Molly loves Aloise...

...but judging by Aloise's face - the feeling is not quite yet mutual.

What a clever sister I have !

My very impressive sister Fiona gave birth to my second English niece Jessica today - I got a wonderful call from Hayden who as always was as pleased as punch! Apparently, Jessica is fondly referred to as "The Chinese Girl" - or something to that effect...

It's now time for us to begin producing BOYS - when we can convince our wives to let us anywhere near them!!!!!!!

Brilliant Fee - we're all very proud of you and your family. x

Me & The Kids

Brent & I took Molly & Caitlin swimming today - had a lovely time, although I have to say Molly frightens me with her lack of fear sometimes. She was happy to run off into the deep end at any opportunity and - because I can't swim well - I'd have to get out and run round. I'd try and hold Molly but she wouldn't have any of it , so eventually I settled on keeping her in the baby pool. She wasn't too happy.

Nice day though, and another good opportunity to bond with my brother-in-law.

Molly thinks Aloise is too noisy

Molly is always running in to see us and shout "Mummy/Daddy - Wease is crying!!" - she gets quite perturbed and has her own 'special' way of dealing with the noise...



Perhaps we could all learn something from the innocence of children - from the mouth of babes eh?

More babies in the house

This news is bound to upset anyone living in Seaford, East Sussex - but our cat Sally had kittens today - three beautiful little creatures (all boys too dammit!).


We knew she was carrying, but we expected the kittens to arrive around mid-Jan, but Clare spotted Sally walking funny with a small paw sticking our from her nether regions...

I sat with the cat through it all, she was brilliant and a great mother. Clare will only allow me to keep one of them - Megan is having one and we have one more to get rid of. No suggestions necessary Mr. Patten, I'll find a good home without a burlap sack and half a brick!

Christmas With The Penfolds

More Christmas Pics (still at home in these)

Molly takes a picture of Daddy taking a picture of Molly.

Then Molly plays with Donkey from Shrek that Daddy
bought against the wishes of Mummy...














Then Molly gets all dressed up in her new dress from Bar-bar and ready for dinner at Nanny & Grandads.

Merry Christmas

The big day has arrived! Both Clare and I got to bed late last night so we were exhausted this morning - but as soon as we heard Molly awake we got up ready for the fun. I asked Molly to get up and come open her presents and she replied "No, I'm cold". No pleasing some.

We eventually got her up and about and naturally - as with all 2 and a half year olds - she went straight to the first present, opened it and ignored everything else. Since we had not wrapped her play-kitchen and writing desk, this proved particularly difficult.

Still, we persisted and after about two hours all of the presents were opened - including Aloises. We had a quick breakfast then headed off to Linda and David's where we met up with the rest of the family. Clare had bought a ham and a turkey at my insistence - ordinarily Kiwis will have a light meal because of the weather or perhaps a bbq.

We had bought Molly a dress to wear for the day, but Clare loved the one Mummy got for her so much that she ended up wearing that instead - once Molly opened her fairy wings at Nannies she looked d-i-v-i-n-e.

Clare's brother Mark had his girlfriend with him, and she had never had turkey before and was pleasantly surprised. Linda did wonders with the potatoes and gravy as usual and true to form, I skipped dessert in favour of a second dinner.

We opened a few presents with the kids (Caitlin was on good form) and then I just crashed out for the rest of the day, not waking until late in the evening.

Mark's dog has just had puppies and Molly LOVES going to see them in the kennel. I took Molly out to see them and unfortunately the Mum had flattened (literally - it was flat) one of the pups. The girls (adults that is - Molly didn't see) were sad but Mark was more annoyed really, he has been selling them for $300...

It was a lovely day, especially with the kids - next year Aloise will be up and about which will be even more fun!

Part Two of Christmas Day Pics to Come...

Christmas Eve Update - and more on the way...

Finally! The updates are on the way, and there's been plenty of news.

Today is Christmas Eve and Clare's 29th Birthday, and this being the southern hemisphere, the weather is outstanding. Just as last year, Molly spent the day in the pool - trying to soak Daddy, putting everything not nailed down in it and then trying (unsuccessfully) to coach Squeak the Cat to join her.

Squeak is Molly's best friend, and we're fairly confident the cat is retarded or superhuman. No matter what we do, the cat follows Molly around the garden and house and lets Molly treat her like a rag doll. She never complains - apart from the occasional miaow - and we once found Squeak being cuddled, and nearly squeezed to death; by a sleeping Molly. Amazing cat.

We decided (well Clare did) that presents wouldn't go under the tree until Christmas Eve night, and while Molly knew what Christmas was about, and who Father Christmas was; she was good enough not to open many of the presents that she found lying around the house.

It's easily my favourite Christmas ever, I was far more excited about Molly opening her presents than anyone else - including her. We put Molly to bed expecting her to get up and begin the Father Christmas search but it never happened. She put out a plate of shortbreads and a beer for Santa and toddled off to bed, not to be seen again till morning.

I rang Mummy and got her, Tom and Amy on the webcam which set up my Christmas nicely - no doubt they were pleased too - and the family got a chance to see Aloise in motion for the first time. I rapidly use up my broadband allowance and I knew that it wouldn't last another day (it didn't) so the vidcam had to be done early rather than on Christmas Day when I would also be able to see Nana and possibly Fee, Hayden and Emily. It's a shame, but I'm glad I got what I did.

I had to write a quick note to Nana for Tom to give to her on Christmas Day but what with putting everything together for Molly, Clare and I were far too tired and crawled into bed in the wee hours exhausted.

Bring on Christmas Day!

It's Christmas!

I will (finally) be updating this over the next couple of days, but I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! I'm so excited - all the presents are out and we have put together Molly and Aloise' presents. It's late and I'm knackered (and possibly a little drunk) but I'll lay money that I'm out of bed as soon as Molly is up.

Did I mention that I'm excited?

Earthquake !

I felt my first real earthquake last night at about 4am.

I was already awake and so experienced the whole thing - it was very bizarre and more than a little frightening to be honest. First of all the world went very quiet - no wind, no crickets, no animal noise at all.

It has been very humid the last couple of nights (a dead giveaway apparently) and so we had the windows open. The windows started to shake slightly as if someone was gently trying to shake them open wider - which was initially what I thought was happening. Then the house moved. It moved probably an inch - twice, although it felt as though the whole world was moving - very disorienting.

It was kind of like a silent, invisible bulldozer had pushed the house - twice. And then it was over. The wildlife noises started to come back and life returned to normal. It lasted all of about 10 secs but was the most unusual thing I have ever experienced.

I dread to think what "real" earthquakes are like, but I have a greater understanding of why houses in New Zealand are generally made of wood - concrete would have been damaged.

I checked on the news this morning and it was a 5.0 on the richter scale but 20 miles deep and 100 miles away so a very, very mild one. New Zealand is due another big, shallow one anytime now - but again likely to be around Wellington 100 miles away. Wellington is the safest city in the world for earthquakes, being built in unique ways on suspended "floating" concrete blocks that have the same give as wood.

If anyone ever gets to Wellington - I recommend the national Museum Te Papa because it is built with transparent foundations that are absolutely fascinating. As I write this I remember the earthquake simulator there - and it is exactly how it felt last night - with almost the same intensity!

Aloise & Daddy

I've been lucky that I've managed to get some really quality time with my newest little girl - here's a few pics of us snuggling. Note the nice tan that I've developed, my first since I was 13...

Pics from the Xmas parade

This is likely the busiest our little town of Bulls has ever been! It is about the same size as a small Sussex village to give you a comparison...

Nature bites back

We had a tropical thunderstorm today - which in my fascination I forgot to get pictures of. Thunder was continuous for about half an hour and hail was so large and heavy that it shredded trees. We had flash floods at lower levels (nowhere near us thankfully - we are about 30ft above sea level). It was quite a spectacle.

This weekend has been pretty busy. It was the Bulls Christmas parade and as usual Molly loved it. She was dancing to the brass band and catching sweets from Mummy or Daddy's shoulders. Lots of pics to come!

After that, we went home and Tristine and Cherie arrived with pressies and to see Aloise and Clare was really pleased to see them - I don't think she's seen Cherie for a couple of months.

That evening we went to Brent and Megans for a barbeque and I have to say I really enjoyed myself. We watched the cricket, drank beer and ate great food while our three girls played together in the sun. Linda and David were there as were Brents parents - very civilised and very pleasant. As the night drew on, Clare had to express so we headed home for a very hot and sticky evening.

The weather had been amazing all week and I had managed to get a fair bit of my garden chores done this week but I had been intending to do some trimming and weeding on the Sunday (today) until the storm came along.

The rain was so hard and so fast - with horizontal rain - that our drains couldn't cope and the roof started to leak in a couple of places. Thankfully it wasn't anything major, but if the rain had continued that hard for a long time it could have been.

Clare's friend Odelia arrived with her two young girls and Molly was immediately into hero-worship mode in the same way Lauren does with Amy. It was really nice to see and listen to Molly and the girls - she's so clever and knows much more than we sometimes think. She can play a bit of the piano, count to twelve, knows all colours, some letters and some numbers to read.

I'm sure all of this is perfectly normal for a two and a half year old, but I've watched all of these developments firsthand and I'm certain she's a bona fide genius. She's a real personality and can eloquently tell you how she's feeling and what she wants. One of the cats caught a bird today and she said to me: "Daddy, the cats are going to kill the bird - it will be dead, help quick!". How she knows about this astounds me.

Anyway, enough yabbering - on with the pictures, there are quite a few...

Even more pics...

Some pictures you can click on and they expand - some you can't - I haven't figured out how to work this blog thing yet..

This is the last pic for today - until tomorrow, take care of yourselves... and each other.

More pics...

By the way - guess who was the first person to ring and say congratulations? Vic!! He phoned from work, and it was a real pleasure to hear his voice. He's desperately firefighting his own girlfriend trying to rope him into Marriage - won't be long I fear.

In another bit of fantastic news - Claffy and Lyn are pregnant! Of all the people we wanted to have children, these were the guys. Claffy is going to be a great Dad, and Lyn is already a great Mum - to Claffy! It's early stages of pregnancy for them, but all our love goes out to them both.