Far out, I'm getting worse and worse with my diary updates. But the last few weeks most of my spare time I have been working on the home network, which has seen the old Cisco router been packed up and replaced with a new Mini PC that lives under the stairs. I have dragged myself kicking and screaming into modern times too, this PC is running a program called ProxMox which lets me run Virtual Machines! So the home firewall is now virtualised. The old server that lived under the stairs too has been virtualised. Everything runs from the one little black box. Which is great, except of course if it fails it means everything fails. But we'll just hope that doesn't happen.
So last weekend Sarah and I drove up to Taupo on Saturday for the Summer Concert Tour. Once we'd driven up we parked our car outside the Air BnB we were staying at, then walked with our old person chairs and other bits and pieces up to the concert. We lined up for ~30 minutes to get money from an ATM that was starting to malfunction (first it just said error then didn't give me any money, then it said I'd reached my daily withdrawal limit. Finally using a different card/account it spat out some $)
Then we walked up and went into the concert, I was a bit worried we'd get grief about the tickets we'd bought off TradeMe but we were let in without a problem. We walked around the corner to find a seat and HOLY SHIT HOW MANY PEOPLE? Amazingly, we found a little spot to put our blanket down and our chairs - I think someone must have vacated it a few minutes earlier because there was pretty much nowhere else to sit! We pitched our chairs, got comfy and enjoyed a really good day in the utterly boiling hot sun. It was amazing how damn hot it was, just insane. But we saw Colin Hay, who I didn't really know who he was but he put on a great show, then Alanis Morissette. Once she finished we left because neither of us know anything about Electric Light Orchestra. I'm sure they'd have been great, but 4 hours in the boiling sun was enough. I was getting sick of putting sunscreen on every 30 minutes.
We went back to our Air BnB which was great, a little room, nothing flash, but exactly what we needed. Then we drove up into town for some dinner, then headed back to the next afternoon. A nice little weekend away. For Dinner we went around to Peter and Mary's.
Monday I felt crook as again, in the end I took Tuesday off. This cold really has stuck around for way longer than I want, I mean it's next Tuesday now and I still feel ugh.
Saturday just gone Beth went to Gwen's house for a playdate, then I took Theo swimming. He'd gone the week before with Holly (while we were in Taupo) but didn't want to swim at all. But he was great with me, really did a good job, diving in like he was supposed to and going under the water etc. Once I got Theo home I took him up to pickup Beth, but she had a major meltdown about not wanting to go and Gwen's Mum said hey she can stay for a couple more hours if you want so sure thing! I went home, put Theo to bed and had a Power Snooze myself. I went and got Beth (burst into tears again when it was time to go but this time it was time) and then while the kids watched TV I redid all the wires etc in the cupboard under the stairs so it wasn't a giant mess.
Sunday we went to Clive River to ride on Holly and Adrian's Jetski! Man it goes fast. Beth wasn't super keen, Theo claimed to enjoy it but also didn't' want another go at all, so I think he didn't love it either. But he's only 2 and a half, probably a bit too young to appreciate a Jetski! After a couple of hours at the river mouth we headed over to the Clive Pub for a couple of pints and a bowl of hot chips, then headed home and put everyone to bed quite early, they were super tired.
Monday was a regular work day, but Sarah said I should take it off a few weeks back so I'd booked it in. I still dropped the kids off to Kindy, Sarah worked and I just spent the morning doing some lawns and cleaning up a bit around the place. Then for Lunch Sarah, Peter, Mary, Holly, Maggie and Myself went to Church Road for a lovely long lunch, had a really nice time outside under their shade clothes. Lovely food and good company, we had a great time. Then I picked up the kiddies from Kindy, fed them and put them to bed.
Today is Waitangi day. I spent the morning in the roof finally cabling up the Upstairs Wireless Access point properly, so it gives the whole house nice fast coverage. I mis-drilled one hole and had to redrill it, but you don't see it anyway because the wireless AP covers it up. Phew! And my cable wasn't long enough, so I had to use a joiner! Argh. Anyway it's working now and isn't just a puddle of cables in the cupboard, so that's good.
Once that was done we walked up to Pony Rides, which are a ~10 minute walk from our house, or a 20 minute once if you have two children on their bikes. Beth is fast on her balance bike, but Theo takes ages on his little trike. He gets so tired! But he does a great job. He didn't want a Pony Ride, only Beth had one which she loved. 4 laps around the paddock for $5, not a bad deal, then we walked over to the dairy to get an icecream which everyone enjoyed and dripped all over themselves!
Now they're still asleep ~2 and a half hours after we got back, too much exercise!
The Caterpillars have been going nuts on the swan plant, most of them seem to have moved away off it now, though once has made a lovely green chrysalis on the side of the plant box. It's got amazing little gold dots! Hopefully we get to see it hatch/emerge in the next few weeks.
I think that's about all the news - I've been crook, everyone else has been good, we're good, the weather has been great and everyone's happy!
Tim
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