January Holidays - we spent the holidays at Waiotahi Beach, just five minutes drive from Opotiki township in the eastern Bay of Plenty, NZ. The weather was absolutely superb and along with the Simmon's and the Bodle families, we surfed, swam and generally lazed around for the whole month. We had one memorable episode when Chrissy and Nicole were swimming in waist deep water and a 3m bronze whaler shark swam between them! Talk about exciting! General panic to get out of the water ensued and the surf lifesavers consequently closed the beach. Nicole managed to get some video footage so if I can get it posted to this blog, I will. Those who didn't see the episode didn't believe the sharks size or that it was in fact a shark, but the video dispelled any myths! These photo's bring back a flood of fond memories....
February and back to school for the boys. Sean's first year at college and he has enjoyed it heaps. Been challenging for Chrissy and I getting the time management and researching skills into shape but we think he is grasping it! Big term coming up for Sean as exams and projects will test his will, but I'm sure he will cope with just a little bit of help from us :-).
Liam has floated his way through his year 6 time at primary school with a non-plussed "I can do this without trying too hard" attitude. And, much to the dismay of his parents, has been able to achieve above average in everything, which is great.
On the sporting front Sean has had another strong year in cricket and rugby. He played rep cricket, snaring a top 5-32 bowling effort in one game and also made the Under 55kg Wellington Rugby trials, but didn't get selected in the team. Sean also made it into the college cross country running team and represented the college at the regional college champs.
Liam played his first year in Under 50kg rugby and although raw, excelled with his fitness, his "never give up" attitude and general ability, picking up the Tackler of the Year award at prize giving, much to his delight. He also won the school cross country and represented the region at the regional champs where he did well enough to be picked in the Wellington Representative team for the second year in a row.
Liam's biggest achievement and conquest however, has been on the BMX racing front. He competed in the National Champs at the North Avon Club in Christchurch during Easter weekend coming home with the NZ6 plate for UCI 11. On the weekend of 27/28 September he raced for selection into the NZ Mighty 11 BMX Test Team. The competition was against 35 other riders aged 11 on the day and he achieved selection into the NZ team! The team is made up from the top 5 NZ 11 year old BMX riders, selected from the trials racing weekend, with the team representing NZ against Australia at Labour Weekend (25/26 Oct) in Gisborne.
Liam's selection was an exciting time for all of us and very emotional for his coach Dave Kidd. We are all very proud of Liam's achievement as he worked his butt off training for the chance to represent his country. He always believed he had a chance even when statistically he only had an outside chance to make top 5, as he had never beaten 9 of the riders that were racing. Here is a video of Liam riding (training) at the Kapiti track. Liam is in the blue helmet. And some photo's of the NZ team trials -
Finals gate - Liam 2nd from left;
On the gate ready to jump;
and the placings after race.
The Mighty 11 NZ Team. Liam is on the left.
And the support crew - back from left Phillip Leyton, Cara Leyton, Phil Simpson (mechanic), me, Dave Kidd (coach); front - Liam, Luey Cotton, Joe Simpson. All (apart from me) race BMX and Cara has also represented NZ.
JobCafe is owned by PeopleNet (NZ) Ltd, the business Chrissy and I part own and I run. Outside our time with family and travelling around the country attending and supporting Sean and Liam's endeavours, my goal is to grow JobCafe to be the pre-eminent online head hunting tool for Employers. This is both a challenging and exciting time for me. I really enjoy meeting with and presenting to prospective clients to give them an insight into the benefits of our solutions. Am I passionate about JobCafe and PeopleNet, you bet!
Chrissy has been a busy bee, working 4 days a week for a friends business, helping me with JobCafe accounting stuff, transporting Liam around to various trainings he has scheduled, playing golf on Fridays when the weather isn't too crappy and catching up on her reading when the chance reveals itself. Needless to say our lives, like so many other parents I'm sure, rotate around supporting our kids at whatever they are doing and we wouldn't have it any other way!
We all spent a couple of weeks in Brisbane during the July school holidays, with Muzz, Michelle and the family . We hadn't been to Brissy in winter before and were quite surprised how cold it was, especially at night time! We had a great time, escaped from work and our wet winter, did lots of relaxing, reading, shopping and generally had a really lazy time recharging our batteries.
On the sporting front for me, I try to play golf once a week, at Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club. I'm also playing tennis on a weekly basis (or more) with a bunch of mates. Keeps me fit and healthy as well and I still really enjoy playing and competing.
On the 11th September, playing in the 16th annual LG tournament with 7 other great buddies, I had my first hole-in-one! I achieved it on the par 3, 13th at Tokoroa Golf Club. And it was a real golf shot, landing a metre past the hole and spinning back into the hole. It was awesome for me and must have been a real spectacle as 4 grown males hugged and jumped around on the tee for a couple of minutes!
Well thats all the news for now. I will post again after Labour Weekend hopefully with some great footage/photo's and results from the BMX test series.
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