Update time from a slack blogger

Well it has been a while.

NAPIER:
Had a good time away although it was a bit hairy for the first couple of days as there were strong winds which are NOT conducive to an enjoyable camping experience. Gary was just about ready to pack up & go home again. Having said that, he was in a crap mood for a large part of the time anyway.

Highlights:
- the audio self tour of the old prison, it is a fascinating place with a really interesting history
- Ocean beach. The beaches in Napier themselves are rubbish but about 5-10 mins out of Havelock North you go on this windy road & come around a bend at the top of the hill & voila a beautiful beach.
- Vineyards (of course), that was the one thing I insisted that I wanted to do while I was in the Hawkes Bay, spend a day visiting wineries. I loved Moana Park, talking to the winemaker, his knowledge & enthusiasm was awesome. The same with Church Road, the guy there was great. Mission Estate is a stunning place, I could have stayed there for hours (in actual fact we didn't taste any wine there as it was busy).
- Splash Planet, what a way to spend a day. I put my Big Girl Undies on & went on the hydroslides, something I have not done since I was a kid. I even went in the covered one (not a wise idea for someone who is claustraphobic. The kids had a ball & we got to act like big kids.

We have Gary's brother Paul & his 2 kids visiting for a week. The kids get to hang out & I will try to get some time off work or at least leave early so we can go & do some stuff as the Dads will be working on the stock car most of the time.

In other news I joined Weight Watchers on line & in 2 & 1/2 weeks I have lost a grand total of .... 800g, yes that is it. I suspect my portion sizes may still be an issue & I am also sure that although I am counting my wine, my glass is a little (lot) bigger than 150ml. This week I am going to have a couple of days with no alcohol to see if that will kick start things. I only joined for 3 months at this stage so it would be nice to see results. I thought I would struggle with accountability but I have a 13 year old who keeps me on track & won't let me cheat when I log my daily food. Both kids are good at reminding me to go online & fill in my tracker.

Finally, the last 2 weeks Samyson was at Summer School, he got a partial scholarship to CCMT Emerging Talent school. It is a week of intense workshops then a mock audition on the Saturday. The next week is preparing for a show which they performed twice at the Bruce Mason on Saturday. A really good show & Samyson got great feedback from all his tutors, they told him he had talent & he grew so much during the course.  He got so much out of it and is already talking about doing it again next year.

Home Sweet Home

I had a lovely time in Christchurch with Mum & Dad, it was very relaxing (although did seem to involve a lot of food & alcohol).

Had a couple of meals out and I even managed to take Mum to lunch at Sweethearts at Berry fields where I got married, it was a lovely sunny day and we sat outside and had a glass of wine (of course) and a yummy lunch.

Heaps of shopping (I didn't spend TOO much).

I only felt 2 earthquake aftershocks that I know of and was surprised there were probably 20 or so while I was there. I thought I would feel every little movement so I was quite pleased it was not as unnerving as I expected. Mum said a lot of people are still really jumpy which is no surprise.

On Sunday after lunch (before ice cream, afternoon drinks & then dinner) Dad took me on a tiki tour of some of the worst earthquake damaged areas.  It was quite sad to see especially the empty houses. We drove past our old place in New Brighton Rd, Mum said she had seen some cracking on the games room/garage wall but when I looked from the other side, it had been red stickered I think (may have been orange) but either way I think it will end up being pulled down. Part of the house was over 120 years old.

The family coped perfectly fine without me, I did miss Samysons band in the Battle of the Band heats which was a bummer, Gary said he was really good. They took Taryn with them since she had been helping in our garden on Saturday. I can buy the DVD of the heat so I guess I will have to do that. Unfortunately  they did not win although one of their guitarist got most compelling performance. Samyson reckons they actually gave it to the wrong one as both the boys look similar and the one who got it wasn't actually really doing much :-)

Samysons friend from NYTC Sam Verlinden got best vocal - no surprises there he is a fantastic wee singer, plus most of the bands had been together rehearsing for months rather than the 2 or 3 weeks ours had.

Back home & I have been flat out, Friday night we all went to Rocky Horror on stage, it was awesome & the kids loved it (thankfully some of the more salubrious moments went totally over Siobhans head). Saturday they kids had costume fittings for Seussical and then we took them to Waikaraka Park Speedway for the fireworks - awesome awesome display. Ended coming home earlier than anticipated as they had a problem with the lights and had to cancel the rest of the racing.

Sunday Siobhan was in the Glenfield Santa parade so I dropped her off then went & helped out on the school cake stall for a few hours, took Samyson to rehearsal as he had to be there at 1 & then got back to the park for Siobhans aerobics group post parade performance.

Back to work today so it will take a few days (or weeks) to catch up.

Home for a holiday

I am off to Christchurch tomorrow to stay with my parents for a week.

Gary is going to be looking after the kids YAY!!!!

I am looking forward to the break although I don't know why but visiting with Mum & Dad always makes me feel like a kid again. Siobhan has already had tears this morning because she will miss me.

Hopefully I can get a bit of computer time otherwise I am going to have a heap of blogs (and TV shows) to catch up on when I get back.

back to the rea; world

We are back from Paihia - what a week. We have been parasailing 1200ft in the air - what a feeling especially considering the 4 of us hate heights. A dolphin cruise where they guarantee if you do not see dolphins you get a voucher to redo the trip - we didn't see any so we can go back again.

Last night we went on Darryls Dinner Cruise - fantastic fun & a good feed.

I love our family holidays, it provides an opportunity for us to all spend some time together & have a great time, I don't think I have laughed so much in ages, we struck a balance of doing stuff & just chilling.

We did a couple of big walks, Wairere Boulders & then the next day a 10k trip arund the Hururu Falls, that was a doozy, Gary's knee was killing him & my left calf & right hip are suffering but we all felt great after it.

Back to work on Monday, plus it is school holidays so it is full on for a couple of weeks.

NYTC Showcase

What a fantastic show!!!

It blows my mind how talented these kids are. Even heavy metal loving - showtune hating Gary loved it!!

Although Samyson did not have a full solo the bit he did have in one song he did really well but every single act was just fantastic.

There is a musical called 13 which the one of the songs Samyson did is out of, he bought the album off i-tunes yesterday & played it non stop, he is hoping NYTC will do t his show (which Joe the CEO suggested they might). Not sure how it will translate from 13 13 year olds in New York using a cast of 200 from 7-21.

Next show is Seussical & I really hope Samyson get a lead in this one, the first time he did an NYTC show it was this one so it will be nice to have a bigger role this time. Siobhan is also looking forward to it and hopefully we can resurrect lots of the props so not too much to recreate for us in props :-)

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, managed to get to Yoga yesterday so felt heaps better but am sore today. We go to Paihia on Saturday for a week so I have a million things to do to get ready.

Where does the time go

Our long weekend away was really nice, the weather was crap but we managed to survive.

We stayed at the camping ground at Orewa, unfortunately the one we used to stay at was bought by a developer who closed it down, got partway through building some, what now turns out to be leaky homes, and then went bust. The remaining campground is OK but small & cramped. We booked a kitchen cabin, apparantly "kitchen" means a sink, microwave and an electric frypan!!! There was no oven or even an element.

With the weather being so crap we got to spend time together as a family just hanging out, we played board games & watched a bit of TV, went for walks when the weather picked up. The kids got on really well with very little arguing. Only one meltdown from Siobhan & one hissyfit from Samyson.

The Tuesday after we got back Samyson was off school sick so I stayed home with him which meant I was even further behind at work but these things happen.

This last weekend, Gary was sick!!! He has the flu (actually I suspect it is just a cold but what would I know), consequently he spent the weekend in bed & is off work today. I on the other hand ran around like a blue arsed fly all weekend I needed to come to work for a rest.

I did manage to get to the gym on Saturday but slept in on Sunday so missed Yoga, no problem I thought, I will do some at home - it kind of loses that whole relaxing, spiritual side when you are accompanied by a 10 year old who is either giggling or going "ow ow ow" all the way through and when I did catch a glimpse of her trying really hard to concentrate with her eyes closed I just cracked up laughing.

I gave up & made cauliflower, coriander & coconut soup instead YUM!!!

A busy couple of weeks, we are off to the Bay of Islands the week before school holidays so I have a heap to get done at work so I can relax on holiday. Samyson has NYTC Showcase this Saturday which means Thursday night rehearsal, Friday night rehearsal (presumably at the theatre) 2 shows on Saturday from which I will have to get him to & from, at least it is only in Takapuna and we are going to the afternoon show anyway. Siobhan has netball on Wednesday so hopefully it is a 6pm game & I can go & watch her play.

Bring on the long weekend

I am looking forward to Queens Birthday Weekend, we decided to go away for a couple of days. Our first choice of Awhitu down south of Waiuku did not happen due to their website being down when we tried to book so Gary suggested Orewa. It is close to Auckland so we will not get caught in the worst of the traffic which coming in & out of Auckland on a long weekend is horrendous.

We can just relax, go for walks, play board games etc which is what we all need.

Siobhan is home sick today, she still is suffering with the cold she had before show week and woke up this morning completely miserable. I was going to bring her to work but Gary kindly offered to stay home with her. I dosed her up with paracetamol, echineccea, breathe easy in the burner, cough medicine & Vicks on her feet. Samyson remade her bed for her and she was asleep again within minutes. Unbelievably she woke up about 8.45 again & phoned me to say she felt better & wanted to go to school, she still sounded like crap so I told her she wasn't going, she kept arguing that she felt much better and she wanted to go to school!! Finally convinced her that if she still felt fine at lunchtime she could go then - talk about role reversal, usually the parents are telling the kids they have to go to school & the kids saying they don't want to.

In other news, Samyson has been selected in the chorus for the NYTC Showcase. He auditioned for a solo but missed out so was really happy to get the chorus. He has rehearsals Thursdays 6.30-8.30 for the next 3 weeks, plus Sat & Sun 11 & 12 June all afternoon from 1pm & then in theatre Friday 18th & 2 shows on Sat 19th. Just when I thought I might get a break from all this running around, no such luck, this will be over & it will be onto the next show I am sure.

Roll on the weekend!!!