October 30, 2012

  • Tuesday 30th October

     

     

     

    I had a schedule to keep to throughout the day so I was up and in the shower at 7am.

    The children were good, they were all fed and ready to leave the house by 8:30 - earlier than I had requested.

    We went into the city and got our early morning starters - while I got frappaccinos at Starbucks for Mahalia & myself, Shanni walked around to Colombos Coffee and picked up a Chai Chiller & Azzan's Lemon & Lime Chiller.

    Interesting taste differences eh?

     

    Then we headed to Stoke.

    Stopped in at Mr Music's to pick up one of the guitars he had mended.

    Then dropped Mahalia & Azzan off at Sasha's work.

    They were doing some volunteer work with her for the morning.

    She is the day care manager for the elderly folk who come in from the community to have a few hours out of their homes and enjoy community interaction.

    Shanni & I had half an hour up our sleeves before her guitar lesson so we popped in to find the Jellico outlet factory at the Wakatu Estate that I had just heard about the night before.

    It was a superb place to loose a few hours in.

    I had to leave to take Shanni to her guitar lesson.

    It was her first lesson with Phil at Phil's Guitar Studio so I went in and met him and made sure all was well.

    He was highly recommend by our friend Neville aka Mr Music.

    When I picked her up later she was very happy with her lesson and is looking forward to her next one so that is great.

     

    I zipped back to Jellicoe to carry on trying clothes and sussing fabrics.

    Had to drop everything again to go get Shanni only to find she had walked the wrong way and was at the Richmond Mall.

    So went there to get her and pick up my sandals that I had left with Mr Minit as he was trying to stretch them some more.

    He was away from his kiosk for 10mins and Shanni couldn't find me so it took a wee while to get back to Jellicoe.

    Shoes couldn't be stretched enough so he didn't charge me - lovely man happy

     

    I had found several lengths of fabric and organised for the lady at Jellicoe to make them up into a couple of tunics.

    Bought one tunic which I loved.

    We headed back towards town as the morning was disappearing.

    Called it to see Anat briefly at Crusoe's and pick up some of her natural product which I am trialing.

    I was really hungry by then so grabbed a deliciously fresh 'melt in your mouth' bacon and vege muffin to munch on as I drove.

    Then as it was close to midday and Sasha had a meeting at 12 we picked up the kids.

    They had really enjoyed their morning and Mahalia especially wants to go back so Sasha and I are going to try and make it work for her to volunteer on a regular basis.

    We went into the city centre and the children got hot potatoes for lunch.

    I left Shanni & Azzan with Katherine to go op shopping.

    They love finding bargains for just a few dollars.

    Azzan was excited as hadn't been op shopping before and he wanted to get some shorts, he is growing so much his clothes are getting smaller by the day!

    I dropped Mahalia up to spend the arvo with Sophie then I headed over to meet Denise for lunch in a wee lunch bar in Vanguard st.

    She only gets half and hour for lunch so we needed to be close to her work.

    It was great to have a catch up with her as it has been several years since we touched base.

     

    I then parked up in the city centre and met Phoebe.

    She had come in to help me decide on a 'mother-of-the-bride' dress I had found the previous day.

    It was gorgeous but very expensive and the sales lady was quite pushy so I wanted some back up help!!

    We had a try on and Phoebe took photos and then we left to think about it.

    Headed across the road and upstairs to Leeanne Anderson's workroom at 128 Hardy St.

    She does alterations and dressmaking.

    I am so pleased to have discovered her and thoroughly recommend her.

    She is lovely and has a great eye and is very relaxed in her approach and talented .

    I tried on my dress that she is altering and between her, me and Phoebe we got it sorted to where it actually looks great happy

    Then I showed her the photos of the dress I was deliberating about and got her view on it.

    Phoebe needed to have some sustenance to we headed to Starbucks and sat in the cool and had a drink and a chat.

    Mahalia & Sophie called in.

    I had okayed them to have an hour of shopping after Sophie's music lessons so they were happy girls.

    Then Shanni popped in to say hi, she had taken Azzan back to the house and he was entertaining Margaret, Amy & Terence!

    Katherine had half an hours work to do so Shanni did a tad more shopping.

    By this time it was close to 4pm so Phoebe headed home to rest and I zipped up to see Hitomi and have a fringe trim.

    I so hate getting 'wool-blind' bummed

    I showed her the photos of the dress and was glad to get her perspective, decided not to go back and layby it and to look around some more.

    I called into Farmers and found some tops and leggings on sale.

    Zipped into the public bathrooms, changed and freshened up for the evening.

    Got to Nelson Beauty Therapy just after 5pm to spend the next couple of hours celebrating Bedelia and staff's 1 year with Dermalogica.

    It was a lovely evening.

    The room was jam packed with a real assortment of ladies from all walks and stations of life.

    We enjoyed drinks and delicious nibbles.

    Some of us wandered through to have free neck massages.

    Others had face mapping done, and others availed themselves of the wonderful special deals on for the night.

    Lots of talking, a couple of short talks from the Dermalogica ladies who had flown down from Auckland.

    I think I finally left sometime after 7pm.

    It was still warm and balmy outside.

    I found the children enjoying each others company.

    Before I packed them into the Safari they were doing their rendition of Gangnam Style outside in the glow of the later evening setting sun.

    I had to capture the essence of the evening - their crazy wild free spirits - so cool - hope they never loose them laughing

     

    Their older sisters were far too grown up and mature to be seen to be so crazy out there

     

    We called in to the supermarket on the way to the house.

    Despite having had dinner they were now hungry again!!

    By the time they had unpacked the car, eaten food, got themselves sorted, I finally managed to get them into bed sometime before 10pm.

    I couldn't get the tv working properly so watched the news through snow!

    Then headed off to bed.

    I was going to blog last night but xanga would not work.

    Only discovered this morning that it is based in New York and the storms there had probably knocked out their ability to function!