Jack and Katrina's Place

I have had a brief text from the travellers. All seems reasonably good; warm balmy weather, Guy lounging in the sun under a tree, peace and quiet! I don't have any pictures as yet so I have included one of Jack and brother Roger in France in 1975. Jack has changed a bit but France probably hasn't.

Katrina, Jack and Guy will all be in the South of France getting ready for the wedding. I haven't heard from them so I know they are having fun and enjoying the area. Katrina sent me this picture of the final 'try on' of the dress she will be wearing. She made the skirt and the top was a combined effort with wonderful assistance from their neighbours in Wellington. I am looking forward to the official photos but this one is so lovely too.

With the heat Katrina took care to feed Guy often. He loved the attention too I think. One effect of that was he had a great big poo on the plane, right in front of everyone while Katrina was putting him into his Pyjamas!

We are in Paris tonight after two wonderful days in Singapore. Guy coped with both the 10hr and 14 hr flights better than some adults, maybe because he got to lie down in his bassinet most of the way. In Singapore we put him in the backpack for an early morning walk down by the river. It'smisty because the camera has just come out of the backpack at airconditioned temperature and fogged up, still it gives the effect. It was so hot, but Guy slept in the backpack under his sunshade. We found a shady park to take him out for a cool off and a drink. He seems to love being out and about in the backpack and was all eyes until they finally wouldn't stay open any longer. We took the underground up to Little India for a taste of old Singapore, and found a very freindly back street Indian resteraunt. Then we did some shopping on Orchard Rd, by which time evryone was pretty tired so Jack went on a missionto bring back tasty chinese food to the air-conditioned sanity of the Hotel room. The next day we went up to the Botanic Gardens, and saw the wonderful orchids and palm trees. Singapore was exciting and challenging, but we had a great time. The 11:30pm departure for Paris made the 2nd day seem a long one, but we are in Paris now and well looked after by Andy and Dave, starting to relax already, (and I was relaxed!)

I received this letter this morning

Guy has been superb, was great on the flight over and slept for a good portion of it (and did an enormous poo which went everywhere!). He has coped very well with the heat and has slept in the backpack which is great. He has also spent a lot of time looking out of the backpack and delighting everyone with his big blue eyes. He was very sad last night after waking 2 hrs into his night sleep and was going for 1.5hrs and eventually went down.

Have seen a lot but not at the usual pace we would both go at. We have walked for miles along hte river and Botanic Gardens, Little India, Orchard Rd. We are about to get on the flight bound for Paris, have got Guy's travel cot so he can have a nap before we get on the plane but he is fast asleep on Jack;s back now and has been since we left the hotel at 8pm (now 9.30) including the bus ride with Jack teetering on the edge if his seat wearing the backpack!

Jack snorted chilli rice through his nasal passages today (by accident) and almost passed out. I bought an iPod - very good bargain with lots of bizarre free stuff.

We have to go now, 2 min left so will let you know how the Singapore Paris leg went when we get there.

lots of love from Katrina, Jack and Guy Sleepy

Katrina, Jack and Guy left on Saturday for their big overseas trip. They were all happy and relaxed. Jack and Katrina were excited, Guy charming and enjoying all the new sights, sounds and so many people all smiling at him. They arrived in Auckland after a good 1 hour flight from Wellington and we drove the 1km between the domestic and international terminals. A light lunch, a check that the sky cot was indeed available for a wriggly little boy, buy some money and then it was time to board.
They will be waking up in Singapore soon. Hopefully the 10 hour trip was no more of an ordeal than usual.

Guy has always enjoyed bath time, and we enjoy it too. Here he is with two of his favorite bath toys. The green duck is 30 years old, it used to be Katrina's and it obviously still has appeal.

Here is another photo of Guy, enjoying his late afternoon wiggle time. On the same afternoon the cold clear southerly brought created this lovely moonrise over the Orongorongo ranges. If you can put a jersey on and stand against the wind, it's really not the worst place to live!

This weekend Margaret came to stay with us and gave Guy lots of cuddles before he goes overseas with us. Over the weekend Wellington had it's first really cold snap of the winter, cold rain and even this morning when the skies cleared it was 3 degs C on the cycle to work. Hence the litttle blue sleeping bag with arms that Guy's wearing while he reads his new soft book with Margaret early one morning. After the southerly the skies cleared to the sunny afternoon where Guy is enjoying some wiggle time, he is very nearly rolling from his back to his tummy and back again, and once on his tummy is trying hard to find a way to crawl, not long now? With gentle help from his Grannny he is getting better at drinking formula from the sipper cup, which might give his poor tired mummy a break while we are on holiday next week.

Last Sunday Katrina agreed to spare me for one day which was what I needed to keep my pilots licence reasonably current. I had been planning for a month or so to fly right across the North Island at it's widest point, from Gisborne to New Plymouth. Getting the right weather for VFR flying in NZ is always a bit tricky, to get it fine on both east and west coasts in the same day proved just a bit trickier. Nonetheless, with my friend (and commercial pilot) Anna, on board for company, I flew up the Manawatu coast past Mt Taranaki to land at New Plymouth. In the stong South-easterly, the Northern Taranaki hill country was beautiful and clear in the autumn sunshine and we had a fabulous flight via the Whanganui river gorges, over Taumaranui and then across a serene Lake Taupo. The South Easterly was still throwing bad weather up against the central ranges, so we stayed west of them, threading our way across the desert road, beneath a layer of cloud a few hundred feet above us. Around Taihape the clouds lifted and we flew down over the canyons of the Rangitikei, got cleared through the military airspace around Ohakea to follow the Rangitikei out to the coast. As we came home down the coast, Paraparaumu was in it's own patch of sunshine. Welllington had rain all day so we were really lucky to have seen as much opf the country as we did in a little over 4 hrs flying time. Maybe next year I'll get the true coast to coast flight done.

Here's something a bit different, Danielle came to visit us a few last week with her laptop with the built in camera. Here are a couple of photos she took, modified by the computer to make a 'Charcoal Sketch' and 'Pop Art' representation of wee Guy. I think it's interesting how certain aspects of the image remain distinctive despite the alteration. Compare the serious gaze of his charcoal sketch with the photo from last weekend where he regards Kirri.

I know you've seen a few sunrises on this site, but I took these over Easter weekend, and thought I 'd share them with you. These cloudscapes have been particularly dramatic because of the unsettled autumn weather. There is quite a strong Sou'Easterly blowing and the layers of cloud are stacking up over the Tararua ranges to the north east of us.

I have often wondered how the fluffy clouds form so early in the morning when there is no solar heating to drive convective process (or the bubbling up of air!) The reason I discovered is related to the wind. The strong easterly is rolling off Tinakori Hill (just out of shot to the right), and the resulting turbulence is mixing up the layer of very cold air that has formed near the ground overnight with the moisture-carrying easterly. As the cold air touches the moist air clouds form like whitecaps (grey caps?) on the waves of air. These little fluffy clouds are best avoided in small planes, the effect is like running through rapids in a speed boat, thump thump bang, and then maybe hhhhurrrgh!!!! As the folks on the Beech 1900 in the centre of one of the photos are discovering.

Ok here are some more photos of his absolute cuteness, sitting on his bean bag throne and in various other settings. He is well into the use of his mouth to gauge the charachteristics of things around him. This week he is working out concepts of size, note attempt to get ball into mouth.

No baby photos this morning, it's been dark and rainy when I get home so the few I took have been uninspiring. So I thought for inspiration I 'd share with you these recent sunrise photos, all taken over the Anzac weekend week. These were all very fleeting lasting just a few minutes before fading into the unremarkable grey of a Wellington autumn (gale) sky.

While we all have a our beliefs, one of mine is that God looks after those who rise early with these little previews from the glory of creation, sort of 'directors cuts' on the beginning and end of the days DVD.

Of course there is another theory about the scattering of short (blue) wavelength light due to particulate matter suspended in the air. In which case we must have had slightly different sized particles each day to adjust the colour balance, which is still pretty cool don't you think? Right 'nuff said, Next week I'll his cuteness back in the frame.

At 16 weeks now Guy is an active little ball of fun, but not yet able to sit up without a lot of firm cushions. So he still needs to be held by someone or another. Here he is supported by various family and friends.