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!