Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

Been a bit wild here over the weekend … bad storm which took out the power for most of Saturday.   I (we) still find it a bit weird that the power goes off so easily down here …   All over now and not as bad as they expected it to be thankfully but meant a weekend in the house so nothing much to report from then.

Have a look at this and check out the photos of the storm from the weekend.   Lynne will probably appreciate the severity of the storm more than the rest of you since she’s been here …. but it still shows that it was a bit rough.

Last week went okay … Kyle back at school, Regan had her MMR (I had put it off for too long so had to bite the bullet as they say) and Bobby and I continued to do the work thing …

Have booked flights to go and have a long weekend (sans Bobby and the kids) in Melbourne with Rona (my ex-boss from CVG who now lives in Singapore and is in Oz for business).   It’s actually the weekend of the anniversary of when my mum died so it’s probably a really good weekend to go away as it’ll take my mind off it …   it’s amazing how the brain clicks into “coming up to the anniversary” mode without you even realising it …   Did wonder why I was feeling a bit more emotional than usual the other day .. Then it dawned on me!   Anyhoo, looking forward to meeting up with Rona after all this time … not so sure Bobby is feeling the same way though!   :o)

Kyle’s second week of the school holidays is now over so it’s back to school next week.   His friend Righard from pre-school starts in his class on Monday so he’ll enjoy that.   It’s Righard’s birthday party tomorrow so that’s half of the weekend decided …

Work has been okay this week … had been talking to my programme manager from when I was contracting (in the capacity and growth area) a few weeks ago to see if he had any vacancies so have been finding out more about that this week.   Decided today just to stay where I was in VF for the time being and see how it goes.   The new micro marketing stuff is okay and I’m learning all about marketing and campaigning which I’ve never been involved in before.   I’ve also been asked to Programme Manage a project which has Exec sponsorship (and Exec Steering Comms every couple of weeks) so I’m either going to sink or swim with that one … at the moment it’s looking more likely to sink but I guess that’s up to me to ensure it doesn’t!!

Last Sunday we headed out to find the footbridge that goes over the motorway just before the Harbour Bridge.   It looked like there would be a good view of the harbour from there so decided we’d go and have a look.   Flickr has some photos.   Took some in daylight and decided I’d go back one morning this week to take some in the dark/as the sun was coming up.   So this morning at about 6.45am, I was on a bridge over the Northern motorway …. in the dark …. Taking pictures!   I must be kean.   Unfortunately for me, I was running a bit late so it was starting to get light, the sunrise wasn’t very spectacular and my zoom lens packed in so they are distant shots.   Oh well, I guess I can try again sometime …

The other pictures on Flickr are from a walk in the park in Ponsonby last Sunday … there are some strange sunken buildings and the fig trees are amazing!   The roots of these trees are huge!

Other than that, not much going on … Reggie is still doing great … words are coming thick and fast.   I think one of her cutest ones is “hot tea” but you really need to hear the emphasis she puts on the words to understand why it’s so cute.   I need to see if I can put some sound recordings on the blog ….

One week of the school holidays down, one to go.   Kyle enjoyed spending time with Caylen for a couple of days before his family went away for a week … rest of the week was at holiday club, which he also seems to be enjoying.   Wednesday they went to the teddy bear factory and he came back with a new teddy which hasn’t left his side (at home) since.   We had planned to spend a couple of days at home with him (working unfortunately) next week but he’s told us he’d rather go to holiday club as some of his school friends go there.   We’ll see how it goes … I can work from home easily so it’s not an issue either way.

Had a bit of an accident with the car … nothing else involved … just me having a blond moment (and no I haven’t had my hair dyed!).   Managed to catch the back bumper on a post in the drive and off it came!!   Bobby took it to the panel beaters the next day who said they couldn’t fix it for a week and it would cost $800 through the insurance or $100 not (work that one out!).   Anyway, Bobby decided to have a look himself and managed to fix it so all was well in the end.   You can’t even tell …   thank goodness ….. as those of you who know me well will know that me breaking a car really annoyed me!   Was very mad with myself!!!   My husband … the mechanical genius!!   :o)

Weather has been really cold (for Auckland) this week … it was hailstones last weekend and during the week was really cold.   Thankfully, the front coming from Antarctica seems to be changing and it was nowhere near as cold today.

Nothing planned for the weekend due to weather …

As you’ll see, I was bored with my old WordPress theme so have found a new one … still purple … but more modern.   Didn’t like a few things on it so decided to try and fix myself …. so went in and started hacking (Bobby’s term not mine!) the .php code.   I am a .php genius!!   :o)   My old development team in CVG would have been proud of me ….   Anyhoo, done now so hope you like it?

School holidays started on Friday so we’ve now got two weeks with no school for Kyle … he’s going to Caylen’s for a couple days, holiday club at the school for a few and Bobby and I are going to work from home for a few.   Reggie will have to go to nursery when we’re at home as we really will need to work.   It’s a pain having so few holidays … you only get four weeks down here and most places take three of those off for Christmas so it doesn’t leave you with much.   Because NZ is still a bit behind Europe etc .. a lot of women stay at home with the kids so it’s not as much of a problem down here.   The other way they do it is to contract and then just don’t work during the school holidays … sounds like an excellent idea to me!

Everyone still a bit under the weather with colds but generally feeling a bit better.   Work is okay .. Actually enjoying being back in web & online but that’s probably because I’m in charge … when my boss gets back, I’m sure I won’t feel the same way.