Monday, 31 August 2009
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Sunday Air NZ flight - a time for spontaneous prayer!!!
On Sunday as we were flying into Wellington one of the coolest things happened.
The 737 was lowering its flaps. This concerned Katya. Then it dropped its wheels. At this she looked up at me, put her hands together to pray, then covered her face with her hands and babbled for about 10 seconds. She then said 'Amen' and lifted her hands in the air (as she does when we finish saying grace).
It was awesome!
Katya has done a lot of flying in her life. But this landing obviously concerned her.
God answered her prayer as we landed safely maybe 20 seconds latter.
The 737 was lowering its flaps. This concerned Katya. Then it dropped its wheels. At this she looked up at me, put her hands together to pray, then covered her face with her hands and babbled for about 10 seconds. She then said 'Amen' and lifted her hands in the air (as she does when we finish saying grace).
It was awesome!
Katya has done a lot of flying in her life. But this landing obviously concerned her.
God answered her prayer as we landed safely maybe 20 seconds latter.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Autostop Johnsonville Part Five
Well after 3.5 weeks I have got my car back. Autostop Johnsonville have sourced a good quality carpet and it looks like all the damage (see previous blog posts) has been fixed. So big thumbs up for fronting and sorting this. A lesser organisation would have forced me to drag them through the MTA or Disputes Tribunal.
Next week I will take it into Rutherford and Bond Toyota and get it serviced and pay them and extra hour to do a check over. So there will be at least one more installment in this series.
Next week I will take it into Rutherford and Bond Toyota and get it serviced and pay them and extra hour to do a check over. So there will be at least one more installment in this series.
iPhone woes
My iPhone, which I got at the end of May, is packing up. It now holds no more than 5 hours charge, runs warm, slow and generally is not so flash.
Vodafone say it will be gone for 4 days while Apple assess it. Although I would say a phone dying after 3 months is more Consumer Guarantees Act material and "not fit for purpose". Still can't afford to not have it this week so it will be next Monday before it gets put in for repair.
Vodafone say it will be gone for 4 days while Apple assess it. Although I would say a phone dying after 3 months is more Consumer Guarantees Act material and "not fit for purpose". Still can't afford to not have it this week so it will be next Monday before it gets put in for repair.
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Monday, 17 August 2009
10,000 Visitors
I just noticed that I am pretty close to having had 10,000 visitors to my blog. Not quite up to the 1-day like websites that get 350,000 a day. But hey... I don't sell chocolate... hmmmm... chocolate... bought the 1-day deal today!!! Hmmm.... Chocolate!!!
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Autostop Johnsonville Part Four
We have a loan car for the weekend. Seems to be difficult to get a replacement carpet in good nick. The loan car has a funky purple dashboard light.
New Toilet Seat
This morning I bought and installed some security stays on our big windows to stop Katya opening them.
I also got a new toilet seat.
This is an awesome toilet seat.
The toilet seat closes softly so no bangs when it is accidently dropped closed.
It also has a built in kids seat under the coloured hood. Awesome!
And only $69 at Placemakers!
I also got a new toilet seat.
This is an awesome toilet seat.
The toilet seat closes softly so no bangs when it is accidently dropped closed.
It also has a built in kids seat under the coloured hood. Awesome!
And only $69 at Placemakers!
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Autostop Johnsonville Part Three
The saga at Autostop Johnsonville continues.
This morning, as arranged, I took the car into Autostop Johnsonville for it to be taken to an auto-upholsterers for the hack job to be fixed. I had agreed to let them cut out the hacked part of the carpet and insert a new section. The supervisor Dave had said it would be seam sown together. I had asked him to see if it could be valcoed onto the existing carpet. I also decided that the "repair" to the tray in the dash was not good enough and asked that it be replaced.
We tonight I picked it up and I found the following:
1. The centre rear seat belt put back in around the wrong way. It is not unusable. This actually makes the car not warrantable!!! (the seatbelt should run straight down from the top)
2. The carpet now appears to be glued to the body of the car. The hacked bit has not been removed and replaced as agreed. It has simply been glued down. The hack marks are still visible (although not so well in a photo). I doubt very much whether it ever went near an auto-upholsterer.
3. The tray has not been replaced and in fact now appears even more out of place.
It is now just laughable. This is so far beyond unprofessional. In fact it is getting to a point where I am thinking of contacting my insurance company to lodge a claim. The value of damage done is probably in excess of what I did to my previous Corolla when I crashed it!!!
A number of people who I know who are mechanics are just in a state of shock when they see what Autostop Johnsonville has done.
So tomorrow I need to ring Autostop Johnsonville and give them the option to put this right by paying for Rutherford and Bond Toyota to fix it properly. I am not prepared to let Autostop Johnsonville near my car again.
Given the carpet is now glued to the body, this will probably involve removing the entire carpet and replacing it. The seat-belts can be unbolted and positioned correctly. The trays are going to be a bit of an effort to get at and sort. I also need Rutherford and Bond to check the original fix to the wiring loom as I now have no faith that it has been done to a decent reliable standard.
I guess if Autostop Johnsonville are not prepared to put this right then we will have to sort this either through the MTA and failing that the Disputes Tribunal.
This morning, as arranged, I took the car into Autostop Johnsonville for it to be taken to an auto-upholsterers for the hack job to be fixed. I had agreed to let them cut out the hacked part of the carpet and insert a new section. The supervisor Dave had said it would be seam sown together. I had asked him to see if it could be valcoed onto the existing carpet. I also decided that the "repair" to the tray in the dash was not good enough and asked that it be replaced.
We tonight I picked it up and I found the following:
1. The centre rear seat belt put back in around the wrong way. It is not unusable. This actually makes the car not warrantable!!! (the seatbelt should run straight down from the top)
2. The carpet now appears to be glued to the body of the car. The hacked bit has not been removed and replaced as agreed. It has simply been glued down. The hack marks are still visible (although not so well in a photo). I doubt very much whether it ever went near an auto-upholsterer.
3. The tray has not been replaced and in fact now appears even more out of place.
It is now just laughable. This is so far beyond unprofessional. In fact it is getting to a point where I am thinking of contacting my insurance company to lodge a claim. The value of damage done is probably in excess of what I did to my previous Corolla when I crashed it!!!
A number of people who I know who are mechanics are just in a state of shock when they see what Autostop Johnsonville has done.
So tomorrow I need to ring Autostop Johnsonville and give them the option to put this right by paying for Rutherford and Bond Toyota to fix it properly. I am not prepared to let Autostop Johnsonville near my car again.
Given the carpet is now glued to the body, this will probably involve removing the entire carpet and replacing it. The seat-belts can be unbolted and positioned correctly. The trays are going to be a bit of an effort to get at and sort. I also need Rutherford and Bond to check the original fix to the wiring loom as I now have no faith that it has been done to a decent reliable standard.
I guess if Autostop Johnsonville are not prepared to put this right then we will have to sort this either through the MTA and failing that the Disputes Tribunal.
Friday, 7 August 2009
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Larissa and progress
Tomorrow I am off north to see Larissa for the weekend. It is pretty exciting but there are some nerves. I am hoping she still recognises me and also that Claire and Katya will have a good weekend.
We have had an interesting week. Some downs but a lot of ups. A bit of normality is returning to life and we are starting to get a bit of a pattern to life again after 4 pretty rough months.
We have got a very very experienced (37 years of work, Masters, etc) faith-based therapist involved to help Claire. She is very expensive but the best people in the profession could recommend. This has caused a bit of a stink with Material Mental Health who seem to struggle to deal with an outside therapist (interesting there appear not to be any established protocols for this situation which I would have thought was fairly normal. Lots of patients make use of private services in conjunction with DHB services every day... odd!!!). Claire feels these sessions are very useful and I am hopeful they will provide the catalyst to the change that is needed to get Claire well again.
Well... lots of photos of Larissa will come over the next few days!!!
Some exciting times with Katya
Katya is on fire at the moment and so many things are just happening I thought I would jot them down.
- After six months of having the CIs... four months of real hearing... she has tested at 13 months hearing comprehension and 12 months speech.
- She has started Grace Kindergarten and is loving it
- We have got a dedicated teacher support person who is experienced and using Katya as part of her post grad education
- SES are providing (without us asking) and FM unit to help Katya and the support person work in the noisy environment of kindy
- She used the potty tonight without any (I mean any) prompting. This is the first time.
- We have got on top of the post cold asthma and figured out how we can manage this without needing to go to hospital
- She is just loving her DVDs
- She has started to do things that are two logical steps. For instance build something that then can be used to build something bigger.
- She is sharing and accepting no
- Katya's vocab has added a "ya" to her "no"
- She is giving us very little grief with having her CIs on. Even with them turned up.
- One of her CIs died but the Southern CI programme are just sooooo responsive. A loan unit was programmed and with us within two days
Basically, what I am saying is we are in a really lovely zone with Katya and she is just soooo happy. Most of the time she is skipping around... bubbling with joy.
It's pretty cool. Hallelujah!
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