5 Mins of Fame

Check out www.tennisnz.com to see me in action. Well, not really, but they did a piece about me for their latest news section.

All going well this week, my cold was short lived and I am off up north on Friday to meet with a potential sponsor so fingers crossed.

Also, Steph and I went along to a Kyoshun Karate club last week as we are keen to try out new things and it was fab. Its great for fitness and you actually do have full contact fighting/sparring, the only thing you are not allowed to do is punch your oponent in the head (you can kick them in the head though) or the back or the groin! Needless to say I got well and truly beaten up by two schoolgirls and Steph was defending himself against the head coach and the current national champion. We were both a bit stiff the next day (and the next) but going back tonight for more punishment.

Speak soon,
K x

It's official - I'm allergic to work

After 8 months on the road and being a lady of leisure I have not been ill once......one week after re-entering the working work and I have a cold - clearly work doesn't agree with me!!

Seriously though, its all going well, I started on Monday and was in Auckland by Tuesday at a 2day team mtg/forum. Seems like a great team and there's lots of interesting things happening in the world of NZ Tennis. As a little intro I was asked what my most embarrassing sporting moment was and I replied that it would be in about 6 hours when we go out to play some tennis! Yes that is right, there was the opportunity for everyone to play at the end of the day and I wanted to appear keen so decided (stupidly) to join in. However, I did feel the need to put everyone in the picture re: my playing ability due to the fact that almost all of the people there (including the CEO of Tennis NZ) were all top seeded in NZ and at least two of them had been or close to turning Pro. As usual, I was completely out my depth but had a smile on my face and played the "I'm scottish and the new girl" card to the full. I was of course disastrous and it was very unfortunate that I had to reveal my weaknesses after two days but hey, they new what they were getting when they offered me the job. All in all - I think I'm going to like this tennis gig :-)

Unfortunately the car we were thinking about buying, a slinky little 23 year old red sports car failed its MOT and was going to cost 3 x more to get fixed than we were going to pay so we decided to hold fire on that one. Mechanically it was totally fine but rust was an issue. I get a car with work which will help us to get out and about.

Not much else to report at the moment, just thought I'd let you know I have survived my first week!

How times change

Hi everyone,

A couple of important updates!

We have been our new house since the 4th of April but we with visitors and holidays and everything it has taken us a wee while to get set up with little home comforts (or life essentials to some people!)

Thankfully we now have internet access at home so no more hanging out at internet cafes with disaffected youth playing video games and getting fat in front of massive video screens (not us, them). Hurrah!!!

It also means that we can now skype everyone back home so if you have a quick connection and you have downloaded skype then my user name is stephbrown8 or if you search for my email address it is stephbrown8@aol.com. Once you have skype it means that if we are at home with the computer on, and skype open then you will be able to ring us. If you want to schedule a skype then just drop us an email or facebook us a time that would work for you and we will try and be around the house to catch up.

We're both hoping that having the net at home will let us keep in touch a bit better than we have been for the last couple of months - and hoping that we don't spend our whole evenings fighting over who has been on facebook the longest (not likely)

Once we buy a new cable for the phone we will also have a home phone line - we will post our phone number as soon as we have it so that people without skype can call us. We might not post it actually I might just email it round - if you want the number drop me an email at the address above or comment on the blog and I will send it through to you.

Anyway, the other exciting thing is that Katie starts her new job tomorrow, I am sure she will really enjoy it - getting out and mixing with the working public will, I am sure, make Katie feel more part of the city life which is one of the reasons we are here in Welly. It will also hopefully mean that I can afford a new pair of socks - the pair I have at the moment are starting to look a bit worse for wear and I am looking forward to having to retire them soon (only joking Mum!)

We are also looking at a car - don't want to give too much away just now but it's a red sports car with flicky up lights and all that - don't worry we've not gone mad - it's almost as old as Katie and is going to cost us $300 if it passes it's MOT. If it lasts us 6 months and doesn;'t fall to bits on the motorway then we will be happy. Will send photos if we decide to go ahead and buy it (it's Steve's brother in law whose Dad is from Queens Park in Glasgow so we're getting mates rates)

Well, I best be off just now - just wanted to give you a quick update - it's great being able to do this from home but we are heading out to get a few things sorted in town. Got to make the most of weekends when you work in a school.

Hope everyone is doing well - we will be in touch with you all soon!

Stephen