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Sara gets up early and shows her paces with the crowds in Wellington. The weather has not been great of late, but clod waether does not put off the hardy athlete, who also fights back from pugnaciuos virus.
She did a 10k run in 56 minutes, helped by her new running gear, music pounding in her ears and taking on the family mantle as the old man still has the gammy knee.
Well done Sara, who is now in the groove and looking forward to the next event.

Just must have a quick moan about weather. Bloody freezing with cold winds from south and rain and gale force winds-youch.
So much so we went on a buying spree for thermal underwear for bedtime!
All this not helped by vision of European heat wave.

A recent school mid winter event with bit of food, live music and an auction. Lots of work put in by Sara and other mums as part of the Help Our Kids committee, for that read PTA.
Anyway lots good items and we fell for the art work by Sue Lund, which now hands on a wall displacing one of my photos.
The painting depicts a street in Newtown, Wellington.

Call yourself a football fan? In order to continue the masochistic behaviour of watching England play football in the world cup, one has to suffer that bit more down here. Up at 4am today to enjoy the game. Sara stayed in bed but was woken at one point by the expletives emanating from the lounge when Crouch managed to shoot about 10 yards wide when on the 6 yard box, when he tried to score like a flash git instead to just stopping the ball and shooting with time when he just the keeper to worry about.
There were not many other lights on so hopefully neighbours did not hear my tirade.
Here’s to more pain to come, and hopefully at some point -football!

A massive round trip for the three rugby fans. Wellington to Hamilton, 7 hourish journey each way.
We hit Hamilton a little early to soak up the atmosphere and get our burgers in. Plenty of green shirts on. I got the feeling more were migrants who were reviving their ancestry than travellers. Good support though, and made as much noise as the locals with nine times as many supporters.
A good game, though had my head in hands after 45 seconds. I feared a total thrashing or a reliving of Christchurch 2005.
The Waikato stadium was a good venue, quite small but compact and close to the action. We were behind a goal and close to the pitch and could hear the crunching.
Joe was getting as frustrated as all the other Kiwi fans and moaning about the ref! Mum and dad were loving it. By the way did anyone see me on the telly? I am sure I saw myself when I watched the game on Sunday.
We hung around after the final whistle and the other goings on and watched the players from the bench play around afterwards. The hope of autographs for Joe was forlorn.
A downside? other than the result-the number of totally pissed people in the ground.

We drove out of town back to the motel hoping to watch England play Paraguay. But not on terestrial tv and on Sky Sports 3 and the motel only had Sky Sports 1. In the end no great loss. I saw most tof the ‘lowlights” the following morning when we stopped off in Taupo.
So a good trip and Joe fulfilled his dream of watching a live game of his heroes. Good M&D time for him. I don’t think the other two missed us much either!

Well the sporting world is just about to go crazy. World Cup, touring rugby teams, ongoing cricket. What more would you want?
Football fever cannot be said to hit NZ just yet, but the interest is just about visible in hte media with more mentions of coverage on the tv, and the analysis of teams appearing in the “Dom Post” today. The innane coverage of the UK it is not. I did manage to watch the live coverage of Wayne Rooney’s plane landing in Manchester as he was being ferried for his “scan”. Remarkable!
I am not sure we are missing out by not having a minute by minute update of his osteoblast activity.
However, I think when the action starts it will not be quite the same. I am sure a shout at the TV will still work from this distance.
Rugby this weekend also. Off to Hamilton to watch All Blacks play Ireland. nice seven hour drive. Does not look far on the map but no motorways around here. Looking forward to the action, and Joe very excited. He has to miss his own game tomorrow because of the journey. Ireland have a chance as NZ spreading resources with so many games coming up.
So “Go Ireland” “Go England”!
Could do with a few weeks off work just to watch the telly.

A long weekend and the driving rain and wind abate overnight so the chance to go out again. EQ was off out again with a friend, this time swimming. So those left went for a bracing walk at Pukerua Bay. Was the last time we were here Christmas Day with the Hacks and Rudgleys?
Anyway they may claim the weather was just the same six months later. It was chilly but sheltered from the wind in places as we went for a decent walk along the coast into the reserve. Pebbles and drift wood everywhere, big rocks and steep escarpment all topped off with a beautiful blue sky. No air pollution in NZ!
Boys played together while adults considered life and its fascinations.
Back home to light the woodburner-not for a nice cozy effect, but for heat.

Today it was a trip to one of our favourite places in Wellington, Owhiro Bay. It is on the south coast of the city and was previously a quarry. It is beautiful in its bleakness, rocky zones, tall cliffs and “volcanic” sand, often with big waves.
http://www.wn.co.nz/cameras/cam04.php
Today, though the weather was due to turn, and has, though when we were there it was the most calm we have seen it. A good walk, photos taken an the boys having Mum and Dad time as EQ was off at the cinema with a mate.
We has a deserved drink at the brewery after the walk.
As mentioned, the weather has turned, and now the house is being lashed by driving rain, and cold powerful southerlies. Not so nice, but one of those times to enjoy as you are inside and warm as the weather is vile and cold outside.

Last night I took the tiger out again to look at Jupiter. Easily found but of course would prefer larger equipment to see better. Also, the cold nights are an issue currently, even if it is conveniently dark earlier in the night. Will have to squeeze in a bit more before I return the telescope to the society.
A cold night last night, 4 Celsius. Which is significant inside a NZ house!
On the upside though clear beautiful morning and afternoon.
This weekend is a long one. Monday is a holiday-Queen’s Birthday. What is all that about?
How peculiar that such a holiday is still on the calender here. I think also in Oz. It is a relief though that no one “celebrates’ if that is what one is meant to do.
We will be living our middle class idyll by doing the gardening again.

The nerd was out in the dark last night. I finally got around to borrowing the telescope from the Wellington Astronomical Society this week, and took it for a test run on the deck last night.
It is a 6′ Newtonian, which will something to the occasional person in the audience.
I found Saturn and was so pleased when it worked. The image was there, small admittedly but palnet and the rings visible-brill. It was not a great night fro the stars as too many clouds, but success all te same. So more nerdy nigths in the pipeline.