Watersport Weekend

On Friday, when I looked on the "GrabOne" deal of the day, a bunch of us girls decided to buy the half price surf lessons at Muriwai beach.  The next thing that popped up was 50% off entry to the Harbour Crossing Auckland, the ocean swim here that is part of the NZ series.  It starts literally right down the road from the house, so I can walk down on race day, which just so happens to be next Sunday, the 21st of November!  I had wanted to do it when I heard about it before, but then thought it was a bit expensive to enter and then wasn't sure about buying a wetsuit or training...well, I'm going to try to swim at least 3 times before the race...just to loosen up the swimming muscles at least!  And as for the wetsuit, I purchased one later on Friday (early xmas gift from Mom and Dad).  It's not a swimming specific one, because I intended to do more windsurfing, surfing and kite-surfing than ocean swimming in it, but I should be able to swim pretty well in it anyway.  It was a lot of work trying them on too!! 

Saturday was Nan's birthday, so the family came here to celebrate, and as usual, planned around the high tide so plenty of sailing could be done as well!  It was an absolutely beautiful day and I got to go for a little sail, and learn how to use the spinnaker, also test out the new wetsuit and get used to it for a bit!  After I went for a little swim in the bay, and Reuben and Libby got excited and came swimming with me.  They went for sails as well and even hung onto the foot straps of the windsurfer while their uncle Richard towed them around.  Then I had a turn trying to learn to windsurf.  Although, it was rigged up with a fairly large sail (not suitable for learning on) so it was very difficult to pull up and then pretty hard to manage once it was up!  I managed to go a few meters at least before tipping over.  John reckons once I try a smaller sail and get the feel of it, I'll find it really easy!  I hope so, because it looks like lots of fun!!  After the Birthday celebrations and afternoon of water sports, I took the ferry and met a group of the girls that went wine tasting that afternoon for dinner.  After that we decided to try another district in the city, Ponsonby, to see what the night life was like there.  There ended up being 12 of us at the start of the night, our gatherings just keep getting bigger and bigger!  However, it is quite difficult to keep that many people together for the entire night so slowly it broke down into smaller groups at different places. 

Today, I had a nice lazy morning and then went to play tennis at three.  Now I need to schedule in times this week where I'm going to fit my training swims in!

Getting ready to test out the new wetsuit (John and Reuben in the sailboat behind me)

Sailors coming in, Papa helping them and Libby setting up the "party food" as she called it

Tess in the boat, wanting to go sailing

My first attempts at windsurfing with far too large a sail!  Reuben in the water wanting to be towed again!

4 of the 12, Germany, England, California, Germany

4 more, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Belgium

4 more, Japan, England, Massachusetts, California

Progress!

Not only have I been catching up on the TV I've been missing at home (www.sidereel.com for any international followers of American TV programs), but I've noticed some major progress in yoga too!

I'm am now completely caught up with Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives, one more episode of How I Met Your Mother to go and working on Glee next!  I had planned on going to the beach today, hoping the weather would be like yesterdays, but unfortunately I rained almost all day, so I had a lazy day instead until yoga time. 

I had a pretty productive-feeling class today and at the end this one posture we do pretty much every time...should really start learning the names...you're sitting through a chair with your thighs strapped together, arching backwards, knees locked with a sandbag on your flexed feet, just shoulder blades hanging off the other side the chair.  First, you start out just reaching your arms out straight over your head for the wall bars, then once that's easy reach for the floor, then eventually start walking them along the floor until you find the legs of the chair.  Today, I was able to find the legs of the chair right away and then get a better grip as I stayed there for my 20 long-slow breaths to stretch out more.  I am definitely stretching out my shoulders a lot and it's working really well...the hips and hamstrings however need a bit more time!

Narrow Neck Beach

Hmmm, nothing to exciting happened yesterday that I can think of, Libby had a play date so it was pretty easy afternoon with just Reuben and Tessa.  All ran smoothly.

This morning was my first morning with the kids alone (after 7:45am anyway) to get them out the door to school on time.  Surprisingly, everything went really well without mom and dad around!  Seemed to be less distracted and of course they'd got them as ready as possible before leaving so all I had to do really was corral them out the door on time.  Although, while playing, Libby suddenly decided, "I'm going to go brush my teeth now!" which NEVER happens.  She usually has to be reminded quite a few times to be taken away from her play.  So I managed to brush her hair as well while she did her teeth without complaint!  She even made me a card this morning with a picture of me driving them to school and a heart next to it on the inside, "love, Libby" on the outside.  However, it wasn't for me to keep, just to look at.  Luckily, I started the process of finding shoes and sunhats early because Libby's school sandals were nowhere to be found in the house!  Fortunately, mom had taken dad's car today and dad had taken the ferry to work because Libby's sandals and sun hat were in mom's car from getting picked up from her playdate the day before.  We found them on the way to the car and still managed to be about 12 min early to school, must be a record so far! 

Tessa and I went to Narrow Neck beach to play on the swing and slide after making the school stop.  It was a beautiful warm, sunny day and we sat and had morning tea, then watched sailing class for a bit, watched some dogs on the beach and of course played on the slide!  The downside was that today Tessa showed a lot of signs of potential transitioning into a phase of terrible twos!  The other two apparently weren't bad toddlers at all, so hopefully she follows more in their footsteps and doesn't start with the crazy tantrum, although I did tell her she was being a drama queen today, which she didn't quite understand but said, "yup" to anyway.  The simple fact that she didn't understand what I was telling her made her calm down for awhile though while she tried to figure it out.  Usually she is very good about doing what I ask her to do, but today there was just a little bit of protest and unhappiness every time, possibly due to teething, or just unhappy to not get her way and wanting to be mischievous and explore new things.  Luckily, after school the other two seemed to be on some of their best behavior, making the afternoon run smoothly.  Libby did her best to help keep Tessa occupied and happy, which was nice because sometimes, she can almost do the opposite!

I managed to go for a run this evening and did my 5k loop in my fastest time yet, so was happy with that!  And when I got home I had a text from Mark Nielsen at the tennis club asking if I'd help coach  for an hour Monday night, think it'll be the junior interclub!  Sounds good to me!  Luckily, it fits into my schedule!

Tessa watching the young sailors

Rangitoto in the background

Cleaning Spree!

I've managed to develop yet another cold, most likely from the kids, and so have been just trying to get lots of rest to get over it quickly, and did not feel up to yoga today, especially since it's quite difficult to breathe through my nose and it's kind of necessary for the class!  So instead I decided to do an extra thorough job cleaning the house, folding laundry, making a batch of mince to last the kids' dinners the next few nights, replenishing the fruit and veggie supply...everything was very much appreciated in the end so that was good.  Somehow that all seemed just tiring work as exercise though!  Tonight, I've been researching via website itinerary suggestions and my travel book (and incorporating verbal suggestions of Kiwis or people who have been there) where to go and what to see and do in the South Island!  December 26th is just over a month away (that's when Mom, Dad and I pick up our camper van to go touring the country!) so I figured we probably should have some plan of action in order to fit everything in!  The problem is there is just so much to do and see everywhere and it all sounds so great!  I think I've roughly sorted out where each night will be spent, now just to figure out how much we can do and see each day!  Then we'll also have to consider what to do in the North Island after we return the camper! 

It was yet another beautiful, warm, sunny day today and it looks as though they will continue throughout the week!  And I was just checking my "dashboard" on my Mac of all the forecasts I have saved there and it says it may be snowing at home tonight?!  Is this true??  I did realize today I am kind of missing soup season!  I had a craving for soup the other day, but it was just a bit too warm out!  It's not something kept in the pantry either, but I mentioned it tonight and was informed they have a whole cookbook dedicated to soup, so maybe I have something to look forward to next winter!