Well, I know that the Bieber is totally hawt right now, and tweenaged girls can’t get enough of him and his squeaky 12-year old voice and pudding-bowl hairdo, but after last night hearing our daughter perform “Tomorrow” solo at a World Vision charity concert I am of the firm and absolutely unbiased opinion that she can sing far, far better than he can.

Unfortunately she will not be making $500 a minute for her appearance but it was five minutes worth its weight in gold for her parents sitting in the audience with dirty great big grins plastered all over our faces. Our daughter! Up there! Singing! Loooook!

It bemuses and bewilders me no end Miss 9.7′s confidence and capacity to take on things like this. As a nine year old I would sooner die than get up in front of an audience of a 1000 people and sing, with everybody watching me (ohmigod I’m so dumb so ugly can’t sing!) – but  Miss 9.7′s happy, uncomplicated, straightforward belief in herself is so much to do with how myself and her father have raised her, and of that I can be very proud.

That is our reward, so much better than $500 a minute.

Greetings to you on a gorgeous, mild Anzac Day afternoon. This weekend has been mostly about:

• Gardening – I planted nine lettuce seedlings and twelve pansies then deheaded a bajillion agapanthus flowers (we have huge beds of these) – I know they’re considered a weed by some but they definitely keep the kikuyu at bay! And pretty as they are in the height of summer they surely do make a garden look scruffy when they’re all done and dead. They HAD to go. As for the lettuce seedlings, I am tempted to do a midnight stakeout on these as I swear I will discover rabbits in night-vision goggles nibbling on them. There is no way slugs can make those kind of footprints.
• Supporting – Miss 9.7 had her first game of the season, and I was the obnoxious mother on the sideline shouting “Drive forward! Arms up! Stick stick stick!” Obviously all these important tips must of helped, as her team won 5 goals to 2. 
• Spending - bearing in mind our small change in finances, yesterday after netball I hit The Warehouse to take advantage of their 50%-off bed linen dealie, and got a new king-sized duvet cover (with pillow cases), a set of king-sized sheets and another set of pillow cases for the measly sum of $100! Why so much spreeing on linen? Well, having to rely on bore water means that whites (as in our white sheets) slowly turn beige due to the iron content in said water and no matter how much you soak them in OxyPower or wash them in hot water, they never recover their pristine snowiness. So the new linen is all black which the Other Harf reckons is a bit “blokey” but as I pointed out to him he’s a bloke, so what’s the problem?
• Reading - I don’t get excited about too many things but when I see the latest editions of Digital Camera and Practical Photography on sale in PaperPlus, I get a little thrill. It’s little, granted, but a Sunday morning lie-in with these two magazines is one of the highlights of my existence.
• Photographing – our resident kereru (native woodpigeon) – beautiful birds but not the sharpest knives in the drawer – I was able to get within mere metres of them to take these shots. There’s two different birds in the photos and they are a pair – the portly one is the male and he and another smaller male pursued the female for days before Captain Chunky here won her over with a box of chocolate coated kowhai berries…

We had a fabulous weekend down in Auckland, and I am reminded that are only two things I really miss about the place: our best friends L & S and Blitza Pizza.

Other highlights included Alice in Wonderland - of course Johnny Depp nailed the Mad Hatter and I loved Stephen Fry voicing the Cheshire Cat, and Helen Bonham Carter was definitely channelling Miranda Richardson’s Queenie in Blackadder II…

And then there was a pilgramage to Borders at the local mall – both Miss 9.7 and I went AWOL in here, much to L’s frustration! I adore this store and used to spend hours in the Queen Street branch while I was at uni. 

While we were at the mall I kitted out Miss 9.7 in some new winter clothes and got myself a new pair of shoes for work – all on sale, which pleased the Inhouse Accountant no end. If one has to spend money, let it be on something 50% off.

Speaking of spending, we were very envious to hear of L & S’s trip to Rarotonga at the end of June, particularly knowing that if both the OH and I were working we would be joining them. Our tentative plan of a roadtrip down the West Coast of the North Island in October just doesn’t have the same ring to it, somehow…

But then we’ve got to look at the glass half full scenario, and be thankful for weekends in Auckland, where movies, malls, best friends and the best Quattro Stagioni pizza can be had a mere two hours drive away.

And we know that one day, hopefully very soon, somebody will take one look at the Other Harf and realise instantly that he’s the perfect Beancounter for them.

Taken this morning, within five minutes of each other…

As somebody living in drought-stricken rural Northland, the sight, sound and smell of rain makes me very happy indeed!

After months of no serious rain it’s strange hearing the drumroll of a downpour on our roof…and there must be a lot of air pockets in our downpipes from lack of water, as they are gurgling and popping and gloop-gloop-glooping.

It’s Wednesday, but it kind of feels like a Thursday for me as I have booked a day’s leave on Friday and am whisking the family down to Auckland for a weekend of fun and excitement, including seeing Alice in Wonderland, shopping for new clothes for Miss 9.8 and pizza ala Blitza Pizza.

Lately I’ve been having a Fridays off at least once a month mostly due to us not being able to afford to go anywhere on holiday due to the Other Harf’s Inbetween Jobs status and holidays are definitely something that we all miss. In fact the last time we went anywhere as a family on actual “holiday” was to Raglan in January last year, and the job market is not proving very promising for my beloved beancounting husband, so a holiday this year might not happen either.

*sniff*

However, weekends visiting our friends in Auckland, and having them visit us up here will do quite nicely for now and when the time comes and the OH finds work, I will certainly take great pleasure in planning our next holiday – probably more than ever before.

The intensely exciting possibility of a Sunday morning walk…

Well, I did good with the Saturday List, with the exception of #6 (as #12 seems to be taking forever) and #11, as Miss 9.7 has spent most of the day down at the Beige Barn, no doubt showing off to her cousin’s 10 year old houseguest Zac, who is visiting from Auckland this week (which happens to be the second week of the school holidays) and apparently is “a little bit cute.”

I’m still a little weary and sore from all the wood collecting and stacking we did yesterday – Dad, the Other Harf and I spent a good three hours down in the stand of totara over from the Beige Barn, transferring the stacks of wood the OH had gathered over the past month or so onto the back of Dad’s ute, then off the ute and onto the woodpile by the barn. It was a bloody good workout, and as predicted come 8.30pm-ish I was sound-o on the sofa. Party on.

As for the winter clothes, I managed a nice big binbag full to send off to charity – a mixture of old work stuff, tops I haven’t worn in over a year, t-shirts that have seen better days (they’ll be heading for the rag pile) and clothes that just don’t fit anymore and I need to get over it and move on.

I’m trying to persuade the OH to thin his wardrobe down also, but this is a man who still lovingly holds onto a Saw Doctors concert t-shirt circa 1994 and will not part with it, ever, let alone those tatty workshirts and dodgy tracky pants.