Andy James Marshall

16/12/64 - 28/03/06 RIP

"The Dash"

Removed at the request of the copyright holder. Hope it plays at her funeral.

Adapted from the eulogy

Sky Is Totally Eclipsed...

The total eclipse last night (NZ time) was obviously not visible here, but it did have an unintended effect to a great deal of the NZ populace...

Our Sky satellite went dark, drained itself of power and is currently drifting, powerless above the Earth. It's been 15 hours so far without Molly's "kids TV" and I'm not sure how they're going to sort it out - how can you reboot and reposition with no power?

I have (understandably) morbid thoughts today, and I was reflecting back to 11.11am on 11th August 1999 when in Teddington I was convinced the world was coming to an end. What a strange person I am...

I'm off to get ready for the funeral.

Good news and bad

Aloise is close to solids... she took a crisp from me today and started eating it - screaming with laughter the whole time. She sits in her little "podracer" playing with the toys on it and absolutely loves it!

If I could get myself together - I'd send these pics to the makers of the toy - gotta be a great advert!! Naturally, Molly wanted to get in on the action.

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On a much sadder note, a friend of mine - Andy "Bitchin" Marshall was killed on the roads here in New Zealand this week and I'm heading to his funeral tomorrow. He was one of the first good people I met here - he used to sponge the odd cigarette from me because he either (i) didn't want to buy them or (ii) was trying to give up or (iii) preferred my UK smokes - the reason varied!

On about the 5th occasion I met him - he specifically brought a pack of smokes with him and gave them to me, he was just that kind of a thoughtful guy. I could go on about the laughs I shared with him and others but for some reason the smokes story makes me feel best and says what I want to say succinctly.

Miss you mate, God bless.

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In far happier news............................................................

Dan and Lou have gotten engaged! We all knew it was coming (eventually) but Clare and I are over the moon for them both - Clare for Lou and me more for Dan, we were talking about them the other night and the subject of marriage didn't come up for a change - which was exactly what Dan was waiting for.

No hurry for the wedding, which suits us because we'd dearly love to be there - I was really disappointed I couldn't get to Quills but at least we'll have time to save. Of course, I'd sell my dangly bits to get to Vics wedding...

Molly loves dolphins!

Clare's new husband?

Clare, Aloise, Molly and I headed up to Hawkes Bay on Saturday to finally fulfil Molly's wish to see the dolphins. She's been talking about them for months now - having graduated from Finding Nemo to Shark Tale to I don't know what!







I may write more about this later - but as this is Mother's Day in England today (Happy Mother's Day Mummy!!!) I just want to get the photos up and go to bed...

The Wonders Of Photoshop

Done with a bit of messing around while waiting for a client to arrive - pretty pleased with the results - it's now hanging in the hallway!

Pride In My Little One (Part One)

Clare mentioned to me that daycare keeps records of the children that are available for viewing and that they were good reading. To say I’m swelling with pride is an understatement – here’s the last two months for Molly:

“February 2006

Molly has returned to our care and education programmer and this time she returns with her little sister Aloise.

Molly participates to her full potential in every activity that is offered.Sje enjoys work with and alongside her peers. She also finds ways to be alone when she chooses. She is fond of books and will often be observed reading a story book to other children. She likes to lead story times.

March 2006

Molly has arranged 3 chairs beside the bookshelf. She sat on the chair closest to the books and started to sing the “Wheels On The Bus” song. Two other children joined her by sitting on the other chairs. Together they sang one verse of the song. Molly stopped singing and chose a book to read.

She remained sitting on the chair, the other two children Nicole & Jaime stood up and approached the bookshelf, chose a book each and then returned to the chairs and sat down.

Molly continued to read the book of her choice completely undistracted.”

I’ll grab Aloise’s book over the next couple of days and update that too.

Who ya gonna call??

Meeeeeeeeee!

Molly & Aloise's Photo Shoot

This is beautiful.

Just for Tom

I know you'll appreciate this more than most!

First batch of new pics

There's plenty more to come over the next few days - along with a long editorial I'll do about what's been happening in sunny Bulls. For now, here's a bunch of pics of Aloise that also feature Molly from time to time and Clare's friend Sheree and her daughter.

Enjoy!

Oooh! New updates coming!!

Yes, yes - lazy bugger. But guess what?? New stuff coming!! Lots of photos. Lots of Aloise. Lots of Molly. Lots of our house before and after the remodelling. Lots of news. Perhaps even my (photo) business card...

To whet your appetite - here's one of our littlest Hobo, whoops - I mean Kiwi, and one of me and the Mollster.