A week in Christchurch

Over the first week of the holidays we headed back to Christchurch as Blair was part of the organising comittee for an Educators Conference being held there. We did a house swap with friends which was fantastic, as this gave us the chance to catch up with friends while Blair slaved away at conference. On this visit the children and I managed to catch up with Karen, Nev & Blake. Traci, Will & Bella. Erica, Lucy & Max. Susan, Kate & Tom. Kerry, Stuart & Tommy. Paula, Theo & Polly. Debbie & Lucy. So as you can see it was a very social time. Samuel & Danielle enjoyed the bonus of a sleep over with friends Theo & Polly, so we took Alana out for a special treat of a session at Clip n Climb - one of her favourite activities. We also managed to fit in a family day on the Saturday where we explored the market, pedal boated on the Avon and then enjoyed our first experience of a 3D movie. Here are some photo's.

Dad and Samuel time

Recently with Ann at work, Alana at a friends and Danielle at a birthday party it was time for the boys to escape! Years ago I used to be an archer (some of you will know this). A very expensive and time consuming sport that I liken to fly fishing as far as gear and maintaining gear goes. Anyway Samuel and I headed off to the local indoor archery range, AimTru, for some fun.

My one consolation was the staff member who asked if I had "...shot before? " "Ah hem, years ago when I was a student, not for a long time." "You can tell, your technique is still very good." Ego suitably massaged we set about shooting. The targets say it all: the one on the left is mine the image below is Samuels' and well - the bulls eyes are all Samuel's!!

Catch up!

It has been a while since we have updated you all due to how busy we have been, nothing new to those of you reading - I am sure life is no different for you!

Ann and Alana have recently been down to Dunedin to help out brother John with his new property. I have spent the last fortnight preparing an application and new CV for a position I was applying for and then a lengthy written submission required after the application was received.

Just last week Ann had commented about how we still had all the kids old clothes from when they were much younger. While we have made ourselves available for further fostering we have not heard from CYF or Open Homes during the past year. Ann wondered if we should finally throw out the clothes. I hesitated. saying, "...well...lets just wait and see... you never know." Wednesday last week, when preparing for my Friday interview, I had thought about how we had not heard and thought to myself "...well, if we are not needed we are not needed."

Then the day before the interview we get a call from CYF asking if we can assist with the emergency placement of two children (sisters aged 3 & 5) that day! It all worked out so well as I had the Thursday afternoon off to prepare for the interview leaving me free that evening and Ann had the following day, the Friday, off due to her new roster. I was also free for the Friday afternoon after the interview.

So, now we are a family of 7!! All in all the kids have adjusted well, the two who have come to stay (Macey and Erica) and our three. Samuel was worried about how we would manage and was particularly concerned for Ann and the expense (he amazes us with what he thinks/worries about). Interestingly he has taken a real shine to the youngest of the girls Erica - and loves to play with her.

Hard Labour!

Alana has been very keen to go on a school camp at Living Springs. So, today the hard work began for Alana (and Mum and Dad!) fund raising to raise some money towards the cost of going.

A Car Wash - Avoca Valley Style: 6 cars in 6 hours fully washed and groomed outside and in. Our thanks to all our neighbours who embraced Alana's entrepreneurial enterprise and gladly left their vehicles to be washed - without your support Alana would not have raised as much as she did towards camp! THANKS HEAPS TO YOU ALL.

Climbing up the walls!

While some of us had to go back to work others got to continue playing. Clip'n Climb had been booked out but today there was no holding the kids back and it was all go.

This time Samuel managed to get a lot higher in his climbs and he really enjoyed the climbing today. His confidence has grown a lot!!

Email etiquette

Have a look at www.thinkbeforeyousend.com

A fascinating look at how email should and should not be used. This is a website on email etiquette. Profesionally done by a two editors; one of a publishing house in US and the other works for a NY newspaper. Click on the audio link on page to hear an exerpt.

See the player at the top of the blog and listen to what they have to say.

Watch out 'Boy' Racers!

Here are some shots of the kids having fun outside yesterday. Here is the "Gilder's
Grove Gang."






Look out here we come! Acutally it is quite steep!! The options are crash into Wayne and Erica's garage,
veer sharp right and get a nice long run off up Tracey's drive.Final option is to
land up in Fred and Barbara's rock garden.


As you can see from this next shot they made it safely thanks to good ol' fashioned foot brakes!!



This was taken at the Yuldhurst Transport Museum, where Danielle discovered her future career. To be honest I think she'd rather light the fire than put it out!! Notice the Rangiora Fire Truck in the background? A nice touch, I lived there for a couple of years as a kid.

The Avoca Valley Preservation Society ala neighbourhood watch group

We received an invitation to attend the Valley Neighbourhood Watch Group tonight. Needless to say it was delegated to me (by one) to attend this auspicious occassion and to represent us as the newbies on the block!

What a turn out. There must have been 40 people there. Apparently one of the goals is to have a rip roaring street Christmas party (interpret that in the light of the fact that the avereage age was probably about 60+. No offense to family of that age or older!!) It turns out that the City Council will pay for it as well because it is all in the name of community development and safer communities, so long as we have it in October (who knows why?) The long standing residents figured, "hey, why not if they are paying?" So the date is in the calendar. Given ChCh's reputation for party crashing I am not putting the date on here - next thing you know the text messages will be flying and there could be a few gate crashers.

One particular item that came up for discussion was a particular resident's nephew (and his car mad friends) in our street who has lost his licence and fallen foul of the law. She is helping him onto the straight and narrow. Well there was little empathy for her mission I'm sad to say. Actually they are pretty tame but there was no end of discussion on this one. On one hand it was great to see such a strong neighbourhood gathering and people wanting to know their neighbours. I guess what saddened me (but it is also very human and I can understand it) is that strong desire to protect what is and usually that means a rejection (rather than a reaching out to) of those who threaten or challenge what is perceived "to be."

We enjoy the neighbourhood, the welcome we have had and the fact that our kids are so often out playing with neighbourhood friends. The next year here will be interesting in terms of how things unfold.

The weather here leaves a lot to be desired. Many grey foggy days. Some might say that they told us so!

Ann survived her first weekend of nights. Apparently it was a lot quieter at St George's than at Mercy. We may need to revisit Ann's decision to do nights if it is not challenging enough. We both prefer to be busy.

While Ann slept I took the kids to Bottle Lake Forest Park and we did an 8 km bike ride off road. It was great. It is a huge pine plantation crisscrossed with more tracks than you can wave a pine branch at! We went with our friends Andrew and Sam. Sam's mum (Lorraine) was not able to come and when she heard how great it was she was green with envy. I cannot wait to get back there for a ride on my own so I can explore a bit more.

Dave if you come up you will have to come out for a blat, same with you Andre and Alan - no excuses. There is also a short rail trail up here. Yet to explore that one.

On the Sunday we went up the Mt Cavendish Gondola. A very steep climb that passes over a road. Kids were not impressed with the fact that it stopped over the road and there is quite a cross wind and we felt quite a sway as we sat in the gondola. Dad thought it was cool, Samuel was not a happy chappy. Alana was not happy with the fact that Daddy found he could sway the gondola on the way back down!!

Tomorrow Samuel and I head off for a dawn Kea Scout centenary celebration at North Haggley Park. Apparently it is a big deal. So we will be up at 06:00 and off to arrive before 07:00. It finishes just before school starts so it will be a mad dash back across town to school and then all the way back again for work.