zentus: 2007-02-18

15 month mia - mad as a hatter!!

another week gone by

hard working weekend, me looking after our far too active daughter - she never sits still (groan) - and toby doing wedding photography. daycare already upset about how much they are going to miss mia. she is quite a handful and i think we have terrible twos ahead. she's a stubborn little so and so, can't imagine where she gets that from?! but gorgeous with it and rarely without a smile. not really done any packing or anything this weekend but i have managed to tidy up the patio some more. anyway, toby took loads of amazing pix once again at the wedding and the happy couple have had a very good deal indeed. it was at a beautiful old villa/restaurant in amongst auckland's western vineyards and there was barely a cloud in the sky. whilst toby took 500 pix mia and i shopped, cleaned and went for a bbq to a pal's house. all good fun but hard work. today he has been sorting out all the photos but we did manage a family trip out to orewa and mia chuckled with delight in the pet shop, looking at chocolate labradors. i managed to get out on thursday to see cirque du soleil's "varakai" which was fantastic. the costumes and colours, plus the acrobatics of course, were amazing. tomorrow sees me out again - dinner with fiona and carol from work - at local thai restaurant. interviewing for my job this week which is quite sad, it is all becoming very real and final! and - apologies in advance - might not be a blog entry next weekend. we are off to the coromandel. staying in a bach in hahei at the grand cost of $20!! driving down first thing saturday and hopefully we will get to feel the heat of hot water beach and see cathedral cove. both famous spots and we have been to neither so really looking forward to it. right, time for bed! lots of love.

back to front

mia insists on travelling back to front on this thing. she also uses it as a very unsafe climbing frame!! 2 more items of interest for sale on trademe at the moment. toby sold his homemade smoker for $255!!!! can you believe it. another potential business .... although i don't suppose there is much call for them in the north east of england. meeting my (very pregnant) pal bettina for lunch on wednesday and she has promised to bring along a fresh snapper recently caught on a trip out to sea. her and her partner wayne are hunters and frequently go out deer hunting. they don't think anything will change with the arrival of their daughter at the end of march. ha! anyway, the other item just listed tonight is our beloved honda. look up honda crvs from 1996 on trade me.nz and you'll see it. we have even put it through the car wash. hoping that the sale of our 2 cars will pay for a car when we get home.

mia's cupboard

enough said! this cupboard used to be full of frank and arnie's stuff (boo hoo) but now it is full of cuddly toys. tried (and failed) to get a decent pic of mia in here today. her latest trick is walking around the house blind with a cloth over her head (tea towel, towel, item of clothing, muslim square). she looks hilarious and giggles all the way - until she falls over something and starts howling!!

clap hands here comes mia

view from the top

something special

well it was my turn for something special on thursday, so toby's turn last night. got home from shooting wedding photography at around 8, scoffed down pasta, then out at 9. friend of a friend works for the company that maintains the harbour bridge. anyway, he had offered to take a few folk up there to climb to the top. of course, there was a reason for doing it last night - queen mary ii - one of the largest cruise liners in the world - was in town. arrived 7am saturday to glorious blue and pink skies and departed 10pm last night. the crowds were out in force, roads chockablock and fireworks to mark it's departure at 10pm. not a bad vantage point - top of the harbour bridge!! i think i would have been scared ****less so glad toby went and not me. this sort of thing is headline news here in auckland!