Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Good morning on Wed, 5 Sep (archive)

 Hi there,

 
A wonderful morning.  But freezing cold.  Bit of a cold snap here, with southerlies and a bit of fresh wind.  It might even dump a bit of snow on the hills!
 
Mike dropped me and Toby off at Mojos, and we both had hot chocolates to keep us warm.  We brushed our teeth and then took a long walk to Toby's kindy.  We went through the park, with the "Dinosaur Cave" and the "Ghost Cave" at the start of the adventure, and a lovely pond for picnics at the other end.  A nice place for eating after we collect Toby in the summer, on the way home.
 
When I dropped him off, he showed me the new batch of books the kindy has got in recently.  So I promised to read him one tonight when I collect him.  I'm looking forward to it already.
 
Lots of love,
Angela

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Good Morning on Tuesday 4 September (archive)

Hi,

We missed a day!  Who noticed?  Karen certainly did, she was worried that Toby was sick or something.  Well, nope, just that Angela is on a course this week and can't email.  And that means that she can take Toby in in the mornings!  She even sent a good morning by text message to me: "Toby and I have had a good morning.  We caught the 8:12 bus and it was broken so crawled to Thorndon [where Toby's kindy is].  Off to my course now."

We caught up with my mum and dad for dinner last night, which was very pleasant.  Toby had a great time playing games with them and telling them all about his day and all the things he'd been doing.  He needs to see them much more often than a couple of days every six months!  And now we have curtains in our bedroom, thanks to my mum.  We put them up last night and it was so nice and dark.  I didn't realise how light it was before.

Last night was very, very windy.  Even for Wellington it was very very windy!!  On the way home, the car was being blown about like a leaf - even stopped at the lights it was swaying and lifting up off its suspension.  And because we are missing some window catches, we had lots of banging windows.  We sorted it out in the end with a combination of towels draped in the windows, and pushing one window wide open so it jammed.

But, Toby got scared and came up to our bed at about 11pm.  Fair enough.  It was very windy and noisy!!  'Like a ghost,' said Toby in the morning That meant that we had nice cuddles in the morning before we all got up. 

I took Toby in this morning, because Angela had to go to work before her course.  Shame for her.  We had fun because Toby's fleece jacket was covered in lint, so I got out the lint remover thing.  Toby loved it.  It tickled!  He even took it in the car with him, and he made sure my jumper was lint free (don't think it worked too well but we had a good time trying).

 
He was sad going down the hill, though, because his CD wasn't in the car.  Angela has made a CD of all the music that he likes and we like.  He loves it!  But he went to sleep listening to it, and it's still in his CD player.  I'll need to make another copy of it.

Toby had brought his light sabre in the car, so we played 'Luke puts bruises on Darth Vader's hands' in Thorndon school, and then we bumped into Sean and Paige and their dad walking to Kindy.  So we walked with them, and their Dad broke into the kindy playground (we were a bit early) so we played there for a few minutes.  It started to rain so the kids sheltered under their big fort, and we got wet.

I managed to get Toby's light sabre off him without too much fuss, and off I headed to work.  Now I've got a yummy indian lunch to re-heat, courtesy of Angela's colleague Hasmita!

Mike xx

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Good morning on June 19, Tuesday - karate night (archives)

Hi,

Well, we drove in with the MRG this morning, and Toby was very happy.  We got a park at the Beehive (thanks Uncle Andrew), and we’re ready for the 1700 exodus to Johnsonville for karate.  We walked up to Sally’s cafĂ© and had a hot chocolate with her.  Then we wandered to Toby’s kindy.  I found his two missing tops (only knew of one missing top, but now I have found two) and he was happy to be playing with the young children when I left him.

 

I topped up Mike’s cellphone on the way to work, and hope he can get a charger as well!

 

So, tonight’s plan is this.  I leave work at 1645, pick up the MRG at 1700, Toby at 1705 and off to karate.  If anyone wants to get picked up then to come along, just be in those places…  If anyone wants a lift on the way back from J’ville to Woburn, let me know.

 

I’ll get Toby McDs at Jville, so if that’s an option anyone else wants, they will have to ask.  Otherwise, the rice and mince will become chilli con carne (if I’m lucky and can figure out a decent recipe).

 

Time for a nice cup of tea.

 

Cheers,

Sunday, June 26, 2005

A flat-out weekend with Wiggles and Rugby and lots of visitors

Here is the schedule for this weekend, 25/26 June 2005. Angela's folks will be staying with us. Saturday is packed!

Wanna go to Aus vs Italy? It's very close by, and tickets should be cheap, it's a 50,000 seat stadium with zero interest in the game here. If we go, we'll leave early to make sure we don't miss the NZ/Lions kick-off.

Saturday

8am - Greg / Nic / Lizzyrose fly in. Mike picks them up. Leaves them at Mike & Angela's Southbank flat.
10am - Mike / Angela / Toby off to Wiggles! at Dallas Brookes Centre.
1pm - Greg / Nic / Lizzy check into hotel somewhere in Southbank. Meet Steve & Maria for drinks?
3pm - Aus play Italy at Telstra Dome (20 min walk from Mike & Angela's flat). Steve, Maria are going; Mike, Angela & Toby are maybe going.
5pm - NZ vs Lions. 58 people cram into Mike & Angela's lounge. Children huddle in fear at everybody shouting at the TV.
7pm - British people leave disconsolately (there'll be at least one token one). Steve & Maria off to continue drinking (if they made it in the first place).

Is there another game or something on? Rings some bells. Or…?

Sunday

Everyone has lunch. Yum Cha maybe?

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Toby's 1st birthday and Christmas in Melbourne

Dear Maggie and Sasha,

Toby loves your walker present!  Here are some photos of him walking about. But, he seems to have given up on the idea of walking in preference for climbing everything.  Walking must be too boring.  He still walks about with the walker and around the furniture, but won't even walk with both hands held anymore (unless on sufferance).  Climbing seems to be the big new thing.  Up anything, no matter how high or how flimsy. And he seems to have no fear of heights as he climbs onto the windowsill and looks down over 18 floors to the ground without any concerns.  Maybe we are breeding a mountain climber.

One thing I'm sure you will understand is Toby's preoccupation with our Christmas tree and the presents under it.  He has been apprehended trying to rip off the paper from one of his presents a few times now.  I think he'll be quite confused when we actually ENCOURAGE him to rip all the paper off tomorrow morning!!






Monday, October 27, 2003

Arrived in Melbourne

Dear Torsten and Regina,

We have now made it to Melbourne, after many travels.  Our apartment is still very empty - but we have just bought a fridge, a TV, a sofa and a washing machine, so we at least can wash our clothes, and sit on the sofa drinking beer and watching the rugby!  We don't have a bed yet, though, so we are still sleeping on the floor.

Toby has now met his two grandfathers - one in New Zealand and one in Australia. They both loved playing with him!  He survived the flight from London to Australia very well - he slept most of the way, and when he was awake, he played with his toys, and didn't cry much at all.  Whew!!

Hallo - Angela auf Deutsch.

Jetzt, sind wir in Melbourne.  Und Toby war der beste Baby auf dem Flugzeug. Kein schreien und viel schlafen.  Toll!  Unser Familien sind glucklich wir hier wohnen.

Mike musst Arbeit suchen.  Vielleicht dieser Wochen er musst anfangen.  Er hat ein bischen Angst.

Toby liebt sein 'Buggy Buch' Regina hat gekaufen.  Aber der Buch ist kaputt. Wann Toby hat Zahn schmerzen, er 'liest' sein Buch mit sein Zahne.  Oops.

Ok.  Tschuss.  Wir denken von euch!

Granddad


St Clair beach

Obligatory Robbie Burns

Nana

Brisbane Movieworld

I love this photo

Then it rained

We've arrived in our new Melbourne Apartment!

These boxes look familiar from the last blog post?

Toby settling in

This was our bed for a month or so