Monday, November 29, 2010

Heatwave

My goodness we've had some amazing weather recently! Makes it very hard to work in an office. Saturday was the annual Santa Parade and although it rained in the morning, it had stopped in good time for the Parade, and it was very warm. Tyler ran into a little boy in his class so they watched the Parade together. T was most impressed that Mrs Claus was in the sleigh with Santa.



Sunday was a scorcher, so we took our newly-acquired jetski out to Oreti River and blatted around on that. Then we tied the biscuit on a first Tyler, and then Tyler and I together hurtled around. Tyler wasn't content with level of bumping over the wake and actively tried to make the biscuit jump, shouting Yeeehaaah! all the while (while his mother on the back was just shouting fullstop).

Sunday night was the last A Capella concert for the year. We did the Mozart Coronation Mass and my singing teacher Rebecca Ryan was the soprano soloist. She also did Mozart's Alleluia (which she casually handed me the music of the other day and said "I think you should look at that". Eep!) I had a small solo bit in one of the carols we sang in the second half and it went OK. The Mass itself rocked and we were all on a high at the end.

Every Wednesday Tyler plays touch and last week he was awarded the Player of the Day trophy. He was very proud (as was Chris who helps coach and ref).

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Mr Gappy

And here he is, minus one top front tooth, courtesy of some sustained wiggling this afternoon and last little tug from Daddy. The tooth is already safely tucked under his pillow.



Saturday, November 13, 2010

Milestone

Tyler is about to reach another milestone, he has not one but two wiggly teeth. He is very excited about the prospect of a visit from the Tooth Fairy. Meanwhile Mum and Dad have been consulting his classmates' parents re the going rate. Obviously the kids at school have been discussing the ins and outs of Tooth Fairy behaviour because when I asked him what would happen if he lost a tooth he nonchalantly replied "Oh you just write a note to the Tooth Fairy and leave it under your bed".

We had a busy day today, up early to cheer on the Preston Russell Law Vikings at the Corpor8 rowing - they won, hurrah!! - and then a joint birthday lunch at Eat on Windsor with the Howards and Mum & Richard.

Singing tomorrow at the First Church sesquicentennial celebrations morning service - I have the solo in Psalm 23, the 'Vicar of Dibley' setting by Howard Goodall. We are also doing Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence and the Clare Benediction.

Words of wisdom

At practice for First Church choir on Thursday, the minister of the church (who sings in the choir) got Tyler to stand by him and have a sing. On the way home Tyler and I had this conversation:

Me: Did you have fun singing with the minister?
Tyler: Yes. Mum, what's a minister?
Me: (Thinking - how can I summarise this?!) Well, at church on Sunday's he stands up in front of everyone and tells them about things that are in the bible.
Tyler (firmly): I know what's in the bible.
Me: Do you? What?
Tyler: Words.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

All the fun of the fair

Ok so silly me forgot to take the camera last night so unfortunately no Guy Fawkes photos. But Tyler had a great time and completed tired out the words 'wow' and 'awesome'.

Today was the Sacred Heart School fair. There was a children's Mass first and the kids were fair busting to get through it and outside :) The weather was a misty rain when we first went to church but by the time we got out it had stopped and it got progressively better as the day went on. Tyler had a ball, and spent his own money and his mother's with abandon. His favourite thing was getting his hair done at the Funky Hair stall by his teacher.

His mother and father followed more sedate pursuits i.e. Devonshire Tea and cake stall.
I'm back into singing lessons with a vengeance now and have a bunch of new music to learn including Despina's aria 'In uomini, in soldati' from Cosi, the upper part of the duet 'Christe Eleison' from Bach's Mass in B minor and the amazingly-named 'The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation' by Purcell. Looking back, it is exciting to see how far my technique has developed this year. I have had a number of comments along the lines of how much richer my voice is sounding, so the practice is obviously paying off.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

'Tis the season...

Ha, you thought I was talking about Christmas didn't you? Well I will, but first we have to get through Guy Fawkes. Yes I know the official night was last night, but Saturday night's work so much better for that sort of thing, don't you think? So in about 2.5 hours, we will be trotting down the road to a paddock beside a friend's place, with our box of fireworks (with compulsory sparklers), to dance around a bonfire and ooh and aah at the fireworks display. I love daylight savings and the long, long, evening light, but it sure makes for a late night! Hopefully some pics to come from that.
We visited the Christmas Magic Shop today, and I overspent my self-imposed budget, but came away satisfied :) We now have a traditional style Nativity set, a centre-piece for the table and number of smaller decorations including a snow globe that Tyler particularly liked. It's really the start of the Campbell-McLeod family's Christmas decorations collection.
On a completely different note, here is what greets me when I pull the curtains at the front door in the mornings - a riot of colour. The photo doesn't do justice to the vibrancy of the colours.