Finally got a Christmas Tree

Not bad for $10. One of the local Maori Trusts must have a large stand of trees that they harvest every year. They do a roaring trade for a few weeks and then disappear off the radar.

The girls are buying presents for the family from the money that they have raised from busking. Really quite cute!

Yay! IELTS is finished and we are heading in to the last week of school. Everything is looking increasingly Christmasy and all the shops are doing a roaring trade. At least for a month the recession will go away.

Santa

Santa just arranged 7 boxes of Napoleonic infantry on Trademe. I think the Easter bunny will arrange about 7 more.  That should be enough to balance my Russians.  Should be a hell of a table top when I am finished by the end of next year.  I am going to get the Christmas tree today as well today so it is all busy busy. Josie has her sleepover party on Friday and that is the same day as my end of year party which should end up being a drunken pub crawl (with any luck) Just one for IELTS examining on Saturday and it is nearly over!!!!!

Saturday again and I have got to mow the lawns and give the kitchen some TLC. I went jogging again with Mari this morning and I managed to get up the big hill on Glenpark Ave quite easily so when I do my big run tomorrow I will see if I can get all the way around the circuit with only one stop. I will have the whole morning to myself so I hope I will be able to get a few hours of online gaming in. I also have some bids in on Trademe for some new toy soldiers which will be my new project over the winter.  I have decided to revamp my Napoleonic French army with some of the new Hat figures.  It will involve painting about 500 figures if I am lucky. Hear are some shots of my Russian army which I finished a couple of years ago. Unfortunately a greasy front lens made for a foggy picture.

This is the start of the Sunday Walk to Port Chalmers. We stopped off at the new Dunedin stadium which is under construction.  It is really shooting up and should be well ready for the World Cup in 2011.

Josie took these snaps so they are a bit random. They do show the size of the construction which is directly and indirectly pumping millions into the regional economy. There was a good deal of controversy about the project since it is funded by the Dunedin city council with limited central government input. I am glad to see that the old council pushed it through - even at the cost of Peter Chin's second term!

This might be the place that houses the new language centre which will relocate from near the clock tower.

On the way to Port Chalmers. I think we did about 12 Kms. This was Tory's first long walk and she handled it really well.

yours truly in one of his rare photos

We made it just in time to be picked up! We got a nice ice-cream at the port which bucked the girls up no end.

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnster1968?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/qkPv4EULpuA

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnster1968?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/9x9B3JX2jTI

Here is a test of linking to my Youtube channel.

Student loans.

I hate student loans. I have been under the millstone of a student loan ever since I restarted my uni studies about 10 years ago. The IRD insist on tacking 10% from my PAYE every fortnight which means that I am taxed at over 32%. If you include 15% GST the total money which goes to the government is over 40% of my take home pay. I have about $2300 to go on the loan now so I should be finished by the end of the year all things going to plan. I am looking forward to having just al little more left in the bank account next year if I can finally slay that horrid little leech.

The Mine Tragedy and Jogging with Mari

Everyone was quite sad yesterday with the news of the 2nd blast in the mine over on the West Coast.  Hard to imaginne that the lives of 29 people could be snuffed out so quickly just as they were doing their daily jobs. The PM has ordered all of the govt flags to fly at half mast and he will fly down tomorrow to meet the families of the victims. According to the mine officials the levels of flammable gas in the mine mean that it could continue to explode regularly for decades to come meaning that the miners may never be recovered.

At 6 every morning after Mari has finished her meditation we have been going jogging together. So far it had been quite fun and Mari is quite good. Today we did 25 mins which even though is pathetic is a good set up for the day. I will walk down to school today which will take another 45 mins.  All up that makes about 1/14th of my day in some sort of exercise.