Happy 10th Birthday Beautiful Bethany Bongles
It was Beth's 10th Birthday on Saturday. 10 years old. How quickly time flies. She woke up not too early and was very happy it was her birthday, not stressed, she knew that presents would be coming at some stage! Eventually we all managed to gather in the lounge to give her presents. This year she got:
- Some new clothes
- A huge Slime Making kit
- A $50 Prezzy card (in a Daddy made Blind Bag)
- A Green plush frog, since named Gerald. Theo picked it out thinking Beth would love it and she sure does. [Pictured meeting Kermot for the first time]
- Some books from Pa
- Some lovely clothes from Granny
- A huge bead/braclet making kit
After presents and some breakfast it was time to go up to swimming, can't get away from learning just because it's your Birthday! Swimming was pretty normal, we drove straight home though instead of going to the cafe because Peter and Mary were coming around to wish Beth happy birthday too. Oh Granny rang while Theo was swimming so that was good, I gave the phone to Beth and she went into the car and spoke to Mum for about 20 mintutes on WhatsApp. So that was nice.
Once home we saw Peter and Mary, and then Jeremy and Flecther called. Flectcher was half interested in the fact it was Beth's birthday but mostly interested in seeing her Shrimpy. Which we couldn't find! Eventually after they hungup I found them (Shrimpy is non-binary) hanging out in a Washing Basket upstairs.
Then I spent most of the rest of the morning getting the house ready for the afternoon Birthday Party! As I'm sure I mentioned in previous post I've spent the last 2 weeks getting the pool all warmed up so the girls could have a nice warm pool to swim in. And Saturday was just a perfect Sunny day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky the whole day I don't think, it was just sun sun sun. So that helped the heatpump to really crank on it's final run and the pool got up to about 29-30c. Perfect swimming tempurature, especially when it's still a little bit cold out of the pool. While I was futzing around outside getting things setup, Sarah was hard at work inside getting the house looking lovely and baking a cake for Beth. She's already made one the night before but the Cake Topper she'd made (printed out on the magical printer she has) was huge! She had to make two bigger cakes to support it. Still the cake looked AMAZING especially with the topper on it.
The party pretty much ran itself, Beth's friends all came over (Daisy, Isla, Ruby, Ruby and Emma) and once they'd all given her their presents (lots of other Frog toys for her) they all got in the pool and played in there for about 2 hours straight, sometimes getitng out to get a snack or something then getting straight back in. I had to get them out at 4:30 or so because we hadn't done the cake yet and parents were coming to collect them at 5pm! Though Daisy stayed over again for the night which was nice for Beth.
Sunday was Fathers Dad, Theo and Sarah made me breakfast in bed. The girls were still fast asleep. Then I had a little present unwrap and I got some lovely new shoes for running biking, which I desperately needed. So that's good! I also got a lovely card, drawing by Theo, writing by Beth. Then we went for a bike ride down to Spew Cafe, though the girls on their scooters started complaining so Sarah turned her bike around and all 3 girls drove down to Spew Cafe while Theo and I biked down. Had a nice little snack there before biking back. Did a bit of housework etc, cleaned up around the place, mowed some lawns etc. We've talked about getting a Robo Mower and it seems like a good idea but they're just so much money. Still overall I guess you save money and time. Sunday night we went to Peter and Mary's for a lovely dinner to celebrate Father's day.
Friday night Beth's friend Isla came over to stay the night, but she did the same thing she's done the last two times, wanted to go home at 10:30pm or so. She she's not welcome anymore to stay, it's crappy we've got to faff around, she rings her parents etc. Beth gets upset her friend doesn't want to stay. And then when the parents arrive to get her they don't even apologise, it's just like it's normal. So fucking annoying.
Last Wednesday I was flown up to Auckland to meet/see my new work friends. I got there nice and easily, there's a company Uber account so I don't have to piss about and claim stuff back. I stopped into MDR to install a new 100G optic and patching, then walked down to the meeting room. With my suitcase in tow... Anyway the meeting was a bit of a non-event, the main person who was supposed to come couldn't make it because he was sick. So we had a mini meeting and then went back to our hotel the Cordis, one of the nicest hotels in Auckland. Very flash. Everything was chargeback to the company. Then we went out for dinner, paid for by a vendor who does a lot of work with/for us. Then Thursday we went into head office for a meeting, before being taken to lunch by the salesperson who hosted the meeting. Honestly it all felt a litlte bit like being back in 2000 when the money just kept flowing. I guess this is the benefit of working for a company that just posted a massive annual profit.
Friday morning Blue Moon!
Otherwise I've been doing some early mornings. Yesterday (Monday) morning we had a 6am change and at about 6:50am I broke everything - everything management anyway. The whole dashboard lit up Red, nothing was contactable. It was very scary, I rushed upstairs to tell Sarah I'd have to go into work to fix my fuckup when I realised she was still watching the F1. The F1 is done via streaming. So I realised actually the network wasn't totally melted down, it was just management. Anyway we managed to unwind quickly the problem and everything came back to life, so that was good. Still a little bit of a pants wetting moment I tell you!
Sarah landed her new job last week - they offered it to her and she accepted. I'm so, so glad she's out of WBD. It's been utterly soul sapping for her, just work work work the whole time with no real apprecaition. All the good people had left etc. I'm glad she's got something new. It'll mean quite a lot of changes for us, I'll have to get a car as we'll both be fulltime so trying to juggle kids around that will be fun. But it's all doable. Like I said I don't really care as long as she's out of WBD because it's been horrid to see what a toll that's taken.
I got roped in last minute to Beth's School camp. I originally put my name down at Beth's begging but figured they wouldn't pick me because I'd said I didn't have a car availanble. But I will this time because Holly and Adrian + kids are away in Fiji. Or Bali? One of them. Anyway Holly said that Sarah could use her car while she's away, so I'll take our car with Beth and some of her schoolmates to camp. One of the mothers of Beth's friend was telling us on Saturday when she came to pickup her daughter how fullon camp is. I don't mind that though, it should be fun. But yeah we get up early and we go to bed late and we just work work work all day. The main thing is that it's fun for the kids though, so I'll just have to suck it up. Better than working, probably...
Ok that's enough writing. I need to go back and put in a few more photos from the weekend of Beth's party, but it was a huge success. She loves her presents. She just plays with the slime she can now make herself for hours, just smooshing it around and bloooping it. Oh she's been home sick yesterday and today, I think just too rundown from the party. She'll be right to go to school tomorrow though.
Tim