Evember for Christchurch Pettys!

It was a very eventful November. Jonathan decided to call it Evember as there were so many events.

On Thursday 1st November I was called as Stake Relief Society President. I felt sad at first that I would have to give up Primary, but the calling felt right. The process by which they came up with my name was interesting. Mark was there at the time, and knew for a week before I did. I had been asked to give a talk in Stake Conference on “The Strength of Relief Society and Womanhood”, and now the topic suddenly made more sense! I spent quite a bit of time working on the talk, and even rewrote it the morning of the conference. It was worth the effort though, as many people really liked it, and I learned a lot more about Relief Society and my own attitudes in the process. The nine days between being called and being sustained were very spiritual. It was also rather challenging not to give the game away. I read and watched a lot of materials about Relief Society on the church website, and read “Daughters in my Kingdom” again. I’m sad that Sister Beck is no longer the General Relief Society President, as I felt a connection with her.

Sad news – our bicycles got stolen from our shed in the back of the section over night. Nothing else was touched, and I reckon it was the neighbours, who have since done a runner without paying the rent.  They weren’t really expensive bikes, but I loved my bike and it is sad not to have it. We reported it to the police, but we haven’t talked to the insurance company yet.

Another event this month was a partial solar eclipse. Shane was at our place at the time and told us how the light that dapples under a tree are crescent shaped during an eclipse. Neither of us had heard of that, so outside we went and here is the proof!

And at same spot on another day

Jonathan had his final concert of the year from Hagley Jazz. We invited Jess and William and had dinner at the venue beforehand. We managed to find a low fat option that Jessica could eat, which was so nice.
Stake Conference was very upbeat. There was practically no mention of the earthquakes, and the visiting temple president and matron were raving on about how wonderful we are for having 415 people at the temple for our stake temple week in the school holidays. There was a record number of ordinances performed during that week. At the stake conference all the auxiliary presidencies were changed, and there was quite a buzz about that. President Ormsby gave an inspiring talk saying, “the time is now”. I was convinced.

One Wednesday I went on a two-hour rogaine with Liz Williams as Mark had meetings. I made a bad decision about where to go, so much of our time was going down then up steeply then down then up. The Cashmere hills are a bit of a shock after living on the plains. I was happy that I was better on the hills than Liz, even though I’m a lot older. It was a nice change not to be “the weakest link” as I am with Mark.

We had our annual outing to the A and P show, this time taking the Browns and Jessica and William. We got there really early with the children and got to feed the lambs in the city farmyard. The whole day went really well and we left as it was closing. (Though the others had gone home earlier).

Jonathan and Victoria rehearsing the opera piece for the Attitude Awards.

The following week was very busy for me as I was at teacher workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday in Christchurch and in Auckland on the Thursday. Then I drove to Tauranga and presented at a teachers’ conference on the Friday before driving back to Auckland to fly home on Friday night. The workshops were really useful, and I got a much better idea of what and how the teachers will or should be teaching. This helps my blog, which is doing well. (Over 32,000 views in my first year, and 5999 in November.) On the Friday I went to a presentation by the author of well-known textbooks and was reassuringly underwhelmed, as I texted to Shane and Mark. I feared they would be competition for our on-line materials, but they are not doing the same sort of stuff, and have more of a mathematics focus.

As I drove to Tauranga I was impressed again at how amazingly beautiful New Zealand is. I drove via Waihi and the coast, and the scenery was splendid. On the way back I was listening to Bill Bryson talking about his travels in Australia, which did leave me a little confused as to where I was at times. Tauranga is a lovely city, helped by the fact that the weather was clear and sunny and blue skies while I was there.

The following day, back in Christchurch was pretty busy too. I had a Primary breakfast, a ward activity and an Operations Research barbecue. I took bought salad.

Then on the Sunday Mark and I visited Timaru in our official capacities. We were kindly received, and I even got asked to say a few words in Sacrament meeting. We stopped at Pleasant Point domain to eat our picnic lunch, and met up with a man living with his son in a bus who had seen us at church and was getting baptised the following weekend. He was certainly a diamond in the rough, and his conversion story was inspiring.

Jonathan, Victoria, the Navy Concert Band, and a couple of dancers rehearsing 'All That Jazz'.

The following Wednesday Mark and Jonathan and I all flew to Auckland (at the civilised time of mid-day - better than my 6:00am flight of the previous week.) We caught a taxi in to the Sky City Hotel and settled in there. Then we walked down to the Viaduct Events Centre for Jonathan to practise with Victoria Oruwari, a blind soprano from the UK. They were in three numbers – an opera piece, All that Jazz, and RESPECT by Aretha Franklin. The following day there were more rehearsals and then the Attitude Awards dinner. Jonathan did really well, and we enjoyed being his support crew. And then on Friday we had breakfast, packed up and came home. And crashed. The air in Christchurch was considerably colder than in Auckland, but pleasantly less humid. It was good to be home, but horrible unpacking again. How can you need a suitcase each for two nights, I ask you? But we do.


Jessica has started making YouTube videos and has received commissions to make animated openings for other people. Her videos are very cute. I’ve put a link here to my favourite so far.

Christmas Greetings to all from all Pettys in the South Island.