December Daily - day three

Simon spent some time with Gloria, Carolyn's flatmate and packed some essentials on Tuesday night. He passed the bag onto HR, who passed it on to an Andrew, whom I met at AKL airport - just like in a spy movie!

The quote is Christmas is not so much about opening our presents as opening our hearts. Janice Maeditere

December Daily - Day 2

Zachary's turn to unwrap a book today - it turned out to be the one Brandon's school class are performing in the end-of-year concert!

December Daily - inside cover & Day 1

Here's the inside cover. The envelope has a photo of Murray and my thoughts about the days immediately leading up to December first; in an envelope because they are very personal, but as Maureen pointed out, this is part of my December and I need to document it, as hard as it is. I used an obvious quote but still one that means a lot to me: some people come into our lives and quickly go. some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts. we are never, ever, the same

And Day one - the text reads " Before Daddy flew back to CHC, we started our new tradition - reading a Christmas story together. Eventually I want 24 stories but 14 isn't a bad start. Bran chose A Kiwi Jingle Bells."

December Daily cover

I'm trying to catch up on all the pages (yes, I know it's supposed to be done daily!) and I've done 5 of the nine, and am waiting on day nine's photo to dry out. Mass image posting tomorrow!

I must admit it's fun, and keeping to a limited pool of stuff means I'm not fussing too much - four pages done yesterday, and one was just the text written on the back of the premiere ticket. That I'm not spending forever angsting over the content and look is helping too...

RIP Murray

I can't really believe this has happened. Murray is one of the best men I know; a great father, partner, friend. He was the glue that held our group together and he will be sorely missed.

What's harder is knowing how much he enjoyed this life. Just five weekends ago we caught up and looked over their new house and listened to him heckle the builder. He was so full of enthusiasm over what would be their new home and I love that about him. So full of energy it's unfair he won't grow old.

The last few days have been full of tears and laughter as we talked to friends scattered around NZ and Australia. We're praying for Emma, his son and the extended family; we hope that Murray will be home soon.

Thanks to AirNZ for the help in getting Si home to us for these few days; the manner in which the staff have assisted families and friends is amazing and a real credit to the management and each & everyone of you. Thanks also to Catherines R & C, Michelle, Becs & Emma2; I really appreciated the hugs and the words.

The Fabulous Roger Moore

Last night at the Hilton was great - he's so funny and witty and his wife, Lady Kristina, is great too. She must be to enable him to do all his UNICEF work, maintain the family and get the book produced. Thanks Chris - the invite is very much appreciated!

Here's Shanee and myself with Sir Roger.

And the work do later wasn't too bad either!

so excited!

Today's Thursday, and in my little world today is the day I get to meet Sir Roger Moore. Which I think is pretty cool!

He's also at our Corner store (cnr Queen & Victoria Sts, Auckland CBD) tomorrow from 4.30pm.

And the book is (I'm only on page 78 as I got distracted with Wally Lamb's latest, The Hour I First Believed) pretty damn good. Funny and interesting and not at all back-stabbing - the sort of bio I really enjoy. And one I can safely give to the MIL for Christmas! After all, Simon is named after The Saint...she'll love it.

a few things...

I haven't written in a while - life has been quite busy! Simon came back to Auckland to spend last weekend with the kids and we ran around like mad things for three days solid. I even managed to (probably, according to the physio) detatch part of my tendon from my hip. OUCH! Sitting, walking and driving are all a little uncomfortable right now. I'm just glad the second car is an automatic.

Speaking of cars, I still haven't heard from the insurance company as to if they have found my car as yet. Yes, my poor little Legnum that was damaged in June, then finally taken away in October. I rang for an update a fortnight ago and was told that the file had been closed off. So I asked what the resolution was. Sorry miss, can't tell you. Pardon? Sorry miss, there's nothing written down. So, can I speak to a supervisor? No miss, but I'll speak to one for you. Ten or so minutes of stewing later, she came back online with the same answer. I rang the ASB customer helpline and vented. I have the email of one of the reps in Wellington but keep getting fobbed. I am seriously pi$$ed and once this is over, taking my business and the MIL's away from IAG. It's bad enough that I had to argue for several months that I had full cover insurance, to finding out that the agreed value (my bad, I never looked at the papers fully) was about four times the resale value - they tell me that I'm not important enough to warrant a loan car or repayment of any associated costs. If anyone can recommend a company please do let me know. I would really appreciate it!

I finished the cover and major interior pages of my December Daily - I'll try to remember to post some pics. Thanks for reading!

three things for monday

1. That there is something to laugh at by email every working day – even if the original publisher didn’t think it would be! Crochet slippers? In khaki and red? ROTFLMAO yeah, that’s something to treasure.

2. One Silent Night is finally in at the Corner for me to pick up – and it’s only one month until the next instalment!

3. My desk is pretty clear and my day is planned.

Brandon's induction

Last night Bran chose to be inducted as a cub - he's now part of Blue 6, Kereru Scouts. He was very serious saying his Cub Law and the Promise and listened very carefully to everything Baloo (Shane) said to him.
Zachary took some photos too with the other camera but also took care to run it out of battery, so I will have to post those later.
So proud of my boy!

what an awesome day

I had a GREAT day today - started off buzzing as Tuesday night I won a CD from ZM - it's Sound of the Underground which doesn't look too bad - some stuff to sing along to in the car as I live to embarrass my kids.

Then I found out it was my horse that came in first, so I won the office sweepstake. Becs and I ran (well, felt that way in high heels!) up to Borders Queen St and I picked up MOS Annual 2009`(Aussie version, not US or UK) which has me jumping. It was this or Coldplay's Viva La Vida which I still don't have. Maybe Santa can put it in my stocking, hmmm?

And Bran was still excited about the photos he took on Monday afternoon. His homework was a photo essay on Spring and it was interesting seeing one of my favourite places from his perspective. Even if I have to laugh - he whinged and moaned about going until we got there and now he's raving about it. Even sent a collage down to his dad, but NZ Post hasn't delivered it yet. Bugger. He took about 40 shots overall, both at Te Atatu and in our garden, learning about the zoom & macro functions. I think he did quite well!

And I got to watch a bit of history as McCain conceeded to Obama. I really do hope he makes it to inaugeration as I can only admire a self-made man. Plus he's giving his kids a puppy. That's sweet.

December Daily - the start

This year I'm going to try to complete a December Daily album, a la Ali Edwards. The general thought was to use more of what I already have, but I have grabbed a Kaisercraft album as my base. I wanted something a bit more sturdy as my boys aren't too gentle on things. So here's my basic list. Thank goodness I have a month to pull the base pages together as I think I'll need all the time I can get! I'll also pre-make some embelishments to go over some of the photos I plan to take.

Supply list: Kaisercraft album - Christmas Journal SB143 (templates here); Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Making Memories Heidi white (rub-on); Ribbons - American Craft Premium Christmas range (the rolls), Kikki-K (red gingham), green unknown; Rub-ons - One Heart One Mind (song phrases), Karen Foster (merry phrases), American Traditional (dear santa); Stamps - letter set unknown, 7 Gypsies (parenthesis stamper), Versacolour ink pads.
Misc - Basic Grey motifica tags, K&Co Elizabeth Brownd metal art, chipboard embelishments (from NZ Scrapbook co), Provo Craft sticker borders, Kaisercraft rhinestones, Spotlight silver mesh stars, SEI pearl brads, Whitcoulls gift tags & tree cutout (it was used in-store last year), own cookie cutters, paint (for album edges) Resene half spanish (what i'm using for my walls!).

I need to sort thru the paper stash still but I will try to list things, at least when I post the pages up.

a couple of shots

 

this is on the northwestern motorway and probably offends a few - but I find it makes me smile on the crawl home from work

 

and this is from last night - Si and Wayne went out to catch some boy shoot 'em up and ordered the medium popcorn bundle. I would have LOVED to see them explain these away...still, Rach will like them!

Jessica Sprague - free course!

Hi - in my regular update from Jessica Sprague (digital scrapbooker) she is offering a free course. You don't need to be a scrapbooker or to use Photoshop to do this one - it's all about the stories in you and how to find your voice.
See here for Jessica's blog entry: http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/blog/2008/10/10/new-class-stories-in-hand.html
And here for her website to register: http://www.jessicasprague.com/

I'm loving the quote that's on her blog. "Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like real life." Brian Andreas.

Kathy Lette

Random House brought Kathy into the office today and she was FANTASTIC - funny, kind, funny - one could forgive her for being an aussie. She's on Campbell Live tomorrow night (she was going straight there to shoot the interview with John Campbell, which makes a bit of a mess of the name!) and then on Breakfast and Good Morning on Wednesday.
Try to catch her! I guarantee you'll laugh. The new title is "To Love, Honour & Betray" - the last one was "How to Kill Your Husband, and Other Household Tips". Of course you can get them at Whitcoulls!

two things...

I'm wearing contacts today for the first time in ages and predictably they are really !#$!%$ing me off.
The Print-on-Demand facility in Melbourne can print me a copy of Clarissa in about 8 minutes (and bind it too so it looks like a normal book, not a whole lot of printed sheets like I'd get if I printed the Google pdf) - this is a week AFTER I found a copy on an internet trading site. Typical.
and I should really have been posting my "Week in the Life" updates but I haven't even downloaded the photos. Bad, bad girl.

that was three things! Whoops!

Oh - and here's another - this arrived yesterday. I am holding off opening it until I have updated my pages and at least started creating the album!

A Week in the Life - Day Three notes

as you can see it was a miserable morning. Tonight the rain is more intermittant, but of course it was pouring down when we came out of the supermarket with a trolley of groceries!

A pretty bad day at work again, altho I got thru heaps. Got my leave application knocked back, excuse being that we had too much to do but Catherine herself doesn't seem to have that restriction, working only a couple of hours yesterday and a few today. Two coffee visits and a lunch out on her behalf only made me more filthy. She offered next week but Gwen, having no leave but allowed holidays plus the fact I have new title buying all next fortnight means I can't leave. Its times like these I feel no motivation to go to work.
I did get a call from Jodi at Frontline. Kerry is offering more money and now it's very tempting. I need to call him to view the position description and contract. It's something to seriously think about.
Louise is the last of the family to come down with the tummy/vomiting bug. Unfortunately she was at Drews when it started and G'ma had to fetch her. She's staying there tonight as neither she nor I could face putting her in the car. She's better off quiet, away from the boys and resting.


Finally, finally my cherry tree has a flower on it! I've been waiting to see this for weeks. Every other cherry tree has been covered, just not mine!

And spent some time writing these updates - I really needed to do that. I'm sure I've forgotten things already.

Oh - here's something. It never rains but it pours. Tonight Simon got a call from another contracting company! And a very good reference from his current employer. I like that.

A Week in the Life - Day Two notes

 
It was a LOT harder to get up this morning. It's always this way when daylight saving starts. So I wore bright blue to try to cheer myself up. Shame I'm not as photogenic as the kids.

 

Bran was finding it a lot harder today too. He crawled back into bed at Grandma's.

 

And no beautiful sunrise today. Just gloom and murk. Yuk.



Here's our new logo that greets us when we step out of the lifts. At the risk of being labelled a brown-nose, I actually quite like it. It's very Ali to me, in that we should be looking for the wonderful in everyday things. Which is what this exercise is all about, right?




The work day was really awful. When I was sick no-one edited the mailer proof and I spent most of the day uploading changes and corrections into the version two proof. Very fustrating as 90% of the work had been avoidable had the category managers loaded the information needed into the spreadsheet when they were first asked. I'm still very filthy about it.
But a high-light was Shanee giving Becs and I her ticket to the Duchess premiere (Kiera Knightly and Ralph Fiennes as the Duchess and Duke of Devonshire). We went to Newmarket by train (photos of Britomart facade and the tunnel under the road); took a tour of Becs' Aunt Melly's house (I could happily live there, even tho it's one bedroom) and drove to the Lido. Which is a really old cinema that I love. The back row is roomy seats, with every two separated by a table. Which holds one's wine while one eats chocolate for dinner. Diet? What diet?

A Week in the Life - Day One notes

Morning - Drew - Louise's friend stayed the night. Cute cow pj's!
Driving into work - photo of sunrise from the causeway. Red sky in the morning, Shepherd's warning - and true enough, tonight it's persisting down.
Laurelle in reception (Terri was away sick) - Happy Birthday Laurelle!
Still selling Cub Cookies from the basket on my filing cabinet. On our second box!








Posted on my blog. Pretty excited about this challenge!
Lunchtime - Simon met me downstairs and we went to the Downtown foodcourt. I had a BLAT & L&P, he had a lamb kebab & coke. He handed in his notice this morning and after a conversation with his higher manager Geoff is happy knowing he hasn't burnt any bridges.








Evening - after dinner (salad, ham steak and chips) we played the new World monopoly that Simon got for Father's Day. Bran won. Zac was funny reading out the chance & community chest cards.
Lastly before Milo and my book, I checked the email accounts and fed my dog on Facebook. New comment up: Paula is doing Ali Edwards' "A Week in the Life" challenge. So smile for the photographs!

I See... a new album

I found a project I can really get into in the August CK magazine. I usually devour Ali Edwards' pages (I really like her clean style) and this month is no exception.

And it's an album I can continue with as a series.

Words and pictures. Some paper or ribbon maybe. No embelishments. No fancy techniques. Clean and simple.

It's all about what you see in a photograph. One example published was a photo of a cup of cocoa and some marshmallows - and the caption is I See...time spent together (or something like that).

I grabbed a notebook and started to think. One example I came up with was a photo of my kitchen bench, close up on a lemon and some mint. What do I see? I see...produce from my garden. Attention to detail. Concentration on the composition of the photograph (something I have been working on lately).

I'll scan the article and if anyone wants me to send it to them, please drop me an email or comment.

PS - On Ali's blog this week she is revisiting an old favourite, A Week In The Life. It's a fantastic project so get on to it! http://www.aliedwards.typepad.com/ As Ali wrote "This is a creative adventure. It requires little more than a camera and a willingness to pay attention and gather up stuff from your daily life."

PPS - Scary stuff. Simon hands in his notice today to start contracting work. It's a bit nerve-wracking to know he doesn't have a permament contract!

scary stuff

Last night's stabbing in central Auckland is a little too close to home. We're on the fifth floor, the girl assaulted is on the second. The building is still partially closed off and not to make light of the feelings of the victim's family & friends, but we're scared. The office is a lot quieter today than normal and everyone who goes out is going out in pairs.

I hate this feeling. It's hard to be enthusiastic about anything too, even the Warriors tommorrow night and having friends over. Or birthdays (sorry Doodle, sorry Nicole).

altho if you do want to buy any Cub Cookies, drop me a line.

dare 53

well I posted to the Flikr site and hope that it's traceable, but here is is just in case! I'm such a nana...tag is "nzdare53"



the comment hidden is:
Giving Bran the camera, I expected a range of action shots from Zac's game against Northcote Tigers. Mostly, that's what I got. But this one? Stood out.

My kids are weird.

moving on...

I, well, Simon (with a good deal of coaching-cough-nagging) found the perfect tile for the kitchen splash back last week - only slightly darker than the floor, same texture, but a long rectangular shape rather than square, to elongate the kitchen. We started to put them up last night (work was called to a halt due to needing to relocate one of the power points 4 inches to the right) and they look fabulous. I'm so pleased we waited until we found the right tile.

We had a childless night last night and it's amazing how much one can accomplish without the "assistant" underfoot. The upstairs toilet, bath and alcove are all gib-stopped too, with just a few corners needing the final touch-ups. I learnt the painful way it's a lot easier to build up any gaps with light layers than it is to sand it back...

All this and in bed by 8pm!

Spring's coming!!!!

I took a lazy walk thru the garden today - as opposed to yesterday's mad rush with Z and the lawnmower. Did I mention how I generally hate doing the lawns? There's a portion of the lawn which is chamomile, and smells beautiful when stepped on, and then I did accidentally cut a few lemons, which also smelt so good, but the rest is hard slog, just up and down hill and very long grass.

But I did notice the plum tree is starting to blossom. Last year it was covered and we ate so much we got sick of plums. Already Bran's looking forward to pigging out...

From spring flowers

We've had to prop up my favourite tree - in autumn the leaves are the most gorgeous gold and scatter all over the lawn. But it didn't stand up too well to the recent storms but I hope we can save it. Anybody out there know what it actually is?

From spring flowers

From spring flowers

The Boys in September

 
My babies. Typical poses too - Bran looks slightly demented, like a mad scientist who has indulged one too many times with his own experiment;

 

and Zac, who has now taken over the mantle of "most likely to cause " but can stil look like butter won't melt, especially in the proximity of Grandma...

Fantastic sounds

Yesterday I was introduced to the sound of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra - they are absolutely fabulous - look for them on Youtube!
Tonight Bran and I were singing along to their cover of "Weather With You" - such a cool moment. I've got a big grin on just thinking about it.

Weekend

What a fabulous weekend. Only missing the one child for our last league game of the season, and yippee, Wendy from Glenora's fully supportive of monthly get-togethers over the summer months; and then yesterday Bran's team played at Mt Smart in between the Vulcans and the Warriors -and beat Northcote five tries to four.

It was a great send-off to the three departing players and a bloody great game too.

The photo is Bran (to the right, two of his team-mates and Reuben Wiki.




















and this one is of him subbing off the field - it looks so much bigger when your baby is playing than when you're watching Manu thunder down the sideline!

Dare 52

Well, here it is, very quickly done last night amid realising that I still have at least half my tools, papers and so on packed in the garage. Along with the scanner, printer and some of my sanity - so it's a lot simpler page than I intended. Couldn't find the brads that reminded me of stipper's pasties so that portion is drawn on...for now.

Hello!

Thanks to Monique, here I am on Blogspot!

But here is where I was, on Blog.com - which has lots of errors. Grr. And no support - double grr!
http://regencyreader.blog.co.nz/

Just have to remember to post a note on there to redirect my many fans LOL