OK so the last update was a bit dramatic, I'll give you that Diary. But far out I was just over it. Again, I know that I should not really bitch at all because there are so many people worse off. Sarah was saying a number of people only got their power back over the weekend just gone. That's insane. It's really not, given how bad things are and the damage that's been done, I just can't imagine being those people and surviving for THAT long with no power. I hope that a lot of them would have access to a generator by that stage though.
Weekend just gone we had a big party on Sunday night which was really nice. It was, thankfully, a nice evening with some stunning sun. The pool was warm (I'd spent the previous 24 hours running the pool heatpump) and the kids had a great time playing in there. We had lots of people over, Peter, Mary, Auntie Maggie, her two friends from the UK, Chris, Barb, the Monneys and of course us!
Peter and Mary (and Maggie) missed their flight to Raro last Saturday morning (5th March). We even had a farewell Pizza and Beers catchup with them up at Holly and Adrian's on the Friday night. When I woke up on Saturday morning and looked at my phone I had a message from Holly saying they'd missed their flight! I'm not 100% sure how they managed to get to the airport too late to check their bags, but it turns out that even IF they had managed to make their flight to Auckland, they'd have never managed to make their flight to Raro because it was booked as a seperate flight (not as a single journey) and they had 5 minutes between when they landed to get their bags, get from the domestic terminal to the Internatinal terminal (a 5 minute run at a minimum), check in for their flight (with their bags) and then I think make security? Anyway it was never going to happen, so it's actually a GOOD thing they missed their Napier flight to Auckland because they'd have been stuck in Auckland then, waiting for a flight back to Napier.
They're still very upset by the whole thing. They've managed to get AirNZ to rebook their flights for them and the accomodation in Raro has amazingly let them move their booking to a time later in the year. So they've got to sort that out still. At least they didn't lose too much money, I think the main thing they're out is the car hire they had booked in Raro.
That Saturday night we went out for dinner at Craggy Range with Holly and Adrian. We had a nice night, lovely food. We had a voucher that Sarah'd got from Dad for her 40th, it was expired but we checked with them beforehand and they were happy to accept it. So that was nice. On the way out we drove along Pakowhai road and you could still see first hand the devastation. Walls smashed, caravans in Apple Trees etc.
It doesn't seem like a real lot has happened otherwise since my last update? Last Friday we had another MASSIVE downpour of rain. It was only 30 minutes but it was so much rain in such a short period of time. I biked home because I realised 3 of my Wireless Access Points had failed (There'd been a lot of thunder and lightening) and Sarah said the house was making "Blooping" noises. On the way home I saw drains on the street where instead of water draining into them, water was spouting OUT of them. The total opposite of what they're supposed to be doing. I got home and was unable to detect what was blooping, I could hear it but I couldn't isolate where it was coming from. I also found my little Netgear switch has been damanged and 3 of the 4 PoE ports weren't working, thus why my Wireless network was down to just the Poolshed working. Thanks, insane weather.
They moved a house from down the road a few weeks back, it came down Jervois Road on the back of a huge truck. We stood out and watched it drive down. It took a while with all the flashing lights and getting everything ready, Theo went inside for a shower. But Sarah yelled at him as it started coming down the road so I have this great little video of him running out in his towel to watch it drive down the street. It was a bit of interesting action in Jervoistown for the evening!
School's been back to normal, that's good. Traffic is still bonkers most of the time because the bridges are still out. Chris and Barb are moving into a rental in a few weeks time, they've got their insurance payouts for everything except the house etc, that's still ongoing. I bought some Yubikeys and have been using those for better security online. Probably overkill, but I like them and it removes the "all my eggs in one basket" fear I had with Bitwarden before.
Not long until the F1 now, 2 weeks away. Next week I'm going with everyone from work to the Rotorua NZNOG conference. Instead of it being the usual ~2.5 hours drive it's going to take more like 8 hours, if not longer. Because the Napier Taupo road is still fucked/closed. They're letting some trucks in conveys on it, but that's about it, it's still closed to the general public. So not really looking forward to spending 16 hours in a car to get there and back, but hey. We're also going to meet up with Trustpower who we are now a sister company with, so we get to decide who's network's going to get used for what etc and soforth. So that'll be a good, maybe interesting meeting.
I changed the blades on my lawnmower again on Saturday. So glad I did too because I mowed all the lawns etc getting ready on Saturday and Sunday. And far out the blades were totally fucked, I had no idea how badly until I turned the mower and had a good look. One was split in two, the other three were only half as big as they're supposed to be! No wonder the grass catcher was always blocking. Seeing as this was the second time I've changed the blades myself I felt a lot more confident than I did the first time, where I was worried I was gonna chop my legs off. Anyway straight away the mower just mowed SO much better. It struggles less in the longer grass and the grass catcher didn't block up. I have to try and remember to check it much more often and to change the blades on a regular basis. It only costs $40 for a set of new blades and takes about 10 minutes to change them, but the amount of time it saves in mowing the lawns because I don't have to stop every 2 mintues to unblock the catcher!
Oh yea it was our 13th Wedding Anniversary on the 10th March!
The kids are good. Beth seems so grown up sometimes the way she gets crabby/talks back to me, but still such a little kid how she LOVES Kermit (KerMOT) and still requires sniffpillow. She was really nervous a week or so ago because they had swimcomp at school. She came first in her heat though and she was really proud of herself. Theo got really attached to a balloon the other day and then of course it burst and there were a lot of tears. So at lunchtime I went and bought him a new back of balloons from the FourSquare. They were only $5 for a pack of 12 so they're going to be crappy but hey, let him have his fun while he's little. It was great having Joseph come over on the weekend for the BBQ becuase JoJo shows him all the cool/fun things he can do around the property. Making things out of Bamboo, the CrazyCart etc. It was great. Otherwise both of them just stare at their iPads 24/7 which I hate. I guess they probably take after their parents though...
Ok that's enough blabber diary. Here's a few photos from the last couple of weeks.
Tim
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