Updated "About us" page

I've just updated the "About us" page on the blog.

Life changes, and it was time for an update.

Easter

It's Easter.

Our calendar is looking weirdly empty for the next five days, and Mulan and Miya are looking forward to relaxing with almost nothing planned.

For lunch today they're having Chinese time; they're out with Mama and friends having a restaurant meal.

Meanwhile, over the past few days I've been enjoying contemplating the meaning of Easter as originally intended in the Gospels of the Bible.

This video is part one of a multipart mini-series by James Tabor.  It's decently detailed, with each 20-50min video covering one day in the story of Jesus' final week.  Highly recommended for those interested in the texts themselves.

But here's my practical takeaway message from the first couple of days:

Those who know me know that I'm an ethical vegetarian.  Animals have the capacity to suffer -- they feel pain and have their own interests.  We shouldn't unnecessarily cause them pain and suffering.  We (mostly) don't need to eat them.

I'm delighted that Jesus in the Gospels was strongly and forcefully trying to put a stop to the unnecessary torture and slaughter of millions of animals.  On day two, when Jesus disrupts the temple, he quotes the Hebrew Bible as scriptural authority to stop the killing of the animals.

I really hope that more Christians would follow Jesus on this one.

Athletics season finished

Our athletics season is over.  The big comps are done, and we had our final clubnight last night.  It's good to have a rest; it's been a busy several weeks.

(We're not joining the schools North Island Champs in about 10 days, as it clashes with a school senior music camp that both Mulan and Miya are attending.)

Miya:

Miya's had an awesome season, with huge improvements and some great competition results.  It was a huge experience for her to qualify and compete at the Nationals.

This season Miya got new PBs in high jump (1.54m), triple jump (10.04m), long jump (4.50m), 80m hurdles (13.41sec) and 300m hurdles (51.67sec).

Takapuna Club nominated Miya for the Auckland Junior Track and Field Sportsperson of the Year.

Miya broke Club records in high jump, triple jump and sprint hurdles (some still to be updated).

Her competition results include:

North Island Colgate Games (5-7 January), Grade 13:

• 6th 80m hurdles (4th in North Island)
• 8th high jump
• 10th discus (8th in North Island)
• 10th shot put (9th in North Island)
• 4th Takapuna Club team 4x100m relay (3rd in North Island)

Results

South Island Colgate Games (12-14 January), Grade 13:

• 2nd high jump
• 2nd 80m hurdles
• 12th discus

Results

Auckland Senior Track & Field Champs (3-4 February), Under 16 Women:

(The hurdles races were held on another day, but we didn't compete as we were busy.)

• 2nd triple jump (PB)
• 3rd= high jump
• 9th long jump

Results

Auckland Junior Champs (23-24 February), Grade 13:

• 1st high jump
• 3rd 80m hurdles
• 9th= long jump

Results

Auckland Junior Pentathlon Champs (9 March), Grade 13:

• 4th pentathlon

Results

New Zealand Track & Field Champs (14-17 March), Under 16 Women:

(Miya's performances during the season meant she qualified for five events, but she decided to just do three, and didn't sign up for 300m hurdles or long jump.  A lot of the girls she competed against were a year older than her, so she's got a really good chance to do well next season, when she'll still be an Under 16.)

• 4th= high jump
• 10th 80m hurdles (PB)
• 13th triple jump

Results

Auckland Combined Events Champs (23-24 March), Under 16 Women:

• 2nd heptathlon

Results

Schools Auckland Champs (26 March), Junior Girls:

(To compete in this competition, athletes first needed to qualify by placing in the schools Zones competition.  Miya qualified in five events, but decided to scratch from the long jump and just focus on four events.)

• 1st triple jump
• 2nd 70m hurdles
• 2nd 300m hurdles (PB)
• 3rd high jump (PB)

Track results, field results

Mulan:

Mulan's had another great year of athletics.

She got new PBs in triple jump (9.89m), 100m hurdles (18.20sec) and 300m hurdles (52.71sec).

She broke Club records in both the sprint and long hurdles.

Mulan received a trophy for the best female field event athlete at the Auckland Launch competition.

And she got third Senior at the Westlake Girls Athletics Day.

Her competition results include:

Auckland Senior Track & Field Champs (3-4 February), Under 18 Women:

• 2nd triple jump (PB)
• 3rd long jump
• 5th shot put

Auckland Combined Events Champs (23-24 March), Under 18 Women:

• 2nd heptathlon

Schools Auckland Champs (26 March), Senior Girls:

(Mulan qualified in five events, but didn't want to scratch from any.  Unfortunately the programme wasn't ideal for her, and she triple jumped ten minutes after running the 300m hurdles.  Understandably her jumps weren't as good as usual, otherwise she probably would have got 3rd.)

• 3rd 100m hurdles (PB)
• 4th 300m hurdles (PB)
• 4th triple jump
• 7th long jump
• 10th shot put

Me:

I'm still continuing with athletics, and at the moment I'm feeling in pretty good shape due to trying to keep up with the girls at training and comps.

I got a new "old person" best (personal best since returning to athletics nine years ago) in the triple jump (10.97m).  I also tried out the 400m hurdles for the first time in my life!

I got Club records in 800m, 1500m, 400m hurdles and triple jump.

I also broke my Auckland Masters pentathlon record (here).

Auckland Senior Track & Field Champs (3-4 February), Masters Men 45-49:

• 1st triple jump
• 1st long jump
• 2nd high jump
• 4th 60m
• 4th 100m

Auckland Combined Events Champs (23-24 March), Masters Men 45-49:

• 1st pentathlon

Athletics Auckland Champs

We had a busy and satisfying weekend at the Auckland Track and Field Championships.  The results are here.

Miya has newly gone up to the Under 16 grade, and she competed in three events.

Long jump was Saturday, and it was tough competing on a day with blustery winds and sharp downpours.  But happily she got a couple of great jumps in, including a 4.47m, which earned her 9th place.

Then on Sunday it was triple jump and high jump.  The weather was perfect, and Miya was on fire in the triple jump, with three of her four jumps well over her previous best.  Her best jump, of 10.04m (wind 1.2), earned her a silver medal.  It's also easily over the entry standard that allows her to compete at the Nationals in March.

In the high jump, Miya pleasingly didn't miss a height at 1.35m, 1.40m and 1.45m.  She was close on her attempts at 1.50m, but didn't quite get it this time.  This earned her a bronze medal (equal with two others).

Miya has now qualified for the Nationals (and Auckland team) in both high jump and triple jump.  She's got another three weekends of competitions to qualify for long jump and hurdles (fingers crossed for legal winds, as her performances will likely be good enough).

Mulan's still in the Under 18 grade, and she also competed in three events.

Shot put is mostly just a fun and relaxing event for Mulan.  Her 9.09m was not bad, but on other days she's occasionally got it out into the high 9s and she's hoping one day to get it over 10.

Her long jump, also in tough weather conditions, was a satisfying season best of 4.50m, and this earned her a bronze medal.

And finally, Mulan triple jumped soon after Miya's huge new PB.  Sibling competitiveness meant Mulan was also looking to get over 10m, but she had to settle for an excellent new PB of 9.89m (wind 0.4), which earned her silver.

I'm still in the Master's 45-49 age group, and I competed in five events.

On Saturday I ran the 60m in 8.25sec and the 100m in 13.17sec.  I also jumped 5.16m in the long jump.  Then on Sunday I jumped 1.40m in the high jump and 10.46m (wind 1.1) in the triple jump.  This earned me two gold medals and one silver medal (and two 4th places).

A big thing for me now is endurance, and I needed to pace myself so I had enough energy left for the later events.  In all three jumps events I didn't use up all my attempts -- just two long, two high, and four triple.  It was probably about right, though who knows whether in the long and high one more attempt might have given better results.

School

Today is Miya's first day at school (ever).

It was a slightly unusual start, as this morning, at 7:30am, we dropped her off at Westlake Boys High School.  No, she's not going to a boys' school, it's just that she's in the senior Westlake Concert Band, and that's her practice time/place.  After practice, at 8:30am, she walks to the girls' school.

We've now officially stopped homeschooling, and the plan is for Miya to spend the next five years of her schooling at Westlake Girls High School.

She's already been there a few times, for orientation day and music auditions/practices, but this is the official first day.

From what I understand, however, today there'll be little to no learning happening -- it's mostly just administrative stuff with earnest speeches and team-building.  So, an easy and gentle first day (as long as she can stay awake!).

Based on the school financial statement sent to us, it seems that mostly Miya got the subjects she asked for.  The only exception is that she asked to learn Maori, and instead she's got French.  (Given the way New Zealand culture is these days, we thought Maori would be extremely useful to learn, so it's a pity that Miya will miss out.)

Miya's other subjects are English, maths, science, social studies, PE, health, music, Spanish, digital tech, fabric tech, food tech, and hard material tech.

As I wrote before, Miya is in the music extension class, as well as the senior concert band and junior symphonic band.  She'll have instrument lessons through the school in clarinet and French horn.  She'll go to two weekend music camps this term, and later in the year will play at concerts and festivals.

Unfortunately, the two music camps exactly clash with two school athletics competitions (the school athletics day and school North Island Champs), so Miya will miss those.  But there's still the school zone champs and Auckland champs this term, along with the nationals in December.

And I'm sure Miya will find lots of other activities to get involved with.

---

Meanwhile, Mulan is returning to Westlake for her final year at school.  Her school year started yesterday.

Her academic results last year were very satisfying, and we are super proud of her.

At the school academic prizegiving last year Mulan was awarded Distinction in Biology, and in her NCEA results she got Excellence Endorsement in two subjects (music and chemistry), and Merit Endorsement in the other four (maths, biology, physics, English).

This year she's studying music, maths calculus, physics, biology and chemistry.

At the end of last year she applied to be a prefect, and her job this year is to help mentor the new Year 9 students.  The downside is that today she had to wear her school prefect's tie, blazer and stockings!  (She was feeling uncomfortably hot!)

She's continuing with a lot of school music -- symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, and cello lessons.  She's also newly joined the Cigno Voce choir and will have singing lessons.  She also has two school music camps.

And she'll again join the school athletics competitions.

---

With no longer homeschooling I (theoretically) have one less job to do.  For the short/mid term, after homemaking and being admin assistant for our family business, I'll likely find a bit of time to paint/renovate our house.  Plans for the mid/long term will sort themselves out in time.

Athletics

As I said in my last post, we've just got back from the South Island.

We were there, in part, because Miya was competing in an athletics competition.  So, let's talk athletics first.

We're now getting into the second half of the athletics season, when most of the big competitions happen.  But we've already had a few bigger comps.

On the 26th of November, Miya was part of the Takapuna Club team competing at the CNW (Central North West Auckland) interclub children's relay competition.  Miya's Grade 13 team got 1st in the 4x400m relay, 2nd in the 4x100m relay, and 2nd in the field relay (where Miya did the shot put).

On the 15th of December, both Mulan and Miya competed at the Launch athletics competition.  This is a fun and different competition for teens, where the athletes are randomly put into four teams, and then compete for team points during the Friday evening competition.  Each team is lead/mentored by two senior New Zealand rep/champ athletes.  For the field events (even high jump), competitors have three attempts only, of which the best two are added together for their final result. The track events have unusual distances.

Delightfully, Mulan won the trophy for the best female field event competitor.

While Miya had a huge new PB of 4.50m in the long jump.

Then in the New Year Miya competed at the Colgate Games.  This is the big children's competition, which is divided into the North Island (this year held here in Auckland) and the South Island (this year held in Dunedin) events.

For the North Island comp, held over three days between the 5th and 7th of January, Miya did the 80m hurdles, high jump, discus, shot put, and 4x100m relay.

Miya came 6th in the hurdles, though once we exclude the foreigners (those not from the North Island), she came 4th.

After a busy Friday she wasn't quite at her best in the high jump on Saturday morning, and her below-average 1.40m placed her 8th.

She did the throws just as fun extra events -- 20.38m in the discus and 7.27m in the shot put earned her two 10th placings.

Finally, and delightfully, her Grade 13 Takapuna Club team earned themselves a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay.  They came 4th in the final, but since the first place-getter was the Victorian (Australia) team, they were the 3rd North Island team so got on the dais.

Then a week later Miya competed at the South Island Colgate Games in Dunedin.

Again, the discus was just a fun extra event, and her 18.10m earned her 12th.

Then, delightfully, she came 2nd in the 80m hurdles.

(This time Miya was the foreigner, getting the white-ribboned medal.  There was a medal mixup, and Miya was initially presented with gold -- she changed it afterwards.)

Then finally it was the high jump.  Having learnt from the North Island comp, Miya was careful to manage her energy levels before the event, so was in good physical shape.

And she got a new PB of 1.51m!

This earned her another silver medal:

(Six athletes got medals, as the first three were all foreigners from the North Island.  Another medal mixup meant that initially Miya was presented with the red-ribboned South Island medal, rather than the white-ribboned foreigner medal -- they swapped it afterwards.)

Coming up, we've got two more months of big competitions:

• the Auckland Senior Champs this coming weekend (3-4th February), with long hurdles on the 17th,
• the Auckland Children's Champs on the weekend of the 23-25th of February,
• the Auckland Children's Pentathlon Champs on the 9th of March,
• the New Zealand Senior Champs on the weekend of the 14-17th of March,
• the Auckland Senior Multievents Champs on the weekend of the 23-24th of March,
• and finally the Auckland Schools Champs on the 26th of March.

China / Solo-dad-ing

This is old news (olds?).

For five weeks, from early-December to early-January, Mama (Xiaoying) was in China, visiting Laolao (her mum).  It was all good, and she enjoyed the winter snow in Beijing.

Meanwhile, I was solo-dad-ing with Mulan and Miya here at home.  It was also all good -- we work well as a team together and life went on as normal (except for missing Mama).

Mama arrived back in New Zealand just two days before we headed off to the South Island for a two-week family holiday.  We returned home a few days ago.  I'll write about it soon.