Jordan's major shout out

Finally it's my turn to blabber on, but I'm sorry to say that this first post of mine will probably be loads of messages to my fellow people. Life has been going nicely over here and I have made some really awesome friends (did you like the adjective Matt, sweet aye) and am getting on quite nicely. I also have had a huge social whirl and am bonding a lot. My fave film right now would defiantly be Pirates of the Caribbean 3, those who haven't seen it I recommend you to. I haven't been reading lately so I can't really update my book catalogue. School is going well, for all of you that want to know, the assignments have been coming non-stop though.

Ok shout out time!
Major shout out to all of my friends in England,
Stacey I miss you sooooo much and wish you were here - say hi to Ross and Mitch for me.
Vikki, great to hear that sports is going good for you, I'm in the badminton team but that’s about it.
Chess, I still haven't got a dog yet but I promise you, as soon as I get one you'll be one of the first people to know.
Charlotte, I hope you have been away from James in the boyfriend girlfriend way and are still the person that I know and love-not in that way.
India, well, hehehe it's actually been really weird without you but there is this one girl at my college who reminds me so much of you, it's quite scary.

And now for the family……
Jess, I miss you so much and really want to be with you right now, it's great to hear that you are doing so well in everything, I look forward to our phone conversations.
Ella, I feel so bad that I'm not there watching you grow up as I did with Jess, but I bet you're just as shiny and gorgeous as you ever were.
Nicky, you are pretty much my idol; I look up to you in soooooo many different ways and love you to bits Hun.
Manu, I hope you got that caravan fixed up, unfortunately me and mum haven't been able to convince dad to make one but we're working on it.
Bev, I always think about you and Rob, Nick and John, you guys are most definitely an extension of my family. I love the fact that I know that you guys will always be there for me, especially in spirit.
Rob, guess what, I'm getting a job soon, how does that work eh, I'm like 10 years younger than you and I may have a job!!!! How are those computer games coming, got any for me? :D
Nick, how's the old wax on wax off going, three bets says you could whoop my ass next time you see me!
Matt and Maddie, haven't heard from you for ages, really want you to come back and see us. No long religous beliefs talks though please.
Kate and Ted, I really want to come out and see you guys, and of course the cats, I think it's something about the house that makes me feel really settled. Weird!
Fern, Dan and Declan, hope the happy family business is still fun and not taking a toll on you, just wait till he turns my age, and then you'll regret it!!! Just kidding.
And hello to another happy family, Holly, Jean and Jack, the pictures that you sent us are sooooo gorgeous he is definitely your offspring guys.
Golly, Rachel and Rob, I heard that Golly is going to Auckland soon, anyone else accompanying him? Let me know.
Beren, haven't heard from you for a while, how's film studies, are you still doing kung fu? Let me know.
Neil, hmmmm got to be careful what I say here. I must confess it has been really hard starting up kung fu over here, it feels like I'm betraying you, besides all the others are really bad compared to you.
Grandad, now this is the man who made this whole journey possible, if it wasn't for him we would still be sitting in the rain, and we wouldn't be singing. My love goes out to you big time, love you.
Nan, I'm so glad to hear that you are recovering and getting back to your flat and everything, I wish I could pop in and say hello.
And finally, Sue, you have been amazing looking after Nan so well, and being so loyal to her. I know that you would do that for me too. MWAH!
Also a big big shout out to all my other friends from The Blue School and Wellington Girls' College.

Jordan
XoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxO

Till next time, 16 Jun 2007 15:15

Well Hello, to everyone out there!

I have come out from under the preverbial rock and I am back in the land of the living. Having shaken off my zombie exteria, I am taking my tentative steps towards the world at large. After much feedback from you all I have taken the sledgehammer-size hint and making sure that you have a more rounded perpective on the life on the other side of the world. I have muscled in on the website and got myself well and truly wedged in to it, Dom's done great with it but with work and other websites to build he doesn't have the time, yep you heard that right - proper paying website client and everything! :-)

So over the coming months, as it nears the anniversary of our arrival here, this website will have its long promised revamp by yours truly with a fair bit of imput from the other two. I shall give you a teaser to get you all excited and everything...

• Pictures a plenty in our new gallery - going all the way back to when we first arrived
• Latest news area of what we are all doing and how we all are
• Individual blogs for all 3 of us - can you imagine Jordan's excitement with that one?
• A redesign - so it looks more like our world :-)
• Film reviews - we watch alot of films, maybe the odd book review too ;-)
• Messageboards - so you can leave us a note or two and we can do the same for you

Some of these I'm not sure how to implement, so they may take a bit longer, but that 's a fair idea of the current developments planned for the near future.

For now I am taking on a crazy task of writing both a book and a movie-script by the end of the month, yes this month, having only just signed up to it that leaves me 17 days to write 70,000 words! Which I'm told is practically the same as a Phd - it's a good job its in the world of fiction, if it was science I'd be stuffed! I wonder if I should award myself a degree once I finish it? Something silly to put on the wall and giggle at but probably leave it off the CV :-D

Anyway, if you want more info on either of these projects, click on the icons at the side and be sure to visit my blog at http://www.onplanetjen.wordpress.com where I shall be updating you all on my progress.

For now here's a taster picture of what's to come and I shall write more in July, when I can bask in the glow of relief that the end of the month has arrived. :-)

Stay well everyone, and love to all.

Jen x

Till next time, 14 Jun 2007 17:15

We, the silent minority

A little while back, we were called "uncommunicative sods". Heh. It's now been 2 months without an entry and I finally feel like writing something again.

To those of you that actually follow this stuff - our apologies for our absence, it really has been pure laziness and not busy-ness that has kept us from saying anything interesting, although we have also been fairly busy for some time and life continues apace.

Lynda, Jen's mum, and her hubbie Tony have just left us after a three week stay (Tony for just a week) and they go to rejoin Fern, Dan and Declan "across the ditch" in Australia. At least we hope so, but we have yet to hear from them that they arrived safely. Gah, some people are such uncommunicative sods :p
It was good to see you both (I know you read this every know and again) and we look forwards to seeing you at some point in the relatively (pun not intended) near future.

So a quick round up of the last couple of months:
For Jordan - it would have to be sleepovers. Is it an age thing do you think? She has had soooo many recently.
She is still involved in a couple of choirs at school, a Barbershop type choir and an old fashioned american style Gospel choir. All is good. I look forward to hearing something from them at some point.
She is still involved in the Wellington Community Choir and is also about to restart Kung-Fu with a Master Shi Mei Lin (this woman even has a WikiPedia entry!!!- zang :D )
What else - she is slowly gearing herself up for the social event of the school calender - the "Welcome" dance, where a bunch of guys from Wellington Boys College get to come to the Wellington Girls college for a school dance. Heh - nuff said.

Jen is back writing again after her three week sojourn with Mumsie staying and is looking to make some serious headway with the biggie, although she did pen a wee book the other day as "something to do"! You go girl.
We both went to a perfomance last night by 2nd and 3rd year students of the NZ School of Contemporary Dance. A number of short pieces by the students, the whole performance was about an hour long and I must say we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes it can feel like deja vu at these things, but to be fair we saw some great pieces. (Anyone in Wellington before the 2nd June should go along one evening!) This seems to have rekindled Jen's burning desires so who knows - she may well be brushing off the moth balls and strutting her funky stuff once more.

Me - life is still trundling along. I am still singing in the Wellington Community Choir, and now also in a 12 piece male voice choir. Still working in the same place, roles and pressures have changed slightly but all is still going well, and I am back and looking at various websites for various people. Should be good fun ahead. May even sort this site out to look right in previous versions of IE, but then again - maybe not :p. Oh, and we (I) should be doing something about more piccies at some point, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

As you may also have noticed, I have just tonight updated the style of the site to be more in keeping with a site style over at wordpress.com done by tarskitheme.com. Jen said she liked the look of it - so thanks WordPress and TarskiTheme. You were an inspiration.

Oh and one other thing for those of you who don't yet know. Officially - we can stay!

I found out at a romantic dinner for 3 (including Jordan of course) when Jen filled us in. Gobsmacked does not even come close. I felt my snake heritage coming out as my jaw seemed to unhinge, it opened that wide. And really I could think of nothing. Utterly stunned.

Five years we have been working towards this, trying to prepare everything so that all would be in readiness. And Jen's effort in this has been astronomical. She made sure the forms were completed with absolute correctness (she has a Virgoan eye for these things ;) ).

A huge shout out to the NZ Immigration Services for making the whole process so painless.

Hooray!

Till (a much sooner) next time, 27 May 2007 09:30

Oh we do like to be beside the sea side

What a lovely time we had yesterday. It was a bright sunny day so we grabbed a bunch of picnic stuff, one of Jordan's mates and we all headed off down to Day's Bay beach in Eastbourne (the other side of Wellington Harbour). The kids had great fun jumping off things into the ocean or otherwise lolling about on boogie boards, I got to finish the Black Magician Trilogy (by Trudi Canavan - it definately warmed on me) and Jen went for a lovely beach stroll. Nice one.

Tonight we get to sing in front of a bunch of diplomats and MPs at a NZ state occasion at Wellington Anglican Cathedral. I am quite looking forwards to it. Will update on that one soon.

Till next time, 12 March 2007 09:30

Slightly Hoarse Now

Not really, but continuing the theme of a previous post.

This weekend Jordan and I were again performing as part of the Wellington Community Choir (her first public performance with the choir - the Cuba St Carnival didn't count as she was too busy giving high fives ;) ), this time at the Newtown Fair. We had a half hour slot and sung a really nice selection of African tunes accompanied by some West African Palm Drummers (I think that's right). which together sounded lovely from my perspective - and Jen, who was in the crowd, said that she noticed a real difference in the warmth and energy being generated by the choir. Could be she was just enjoying the sun too :p.

Last night, we got to rehearse in the Anglican Cathedral in central Wellington, which while it is a modern Cathedral (by England's standards at least) the acoustics were quite lovely. This is, of course, where we will be singing two numbers for the Commonwealth Observance Ceremony (apparently this is a State ceremony). Heh - should be fun.
We also (finally) got a chance to light a candle to those still dearly missed, which I know Jordan appreciated. Every time we had tried to do this in the UK, there were numerous obstacles (churches shut outside of service times, candles no longer available etc). I always felt this was a great shame (perhaps necessary but still a shame) and it was really nice to finally be able to do this again.

Back to the singing, it turns out that on the 24th we have two performances - one at the Te Papa museum and another at the Michael Fowler centre in town both of which look like great venues so really looking forward to those as well. Performance schedule is starting to busy up now, wonder how far this will continue :).

Till next time, 08 March 2007 11:30

Carnival!!!

What an amazing night - standing on an overheating generator on a stop and start truck where I could not see my daughter while she walked alongside the truck through a crowd of @80,000 people while singing ourselves sore and my missus got lost amongst them :p.

It was great!!!

I really mean that. The stop-start truck mostly just provided a few laughs as people tried to maintain their balance and it wasn’t that often. The singing was incredibly up-beat, and accompanied by a group of west african palm drummers, really set a great mood for the float and got the crowds going a treat too. One of the sopranos was keeping an eye on Jordan (thank you very much for that), and after an initial issue with the generator - it all went swimmingly well. Jen also hooked up with a friend and had a spectacular night too from the sound of it.

Big shout out to Gina (and crew) who put in a huge amount of effort in putting the phoenix themed float together - looked astounding. And to Julian, for keeping the music and song going in a superb fashion.

Don’t think Jordan will be forgetting that one in a hurry - “I felt like I was really famous. I high-fived soooo many people” :D

I am thoroughly looking forwards to the next Wellington Community Choir event (next Sunday, so not too far).

Till next time, 26 February 2007 14:30

Sing till you're hoarse

Lots going on over the next month or so as part of Wellington Community Choir (of which I am one of the bass' and Jordan is a soprano).

We have the largest float in the Cuba Street Carnival where we are doing something like an hour and a half spot.
And there is an event at Newtown Community Centre.
We have another thing at Te Papa Museum,
We have been asked to sing at the Commonwealth Observance ceremony at the cathedral in front of diplomats and MPs and stuff.

All in the next month.

Right - I'm of to gargle :)

Till next time, 23 February 2007 9:00

A new branch springs forth

Congratulations to Fern and Dan Treacy on the birth of their bouncing baby boy, Declan Bede.

All involved are healthy and doing well and we are thoroughly looking forwards to being the mad old auntie, uncle and (not so old) cousin.

Welcome to the world little man!

Till next time, 20 February 2007 8:30

Weekend of Firsts

Whew, what a weekend. Glad we don't have to do too many of those a year. We are all exhausted, but it actually went really well. For those not in the know, Jordan has had a bit of a landmark weekend this year, First summer birthday (and the weather was great), First trip to the pool on her birthday, First day at big school (again!) and First day of teenage life, all of which she has been thoroughly excited about for some time.

Friday saw Jordan starting school at Wellington Girls College (it sounds so grown up). As she set off looking like she was on set of "Home and Away" or "Neighbours" (pictures to follow) she was really looking forward to her first day. Sure enough, we got a blow by blow acount of the big day and by all accounts it looks like a great school (she has, among other things, Mandarin lessons today :)) and she is still looking forwards to going. Phew.

Saturday, her and a bunch of her friends (7 in all) went to H²0 XTream for a much anticipated swim session (the place has slides, a wave machine, inflatables and all sorts, and all had a great time. After which back to our place for birthday cake and lashings of ginger pop. 5 of them then stayed over! All in all they were really well behaved and had a great time. Nice one girls.

Oh and if we didn't say it often enough over the weekend, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN!

Till next time, 12 February 2007 11:00

(Late)Shout out time

Happy Birthday to both Nik and Manu.

We desperately wish we could have been there for it, and we all hope that your birthdays were exceptional and that the year ahead brings much fortune and luck to you and your families.

Till next time, 04 February 2007 15:00

Quick Update

Much has happened in the last couple of weeks since the last update, (sorry about it being so long but things have been fairly hectic).
Everything is fine and rolling along pleasantly and we all seem to be moving forwards in a good way.

Firstly, much love and healing energies are being sent across the ethers to Nanny Hodnett who we are pleased to say is recovering well after a bit of a seizure. Please know that while we cannot be there in body, we are most definately with you. Keep up the recovery thing :D

Jordan continues to have a social whirl, with at least a sleepover a week for the past couple of weeks, something we are keen to continue and I know she is too.

She is also gearing up for big school (again) with the move to Wellington Girls starting at the end of next week, and I must say she looks rather dapper in her new uniform and has enjoyed designing covers for her new stationary. (Ooh, new stationary - yay)

A couple of weekends ago we managed to traipse along to the international Jousting tournament in Upper Hutt. A really good day was had by all, seeing various competitors trying to kebab one another on horseback is always a good afternoon, with a couple of people being shunted completely off their horses. In fairness I should also say that it is very obvious that these are people with a very high degree of skill and some serious kahunas. Give me a bow and arrow any day.

Till next time, 01 February 2007 11:00

January warms up slowly

I watch with note that there are something like 53 flood warnings in the UK at the moment, while in other places you still don't really need a coat. And over here, we are now starting to see a (slight) increase in the gaps between the cloud and rain. Middle of summer? not sure about that one. Looks like global warming is having an upside down effect over here too :(. Hmmm something not quite right there.

New Year came and went fairly uneventfully, was a quiet one here, and all is starting to return to (vague) normality. Have just finished my first full week of work of 2007 and that went OK. Jen and Jordan were looking after a friends 6-year old son while she did a Choral and composing course in the mornings this week, which also went well (for both parties). We got to see the results of the course last night at a most splendid recital which was really quite moving. There is something about hearing 150+ voices singing together in harmony. A lovely evening was had by all. Thanks for that Carol

Much of our usual activity is on pause at the moment as most things seem to stop for the summer holidays. As such our Wellington Community Choir is currently inactive for a few more weeks, although apparently we are doing a spot at the Cuba Street festival this year which is at the end of February. I look forward to seeing what we will be doing for that.

Jen has discovered the joy of scotch pancakes, mmmmmmmmm and has even gone as far as doing her own Foccacia bread. I am now walking home in a desperate effort to keep my svelt shape despite her best efforts.

Jordan is also doing very well. She made a lovely leek and potato soup last night (her first one) and very delicious it was too. She was on a sleepover last week with her friend Rawand (ahem 3:30 am bed time :o) and is going shopping with another friend, Sophie, today - for the now coming back 80's fashions. Please, help me!.

Hope you all had a great new year and the return to normality and the (extremely heavy) thud of credit card statements arriving on the doormats does not dampen spirits too much, and thanks for some of the great emails and phone calls. They are always greeted with a huge warm grin.

Till next time, 12 January 2007 10:30

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to all from the land of the Long White Cloud, in what must be the wettest summer in said land in living history. Ah well.

Christmas is very much understated over here. No aural assault on walking anywhere with shops of non-stop Christmas carols. We have not heard Noddy Holder's dulcet tones once this year!!! and I am not sure how I feel about that. Probably a little dissapointed if I am honest, I may have to invest in a cheesy Christmas CD for next year. I think we only heard about 3 carols while perusing the shops and even those were very understated. The Pogues and Kirsty McColl for example.

Most houses seem also to kind of be partaking in Christmas but not really if you see what I mean. There might be some evidence of a small light star in the front window, or a wreath on the door. Even many of the English peeps over here just have a (albeit highly decorated) tree and very little other evidence of decorations.

Christmas day itself was wet, so we didn't really get to go swimming, and a barbeque was out of the question, so being the traditionalists that we are, we ended up with a roast. MMMMMMmmmmmm. It was good. And in the good old fashioned spirit of English Christmas we rented a couple of old cheesy movies and watched them on Christmas Day following a vast over indulgence at Christmas dinner. Mmmmmmmm. And Jen did herself proud by really getting in to baking this year. Home made mince pies (with oh so crumbly sweet shortbread pastry) including homemade mincemeat, and home made Christmas cake (sans Marzipan, but she did make extra marzipan fruits so that kind of levelled out). YUMMMM.

We have had a really nice relaxing christmas and look forward to the new year and what it will bring and wish you all a wonderous 2007.

We hope you are all well and have enjoyed a relaxing break as is the festive tradition. We miss you all very much and the ingredient most missing from this year's holiday season is our friends and family - if we could ship you all out here we would - and do any of you know anyone who's working on teleportation? Get them to hurry up! But for now all we can offer is open invites to any of you that who can raise the funds to get here!

Lots of love, Hugs & Festive Cheer 01 January 2007 11:00

Most surreal adventure indeed

I was strolling down Lambton Quay this week (I work just off from it) which is one of the more central streets in Wellington and while I have noticed a small increase in the amount of Christmas based product in the shops, I saw this week my first Christmas window displays!
"So what" you may say, it is nearly December. Yes, yes, it is indeed nearly December but this is still turning into a most surreal adventure. It has been a lovely few days. I mean really nice and *ahem* almost summery. Christmas... and summery? No, no, that's just not right. (Undertones of Peter Kay's "Garlic..... and bread?" played heavily this week). And while you can see the calender marching ever onwards towards the festive season it just feels like people are buying pressies early. We have been recommended to do something surreal on Christmas day. Go swimming in the sea or have a salmon based bbq, something you would never normally be able to do at Christmas. Makes sense that the only way to deal with the surreal would be to do something equally surreal. 25 November 2006 22:35

Other news this week

Jordan was part of a fund raising thang at her school this week in an effort to raise some money to help parents with the costs for getting the kids to the National Jump Jam finals in Auckland for the first weekend in December. Yes you heard me right - Within a couple of months of arriving she is representing her school in a National championships. Sooooo cool. Anyway, they all did a demo as part of the fund raiser which went extremely well and spirits are running high which is cool. Jen also went all out for the fund raiser baking over 100 (ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE to be precise) muffins of various types. OMG :O This all helped to raise money which will hopefully help in the costs of it all.
Bright and early on Monday morning I was at Wellington Railway station along with many of the crew of the Wellington Community Choir where we sang in fine voice to provide some noise as part of the launch of White Ribbon Day, an effort where men wear a white ribbon to show that they do not condone men's violence towards women. The singing went extremely well and we even got a a free bbq'd sausage out of it. (I searched for a link but my feeble mind just wibbled and I stopped searching and enjoyed the sausage, very nice it was too.) I am proud to support such a cause and only rue the fact that the cause needs to exist in the first place. 25 November 2006 22:00

What are we reading?

Without a telly we are getting through quite a few books at the moment and with Wellington City Library being so handy we have a rather large choice available to us.
(Would like to add music and movies soon too :) )
Find out our current and latest 3 bits from the new menu item or just click on Currently Reading to find out more.
15 November 2006 22:35

Only a small announcement today

MJPL and N(J?)S ( you know who you are :) ) I just want to point out the date.
When we saw you at New Year you forced a date out of us. Today is that date and we have now been here for 4 and 1/2 months ( :o ) and just yesterday!!!! put in our final application papers for Permanent Residency. OMG!
What can I say - it is amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it (and have a lot of luck on your side).
To my wonderful girlfriend who never stops amazing me and my wonderful daughter who continually finds ways of making me proud. I love you both and thank you for having me as part of your lives.
07 November 2006 21:45

Changes galore

Got another gallery live today from our time in Port Macquarie ealier this year.
We are also hoping to implement drop down menu navigation across the site in the next few days - look left for an example on this page
Oh and there have also been a number of other minor UI tweaks to the site, hope they work out for you all.
05 November 2006 17:45

And our first images go live

The first of the non-geek content is now up and running, using one of the geek examples. One of a small set of images of our trip to Glastonbury Tor in June 2006 is now available.
Take a look - have fun, let me know what you think.
04 November 2006 23:45

Go see this!

Make time to go to the movies and see An Inconvenient Truth. If you can't or it has already dissappeared from the cinema, then buy it or rent the DVD. This may or may not tell you something new - but it does at least tell you what is actually going on around the world right now. And what you can do! And please believe you really can make a difference! 30 October 2006 23:00

Finally we have content

The intention is to start making an all singing, all dancing bells and whistles site but for now, we just need a place to share our adventures. So a good old fashioned html site will do us just fine thank you very much.

Over the next few .... (insert time period here) we will hopefully get a decent blog engine going, a newsletter (for those of you who may be interested) and a gallery. You know all the personal stuff that we should have been uploading for the past 3 months or so.
I can only apologise for the delays in getting even this basic page up and running and promise (scout's honour) to keep updates coming a little more regularly. 24 October 2006 23:30

And more coming soon

But you would already know that if you had read the bit above

With a huge Css nod...

Some very clever people have come up with a way of doing source code in a way that is actually accessible to people who use alternative browser types (speech, braille etc.)

If you would like to know more, and haven't already encountered their stuff yet, take a looksee at Skidoo layouts, well worth the time

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