run up to christmas

Hi everyone ...hopefully this little update finds you all well in the run up to the new year

It's a bit different from Europe where you have Summer hols separate from Christmas hols , here we get the both at once. People have really been hanging out for the summer break and the chance to recharge the batteries and spend time with family.Have to say I have really been looking forward to it this year …. Not got all our plans are firmed up but I can guess it will be day trips , barbecues and swimming locally at Long Bay and the Western beaches.

As you will see from the piccies Reece had his 7th Birthday ( 7 going on 17 as they say) ... with a few friends around the house plus a magician came along - did a good job of impressing all the kids ( have to admit I wasn't sure when 1 minute into things one of the kids said " i can do that , that's not magic) - he was really good. Not sure where Deb found him but she pulled one out of the hat :)

Christmas day itself was a nice quiet one ... opening the presents, Debs mum and Brother came round for dinner ... far too much to eat...you know the score .. and it was a v.pleasant 24 degrees.

So, with the new year in mind - I thought you might like this snippet taken from the NZ evening news last night .... apparently according to the academics we should be referring to 2010 as 20 10 and not 200o and 10. As you will see people on the street didn't exactly agree with them .. loved the pacific island guy at 1min 47 ..class...

ta ta for now...and speak to you in the new year .....

Phil , Debs, Sian and Reece

halloween - watch out

Be on the lookout for a ninja and a purple witch in your neighbourhood .... they are a mischevious pair and will halt at nothing to obtain treats ......

Happy Halloween !!!

What dust storm!

Hi Everyone

Been a wee while --again !

Hopefully this little note finds you all well … its been a bit quiet of late , full on at work and recharging the batteries at the weekend - playing some footy and spending time with the family. So a just a few snippets of news from down under :)

One bit of news news is that its 5 years and counting…yes five years in New Zealand is fast approaching … can’t really believe it to be honest its all gone so fast …we had only 1 little un in tow back then and now we have a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Lot’s of highs and the odd low and a feeling that we have still only seen a smattering of this country. I did manage to finally get down to the south island last year at least - Queenstown is just brilliant . Still not managed Wellington, Dunedin, Napier or Invercargill though … So 1 commitment I have made to myself is that it won’t get to 6 years without a visit back home (yes old blighty is still “home”).. It was going to be be about now but the planets didn’t line up ;(

This doesn’t happen very week … A little bit of Australia landed on New Zealand overnight and this morning .. I will explain … Oz had one of the biggest dust storms in recent memory and after hitting Sydney and Brisbane it carried all the dust across the Transman and dumped on litte old New Zealand !

Changing direction a bit , the Prime Minister of NZ (John Key) was on David Letterman this morning - although scripted by Letterman’s producers / script writers , John Key’s Top 10 reason for visiting New Zealand was as follows.. Quite true in most respects apart from number 10 which was just not true.

10 The Auckland Airport now has a cinnabon (this is apparently the leading cinnamon roll retailer in the world - so it’s a fib - we don’t have this chain in NZ -- yet …)

9 We have the loosest slot machines in the Pacific Rim

8 Only a convenient 20-hour flight away

7 It’s like England without the attitude (not so sure I agree with this one)

6 Down there Leno’s on at 9 o’clock

5 Get the whanau (family) together, stay in a bach (beach house) , crack open the chilly bin and slap on your jandals (flip flops)

4 Visit in the next 30 days, I’ll pick you up at the Airport

3 70% of our energy is generated through renewable hydropower – look they don’t all have to be jokes

2 We drive on the left side of the road, like the British and Lindsay Lohan

1 Unlike most of the world, we still like Americans

Okey dokes …going to shoot …need my sleep - we have a long weekend ahead - last game of my footy season , premier league games on at some ungodly hour , and the school holidays have started, so need to get our act together..

Speak soon

Phil …

Ps.will have an update on Reece and Sian next time round


Pss. If you fancy a good family trip to the flicks go an see UP (in 3D is even better) …. Great fun.

Hi everyone .... Two updates in a week …………… well it has rained most of the week so its nice to be able to catch up on things ...

A few people asked what the little bandits have been upto of late , so here is an update on the twosome …

Reece is coming to the end of his first football season with Bay Olympic - he's a had a great time so far and appears to like it. Got a bit of a competitive streak it would seem ......

with the end of football it will be back to the swimming lessons, more walks in the bush (we have hardly done any of that lately ) and possibly Kung Fu (mothers idea before you ask ….). All in all he is having a great time of things ....

Sian is developing her own individual nature at the moment …. Apart from being a little socialite going to more “princess” parties than I can count she seems to spend most her time either riding her bike or trying on clothes. The latest request is to take up roller skating ….Not so sure about the that just yet but once she sets her mind to something she generally sticks to it, so we will see ….

Forever the helper , she is currently moonlighting as a fruit picker as you can see in the movie clip…we got enough fruit off the tree to set up a stall (little note - watch til the end of clip and you will see what happens when little boys spend too much time looking at the camera and not enough time looking where they are going !)

Anyway … cheerio for now …early night to night as its up at 4am for the first Liverpool game of the season … come on you Reds

:) P

Hi everyone .... Been we while I know , so a couple of blogs in quick succession me thinks .... first up winter fun ...just got back from a little trip 4 1/2 hrs down the road to Ruapheu last week .....

Most people think of Queenstown and Wanaka when it comes to skiing in NZ - they are the best places to go but if you only have limited time and you want to do it relatively cheaply then the North Island at Turoa and Whakapapa (hope I spelt it right )...is great. Not many places you can ski next to a live volcano ( it only had its last major eruption in 1995 ...)

Just check the weather forecasts before you head down there .... I was lucky and got great weather .....

I was lucky enough to stay in a bit of an iconic hotel in NZ - the Chateau - its all a bit like stepping back in time to the 40's / 50"s - ballrooms , plush furniture and big lounges with roaring fires ..... the bit I like is that its only 10 mins from the slopes , so no 30- 45 min drives from the nearest towns ....

Anyway ..hopefully if I'm lucky I will be back down there in 2-3 weeks ...

ta ta for now

Phil

Superheros and Cycling !

Hi everyone

Sian wanted me to share with you what she has been up to over the last few weeks .... a bit of theme going on as you will see ....cycling and superheros.....

Here are a few vid clips taken in and around home. Rain or shine Sian is out on the bike. Won't be long before those stabilisers come off ... I think there is a littlebit of competition going on with the big brother going on ...








Superheros has also been bit of theme of late ... Sean is Superman , Sian is Miss Incredible !!



okey dokes , hope you like the clips .will send a more general update soon

take care

:) Phil ( & Sian)

May already !!

Hi Everyone , feels like we have been lying low for a while …so thought a little update was well overdue :)

I hadn’t realised how long it had been (January !) , so I will just dip in with a few highlights and make little mention of the swine flu which seems to have hit mass hysteria levels down here… we are now the first (and only) country to offer Tamilflu over the counter with no need of a pescription....

So .... the big highlight for March was Sian turning 3 yrs old … we had a party at home which always seems to work well and Sian donned her “Good Witch” outfit and cast some spells on her brother … she invited a few friends over to get loaded on cake and goodies … all in all a very enjoyable day ….

Before we knew it we were conscious that Autumn was soon to be upon us, Deb booked a surprise trip down to Papamoa for 4 days - bliss …. Its only 2 ½ hrs drive from Auckland and the kids love it . It was stunning weather for the full stay , so we made the most of the beach and the pool - Reece and Sian had a ball …..

Onto other news .... Reece and Dad have now both signed terms for football clubs (we do officially call it football down here after years of calling it soccer ! … please ) - surprisingly didn’t see the news on the backpages of the daily papers … the laugh is we have signed for rival teams a bit like one signing for Everton and one signing for Liverpool….. So its Reece for Bay Olypmic and Dad for Waitakere City ….Footy is huge here - Bay Olympic has 15 teams at the 7 year age group alone so they all play each other in their own league ….

Deb now knows what the term, “football widow” means on a Saturday :)

Still with a sporty theme - I finally, after all these months managed to complete my first ocean swim a couple of weeks ago ,,,, I had trained for one before xmas but got ill 3 days before so this time I was ready. The good news is I finished in a respectable 1hr 10mins and towards the middle of the pack - a record 1280 swimmers turned out for King of the Bays. … all I could think about for the whole swim was to make sure I got out of the water and didn't pass out out in front of a crowd of 2000 people watching on the beach! got to admit it , I have now been bitten by the swimming bug on this one , so intend to do a couple more later in the year …. Target is to get under 1 hr ….

That's it for now ... otherwise I find these little blogs sit in "draft" for ever . I will leave you with a little news clip that is a couple of months old but still good and looks at the ill fated attempt of 2 would be escapees from a local new Zealand courthouse ……. brainless is the only word that comes to mind.



Cheerio’s for now ...will try to better at keeping in touch in the months ahead ....

Phil

We will leave the update on Debs suspected broken ankle and dislocated rotator cuff injury for later ….. We are just coming to terms with this …. and will also hopefully will be able to confirm some dates for my trip to the UK ..:)

Happy Birthday !!!!

Hi there Grandma !!!!


Just wanted to wish you a wonderful birthday , from way down under on Waitangi Day .....









Lots of love and speak to you soon

Reece & Sian xxxx

Big Day Out Special

Hi there everyone .... This little blog is dedicated to the weekend and the Big Day Out at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland - so no piccies of the little uns this time around although they did protest at not being able to come - "we're big enough to see the Prodigy dad !" - not bad for a 6 yr old - hmm ... let me think that one through again ...

Well the weather was there for us, the 40,000 who turned out were in great spirits and the line up was more varied than I could recall for years. The scene was set for what would turn out to be one of the best BDO events for years ….

Here’s a few snippets I took from the day and some little awards that I came up with ….. Things did get a bit more blurry as the as the day unfolded, so bear with me if some of it sounds a bit vague :)

First band up I saw was a new one for me “An Emerald City”, who took to the stage with their all seeing eye in tow - see what I mean. An Auckland 6 piece as the programme stated (glad they told me) felt very Celtic / Hippie to me ..would never of guessed they hailed from NZ shores … very infectious… A wonderful start and it wasn’t even mid-day.














So, where to now ..... I moseyed on over to the Green stage to catch Salford’s favourite garage pop duo of the moment - the Ting Tings . Katie White was in fine voice - :“This is our first gig in New Zealand” received very warm applause. A tight 45 min set with very energetic renditions of "Shut Up and Let Me Go" and “That’s not my name” capped things off a treat. Should be interesting to see what they come up with next after such a great 1st Album …. The North West of England did themselves proud.













Moving on. Ok..1st award up for the Biggest Surprise of the Day …and this goes to Pendulum. 3.30pm slot on the main stage isn't exactly what you would call a prime position ..... what happened will go down as a Big day Out "Remember when" moment ..... the crowd was the biggest of the whole day beating the headline acts that came later, 1000's of sun drenched fans punching the air and stretching all the way back to the hill at the other end of the stadium (I was there, sat in the beer area! - great spectacle - pretty good beer as well) ... I have never seen it like that before . Seems that the idea of dance anthems with live musicians is a bit of the trend this year ...and it works.










Here's a snippet to give you a birds eye view of the proceedings - can you spot the tribute to The Prodigy?? - more of which to come ....

After the energy of Pendulum , TV on the Radio really had a hard act to follow - they accounted for themselves rather well. Just couldn't help but thinking how much better they would have been if they had been on one of the smaller stages - would have had far more impact me thinks ... anyway time for a change so it was off my backside and over to the Boiler room to catch Zane Lowe who many of you would know as a Top Radio 1 DJ - + he is from Auckland, so he was playing to his home crowd if you like. Not bad ...particularly liked the mix of "smells like teen spirit" by Nirvanna ..... showing my age yet ?:)

It was the next act , Simian Mobile Disco that I was most looking foward to and they didn't dissapoint - "The Hustler" was one of my favourite tracks of 2008. As you can see lots of blue and smoke :)

They were also responsible for the ringing I still have going on in my ears - couple of moments when I thought this is a bit much (then again more signs of old age?)



Get your walking shoes on, as it was back over to the main stage to see the pride of Sheffield (No, not Sheffield United) but the Artic Monkeys .... who, I've got to be honest just didn't do it for me today. Trying several new songs is never a good idea when the majority of the audience will more than likely just have a general appreciation of you - do the odd one or leave it to your own tour. As a result they took a while to settle down and get aquainted - things certainly picked up though when the favourites got an airing ..... all in all not convinced they have got the sound it takes to command the main stage. ah well.....

I always thought of Auckland crowds as pretty straight - had to re assess my views a wee bit based on the fashionistas that turned out today. Particularly liked the fella dressed as a green giraffe and loved the guy that looked straight out of easy rider (see below) - on second thoughts I reckon he dresses like this every day - great if you can get away with it ….BTW - the T-shirt he had on was Elmo from Sesame street.












It all went so fast . So to the finale …. There was lots of talk before the day about whether or not Neil Young belonged at the Big Day Out - as it happened all the doubters where wrong and it proved a bit of masterstroke by the organisers. I’m not a big fan myself and didn’t catch the whole thing but what I did see was brilliant …. “Rocking In the Free World” and the Beatles cover “ A Day in the life” was a fitting end to the show on the main stage…..
















Right next door in the Boiler Room it couldn’t have been more different ….. Apparently the crowd was 20-30 deep outside the big top tent all craning their necks to get a glimpse of the commotion coming from inside ……we were sweltering about 25m from the stage - all to witness 1997/98 revisited - The Prodigy reborn , Keith Flint mad as ever and the noise just went through you - yes, they played Firestarter and we all sang along .... it was all a bit mental really and left me hanging out for the trip home ..... thoroughly tired out.....














So to round up, all in all a fantastic day - best $125 I will spend all year ……. No trouble to speak of as well , really nice crowd as these things go .... Looking forward to next year already !!

Hope u enjoyed the read ....... :) P