1 Family stuff: Keegan has been successful in gaining a cinematography position/apprenticeship in Auckland - exciting times for him as he plans to relocate and begin to fulfil those dreams. Samantha and San Franciscan Jessie staying with us. Samantha Mary (pictured left with friend Flo) is about to restart work at New World for the summer. Jade has had two exams so far - biology was a bit eugh, English was okayish apparently. Jacky has ended with the wallys at Skinforme and is relaunching herself into hospital nursing on a casual basis. It's been a stressful couple of weeks all up! 2 Nature watch and a weather report: cold in the mornings (rain and grey skies this morning frinstance), then hot when the sun burns off the clouds. That kind of combination means that everything is growing like crazy. All the animals are keeping the grass under control, mainly because we've closed five paddocks off for hay which we'll do in December/January. We donate three paddocks to the farmer next door in return for him cutting and preparing two paddocks that will give us over 200 bales for 2009.
3 Currently grooving to: new Snow Patrol is on high rotate.
Lots of photos in this post. First some pictures of our bedroom - not to be kinky - but to show you the bedside cabinets that a student at school made for us. Isaac is part of our wood technology year 12 class and I was his client for the year. His brief was to match our bedroom furniture and create two bedside cabinets. He's done a fabulous job! We're really happy with them and here they are:
Roger and Deirdre have just returned from their northern hemisphere excusion (like Steph and Dunc; Team Taylor this year - a trend!)and supplied a picture which I hope they don't mind sharing here (in return for some more Purdy archive material). First of all - the Marbecks. I'm a bit disappointed Rog isn't modelling the knotted hanky look but you can't have everything I suppose. 
Okay so to the archives, or more specifically Samantha's archives. First up a picture taken at Planet Hollywood in London. I took my A level students (yes this was pretty much my whole class!) to see the Globe and do some theatre workshops. Samantha tagged along for the day and loved the Globe. My teacher friends thought I was insane taking students on a trip (no one ever does - too risky!). But I'm glad we went. The Globe is amazing and well worth a look. 
Next is a video of us on the tube, no idea when and why but cinema verite at its best folks. Note the Harrods' bag held by Mrs Purdy!!On the way back to NZ we stayed in Anaheim for a while to experience Disneyland (really is the happiest place on Earth). This is Jade and me walking back to our hotel - the Anaheim Hilton.
Here we are at the Pirates of the Carribean ride. 
Fanfa at Disneyland.
In California we fell in love with the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) - here is yours truely looking content, about to launch into my second (okay, okay - third) helping of divine IHOP pancakes.And that's right I own a lot of Beatles shirts!
This picture celebrates one of our rituals whenever we went into London to shop or sightsee. The NZ icecream shop in an arcade off Oxford St was run by some eastern European swarthie types and who knows if it was really NZ icecream but it tasted great and made us think about NZ.
We lived at Western Rd in Leigh-on-sea for about 2 years. One of the advantages of this location was its proximity to Hadleigh Castle. It was our popular destination for walks. This picture is of 'the Africa tree' which was on our walk to the castle. Why was it called that? Jade named it so and that was that. It was a great place to sit, watch trains in the distance, look for squirrels, and think.
While in Harrods Jacky visited the (I thought rather tacky) shrine to Diana and Dodi. I found Harrods too cluttered and it was a real mish finding a toilet and then finding the troops again. And no music department!!
To finish here's one of my favourite sequences. Just before we all left England to fly back to NZ Samantha and I took a fond last look around my favourite part of London. Tottenham Court Rd contains the best music store in London - Fopp - and is the gateway to Soho and all the other superb music stores in London. The weather was appropriate for our mood. I can vividly recall the instant these photos were taken.
More archives (less Wozza hopefully) next time! Love and peace - W
