Thursday, August 12, 2010
Fendalton Park
July really is the depth of winter in Christchurch, even if you were completely insensitive to the cold the bare trees give the season away. We were staying with Alan and Melissa and we went down to their neighbourhood park to give the boys a play. And play they did, all over the climbing frame which became a 'Star Wars Ship' and then the discovered how much fun it was to throw leaves at Mummy!
In this activity Guy was ablely assisted by little Alex B. A few days later Guy asked me how to spell "space police". He got the P and O and then he was stuck so I told him the next letter was 'L for Lisa', but Guy said 'No Daddy, L is for Alex'.
Guy carried his R2D2 soft toy everywhere with him, which kept reminding me of an epsiode of 'The Goodies' where they take their baby Robot to the park (anyone else remember it?).
Katrina managed to look like an off duty Super-model as usual, even while assiting one small boy to irrigate an oak tree, (a park with no loos, strange). She also managed while siting on the swing to look almost exactly like Winnie the Witch, maybe it's the black leather boots or maybe it was the way she laughed as she flew through the air , ah haa hee hee heeee!
Saturday, August 07, 2010
50 years of No 18 Sqn ATC
18 July 2010 we were in Christchurch for the 50th anniversay celebrations of No 18 Squadron Air Training Corps. Katrina and I met 19 years ago through her association with the ATC, while I was training with the RNZAF in Christchurch, so it was a good excuse to go back to Wigram. Unfortunately July in Christchuch is absolute mid winter and it has been a record breaking cold wet winter for Christchurch with an average temp of just under 5 deg C.
The anniversay parade was addressed by Air Commodore Grame Lintott, Chief of the Airforce. I first knew Mr Lintott when he was in the RNZAF with my father in Singapore. As a 9 year old I remember walking past Mr Lintott's house as he explained he'd just cut off a snakes head with a spade while working in his garden, very impressive to a 9 year old! Then he'd been the CO of Flying training wing (which included university cadets and thus engineers) and now he was making a welcoming speech in Maori and English for the 50th anniversary parade on a freezing wet day in Christchurch. The parade culiminated with a flypast by a Tiger Moth, completing the sense of time or perhaps timelessness, so much has changed and so much is still the same.
