Wednesday 25 November 2015

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:


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

Tuesday 17 November 2015

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:
and

Have a wonderful week, 
take care until next time.
Diana

Tuesday 10 November 2015

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

Tuesday 3 November 2015

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
took the opportunity to write out some Christmas cards!
I know, I know, but November is a busy, busy, month for me.
Diana