with all the kids about - feels like a ghost town when I'm there in the holidays. Caleb and Aaron slotted right back into it like they'd never been away. Caleb is in Year 6 this year and has been moved into Room 5 with the seniors (Years 7 and 8) while Aaron is in Year 5 and remains with Mrs Nareki in Room 4. Had a pretty productive day although at points all I seemed to be doing was shuffling papers from one spot on my desk to another!

Meanwhile, Mumsie and Popsie were off gallivanting - yesterday John and Joan Leevers took them out Geraldine way for a picnic...

...and coffee on the way home...

...and today they were in the Fairlie area for lunch with Les and Marg, having no end of conversations on both occasions.

Thanks to Dad for the photos!

A whole spectrum of goodness

2012-01-30T21:22:00.000+13:00

Last day of our school holidays...I had to go to the office though and nearly fainted at the piles of work sitting on my desk - it didn't look like that when last I was there early January! Nick was out at the church office and the boys were happy to be at home with granny and grandpa (actually granny and grandpa were also happy to be at 'home' - after the last two weeks of country-trotting). We all met up at home for lunch, and then when Nick went back to work the rest of us went grocery shopping - the cupboards were looking decidedly bare (tomato sauce was on the list). We found an array of interesting veggies - cauliflowers in shades of bright purple and orange, as well as yams, kumaras, courgettes and mini sweet capsicums. What a spread for roasting!!

Mom and Dad have been most excellent at finding things to do and ways to be of use in our home, apart from the obvious pleasure of their company. I turn my back for five minutes and the dishes are done - not only washed, but dried and packed away - the washing gets hung outside and brought back in when it's dry; clothes are quietly ironed, and the boys get to have Rummikub companions. Caught Popsie ironing his jeans - when the camera flash fired he thought he'd tripped the electricity :)

Reflecting on holidays

2012-01-29T21:06:00.000+13:00

Very much a day of sleeping in, going to church, meeting new friends, catching up on washing and unpacking and chilling. It was great that Nick wasn't preaching today so could also rest after the hours and hours of driving. We had a speaker from the Gideons' International Society who shared a very encouraging and challenging message from and about the bible - very interesting indeed to hear about the origins of the society who now go about distributing bibles in hotels, motels, hospitals and schools et al. Grant was our preacher in the evening and again, an encouraging word from the Word about our citizenship in heaven. After church and much chatting, we had the Phillipses around for a long-overdue catch-up after their holiday in SA. Fabulous to laugh together over hot chips and peanut sauce, mango sauce, plum sauce and BBQ sauce (only the tomato was missing), cake, and Trevor Noah.

Ugh, look at all that clutter on the coffee table - all the boys' back-to-school stationery still needing sorting and labelling!

Dunedin to Timaru (home sweet home)

2012-01-28T21:49:00.000+13:00

'Twas the the earliest start of the whole week this morning with a great enthusiasm on the folks' part to be out of the tree house. There was a vintage book shop just around the corner which Nick wanted to see; although the sign outside said 'open', we had to wait a few minutes for the owner to get out of bed and get dressed. Vintage books seem to be very expensive.

Onward to Larnach's castle on the Otago Peninsula where the very friendly gate-keeper asked us where we're from and what we do. The answers of 'Timaru' and 'Baptist Pastor' led him to ask if perhaps we know his daughter - who turned out to be none other than Bethany Rentoul! We just couldn't believe the connection. The Castle and grounds were spectacular and the history interesting if not rather sordid and sad. Mom started feeling faint about five minutes into the viewing so emergency scones and coffee in the Ballroom Cafe were necessary.

There was a strict ban on any indoor photography of the castle, but the Ballroom Cafe was without restriction - yay!

A climb up a seemingly-endless spiral of stairs (although Dad counted and said there were 29) in the turret brought you to a balcony overlooking the castle grounds.

Took the higher road over the ridge of the peninsula on the way to Dunedin city which afforded grand views over the bay and cit - Nick stopped a few times on the way so I didn't have to do ootw shots!

Got into town, found a parking and walked to the museum (which my iPhone map indicated was a 2-minute walk but that only applies if you can speed-walk...methinks I made a mistake somewhere as it turned into at least a 20-minute expedition). Ah well, the best way to see a city is on foot, right? The appearance of a live jazz musician in a corner of the museum was a bonus and the whispering domes were intriguing as always.

Made our way to the Octagon via Knox Church and McDonalds, peered in at St Paul's Cathedral which had all manner of plaques commemorating long-dead people...just no mention of Jesus Christ.

Knox Church, above and below.

St Paul's Cathedral, above and below.

All glad to get into car (the third location we'd parked it because of max. 1-hour parking) but a 10 minute drive took us to Baldwin Street for more punishment. First bought a small bag of giant jaffas at the tourist shop at a giant price, then huffed and puffed to the top of the world's steepest street, as recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records. Phew!

Those jaffas were not for eating, but for rolling a-la the annual event in which some 30,000 jaffas are rolled down Baldwin Street.

And it had turned hot...drinks and muffins from New World were enjoyed in the car on the way to our final holiday stop, Moeraki Boulders. These huge boulders lie scattered on Koekohe Beach like long-forgotten bowling balls, ranging in size from half a metre to over two metres in diameter.

Pizza from our friendly Timaru Dominoes for tea...home at last after a fantastic week of seeing more of our amazing country. The route itself maps out as 1490 kms...that's not counting the in-between driving we did. Well done to Nick for being the sole driver, and thanks to Andreas and Danielle for the loan of their bus!

Te Anau to Dunedin

2012-01-27T21:57:00.000+13:00

Packed up and on the road again just after 9 am, travel coffees safely stashed. Made a quick stop at a souvenir shop in Te Anau for postcards.

Above: ootw shot of the icing-sugar sprinkling of snow freshly fallen overnight - in mid-summer!! Below - finally, clear skies.

Got stuck in slow moving traffic. The hold-up? A moving house! Not an unusual sight in NZ, but very interesting for my parents to see this interesting way of relocating.

On the way to Dunedin we decided to detour from our planned itinerary in order to head south to Invercargill, southernmost and westernmost city in NZ. We didn't find anything particularly special there except a Subway for lunch and the most atrocious weather - strong winds and then heavy rain followed by a brief hail shower. It didn't last long though and then there was a bit of sun again!

We continued south on Highway 1 to one of the world's southernmost settlements, Bluff, which is colloquially accepted as being NZ's most southern point (although Slope Point is actually further south) - as in the expression 'From Cape Reinga to The Bluff'. Again, other than its claim to fame and a cute little lighthouse it was really nothing special to see - in fact it was quite run down and just a little bit shabby.

This was about all there was to see in Bluff...

So having been there and done that we turned around and started our northern return via Balclutha where we stopped to look at the interesting concrete Road Bridge (built 1935) which spans the Clutha River, the largest in NZ volume-wise. Had barely finished looking around before the rain came bucketing down again.

Arrived in Dunedin mid-afternoon where we'd booked a night in a bach at Broad Bay. Mom and Dad were not impressed with our booking but Nick and I thought the tree-house accommodation rather fabulous! We hadn't particularly catered anything for tea so popped out in the hopes of finding a fish and chip shop (actually in the hopes of finding any shop at all on the peninsula); drove to Portobello and stumbled across Ric's Galley which was actually voted the best chip shop from Timaru to Bluff for 2011! They were pretty good along with the delicious fish sticks but we still think our Timaru chips are better. So cold again that we had TWO fires going. The house was built in such an interesting way over about five split levels with every room (including the bathroom) having two doorways, so you could do a circular route through the house upstairs and downstairs. All very confusing and very cold with a double volume high ceiling in the lounge where Nick and I slept on mattrasses in our sleeping bags. Mom and Dad upstairs had to close their door to keep the heat out!

First glimpse of the house tucked in the trees - access through the woods via a VERY steep driveway. But look at the view over the bay across to Dunedin city!

Milford Sound

2012-01-26T22:25:00.000+13:00

All up early today, by holiday standards - before 7 am! Breakfast eaten, lunches made, nearly all hats found and insect repellent packed, and on the road at 8.40 for Milford Sound - acclaimed as NZ's most famous tourist attraction. Once on our way we realized that it was going to take more time than we thought for travelling so we couldn't stop for pictures on the way, which turned out to be a huge loss as it started raining mid-morning and continued all day, in all parts of our travels. Anyways, arrived at Milford Sound with just enough time to walk the 10 minutes to the huge terminal servicing several water and air cruise companies and their vessels - quite a bustle and the distinct feeling of being a minority European in a sea of Asian faces. Got the parents and boys safely aboard the boat for their cruise which they thoroughly enjoyed - the rain makes the waterfalls all the more grand and they were under cover. Nick and I wandered around the head of Milford until rain and cold forced us back to the car (we're not the hard core-photographers we'd like to think we are) - we played Angry Birds, ate lunch and had coffee in the car until it was time to return to the terminal to retrieve the happy travellers. The rain was terribly disappointing for photos but the scenery between the sounds and Homer Tunnel (which has an interesting history - five men with picks and wheelbarrows started excavations during the Depression) was just incredible. Stopped at Mirror Lake on the way back but only Nick and Dad went to see - nothing but wetness being reflected there today. It continued raining all the way home and for the rest if the day at Te Anau, and turned cold enough that Nick lit a fire.

This amused me - these tourists looked like cows standing in the field :) Below - see the rainbow?

All aboard...and off into the mist they went.

Hairpin bends, steep roads, cliffs, waterfalls, greenery, towering trees and rain made up the journey home.

Arrowtown to Te Anau

2012-01-25T22:40:00.000+13:00

Packed and out of house by 9.30 am; drove 100m to an historic Chinese Settlement where information boards tell the sad story of early settlers prospecting for gold - apparently they were hard working and kept to themselves but swelling numbers brought resentment from NZ Europeans; a formal apology was issued by NZ government in 2002 for the discrimination and poor treatment of these Chinese men!

The drive to Te Anau was dry and hot and the red tussock landscape not as pretty as the green pastoral scenes so typical of NZ. In fact it was so barren that we couldn't even find a tree to shelter under for a picnic lunch, so pressed on and arrived at our next bach in Te Anau at 1 pm and had lunch there. And it was HOT!! We all just rested for an hour or two; late afternoon we ventured out to the Wildlife Centre to look at birds - takahe, kea, kaka and parakeet are to be found there. The boys had a paddle in Lake Te Anau - NZ's second largest lake.

Above: an out-of-the-window (ootw) shot; can't remember where or what! Below: my parents were amazed at the fact of a young white girl doing a task that would normally be assigned to a completely different group of people in SA :)

Above: On the shores of Lake Te Anau. Below - kakariki (red crowned parakeet).

Our bach in Te Anau; below - a gentle sunset.

Queenstown

2012-01-24T21:39:00.000+13:00

The morning started around 4 degrees - my purple hands were a good indication of the cold (or that I have poor circulation). We packed ham rolls and some nibbles and set off for Queenstown. The parking in town was tricky so Nick had to park the bus far out and walk back in - otherwise we would have been constrained to spend no more than 30 minutes in any one location. Decided to splash out on one of Queenstown's main attractions - the Gondola up Bob's Peak and Luge ride, both very well worth it. Mom was not put off by the door closing on a slow-boarding lady and entire cable works grinding to a halt forcing a wheel to fly off the top of the car into the window right in front of us, making a hole in the window and causing shards of glass to land right at our feet. I was terrified already and this did not help me :) The lady ended up on the ground but was fine otherwise. It's a scary trip in the cable car if you're not keen on heights. We scouted around the Skyline complex and cafe, looked at the gift shop and gorgeous views over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu and then onto the luge. We talked dad into giving it a go although at the sight of the chair lifts to the start of ride I nearly chickened out. It was harmless though and good fun - the luge carts were very easy to steer and brake. The attendants give you a crash course on the lever by way of "green is go, red is stop and black is hospital"!

Above: the gash in the mountain is where the gondolas go up and down. Below - what a view, and what a cloud formation! Paragliding happening here...

Whoop whoop - whooshing (at a gentle pace); Aaron following and Dad behind him.

Ice-creams and slush at the cafe (by now it had warmed up to about 27 degrees - HOT); thus refreshed we embarked on a 30-minute walk through the woods on a small part of the Southern Alps. Mom tires quickly and struggled with the uphills, but we were confident that she'd thank us later and 'forced' her to continue! Back down on the gondola again, then a quick walk through town again while Nick fetched the car.

Fear factor...Nick was almost jumping around the car taking photos.

We were back in Arrowtown at 4 pm; in tour-guide style we allowed 10 minutes for coffee and recovery then walked to the swimming pool for the boys to swim. After a mildly tasteless packet-made bacon carbonara for tea, Nick and I went for walk to the Shot-Over River where we were attacked by sand flies while Nick tried hard to dam river.

Timaru to Arrowtown

2012-01-23T21:09:00.000+13:00

9.15 am: Packed and ready, off we go! First stop after 1 1/4 hours, Lake Tekapo. It was super cold at only 9 degrees but we braved the outdoors for a look around the tiny church and a cup of tea. Drove around to Mt John Observatory (which incidentally was developed by the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with the University of Canterbury, and opened in 1965).

Had lunch in the car on the way to Mount Cook, and from here onwards it was all new territory for all of us as we'd not yet, in our nearly 2 years in NZ, had opportunity to explore beyond Tekapo. The 30 km stretch along the western edge of Lake Pukaki to the Aoraki Mount Cook Reserve was particularly lovely.

We did the Kea Point walk which took nearly 2 hours return, with several rests between; the Mueller Glacier was hugely disappointing as it was pretty melted and simply looked like a grey sludgy non-moving river - I think I was just expecting something more dramatic but I'll know for next time that summer time is not the ideal glacier-viewing season! Nick and I walked a bit further to see more of valley and found some really great views.

The peak of Mount Cook, NZ's highest mountain at 3754 metres, just not quite visible through the cloud coverage.

We left the reserve around 3.30 headed for Arrowtown; arrived around 6.30 to lovely accommodations at Marilyn's on Main Street. Settled in, then took a short walk along street (needed to stock up on Diet Coke and chips). Had a quick tea of pre-made bolognaise mince and pasta. After the boys were in bed we taught Mom and Dad the fast-paced game of Dutch Blitz but they were not so convinced it's a game for them!

Above: one of many out-of-the-moving-car-window shots on the way. Cromwell, on the 45th Parallel, is the largest cherry-growing area in the country and also produces export quality apricots, nectarines, plums and peaches. Had it been a little earlier in the season we might have been able to pick fresh fruit.
Below: Roaring Meg hydro electric power station. Who knew electricity production could be so pretty?

Welcome to Arrowtown - a quaint little former gold-mining town. Below - Aaron looking longingly into the Remarkable Sweet Shop - closed for the evening!

Our retro-styled bach - filled with Marilyn Monroe images and other 50s memorabilia.

No news

2012-01-22T20:54:00.000+13:00

Today was just a day for church-going, catching up on life and getting ready for the next holiday phase starting tomorrow - all six of us will be piling into Andreas and Danielle's Delica and whizzing around the South Island. Between practicing music for church, going to church, making lunch, buying in food supplies for the week and packing, there was no occasion or time for photo-taking...really nothing to report!

Flash farmyard

2012-01-21T22:10:00.000+13:00

Spent an interesting day more or less catching up on stuff and preparing for the week coming, in which all six of us will be doing a South Island excursion for five days. Nick and I went off to buy the boys' back-to-school stationary at the Warehouse (where everyone gets...), where we found bargains by way of clearance shoes already marked down with a further 50% reduction. Yeah! Practiced violin in the afternoon and got some of the preceding week's blog done. At 5 pm we piled in the car and headed for the Camerons for tea of homegrown pork and potatoes with veggies and salad. I think it was a bit of a shock for my parents to be exposed to such a rowdy table with at least three conversations happening at once - we were in our element of course and I suppose helped a little to contribute to the loudness ;)

After tea we were treated to a tour around the farm - the light was fabulous and Rachel would have joined me for a camera walk but her battery died after about four photos! Cute couple blow - actually Dad was helping Mom through the grass and uneven ground.

Group shot - click to enlarge!

Caleb and Aaron bumped heads jumping onto hay in the barn - Aaron cried but Caleb was the one with the shiner :)

Thanks Camerons for a fabulous and memorable event in the parents' calendar!

Auckland to Christchurch and home

2012-01-20T21:38:00.000+13:00

Up early again - this was the sunrise from my window!

Said our goodbyes to the Lange-Smiths with the hope that they will be down Timaru way sometime, and got on our way.

Our intention was to stop at the Westfield Shopping Mall in Manukau City, located near the intersection of the Auckland Southern Motorway and the Southwest Motorway. Unfortunately we just couldn't quite get there!! Missed a turning once, then went around a very large block (happened upon a filling station in our lostness which was a good thing as we needed to fill the car anyway before returning it). Saw the mall but didn't know quite which road to take to get there, and accidentally ended up on the motorway. Got off there as fast as possible but eventually we all decided to just forget it and go straight to the airport. It was a huge relief to find the rental return spot and hand over the keys - thank the Lord for His protection while we were driving as we hadn't taken out extra insurance. We had a pleasant wait in the airport lounge although were all a little concerned about our volume of cabin baggage with the 'souvenirs' we had acquired! No one stopped us though and we made it onto the airplane for our flight home. Mom nearly died going up the steps (we had to board at the rear of the plane, across the tarmac) - lugging her 7kg bag up the steps was no joke!

At last, back in Christchurch and reunited with the Clevely men; stopped at KFC Hornby for lunch before the 2-hour drive home in the Hot Car.

Home at 4.30; did a quick bit of unpacking before popping out to PaknSave to buy supplies for evening tea with Graham and Liz - we had a music practice to fit in so combined it with a meal and had a great time of it! Mom and Dad quite pleased to sit in on a free 'concert'!

Half Moon Bay to Queens Street and back

2012-01-19T22:00:00.000+13:00

And happy birthday Mumsie!! Alison treated us to a royal breakfast of cereal and yoghurt followed by fried egg on toast, sausages, tomato and mushrooms for breakfast! Think we might extend our stay in Auckland and linger around Mellons Bay Road a bit :) Left around 9 am to catch the ferry from Half Moon Bay to the CBD. I had no idea such an option was available - who would have thought that the waterways were an available transport option, but it makes sense!! I was relieved to be off the hook for the drive into town to see the Sky Tower. Instead, a 35 minute sailing brought us to the lower end of Queen Street, from where we walked the few blocks to Sky City. Mom simply refused to go up (Nick and I had been texting during the morning and he said to tell Mom that there would be dire consequences if she didn't go up...her reply was that there would be dire consequences if she did!). This was really another highlight for Dad though and his main reason for seeing Auckland. We fell right into the marketing ploy of the 'free demo' photo with the green screen background - I think Dad will have much amusement in showing it off when they return to SA.

Dad had no problem standing on the 37mm thick glass...I still couldn't do it.

Bought a pizza for lunch which we we thoroughly enjoyed seated on a bench on Queen Street which is the major commercial thoroughfare in Auckland and really the place to be (and also the most expensive square on the NZ monopoly board). We had an hour to kill after lunch so I left Mom and Dad to wander slowly down to the quay and popped in and out of shops. We met up again in time to catch the 3.30 return ferry; Mom couldn't wait to see the last of Queen Street! Alison had a birthday cake and pressie waiting for Mom when we arrived back at their place - isn't she lovely!! After a cup of tea and slice of the fluffiest cake you could imagine, we set off on a short walk to Howick Village, the main shopping street and CBD of the suburb.

After tea at the Lange Smiths we abandoned our hosts and took a drive to Eastern Beach and Bucklands Beach past some very flash houses - but who would want to live on such a busy beach where there is constant traffic and noise? Around 8 pm we called in at Joy and Ken (my cousin and my mom's niece) as they live about five minutes away from our place of abode. Had a most excellent visit, really glad we could meet up after missing them in December.

Rotorua to Auckland

2012-01-18T21:33:00.000+13:00

We all slept very well in our new accommodations - comfortable beds and walls separating the quiet one from the non-quiet ones were much appreciated!

Up early again and started researching options for the day, eventually settling on a Wai-o-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland excursion. It was about a 25-minute drive to there from the motel; we arrived in plenty of time to buy tickets and browse the gift shop before driving 3 minutes to get to Lady Knox Geyser for her daily 10.15 am eruption. This geyser has an interesting history - apparently the area used to be close to a prison, and so prisoners would wash their clothes in the hot water. One day their soap caused the surface tension of the cooler water on top to break, causing boiling water lower down to mix and erupt. They were somewhat surprised! Following that first discovery they built a mound around the source of the eruptions for amusement, forcing water to shoot up high. The water now reaches 10-20m in the air and can go for about an hour, emptying the subterranean reservoir of about 30,000 litres of scalding water (the run-off seeps back under ground and is full again 24 hours later).

Drove another short distance to The Mud Pools - this was really what Dad had come to Rotorua for and it more than met his expectations! We all stared in fascination at the small lake of plopping mud, choking on sulphur steam as large clouds broke the surface.

Back to Wai-O-Tapu for an hour's walk through the reserve which was absolutely beautiful. Mom was happy NOT to do the whole walk, heading back after the first 30 minutes to sit patiently. This first photo is called "Artist's Palette" - all the different colours in the rocks and water are from different minerals.

Back to Roto for a late lunch of KFC at Kuirau Park where the Little Brown Jobs were amazingly brave!

Finally left Rotorua bound for Auckland around 3 pm; arrived at our hosts and long-standing family friends Ian and Alison Lange-Smith after 6 - thus began an evening of fellowship, much laughter, and an amazing home-cooked meal with vegetables!!

Wellington to Rotorua

2012-01-17T21:19:00.000+13:00

After the Night of Very Little Sleep we were all up early and eager to be on our way. We had a quick make-do breakfast of fruit and muesli bars in our room, and were on the road north by about 8.30 am. First stop was Paraparamau for coffee an hour into the trip after which Dad took over the driving. In true tourist fashion (ie seeing as much as possible) we stopped in Foxten at De Molen which is a working windmill. Dad went up to see the inner workings while Mom and I browsed the gift shop which was full of Dutch cookies and treats, and run by a Dutch lady.

The drive from there to Lake Taupō was extremely interesting and scenic with vast changes in the landscape - from rolling green hills dotted which sheep (very St Helena-esque) to barren scrub-land on the aptly named Desert Road, to twisty roads and hairpins bends and pine-tree bordered lanes.

We stopped for a late lunch of pizza (yay for the Dominoes app on my iPhone!) at Taupō's edge. The Great Lake Taupō is right in the middle of the North Island and is the biggest freshwater lake in Australasia. We got a good idea of the size when we drove for many kilometres around its eastern edge and didn't get anywhere to the top of it!

Drove for another hour or so before seeing another signpost of interest to Wairakei Natural Thermal Valley - actually our attention was caught by the Wairakei Power Station which had clouds of thick white steam billowing out of a maze of pipes. This led us to a camping ground and shop surrounded by green lawns, chickens, hens, guineafowl, peacocks, caravans and not too many people. Dad and I paid $10 each for the privilege of doing the thermal walk (a bit of a rip-off in our opinion); Mom waited in the shade.

Arrived at our Top 10 motel around 6 pm - after last night's accommodations we thought this was luxury! We did a quick unpack and had complimentary coffee then navigated ourselves to the local PaknSave for breakfast supplies, followed by a drive around Lake Rotorua foreshore where we came upon the incredible Museum and Government Gardens - a most impressive building "like a fairy tale castle", Dad said. We also fortuitouslyhappened upon the opening scene of a 1930's styled play on the theatre steps - "How Great Thou Art" sung in Maori was a fabulous drawcard! McDonald's for tea, then bed.

Christchurch to Wellington

2012-01-16T21:31:00.000+13:00

The week of 16-20 January: Our North Island tour! Dad employed me as a tour guide which I happily accepted - with Nick's blessing who stayed home with the boys (a cheaper alternative than us all going). We flew from Christchurch to Wellington where we collected our hire car, a metallic minty green Hyundai Getz. We were all a little nervous about keeping the car safe; Dad crashing trolleys in eyesight of the car hire place wasn't a helpful start! Found a Subway for lunch (thanks Danielle for the GPS without which we would have been entirely lost). After fortifications we were ready to tackle inner city driving to find our hotel, Lodge in the City. The name should have been a clue as to its location when we booked but we hadn't clicked that it actually was located in the middle of town - it was noisy and small and mostly filled with young backpackers. We sure felt out of place so after dumping our bags in the one tiny room, we got out as fast as we could to explore. Te Papa, NZ's national museum, was just around the corner from us and made an interesting afternoon, especially the earthquake house and the Golden Days living junk shop. Off to PaknSave for supplies in the late afternoon where we found some items extraordinarily cheaply - so much so that Dad was persuaded to buy plastic Systema containers for cereal and fudge which we would have to somehow squeeze into our 7kg luggage allowance for the flight back on Friday, to Mom's horror! KFC for tea and then a drive around Evans Bay...anything to avoid spending time at the Lodge! Back there eventually around 7 pm and read and watched TV. Dad struck up a conversation with a guest and shared the gospel - a seed planted which we pray will be watered by others. By around 10 pm we were all in bed although the sleep didn't happen until much later, and even then it seemed that only one person slept at a time what with the violent snailing (that's a combination of snoring and wailing which was amazing to hear, not so easy to sleep to). When Dad finished snoring and woke up, Mom could get to sleep with her own gentler brand of snumphing (that's snoring and hmphing). I had little rest that night.

Above: the large ball inside the entrance is made from stone from the Transvaal, South Africa! It weighs 0.79 tonnes and sits on a 0.2mm cushion of water powered by jets which allows it to rotate. Below: a model of a whale's heart, to scale!!

Some random guy offered to take a photo of us at PaknSave where I was just going to do Dad sneaking not one, but FOUR cereal containers into the trolley. Came out somewhat blurry :)

We were interested to see the tram lines still being used by trolley cars all over the city.

Our delightful accommodation - that was the sum total of our room!! Bathrooms were down the passage.

6, 11, 13

2012-01-15T19:02:00.001+13:00

We were glad to go to the house of the Lord today! Nick's message on loving our neighbour as we love ourselves was painful and convicting but oh so wonderful; the blessing comes in knowing that we can never perfectly love but in Jesus we have the high standard that God requires.

Gathered a crowd into our home for lunch - Andreas, Danielle and Betta, and Liz and Graham joined the six of us for a sausage and bean pasta (one-pot non-glamarous cooking suitable for a crowd!). Had a rowdy time around the table. The boys got bored of the conversation and slunk under the table eliciting many surprised oooohs as ankles and knees were squeezed.

As we were in the final stages of lunch, with cups of coffee having just been supplied by my wonderful husband, two more guests appeared at the door - surprise, Mark and Pam Cvitanich! They have appeared on my blog before as old family friends from my childhood church in Joburg, SA - by 'family friends' the implication is really that they started as my parents' friends. We were thrilled that they dropped by - we had planned to see them a little later in the month so this was a neat treat. We sent the four grown-ups into the lounge for some catching up.

Photos, and lots of them

2012-01-14T20:29:00.004+13:00

Wow, gorgeous blue skies today and no rain forecast at all. Dad wanted to have a swim in the South Pacific Ocean (more for the novelty than actual desire to plunge into its cold depths). We gathered ourselves after breakfast for a Caroline Bay outing:

Aaron buried himself in soft sand and then cased himself in mud - super fun if you're an Aaron.

Then we meandered to the far side of the bay and squished our feet in more soft boggy sand...

Back to the car by way of the boardwalk...

Home for lunch; Nick mowed the lawn and we had a music practice and the boys put on a brief puppet show. Headed out early afternoon again for a picnic at the Botanical Gardens but instead of going directly to our destination we drove around the southern parts of Timaru - stopped at the Crows Nest which surprisingly my parents found interesting; Mom bought four books for $1 for the boys.

Then to the gardens where we first had a peek in at the fern greenhouse conservatory thingie, which Nick and I had never actually been into before - pretty amazing to go from the cool ferny side to the hot flower part.

Then back out into the open; wandered through a rose garden with immaculately clipped hedges, past the dahlia gardens (below is a pom-pom variety, so my Dad tells me) - isn't it gorgeous.

Stopped to take a few pics of my parents before picnicking lakeside and feeding the ducks.

We didn't want to go (all the way) home before going out again for Chinese for tea, so killed a bit of time driving around Patiti Point and the Timaru Cemetery and walking around the Warehouse (where no one got bargains). Collected the Chinese and headed home after a very active day!!

Island-like

2012-01-13T22:01:00.000+13:00

Another cloudy day today, but with a lot of rain during the day as well although still not cold. I had a few errands to run; top of the list was to do my rostered turn of cleaning the church which became a 'many hands' affair - with five people working it took less than half an hour! Took the parents for a drive around the top of Timaru then through the middle. I don't think they've quite got their bearings yet and would likely get very lost if we let them loose with a car :) When we were out and about yesterday we stopped in at the fresh fish place at the wharf and I bought a small packet of waihi for the first time - pink filleted flesh which the fish lady told me was good for pies and things. Mmmm, fishcakes, I thought - haven't had those since St Helena. Thus I made fishcakes for lunch today (equal weights of raw fish and raw potato - cook and mash the potato, mince/shred the fish and mix together along with seasonings, egg and chopped onion - fry in spoonfuls). Wow, yum!! Will definitely try that again.

Cultured coffee

2012-01-12T19:56:00.001+13:00

The marshmallows we bought from the Warehouse the other day have been put to good use in cups of tea and coffee - these are the flowers that Nick brings me!

Good old Timaru's weather proved its changeability again today with rain and cloud all day after mostly blue skies yesterday. I had a list of errands to run which involved PaknSave and the post office, a visit to town (which provided an opportunity for Mom to use her credit card on cups of coffee, frappes and carrot cake at Coffee Culture) and a drive to the school for one or two things. The folks are very impressed with the school and delighted to see where the boys and I spend many of our waking hours during term time. A game of monopoly developed during the late afternoon which was interrupted for tea; at the time of writing this blog (three hours later), Grandpa has lost all his money and Nick is helping the boys to speed the game up by developing properties. Both boys have heaps of money but with all the little green houses currently springing up all over the board, it's not going to be long before some sad little face declares bankruptcy!

Dashing about some more

2012-01-11T21:42:00.000+13:00

Dad wanted to see the rest of the Dashing Rocks walk today; skies were blue when we woke up this morning but clouded over during the morning while there was fudge-making happening in the kitchen although the weather stayed warm. We walked from home again - you cross over State Highway 1, walk along a short road, cross the railway line, climb over a stile, cross a paddock and dodge manure, climb over another stile and you're at the beach. Then you can explore the yellow cliffs and black rocks - makes an interesting clamber.

Aaron always finds interesting bits of things on the beach to bring home - he claimed this was a snakeskin shell which proved correct when we examined it with a macro lens.

Mom was happy to sit on a comfy bit of flat rock and wait for us to return that way - see the tiny pale blue dot about a third of the way from the left? There she was.

Popsie was more adventurous although confessed that heights and sheer drops into a foaming ocean are not really his thing!

These parents of mine think I'm giving them a hard time in dragging them hither and yon to shore them NZ's fair shores - we took a different route home which is a bit longer and it was about here that I phoned Nick to tell him where we were; when I told him of the general state of his in-laws, he offered to come and fetch us by car! We were grateful for the ride.

A well-earned bit of lazing about in the afternoon again...

And the fudge is delicious by the way - proof that there's nothing wrong with NZ butter, sugar, condensed milk or syrup as I was hoping after several batches of flopped mush last year!

Of Cadburys and Roses

2012-01-10T21:50:00.000+13:00

When we woke up to rain this morning we knew it wasn't going to be a day of gallivanting like yesterday! I had a few hours to put in at the school anyway, so went off to do that leaving Granny and Grandpa in charge (Nick was at the church office the whole day). Caleb displayed his delightful sense of humour in rearranging his grandmother's statement of "we're at your disposal today", to "Grandpa, Granny says we can dispose of you today". When I got home around lunch time they were deeply involved in a game of Scrabble (although Aaron had lost interest at some point); Caleb won but I understand he had help with a q-word on a triple word score...that put him in the lead - it would have been touch and go otherwise I reckon! In the afternoon we went shopping - first to the Warehouse (where everyone gets...) where we found marshmallows on special for 79c per packet. Next stop was Mega Mitre 10, our impressive hardware store, for loppers to properly prune the roses - apparently you need long handles to avoid being thorned to death. Then onto Briscoes for a kitchen scale for Dad (on special of course), and finally to PaknSave for a few necessities along the lines of Cadbury's chocolate which SA doesn't have, and chips. Dad neatened up the roses in the courtyard during the afternoon with Caleb and Aaron both helping. We think Dad needs some exercise...he announced over tea that the pull of gravity is much stronger in NZ because we're at the bottom of the earth. Fortunately Mom proved that our bathroom scales are inaccurate and tend to exaggerate one's weight somewhat! In the evening Nick and I took advantage of the free babysitters and went out for a latte after tea - these dates will have to be more frequent :)

Vintage village

2012-01-09T22:58:00.000+13:00

Left Nick hard at work at the office today and took ourselves off for a Geraldine excursion, a 40-minute drive north. Geraldine is a beautiful and quiet little town largely populated by retirees who have time and inclination to maintain pretty gardens. Nick and I have commented to each other that my parents would love this town and if ever (hypothetically) they were to relocate, Geraldine would be the town for them. And they loved it! We found the Recreational Reserve where we stopped for a picnic lunch, then back to the main road for a look at the Vintage Car Museum. I'm not generally a fan of old cars and dusty junk, but the museum was quaint and the ancient farm equipment was particularly impressive, especially in sheer size - just look at this one hovering very close to Mumsie!!

Apparently Aunty Doreen used to have one of these Zephyrs (above).

From there we meandered around town looking at the interesting shops, until we came to The Giant Jersey, a rather remarkable shop owned and operated by Michael and Gillian Linton, selling jerseys and hats and scarves and snoods and things as well as housing the World's Biggest Jersey (verified by an official Guinness Book of World Records certificate).

Through the shop to the back, for $2 per person, you can view a mosaic rendition of the Bayeaux Tapestry which has been painstakingly made by Michael using 2 million tiny hand-painted pieces of former cog-teeth. Even more remarkable than that though is Michael's maths brain and the remarkable puzzles and cubes and problems he has created. We were awed!

Back onto Talbot Street where mom bought cherries and Dad found souvenirs at the Kiwi Country - a large store which didn't appear to have any staff hovering! He was amused at the apparent trust they have in the passing public but she assured us that they have security cameras and they were watching (Big Brother style).

Also found Barkers of Geraldine which sells a variety of sauces, jams, chutneys, juices, spreads and fillings. It's a family-run business and has an interesting history which you can read here. I bought a bottle of mango and peach chutney and a bottle of spiced plum sauce (which can be used instead of tomato sauce - how yum is that?)
And then, having exhausted the streets of Geraldine, we drove another 20 minutes north to the Peel Forest area which has a tasty selection of walks appealing to many palates - disabled, families, super fit, and everything in between. We found a 20-minute walk called the Big Tree Walk which took us to...wait for it...a Big Tree!

This is the biggest tree in Peel Forest, standing at 31 metres with an 8.4 m circumference, and is believed to be 1,000 years old. There is some debate as to whether it is a kahikatea or totara tree.

True to the sign, the walk was about 20 minutes although we stopped a few times for refreshments and rests. Below - a stern rebuke for the boys who were mucking about with their apples - my parenting was NOT helped by the grandparents who were laughing way too much!

Home by about 5.30 for a tea of soup and bread (yay for leftovers)...all very tired but my parents who are usually early sleepers were still up at 10.30 - we think the long days are confusing them :)
And did my parents enjoy Geraldine? Their comment was "if we came to NZ we would happily settle here"...

Biological family meets spiritual family

2012-01-08T21:12:00.000+13:00

'Twas the parents' first visit to our church today, other than a brief orientation around the building yesterday. We were excited to introduce them to our 'other family'! It was an excellent service much enjoyed by all, very convicting and somewhat painful! We had deferred our fellowship lunch until today which worked out pretty well for people to get acquainted with Mumsie and Popsie. Had a very restful day on the whole, chilling out at home between services.

Roundups, Rocks and Bargains

2012-01-07T22:51:00.000+13:00

Question: What does one do on a rainy Saturday morning in Timaru?
Answer: Visit the Warehouse (where everyone...), of course!
It clearly wasn't going to be a day for sightseeing, so once everyone was ready, breakfasted, and sorted, we joined the post-Christmas throngs and browsed around. I came away with four new soup mugs which turned out to be useful at lunch-time. Popped in at Briscoes on the way back as they were having a sale (the boys were actually surprised on Wednesday when Briscoes WASN'T having a sale). Also took the parents to PaknSave as we knew they would particularly be impressed with our self-checkout (this would just not work where they live!). It would have been another quiet afternoon but for all the laughter, mostly from my dad who was in hysterics at Aaron's big blue eyeball which seemed to want to settle itself on his cheek, such was the proximity of the boys who try hard to sit on Grandpa's eyebrows.

(where is the rest of Grandpa?)

The sun came out mid-afternoon so we did the customary Dashing Rocks visit which was really lovely. The weather seemed to be changing again though so we didn't explore the area too thoroughly (also don't want to show off everything Timaru has too quickly - what will there be left to do then?).

After tea we went to the Caroline Bay Carnival for the first time this season (last year we went several times, but this year we just haven't quite had the same pull); watched the concert for a few minutes until the rides opened and Nick could get the boys onto the Octopus and the Roundup.

First taste of town

2012-01-06T22:30:00.000+13:00

We thought my parents would sleep forever like we did when we first arrived in NZ, so the boys especially were happy when they heard movement around 8.30 am. We left Nick working at the office and headed down to Caroline Bay and town - took a walk to the beach, along the boardwalk a short way, then up through the Bay area and into town itself, ending up at Subway for lunch. Had a browse around a few shops before returning home for a quiet afternoon. My dad has taught Caleb how to play Sudoko which it didn't take him long to grasp, and Aaron has been helping Granny find answers to crossword puzzles. Had Dominoes for tea.

(Above: all standing on NZ on the bluestone map; below - the Face of Peace)

They're heeeeeere!

2012-01-05T22:26:00.000+13:00

I hardly think anyone would be interested in our blah-blah morning in which we finished tidying the house and getting all the last-minute preparations absolutely ready, made a pot of soup, did the grocery shopping and had a long chat with our friendly courier who dropped off some parcels, so I'll skip ahead to the afternoon in which Something Very Exciting happened. We left home shortly after lunch in a borrowed van (thanks to the Phillipsies if you're reading this); traffic was a bit tedious at points so the going was slightly slow and we arrived at the airport after my parents' flight had landed. No matter though, we still stood waiting for a looong time, anxiously watching as every trolley that came through the sliding glass doors didn't have a familiar figure at the other side. Almost started wondering if something Terrible had happened as it was taking so long, but eventually the boys (who were sitting with a good viewpoint into the forbidden zone) shouted "we see them!" And then there were hugs, tears, laughter, relief, happiness and much jabbering from all parties. I would love to bottle and preserve the emotions! Mom and Dad were both well but tired; Dad stayed awake almost the whole way home from Christchurch but Mom's snooze seemed to give her a second wind which lasted surprisingly long through tea and unpacking. And so they are here, and we thank the Lord for answered prayers for their safekeeping and health and ability to travel!!

First steps on NZ soil - concrete and paving didn't count!

Christmas extends a bit

2012-01-04T20:18:00.000+13:00

These last three days have not sped by as I'd hoped, despite a flurry of housework, gardening, and last-minute fixing and sorting. Yesterday was overcast and not very warm which always feels horrid, and Nick was out splitting wood for a large part of the day so the boys and I were at home (ie housebound). Today was warm and sunny and good for two loads of washing. So we now have only one more sleep; tomorrow is the Red Letter Day in which my parents' long 40-hour journey from SA terminates at Christchurch International Airport. They will be with us for about five weeks (have I mentioned that before?)

This morning we were very surprised to receive a box in the mail from our dear (and only) friends-from-the-States, with some Christmas pressies! Such a treat - thank you lovely friends!

S(l)ee(p)ing in the New Year

2012-01-01T21:01:00.000+13:00

Treated the last day of 2011 as any other day, pottering about at home, doing a spot of church admin and shopping and so on. Called in at Rachel to wish her a happy birthday, came back home and started a game of Monopoly which Nick won (I was already bankrupt before all the properties had been sold!). The boys went to bed around 9; we stayed up about another hour and a half before going to bed, getting woken up by what sounded like some impressive fireworks from the Bay at midnight!

Sunday was a lovely day with sunny skies and church at 10 (only one service today). Invited ourselves to the Botha's for a BBQ (to really inconvenience one's surprise hosts, one not only invites oneself but also specifies what sort of meal it should be). Fortunately they had no plans and thought it was a good idea! Had a really great, lazy afternoon with them; enjoyed getting to know Andreas' mom Betta better.

The week between

2011-12-30T20:19:00.000+13:00

Have been loving being a housewife again during the holidays - sorting cupboards, cleaning the fridge, baking, gardening - all good and in preparation for my parents' arrival next week. Spent a couple of hours at the school this morning to keep things ticking over. The boys have been reading, riding their bikes, playing with water guns and balloons, bickering, drawing, cleaning their room, washing the car...all sorts of things to keep busy. The weather has been a bit up and down, but they take advantage of sunshine and clear skies when they can.

The Romances

2011-12-28T22:05:00.000+13:00

The boys wanted some company today, so organized for Caleb and Josh to come by after lunch. Had the four boys here for the early afternoon, then we met up with Matt and Rachel and Carl and Miriam and their boys, here for a Christmas break, at the Bay where the annual Carnival is now in full swing. The Camerons took the boys home with them late afternoon, and Nick and I headed over to their place a bit later for tea and a movie. Had a super chilled time together - we should really do this again! Internet Anagram Server provided some fun...Nicholas Clevely rearranged is 'Holy Cancels Evil'. Less fortunate Miriam became Airmail Scum and Rachel is now Armhole Cancer :)

Home sweet home

2011-12-27T21:52:00.000+13:00

Treated the boys to Tintin at a cinema yesterday - it's been years since they've watched a big screen movie, and if ever there was one that is fantastic on a BIG screen, it's Tintin!! We thoroughly loved it; the animation is incredible and the action sequences pretty exciting. Drove around looking for fish and chips for lunch but couldn't find a shop that was open (it was Boxing Day after all), so settled for KFC.

Last day in Auckland today - I think we were all ready to be back in Timaru. Auckland is an interesting city; being here was like being in another country to our quiet home town. We're unused to crowds and bustle and traffic and too many choices and streets almost exclusively comprised of Asian shops with incomprehensible names. A huge thanks again to Ken and Joy for the use of their gorgeous home while they were away! Enjoyed the flight back to Christchurch - glad that everything was functional and intact after the latest earthquakes last week, a day after our being there. Had a cup of tea with Peter and Michelle before the two hour drive back home.

Just us for Christmas

2011-12-25T21:33:00.000+13:00

Christmas Day - a day to reflect on Jesus' incarnation, ministry and mission, in becoming our Saviour through His death on the cross to atone for our sins. Thank you wonderful Lord! First thing (only thing actually) on the day's plan was to attend Shore Baptist Church, which is one of the churches in the Fellowship of Reformed Baptist Churches of New Zealand (FRBCNZ) of which MRBC is a member. This entailed a 40 minute drive and a crossing of seas on the Auckland Harbour Bridge to get to the school hall which houses the congregation. Great to meet some new brothers and sisters and have Nick sitting next to me during a service! Back home for a barbeque complete with Coca Cola for our Christmas lunch, then just a very relaxed afternoon followed; the boys loved their new water slide!

Took a drive early evening to the Eastern Beach, but realized (obviously) that the view would be better on the western side; drove 1 km across the 'finger' to Bucklands Beach and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. There are some really swish houses around here with huge decks and levels built to take advantage of the view. Nice.

Duck, duck, goose

2011-12-24T21:25:00.000+13:00

Felt the urge to do something FREE today (Auckland seems designed to extract money from unwary tourists), so went for a wander around Western Springs Park which boasts a spring-fed lake and a huge quantity of ducks, geese, swans, pukekos (blue marsh bird things) and orea (eels). The land walkers were wonderfully tame, and the orea are accustomed to taking bread from visitors. It was another beautiful day for the outdoors (they say it rains a lot in Auckland; we have yet to experience that). The Zoo borders directly on the park with the rear of the lion cage being in close proximity; we didn't know this until we heard an unbelievably loud roar which we thought might be a zoo prank of playing back a super-loud recording of a lion in the wild - but no, this was the real thing! Wouldn't like to encounter that if I were a zebra. Or as a Lynn if I were not in a zoo or driving through a game park in car! The black swan in one of the pics below wasn't after our bread - he just wanted to be part of the action and see what we were doing.

Joined the throngs doing their last-minute Christmas shopping at Sylvia Park but it was so crowded that it was hard to think let alone make informed shopping decisions. Came home empty handed. Ordered Dominoes for our Christmas Eve dinner which we enjoyed on the deck at 'home' overlooking Western Auckland. Watched Star Wars after opening pressies.

High, soaring above

2011-12-23T22:51:00.000+13:00

Day 2 of Auckland: Decided to visit Sky Tower and see what the fuss was all about - at 328m high it is New Zealand's highest man-made structure. You can see quite a lot of Auckland from it - 80 kms in all directions! First though we stopped in a the gift shop and museum-thingie which featured somewhat life-like characters from fantasy movies which the boys thought were pretty cool.

Didn't dilly-dally too long around there though, wanting to get up high. The elevator whooshes heavenward at 18 km/h. I was clinging to the handrail which wasn't too helpful but neither were the bent knees and pigeon-toes - I'm not a huge fan of ridiculously high heights. Nick and the boys were all over the place, not even mind the gaps in the floor where nothing but 38mm thick glass keeps one standing.

Wow though...wow. Auckland is BIG - no doubt about it.

Saw these crazy people doing a Sky Walk; a full body harness and overhead lines kept them in place but still...

But worse was the Sky Jump - people actually launch themselves off the edge of the Sky Tower and get let down rapidly by rope to a platform just above ground level. It's madness, I tell you.

Phew! Glad to be at 0m again. Wandered about down-town to the Viaduct area, found a spot for lunch.

Auckland via Ashburton and Christchurch

2011-12-22T22:51:00.000+13:00

Left home around 11 am headed for Christchurch with a packed lunch; stopped in Ashburton for a picnic in the Botanical Gardens there. This was a first for us although we've driven past it many times. It was super! A shallow pond attracts ducks and birds; the ancient trees were staggeringly tall. The four of us together couldn't get our arms around its circumference. Arrived Chch around 2 pm; Nick and the boys went off to the Airforce Museum leaving me at a mall (Timaru doesn't have shopping malls). Met up again after an hour or so, found some rolls and things at a PaknSave and had an early tea seated on a bench in the middle of The Hub - feeling like total southerners amid the sea of faces and crowds of women dressed badly in too-short skirts and too-high heels. Eventually got ourselves to Peter and Michelle who kindly babysat our car and lifted us to the airport; the flight was uneventful, we landed, were met by our booked shuttle driver and ferried to Bucklands Beach, where we finally got to bed around 10.30 somewhat tired!

Early Christmas!

2011-12-20T21:32:00.000+13:00

Today was the day for retrieving the boys' Christmas presents from the church where we'd been secretly stowing them for the past week or two...they were too big to hide away here, and certainly too big to fit in a suitcase to take to Auckland where we'll be spending Christmas! Caleb and Aaron never even came close to guessing what we'd be giving them - what a fun surprise! Thanks to the boys' grandparents on both sides too, these bikes-in-a-box were a joint gift. They will be very well used and are much appreciated! Nick helped them with the basic assembly and in no time they were up and ready to ride.

Then there were two

2011-12-19T19:38:00.002+13:00

The boys are enjoying the opportunity to sleep in during the holidays, only rolling out of their rooms after 8 am despite the 5.45 am sunrise (not that we could tell that the sun had risen this morning, with yet another cold, grey day at the start). Nick left early to start on a day of chopping wood and was gone all day until about 5.30, leaving me and the boys to fill in the day. The boys were on room-cleanup duty during the morning and really stretched it out, getting thoroughly distracted at every turn. No matter, it kept them occupied. I bustled around the house, tidying up, ironing, folding washing, washing dishes etc - great to get stuck into some housework. Around lunch time one of Caleb's friends phoned to tell him to bring a change of clothing to his birthday party. Yikes! We had totally forgotten. Had to phone to organize a lift for him but he got there no problem, leaving just me and Aaron for the afternoon. Poor Aaron missed his brother terribly despite us playing a few rounds of Rummikub and me serenading his tender ears with La Cumparsita. He was thrilled when Nick came home with a trailer load of bluegum and he could help offload, and a short while later when Caleb was dropped back off home with some loot and stories to tell. The sun came out during the afternoon; let's hope it stays that way tomorrow!

The bait still not so tempting

2011-12-18T22:00:00.000+13:00

Nick has come to the end of his Acts series now - he preached it on St Helena, and now, nearly two years since leaving the island, has finished it again. I think the second time through was way better! Today he preached from Psalm 29, a stirring sermon on God's glory and giving Him His due. I'd never heard that Psalm preached in that way - painting a sermon with a lightning storm widely splashed on the canvas! Our God is great and powerful and glorious. Met up with Andreas and Danielle at Caroline Bay for a picnic lunch, after donning winter coats and beanies. It was so cold outside, really not the day for outdoor activities but enjoyable nonetheless especially with cups of hot Chai and marshmallows provided by Danielle.

The afternoon service was our traditional pre-Christmas carols service interspersed with readings, followed by Nick's message on 'an antidote to worldliness' - very apt for this time of year. To round off the social weekend and to celebrate with Graham, we headed over to the Gregorys for fish and chips and a kiwi delicacy of whitebait patties. Let me tell you about whitebait - they are little teeny tiny fishies (actually a collective term for immature fish fry) which are sold at a hideously high price to all who consider them a treat. You don't fillet or dehead them, being far too small for such nonsense - they just get slooshed into a batter if you're making patties and stirred in so their slimy little bodies get a good coating. Into the pan goes a spoonful and out comes a pancake with now-white fishes dotted about, their pale translucent bodies having been transformed, and their lifeless black eyes still very evident. I've been offered such things at school before by at least two staff members (indeed, half a fritter appeared outside our door one evening - it got as far as the kitchen bench and stayed there an entire day and a half while I carefully avoided it). Graham, Liz and Bronwyn all thought it a good gag to eat a raw one (and gag they nearly did); I succumbed to a nibble of a patty but a crunchy bit totally threw me. Oooph! Fish stories aside, it was another fun evening with much silly laughter and loud singing in the kitchen over dish towels and wet plates.

40 x 2 =

2011-12-17T22:30:00.000+13:00

Had two 40ths to attend this evening (our friends are getting old). The first was Matt's M party at their house, which meant we had to dress up as something beginning with M...Nick was a Musician (that was a no-brainer for someone who doesn't do fancy dress - he just had to take his harmonica-holder along); I was a Manga character (Japanese anime); Caleb was a Mugger (complete with balaclava, sunglasses and mini baseball bat) and Aaron was a Mad Scientist with an apron and fake nose and glasses. There was an interesting array of Ms in attendance, most notably by Bronwyn who was Miss Pippi-Longstockings! Matt and Rachel have a host of really great friends and family as evidenced in the houseful of happy, chatty people.

We left shortly before 8 to get to the next 40th, which was Graham's party held in Liz's shop in town - no time to get home in between for a change of outfit so looked somewhat out of place in a roomful of elegantly attired adults. Again, another gathering of really great people, several of whom were strangers to us. Liz had brainstormed a quiz as the post-meal fun; it was hilarious and extremely well thought-out. Happy birthday to our two mid-life buddies!

Sit, stay, smile

2011-12-16T21:13:00.000+13:00

Holidays at last, yee-ha!! Aaron had a birthday party to get to on the first day, and I had some work at school to do. Caleb stayed home with Nick. Friday: Cold, gloomy grey skies were not much of a greeting but it was dry enough outside for the boys to play around outdoors. I had a large agenda which included cleaning the stove, updating the blog, and doing a way overdue digital calendar for December for my parents. Had to first get some photos of the boys. Aaron is a great poser and will sit anywhere, look in any direction, and smile or not according to my instructions. Caleb does not do any of the above very willingly and frustrates his brother in delaying the process of procuring a good picture.

Nick was finished with his sermon prep by lunch time, so we used the afternoon to do some shopping in about five different locations around Timaru. Watched "Mr Popper's Penguins" around pizza in the evening - the movie is terribly disappointing if you've read the book, being only very loosely based around the original novel. I'd recommend rather reading the book and skipping the movie entirely :)

Mo' year-end fun

2011-12-14T22:00:00.000+13:00

To finish off the school year we had a Day at the Bay planned...unfortunately had to revert to Plan B of a morning of play and activities at the school as it was raining all morning - a pretty sorry way to end the term and kick off the summer holidays! Quite a relief when 1 pm rolled on and the school was emptied of 102 noisy children :) Our staff year-end function was held in the library this year, organized by Toni and the Board. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening - I think the teachers were buoyed at the thought of a long break from teaching so there was much animated conversation and laughter, not to mention the fun to be had with Christmas cracker novelties (one mo' sure did the rounds). A round of indoor cricket in the hall drew many eager colleagues!

Prize-giving production

2011-12-13T21:37:00.000+13:00

Last day of proper school today, but with prizegiving rapidly coming upon us the school day was largely taken up with rehearsals and final practices of class items. Trophies engraved and polished, shoes shone, hair brushed, nerves settled - finally, 6 pm came and it was time to begin...well done to the many children who received awards and trophies! Caleb and Aaron's class item was a rapped version of "Joyful joyful" complete with shuffling, solo raps and wormy-things across the stage. It was pretty cool!

"Walk, walk in the light" above, and sign-language to "God Defend New Zealand" below...

Room 4 doing their thing...Aaron above and Caleb to the left, below.

REALLY wanting to get into the photo!

Christmas Carol medley

Two reports

2011-12-12T22:06:00.000+13:00

Had our last Sunday School for the year, in which Grant combined our classes (we had all of three children, what with two of them being away in SA already, and two just being absent) and did a quiz. Prizegiving was during the service...so that's it for another year! We pray that the many lessons given will be remembered and applied. Spent a quiet afternoon at home, then after the afternoon service we gathered around a table of feasting at the Tor-Kilsen's house - Jeremiah, Chrissy and Isaac served up a huge delicious roast and veggies to Miss Ferguson (Aaron's Room 3 teacher) and her beaux James, Grant, and us. Had a bit of singing-songing around the piano after tea - was great.

On Monday the boys wore mufti to school for a rocky shore outing which was hugely successful by all accounts. Caleb got himself sunburned, to my huge dismay. I'd rather they were pale and healthy than pink and cancerous! They brought their year-end reports home from school today and as always, the Reading of the Report is a big deal to be celebrated and remembered. The boys both brought home excellent reports which did us proud - especially the comment on 'eagerness to participate in devotions and discussions about God'. Well done boys! We took them to the Warehouse (where everyone...) for a reward; they came home with Lego.

BBQ, et al

2011-12-10T22:30:00.000+13:00

We knew it would be a busy day today with a lot of things to fit in - first thing was buying Sunday School prizes for tomorrow's prizegiving in town. We met up with Grant at the Christian bookstore in town and it took a long time to find something suitable. Caleb and Aaron pretty much chose what they wanted - no surprise for them! Back home just long enough to collect the violin, gather music and hang up washing, then off to the church for a music practice. Home again, cooked chicken nibbles and made a potato salad, then headed off to Caroline Bay for our annual church picnic. It got off to a slow start - we arrived at 3 pm and by 3.30 were still the only ones there, so ate all our food as a solitary family. People drifted in slowly after that, with the party really getting going by about 6 pm when folk started bbq'ing; by that time we had to head off!

During the picnic/bbq time at the Bay, I picked up my photographer's hat to reshoot a bit of Toni and Moses' wedding. You'll remember that on the day of their wedding, Moses' father was badly burned in a devastating house-fire when he rescued his grandson from the flames, so was in hospital and missed the entire wedding. The Lord has been so good in how Amenio has healed so well - two months after the fire he is up and about, with only a hand still bandaged. Toni wanted to get a few parent photos before her in-laws head back to Fiji tomorrow.

At 6.30 pm we were at Artfull Crafts in town for an evening of caroling - Nick and I added guitar and violin to the band of piano, trombone and accoustic bass to facilitate a sing-song following a day of crafting for Lizzie and her Ladies. Had an impressive 'supper' (the kiwi type) following the singing with Liz proving that she CAN bake after all, and that in spectacular style!

Meeting Corne and Trevor

2011-12-08T09:59:00.000+13:00

Andreas and Danielle and Andreas' brother Corne came by this evening for pancakes and a visit - great evening of laughter, music, chatting and salty or saltless pancakes, depending on whether Andreas helped to serve or not. He made and brought the plateful but forgot salt in the making thereof; sprinkling it on afterwards was not a good solution :) It was great to get to know Corne a little before he heads back to SA on the weekend - he's a natural musician so enjoyed Nick's set-up! Had a YouTube introduction to Trevor Noah, an SA comedian whose routine is entirely without blasphemy or swearing, and most apt to SA culture - hilarious!!

Mid-Life Crisis

2011-12-06T22:39:00.000+13:00

Had a most enjoyable violin lesson this evening (I go fortnighly). It's getting to be more fun as I can play a duet with Jemima and not muck it up too badly, so we both end up smiling at the end! Am learning third position now which is slow-going and frustrating, but good - I want to keep learning and progressing (not that I am anywhere near accomplished in the beginner stages - still a loooooong way to go!). At 9 pm I had the pleasure of photographing MLC during rehearsal for a newspaper promo - they are doing a fundraising concert this Friday coming for Amenio Nareki who was so badly burned in that terrible house-fire on the day of his son's wedding.

Happy anni-birthdary

2011-12-05T22:19:00.000+13:00

Sunday was our anniversary - 12 years of wedded bliss :> for us and I think 29 for Ken and Joy. The day itself was quite ordinary, in that we hadn't particularly planned anything to celebrate, but having the Judds with us was really special. We had church as usual and they came with us, thoroughly enjoying John's teaching. Being the first Sunday of the month there was a fellowship lunch following the morning service, and after lunch Ken and Joy headed off to Christchurch. We went back home and had a game of monopoly; by pm church time only Caleb and I were left in the game so we paused it and resumed after the service (Caleb won with wads of money and hotels).
Monday was Aaron's 9th birthday - my baby! Ugh, they are growing up too fast. Both boys were awake at 6 so we all got up together and did the pressie-hunt in the lounge. Being enrolled in 'regular' school means we don't get birthdays as a holiday anymore, so it was off to school as usual. Had MacDonalds for tea though which was Aaron's choice, then in the evening we had a music practice at Lizzie's shop for carolling coming up on Saturday. If you're in Timaru, you simply MUST see her Christmas-decorated foyer (Artfull Crafts in town)!! It's just amazing!

Green and White

2011-12-03T23:00:00.000+13:00

I couldn't upload this video on to my last post for some reason, so this is one from Joy - all the kids doing a great job!

Multi-phase

2011-12-03T22:51:00.000+13:00

Today consisted of so many modules that we started referring to them as phases. Phase 1 was the getting up, getting ready, lounging about, Ken playing Dutch Blitz and Scrabble with the boys, then Nick and I popping out for eye drops and pies (unusual combination). I dropped Nick off at the church so he could do the final prepping for his full day of lecturing - the pies were for lunch/tea for the men who attended. Phase 2 was Aaron's Ukulele Concert at the Waimataitai School. We were glad that Ken and Joy were happy to come along and watch - especially as Nick wasn't able to. Caleb recorded on my phone and Joy recorded on her iPhone...vastly different qualities of recording!! I've put in one from each phone because Caleb's commentary was pretty amazing. Aaron and the ukes and recorders did really well - it was good to watch the video clips afterwards and see how well the ukuleles kept time with each other. Well done also to Lesley, the teacher of all these kids, for putting the whole thing together and getting so much music into them!

Phase 3 started with a quick trip home for hats and snacks, then a trip to town for Joy and I to do a spot of shopping, leaving Ken and the boys to amuse themselves at the beach - I can understand why they were so very happy to avoid having to wander through Farmers' extensive underwear section :) Purchases made, we were off home for lunch of rolls, cold meats, cheese and salad. I think that was the fourth phase. Lunch done, we all jumped back into the car and drove back into town, parking in nearly the same spot as before. We settled ourselves at a traffic light at the top of Stafford Street to watch the annual Christmas Parade which started promptly at 2 pm - quite exciting and very long, with many, many floats and groups doing different things. Took this photo into a large glass window - spot the photographer! Ken's the tall guy at the back with the hat.

This float below, brightly coloured and festive, took us back to St Helena where parades were frequent and fun.

Of special interest, and probably our favourite part of the parade, was this juggling unicyclist who stopped to entertain the crowds at different points along the way. We were well positioned to be right in front of him, and got to interact when he started throwing his juggling balls into the crowd and catching them back from all directions. Very quick hand/eye co-ordination!

And then came the Very Tall Man who made Caleb jump for a high-five...

Search and Rescue...

Another form of Search and Rescue...

Finally, the last float went by throwing out rubber bracelets and lollies from a santa sack...and it was all over for another year. We didn't dilly dally in zooting across the road to Burger King for ice-creams.

Phase 6? 7? Cant' quite tell anymore...stopped in at Briscoes and the Warehouse (where everyone...) but came out without any bargains, having been looking for something quite specific. Exhausted after all those outings and trips. Spent a quiet hour or so at home, the boys much intrigued by Joy's iPad and the word games...

...while Ken got saddled with packing up the Scrabble...

Nachos for tea; Nick arrived home while we were still sitting around the table after tea, smiling and tired after a successful day of lecturing at his first Roving Classroom. He spoke for about five hours to a group of about 15 men (and one lady) from Christchurch, Timaru and Wellington. The day was good and somewhat of a relief for us all that it's now done!
Joy and I popped out for a DVD - we figured we were all tired enough to just veg for the evening.

Joy-nt anniversary

2011-12-02T22:55:00.000+13:00

A little blue car pulled up outside our house around 5 pm - Joy and Ken!! Yippee! Joy is one of my REAL cousins and the only NZ one, living in Auckland (the same one who whisked me off for a ladies weekend in May). We share a wedding anniversary which was happening on this weekend, so to celebrate they decided to come and visit us in Timaru. The coinciding of Nick's lectures and their visit was unfortunate but not disastrous in any way; we were glad that we could all spend the whole of Friday evening together. We had a Chinese tea then went for our oft-enjoyed walk to Dashing Rocks, taking advantage of the warm evening. Nick and Ken found all sorts of topics to discuss while Joy and I did some deep catching up and chatting; Caleb and Aaron loved the male company.

Great to craft again

2011-12-01T16:50:00.000+13:00

Bit of a ridiculously crazy week as Nick had to finalize details for his Roving Classroom on Saturday - he finished the actual lecture notes in good time but then they needed photocopying and binding, and there was catering and serving to be organized. I was also needing to get the guest room finished before the weekend was upon us - very glad for the afternoons that I don't work at the school! Got the paper topiary tree done (thanks to Liz at Artfull Crafts for the idea and demo!) - just what I needed for an empty space.

A bye-pie

2011-11-29T21:38:00.001+13:00

Caleb has had a few loose teeth for several weeks (being 10, they're dropping out fast). Yesterday morning a molar came out which he presented to me topped with a piece of oats from breakfast and gum mush on the other side. Ugh! I sent him off to clean it - he came back with it brushed! This morning he lost another one during breakfast - I'm pleased to say that it was clean (just still wet). Which reminds me, the Tooth Momster had better get some coins out! Andreas and Danielle called in last night for a guitar lesson; they've been touring bits of the SI with Andreas' brother, so we haven't seen them in ages either. D and I had a great chat in the lounge while the men made some good noises in the diningroom.
Had Grant and Erinmarie around to tea this evening - Erin leaves tomorrow morning early for the voyage west to SA; Petru, Dannica, Jayden and Dinnay left last week already. Made a chicken pie with a note to Erin on top:

Rosy weekend

2011-11-27T21:21:00.000+13:00

Tea with the Gregorys last night - it's been so long since we've really hung out; excellent to touch base again. Obviously I was so excited about getting there that the camera got left at home. Ate tea of tortillas on the balcony which overlooks a fairly main road; gorgeous sitting out there with the sunset in our faces - until it got just a little too chilly. Today was a busy day and really so special - our dear Jeremiah was baptised! (I don't mean 'our' in the biological sense...he's just become such an integrated part of our fellowship). He particularly wanted Grant to do the deed - Nick had the whole day off today as Grant preached in the morning and we had a visiting guest in the evening by way of Austin Walker from the UK. Both services were excellent and although we all love Nick's ministry it's also good to have a small amount of variety occasionally :)

It was another stunner of a day, so we took a picnic lunch to Caroline Bay where the annual Festival of Roses was underway. Liz had a craft stall in a huge marquee and was demonstrating a paper topiary creation among other things - I am already now in the process of making one and will post the result when it's done. Rene was part of the live entertainment (and by far the best act). Saw several familiar faces in the throngs - the advantage of small-town living!

After the pm church service we popped over to the Gregorys again as Nick needed to drop off the sermon-recording-device; got an invite for fish and chips (who could resist) so had tea with them a second night in a row.

And...I played my violin in church for the first time today. A little premature perhaps but I was getting to the point of needing to overcome my fear of playing in public and just get on with it. I wasn't appallingly bad but certainly there were no sweet notes issuing forth - I don't think it was a distraction either way! Thankfully Grant was on piano and pretty much drowned me out anyway - I had asked him to play loudly :) Had heaps of much-needed encouragement after the services.

Outdoorsy

2011-11-26T15:51:00.001+13:00

Another of those fabulous heat-wave days, with the temperature up to 25 (gasp). I actually felt hot for the first time in ages. Nick and the boys put the (huge) tent up again, and with the weather being so mild, we let them sleep in it. They had a great evening! It was still light at 8.45 pm so I guess they didn't get to sleep too early, but they came back indoors in high spirits this morning and not too early (I was anticipating 6 am early birds as the day has started by then).

I, on the other hand, was awake and ready for the day at 6, so got up and started doing stuff. I had the linen cupboard to sort through as it's become an embarrassing jumble. Also needed to do the church bulletin and get Aaron to his ukulele concert practice; this time it all flowed along quite smoothly and his teacher is feeling more confident about next Saturday. There are five ukuleles in Aaron's group, then another three or four younger ones, and then two groups of recorders with about seven more kids in total. That's a big group to co-ordinate! Came home, had lunch, played the violin, then had a worship practice at the church. Nick is out chopping wood today, working on a huge old bluegum which was felled some time ago and which will soon be too dry and hard to cut if they don't get to it soon. I expect him to arrive home exhausted!

Kidnapped mobile

2011-11-24T21:37:00.000+13:00

The boys...while I was practicing (I think I hear terribly awful strains of Pachelbel in the background), they got hold of my phone and left me a video clip. Love these guys!

Stage frightless

2011-11-23T21:27:00.000+13:00

While some children find themselves too nervous to perform at their first musical recital, Caleb was totally relaxed about his violin concert - perhaps a little too blase about the whole affair, but what a blessing to not suffer from stage fright. He and two girls played two pieces with a piano accompaniment. It was interesting to see the different levels of accomplishment and ability from all the different pupils on brass and strings - Caleb is no virtuoso but also definitely not at the bottom of the pool.

MRBC goes hi-tech

2011-11-19T20:04:00.001+13:00

Introducing...Marchwiel Reformed Baptist Church's new blogsite! Thanks to Andreas for putting this together, and Graham for helping with the recordings, we now have Nick's audio sermons being published each week. It's still a bit of a work in progress, but it's a grand start which we pray will be used as a ministry tool for many people around the globe.

Bright sunshiney days

2011-11-19T19:50:00.001+13:00

Caleb: "Mom, can I have a bite of the skin of the kiwi fruit?"
Me: "Why would you want to do that?"
Caleb: "It's delicious".
Me: "That's gross, it's all hairy, but okay then".
Caleb: "A peach is hairy too - you just have to move your lips out the way," ... proceeding to eat most of the skin, having emptied out the rest with the spife (or knoon).
Seriously? Eeuw!
This from the same boy who suggested saddles for Grampa's eyebrows.

The boys participated in school athletics yesterday (I arrived after work, after they had both finished competing in all their events). Caleb was disappointed to finish just out of placeable range (ie third when first and second went to finals, or second when only first went through) in most of his events. Aaron just had fun doing it. I had a marvellously quiet morning in the school office, being the solitary person there for most of the morning! Bliss. We hired Cars 2 to watch together in the evening over pizzas, coke and garlic bread, with mousse chocolate for pudding. Friday Family Fun :)

Today Aaron had an hour-and-a-half concert practice for his ukulele concert coming up in two weeks. His group does pretty well although they seem to constantly want to race ahead of the beat. Yours truly has been roped into beating a bongo drum to help them keep time! Caleb's violin concert is this coming Wednesday but as his class is only performing two songs, the practices are a lot shorter and less complicated.

We've had a run of beautifully sunny days lately, although they're not particularly warm. There's still snow on the mountains and the southerly breezes are chilly. Nonetheless, we went out after tea to PaknSave to buy Magnum ice-creams (hokey pokey and vanilla) which we took to the docks to eat (that sounded like a very St Helena-ry thing to do just there!); Nick and stayed in the warm car and the boys braved the outdoors. The days are so wonderfully long already and still getting longer - sunrise is now at 5.56 am and sunset is at 8.46 pm. The boys are not too keen on going to bed while the sun is still shining, but dark blue curtains sure do help.

Fiddle-dee-dee

2011-11-19T19:37:00.001+13:00

Ooops, 11 days since my last post! Life has been pretty busy but in a mundane, non-bloggable way. I've been engrossed in converting my craft room into a permanent guest room, anticipating the arrival not only of my cousin and her beloved in December and my dear parents in January, but just general hospitality options - it's so much more fun to host people when you have a ready-made bed available! We were blessed with the gift of a queen bed before we even started praying about it - along with a single bunk bed / couch / desk combination which has found a home in Nick's study/studio. Time for some clearing out and sorting and organizing in my craft room - at the time of writing it looks a frightful mess as I've started wading through bits of hoarded paper and collected scraps, but it got to a point of usability before the heavy sorting began. I've gone with a white/beige/apple/red combination and really had fun choosing the linen (yay for Briscoes and their endless sales, along with the Warehouse where everyone gets...).

Along with the room business I've been violin trading - I've switched now from 3/4 to 4/4 and found a cheapie on TradeMe which needed some work. Actually I found two cheapies, as Grant has decided to take it up as well - back to TradeMe for a variety of accessories: bow, fine turners, bridge, strings, shoulder rest...I've never known an instrument to be such a financial black hole with so many extra bits being necessary for a good sound! Spent a lot of time polishing the wood, polishing and brasso-ing the beautiful antique (ie really old and somewhat shabby) black cases and so on, but in the end we have two good instruments for two beginners.

Deere John

2011-11-08T21:07:00.000+13:00

Nick's birthday present arrived via courier this morning - some good work boots which are meant to last for years and years. They're pretty solid!

Scrabbling

2011-11-06T21:02:00.000+13:00

The boys have discovered Scrabble. They pulled it out of the games cupboard and wanted to know how to play it. Mrs Competitive Me played and helped them, explaining the rules and giving them tips and the dictionary, but still managed to keep my score well above theirs :) On Sunday after church and the monthly fellowship lunch Jayden came home with us and after mucking around outside, the three of them sat down to a game. So here it is - a boy game. Let's hope the words are more sophisticated when they play with their grandparents (mom and dad - fair warning - these boys will give you a run for your money!)

Mice away, the cats will play

2011-11-04T13:03:00.000+13:00

Wednesday - Friday: With the boys being away on school camp, Nick and I found ourselves leading very different lives! Work at school was bliss with the 'left-overs' going out on field trips on Wednesday and Friday, so the school was quiet and there were almost no interruptions - got heaps of work done including filing :) And do you know, there will ALWAYS be parents who just don't read their notices properly and do the very things they are asked not to do. Would you believe that one parent actually tucked lollies away in her children's suitcases, completely disregarding the big bold paragraph stating "no lollies or electronic devices may be brought to camp"? Imagine my utter mortification when I had a text from the principal on Thursday morning - "Fancy smuggling a banned sugary substance in2 camp via ur kids' bags Mrs Clevely". Only then did I read the rest of the notice properly (I'd folded it in half and only had the 'what to bring' section visible) - my secret plan for being a cool mom and surprising her kids with treats severely backfired :)

So Wednesday night Nick and I had KFC for tea; on Thursday we were treated to an amazing meal at Benny's Again, thanks to friends who gave us a voucher for our birthdays. Fried battered Camembert cubes with a warm plum sauce for starters; freshly batted Sole and chips and salad for me and a huge platter of cholesterol for Nick via steak, bacon, eggs, sausage and chips. It was a great evening out.

Friday we were very happy to see the boys again at 5 pm when the bus came rolling in - I think there were very many tired and happy children and many parents relieved to have their lambs safely folded away in the home paddocks. The boys had a marvellous time on camp with many interesting tales to tell including milking sheep - well done and thanks to Mr Phillips for the majority of the organization, and the staff and teachers who accompanied the kids.

My lollipops

2011-11-01T21:11:00.000+13:00

Time for a visit to barber-mom for Caleb - his long blonde hair is lovely when it's clean and brushed, but not so hot the next day! I took a lot off and by the looks of it, all the sunbleached blonde as well - he's not a Schalk Burger lookalike anymore :)

No kneed for mom

2011-10-31T21:41:00.000+13:00

Love this time of year when these beautiful sunrises are happening at 6 am - I get up, stumble into the kitchen, and see this sight through bleary eyes. What a vision!

Aaron came hobbling along to my office after school today with big plasters over both knees. I'm thankful that I wasn't called during lunch to deal with my own child - the teachers treat both boys the same as any other school kid, so the bleeding knees were dutifully cleaned and the story enticed about a scooter and another boy and some annoyances on both sides. Other than that, we had a great day at school!

Thiiiiiiiirty-five (half of three-score and ten)

2011-10-30T21:31:00.000+13:00

Nick has finally reached that dreadful milestone...middle-age! We spent the day together as a family, going out for pizzas after the morning service which we took to Caroline Bay where the gulls and ducks happily received our pizza crusts. It was not so much on the warm side but not so cold that it was ghastly being outdoors; we played a bit of touch rugby (TACKLE, TACKLE) - I put the camera down for a while and joined in.

My Sunday School lesson this morning was an object lesson on guarding what we say - I started by showing a selection of things I had found in the garden including a half-eaten piece of cake with bits of bark clinging to the butter icing (no lies - it was actually in the postbox before I threw it in the garden, retrieving it shortly thereafter). The point was to offer the cake to the boys, which obviously they would refuse...but one clever cookie (not a Clevely) took a big bite. Er...okay, so hopefully we're a lot MORE careful about what comes out of our mouths than what goes in!

Pre-birthday party

2011-10-29T21:54:00.000+13:00

Nick and I hadn't really been planning anything particular for his birthday which is tomorrow, but I decided somewhat spontaneously to have a gathering this evening - just a casual 'bring a plate' (which means, bring a plate with food on it as we South Africans had to learn). The party expanded to 14 adults and 11 kids...quite a houseful but what fun. After tea we drifted into the lounge for some music and singing - we were missing a few instruments (ahem, flautist and trombonist - note to take instruments to Clevelys always) but made a joyful noise with three guitars, the violin, and a few percussion bits including The Spoons which Liz is mastering.

It was good to have Kelsi and James with us - Kelsi is Aaron's teacher as of Term 4, and Kelsi brought two amazing chocolate birthday cakes. Pity that the weather turned a little chilly after a sunny afternoon, but the kids didn't seem to mind and played touch rugby until it got dark.

House and home

2011-10-28T20:35:00.000+13:00

Tuesday was back to school after the two-week break, and time to really start getting to know the new principal, Bethany Rentoul - meet my new boss, everyone! We are pleased that she (a) is a chocolate lover and (b) understands the South African brand of humour :)

First week back ran a lot more smoothly than I anticipated given that TCS has entered a new phase of its life with Bethany's appointment and arrival. We think it's going to be a good phase! On Friday afternoon I went to photograph a spectacular home which is going on the market, and the skies cleared just long enough to do justice to the exterior - the polarising filter and wide-angle lens did wonders.

Rushed from there to meet up with a few TCS staff at Zest for a quick latte before heading home again to slip back into my mom and wife roles for the weekend.

Combined GBC and MRBC Family Camp

2011-10-24T22:00:00.000+13:00

Following last year's bug epidemic at church camp, I was not hugely excited or anticipatory of this year's camp - silly, since the bug last year was not camp related, it just happened to hit us there. But I'm pleased to say that camp was AWESOME!!! Despite some coughing and itchy noses in the family, we were well, and didn't pass diseases on to anyone :) The camp speaker, Steve Hofmaier, gave us much good food; with the Spirit's conviction there were many challenges to consider particularly in evangelism methods and urgency.

Above - air rifle shooting; Aaron came second out of all participants on camp! Below - Nick enjoying coffee and a chat with Steve.

Aside from the meetings, there was also much enjoyment to be found in the fellowship together with Grace Baptist Church - we spent a lot of time singing and jamming (in one of our sessions we rustled up a 7-member band...guitar, piano, mandolin, violin, trombone, flute and acoustic bass!), playing sport and indoor games, eating the great food masterminded by the Sinclair team, and not to forget the memorable RWC final - it was pretty special to be in the country of the winning team, surrounded by patriotic enthusiasts!

We were blessed to be able to be at camp the full three nights, returning home exhausted and in need of sleep and a shower on Monday afternoon.

Hurray for warmth!

2011-10-20T21:45:00.000+13:00

So...after Monday's amazing weather, Tuesday brought mild flooding to Timaru with nearly horizontal sheets of rain and ridiculously strong wind. It was NOT a day to be outdoors. Timaru seldom gets anything more than drizzle or gentle rain - this was rare for us. Nevertheless, the day's plans went ahead - Aaron went to holiday club (Caleb has gotten sick again and was coughing to much to be allowed out); I went to school in the morning and the studio in the afternoon. Wednesday was as windy but the rain had pretty much dried up, and our schedules were the same as Tuesday - Caleb still at home and driving Nick nuts with his coughing. He was much better today and so pleased to be allowed out the house to join Aaron at the holiday club. So thankful that he's improving as we have church camp this coming weekend and certainly don't want anything like a repeat of last year's Bug Drama. Today's forecast promised warmer weather but it was chilly all day despite some patches of sun...but when I went outside after tea at 6 pm there was a change! We all got so excited that we decided to talk a walk to Dashing Rocks, one of our favourite spots and an ideal walking destination (looking forward to showing that one to you, Popsie and Mumsie!). The sun was still high, the clouds had blown away, and there was a gentle nor'wester blowing. It was beautiful and balmy. The washing dried on the line between 6 and 7 pm!

I love that this particular beach has so many treasures - there are heaps of shells and bits of interestingness to look at.

7 pm, and the sky started looking just a little bit amazing...still another hour before sunset.

Garden Day

2011-10-17T21:26:00.000+13:00

Nick took our car to the garage first thing this morning for a long-overdue repair of the starter motor. We were unsure of how long it would take, so I rearranged my studio hours and spent the day at home. My plan was to clean the house (still hadn't managed to really do that properly during the holidays), but when I reached the back door I was thoroughly distracted by the warm breeze and excessive dirt and got stuck into sweeping the back entrance, which led to sweeping cobwebs off the windows, which led to weeding the courtyard gardens, at which point Nick arrived home so he got involved in some weeding and pruning too; the boys also got busy with the fork in the back garden...then there was some laying of weedmat in a bed, followed by more weeding in the front garden and the removal of some large and abominable shrubs...by about 5 pm I was exhausted. The weather was gloriously co-operative - sunny and somewhat on the hot side, which was a change from the grey skies and cold winds we've been having of late.

The boys mucked about on the keyboard for a while as well, and of course there was rugby to be played outdoors too.

And sadly, the house is still not clean!

Go MY team!

2011-10-16T22:36:00.000+13:00

Felt convicted about my poor use of time over the holidays, so didn't pick up my violin until I'd done some domestic stuff...Nick was out chopping wood all day, so the boys and I were left to do our own thing. I baked banana bread, biscotti and peanut butter biscuits; did some ironing, some cleaning, took the boys to the Warehouse (where they got a bargain and bought a drawing book); by 5.30 when Nick got back I was exhausted and we had pizza for tea!
Sunday, and a mind-boggling afternoon service about Jesus' resurrection and its meaning and application for us. We were at Olive for lunch where she served us a feast of roast chicken, taters and pumpkin, broccoli, gravy, and blackboy peach and apple tart with custard AND ice-cream for dessert. After the pm service we came home for a while, then went to the Kempfs for the rugby and a bit of socializing. Thoroughly enjoyed the game (fell asleep in the second half but there wasn't a whole of scoring going on then anyway, and in my defense the game only started at 9 pm!). Thrilled that the All Blacks are through to the final!

This second image, below, is really the proper one, but the first one was so funny when I examined it that I had to include it - everyone but one lad is absorbed in some way with food! Caleb had just landed a plateful of nuts and chips on the floor in the second one...sigh...

Fly on over!

2011-10-14T22:21:00.000+13:00

News, news!! My parents are coming to visit! Tickets are booked and arrival is 5th January 2012. That's less than 3 months away! My folks have not visited us in our own home since May 2006 when they came to St Helena...they have had to cross the Atlantic and now the Indian Ocean and Tasman Sea to see us. Have pastor-in-law, will travel!

At least we're giving you the opportunity to travel the world with free accommodation, hey Mumsie and Popsie :)

Had an entirely at-home day today, but the weather was grim so it was an indoors one in which I largely mucked about with the violin, made a half-hearted attempt at housework, and watched a DVD with Nick and the boys early evening before heading out for a music practice with Bron and then coffee with Andreas and Danielle.

Mow, mow, mow your lawn

2011-10-13T22:11:00.000+13:00

Still enjoying the school holidays, and still working almost either at the school or the studio. All good though - no work = no pay! :) It's not all fun and games for the boys either...we have got them doing a bit of gardening, room tidying, helping in the kitchen, etc...

What it's for

2011-10-12T23:03:00.000+13:00

Dear Genevieve,
How rightly you have said that the blog is like another form of time capsule...we have an in-depth archive of six years of our lives already, and still going. Aaron particularly is already enjoying reading over old posts and will happily spend an entire morning in front of the computer, pointing out things that he finds interesting. So, if for nothing more, I'll keep on as a blogger for the sake of family history!
Much love,
Lynn

Dear Future Me

2011-10-11T20:51:00.000+13:00

Two years ago the boys and I made a timebox, containing video interviews of the boys, letters to their future selves, and mementos of the island and things that were important to them at the time which they wanted to carry into the future. We had sealed and marked the box for opening in October 2011...today was the day! The boys were very excited...somewhat disappointed when they actually unveiled the contents, but it was fun nevertheless. Interesting to see a thank-you letter from Samuel W tucked in there! Before the holidays are over we'll need to put together the next one for two years' time.

I had to go to the office again during the morning; in the late afternoon Nick took the boys for a walk to Dashing Rocks. I had a violin lesson so couldn't join them, but Nick came back with some awesome pics:

(The boys had been mucking about with facepaints during the day - Aaron looks a bit like a cyborg here with one dark eye!)

180movie

2011-10-10T22:22:00.000+13:00

School holidays...although not so much for the boys, if you ask them - they were still at school today! I spent four and a half hours in my office doing some sorting, admin, accounts, and finally got around to tidying the stationery cupboard which has been bothering me for weeks. We were back at the school in the evening to watch this AMAZING 33-minute documentary on abortion. It's hugely thought-provoking particularly for those who have never given the issue much consideration. I'll say no more...watch it!!

SA's final

2011-10-09T22:09:00.000+13:00

Nick preached two outstanding sermons again - the morning's one was largely focused around Paul's work ethic - very encouraging and challenging! In the afternoon family bible class we were on the topic of the resurrection, looking at all the wrong theories and then honing in on the biblical truths. Very interesting indeed. Had a quiet afternoon at home between services, then were off to rugby at 6 pm, just missing the kick-off (next time we phone ahead to the take-away place for chips!). We gathered with a group of South African supporters and it was certainly entertaining to see how intense the support was, and not always from the people one would expect :) Alas, the result was not to our liking but clearly the Bokke were the better team despite the score! Off to Matt and Rachel for the All Blacks game at 8.30...a predictable result and time for some shut-eye...So now we support our home team for the remainder of the world cup.

Toni-Lee and Mosese

2011-10-08T21:30:00.000+13:00

Two big events occurred today - the largest housefire that we've ever seen, and a beautiful wedding. We didn't expect the events to be linked, but sadly the father of the groom and the groom's baby nephew were badly burned in the fire; it was a day of mixed emotions with tragedy and celebration trying to hold hands. I was on my first shooting assignment with Callander Girl Photography, so these photos are all Nick's:

Guests waiting for the arrival of the Bride in the polar breezes...we were thrilled that the sun came out but it was still chilly. Toni-Lee Carter, the boys' teacher at school, looked amazing.

Mr and Mrs Mosese Nareki!

Below - the lovely Rachel!

There were many expressions of concern and love throughout the day - the community has been very supportive of Mosese's family and keen to help in any way.

End of Term 3

2011-10-07T22:00:00.000+13:00

Last day of the term today, and it was a dress-up day in the theme of World Cup Rugby. It was great to see the kids dressed up in support of their countries - largely represented by South Africa, New Zealand and Scotland with a bit of France thrown in. I went with a dual nationality, sporting green and gold AND black and white! Despite the hilarity we managed to get some work done...it was one of those days where you know things are just going to be a little haywire :) All good fun. It's been an interesting term and my first one at the school in the office - I have learned a lot, laughed a lot, cried just a little, and look forward to the next one!

The staff was treated to a morning tea, and then there was a parents' community tea in the afternoon, again with an international theme. The koeksusters disappeared very quickly! Being the last day of term, we treated the boys to MacDonalds for tea and a DVD. Let the holidays begin!

Spring, oh spring

2011-10-02T19:30:00.000+13:00

One of these kinds of days today:

Simply not a day to be wasted indoors so we gathered with the Phillipses and Jeremiah at Caroline Bay for a walk/paddle/sit. Despite a sneaky breeze it was still a great day to be out. Found a few semi-alive crabs, one of which the men tried to revive by throwing back into the ocean, and walked to the far side of the bay where one of our school moms had had the same idea of outdoorsiness.

Had a quick cuppa back at our place before the evening service, which was then followed by rugby (we watched a league game which seemed peculiarly different to the World Cup rules and far more violent and less to my liking, accompanied with fish and chips and Chinese and joke-telling at Tom and Mariette's place along with Liz and Graham. And thus ended a very people-full and activity-full weekend!

Who in Wonderland?

2011-10-01T21:36:00.000+13:00

Saturday morning, 10 am...Aaron's ukulele lesson. Interestingly, the next pupil's name is Lucas. Lucas plays his ukulele in a yellow ute. Except for the yellow ute part...we just got silly making up a tongue twister. Following the lesson was a Family Expedition (I would have used the word 'expotition', Pooh Bear style, but then thought I might have to explain it as perhaps not everyone has read Winnie the Pooh and might just assume I have bad speling) in which we acquired face paints and South African flags for the boys to use on their mufti-day on Friday coming, last day of term. Took a brief swing out to the Crows Nest looking for some wheels to replace the ones Nick broke whilst ramping merrily down the back yard but found nothing (that is to say, we found nothing at the Crows Nest - Nick was not looking for anything at the bottom of the back yard); last stop was the Warehouse (where everyone gets...you know the rest). Had some quiet family time at home in the afternoon - the boys read, Nick pottered, and I got myself ready for a Youth Group Ball, themed 'Alice in Wonderland' (not our church's doing). I wasn't an attendee; I was hired to take photographs - but I had been invited to dress up. Couldn't possibly let an opportunity like that pass me by...had fun as a mad-hatter styled photographer!

Many of the kids really went to town as well, and the results were great. These are some of my favs:

Above, Erin-Marie and Dannica; below, Miss Ferguson (one of our teachers) in the centre as the White Queen

So many Alice's...

Love this one of Jeremiah!!

Oh guys and gals...so cute!

Nick and the boys, meanwhile, were at the Camerons - we started there for tea (Chinese - yum!!), and I met up with them again when I was done. I was glad that Nick didn't have to spend his Saturday night alone while I was out working!

Flutl'toot

2011-09-30T21:18:00.000+13:00

I'll do another quick whoooooosh through the week, because that's really how they go, slowing down at the weekends. Friday night we had the Kempfs around for nachos - it was great to have Jesse, Sam and Hannah as well, a blessing to have the entire family! The boys were thrilled to see their teenaged buddies again too. After tea we left the kids in the diningroom with a game of Scotland Yard, and us oldies moved into the lounge for some MUSIC!! Yay! We love these casual sing-song evenings. Bron had brought her flute which we'd not heard her play, and man, she's awesome. She wouldn't call herself an accomplished flautist, but she certainly gets the notes. I had a go on it too and it's a lot more complicated than it looks to get any kind of sound, let alone a pure flutey sound...keep it up Bron. I played the violin and there are a lot less shrieks, whistles and whispers than there were six months ago though still too many to inflict on regular people...still a ways to go before being unleashed on a full congregation :)

Long weekend, much needed

2011-09-26T21:49:00.000+13:00

Happy South Canterbury day to all South Cantabrians, us included! Good to sleep in because the down side of daylight savings is the dark mornings again...sunrise currently around 7.15 am! Used the morning to clean the house in preparation for an afternoon barbeque in which we had Liz and Graham, Andreas and Danielle, the Phillipsies, and 20 venison sausages for lunch. Were we ever stuffed :) Rene joined us for pudding and a sing-song a bit later on...Bron couldn't make it so we'll have to make up for it on another occasion, ey Possum #1? We had a merry band of Grant on organ, Liz on trombone, Graham on accoustic bass (I think, but stand to be corrected...it was certainly some sort of guitar), Nick on guitar, and me on violin, along with Andreas, Danielle, Petru and Rene on vocals. A joyful noise if ever there was one!

Above: is this not a face that has 'naughty child' written all over it? Lizzie messing with my knife and fork arrangement...was appropriately told-off :)

Thanks to Andreas and Graham for their bbqs...gives new meaning to 'bring'n'braai' for you South Africans!

Another sunny day with just a hint of southern breeze.

Save the daylight: Long live the daylight!

2011-09-25T21:32:00.000+13:00

Enjoyed a chilled Sunday...after a great morning church service we made our way home and had fruit salad and yoghurt for lunch - not the boys' favourite meal, but super-healthy nonetheless. Afternoon church at 4.30, and because daylight savings kicked in today we still had heaps of daylight left when we got home. It had rained during the afternoon but not for long; by evening it was fresh and warm and absolutely magical outdoors. The boys scootered for ages; sunset was around 7.35 pm.

Vive la Aotearoa!

2011-09-24T21:36:00.000+12:00

Moving day for Liz and Graham...many hands helped. Pretty convenient to use Tom's courier van which Nick said swallowed up couches with room to spare! Took hotdogs around for lunch and found plates and cups aplenty in the cupboards - the Gregorys have been working hard already!

7 pm, and off to watch the NZ/France game at Tom and Mariette's home. Tom is an avid supporter and their home was festively decorated with flags and bunting and all sorts of world cup paraphernalia. Mariette managed to sneak in the old SA flag!

Riley, Sam and Richard standing for the NZ national anthem, the words and pronunciation of which we have yet to learn! The game was pretty awesome - I thought our All Blacks played fabulously which is saying a lot considering my lack of appreciation for all things rugby! I was proud to be an All Black supporter though and suddenly felt very patriotic (despite still being an SA passport holder :) ).

It was Sam's birthday today and Bron had organized a cake on the quiet, which Tom brought out during half time - we had been informed that there was to be no getting up for food or drinks during the play!

Freaky Friday

2011-09-23T21:13:00.000+12:00

Had a most interesting day at school, quite unlike any other - our new principal, Bethany Rentoul, visited the school for the day along with one of her daughters who will be starting in the new term. First impressions were favourable, from our side anyway - let's hope it was mutual! The special occasion necessitated a large gathering for morning tea along with some delicious eats, and then another large gathering an hour later at lunch time. Great to have the BoT with us for lunch as well - we certainly made a festive gathering even if the laughter was more from nervousness than actual jollification :) I did individual photos of all the staff during the lunch break as well - some were keen to let their hair down! Scary Chairman of the Board...or ??

Mr Willers, below, has the boys' class one morning every week, in which they mostly do fun stuff like play music and learn how to gamble. (This pic was taken before everyone came in and just in case there are worried parents reading this blog, it WAS posed, and he doesn't REALLY teach gambling!)

Tea was fish'n'chips at Patiti Point. It was really cold though so we didn't hang around for long.

Upstaged by the bridesmaeds!

2011-09-22T21:57:00.000+12:00

Back into the work week on Monday - felt really grotty at school so left at lunchtime and came home to sleep. Some sort of mild flu or something I should think which developed into tiredness, a mild cough and a slightly runny nose, thankfully nothing more. Thursday evening we had Graham and Liz around for a quick tea - they are in the process of shifting and a drop-in for the other half of a large cheese and macaroni was just the ticket. I left them in Nick's capable company around 7 pm to get back to the school for Miss Carter's Hen's Party (Toni Carter is Caleb and Aaron's teacher - the boys think very highly of her - she's quite superb!). Kere and Lisa, along with Janet, did an excellent job of the arranging of games and silliness, although they turned the spotlight on themselves so as not to embarrass Toni. We laughed and laughed! Amazing the drama talent that had been quietly hidden...

Fun to watch the ladies' reactions as they came through the door - Chrissy, Joy, Petru and Linda (all TCS staff) get their first glimpse of the maids-of-horror.

Toni - appropriately dolled up

Some ice-breakers and gettoknowyou stuff (apologies to Petru and Linda who trustingly took many squares of toilet paper and had to share many facts about themselves as a result :) )

Unlike St Helena, NZ has never seen a nation-wide toilet paper shortage, but if ever there were to be one it would have followed on after this evening's fun!

Ahem...intentionally awful!

How many Hughes?

2011-09-18T21:18:00.000+12:00

Had the privilege today of luncheoning at the Moore's place between morning and afternoon services. They've had houseguests for a week or so... a family of 10 from Wales! 8 children in all (so far). It was lovely to meet the Hughes brood and we thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon of much laughter and excellent fellowship.

Them cauliflower ears

2011-09-17T21:57:00.000+12:00

Nick was off early to Ashburton with Grant, to meet with the elders of the Grace Baptist Church in Christchurch - they try to have a regular meeting at a halfway point. With our combined family camp coming up in October it was time to touch sides again! Petru kindly drove Aaron to his ukulele lesson - normally he wouldn't mind missing a lesson but his teacher has given him the tablature version of Pink Panther to work on, which Nick has been helping him with - he couldn't wait to show her the progress, and he really is doing well with it. I think the uke has finally clicked with him and now he's keen to improve. Nick was home after lunch and we had a quiet afternoon together - a bit of grocery shopping, some reading, playing music etc. And then off to Rugby Street for rugby!! We gathered with a crowd of South Africans and the occasional kiwis to watch the SA vs Fiji game. I was bored but found their shoes amusing and confusing - apparently rugby boots are not regulated by colour laws. I did learn about cauliflower ears so it was an educational evening!

Josua Botha

2011-09-16T21:15:00.000+12:00

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post - this week has been focused on our dear friends Andreas and Danielle whose baby boy was born prematurely on Tuesday, at only 18 weeks. Josua struggled for life for a few hours before the Lord took him to be with Him - he is now safe in the hands of an infinitely loving and just God. We grieve with Andreas and Danielle and have shed many tears together, along with the rest of our church body. A graveside service was held on Friday afternoon in which Nick delivered a beautiful message of comfort and hope - "although we don't know the why, we know the Who".

Ec 3:1,2,4

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance."

A small crowd of friends gathered at the Bothas after the service and I think there was just a little bit of healing that happened - I took great comfort in seeing Andreas and Danielle able to laugh. There will still be many times of mourning, but to everything its season.

Bone Fire

2011-09-10T22:00:00.000+12:00

Nick was off early with Andreas to chop wood and spent the whole day out, so the boys and I had to amuse ourselves in some way. We met up with Danielle for a chai latte at Mitre 10's coffee shop, but I realized that I had left my eftpos card at home so any further shopping was postponed...went home, cleaned the house a bit, then went out again after lunch to the Warehouse (where everyone gets a bargain) - found Danielle and several bargains there. I bought a small bookshelf for the lounge which needed some assembling, so did that when we got home again, vacuumed up all the bits of polystyrene which escaped from the box, and rearranged the lounge a bit. All good. Played the violin in the afternoon; the boys were outside enjoying the sunshine and mild weather. At 5.15 Nick still wasn't home and it was time to head over to the Camerons for their annual Spring Bonfire - Nick met up with us there later on when the fire was well underway. We debated the origins of the word 'bonfire' - Matt had a theory, I had another - both made up and both somewhat believable if you're super gullible. Actually, according to Wikipedia, the name 'bonfire' is believed to be derived from the Celtic custom of burning the bones of the cattle which were slaughtered at this time of year - a 'bone fire'. There you go.

Huge pile of rubbish to burn...any old bones chucked in there?

Ah, my young terrorist - balaclava and all!

Some of the Snook ladies - Jemima, my violin teacher, far right.

Bit of saturation and contrast there for you Matt!

Of course no bonfire is complete without marshmallows! Caleb Cameron above trying not to get too close while Hannah, below, happily got herself as muddy as possible - good thing it was dark so she couldn't see what was actually on her fingers :)

Finding our place

2011-09-09T21:23:00.000+12:00

The boys and I got home 'early' from school this afternoon - that is to say, we were home shortly after 4 pm! It had been yet another balmy day and the sort of afternoon that makes you want to be doing something other than nothing. Took us a while to make an actual game plan, but eventually went to McDonalds for tea, then down to Caroline Bay to enjoy the sunset.

I love this one of Nick walking on the beach - it just struck me again how tiny we are in the universe, but God is so intimately involved with us!

Islandish

2011-09-06T21:13:00.000+12:00

A bit of an update on the weather...after an incredibly mild winter (aside from the snow), spring is well underway. We're down to single layers of clothing or short-sleeves - I'm convinced that we were so much colder last year but perhaps (hopefully) we are acclimatising! We've had days and days of sun, but a strange fog rolled in this evening. As we sat eating tea at 5.30, we could see clouds blowing along the street outside - reminded us of sitting at our diningroom table at Piccolo in Longwood, St Helena, where we could see the fog rolling in across the grass!

Strange things

2011-09-05T20:01:00.000+12:00

On Thursday we had Aaron back at school albeit with a bad cough still, and Caleb spent yet another day at home. He was a bit unsure about wanting to be back at school on Friday having missed so much work, and he did struggle a bit, but all was well. Saturday was another busy day with Nick doing a bit of helping in one direction, and me doing a bit of helping in another. All we had left together was the late afternoon and evening, but it was enough to go to the Warehouse (where everyone gets a bargain) to shop for Father's Day pressies for Nick. The boys and I chose some things while Nick meandered around on his own. Sunday mornings are a bit too tightly scheduled with Nick going over his sermon for us to celebrate, so we did the gift-giving on Saturday night instead. The boys thought Nick's antics hilarious of course!

Sunday was a lovely day with the monthly fellowship lunch between services - and we had Graham and Lizzie playing acoustic bass guitar and piano respectively, which along with Nick's and my guitar and mandolin made quite a jolly band! We had had in mind to text the Camerons after church to pop on, but they beat us to the punch and brought pizzas and chips to our place after the evening service for tea. It was most excellent to catch up with them - it's definitely been way too long in between!

Feverish and furry

2011-08-31T20:41:00.003+12:00

The boys have come down with some form of germy-bug...Caleb started on Sunday with extreme fatigue, and on Monday it was clear that neither he nor Aaron were fit for school. They were not the only ones though - seems there is really something going around as I had one phonecall after another in the school office with absenteeisms. On Tuesday Aaron went back to school, but I had him coughing up a horse at home again today, Wednesday, along with Caleb who has been bedridden for the better part of three days. I am so glad that Nick can shift his office to home when the need arises, and very much appreciative of his @homeness. The boys both perked up a little yesterday evening when Graham and Liz came over for a meal and music practice - we've successfully roped them both into playing in church this coming Sunday! Had a super friendly cat come to visit today - beautiful pure white fellow, playful and affectionate. Itchy eyes and a scratchy throat later, I remember why we don't want pets...

Bye bye Brookers :(...

2011-08-27T18:48:00.000+12:00

Seems we have petty crime in Timaru - Nick's ax has disappeared from the courtyard, and we can't fathom where it would have gone. Have finally concluded that someone came and nicked it. Went on a family outing to the Warehouse in the afternoon - Nick bought himself a new wood splitter, and a mini version for the boys to make kindling. I bought blonde hairdye - with spring coming, it's time for the red to disappear. Unfortunately Nick had more success with his ax than I had with my dye, so I'll have to make another separate attempt as I ended up with blonde roots on top of the my head and the same pinkish red for the rest. I've been cautioned by a few in the know not to experiment too much as (a) I could go Khaki Green or (b) my hair could break off at the roots. Neither one of those would be a satisfactory outcome.
The final final farewell for the Brookers happened on Saturday night at the school, in the style of 'bring your own takeaways for a picnic' - a great idea. The PTA organized drinks and desserts and had done a superb job of setting up the hall with picnic tables, benches, and bin bags for the rubbish. There was a good turnout; most notable was the group of ex-TCS students who presented Shaun with a canvas autographed by them all. I think it says a lot about a principal when past students who are now cool teenagers come back to pay tribute!

And the winner is...

2011-08-26T15:20:00.000+12:00

Have I mentioned that our school is in a transition period? This week we farewelled Mr Brooker, the principal of Timaru Christian School. It's been excellent working with Shaun over the last few weeks in the office, and we've known the school has been in good hands! But change is inevitable, and Shaun and Bronwyn are relocating to Auckland. The staff had a final morning tea together with speeches and pressies, and the kids got together for a final assembly on Friday afternoon and sang a song and prayed - it was an emotional day; rushing a student to hospital with a broken arm didn't help either but certainly made it a memorable day! In the evening I had the novel job of photographing the winners of each category in the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce Hospitality and Tourism Awards, under the auspices of Callander Girl Photography - Rachel had set up a backdrop and lighting, so all I had to do was arrive and click the button on her delicious D700. It was fun, especially sitting in the green room with the MC / guest speaker who was unknown to me, but as it turns out he is a famous personality, and I quote "one of the most recognised faces on New Zealand television". Well there you go...we don't have a TV!

Hovering

2011-08-24T19:00:00.002+12:00

Caleb asked if he could drive home after school today - I said sure (he's 10). I let him get into the driver's seat and turn the key; he got a real thrill out of starting the car. Aaron had been lagging and by the time he reached the car Caleb had already evacuated my seat and left the car running. Aaron wanted to have a turn too, of course, but I told him he could when he's 10, with the explanation that there would be lots of things that Caleb would be doing before him since he's older. "But," Caleb consoled him, "by the time you get to drive you'll be that much closer to the possibility of having a hover craft!"