Christchurch Pettys in November

This was a very little month after the big month.

William got shifted to East Tamaki (Otara), which seems to be fine. He sent me a nice birthday card. He misses tacos and likes the new McDonald Angus burgers.

Jonathan was awarded his Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award by Prince Edward, the Duke of Wessex. He coped well with the ceremony, and Elizabeth Carr, my Vice Chancellor’s daughter, took him off to meet the Prince during the supper. We heard later that we were on TV when they were showing the audience at the ceremony. What can we say? We are just camera magnets!

We have found a course for Jonathan to do at Hagley next year, playing Jazz piano. He even said yes the first time. The teacher seems very nice. He will get individual tuition from Miss Sato, too, who seems to understand him, and has taught him jazz piano at Mairehau. I told him he might need to do some practice, which went down as well as you can imagine!

At Show weekend there was a clean up at the Chapel on Friday morning, but Mark and I wanted to go for a walk, so went down on  Thursday night and did some weeding. On Friday we went from Taylor's Mistake to Godley Head and sheltered from a violent southerly in among the gun emplacements. The wind was so strong it was difficult to remain standing. Very bracing, it was. On the way home we saw one of the old oak trees had blown over on Bealey Avenue.

On the rest of Friday I relaxed, went shopping, and we had a very nice dinner of salmon, hash-browns and lemon delicious. I bought the final series of "Foyle's war" - an excellent series set in WW2 in England. I also got a recent Jane Eyre, and Persuasion. BBC do some fine productions.

We had Stake Conference, which was very busy for Mark. On the Saturday evening we had dinner at Stake Conference with the visiting people. We took Jonathan too, as he is really quite social now and talks to people! You wouldn't believe the difference.

We finally listened to Jonathan’s radio show on Plains FM podcast. Click on Jonathan's radio programme  then choose the one on the 14th of September. He did really well - he is very clear, and rather funny in a sweet sort of way. Like William, he seems to have an "on air" persona. Stake Conference on Saturday night and Sunday were both great. I felt most inspired to live the gospel better. Unfortunately I will probably get over it quite quickly!

I bought a book called “My bum looks brilliant in this – the one true secret of lasting weight loss”. I couldn’t resist it. I think the writer (a New Zealand psychologist woman) can see into my life in the way the Zits author used to see into our house. It’s very good.

We had an earthquake the other morning. Short and sharp, but unmistakably an earthquake.

Our wireless router died. The power connection has been dodgy for a bit and it gave up the ghost, so we saw it as an opportunity to purchase a slightly stronger one (360m range, as opposed to not quite making it to Jonathan’s room in a reliable fashion). It took us a bit of work, but we now have it secure, with the three laptops, braillenote and desktop computer working, while the printer was a bit trickier. Mark got it sorted though.

Saturday we looked for a woodburner as the one we have is not compliant with the clean air regulations and we aren’t allowed to use it next winter. We think we will get a wetback again as it saves a lot of electricity. We’ll get some better insulation as well. There is one called Tarras, that appeals. We will need to increase the size of the brick platform.

I had a nice surprise at church, as Eric Ruth turned up, who was a friend from Venturers who joined the church about a year before I did. He served a mission, married in the temple and is a bishop in Tawa. We were both “Maria Peters” converts. It was great to chat with him.

I don’t recall if I have mentioned Rogo yet. I have come up with the idea for a puzzle, that my colleague, Shane, and I are developing. It is looking quite promising, and he has developed a little programme to make and solve Rogos. We have got some quotes for printing puzzle books, and have approached one lot of newspapers. We will be working some more on it over the summer break. Next week Shane and his wife, Philippa, and Mark and I are forming a company to develop and market them. We are hoping it will one day be as big as Sudoku. It is loosely based on the rogaine.We will keep you informed.

Here are some more photos from our trip. Mark had a whole lot ready and then lost them and lost heart!


Love to all from all

Nicola, Mark and Jonathan.