marc.vic.max.elliot

Hi everyone – just a quick Merry Christmas to all our friends and family from us here in New Zealand.  The weird thing is that it won’t be Christmas in the west coast of the US for 17 hours…..

written by Marc

My kind of Christmas Tree

written by Marc

Hi everyone – long time no see!  Things have been crazy around here but I think everyone is a wee bit mad at this time of year   Here are a couple of things that you may find interesting:

• Vic had a great time in Auckland at the Kylie Minogue concert.  She had asked me a number of months ago whether or not I wanted to go and I’d said no. I suggested however that she take a few days away from the boys and go up herself (we had friends also going) while I took a few days off from work to look after the little ratbags.  The end result was that Vic had a great time shopping, doing lunch and concert-going while I had a lovely few days looking after the boys.
• Max received his first report card from school.  He did brilliantly and in recognition we bough him a small gift.  It’s really interesting the way they measure children these days and Max scored the highest score in all sections except two.  He also received some lovely comments from his teacher at the end.  Want to see it? Here’s a copy (pdf – 2.3MB)

written by Marc

About two months ago Vic asked if I wanted to go and see Kylie Minogue in concert in Auckland tonight.  I said no but told her she should go up, catch up with friends, go shopping and just have some time away from me and the kids. Naturally she thought that this was a good idea

She left in the middle of the day yesterday and is back late tomorrow afternoon so I have taken a couple of days of work to look after the boys and am quite enjoying it so far….

The really funny thing and just indicative of my life at the moment is the fact that the boys and I are driving to the airport to pick Vic up when her flight gets in at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon.  We’ll give each other a kiss, I’ll hand her the car keys, pass over stewardship of the kids and then board a 5:30 flight to Auckland.  Very strange

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I know it’s been a while since my last update but it’s been almost two weeks since I have had my PC online!  I’m sitting in the Star Alliance lounge in Hong Kong airport after a 12 hour leg from Heathrow and am extremely pleased to be half way home.

Not a lot has really happened in the last two weeks.  Prague was all work related with about two hours free time during the whole week. Luckily I had been there before so I didn’t totally ripped off   My four days back in London were great in that I caught up with a load of people that I haven’t seen for a very long time.

Gotta go and have a shower before my 11 hour leg to Auckland – see ya!

written by Marc

24 hours down in London and I slept almost half of it – nice!

My brother picked me up from the airport and took me to Jay and Larry’s place and it was a quick cup of tea, shower and then off into the city to try and stay awake   After a quick wander up Tottenham Court Road (It was like coming home ) I met up with Jay and had a few beers with his workmates.  I worked out that I’d had 4 hours sleep in the last 48 so three pints in a warm pub was doing me no favours in the staying alert department I can tell you!

A bite (Larry’s cooking, so a very big bite) to eat when we got home and I was crashed out at 9:30. After a brief “oh God it’s 3:30 in the morning and I’m wide awake” moment it was back to the land of nod until 08:30.  A nice 11 hours sleep that has hopefully got me back into sync…..

Ian and Ngahuia are coming to visit today so better go and get ready.  See ya!

written by Marc

Hello from London!  The leg from LA to London was uneventful but unfortunately sleepless as well.  My brother was nice enough to pick me up from the airport and take me to Jay and Larry’s house in north-west London where had a nice cup of tea and I got to meet wee Thomas (3 months). Now it’s time for a shower and off into town to meet Jay for a coffee/beer

written by Marc

Hello from Los Angeles! Although I am in the Air New Zealand transit lounge I had to officially enter the country, be fingerprinted and photographed and walk 5 yards to sit down! I’m only here for 90 minutes…..

So far I have flown an hour from Wellington to Auckland, 12 hours and 15 mins from Auckland to LA and “just” have a 10 hour 40 minute leg from LA to London to go.

See ya

written by Marc