Pen's Birthday and stuff

After our sojourn in Melbourne we had one weekend at the beach and actually swam!! well the water was totally calm and incredibly clear and not too chilly so we had to really. The weather was kind so we took our usual ice cream walk along the beaches like this: Kuaotunu And this Finally Pen's birthday weekend came. Well it was a low key time really, Penny insisted she had her present, the red leather jacket, in Melbourne. But anyway for the first day, Saturday, I found a couple of magazines for her that seemed really good and we went out to lunch. I thought we'd wind up in a cafe that I selected but we must have been late for there wasn't a great range. Off we went to the Pub just down the road instead, cos we were in Ellerslie and the Cock and Bull there is excellent. In the evening we had a barbie for Tom and his family. He is in the last days of a 2 year stay with us. We presented him with a "graduation" certificate from "South Auckland". The next day it was a bag of an assortment of confectionery to go with the mags. THE birthday was Monday so I presented the book "Open" Agassi's story, Pen is into tennis of course. Unfortunately she had to go to the teaching farm, but I baked some biscuits Viz:- As you may know biscuits are not my speciality but they worked out OK. We still have the Antipodean Champers for later in the week! Fortunately the book worked out too as there's silence in the lounge, must be reading! Other things happening are our new home-stays. as you know our year having Shane and then Tabatha went really well and the house was to empty right out when Tom finishes school. Of course this was in the master plan but other things, like Jemma coming over, or all the Houghtons simply haven't materialized. anyway a little note came through the letterbox from a local language school seeking placements for overseas students (read Asian). we went down to check it out and now we have a diminutive Chinese girl, Irene and another appearing in a fortnight from Korea I think. So there you are. the income from them will off set our travel costs for the near future as I expect we will be zooming to the antipodes in 2011 (OK and Australia too, Paula). While we couldn't stand 40+ temperatures like Sydney or being flooded like Cumbria, we could just do with a complete day of sunny weather right now. Auckland springtime can be a bit dull. One day soon though it will switch just like a light coming on. we can't wait!