guilty....or not guilty?

On 10 March, I was called to the lovely Hamilton District Court for Jury Duty. They had 2 cases for the week. Of course, much to my boss' disgust, I got on the 5 day trial. AND of course, it wasn't to be. It got extended to Monday 17th, as they were delayed on the Thursday. Everyone always asked if we found him guilty. Not so easy to say. There were 3 of them, 15 charges, which required about 25 verdicts. The Police did reasonably good work with the evidence, so there were only 3 Not Guilties.

On to more positive things, my Easter break was lovely! I went to Tauranga to catch up with my Uncle Mark and his wife, who were visiting Mum from Christchurch. We went to the annual NZ Jazz Festival. On Saturday, we headed down to The Strand, where it was just road traffic and 4 stages spread along the grass, plus a couple of stages near bars. They had different styles of bands on each stage, so you could wander along until you found something you liked. We spent 6 hours there, before heading over to the Mount for a nice dinner out.

On Sunday, Mum had bought us tickets to see a drummer. Didn't know anything about it, but went along for the ride. Now, I can't stop raving about him!! Dylan Elise is a 17 year old boy, who has been reading music since the age of 4, had his first tv spot at age 7 and was the drummer of the orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre at age 9! Must say, he'll be quite good when he grows up!!
Found this video on YouTube from his performance in last year's jazz festival (allow 10 mins to watch the entire video, to get the full effect). He's even more refined this year. Enjoy!

yes I AM still alive

Sorry, it's been 3 months since I did an update. And now it's been so long, that no one really cares what I've been up to!

December was like any December - busy. Had Christmas at my place, as I was on call. Then I had my 2 weeks off. Went to Camp Quality in the second week of January. I was photographer again on camp, but I'm now the camper registrar, which means I was super busy leading up to camp, organising kids.

Once back at work, we had 2 new people starting. One is to cover Paula which she's on maturnity leave for a year. I'm going to really miss her. Paula finished work at the end of January, and was due 3 weeks later. Unfortunately it was another 10 days before she actually gave birth! Kyla George was born on the 26th February! Yay!

The Mon and Tue before Waitangi Day (6th), I decided to take some well earnt annual leave. Mum and I headed down to Hawkes Bay for some camping. It was heaps of fun (until the last night when it rained and we found leaks in our tent). We did the food trail (there's a pamphlet, if anyone's down that way) and also did lots of shopping. It was a great weekend of just hanging out. We did stuff in the morning, then lazed about in the afternoon (like sleeping in the sun and doing sudoku puzzles)

This weekend just been was all about Camp again (after having a month off). I'm assistant manager for the winter mini camp in September. We're going to Auckland. I can't give anything away, as the programme is always a secret, and I think some Camp people read my blog! Wait and see guys!!!! It's going to be awesome!

March is fully booked for me already!

Next weekend, 8-9 March, is the Relay for Life in Hamilton. Come support the Camp Quality team!!!! (oh yes, another Camp related weekend!)

The weekend after, I'm on call, so that means I can't leave Hamilton. I have no plans really, so if anyone is bored, give me a call!!

Then comes Easter - I need a break! Work has been super busy lately, so am totally wanting a break. No plans for it yet, but I'm only on call til the Friday, so then I'm going to go....somewhere!

The last weekend is the Relay for Life in Tauranga (another Camp Quality team to support!)

So that's me - past, present, and even a bit into the future.