Enjoying the ordinary

The last few days have been gorgeous, 

lovely and sunny with a bit of a breeze.

Well quite a breeze at times if I am being perfectly honest.

I thoroughly enjoy these mornings, 

this is when I get motivated

 to get things done around the house.

Every winter I promise myself that

 I will do all sorts of indoor chores 

so that I don't need to spend my time 

indoors when the warmer weather arrives.

We have a long, usually wet and cold winter.

With a correspondingly short, sometimes hot summer.

The winter chore thing doesn't happen very often 

although I did get my kitchen cupboards

 cleaned and cleared out this year.

So on Monday when the morning was so warm 

and sunny I was primed and ready to go.

Monday is wash day and bed change day, and silly

 as it may sound, I love pegging washing on the line. 

It was all out on the line and back in before lunch.

(folded and put away, as well, if I may skite).

I did my usual big weekly house clean,

 singing away to myself, and finished icing a

 Christmas cake I had made for a function for yesterday.

I drank coffee and chatted with my GKB 

out in the morning sun before the day got too hot

and finished washing down my kitchen walls and cupboard doors.

Then later in the afternoon I spent a little time in the garden. 

I had to find shady places to work though 

as it was really hot by then. So I really enjoyed 

my Monday at home and I hope you can find

 enjoyment in the ordinary, everyday things as well.

joining Stephanie over at:

Roses of Inspiration

Wishing you all a great week 
and a wonderful Thanksgiving 
Weekend to those of you in the U.S.A.
Diana

Conferencing by the lake

I had an Aglow conference to go to at the weekend

and so my GKB graciously drove me 

and a friend to Te Anau to attend.

This is distance of several hundred kilometres 

which took about four hours including a lunch stop.

Te Anau is situated on the side of Lake Te Anau 

and I would like to tell you that this was the view 

from our lakeside motel, but alas, it was not.

No, twas this :(  

We had a back unit, but never mind, we weren't 

there to look at the view from the motel window.

Te Anau is the jumping off point for tourists heading

  to Milford Sound and the surrounding area, 

so it was interesting to people watch 

as I was eating my breakfast. Some caught buses 

and others were walking into the Town Centre

with their back packs.

The hotel the conference was held in was really 

nice but not so posh that you felt out of place.

Geoff Bear was in the foyer.

On Saturday night we had a dinner and my GKB 

attended with me. That's him on the left beside our friend.

Not many men there but we did have 

another man at our table for him to talk to.

The food was beautiful, cold salmon, 

a selection of hot meats, salads and hot vegetables.

Afterwards there was a selection of cold desserts 

that were replenished as fast as they were eaten. 

It was too easy to overeat , unfortunately :)

especially when there were things I had never tried 

and thought this was my opportunity to do so. 

Oh well, I'll just have to watch what I eat now I'm home again.

joining in the parties at:

Blue Monday

and

Wake up Wednesday

Have a wonderful week, 

take care until next time.

Diana

Black and blue

Because things are a bit all over the place here

 at the moment I don't have time to put up

 a 'proper' post so thought I would join in

 with the party at Blue Monday. 

My GKB has been playing on his camera

 (which is really his cell phone) and loaded

 this to the computer so I thought I would use it.

 I don't know whether it is good,

 bad or otherwise but I like it.

Blue Monday

Have a good week, 
Diana

Saturday's light party

It's a wet and miserable day here, 

not at all like last Saturday evening 

when I volunteered at the Light Party

 in the city's football stadium.

face painters receiving their instructions

The light party is an event put on by 

the Acts of Kindness charitable trust as an alternative 

to the trick or treating of halloween.

It was nice and warm out on the field under the roof.

on the big screen - a *Kapa Haka group on stage 

A gold coin entry and various stalls around about

 selling eats and drinks, at (mostly) reasonable prices.

Non stop entertainment on stage all evening

and lots of bouncy castles, races, games and such like

 for those who are young or young at heart.

Chloe and her mate

Youngest grand daughter Chloe and her friend 

were volunteers as well, on the face painting booth.

the crowd coming in - gate is at the centre right

Their younger brothers and sisters were 

somewhere in the crowd. During the course 

of the evening we went for two 

Guinness Book of world records. 

The first one popping bubble wrap 

and the  second was for holding your hands in a heart shape.

I haven't heard how we got on but it was a lot of fun,

I was roped in as a marshal for that as well :)

tea or coffee and cake $2-00

My main job was working on a tea and coffee booth

and I must admit I had a ball and will 

be volunteering again next year.

The photo above was taken at the end of 

the evening just before we cleaned up.

***********

*Kapa Haka is part of the cultural identity of 

most, if not all, of our primary schools in New Zealand.

I've put an explanation from Wikipedia below.

*Kapa Haka -
Kapa haka is the term for Māori performing arts and literally means to form a line (kapa) and dance (haka). Kapa haka is an avenue for Maori people to express and showcase their heritage and cultural Polynesian identity through song and dance.
Kapa haka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapa_haka


Well I hope you all have a wonderful week.
I have a very busy one coming up 
but today's outing has been cancelled so this morning
I took the opportunity to write out some Christmas cards!
I know, I know, but November is a busy, busy, month for me.
Diana