Kia Ora

Kia Ora !

I know it's been an absolute age since we were last in touch properly …. Hopefully you are all well… We are just having a weekend at home so thought I would let you know what we have been up to and how the little family is coming along.

To be honest we have been having a very quiet time of things of late - spending a fair bit of time at the new home which we are settling into more and more each day. Debs has got it all mapped out and where we as don’t have to do any major renovations to the place there are lots of opportunities. I have convinced Deb that knocking a few interior walls is not on the cards - other than the fact the house might collapse if we did. So the latest project is covering the sun deck at the front of the house and replanting the back garden with trees.

Sian and Reece would much rather we focused on getting a new trampoline for the front garden - we had one at the last house and they miss it. Lets see what Santa brings eh…. I have finally got over how quiet it is in our new neighbourhood - only took me 4 months ! The piccies below give you an idea of the surroundings near the house, all the previous photos I had sent were just of the house. As you can see its all pretty green and lush - its part of a conservation area and yes , it does get wet in the winter ...

Sian and Reece are doing really well at the moment. Sian is turning out to be an English rose with attitude (Debs genes anyone ) giving Reece a real run for this money. She has just started to string brief sentences together and cracks us up with some of things she is coming out with. Reece is doing great - starts primary school in Feb which rather conveniently is about 150 metres from where we live. Glad to report that both are avid Liverpool fans and get up to watch the matches with me at the weekend, Reece has it in his head that every player in a red shirt is called Stevie Gerrard …

Now we are just gearing up for the early arrival of summer - the NZ government passed a motion this year that summertime starts two weeks earlier this year and finishes 2 weeks later , so we all get a little more sunlight in our lives - very nice of them, one of the better things that Helen Clarke's govt have achieved. One little side issue is that all computer and system clocks need to be updated to reflect the earlier changeover and very few people thought about that - so we are hearing a few mini Y2k scaremongers on the radio at the moment pushing all sorts of gloom and doom scenarios. Nothing to worry about really, the USA did it a few years back without much of a fanfare.

So with summer comes the holidays and trips to the beach, can’t wait to be honest it feels like ages since we have been swimming in the ocean. Good news is that Reece is becoming a pretty competent swimmer so I don’t have to worry as much as I did last year. Still, got to watch for those tidal rips ..they can be a bit nasty on the west coast.

NZ is sort of gripped by Rugby World cup fever at moment - nothing like the scenes I would have expected but then it is only the early games and most people I speak to only intend to watch the All Black games once the quarter finals get going. It would be interesting to see what happens if the All Blacks don’t win the world cup as the impression I get from many people is that it’s a foregone conclusion which is always dangerous. I hope they do it as it would be great for the country - South Africa may have something to say about that though based on what I have seen so far. Still don't know the rules other than its ok to punch someone on the field and not get sent off ..... :)

No update on sport would be complete without commenting on the recent departure of the “special one” , Jose Mourinho from Chelsea. I was totally amazed when I heard he had left. It’s been getting wall to wall coverage on the tv here. As obnoxious as I thought he was he was still a great manager and had one of the best records in the game you could wish for ….. Abramovich has lost the plot. The backroom staff and Didier Drogba apparently cried when the news broke -but as my brother pointed out Drogba probably faked that as well ( diving little &*&*&*&) . Still , absolutely no sympathy for the Blues ……. they will be playing Leeds United in next to no time I hope !

I think I said when we first moved to Auckland that the music scene was a bit dull, you got the odd band of note but apart from that it was mainly ageing bands that had reformed for that “re union world tour” nowt much really. Well, that has all changed now. We seem to have had one top name after another over the last year …. In part this has coincided with the opening of the Vector Arena in downtown Auckland. It's a world class venue - even if it had a few teething problems with the sound (The Chilli peppers played there and it was a disaster - the consensus from the fans was that the Chilli’s weren’t much chop anyway). In recent months we have had Bob Dylan ( Surprisingly good ) , Bloc Party, Snow Patrol , The Cure, The View , The Editors and we have Muse and the Chemical Brothers to look forward to - and its pretty easy by UK standards to get tickets, they are just a bit pricey so now its a case of which gigs do we want to go to....

Work is cracking along at Vodafone (So much nicer with the fact that we don't sponsor Man utd anymore as well .......) had a whirlwind last 6 months with lots of things going on and the job is still enjoyable. On that note latest news is that Deb is planning a return to work in the new year but, no firm committments yet just seeing what presents itself ...

Ok best shoot or I will never send this out .... one final update is that we are planning a trip up North next year ( it will be 3yrs since we left the UK since heading back) nothing finalised for sure yet and depends on the annual bonus coming in but at least we don't have the distraction of buying a house to get in the way this time ....

Ta Ta for now

Phil, Debs, Sian & Reece :)