Maaike is studying Te Reo this year (and probably ongoing), as a part of that they have noho-marae, which is a stay on a marae for the weekend. So, that was this weekend, and so Anna and I headed up to Palmy for the weekend to hang out with cousins. On the way up we had a really weird optical trick. The moon (I think) was up, but, also the sunset was happening, so, we could see (I think) the moon a reddish colour from the sunset. I dunno, it was either that or the lights of the plane doing something weird, but, pretty sure it was the moon.

We had a lovely time. Played mini-golf, had a lovely time at the big old playground there, delicious dinner at Mary’s.. just a good time.

All too soon time to head home again. AirNZ have this thing where they give out hard-boiled sweets on landing. Kids sometimes do it. Anna has been picked a few times, and she asked me to let the air hostesses know that she’d be available to give them out ;) Anna let me know that some people just take massive handfulls of them… I’ve always been polite and just taken one or maybe two! definitely feel like I’m missing out on a trick there (or maybe not, tragedy of the commons if everyone started doing that I suspect)

I headed up to Wellington earlier in the week to see Foil Arms and Hogg. It’s annoying that they don’t come down to ChCh, but, a great excuse to get up to Wellington.

I caught up with my team which was lovely.  I do really enjoy the walk down from Glynn’s to the co-working space… even if the normal route was closed due to slips.

And had a very nice evening in the Belgian Beer cafe before the gig. I got to see my old primary school friend Ronan who was looking very well and making an exciting career change – looking forward to hearing how that goes (he’s always been very switched on has Ronan)

Then off to the gig with cousin Thomas and Glynn and Jayne.  They were as excellent as ever – really fun evening.

On the Saturday we headed off to Paraparaumu where my cousin (from the Davey side) Jon lives with his kiwi wife Amelia. They’ve just had a baby so we headed up to meet her, and to have a tour around the station. Pretty cool spot to grow up in that’s for sure.

We headed biking for the long weekend (kings birthday) – an overnight trip to Spencer park. We loaded up the panniers (tent, clothes, food etc.) and headed off. The follow-me worked really well. We hooked Anna on until we reached the red-zone and then she biked all of the way through it, and then hooked on again up to Bottle Lake, and then she biked through there (with some pushing assistance from Maaike).

We met up with Ian and Amelie, and Mark + Orla and Saoirse at the campground. It was fairly chilly, but, we all survived – thrived even. The campsite was undergoing maintenance and the recent flooding hadn’t been kind, but, it all went really well all things considered. I did think the $60 for a nights camping was pretty steep to be honest. It’s kind of a shame that trips like this aren’t completely trivially affordable. Probably a DOC campsite with no showers would have been a bunch cheaper. I mean it’s fine, but, yeah, everything feels quite expensive at the moment!

The next morning, biked home again via Sue’s place in New Brighton. All in all a really excellent trip.

*OK, so, technically not a fashion competition, but, I still totally won a $50 prize for being the best dressed on pink shirt day. I coupled it with my gamblings winnings from buying TSLS a while back and bought the board game ticket-to-ride. Anna took one look at it and decided it was too complicated for now. Hey ho.

Oh, and I also gave blood for the first time. I’m A+ of course ;) NZ only recently allowed people from UK/Ireland to donate because of CJD, so, I finally got round to it. They did have nice biscuits as advertised.

Other than that, went biking, felt very unfit but had a good time.

Had a nice time at the private Physiotherapy pool at Burwood hospital that Mark has access to. That was a fun diversion on a rainy day for the kids.

Anna started playing football, in defense (apparently all Jongerius’ descendants end up in defense, it’s in the genes)

We had the latest NZ Ruby retreat run at The Shakespear lodge, yes, that’s really how it’s spelt ;). Run by Michael and Yuri from Ruby Auckland they did an excellent job of running the event (and I know how much work it is!).

The food was excellent (once we’d found where the delivery people had hidden it!), the venue was great (inside the regional park where there’s a predator proof fence). The regular rounds of talks walks and games. It was a really nice break and thanks to Maaike for being as supportive as ever and pushing me out the door :)

Phil was trying to get me to help organise another ruby retreat up at cheeseman, but, I’m happy to let someone else take the lead this time. I’ve organised a fair few at this stage so it’s only fair to let someone else have the learning opportunity – right?! – right!