Just received this: The Kiwis have landed The weary travellers have arrived safe and sound. They seem to have had quite a good journey and Christopher has gone to bed. Viv is just going to partake of some sustenance. Take care of yourselves.

So it all seems to have been worthwhile. I stayed up very late last night talking to my parents and Viv's parents. As usual, my father had lots of questions about the world and how things have changed over the years. It's always interesting to hear, but the time difference between England and New Zealand means that these phone conversations always go on late into the night.

Here, it's breakfast time, time to rehearse the reading for David for church this morning time and, of course, coffee time. A beautiful loaf has just been removed from the bread-maker.

More later, if I'm not mistaken.

The Diplomacy game was a disappointment, because it didn't seem to go the way it might have done. Matthew kept on saying that some of the ways the game had been played were not fair, but I'm not sure. It seemed fair to me. David looks set to have a successful career as diplomat ahead of him, if he can carry on as he is doing now.

I cooked sausages for tea, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to go to the supermarket before much longer. After tea, Matthew wanted a short game of Risk so that he could beat his brother, but this proved to be not particularly successful either. I was torn when I drew the mission card telling me to destroy all red armies. I had a successful final move when I moved a large force from South America into Africa, wiping out most of the territories there which were all that remained of Matthew.

After recovering for a few minutes, Matthew played Age of Empires again, surprisingly persuading our temperamental CD drive to work first time, while David again listened to Bat out of Hell, an album he seems to have developed quite a passion for. The quality of the music is certainly something that has passed the test of time. It startles me to realise just how many years have passd since most of the stuff I like to listen to was recorded. The technical term for this, I believe, is "growing old".

Turns out that the flight to London left late - something to do with increased security. No doubt I'll hear soon enough. Here, it's quiet. I've called all the people about Monday's contest, but nobody's home.

We set off for David's hockey game a few minutes early. The morning was bright and sunny, but with a bitterly cold wind blowing. David's team won the game by 2 goals to 1, and David was awarded Player of the Day, which is an honour for the last game of the season. Certainly he had contributed to some significant defensive play, blocking goal attempts by the other team.

A disappointment was that the sausage and steak man wasn't there today, so after the game we set off in search of a sausage sizzle. Didn't find one.

Instead, we went to Upper Hutt where we bought some paper for our computer printer, currently down to only a handful of sheets left. We had lunch at a bakery I had never been to before - Mr Tran - opposite Logan Street. David and Matthew both had mince pies, I had a chicken pie. Both were very good. A short journey back to Stokes Valley for coffee and the start of a game of Diplomacy as the sun streams through the windows and gives benefit to our lazy cats.

United have woken up again, and I see that the flight to Los Angeles actually arrived 14 minutes late, while the flight to London is currently expected to leave 15 minutes late but arrive 5 minutes early. In the old days, detailed information about the schedules of flights was not available. I don't know for sure whether this is a step forward or not.

Coffee is served. Let the game begin!

David and Matthew got up quite early this morning, but I didn't. Matthew made me a cup of coffee and David asked if I would like a piece of the pizza. It seemed kind of jim to offer, so I said he could have both. I have heated some oats for me to have for breakfast. The rest of the morning, I think, will be fairly quiet until we go off to watch or play the last hockey game of the season.

Meanwhile, the United Airlines website isn't working properly, so I can't tell whether the next part of the global journey is running to time. By now, if all is running to time and plan, Viv and Chris should be at Universal Studios and have finished their lunch.

Today we had pizza for tea, our usual far for a Friday. After David had tidied up the lego and Matthew had finished his turn on the computer, we set off to Pizza Hut to collect one pizza with garlic bread, cola and fries, of which two slices survive until the morning.

Soon after that, it was time to visit the Allan-Johns family for their open evening. This was disappointly poorly attended. Those who did go along saw videotape of their trip, including recognisably English countryside, some of places I knew and some of places I frankly didn't recognise at all.

Just before 10pm we left, too early for Matthew, who was tired by this stage. It seems very quiet here, without 40% of the family here. Tomorrow morning will no doubt be spent in processing a variety of messages and the like, while juggling other commitments such as finding the right clothes for hockey players or whatever else comes up as a problem nedeing attention. For now, the new day is dawning in England

The sun that bids us rest is waking our brethren 'neath the western sky.

Collected the boys from school and worked on a spreadsheet for them showing what we and they would be doing. Soon after that, it was time for <sarcasm> those icons of broadcasting excellence </sarcasm> Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z. What more could you ask? The boys are playing with their Lego at the moment.

It's pretty much time to stop typing stuff for a while and get on with useful stuff like washing the dishes, so I guess I'll do that.

Up early in the morning. Today was also the last day of the school term. After breakfast we dropped David and matthew off at school and set off for Wellington airport. The traffic reminded me as to why it is that I normally catch the train to and from work.

Still, it wasn't too bad and we arrived at the airport just after 9 in time to check in for the flight to Auckland, which was delayed about half an hour anyhow. A cup of coffee each and a Coca-Cola (R) for Christopher and then on to the departure lounge.

As Viv and Christopher said goodbye to me and the lounge emptied, I noticed that a large number of pre-schoolers were still there. Newtown Playcentre, to be precise. I'm not clear excatly who it was that they had turned up to see leave. A staff member, I think.

After the flight left, I wandered around the airport for a few minutes and then drove into town, realising that it was just coming up to lunchtime. This meant that I was able to catch up with my usual Friday lunch group, and so it was that Gareth, Richard and Andrew dined with me, a little to their surprise as I had said I wouldn't be there this week.

After lunch, a drive up to the Hutt Valley and home, where I caught up with my email, checked whether or not the flights were running on time at the United Airlines site.
In fact, the flight to LAX is running fifteen minutes early. I also called Telecom NZ in response to an invoice I received today. They say I owe money - I say I don't. We now agree that I don't - somewhat to my surprise!

Normally, Viv and I live in Wellington, New Zealand and David, Matthew and Christopher live with us. But for two weeks, Viv and Christopher are travelling to England to see Christopher's grandparents, leaving me to look after the other two boys here in New Zealand.