Last day in Dunedin

Well it is the last day in Dunedin and man the weather has turned itself on just for me, to remind me of how cold it can be down here, when I was just thinking that I had become aclimatized to this weather. It is freezing, knowing my luck it will snow!!!

A few months ago I brought a new tent from trademe, which was miraculously here in Dunedin, so Mum went and collected it for me and stored it in her basement until Jade and I came down to inspect it. We put it up yesterday (just before it rained) to check it out and see what things we needed to have made before we could use it properly. So when I get home I have to get a spring for the top of the centre tension poles, and also a tension wire rope and hooks made for holding the tension correctly accross the middle.

So no this tent is not for us to sleep in, we have good Kathmandu tents for that, but this one is for when it is windy or raining, so it is a "mess tent" to play cards, read books, eat or just sit and relax in when the weather is doing its thing. One way of looking at it, is we have brought it as an insurance policy so when we go camping this Xmas at Tarras again it will not rain, it will not flood us out and it will not be so cold that we need hot water bottles to keep us warm. Yes all of these things have happened to us over the last few years. Worse case scenario and it does, we will at least have somewhere to sit etc and will not freeze!

The next picture is of Mum's old tea bag. For as long as I can remember she has been recycling her tea bags and using them as many times as possible, I am not really sure why she does it, but it just seems like it has been forever. I hate it, but it is one of her qwirks, so I have now brought her a wee dish for when she comes to stay at our place, so she will have somewhere to put them!!

Isn't funny the qwirks that everyone has, that others always think are strange!! Lucky I am perfect.

Planes

I forgot to show you way we travelled down, so i have shown you pictures of what we did down here, and now I am showing you how we travelled. Of course there is Jade on the plane beside me.

But we did have a spare seat in between us, so Jade decided that George should have his own seat, and should of course be buckled in as well, for safety of course. But having him buckled in lead to many a comment being made to us from this wonderful air hostess (male), he was concerned that as George had a big heavy head he would not be safe if the planned had to stop suddenly, he would go flying! Then they brought around our in flight snack, and for George he brought a bag of dried banana chips, how thoughtful, as of course George is a monkey.

This has happened all week now, we have had George travell with us everywhere, and when I had the camera out, several photos had to be taken of George, wherever we were!

Bird Spotter

Well I never would have called myself a bird spotter before, but my Mum has the most wonderful bird house which she has had made for her. She puts out bone marrow in little red bags, lard in other bags, bread in a container for them, and also a container full of sugar water for the various different birds that she has managed to convince to come and visit her wonderful house. She spends hours out there in her conservatory watching for all the birds to come.

So having a new camera I could not help myself but try and take a cool picture of some birds, I was quiet surprised how well they came out. They moved very quickly so I had to have it at the ready for quiet some time and as per all good digital camera owners, I took alot of photos.

So now I want to have one made for home, it is rather neat being able to watch them come on it, but I think I need a conservatory built as well!!! At home we just have the ducks, magpies and the pukekoes, not that they are not cool to visit as well.

Ralf's New Inflatable Wife

Well it has been just over a month that Ralf has been gone now, all alone on his tropical island, and it finally dawned on me that he really might be feeling a little lonely and missing me just a wee bit.

So in the most caring of thoughts off I went for a walk to our local De-Vice Shop to purchase his very own inflatable wife. Her name is Janey, she is such a beautiful lady, with a loverly blonde hair colour, and just a fabulous body. I hope he loves her and treats her well.

As only Ralf could he has made her a loverly pair of underwear to ensure she is not embarrassed to be seen out and about with no clothing on, he even made them out of a dirty old rag and some para cord, I am hoping when he comes home he can make me some wonderful new undergarments, he has quiet a talent really! I am not sure why he put the gas mask on her, maybe he is concerned she will not like his body odour?

Wonderful she is now a hood ornament!!

Now this next photo I would like you to introduce to some very random male who has sent me his photo, I am not sure who he is, in fact I do not know him. He said in his e-mail he was my husband, but my husband would not wear such a hideous cowboy hat!! So really I do not know this man!!!

Larnach's Castle and Aquarium

We went to visit Larnach's Castle today, it is such a beautiful castle. We explored all the floors, looking everywhere to see if we could find the castle's ghost, much to Jade's disgust it was no where to be seen. We knew which rooms she should have been in but she kept very much hidden. It was amazing to see how small their bed's were, certainly would not hold me and my body!!!!

We climbed to the top of the turret and the view was just amazing. You could see all up and down the harbour, I wish we owned a castle!

Jade's friend George had his photo taken everywhere, even here with Alice in Wonderland.

I was amazed we managed to waste about 3 hours up there, just looking around at everything.

After the castle, we went further around the coast to check out the Aquarium, Jade is doing a school project at the moment about Marine Worms, so we went to see if we could find some information for her to help make her project the best in the class. What a great place as we were there to learn something for school, they let us go in for free!!! That rocked! Then they dug out all this information for us, so that was great.

There were no marine worms there at the aquarium, so we stopped further around the bay, as it was low tide and went in search of the worms. The great scientists there had told us where to find them, and had even described them and drew a drawings so we would know what to look for. Yahoo we found them so took a couple of photo's of them which we will get them printed out for Jade tomorrow.

Bulls School Room 3 Duathalon

Well Mrs White organised a duathalon for Friday, and all the kids wanted to do it, which was fantastic. I am sure I am telling the distances wrong, but anyhooo 3 times around the field running, then 3 times biking around the block and then another 2 times around the field running. They were all very tired. Jade did really well. Here she is in her bike ride.

Followed by her run.Followed by a lolly scramble.

Very tired by the end of it all, then I had to get going to work!!

Ralf's Army

Jade and I brought some little green Army men, which we thought he could use to help plan his own little war over there in Timor. Jade had much delight when Ralf sent the following photos over to her.

Gosh he must be busy, this would have taken ages!

The Lone Scrapper

I scrapped all alone last night, in between watching Boston Legal, not quiet the same watching it by yourself, when Ralf and I watch it together we laugh very loudly at all the stupid things Denny Craine and Alan Shore do together, but watching it alone is quiet different.

So this layout came together quiet quickly. One of the photos I took from Jade when I got the new camera, she really had had enough by then, check out the look in her eyes, so politely telling me "enough".

70's Style Ralf

Well I hope this facial hair is gone before he comes back!!!

Ralf's Trip to Visit Jesus

Ralf on the beach, you can see the statue of Jesus behind him on the hill. Take note at what he has to wear, considering the heat he is in.

Ralf has named this shot as "Stairway to Heaven"

And here is the big man.

And the wee man, looking a little bit tired out from the walk.

A Devious Fairy is Exposed........

Well yesterday Jade lost her tooth at childcare. She thought it was great when I picked her up. And then it happened - the first stroke in stopping being my little girl. "Mum the tooth fairy is not real it is really you, I know", mortified I told her that of course the tooth fairy was real, don't be silly.

Any way later that night I saw her put the tooth into her little tooth box where the tooth fairy flutters on in to collect the tooth and drop off pots of gold. I thought to myself, yay she still believes really. So when it came to my turn to go and swap the money over when she was fast asleep (no I was not dressed in a fairy costume, I think that is going a bit far), I could not find the tooth box!!! To ensure that she was right and the tooth fairy did not exist she hid it, as the true tooth fairy would surely find it. Well I hunted everywhere looking for that tooth box, but it was no where to be found.

Off I went down into the office to find a suitable card that a toothfairy would write a note on, and a suitable pretty pen that a tooth fairy might like to write letters with. I composed a note to Jade, telling her I had a busy night ahead collecting many teeth from lots of little children all around the world, and I could not find her tooth, if she could possibly put it out where I could find it, that would make my life alot easier. I left some money there for her anyway, and told her to leave out her tooth tonight, as a sign of good faith.

Well blow me down this morning Jade came in telling me how she had money, and she knew I wrote the note "as sometimes I say the wrong word", I asked her what did she mean "well mum you wrote that my tooth fall out instead of fell out, so I know it is you".

So there is the end of the childhood dream of the tooth fairy.
I thought this was a nice picture of Jade in her new jersey, new socks and new sneakers. She did well today at the shop. I went to get her sneakers only.
Some soccer pictures from today. We won 7 nil. A hard game, the kids had to play hard, but they went well.

Yahoo another goal.

Miss Nyah is staying the night, so will be a late night tonight.

Photos From Ralf

Ralf has sent over some photos of where he is etc, so I thought you might like to see it all.

The first one is showing you the luxury on the flight over. Nice and close, and very comfortable.

This next one is showing you his bed space. He shares the "room" with 3 other guys, there is a mosquito net over the bed to keep away all the bugs. Nice and cosy, air conditioning, but still not home.

The next one is the view next door to his room, what a great swamp. He said they get woken nice and early by the bigs, goats, chickens and roosters make a nice noise, and of course the bull frogs going at it all night long.

Next up is their swimming pool. A great assest for them to have with it being so hot, they can hardly do laps of the pool, but just enough to cool down.
This one is showing you the bar that has been built beside the pool. Bar is said very loosely as of course they are not allowed any alcohol over there, so it is just soft drinks and chips etc. Very cool looking though!!!
A nice picture of a local family, on their transport!

This next one shows you their hanger where the choppers are from above, if you look closely you can also see the swimming pool as well. the white rectangle buildings to the right are the accomodation.
I thought you might like to see their pets! I cannot remember why he said they had turtles, but they have built a pit for them all!
Last but not least some photos of what appears to be a favourite time filling exercise. Ralf will be loving it as he does like his poker.

Food over there is good, in fact to good, so he has been running every day and going to the gym, also of course used to fill in time. He sent an e-mail last night "I saw a really big rat this morning might have been the same one that sqeaked last night when we where watching TV the guy next to me must have trod on its tail as it squeaked and gave us a fright. I saw the hurricanes rugby game last night so that was cool they won. We are doing a building project for this little village about 10kms away they have a little church but no seats so we the Aussies and us are going to build them some church pews(seats) and paint there church and build a book case and some chairs the kids there are really friendly once you speak to them they have big smiles. I haven't seen any monkeys yet but I am on the look out.

under the weather

well it is 1.45am , yes quarter to 2 for the elders readers, and yes that is also me, i am not epically sober!!!! one of the project managers from work is leaving tomorrow, so we had drinks after work today and then we went out for tea and then onto a bar, surprised am i that i stayed on but this old tart can still so it - not to the same extinct that i did when i was 8 but still doing it!!!! here i am watching TV and not wanting to go TV, god i am old too many Stella atwah's ha ha laughing at mu bollocks of spelling!!

why am on the net!