Keado’s Weblog

Couldn’t think if how to start this so thought Green Tea would do – having pots and pots at the moment. Better than coffee and warms up the toes.

Lets see – kids had swimming on Fri last week – JD not interested at all. Said he wants to go swimming when there are no lessons. He’s still being defiant against anyone telling him what to do; not all the time but starting to challenge. K enjoyed her’s although was so excited about helping Nicole on Sunday with the horses that was totally focused on Sunday, not really anything else. Sat decided not to take JD to soccer, wasn’t a great morning and he wasn’t [surprise] interested, so why push? We had a chilled morning and played some of his games. K had a party on Sat afternoon – they went off to the Auckland Museum then dinner at the Sky Tower – not too shabby for a 7th birthday. We had Amanda’s birthday party up the road..I went early for a meeting with Wayne & Aubrey – few beers – others arrived – oh boy, here we go – little glasses came out – vodka & red bull shooters – then some imported butterscotch vodka called “vok”.

It was quite strange because normally me and 3 beers [see, increased from 2 to 3] and enough. Did very well on Sat with about 4,5 beers [quietly forgot to finish the last one] and even after the little glasses, felt totally sober. My mind over the past 2 weeks has been in overdrive and even though not too much sleep, the mind is just not slowing down – good thing. Anyway, K came home after 8 and we were all snug on the couch by 9:15…family asleep – me looking at the roof – then the tv..

Sunday I was invited to a round of golf at Gulf Harbour Country club. I live on the course and this was my first game here – there is new management so the prices have come all the way down. Cost was $60 for 18 plus cart – normally $175. It was the most perfect day for golf and no wind – for the course not common on the last 9 as you play around the cliffs. I am starting to think I can actually play his game – my partner & I beat Grant & Lee by 3 holes. A beer or 2 after and home..

K was up early Sunday as she headed out for a morning with Nicole. She had to do polishing saddles, picking up horse sh*t, feed the horses, clean, sweep, and then the fun part, she got to ride 2 of them. She has only riden the one before but now Nicole confident that she can ride the others. She was screaming with excitement when she finished, literally.

Just when most people would chill on a Sun afternoon, we were off to Lee & Carmen for a little afternoon drink - home by 5! I know, dinner was soon on, watched some rugby, glass [ok 3] of wine – kids playing, Kim chatting – view over the Harauki Gulf [no clouds, just blue water and boats] – too good.

Already decided kids would be off Mon as flu starting to hit all around and K was already battling from Fri and JD started late Sat. Home after 9 I think and we all had a great sleep and a sleep in on Monday.

K has gone to school today but JD still at home – little chesty and it’s a cold day, rather let him watch Nascar.   

No, not chucky but me. Few hours of much needed sleep and thought I would start this before the family wake up and another day fly’s by. I have Disney at the desk looking & shouting at me for play time.

What have we been up to the last two weeks – not much actually.

JD – he’s well into being 5 years old and the lead up to the special event, which has been a year, has been exhausting. Five years old is a big thing in NZ and everyone talks about it all the time – you become a big boy and start school. Never mind that he has been at structured school since the age of 18 months, this is BIG school. There is another brother of a kid in K’s class that turned 4 a few weeks ago and everytime we see him, it’s about turning 5. He as at the school yesterday with his mom to collect his sister and what comes up – turning 5.

So JD is exhausted. As he puts it, his legs are tired. The reason why he’s been naughty lately, he’s been having a hard day or the dunes made him tired [more on that later]. With the move into winter, there’s much much time for playing outside and by the time they get home from school at 3:15 – then lunch & homework, it’s 4:30-4:45 and gets dark 5:30. He’s been pushing the naughty barrier quite a bit over the past few days and is a bloody good actor when it comes to pretending how upset he is. Almost think he has some Gemini running through him. Reminds me of Natalie who would laugh with you then hit you for laughing. I got a call around 1:15 yesterday from the school to say that JD’s teacher thinks he needs a half day so I went to collect him. Little tired but still himself – teacher said he was being defiant in the class and rather wanted to sleep and lie down than sit up and do some work. I made him chill on the couch until K came home from school and early to bed.

He is going to soccer but not too interested. He goes, scores a goal-sits in the nets and maybe has the odd save-kicks the ball away to the other players and waits until the end so he can go buy a chocolate. If he’s not interested, then comes the question again as with K, do we push and I know we’ll let him make the decision.

K – she’s doing well at school but the usual parent thing – could do better if she applied herself – yup, I’ve become a “parent”. She doesn’t like being left behind in reading and maths so does what’s needed to stay up. She writes little stories which are good reading and loves reading. She spends most of her free time drawing, tracing, colouring – even though it’s a trace, she does some lovely art and it improves her free drawing. Her highlight of the week is her horseriding in Dairy Flats with a young girl Nicole and a horse Dutchess. Kim spoke to Nicole and she has agreed to let K come on a Sunday morning from 9am to 1pm to help at the stables. From cleaning, grooming, catching the horse and some riding – Nicole will give her lessons while they ride the horses after the “work”. K is over the moon “for now”..it’s going to be hard work and there is no excuse even if it rains – and there’s rains forecast for her first day on Sunday. Since going to horseriding, she has not brought up going back to gym, so we’ll leave that for now.

She still has her swimming on a Friday which she loves. Her technique is excellent – well looks that way to me because I can’t get my arms to go where her’s go. JD was a little more difficult on Friday with his teacher and wasn’t listening very well at all – doing his own thing diving to the bottom.

Kim – she’s getting old at 32. Ironing, cleaning, fetching, shopping etc etc – Cinderella. We’ve been swimming at the Leisure Centre twice but her hip is giving her uphill again so no swimming this week. She’s going to have to see a physio and get it sorted.

Me – actually got stressed last week which was not a pleasant feeling but after smashing a few people into place, we’re back on schedule and all things good.

The Dunes – Jakkals arranged for a group of us to go off to play, and boy did we play. Some knew how to play and others, like me, didn’t play as hard. The Discovery is far superior to the other vehicles that came but it came down to the operator on the day. The Rav 4 [3 door and 5 door] where impressive. Both auto. they went and handled where Jakkals took his Disco – some paths I didn’t follow. Could use the excuse that I had the kids in the car but the reality was that it was my first time driving a 4×4 in those conditions. I was never an offroad character and much preferred the speed and stability of the tar.

But the Disco has power! There was not many places that it battled in low range and up one climb in particular, I floored it and it shot up easier than I thought – did a good lift off at the top ans we flew over the crest of the climb. Ok, had to be towed from a narrow climb/twist when the gearing popped out and I stuffed up the recovery but other than that, all good fun. JD just wanted to go in Jakkals car as he was throwing his around like a toy – he spent most of his years in the Namabia dunes in Land Rovers so knows what he’s doing. He took me on a little run around and can slide the Landy sideways down the dune – goes up and instead of vertical down with straight wheels, goes horizontal and slides down. Pretty exciting when you in the passenger side watching the dune peel away next to you.

K took a little strain later in the day – think was just too much and started feeling really ill, so while the others played for another half hour, we just drove around and relaxed. We all crashed that night and I spent the next morning cleaning the car – worth it.

JD has a nice birthday party on Sat – took him, K and K’s friend tenpin bowling, then they played at the games centre and people came around for a barbie early evening. Mon was “the” day and after the weekend and the excitement of Mon [presents, McDonalds etc] no wonder he was exhausted on Tues.

Lets hope he has a better day today. Almost 7am so time to wake Kim, JD most probably awake – I’ll be back>

Just added some pics of the DUNES trip..took way too long to move 2007 and 2008 pics apart. Will have to carry on this tomorrow – how’s that for a short blog!

It was the last day of holidays today and tomorrow is the bigone for JD, finally BIG SCHOOL. He’s really not phased in the slightest about the transition. He has spent so much time with the big kids and all K’s friends so he’s totally at ease. In saying that, it is crunch day tomorrow and they have assembly later in the day where all the new kids to the school get to stand up, come to the front and say who they are – in front of the whole school. Going to be interesting. He doesn’t even get to wear his new uniform as it’s mafti day – John Petrie [principle] 50th birthday, so the pupils are going dressed as him. He’ll have to wait until Tues to wear them.

Got the new Land Rover Discovery this week – very relaxing car to drive and gives a rumble when you start the big V8. Except for the p’ick who went into the bumper on Sat - hope they came off second best as the bumper is solid steel. Have to call insurance coy tomorrow to get a quote to fix - bet they going to be impressed with a claim after 4 days. The most surprising thing is that Kim likes the car more than me, and I really like it. It’s not the smallest car in the world and Kim and the kids have been 4×4′ing around the area the last few days. When we get a clear weekend, we intend goingto the dunes with Jakkals andhis Landy – I got some learning to do and with 30km’s of beach & dunes – what better place.

The kids have had a relaxing break, some swimming at the Leisure Centre, lots of drawing and dvd’s and friends over.

Sat I played golf at South Heads Golf club     http://www.southhead.nzgolf.net/ Wind was quite heavy at times on the exposed side but nice to get a game – first game this year and we are in MAY. Hopefully I’ll get a game in every month but had to miss JD score yet another 3 goals at soccer which I don’t want to make a habit. Kim & K took the reigns on Sat and cheered JD along – Kim said that K was pushing her brother to go-go-go but he just did what was necessary – played goal keeper the rest of the time.

Only 2 of us on the 8km run this morning – welcomed by a chilling wind and rain into Shakespear but eased up halfway through. This time of year the club is really quiet and between the various injuries of various people, there is generally 2-4 of us on a Wed and Sun. I’ve told everyone that rain or shine, I’ll be there – have found on 2 occasions now that there is just nobody so head back home for the treadmill. Have no idea why nobody wants to run in 12deg, 35km/h winds and rain? Weak!

Sun night – a beer and some JW Black with coffee – time to chill, eat dinner #2 and sleep time.

Last thought – give a loved one a huge hug, just because you can>