Today I applied for an overseas driver's license conversion and could not believe how easy it was! I walked away in under 30 min with my temporary full license in hand and it only cost $50! They did a quick eyesight test, took my photo and signature and said I should receive the card in 3 weeks, pretty simple! They just needed to see my Massachusetts license, my passport and a proof of address here. I mostly got it to have an accepted for of ID to carry with me, to get into bars for example, so that I don't have to carry around my passport everywhere with me!
It was also a nice, sunny hot day today and I went for a swim in the bay for my training because high tide was right at midday and the water was so warm! Julia and the girls did some kayaking in front of the house as well.
Tomorrow night I am doing an ocean swim (they take place every Thursday as part of a summer swim series). You can choose your distance, 500m, 1k, 1.5k, or 2k. I'm just doing the 1k to test out the swimming wetsuit, which I have tried out briefly in the bay, to make sure it's comfortable enough to make it over 4k if I decided to sign up to swim to Rangitoto in April! After that Sophie and I are off to Waiwera hot pools for the night to use up my GrabOne voucher before it expires! Then it's the long weekend and we're going to Fiesta Del Sol on a vineyard on Waiheke island all day Saturday for An's birthday so we're hoping the rain in the forecast holds off!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Back in Full Swing!
So at least I got to have one last fun-filled weekend and some nice relaxing beach days with some of the girls I hadn't seen in weeks (this is the 14-16 Jan) before heading back to a FULL week of work with the kids! It's still school holidays, and they start back again on the 2nd of Feb. Last week was a bit of a crazy one! Well, for starters, Libby and Reuben had a week of intensive swim lessons, Libby at 9am and Reuben at 9:30, which meant poor Tessa had to sit through an hour, when all she wanted was to hop right in that pool! So mornings were hectic to say the least. Then without fail, every single day, mainly for Tessa, they did an hour of wet jumping (bouncing on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath it). Julia's birthday was Wednesday so we spent a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday wrapping presents and making cards. Then on Wednesday was baking day. Of course Libby and Reuben couldn't decide on a cake flavor, according to Reuben, Libby only wanted banana cake because it was her favorite and Libby said it couldn't be chocolate, what Reuben wanted, because she didn't like it. Reuben then decided it should have strawberry icing, which Libby liked the sound of. So we ended up with banana cake with strawberry icing made from fresh strawberries! It was actually pretty yummy and enjoyed by everyone! Then on Thursday, Julia was off up to Bay of Islands to help her Dad sail the boat home. We drove her to the airport, which ended with a lot of complaints of carsickness from Reuben and Libby who were riding facing the wrong way in the boot. I'm sure the heat didn't help too much either. On the way home one was in the front and one was in the back and I had them intrigued by the gps as well, so it was a lot smoother ride home! Then Reuben had a friend show up for a play date. After he was here for about an hour it was time to pick up Tessa from kindercare, so that made 4 kids for the rest of the afternoon, and she wasn't too happy that mom wasn't there to pick her up, and didn't quite understand that she would be coming home for a couple of days!
On Friday, after their last swim lessons of the week, both Reuben and Libby went to play dates, which allowed Tessa to have a nice afternoon sleep I'm sure she was very much in need of! The rest of the day went pretty smoothly after that. Although the rainy weather had come in to stay for the entire weekend! I still cycled to the pool in Takapuna, in the rain, and then swam and cycled home. I met Sophie and Rachel in Takapuna, but it cleared out SUPER early...so pretty uneventful that night. Saturday I did some more biking and running (following a little triathlon training schedule for the mini ContactTri Women's one Jenny and I signed up for March 5, currently 6 weeks away! That night we had a nice meal at Rachel's with lots of yummy food and then went out into town. However the mood was ruined a bit because of all the rain...and then Astrid's car battery died which turned out to be a bonus for Rachel, Sophie and I. Freidi drove us into town in Astrid's car and then they were headed home almost 2 hours before us, so we just decided we'd take a cab later...then we get a call from Astrid saying when they stopped for McDonald's the engine was shut off for all of a minute and the lights left on, but that was enough to make the battery go flat...so they had been trying to flag someone down at 3am to get it jumped...in the rain...apparently most cab drivers were really rude and the police even said they couldn't help, but eventually they got help from one cab driver and we found them just in time to hop in and get a ride home. So their night was a little bit longer than they'd planned!
Sunday morning the weather was even crazier!! Heavy heavy rain and super strong wind! There were all kinds of puddles all over the roads and the motorway was even closed across the bay heading into the city at high tide because the water had come up over the road! Julia came home yesterday with her mom, unable to sail anywhere because of the crazy weather, so her dad will wait and come back with one of his crew members. Yesterday, we made some bright yellow playdough (my fingernails still show evidence from the mixing process) and we made a bike trip to the park. Well Tessa got to ride in her pram. Then it was a race home because mom had arrived back with Nan after 5 days away! Libby went home with Nan to spend the night and tonight will be Reuben's turn so tomorrow I'll just have Libby and Tessa. Julia is still home from work today because she'd planned on still being on her way sailing home. So she and Reuben have just gone fishing and I'll be here to look after Tessa when she wakes from her nap.
On Friday, after their last swim lessons of the week, both Reuben and Libby went to play dates, which allowed Tessa to have a nice afternoon sleep I'm sure she was very much in need of! The rest of the day went pretty smoothly after that. Although the rainy weather had come in to stay for the entire weekend! I still cycled to the pool in Takapuna, in the rain, and then swam and cycled home. I met Sophie and Rachel in Takapuna, but it cleared out SUPER early...so pretty uneventful that night. Saturday I did some more biking and running (following a little triathlon training schedule for the mini ContactTri Women's one Jenny and I signed up for March 5, currently 6 weeks away! That night we had a nice meal at Rachel's with lots of yummy food and then went out into town. However the mood was ruined a bit because of all the rain...and then Astrid's car battery died which turned out to be a bonus for Rachel, Sophie and I. Freidi drove us into town in Astrid's car and then they were headed home almost 2 hours before us, so we just decided we'd take a cab later...then we get a call from Astrid saying when they stopped for McDonald's the engine was shut off for all of a minute and the lights left on, but that was enough to make the battery go flat...so they had been trying to flag someone down at 3am to get it jumped...in the rain...apparently most cab drivers were really rude and the police even said they couldn't help, but eventually they got help from one cab driver and we found them just in time to hop in and get a ride home. So their night was a little bit longer than they'd planned!
Sunday morning the weather was even crazier!! Heavy heavy rain and super strong wind! There were all kinds of puddles all over the roads and the motorway was even closed across the bay heading into the city at high tide because the water had come up over the road! Julia came home yesterday with her mom, unable to sail anywhere because of the crazy weather, so her dad will wait and come back with one of his crew members. Yesterday, we made some bright yellow playdough (my fingernails still show evidence from the mixing process) and we made a bike trip to the park. Well Tessa got to ride in her pram. Then it was a race home because mom had arrived back with Nan after 5 days away! Libby went home with Nan to spend the night and tonight will be Reuben's turn so tomorrow I'll just have Libby and Tessa. Julia is still home from work today because she'd planned on still being on her way sailing home. So she and Reuben have just gone fishing and I'll be here to look after Tessa when she wakes from her nap.
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