We had a great run of a few weeks where the weather and family travels aligned: Dad and I were both back, so we got to do a lot of fishing boat activity. One day we caught a ton of fish (they were practically jumping into the boat) and on the way back into the harbour we saw a pod of dolphins so Jenine jumped overboard to swim with them. Great times.

Yesterday we went to the Silverdale A&P show (Agricultural and Pastoral) with our friend Pam and her two kids aged about 13 and 14. It was a blast, with everything from prize pumpkins (112kg or so) and enormous bulls to a carnival alley and rollercoasters by way of wood-chopping and dog trials. Fun!

Jenine was quite surprised at how small the show was. She’s used to the Fresno County Fair that goes for two weeks and has tens of thousands of people go through. She seemed to think that with the splitting up of farms around the Auckland area into lifestyle blocks for erstwhile accountants and lawyers there’d be a corresponding increase in the A&P show. I had to explain that A&P is old school, gumboots and tractors getting together to see who’s hardest core. If you’ve got ten bulls you’re raising for meat, none of ’em will be entered in the show, and the chances are that neither you nor your spouse cooks let alone enters the Best Pikelet contest.