Programme

Programme

Programme

Programme

Programme

Programme

the day daddy butchered my hair

ah, poor mia, or poor mum more like. i walked into our living room this morning to find toby with a huge pair of scissors attacking mia's hair. my biggest nightmare!!! she now has a very short and uneven fringe. i am gutted. hopefully the mullet-like effect will have outgrown by the time we get home next monday. as i type, mum and dad are up in the air, not too far from heathrow now i think. i am very envious actually. we are down to the bones here with just our gear for travelling (2 huge cases, toby's gadgets......, backpack and handluggage plus a mattress and mia's cot. that's about it really. things have run very smoothly today and we have pocketed $1500 for various bits and pieces. mia coping very well with all the change. box people arrive tomorrow (we have gone from original estimate of 12 boxes to 22) to collect boxes, 2 surfboards, tv, bike, portacot and picture. carpet clean booked for 2pm and a few other small items to be collected. handover keys on tuesday so a lot of tues will be spent cleaning although a lot already done (thanks mum!). from tomorrow lunchtime, or thereabouts, we move into luxurious spencer on byron hotel in takapuna. hoping for some fine weather so we can see the stunning views of auckland city and rangitoto for our last 2 days.

well, i bid you farewell and see you next week. wow!!!

xxxx

tompkins in matakana

playground, ascension vineyard and sandspit

matakana 10 april

mia and her grandma and granda looking at ponies

"small horses". not!

inside buzzy bee

guzzle

oh aye, i know

mia enjoys a "conversation" with holly whilst monique looks on. this was taken last weekend at shopping mall where michelle/holly, desrae/monique and myself/mia met for a coffee. mia was a minx, now she can run she legs it whenever she sees an open door.... really must use the harness on her. anyway, put her back in the buggy and her and holly proceeded to have a chat about things with one going "bla bla" and the responding in real time. classic.

sitting pretty

happy easter

hi all. sorry for lack of blogging recently but life is somewhat busy. 9 days to go and house is pretty much packed up, mum and dad helping with cleaning and minding mia. big relief to finish work last thursday, lots of kind words and nice presents. came home and collapsed. toby went out for a few bevvies. so busy the only person to get a single chocolate egg was mia and she doesn't even like chocolate!! sorry nieces and nephews but no easter eggs this year for you. just been to bid farewell to bettina, wayne and tigra - their 2 week old baby. feels very sad to think i might not see them again. more farewells planned this week. got to pop into daycare so they can say a proper goodbye to their english rose. mia came home on thursday with a portfolio full of stuff, a handmade card and a gorgeous caterpillar book. also got to pop into work so everybody can say goodbye to mia (they aren't interested in seeing me!). i came home last week with wine (!), a gift voucher for kathmandu shop (since spent on new gortex jacket) and a friendship necklace. toby came home with a cheque, a pukeko ornament and a maori green stone. mum, dad, mia and i took the ferry from devonport over to the viaduct on saturday and enjoyed a 3 course easter sunday roast yesterday. this week we have more packing and preparing to do but i am hoping we will all get to ascension vineyard and nearby animal farm and possibly the rainforest express, a 2 hour train ride into the waitakeres including caves with glow worms!

sunday check-in

first entry for a couple of weeks - life is a bit hectic to say the least! we are all fit and well, though mia has had a cough for over a week but it seems to be on its way out. several disturbed nights unfortunately. happy birthday to hannah - hope you had a fab time and liked your present. mia tucked up in bed after a nice but humid day. we have started a list of likes and dislikes of nz and are relieved that there are more dislikes at the moment. been doing lots of trademe selling, not much left in the house now. also sold our mazda demio so we are back to one (borrowed) car which takes some adjusting. toby went off surfing this morning leaving me at home with mia. those of you who have visited know there isn't a fat lot within easy walking distance but we quite easily filled our time playing - well mia jumping on top of me and "helping" me hang out the washing. really can't call her a baby any more. she now understands the word no and shakes her head vehemently and says no when we ask her if she is ready for bed. she now stands by the front door if we put her shoes on and gets rather upset if we don't go out straightaway. she is also a wriggle monster and hates being carried. she loves laying pieces of cloth (see picture) down on the floor and arranging her things on them plus sitting on the cloth. i have had a lovely few days away in christchurch where i also managed to see mum and dad for a few hours. unfortunately mum had a bug and wasn't 100% so i took dad out for a japanese meal before meeting up with my work colleagues. conference was quite good, some interesting stuff around negotiation and presenting skills. highlight for me was the kindness of my colleagues. we had a fun casino night on thursday playing with monopoly money. aim was to win as much money as possible then bid for prizes ranging from flights to oz to mobile phones to chocolates. my selfless colleagues put all their money in one pot and bid for 2 nights accommodation in a luxury hotel in takapuna. they won. and then they stood up in front of all the delegates and presented it to me. wow! so toby, mia and i are spending our last 2 nz nights in the spencer on byron hotel in a deluxe suite with views! got back sat afternoon after a delayed journey due to fog at christchurch. humidity is back but nowhere near as bad as a few weeks ago. only 9 days of work/daycare left. mum and dad arrive on good friday and home not long after that. will try and blog again next weekend but it all rests on me remembering to take photos! lots of love.

high five

weta

at last, toby's wish has come true. tracked down a copper weta to bring back. i have to confess that i thought it would be completely hideous and, as far, as i was concerned, would be hidden away in some corner. however, i was wrong. i love it. mum and dad gave me a little plastic one too in christchurch and when i handed it to mia she pointed up to the copper one, clever lass!! i guess it is around 8 inches long and is currently mounted on the wall. fabulous thing and not at all creepy.

not much left out here on the patio!

our little beautie

me and my car

you looking at me?

ps

just in case you are wondering, the photo of wine bottles is to remind us of our favourite tipple, wyndham estate shiraz, bin 555. god help us if we can't buy it in newcastle...........

weekly catch up

hope you like the long series of photos that follow. it was quicker to load them all up in one go and as it is nearly 9pm on sunday i thought that was wise. won't be long til bed, we have had a tiring week. busy at work preparing for my successor who starts tomorrow. all very very real now! and to think, mum and dad will be in Christchurch this time next week..... incredible. only a little over a month til d-day. we are pretty much sorted, a few more things to sell and paperwork to sort out. currently mulling over the dilemma of our last night or two here when we may be furniture-less! should we go and stay in a hotel?! we have booked our accommodation for bangkok and dubai. to be honest, i just wish we were doing the journey in one (hideous) go instead of breaking it up into bits but toby wants to prolong the agony and do the stopovers.... we've booked a nice hotel in bangkok though with a rooftop pool, accomm in bangkok still comes quite cheap (half the price of dubai). mia has had a rough 10 days - aftermath of mmr jab then several new teeth. they are coming thick and fast at the moment. thank god we had our first sleep thru in approx 10 nights last night. she is very independent and we have had to buy her a table and chair to eat at rather than her highchair. she was just hurling food onto the floor at an alarming rate from her highchair. toby continues to sort out wedding photography stuff, it is all he has done today. i've been to castor bay playground and mairangi bay playground, where one mum came over to me and told me my daughter was absolutely beautiful. you should have seen my grin! caught up with 2 friends of friends yesterday which was great. they were at the end of a 2 week stint checking out nz as they want to move here. lovely couple and so lovely to hear their accents and hear about newcastle, stevo and katie etc etc. they loved it and are planning a move just as soon as visas are sorted. still hot and sticky but forecast to cool down this week thank god. we'd hoped to go to warkworth and look at art galleries today but it never happened. we have found one artist whose picture of whale bay in raglan we just have to have. a souvenir of our life here. toby is also keen to get a bronze weta so he can tell mia about the time she picked one up at daycare and it bit her. anyway, time to close down the computer and drink camomile tea. lots of love to all and see you soon...................xxx

sunday 11 march