family

i’m nor sure if they are actually selling mothers at this shop, and if so, that the discount only applies if you bought a lady mother (rather than a man one?).  this was from auckland’s notorious k-road so who knows !

i’ve been publishing our family pictures elsewhere so funkypancake is now less autobiographical.  but anyway, here’s a picture of jane with an egg benedict (i think).  a popular local dish (the food, not jane)

sorry about the confusing chronology of pictures at the moment.  i fear it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  so hang on to your time travel hats

we moved out of our house a couple of days before we left the UK as all our stuff was loaded in to the container to be shipped to the other side of the world.  Our last two nights in the UK were spent at Jane’s parents who kindly hospitalised us (i think that’s what i mean).

jane and i slept in her old bedroom which had her old lightshade in.  it was a fitting end to our time in the UK !

here’s tony.  my excellent local photographic sparing partner

i asked him if he could take a family portrait of us yesterday when we were saying our last goodbyes and he obliged.  in fact he threw himself in to the task quite literally, treating us like a wildlife project

i’ll miss tony and his family.

this weekend has been spent with jane’s sister and family.  we had a really lovely time and i managed to grab a few nice photos of our families together

here is lovely jane with lovely binky.  more sadness for all involved.  i won’t go on about how hard it is saying goodbye again. (but it is)

and here is a rather dry lawn outside cliveden house

not quite abbey road …

i went to the national space centre with my dad yesterday for a last day out.  that’s him in the picture above fiddling with some controls in a mock up version of the actual space station (i think). 

i do know he’s not wearing the regulation space suite, but they seemed pretty relaxed about that at the museum

we then went and stood in front of a magical heat detecting camera and turned in to spooky sci-fi bods

here’s my dad by a rocket.  he made me take a vertical picture as he was worried by my wonkly ones.

eventually he did put his space suite on.which pleased me no end.

then we went in to this psychedlic area which i wasn’t entirely sure about.

after that we left the paid for museum and went to the free sewage museum next door which was even more fun.  pictures of that to follow.

and on the way back home i popped in to see my grandma to say goodbyes too.

it was a day of strange mixed up emotions and memories, all taking place a very short distance from the hospital where i was born.  once again, i was surprised by how much it affected me.  I’ve now said my last goodbyes to my mum, dad, brother and grandma.  gulp.

not long now until 11th October …

and now i’ve said my final farewells to my mum in person it’s also quite poignant. 

We’ll see her in NZ in not too long, and the power of the email / skype means we’ll still be in touch. but still a rather renching thing.

sorry the blog is a little down beat today !

here’s my mum !

… is amazing.  and totally in charge of our emigration.  which is handy.

we went to the excellent anglesey abbey at the weekend as part of a weekend away with my mum.

there was some wedding reception going on, although they seemed to be over an hour late arriving.   that made for a nice photo of an off a master of ceromonies who had lost his ceromonies, a chilly harpist who had no audience, and a statue flautist.

the house itself looks lovely, but we spent our time wandering round the fantastic gardens

and posing for photos which will become part of our family archives

and here’s my mum and a statue relaxing.  my mum’s the one sitting down

it was lovely to have a family together day with my dad, brother, pam and vi.  we got some photos for the album then tried some comedy shots.  there was definitely a generational divide in participation in the ‘look silly’ photo