photostory friday and the gift of giving

i always thought that it was my grandmother who said 'tis better to give than to receive', but a quick google tells me it's from the bible.

either way, they are words to live by.

some people take this to heart more than others, and this is particularly true of my friend NILA.

i guess she gets it from her mother, who's a member of the SATHYA SAI SERVICE ORGANISATION OF WELLINGTON. these wonderful people (made up mostly of ladies i think?) make and deliver FREE meals on wheels and provide volunteers to such organisations as our city's soup kitchen and the mary potter hospice.

this organisation lives by the 5 values of love, truth, peace, non-violence and right conduct.

they often provide the meal ingredients themselves and the organisation survives on donations.

last night they ran a fundraiser for mary potter hospice.

$15 for a wonderful authentic indian dinner - in 3 sittings

they were hoping to raise $4000

NILA (who celebrated her birthday yesterday) thought it was the perfect opportunity to GIVE:

"instead of going out for my birthday, my mum and i would like to support MPH by having a meal at the centre where she does a lot of her charity work.  my mum and i would like to PAY FOR YOU ALL to come and enjoy a meal.

i do not want any presents!

if you insist on paying for your ticket, it's $15"

classic nila

this is her happy face ;)

lining up for our delicious meal

awesome volunteers

and the main event - the potatoes were my fave!

no birthday is complete without cake!

that's nila's mum in the blue and yellow

it's not often nila is speechless!

nila was 'fashionably late' to her own event because she'd come straight from a function where she'd been awarded

NORTH WELLINGTON VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

myself and a dozen or so of my zumba girls felt so privileged to be a part of this wonderful event.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

photostory friday: the colour run (that's colour with a U!)

yes yes i realise the colour run is an international [american?] franchise, so if i want to hashtag to my heart's content, then i'm going to have to make my peace with the absent 'U' ;)

having said that, i was VERY excited about this event

i loved the fact that in another part of the world at EXACTLY the same time, my friend gigi was doing the colour run too!  it's a pity they got rained on in jacksonville florida, but it looks like they had as much fun as we did...

Tash rockin' the headband first thing in the morning

my zumba instructor caro (that's her in the blue pants) took the warmup

now that's one massive zumba class!

to explain the caption - a couple of hours later we were at zumba again, this time at a local school fair doing a demo!

can you spot which child of mine doesn't zumba? 

the 'before' shot 

 and we're off!

i couldn't convince mr scrappy to get paint thrown on him, so he drove us to the venue and took all these awesome shots! 

 crossing the line

the bulls aren't really runners...

 

directly after the race

 then after we'd thrown the orange pouches over each other

we were given one each as we crossed the line and didn't realise we were meant to hold onto them for the 'colour throw'

 our colour run buddies, zumba pal Megan and her sister Nic

it's more fun with friends, that's for sure!

next year i'll make sure ALL my girls join in!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

PSF: things you should know if your child is a rower

my youngest daughter has been on her college (high school) rowing team for 3 years now, so we definitely no longer consider ourselves 'parental rowing virgins'

now we get to say things [to the novice parents] like 'aren't you glad your child got into rowing'?

(can you hear the sarcasm?!)

yes it is THE most time-consuming, labour-intensive, EXPENSIVE sport your child will probably ever participate in, but then there's the plus side; the things we now know...

you get to admire views like this

(admittedly, first thing on a saturday morning, but still...)

as a spectator sport, it CAN be tricky...

 there's a lot of standing around

not always in the most pleasant of weather conditions

(but then again grandparents are like parents and will do anything for their kids - including courting hypothermia) - KIDDING!!

there's also a lot of SITTING around

or leaning

at 'away' regattas, no-one's allowed to leave until the LAST boat is on the trailer

this involves a lot of the standing previously mentioned

there's a lot of schlepping and heavy lifting

getting boats in and out of the water can be a hot mess

check out the optical illusion in the photo below

(there are actually 3 boats in this shot [excluding the yellow one])

 you also need to know how to cook in BULK 

 you'll learn the value of friendship

   

  you'll learn the thrill of victory 

  

and win some awesome trophies

you'll occasionally get to hang out with some gold-medal-winning olympians too

some of those early morning starts will be on your birthday, but it's ok because you're with friends

  most of all though, you need to know that rowing is OARSOME

(see what i did there?)

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli