*****Happy Xmas All*****

OK a bit early - but I couldn't wait to send you guys a bit of Xmas spirit - it's like our Christmas card to all the family

Happy Christmas

Love from Stew & Alexia

CHEERS Paps

Hiya Paps [Birthday Greetings 1] - yep click on the photo for 'full effect!!!!" ;O)

Happy Birthday

Have a Great Day

Love from Stew & Alexia

PS - Kees - check your e-mail coz it seems your 'in' allocation on your ISP server is full and is refusing mail - maybe you've set your preferences to store a copy of your e-mails on the server and not deleting?!?

Stella?

Hiya Paps - [Birthday Greetings 2]

I had to laugh after translating this little 'insight' - the double meaning was quite appropriate!!! This was above the bar in the Belgian beer cafe!! It means "My home is where my Stella is", which is a type of beer (from the cafe) and of course our dog "Stella" - got to explain these thing for the kids, just in case :O)

Bitterballen

Hiya Paps - [Birthday Greetings 3]

"Lekker!" - some bitterballen and 'square' fritte in the Belgian beer cafe. We were celebrating my graduation and Alexia's new job. We had just come from an exhibition where alexia does some voluntary work.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACQUI

Happy Birthday Jacqui from us in NZ

Hope you have a good day!

Big Hugs from Stew & Alexia XXOOXX

Click here for your - Birthday Card

Stells 1st Birthday

It was Stella's 1st birthday on 5th December. We celebrated the next day, Sunday morning, by taking her to the dog park for a 'good old' play around with other dogs and a swim. Of course she loved it!!

Click on the link below to see a slide show of the walk

Stella's 1st Birthday - slideshow

Stella's 1st Birthday - detail

Love Dad & Alexia

Swimming Stella

Stella has learned to swim really well in the last 2 months - she loves the water now - she swims like an otter!

Rolling Joey

Stella is rolling in something - watch the video to find out what??!!??

Dogs do this to mask their smell ready for a hunt - "wot for cans of dog food?" ;O)

Stella at Moeraki

[go on - click on the photo for a biggy - check the lips on both of us]

Here's Stella - she makes a great passenger driver ;O)

Links to Flickr - some more photo's of our trip away, and Stella

Stella at Moeraki - detail

Stella at Moeraki - slideshow

Love - Stew & Alexia

Fleur's Restaurant

[I dare you to click on this photo - it gets B I G ]

Hello Family

We've had a wonderful time at Moeraki - 3 days away with Stella in the van :O)

Stella really loved the experience, she was so excited to be with us, and to be taken on at least 3 walks a day, wow.

Fleur's was brilliant again - we decided to do a late Sunday lunch, Stella was left in the van, where she crashed out after 2 walks; one on a beach with pristine 'squeeky' sand; and the other on a conservation site with the most amazing swimming holes in a river gorge.

OK something new again - I've joined Flickr (I don't think it's a Dutch site or they would never have chosen that name on purpose aye!) yet another social networking site - but this one is all about photos - so click on the links below and start viewing more photos of us ;O)

Fluers Restaurant - detail

Fleurs Restaurant - slideshow

Love Stew & Alexia

MAINZ Graduation

[click on photo for a big one to 'Save As' onto your computer and print out]

I had my MAINZ Graduation ceremony last night - this was for the Diploma in Audio Engineering & Music Production (DipAEMP). Yey feels good to have come to the end of it - I really enjoyed doing the Diploma, although it became quite stressfull with the large amounts of assessment at the end.

I also managed to pick up two other awards within the Diploma;

Excellence in Academic Achievement - over 85% in 16 out of 18 subjects - wow
Excellence in Multimedia Production

It was a great informal do - no caps and gowns for this Graduation as they don't really go with the creative bunch at Tai Poutini Polytechnic.

Well we're gonna celebrate with a holiday in the van (with Stella!!!!) and a meal at Fleur's Restaurant - with lots of beach walks, some native bush and river swims for Stell-Pants (yep that's her nickname)


Graduation Photos - All of them!! - they are free to download for a while so save the ones you want (the single me shots are at the start of the collection - there are also some Diploma Group shots Numbers 199-204)

Love from Stew & Alexia XXOO

Moa's Ark

HiYa Jess & Dana

Here is the first in a wonderful Nature programme series by David Bellamy on New Zealand

Click on the link below;

Moa's Ark

It's 40 minutes long, and split into 5 short episodes (clips). If you enjoy this one there are another 3 programmes in this series.

I like David Bellamy aye - do you know who was one of his biggest fans? - Steve Irwin - they've both got a really fun and down to earth way of teaching science to us lay-people.

Try the 'full screen' mode if your computer can handle it - and turn up the speakers or headphones - if the programme starts to stop and start, set the video player to 'lo' resolution and watch it small (like You Tube) - don't I waffle on!!!!!!

Lurv ya both XXOO

Dana - Guitar Lessons!!!!!

Hiya Dana

Here's a really useful website to start learning your guitar

I'd start by tuning your guitar - use the online tool - then your chords will sound the same as the website (and most other recorded songs on CD etc.)

Click on the link below then bookmark it ;O)

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/index.php

Lurv ya

Drum Tutorial

Here's a DVD project that I created at MAINZ (Music & Audio Institute of New Zealand) - it's theme is an instructional DVD on putting drums to a click track (computer recording)

I'm co-presenting with Shaun, a fellow Diploma student - I also created the theme tune (only 5 seconds on this vid!!) and the song were working on is one of 3 for my EP (Extended Play single) with a singer song writer called Steven Joy

Had to post this bit of non-sense

OK it's a year old - but it was just silly and made us giggle when we made it :O)

Dad has finished his Diploma - YEY!!

Hiya Daughters and Family - first of many videos and blog posts for 2009-10 ;O)

Dad's Gonna Use the BLOG Again

Hello patient viewers of the BLOG - yep I'm gonna spark up the old blog again - at least once a week depending on events down here in Christchurch

I'm gonna start with video updates too now that the webcam and PC are set up

Keep this site bookmarked and visit once in a while to keep in touch - add a comment too if so inclined or send an e-mail if you want to keep it private

jungy@paradise.net.nz

Nora the Cat

Hiya Dana

This one's especially for you and your mates - isn't it amazing that someone has written music to Noras famous tune!!

I lurv ya honey xxx

Stella Meets Boss!!!

OMG boss is soaking wet, he loves jumping in the stream and duck pond at Mark & Autumns house/farm. He stinks as bad as he looks, and he's very very excited to see Stella ;O)

He went nuts when he saw her, he ran 'figure of eights' in the garden and kept jumping over Stella - she got a bit scared!! But later he calmed down and we all went for a walk around the garden together, with lots of cocking legs and squirty wees. I even weed into a bush to show Stella it was OK to wee outside, but she walked between my legs too quickly and I sprayed her head [Daaad!!!!!!] I had to laugh cos Alexia said it was funny that Stella had a wet head when we came back inside, I said 'don't ask' and didn't tell her :o0

Stella kept sniffing his chest looking for teats, I think she thought he was mum and wanted to suckle milk. We had to laugh cos Boss just stood there while she looked under his belly - then Stella thought she'd 'struck gold' and found the biggest teat of her life - yep his 'willy' aaahhhh - so we had to get her away from him quickly before she used her sharp little teeth and made his eyes water ;O)

Stella on the Bed

Hello Girls

I've got Stella at my feet being very 'chewy' and playing with things she shouldn't, grrr ;O)

She's a little dream really and doing things that older dogs normally do, like fetching a tennis ball!!!. We've been playing loads, and cleaning her poos and wees when she does them inside - altho' we are starting to know her rhythm - wees as soon as she wakes up and poos straight after shes eaten [Daaaad too much information!!]

Its been really hot here this week - in the high 20's every night, we need to keep the doors and windows open in the evening to keep cool - which is also good for puppy training. Tash is being really cool about Stella, wagging tails means something totally different to cats - she can always get out of troubles way usually jumping high up - but we have to feed her away from Stella, cos barrel guts would wolf Tash's food down too.

She was really awake the morning we took this video - a real hand full, but after half an hour she crashed and slept for 2 hours, typical :O)

Will post more vids soon

Here She is - still got blue eyes, only 6 weeks old - has she got a natte plume (it's dutch ask Oma what it means!!)??

Ahh She's still sooo tiny - wonder how big she'll get??

Back In Christchurch

Hiya Girls,

Yep I'm back in Christchurch a little earlier than planned, but I'm glad I am, yey decent bed and a bath (oooh yuk dad!!!)

The Cherries were starting to run out sooner than expected on the orchard so rather than push for another weeks work or so I decided to come back and work on my teaching job.

I was also missing Alexia and home a lot too, 5 weeks in the back of the van on a noisy orchard was becoming a struggle aye. There were over 20 of us using a basic kitchen and a couple of fridges, which was also becoming tiresome!!! I met some lovely people - there were the Czechoslovakians and Taiwanese who were good fun to meet in different ways.
The Czechs had a great sense of humour and an easy going type nature - anyway... rambling on again...

There's also another reason why I wanted to come back sooner - watch the video and you'll see why ;O)

See if you can spot the new edition to the family!!!!

Lots of love Dad