Sydney!

Last week I won tickets to see "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid" author
Jeff Kinney in Sydney, Australia. Talk about a total impulse trip. Managed to talk husband into me taking 2 of he boys with me - a lot of talking due to house renovation costs! - but hey, when would we ever get the chance to see THE biggest author for children again?
I love Sydney - so much to see and do! Kieran was in heaven - 2nd visit here in a year and it was Ryan's first ever
visit. The city did wow them -
From he transport, to tall buildings, to the volume of people, to the Opera
House , to the Powerhouse Museum ( great museum!). You can burn through so much money there. Just a quick
shop at Gap ( not in NZ ) and Myer and
then hours walking.

Total thrill at listening to Jeff - big inspiration who really is just a regular guy who struck it lucky! The books were intended for adults !
The line to meet him and get books signed was HUGE and I mean huge!!!
I was very cheeky and bowled up and
said boys had by then been up for 20 hours and we queue jumped! Yes we did! They were walking zombies and there is now way they could queue for another hour.
Nice guy - boys thrilled! Worth the travel!
I love travel - really want to spend a
good week or more in Sydney - it is such a beautiful city - easy to get around. And it was warm at 21
degrees. Back to sideways rain here and a lot cooler.

Kieran came down with high temps mid afternoon and I struggled to keep him awake till the airport. Day off school -
Not what I was planning!

Hooray!

I have been having trouble downloading pics onto the stupid i-pas ( I am sure
I am one of the few in the world who thinks they are totally over - rated) but tonight it worked!

A quiet Mother's Day - we don't really celebrate it - I did get some cards and chocolate , breakfast in bed plus gorgeous stationery from a fab friend Corkie though.
Day was spent starting another knitting project for me - a vest. Another lace pattern which is challenging me but it us okay. Only un - done once!
Some study too and a bit of stationery shopping for me too.
And i made my first ever sponge cake which turned out fab! The MIL popped over for afternoon tea, so I got out some of my bone china and had tea and sponge cake on the deck.
Look how well the vege garden is going too!
And a BIG look at my finished cardigan - I am thrilled! Has taken me 5 weeks from start to finish !
How was everyone's day?

Life gets in the way

Many times I have sat down to blog but then reading other blogs and STUFF gets in the way!
Like my good camera dying after 5 plus years; only having one i - charger for 6 i devices in this house ( where have the others gone???!!!); study - doing my Mauri Ora course through Te Wanaga O Aotearoa and living it but going through bouts of no motivation to study; knitting, knitting and more knitting! ( cardigan for me nearly finished in a month!!!); lots of cooking and baking for me! (husband usually does a lot of it!);
soccer and Futsal and trumpet and drum practices and games ( very time consuming and and lots of exhaustion from battling a child to carry on with activities!!) , cutting out more clothes to sew but not quite getting to the machine and just stuff!
Oh and the hideous job of deciding on a school for the middle child for next year!! Hideous stuff !! Gut wrenching stuff! Makes me think living in a small town would be delightful if only from a school point of view!

Good week though ; work going well and am feeling organized and pretty on top of things there!

And the curtains and blinds arrived today - looking gorgeous ! Whoop whoop!!!

That is life here - how about you??

Autumn days

Well it certainly has turned into autumn with cooler mornings and nights. But i am still in short sleeve tees and skirts with bare legs - the weather has been amazing for this time of the year!

I think I have sat in my lovely new bedroom for a couple of weeks enjoying it - well it has taken 2
weeks to sort really! We are still waiting for the curtains/ blinds to arrive and have the proper wardrobe system to purchase yet too.

We had an afternoon walk around Monte Cecilia Park in Hillsborough a week back. This is home to the Pah Homestead which houses the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre. It was opened to the public in August 2010 after being used by the Catholic Church as emergency housing, boarding school, novitiate housing and an orphanage. In recent years it had fallen into major disrepair and the
Council bought it. A lot of controversy with the church selling the land to the council to make a bigger park. The poor little Catholic School that is on the site will eventually have to move apparently to make way for more grass...
The homestead was built in 1877 as a gentleman's residence and is beautiful .
It has a lovely cafe and we all enjoyed the modern art.
Would be nice to be able to walk around the park without fighting children one day though!
A great park - now i just need to get out more in this town and stop enjoying my house too much! :)