Woo hoo! It is Friday and we ’re all very excited. We ’re off to Ruapehu for 4 days of skiing fun. The weather may not be playing nicely. It is supposed to snow each day. Tuesday is southerlies and gales. Nice. Still, we have our togs for the hot pools.


I have a life event that I have achieved as of yesterday afternoon. We now own a Thule roofbox for the car. Somehow, I almost feel life is complete. What other goals can I set now? They are all paling into insignificance. Heheheheheh.

I attended a rather late, and a little boring, Microsoft session last night. And when we got home (Mike collected me) we packed all our stuff and now it is in a pile by the door. We fell into a heap in bed.

We caught the bus this morning. We have to head home at 1600 and pack the car up and head off!

What an absolutely gorgeous morning. My parents have practically bought a house and I think settlement is Sept 5 th . I supervised (in a very loose sense as I did fall asleep before Benjamin) Benjamin last night while Vivienne and John went out to a movie John desperately tried to convince me to attend rather than him. I watched Olympic coverage from a warm couch and woke when Ramble went upstairs and Benjamin sneezed! Heheheheheh. Toby had Gramps on lunchtime duty yesterday and while Toby enjoyed the attention, I think Gramps is decidedly ambivalent about supervising a playground full of exuberant children.

So, I drove in today after dropping off Toby (hence the latish start to the day) because we may be buying a rooftop box for the car. We shall see. I was also going to bring in my snowboard for a tune and wax but Mike ’s assessment said it was fine.

Kara had some bad news last night – she is up at the mountain skiing. Her dog, Pitch, died at the kennels! She is very upset. We will see her at the weekend if she is still up there. It may be difficult to console her.

I have my cup of tea and about to start the day in earnest after winning the 5 minute quiz this morning!

What a beautiful morning. Mike and I left at the same time this morning because Mike has an early morning meeting. My parents were left to do the Toby morning duty. I just rang them and everything is going well. It seems they may make an offer on a townhouse some time today. We shall see what happens.


Tonight one of us (probably me) will go and supervise Benjamin and Ramble while John and Vivienne paint the town red (John has a work function on) so I am looking forward to that. I ’m not sure of the time I am expected there yet, but if it isn ’t too late, maybe Benjamin can take Ramble out for a short walk while I tag along. Or too cold. Or too wet. I can think up loads of excuses. ;-)

I must order some groceries for the weekend too. How exciting. We ’re off for 4 days of skiing fun!

Better get stuck in.

Well, it has been a week of bus riding now – I think I am officially soft. But the weather doesn ’t look very nice out there despite the dry roads. The wind is cold and although the sun is shining, there is little warmth in it.


Mum and Dad are off to view another house today in the same complex as the one they currently like – in Ngaio.

Toby went to sleep last night like he was in a coma. Not a peep out of him. I left the boys upstairs and getting ready. I think Mike will walk or drive Toby to school and let his teacher know we ’re away Mon and Tues next week.

Ok. Time for a tea.

We had a wonderful weekend – we seemed to get loads done and the All Blacks won. Saturday we went out to swimming with Toby. The weather was a little chilly but Toby swam well. Then we bought a few things on the way home. Mike got stuck into some DIY (he took down the wall in the green room ’s closet and will batt and re-gib it this week during the evenings).


Sunday was absolutely wonderful. I was out early in my shorts and t-shirt doing some gardening. Vivienne, John and Benjamin brought Ramble around with my birthday plants and Vivienne had a quick look at the renovations going on downstairs. I ran out of time to put the new plants in as we rushed off to look at Open Homes. Mum and Dad have found something very nice in Ngaio and after some consideration I think they should probably put an offer in for it.

In the afternoon I went for a bike ride with Toby (he was on his tag along) and we had a ball. He pedalled really hard so we could get up the hill (and we did!). I must do that more often. I have suggested to Mum and Dad that they leave their bikes out in Woburn somewhere (if Sally and Andrew have the space) and we can all ride on the flat together. I think Mum would be a menace anywhere on a road. Actually, she may be a menace on the bike path too. J Toby needs to learn how to ride a bike without the training wheels. It will be the goal for this summer.

Mike took a load to the tip on Sunday too. It was a very good exercise! We probably need to do it again soon.

We went out to Tawa for dinner last night and had a good chat to Helen and Ron. Our weekend was busy but I ’m sure I have forgotten all that happened.

What a fantastic set of storms last night. The thunder made the walls vibrate. And there was a huge thunderclap at some stage. The hills made the thunder echo for ages at one point too. It kept waking me up at various intervals. That and Mike ’s phone call at 9.40pm when I was in denial. I am also not sure if his phone died after 20 mins or so or if I fell asleep talking to him and he hung up. All I know is that around 10pm, I said something and there was no answer. I was very sleepy on the phone.


Toby slept well. He also suggested that he wanted Burger Wisconsin for dinner and that Mike and I could go to the Flying Burrito Bros (my suggestion). I might suss that out! Heheheheh.

Have a great weekend. We ’re doing some DIY for the last time (hopefully – lining the green room ’s wardrobe) and the carpet should get finished this afternoon. Normality might fall over the Gilbert household. Or not!

The release seemed to go well last night. I hope the users have no problems today. The weather has cleared up a bit too. We had periods of blue sky yesterday and it is almost totally blue out there this morning. Mike is off to Auckland – he should be touching down there about now. He ’ll be back tomorrow evening. My parents are dropping off and picking up Toby today. I ’m hoping to see them at lunch time today.

I ’m cooking butter chicken tonight. I ’m hoping Dad eats it as mild as Toby does (Dad isn ’t one for spicy food). It should be good.

I ’d better get stuck into work. However, there is no milk for a cup of tea. I feel very out-of-sorts.