There were many workmen about. There were the painters painting, the tiler tiling, and the builder making shelves and doing odds and ends outside.
I kept an appointment at the doctors to get my 'Fit to Travel' letter. Having seem me a couple of times previously he could see that my condition was stable apart from the fact that I had put on some weight.
At the end of the morning we did go out to Pak n' Save. I dropped grandma and Emily off at the little play area in the school playground.
In the afternoon we set off for Madill's Farm Park twice. After getting to the park we turned around to go home to find her second doll. Then we returned were she played happily without any dolls. Doh!
At 5.15 I was summoned to set off and collect Zoe from her play scheme.
Irene and me had a chill out time before joining Sally to watch the second part of another Harry Potter movie.
On Wednesday there was only the painters in. I drove grandma and Emily off to the Kiwi Valley Farm where Emily enjoyed feeding the animals, riding on a pony, charging through the maze, riding on the trailer behind the tractor and exploring the cave. She did not much care for the chickens.
It became showery as we left the farm and seems to have set in for the day.
On the way home we stopped at a Mitre10 store for lunch. I could swear that they are a Kiwi branch of B and Q apart for having a wider range of barbecue stuff, a play area and a good cafe. Before and after our lunch Emily made good use of the play area. There was a surfboard on springs on which Emily did a good impression of a surfer. We all had pancakes which were larger for the adults, had pieces of banana and covered in syrup. The adult ones also had slices of bacon which Emily enjoyed.
Sally was home, doing office work, when we got back. Emily played happily and I did some more work on my painting.
In the evening we went of to our friends, Stefan and Debbie. The food had moved up a notch. There was rice with stew and we finished off with custard pie. The conversation about church life was so interesting that we left quite late and sneaked back in the house so as not to disturb the family.
While we were with them they told us about a man who had approached them at their Noah's Ark stand in Auckland City Square. He was dressed smart-casual and claimed to be a born again Christian. He told them a sad tail about being unemployed, but was now working, but needed $300 to get him through to his first pay check. They offered to help if he gave them his email address to arrange to contact them. When the Kitshoffs got home they told their student daughter. She asked if the man had said that he had been a dock worker. It turned out the same man had been telling the same story in the University. It did not come has a surprise to find the email address was phoney.
Thursday started with the sudden descent on us of a builder and a plumber. Mum happened to be downstairs when the work men arrived to move shelving and a hot water tank from a cupboard. This meant rapidly emptying the cupboard. So, by the time Irene appeared the settee was covered in piles of towels and other cloths.
We left the workmen to get on with the work. I drove Irene and Emily to MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology). I am now so used to driving through the city and out on the M16 that I did not need a SATNav.
Having paid our entrance fee we started by a tram ride. The tram takes passenger from the main MOTAT site to the aviation site. Just before we arrived I noticed a rainbow. We have seen so few rainbows here despite the fact that there can often be a mix of rain and sun. Sally says that they are not uncommon. The picture shows a very low bow, almost flat along the horizon.
There was little of interest to Emily on the aviation site so we were soon boarding a tram back to the main site. Emily spent a total of 5 hours at MOTAT. There was a 70's mini which had been rebuilt to look life a fire engine. It did a two minute circuit of a part of the site pulling two open carriages. Much of the time was taken up with this ride.
She also enjoyed the 00 gauge railway; predicting were it would go and happily running ahead to stand waiting for the train to come. She spent time climbing on to the engine and waited patiently for a turn on the catapult.
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| Waiting for the Tram's Departure |
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| Young Engineer |
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| Waiting for the Grandparent's Coffees |
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| Ahead of the Train.
The viaduct is a scale model of one in the middle of North Island.
We crossed it for real the last time we came.
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| Fire Engine Ride |
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| Catapult |
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| "Hello Grandma" |
When we got back we found that Emily's room had been painted and just needed curtains and furniture before the Clark family could get back to normal sleeping arrangements. This could happen on Friday.
My next task was to pick up Zoe from the holiday club early so that the girls could have a last hold of the Kindy guinea pigs because the animals were going to passed on to a new, temporary keeper on Friday.
Having had a particularly exhausting day yesterday we decided to take it more easily. Emily occupied herself for most of the morning.
I did some more of my painting. The ferry boat catching the evening sun is now in place.
At about 11.00 we set off for 'Lollipop's' indoor play area. We were there quite some time as Emily was kept busy playing with the other children there. She particularly enjoyed chasing a young Batman around area. There was a brief pause in the proceeding while she eat her hot-dog on a stick. In this country a hot dog can mean a large sausage on a stick.
Back in the house the tiler had gone leaving a few bits of grouting to do.
I had left my paint brushes and paints out and this inspired Emily to do some paint mixing like Granddad. Fortunately Grandma intervened and quickly provided Emily with her own paints and brushes before she could get too far in using mine.
Sally arrived back early to take the guinea pigs to the new temporary keeper and pick up Zoe.
The girls started tea.
Ian came home with a large canvas print of the very photos that I am laboriously using for a painting. Perhaps I should just sign it and pass it off as my art work.
The baby sitter arrived and the four adults went off to a meal in Mission Bay. The first stop was the Belgium Beer Cafe. They carry a huge range of imported beers. We tasted three of them before setting off to the Thai Restaurant.
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| The Belgium Beer Cafe is above and the ice-cream parlour beneath |
On the way we were given a letter from our neighbours, Jenny and Francis. The mail was a late Easter card, but added to the greeting was the message, "Wish you were here." As we drove along the sea shore on a warm autumn evening a reply to the message, from a much colder UK, needed very little thought.
On Saturday we got up a little early to see what we could do to help Sally and Ian put the girls' rooms back to normal. It turned out that the best thing was to take them both to 'Lollipops'. The cashier recognised us from yesterday. We sat and had our 'free' drinks while Emily went round and around on the little merry-go-round and Zoe went on the climbing equipment with a new 'friend'.
On the way back we called in for MacDonald's.
The tiler had arrived and we hope that this part of the work will be completed today.
Emily seemed very please with her new room.
Sally is spending the day doing a very thorough 'autumn clean'.
