Christmas rapidly approaches.  My workmate is leaving to go to Canada tomorrow, he'll be dropping his dog off at ours tomorrow so we can look after her until Mum arrives here a few days later and the dog will go back to the house she's from which is the one that Mum's housesitting at.  Second to last day of school for the kids too, they have their cushion concert tonight with prizegiving and all that sort of stuff.  It was Beth's Fun Day yesterday and it's Theo's Fun Day today.

Monday was Theo's Karate grading for his Brown Belt.  I encouraged him a lot the week prior to do as many situps, pressups and pushups as possible because he's now the highest in his class and therefore has to do the most.  All the other kids that were at his level have dropped out, so he's got to do 2...

It's Summer! Finally.  It's been a long time coming and yesterday the first day of Summer was pretty shit.  But today has been a real nice day, I've been out mowing lawns and cleaning and tidying and that sort of stuff.  In fact during the week I checked my lawnmower blades and realised just how fucked they were again, it seems like only three months ago I replaced them but no, it must have been a year or so I guess?  Anyway I had noticed the last few times I'd been mowing they were mostly flattening the grass instead of cutting it.  When I checked them I realised they were totally knackered, the swept-back bit on them that throws the grass up high was gone on all blades (no wonder the mower kept jamming) and they were just looking shagged.  So this morning I drove to the Greenmeadows Stihl shop...

Today we went to the Cheerleading Gym so that Beth could find out what group she was in.  She really wanted to be in the same group as her friend Tabatha.  They even tied their fingers together on Thursday so they'd be "crossed for goodluck" until Sunday.  We got there and all the girls got an envelope with which team they were in, then on the count of 3 they all ripped them open to find out what team they'd been put into.  Beth's tears pretty much gave it away that she hadn't gotten into the same team as Tabatha.  Tabatha is very good and so has been put into a higher team than Beth, which she's really upset about still.  We've told to her and reminded her they're still friends, Tabatha can still come over sometimes etc, but Beth's still pretty devestated.  Poor Sausage - sometimes things don't work...

8 days into November, only 7 more before I get paid again.  I tell you what the whole "Get paid Monthly" thing is a real ball-tearer, I'm glad that we've voted and been told that as of April next year we'll move to fortnightly pay like a regular company!

It was Halloween on the 31st, as it is.  There was supposed to be "Trunk or Treat" at Cheer which is where you decorate the boot of your car up with lots of halloween things and park them outside cheer so they get their own little mini Halloween thing.  I think the idea is because some of them are doing so many nights training that they'd miss out on normal Trick or Treating.  Anyway it didn't work out because of cause Napier decided that it would just piss with rain both nights, so coach cancelled it (Which makes perfect sense).  At...

Had a great weekend last weekend!  Saturday we went to swiming like usual, except it was also election day.  So while Theo was in the pool swimming Beth and I scarpered over to the polling station at the Church and I voted.  That took about 20 minutes, you had to line up to get in then you had to line up in rows of chairs so someone could give you your voting papers etc.  I guess social distancing for Covid.  Once that was done back over to swimming just in time for Theo to get out, then we stuffed around for 30 minutes before it was time for Beth to get in.  We zipped back home and hung out at home, the kids got in the pool for a bit for a swim because it was nice and warm.  Then Saturday night we went into town for the Napier "Nuit...

So the new car has been going great, no problems etc.  If anything I've just been finding all its little features, some of which seem wild for a 2011.  I like how the doors lock when you start driving (Theo and I tested what speed it was they locked, we figure it's about 17km/h), the lighting inside is really good, there's little cup holders in the back we didn't notice.  It will warn if you go over a certain speed, the speed is configurable.  The Android Auto works well (Admittedly that's an aftermark stereo feature).  She seems really light on the gas too, I've driven it to and from work each day this week and I've only used what looks to be about a 1/3 of a tank of petrol, if even that.  The Turbo engine is nice a peppy too, she has some good acceleration when required.  So yea...

Today we go and pick up the car we just bought, a 2011 VW Golf GSI.  I hope it's a good car - we got a mechanic to look at it and he said it seemed fine and had no major issues. The people we're buying it off see nice and genuine, they're selling to to upgrade to a bigger car.  They even texted me last weekend to say they were looking at an X-Trail and to ask what we thought of ours.  I went to ride my bike home from work last night for it's last official ride home and the damn thing had a flat rear tire!  I took it out at lunchtime to head into town to return a Visa card I'd found on the ground at a petrol station, on the way back I've run over a little bit of metal.  So that was a bit...

Have been doing a bit of car shopping this last week.  Last Saturday (it was SOOO WINDY) we went to Turners and test-drove 3 cars.  The first was a Fiat "Pop Star" which I didn't really like that much, it just felt boxy and uncomfortable.  And also that name, a Pop Star.  It probably wouldn't have been a bad car but I just wasn't feeling it.  Then we test drove a Ford of some sort, I forget which (it was really nice) and then hell I can't even remember what the last one was.  Two of them were auction cars and the third was a on-the-yard car.  We debated during the week if we'd bid on the Pop Star but in the end we decided not to.  Then on Wednesday Night Sarah found a Fiat Panda at Turners which I'm really keen to have a test drive of this weekend...

Monday Morning!! On the morning of School Camp we packed up our car with my stuff and Beth's stuff, put Theo in the car as well and drove up to school.  We got to drive in the staff car park and around through the school, a place where cars don't usually go.  That was pretty cool.  I said goodbye to Theo and went to see Beth's Teacher.  She said one of the parents had pulled out because of illness and would I mind also towing the trailer?  I said that'd be fine, but a bit later on one of the parents with big V6 diesel ute arrived and said he'd tow it, which was a much better idea.  I'm sure Lurge could have towed it just fine, but with a bootload of stuff and 5 people, it would have been a bit of a struggle.  Plus I wasn't looking forward...