Well, the bus ride in was good and not quite so good. I used my snapper card for the first time and was pleasantly surprised that it all worked well. One woman got on and the machine told her that the card was invalid and got to ride without it working. Maybe 10-12 people used it this morning. The bus was very late. I have never had a problem in the mornings. On wet days it might be 1 minute late every now and then. This one was 10 minutes late. Actually, as I got off and waited for the lights to cross the road, the later bus was waiting there beside me.


Last night I rode home to collect wee Toby and then we drove back into town (although Toby asked if this was going to be the price of a Ben10 toy – Mike what have you been saying to him again?) to collect Mike and enjoy a satay meal. It was good fun. Then I dropped off Mike and Toby and drove to the Sampson ’s house for babysitting duties. This is a light duty. The three youngest Sampsons were all in bed already and I never heard a peep from them. Hannah did homework from 1900 to 1930 and then said Good Night and went to bed. So I read for the next two hours and fell asleep curled up under a blanket. Perfect evening. Mike sanded the floor and pulled up the last battens impeding the laying of the carpet.

Tonight is emptying Toby ’s room night. We ’ll be busy dismantling the bunk and carrying books out – somewhere! Eeeeek.

Time for a cup of tea.

I think the weather is going to take a turn for the worse. The roads were very dry when I rode in this morning but the wind was already strong and gusty and I could feel a few spots of rain. I must have put Mike off as I just spoke to him and he said he was going to catch the bus in! I ’m playing squash tonight for the first time in ages. So Mike will bus back to Toby and drive back in because we ’ll have dinner in town. Khymer Satay in Cuba St for anyone?

I am now the proud owner of a snapper card. Now I just need to find somewhere to use it. If the weather is rubbish tomorrow, maybe a bus trip might be in order just so I can swipe on and off the bus. Mike will hold off for the new model (a USB snapper is due out soon). www.snapper.co.nz I hope it is successful. I love the idea of a non pin cash card I can use in parking meters, vending machines and dairies to buy little things. I never have cash on me so I am the target market.

My Weetbix have gone all gluggy this morning. I got distracted towards the end of eating them and when I got back to them they have gone all mushy. At least the tea is still very good.

We finished painting the doors last night. Tonight we have to babysit the Sampson children. Oops. I better find out what time one of us needs to be there otherwise the Satay option might not be a goer! Maybe Thursday night we can get one undercoat on the yucky looking window frame. The window frame will become a project for a bit later in the year. We ’ll put curtains up and you ’ll never notice – much!

Toby seems to be in a fine mood this morning. He was yakking away to Mike in the background when I talked to them just now. All good fun!

My sisters ’ birthday today – Shona and Sharon. I don ’t know where the month of July has gone but their birthday indicates the end of the month almost. So, gone it is! Woollies delivered again last night and it went without incident. I didn ’t end up with kilos of fruit or anything unusual. What ’s on the menu tonight? Tacos! Yummo!

The evening just frittered away last night. Toby seemed to take ages to get put to sleep. I blame Mike. Mike seemed to be encouraging the second book, then the third book and then Toby realised his Dad was enjoying it all too much and chose a fourth book (I might be Gilberting, but it seemed that way to me). Then we did about 30 mins of DIY (Mike filled in the concrete and I sanded the window frame and a rough bit of architrave on the door). Tonight means we need to give the doors a final coat and it ’ll all be ready for the carpet on Friday.

The road was wet on the way down the hill this morning (there must have been rain during the night), but I stayed dry and I can see blue sky outside. It all felt pretty slippery though. And there was a fog in the valleys.

Ok. Time to get stuck in. The Weetbix was great and my tea is almost perfect.

We have had a productive weekend – unlike the All Blacks, who didn ’t manage to produce anything useful really. We need one more coat of aqua enamel paint on the doors and it ’ll be done. We might even get the window frame half done, if we ’re lucky. The biggest job will be Thursday night where we move all of Toby ’s bedroom stuff into a bathroom! Eeeek.


Toby had a social whirlwind weekend. Friday night was movie night snuggled up with me in our bed. We watched Toy Story for the first time in ages and loved it. Then Saturday morning was his first swimming lesson. His instructor is Alice this term. Toby was a bit rusty but started figuring it out. Wee Tom has also started lessons there (friends from Pipitea – father is John, mother is Christine) so they come home afterwards for a coffee. Lucky I was out of my pyjamas and had attempted some tidying. Kara called as she just got back from Europe and chatted for over an hour on the phone. So I was pushed for time.

Toby then got two phone calls for play dates. But he was keen on a visit to the Sampson household. So we put that plan into action. We ended up eating dinner there (nice curry that Wally told Toby was a stew – so he ate it all up) and Toby slept over. Mike and I went home to meet Andrew to watch the rugby. The whole affair was made much better by the nibbles Andrew turned up with. Yummo! The All Blacks were pretty woeful. But Australia still took ages to put them away. So, maybe Australia isn ’t that great yet either. Just NZ is worse!

Sunday morning we collected Toby from the Sampson ’s and he got collected by the tabors for a quick trip to Lollipop Playland. Then Toby was home in time for William L to arrive for his playdate. Then Toby arranged some quiet time after William L left so he could finally relax. Phew!

Needless to say, Toby was in bed early!

My parents are somewhere on the Nullarbor today. They left on Friday afternoon after all their possessions were possessed – hopefully they will see them again in Wellington in a month or two. I hope they enjoy the journey. It is a great drive! We loved our trip over.

Ok. Time to truly start the day.

Have a good week.

We finished the first top coat of the foyer and hallway last night. Maybe tonight we might get the second coat on. Then it should be just window and door frames to go at the weekend (besides the huge amount of clearing and moving things and tidying etc).


Toby seems to be much better. He has his swimming tomorrow morning and has been invited to come and play with Duncan and Emerson on either Saturday or Sunday. He may even get a play with the Sampson children too if he ’s lucky.

Ok. Time to get stuck into work already. The weather is still rubbishy. I even wore my gloves this morning. Brrrr.

German cooking

http://www.welt-rezepte.de/europa/deutsche-rezepte.htm


Look at the picture. Does it bring back happy memories?

Well, I nearly gave up on riding when I went out to the garage this morning and the light spit turned into rain (along with the forecast galeforce winds). But Mike said “You ’re ready already ” so I left. And the rain eased almost immediately. Good. I rode like a granny though down the wet hill.


Mike and I got the TV room painted in its first top coat last night. It does make the unpainted window frame look very shabby. Tonight we ’ll put on the second coat and it should be good enough to need just that. The carpet people are coming on August 1 st (someone ’s birthday!) and it should take less than a day to lay. Yippee!

I spoke to Mum and Dad last night and they are now aiming to arrive in Wellington on August 12 th . They will stay right through to the end of the first week in October ( Tyler may even get dropped off to Wellington to spend the second week of Toby ’s school holidays here) when Mum will return to Sydney with Tyler (all going well). Dad will remain here in Wellington and assess which Harvey Norman store he should approach (Central or Lower Hutt at this stage).

We got our first delivery from Woolworths last night. I mucked up the things you buy by the kilo (I thought the 0.00 meant dollar amount – but it meant kilo amount). Mike fortunately stopped the $200 worth of chicken I had ordered but we have got shaved ham for Africa, loads of pears and mandarins and I have never in my life bought 4 bunches of bananas at one time. Phew. Fruit, anyone? Work thought my $200 purchase of chicken was a great joke.

I fancy macaroni cheese tonight. That ’s the menu (and we also have lots of broccoli – heheheheheh).

Ok. Time for Weetbix. Last start today because of my slow ride in!

The moon landing anniversary. Apollo 11. Not that I remember it (heading off the cheeky comments from Mike and Karen!). Mike and I had a big weekend of DIY. We ’re ready now to paint the walls of the TV room and the carpet is selected, deposit paid and booked in for the first week in August. Phew!


Toby spent loads of time at the Sampson household playing with the kids. Hannah and Lesley were away up north with their orienteering stuff (Hannah came first in the nationals in her age group). When I collected Toby yesterday I asked Brennan if he had another week off (the private schools started last term earlier) and he said yes. So did Chelsea . So Toby asked me for another week off. The he proclaimed he hated school and didn ’t want to go back. Cheeky monkey.

Mike fixed the roof leak – maybe. We need to siphon out the suitcase and see if any more water accumulates. Fingers crossed.

What else did we get done over the weekend? Saturday was quite damp. I spent ages cutting the carpet away from the sides in Toby ’s room – with all his stuff in there. I had to lift the carpet out from under his bookcases and chest of drawers. I failed at the bunk hurdle and needed Mike ’s help. My body is aching now. I did all the skirtings in his room ready for the carpet there too. His room is almost done now. I almost destroyed his chest of drawers though. I couldn ’t lift it with the drawers in and when I removed them it lozenged when it moved. Then a crossbar snapped. Oops. It seems ok with the drawers back in! Sunday was nicer weather. Natalie came to visit (the real estate agent we used) and she should be able to show Mum and Dad around quite a few places when they get here.

Ok. Better get stuck in.

The ride in was absolutely fine this morning after the rain last night. It is still threatening today but I got in nice and dry. Last night I collected Toby (Mike had a meeting in town regarding Microsoft Dynamics) from KidsCo and we went to the library. Toby entertained the librarians by asking for a book from them even though he didn ’t know its name. We got some good books from reserve last time and I think Toby believes the librarians have a supply of books just for him under the counter. So the librarians started searching the catalog and their brains for some books similar to his interests (superheroes in undies basically). Now we ’ve got about 6 books to read.


Toby also saw Burger Wisconsin (it ’s near the library) so he asked nicely for that for dinner. No Mike – so I said yes! We read one of his books while we waited for it to cook. Then we went home and ate it. Toby ate everything – chips and chicken burger (although his face screwed up at one point and he opened his burger and pointed accusingly to a solitary piece of red onion – he extracted the offending item and finished his burger). Maybe the staff thought “No onions ” meant “One onion ring ”. Who knows?

I put Toby to bed and he popped his head over his bunk and asked if Dad could wake him to up to say hello when he got in. I said yes and promptly fell asleep on Toby ’s couch in his room (a wee fold out children ’s couch – from his Kitto cousins). I woke up with a numb arm about 30 minutes later and crawled up to bed. Mike got in about 5 minutes after that and kissed Toby and came to bed. Whereupon we discussed work for about an hour before I got cross and rolled over to go to sleep! Way later than I wanted! I ’m a bit tired this morning – even after the ride down the hill that usually wakes me up.

Time for breakfast soon. No Weetbix this morning. It ’s a work breakfast at a local café.

Weekend? Not much planned apart from DIY stuff. I think we ’ll try and drop Toby off to play with Brennan. Oh – and Toby should be surprised by a play date with Sean and Tomasi today (he should get collected from KidsCo). I hope so. He ’d love that!

It was a nice ride in this morning. Toby woke at 6am when the alarm went off complaining about a nightmare involving Ben 10 and some baddies making them disappear, rubbing cream in his hair and about to make him disappear too. All very elaborate! So everyone was up and about.


We also managed to do some (minimal) DIY last night. Mike sanded the scotias and I washed down the foyer walls. The foyer downstairs will be ready for a sand tonight and maybe even some undercoat. And Mike can undercoat the scotias. Actually, maybe we swap a bit as the scotias in the foyer need bog and nails punched in. So I can undercoat the scotias in the TV room and Mike can sort out scotias in the foyer. But we ’ll be ready to paint the first top coat on Saturday morning I expect – in the TV room and in the foyer.

Mike rode in this morning – so good on him! I ’ll head back up the hill to the car at the usual time (Mike parks the car near the Wadestown library for the school holiday programme as we need to drive to Toby to collect him) and put my bike on the car and head back to get Toby.

I hope the Carpet One people can lay the carpet in time for Mum and Dad arriving somewhere around August 10 or so. It may be a bit hectic around that time, but hopefully it ’ll all work out.

Good fun!

Halfway through July already. Madness. I actually think Vivienne is away (down south skiing with Benjamin) so I ’ve lopped her off the list as it ’ll be worse than the usual spam from me embedded in the other emails she gets in her absence.


Last night was pleasant if not very productive in the DIY stakes. The Carpet One man turned up at 1730 (I had forgotten) just as the dinner was about to go on – ready for the boys to eat as they stepped in the door. We have asked him to come back during the day so we can check the carpets in natural light. Maybe this Sunday. So we really need a top coat on down there so we can compare and contrast the sample. I think Toby will need to go to the Sampson household so we can get stuck in.

Toby slept well last night – did he wake up asking if it was morning at some stage? I might be dreaming about that. He was up at 6.40 this morning. He came into the kitchen and gave me a huge fright with a massive “Boo! ”. He seemed quite chuffed with that. I left the boys snuggling up together in our bed. I hope that doesn ’t last too long.

It ’s a shame for Toby. I remember school holidays as lazy times where you stayed up later, slept in, read books, played, went to movies, swimming, the crib – whatever! Toby still has to get up early and go to sleep at the right time. Maybe it ’s character building???

Ok. Time for Weetbix.

We have an 8.30am meeting this morning so Mike is not riding in – otherwise he ’d miss the start of the meeting and arrive in sweaty bike shorts. But he has done two days in a row up the hill so it ’s probably a good time for a rest for a day (apparently his nether regions need some relief!).


Last night we put Toby to bed (although he did call out for an hour or so about various things) and sanded back the hallway walls. The undercoat we painted on by brush has lifted in an odd way. Mike sanded it back and re-applied paint (from a new can) with a new brush and we may be lucky to get away with it. It looks much better this morning.

Tonight we ’ll undercoat by the new stained glass window and wash down the foyer walls ready for their undercoat. Maybe we can also start the skirting boards in the TV room.

All good fun. This morning is glorious out there – the ride was very pleasant.

Well, it is the end of the week. I never rode in this morning because the wind and rain were lashing the windows and Mike is driving from door to door. I ’m not mad. Just soft.
The weekend holds a DIY special in store. Sunday is supposed to be nice http://home.nzcity.co.nz/weather/weatherdetail.aspx?wla=32 so I can drop off Toby somewhere and ride in to work with Mike to show him the way. But apart from that, it is DIY murder.

We are going to:
Strip the wallpaper in the stairwell, and prepare the stairwell/foyer for plastering
Fit scotias to foyer
After Peter has plastered TV Room, hallway, foyer ceiling , we need to
Undercoat TV room, hallway, foyer ceiling
Topcoat TV room, hallway, foyer ceiling

After peter has plastered the foyer & stairwell , we need to
Paint the foyer and stairwell
Paint the skirtings in Toby ’s room

And after next weekend we need to:
Empty Toby ’s room to green room and downstairs bathroom
Prepare all the floors (clear and sweep)

Because we need to get the carpet people in to carpet the room downstairs on the day after the weekend of July 27. And then it ’ll be all done bar the furniture. Depending on the budget we may need to borrow a bed for a while from someone. Yikes!

So, not too bad a weekend. Lots to do but stuff you can do easily.

It was a beautiful morning to ride in – no wind and no clouds. I could see Orion halfway up the eastern horizon and felt sure summer was on its way! Heheheheh. I left the boys fast asleep this morning so I hope they are on schedule.


By the way, we don ’t have a land line phone at the moment. If you ring it ’ll just ring off the hook. We had some DIY issues which meant we also don ’t have any cable TV. The end of our coaxial cable is now part of the wall linings in the stairwell. I told Mike it looked like it might fit through the gib crack at the end and it might just need a sharp tug. Well, the cable came through but the end stayed where it was wedged into the gib.

I need some Weetbix and a cup of tea.

Mike and Toby enjoyed their McDonalds dinner last night while I did the release (which went well apart from Los Angeles which still hasn ’t picked up the new data – I sense a major hassle with that today). Toby is also sleeping very well now. Although Mike did his best to ruin my sleep last night. I was almost asleep when he came to bed (after creating a bigger hole in the stairwell gib where the TV and phone cables are located!) and he said we should watched the first 30 mins or so of this movie called Cloverfield. We had no idea what it was about. After the first 20 mins or so I was ready to turn it off. It was like Blair Witch Project in it was all amateur video footage of a party, but then the fun kicked in and I was scared stiff by the time the movie finished. So I lay there for a few more minutes that necessary when I should have been asleep 80 minutes before!

I ’m hungry!

Ok – I admit it. I am soft. I did not ride my bike because the weather forecast at 6.02 this morning said it was 2 C and a high of 8C with southerly gales. So I hopped up and watched the end of the Wimbledon men ’s singles final instead, and made lunches between games. When I pulled back the curtains at about 7.30, I was astonished to see a calm beautiful morning. I was really wondering why I wasn ’t on my bike.

Toby was very pleased to be going to KidsCo for his school holidays. He was the first child there at 8am, and was pretty chuffed. Mike and I drove into work (uh oh) and we were there by 8.20. So it all went ok. We even drove past Josh at the bus stop so he hopped in and we took him in too.

The weekend went well. Friday night was a pleasant time for me at the Tabor household. Aidan and I chatted for ages. Duncan and Emerson collapsed into bed at 7.30pm and were asleep in two seconds. Toby watched kids videos till I went home. Mike got home quite early from his leaving drinks.

Saturday was fun. Andrew came round to help Mike with DIY stuff. Toby and I mucked around all day (I have planted my compost bin in a nice sunny corner so I have started making compost for my vege patch) with Toby mainly playing his DS Lite. The rugby was on that evening so we watched that. It was a good game. Andre rode his bike home in the southerly gale (he ’s mad and not a bit soft).

Sunday was more DIY stuff (the plasterer is at our house today – we ’re under pressure to get the room done for visitors in August!) and a Sunday lunch at Sally and Andrew ’s house. We need to buy Andrew ’s present today at lunch time (at least we know what to get now).

Back at work. Mike is off looking at the servers in the server room. How exciting for him!