Juggling dates and balls

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow it will be six months since we arrived in New Zealand. As usual with these things, it seems just like yesterday in one respect, but a long time ago in other ways. All in all, it's been a very positive and refreshing time that has brought us closer together as a family. We've had new experiences, met new people and faced new challenges.

The boys go back to school this week after nearly seven weeks off. It will be a shock to the system! Matthew starts at intermediate (Y7 & Y8), while for the first time Josh is facing up to not having his big brother at the same school. It's going to be interesting to see how they settle in the coming weeks and we'd value your prayers for both of them.

The week after returning from New Wine was tricky. Bad weather, post-holiday blues and news of illness back in the UK combined to leaving us all feeling a bit low. But a good weekend revived spirits and the weather has even decided to cheer up as well.



Christchuch seems to have a never ending cycle of festivals and events, but this week's diary seems to have been particularly busy. There's been the week long Buskers' Festival, with shows throughout the day and evening and various venues around town. The boys did a juggling workshop last Sunday and then spent Thursday in town with Ali taking in a great range of acts. One act was by a group that had instructed at the juggling workshop. They recognised the boys and decided to co-opt Matthew into their routine!


With glorious weather this weekend, Matthew's been able to celebrate his first 'summer' birthday. But when was his birthday? He was born at 11pm in the UK, which would have been 12 noon on the following day in NZ. So was his birthday on the 29th or 30th? Whichever, we celebrated with trips to the beach. We were pounded by the surf at Taylor's Mistake yesterday, then headed to New Brighton for the kite festival today.


Sandwiched in between was a trip to a football match last night. Yes, football as in 'soccer'... with a round ball! New Zealand has one professional side who play in the Aussie league. The Phoenix are based in Wellington, but played their 'home' fixture against Adelaide Utd here in Christchurch at the newly refurbished AMI Stadium due to a concert being staged at the 'cake tin' in Wellington. In this hotbed of partisan rugby union, the Christchurch public turned up in great numbers and a noisy crowd (yes, those really are people with yellow buckets on their head in the picture) of over 19,000 cheered on the Phoenix to a 1-0 victory.

I played by first round of southern hemispere golf on Friday. Sorting out my clubs, I found a number of items that I hadn't seen since we packed off the container in June. Would you believe that I'd decided the safest place to transport lengths of model railway track was in a golf bag? More worryingly, I found a compass whistle and survival bag in one pocket. That must say something about the standard of my golf! I will leave you with that thought. Bye.