Speedway / The Floods (Flooder)
We took the kids to the speedway on Saturday night. We had Joseph with us too because we were looking after him for the night. We've heard the speedway from our house hundreds of times, but never actually been. The main reason for going was to see the fireworks display, it was firecracker night during the week but we don't tend to do it anymore because they're so expensive and they're usually so disappointing when you let them off. Much better to go and see a professional display.
The speedway was pretty awesome, packed with people because it turns out everyone has the bright idea of taking their kids to see the speedway/fireworks display. We got in and Nicola and Steve had a spot for us, so we went and sat with them on the bank. Once it kicked off, it was heaps of fun. The kids actually really enjoyed it, Beth sat there the whole night watching it all, hardly talking to us! It helped of course that she had Joseph to talk to, and right next door to us was one of her friends from school who she also sat with and had a great old time. It was the first time though she's really sort of enjoyed something by herself, with her friends, as opposed to needing to sit with us the whole time. I mean of course she kept coming and asking for food and lollies etc, but she's also growing up that little bit more where she's quite happy to just hang by herself with her friends.
Theo loved it too, the whole thing was pretty exciting. Whenever the Super Saloons were on, we'd all get COVERED in mud as they went around the corner. Some of the chunks of mud were massive and quite scary really, especially knowing they're flying up and towards your children! Thankfully we'd brought cushions from our couch so we could hold those up ot protect ourselves as they came flying our way. At about 8:30pm we went for walk down to pit lane to have a look at the cars, get some fairy floss and donuts etc.
Finally 9:30pm came around and it was time for the fireworks display. I really didn't hold much hope they'd be that great but boy oh boy was I wrong. What I thought might be a 1 minute display was at least 5 minutes of really well done fireworks. Huge displays, very loud etc. They turned the lights off around the Speedway too so they were easy to see, not that you could miss them they were right there in front of us. A fantastic show!
Half the people with kids left after the fireworks, we waited for the last race (there were only two more) before packing up and going, took us quite a while to get out of the carpark. By the time we got home we had 3 very very tired children. Theo felt he was missing out because he didn't have a friend to sleep in his room (JoJo was sleeping in Beth's) so I slept on the spare mattress in his room. I don't know why I bothered, he was in bed for less than 2 minutes before he was fast asleep.
Tuesday I biked to work like normal, it was just a normal day. And about midday it started to rain. And it just rained and rained and rained and rained. And it wasn't little rain, it was insane, massive downpours that just would not let up. When it was time to go I tried to ride home but Rachael at work wouldn't let me, she insisted I take a company car home instead. Well, halfway home I was really glad she forced me because holy shit, the roads! Massive puddles everywhere. Got home and saw just how much rain there was, the lawns were all flooded, the driveway was knee deep in a few places. Insane. I realised this wasn't just a large downpour, it was pretty serious. The lights kept flicking, people we know texted to say their power was out etc. I rushed around to charge every battery I had thinking our power would go out.
Eventually about 10pm the rain just stopped. I went outside to have a look around and it was insane, everything was a lake. Thankfully because our house is 50cm off the ground we were fine, but I know Bruce who lives in Napier St got flooded. The news was showing pictures of slips and people who's house was flooded etc, it was crazy. Turns out it was a once in 250 years event, though given global warming etc I wouldn't be surprised if it's a once every 5 years event these days.
We were lucky anyway and escaped with zero damage to our house or property, it's horrible for those who aren't as lucky. Something like 50 houses in Napier are uninhabitable now, heaps and heaps of shops were closed yesterday with "closed for flooding" signs, lots of the main roads in Napier were covered in mud etc. It's a real shitshow and I guess will take a few weeks to get sorted out. What's crazy is that we just didn't have any warning, no one said there's going to be utterly torrential rain, get ready. I mean what can you do, probably not a lot, but they usually give these GIANT warnings about shit that never turns out to be more than 3 drips, yet when massive actual rainfall with huge flooding happens, not a peep!
I bet the watermelons in the garden loved it though!
What else? Went to Sharni's on Sunday night for Isla's birthday, they cocked just about everything up. I went and had a crab to the manage and we got my steak meal for free (it came out ~20 mins after everyone else's). Prior to that I did a 11km run, 2km into it thunderstorms came over and pissed all over me. Joy of joys. Still finished my run though.
I think that's about it? Oh made the second progress payment on the pool yesterday, it's in Napier now in the storage yard. Hooray!
Oh yea, Beth's latest game is "Daddy Remote" which I think she picked up off Bluey. She's made a little cardboard remote control with buttons on it, she presses them and I have to walk backwards/forwards/left/right etc. It's a great game, we play it at bedtime for 10 minutes. And I've figured out when I'm in "Robot Mode" I have to say "Oh No. Battery. Running Low. 3 Mins Left" so she knows the game has to end soon. Otherwise I'll be a robot all night! Theo meanwhile is more interested in reading books, he loves a story and is doing a good job of reading his readers that school sends home each night. We finally have an appointment for his speech next Friday.
While I remember - Beth hates Peppa Pig now. Well, really doesn't want to watch it, though Theo still enjoys it. Most of the time she sits in her lounge pod thing that Sarah bought and reads books. She loves books, everytime I find her now she's reading something.
Updated: Oh yea I forgot that last Friday Theo did his first game of Touch Rugby. He actually seemed to quite enjoy it, the week before he'd done a training practise with the coach but this was the first game. It's supposed to be 3 a side but each side had so many players (we had 10) that we did four a side. Anyway they all enjoyed it, even though they got beaten to a pulp by the other team. The other guys knew what they were doing, our team was still figuring out what was going on most of the time!
Tim