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 least Tuesday night Beth didn't have cheer until 7pm, so that gave us ~5pm->6:30 or so to walk the neighbourhood. Theo was very excited to get into the Alien Costume and he had a great time walking around it in. Because it's made for a bigger person we had to tuck bits of it until the gumboots and the battery pack for the air blower that keeps it inflated we had to clip to his underpants, which he said felt they were always about to fall down. But it worked! People around JTown loved his costume, everyone mentioned it as they walked past. Beth went as Hermione Granger. I didn't even get dressed up it was all a bit of a rush to get them from after-school-care to home and fed and dressed up ready to go at 5. And I didn't take Biscuit this year either.
They got lots of candy though and had a great time, by the end Theo's Alien fan pack was starting to go flat and he was dropping off to the side (the Alien, not Theo) but it was great fun. A lot of houses that did it last year didn't do it this year, not sure why. I think prehaps the cost of living, the fact it was a Tuesday night, it was looking like it was going to rain etc. Still it was a fun night, if a lot more subdued than last year.
Sarah and Beth went up to the Auckland Cheer Nationals last Friday, so it was just me and Theo hanging out for the weekend. Saturday morning we got up adn rode our bikes up to Origin Cafe. My bike had just got back from the bike shop the day before, $350 it cost me! Well $20 was a bottle of oil but still. They fixed the punctured tire, they put new brake pads on, they replaced the chain and the cassette on the back. Far out. I wish I'd said to them "Ring me if it's gonna be hella expensive" and I wouldn't have bothered, especially because I don't get to ride it very much anymore. I could have spent another $300 and just bought a brand new bike. ANYWAY. It's repaired now. So yes Theo and I rode up to Origin and had a Basic Breakfast each, before riding back home. Then I took him to swimming, then we went home and fluffed around in the garden for a while, then we went for a bike ride down to Spew Dairy. It was a nice day so we made the most of it. Then I did a bit more work in the garden, cleaned the house water filters, brewed some beer and then we both hung out in the nice 29c pool for about an hour to an hour and a half. That was nice. Then we had a basic dinner and went to bed. I had a "sleep over" with him both nights, he pulled out the spare bed in his room and I just slept on the mattress there. It was nice just hanging out together, I think he really enjoyed it too. Sunday we just did a bit more garden work, he helped make his breakfast of bacon and eggs, we took Biscuit for walk (Theo rode his bike) up to the normal Dairy to get an icecream etc.
All while this was going on Sarah was in Auckland with Beth. She recorded Beth's performances, this time they had to do two. One on Saturday which accounted for 70% of the score and then another on Sunday which accounted for the other 30%. By all accounts and the video Beth's performance was really good, their whole team did an excellent job. Not really any major mistake or anything bad, no one got dropped or anything bad like that. Overall Beth's team came 3rd, out of a group of 11. So that's really good, better than the last two comps she's been too where they came first both times because there was no one else in their grade competing.
Sunday night we drove out to the Airport to pick Sarah and Beth up so we were a whole family once again! I'm glad Sarah was back, my Sunday night meal for Theo wasn't exactly my proudest moment.
Last week I went to AMS to help with Hobo Stove cooking. It was part of the outdoors stuff the Year 5's were doing while the Year 6s were doing Optimist sailing. I didn't really have to do much, just make sure the girls didn't burn themselves on the stove. They cooked some steamed pork buns (already pre-cooked they were just being heated) and then melted some chocolate in a "bowl" made of Al Foil and dipped marshmellows into it. Which was a pretty neat idea I thought. That was a bit of fun anyway.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was Athletics at School. Beth was sick though, but I dragged her up to school so we could watch Theo compete. They had 5 events, high jump (we were late so I missed this), running, ball throwing and long jump. He was great at long jump, I was surprsied he didn't get to compete in the jump off. I wasn't about to argue with the ref though... Oh there was also a long run but we left as that was on because I had to get back to work. We were there for the main bits, so was Alfred.
I've been doing a lot of gardening - really cleaning up the veggie garden. I've planted Watermelon, we've got Cucumbers growing in the Greenhouse. There's some Beetroots in the garden too. I've covered a couple of the garden beds with black plastic to stop the weeds growing, in fact to try and kill them. I feel like I'm slowly getting on top of it, it looks a lot better now than it did two weeks ago. And I haven't been using any spray, just hard work.
Work has been crazy, lots of 3:30am starts. Which is fine but it really takes it out of you. But it works out well because I can then do the kid run on the various things they need runningi to, mostly Karate and Cheerleading. Sarah's job is going well, she's stuck in 120% already doing stuff. But she seems to be enjoying it which is a lot more than can be said for the old job.
Puffy the car is going well. I use Android Auto in it heaps now, it's really good. It's annoying you have to plug the cable in but after a while I just get used to doing that.
Tim
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