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Rachael read her poem in the Christmas production today, and everything went smoothly, apart from when Mary and Joseph reached the Inn before the innkeeper had had a chance to get on stage. I had a helper keeping track of all the songs, DVDs, powerpoints and YouTube clips for me.
I'm looking forward to a quiet couple of weeks to catch up on everything. Won't last long. The brass band start up on the 4th of January!
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( 3 / 2220 )Another parade this morning. Carol service tomorrow night. And another parade on Monday night. Then I've got a few nights off, and it's the final parade on Friday. The long one. It's over a kilometer, and we usually lose count of how many times we play the music. And lose a few music cards, shoes, bodies and trombone slides on the way. It's fun. But tiring!
I'm planning to do the coffee bar on the night shift again at Parachute, but this time I'll probably be going hard core and bringing a tent. I've found a silver one with a flysheet on TradeMe, which should hopefully be cooler for daytime sleeping. (I worked out though that it's better to split sleeping morning and evening to avoid too much jetlag). It'll be fun, provided I can find a quiet spot...
Christmas parcels are wrapped, but no addresses or stamps. Christmas letter is written, but not enough envelopes. We'll get there eventually, but your Christmas letters and presents will certainly be in good time for next year.
Another afternoon tea party at the old Kerr-Taylor family home in Auckland tomorrow. The Historic Places Trust are quite generous in opening it up to us for free. It's a huge old wooden house - they had ten children. Rachael loves exploring. Bronwyn offered to bring chocolate fudge brownies. Mmmm...
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( 3 / 2218 )A rather full-on week.
The Henderson Santa parade and the Auckland parade went well, as did the church on Sunday, but I'm rather exhausted. At times I wasn't sure if I was still standing up. We were a bit rough on our first play through of the march on Saturday, but warmed up after a while. For Sunday, the church had been decorated as a throne room, and we all had to remove our shoes. We played a rather good fanfare on cornet and trombone, and then ... nothing happened. Apparently the computer was a bit slow in showing the video that followed.
It's going to be just as busy next weekend. I'll make a note to get more sleep in advance.
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( 3 / 2202 )Missed the brass band rehearsal to got to the youth trust committee meeting. Next Tuesday I'm missing the church meeting to go to the brass band committee. Sounds fair. This Tuesday I'll be off at a training session for the trust. Wednesday is our church home group, Monday is the brass band.
Today I trained another person to run the projector. Next week I'll be on trombone, followed by more trombone at the central auckland Santa parade. The week after, I've got a third person to train, and then the week after it's the childrens' production.
Rachael had a bit of a meltdown this morning. She had been given the chance to read her own poem in the production. This was fine until another girl practiced her song, at which point Rachael wanted to sing instead, and got all upset when nobody let her. She seems OK about it now, but I'd better encourage her to write that poem.
Saturday morning was our first Santa parade, but fortunately we were just providing background music, sitting nearby. Just as well, because the parade got stuck by doubling back on itself, and took a while to move.
Bronwyn's had a quiet and relaxing weekend, and seems to be a lot better for it. Unfortunately I picked this weekend to have a nasty bout of stomach bug that left me rather tired. Managed it somehow. I had to take the girls with me both days, which meant quite an early start. I think they're a little tired, but as usual not admitting it!
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( 3 / 2176 )Right hand bend. Bit of gravel. Steer into it. Easy. Oops. Bit too much. Steer right. Good. No, left. Left. LEFT!
The car ignored me, and I ended up parked neatly on a grassy bank. Fortunately the wheels were pointing left, otherwise I would have ended up on the downhill cross country. The car still worked, but one wheel was off the ground, so I had to flag down a couple of people who pushed it back onto the road, and then advised me to buy a Lotto ticket. I didn't buy a ticket, but I did continue rather carefully. Once at work, I confidently slammed my phone in the car door.
Well, the car is fine, but squeaks a little at low speed, so I might have knocked something slightly. The mobile works, but the display is broken. I've dug out our old phone, and transferred the number onto that one. Plus I've sorted out a tax number for Sarah so that her savings are on the right tax rate. This required two passports, a driving licence and a birth certificate. I also attempted to sort out Bronwyn's savings, and attempted to find someone qualified to sign it, but none of them work on Saturdays. Not even the local police!
Bronwyn has got her CV ready, and has a list of places to send it to. She's been struggling with depression lately, which is understandable considering all that's happened. She's booked in next weekend for a short break at a respite home.
Meanwhile, the brass band is getting into the silly season. We've had a number of extra requests for playouts. With three different bands (junior, senior and vintage) it's easier to accommodate them, but it's still going to be busy.
Meanwhile, I've accepted the post of funding officer for the youth worker project at the local secondary school. So I'll be going to the trustee meeting tomorrow (instead of band), and there'll be a training day in a week or so.
Meanwhile, at work we're installing an open source version of our software in three different schools around the country. The government has paid us to create a free version, and also to install it as a trial. So I thought I'd test things out on Friday to make sure it worked. Good idea. There were lots of bugs due to last minute changes, and there are probably plenty more lurking in there. I might end up accompanying our support person nest week as he tries to get things working.
Three new volunteers (plus Rachael) to do the computer at church. I trained up one today, who did really well. Another next week. Plus one for the sound desk. It was busy this morning!
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