Every Child Should Have This Opportunity

It's amazing how one can fall behind with so many things when one has a really really busy weekend.  Which is what I've just been fortunate enough to have. I was going to say that the highlight was playing association croquet matches and playing as well as I have ever played and thoroughly enjoying every minute (well, perhaps not if I missed a roquet but that would be a fleeting moment). Or doing something simple after dinner on Sunday evening when Wendy and Martin took me to the Globe Theatrette (which I'm ashamed to say I'd never been to) to see Short Term 12 (a low-budget very emotional and ultimately uplifting film) whilst drinking a glass of excellent shiraz in superb comfort.

The highlight wasn't any of that though.  It was going to see Catriona swimming in her school swimming gala.  Catriona is fortunate to have what I would wish for every child in the world: the chance of a superb education at a school most children in the world cannot even dream of because they could not conceive of there being such a school. Woodford House is one of New Zealand's leading girls' schools.  It is a day and boarding school (Catriona is a weekly boarder and loves it) set in acres of greenery.  I think if I had been a girl and gone to Woodford even I might have enjoyed school. (As it was I was fortunate enough to have had as good an education as was available in Liverpool and I disliked almost every minute of it).

The organisation of the 77 races was a precision clockwork event such as I have never seen before.  The parents (and grandparents!) were there supporting their children (and seeing and being seen and taking the opportunity to chat to teachers and other parents informally).

The swimming pool is set in a deep natural amphitheatre.  Catriona's school house is dressed in blue.

Catriona in blue cap just about to start her race

and, by a short hand, winning it. 

The Swimming Pool: Finished

Looking out over the pool with the spa in the bottom right

The new deck and the 'front door'

The Swimming Pool: Almost Finished

Yesterday was a beautiful day so after the concrete being delayed because it was too hot (32℃) one day, too windy another day, too wet on a third day and, wait for it, the wrong coloured concrete on yet another day, the concrete was finally poured yesterday.  In a week it will have the surface treated and that will be that so far as the concrete is concerned.  The pool has had the solar heating completed this morning too.  So all that remains is the railings surround.  It's a shame that this morning the temperature is 12℃ and it's horrible and wet but I'm sure that tomorrow it's be back in the high 20s and the children will be back in the pool.  They go back to school on Monday so the weather should improve properly fo a while.  That would be really good 'cos I'm getting really fed up of 12℃ in Hawkes Bay in the middle of the summer.  It's probably warmer on Lewis today.

The Swimming Pool: Inauguration

By later in the afternoon on Christmas Day it was decided that the water was clear enough and all the correct pH and chlorine etc boxes had been ticked so the children were let loose.  First in was Catriona who had been dangling on the edge all day.

Catriona - the true Water Baby - first in to the new pool

After that it was a free for all for several hours.  I have to admit that although the children said that it was warm (and it felt warm when I put my toes in) I chickened out and availed myself of the spa (usually called a hot tub here) instead.  I'll go into the pool when the surrounds are all finished - or the weather heats up too much, whichever comes first.

Martin takes the plunge

That's the no jumping, no diving and no mucking about rules broken in the first few minutes (the last one was never a starter anyway!).

The spa/hot tub - bliss.

The Swimming Pool: Day 8

The retaining wall for the bank has been built and the plumbing completed apart from the solar heating connections on the roof.  The concrete hasn't been done because of the poor weather but the base is done and it's beginning to look as though the end is in sight.  Even the chemicals are in the water turning it a rather muddy green.

The Swimming Pool: Day 7

Well today was cutting an laying day for the surround tiles and the plumbing progressed to the filter and pump.  I'm not sure what's happened to the pump shed though.  

A finished surround for Christmas is looking unlikely to my eye but the if there is any work between Christmas and New Year then.....

The Swimming Pool: Day 6

The pool has now been filled with water and the concrete has been poured into the gap between the earth and the pool lining wall.  The base for the pump and equipment shed has been laid.  Getting there...

The Swimming Pool: Day 5

It doesn't really look as though much progress has been made but it has.  The bank at the back has been removed to make way for the patio and the pool's pump and equipment shed.  Bushes and overgrown undergrowth have been removed to enable people once more to see the view and the more plumbing and pipework has been done.

The Swimming Pool: Day 4

Progress indeed:

The Swimming Pool: Days 2 and 3

The swimming pool at The House is coming on in leaps and bounds.  Three days ago it was a hole in the ground.  At the end of Day 2 it looked like this:

And at the end of today - Day 3 it's coming on in leaps and bounds:

They say that tomorrow it will be filled with water and then they will backfill the outer walls with concrete.  That seems rather a big ask to me.  I want to know what goes on the bottom first.  I can't wait for tomorrow evening when I get back from the pre-Nationals practice session.

Can I Remember?

What I was going to tell you about yesterday?  It was all very clear at one o'clock this morning but by that time bed seemed a better option.  This morning yesterday seems so long ago and much less important.  It was, however, a very Good Day.  

The House is at the stage where all the alterations are coming to the point where the plasterers, electrician, builder and painters are all there together and there is nowhere to sit or think or eat allthough it's possible to cook and for some to sleep in their own bedrooms!

Even the pool builders have started on their bit of the job:

Martin, Jamie and Fraser are off camping with the Scouts so Wendy, David and Catriona came down for dinner (all prepared and sent down by Wendy to my oven).  After we'd eaten and watched Ice Road Truckers (if you ever get the opportunity it really is worth watching) the youngsters returned to watch DVDs or whatever in the safety of their bedrooms at The House whilst Wendy and I settled down with the cheese to watch The Girl Who Played With Fire - based on the second of the books by Stieg Larsson.  It is in Swedish with subtitles so one cannot even look away for a minute in case one misses an important point.  It's a very intense film and rather unusual in that the 'heroine' is not the most likeable of characters.  I thought I might have nightmares but I didn't and I'll watch the third film in the series very soon.

A piece of trivia for anyone who has seen the film.  The name on Salander's apartment door, V. Kulla, is a reference to Astrid Lindgren's character Pippi Longstocking and her house Villa Villekulla?

Misty was down, of course, and, having been newly shorn looks a fraction of the size she did a few days ago.

Newly shorn Misty and Catriona finishing her desert.

A more hairsuite Misty

After Wendy had returned to The House I decided to experiment with a few night shots.  There was some cloud and the moon was shining so I decided to see what I could do shooting North from the deck of The Cottage with Napier over the hill in front of me.  The result was quite interesting because the orange in the sky which is the result of the lights in Napier was not visible to the human eye (well not to mine anyway).  The visible stars were not very great either because I used a very low ISO and 30 sec exposure.  There's lots of fun to be had with these yet although I've discovered that my camera has severe limitations for nighttime use.

A Large Hole

I went to croquet this morning. This was what the remains of the bit of the garden (and as the garden is 5 acres this is just a bit!) looked like before I went.

This was the scene when I arrived back:

And this is the finished article an hour or so later. All it needs now is the rest of the work - Christmas?