A song for people back home.

A song I have been practicing on the guitar - quite a few mistakes and ropey strumming (no plectrum and nylon strings) so more practice required but thought I would share it mistakes and all. I know this isn't X factor and if it was I would not be expecting to win it anyway. Hope you like it.

I'm sure my brother or Dad (or both) will be able to confirm for me that this is actually a Scottish song - everywhere I look this song has been covered by Irish folk bands and I think everyone is under the impression that it is Irish - but I believe it is Scottish. I hope I am right.

Mike part 2

Mike the darned monkey seems to have went down quite well so here are the rest of the pics from his visit:

Mike and I bike in to school.



Mike and I deal with some parents over a coffee – Mike encourages me to bluntly state that their child isn’t in the first 11 because they are not good enough. It doesn’t work as we expected.



Mike makes some new friends (this is actually the West Watson House Lion that I have kidnapped - I am in Averill House but our house always comes last and WW come first. I left a ransom note with the Staff member who runs WW asking for more House points for Averill. Even though he has seen this photo he still doesn't realise I have the lion - d'uh!)




Mike gets a lesson on Headstands



That's all from Mike for now but maybe he will get to visit again at some point. ;o)

Mike the Pre-school Monkey

Hi folks,

Just thought I would add in another side story before I finish my round up of our holiday a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I was interviewed by the pre-school at St. Mark's for their Unit on "who's who" in the school. They are all around 3 or 4 years old and they are pretty funny. They asked me lots of questions that didn't make any sense and then one of them wet himself ;o)

Anyway, this week they appeared at my door and asked if I would look after Mike the pre-school monkey for a few days and take a couple of snaps for his scrapbook. I should point out that Mike comes with his own survival kit - a banana (plastic), his toy cars and his Blanket. And he brings his scrapbook with him so he can tell the lucky teacher about his adventures. Please look beyond the obvious ridicule you could send my way for these photos and just think how happy these kids will be with the effort I put in.

Here is how Mike and I got on..................

Mike and I have an early breakfast before our cycle to school (cycling pictures to follow)





Mike and I catch up about my hilarious day at St. Marks



Mike chills out with a cup of tea and a banana



I teach Mike how to rock



Mike goes to bed



Mike and I back from a run (Mike didn't actually go cos he's a lazy b*gger)



Mike and I play some poker



Mike took me to the cleaners



I find out Mike has a drink problem (I won't tell the kids)



MIke goes back to school tomorrow, thank God, he;s been nothing but trouble ;o)

Steph ;o)

Karate takes up Steph Brown

Just a side note in amongst all the stories I am trying to catch up on......I have joined a Karate club here in Wellington and expect to be awesome at it within in the next few weeks. ;o)

Here I am pictured with the instructor.

Welly and Queenstoon

And so the story continues of our adventures in July!

After the Ski spectacular we headed back to Welly with two more bodies that we had left with - no we didn't do a Fred and Rosemary West - Clare and Lorna were coming to visit. ;o)

I did the whole tour guide thing with Lorna and Clare and we also got to visit Katie's work where Clare and I took on the might of Clint (a mighty Australian tennis coach who has worked with some serious players) and the Oman.

Oh, I never mentioned Chuck and Mariska from our Ski trip did I? Chuck and Mariska are also super tennis coaches (Chuck is from the US and Mariska from South Africa) well, they were at the ski place too and they were a riot - here's one of our many photos from our evening meal. Chuck and Mariska are on the left.



Anyway, more about them later - where was I ?

Oh yes, Tennis at Katie's work. Well I must say that the Tennis world got a bit of a surprise that day from a young Scottish superstar and you can check out some of the action here http://mcavoyandginger.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-07-31T08%3A57%3A00%2B12%3A00&max-results=2

Watch in amazement as I make the game look really easy almost as if it is no effort at all then I play an amazing winner. Andy Murray, if you need any advice just give me a call. ;o)

Anyway, the other thing that happened whilst Norma (Clare) and Johnathan Creek (Lorna) were in town was dinner with Chuck and Mariska. Unfortunately I couldn't make it but they went Mexican and Chuck decide they should all really go Mexican... Clare won the prize for the most Authentic Mexican costume after a fashion parade in the restaurant. Well done Clare.

So and then onto Queenstown - Clare, Katie and I took off for some fun down on the South Island. And it was amazing.

Here is the view of the Southern Alps from the plane (I took about a zillion shots for some reason - you've got to love digital photography)



Queenstown was a pretty special place and you can see all of our photos at http://www.flickr.com/katieandsteph88 as usual but here are a few quick snaps

1) We visited a wildlife park and nearly left with a few of the residents:




2) We ate at the legendary Fergburger (well we bought one and ate it down at the harbour)



3) We did a walk up to some of the Lord of the Rings locations (this is apparently the place (or near the place) where Aragorn fell over a cliff.



We also went out to a nightclub/bar where we started to all feel a bit old - we were tired, it was too loud and we were older by about 5 years than anyone else there. We did hang around though as we were entered into the competition for a $500 bar bill. The night could have been so different had we won but alas the Scottish D.J. didn't pick our winning ticket.

Probably for the best.

An interesting point to note about Queenstown to note for any single women out there (or gay men) - apparently in winter there is something ridiculous like an 80% higher amount of dudes than chicks.

Ok, I will leave it there for now but I still have to update you on Doubtful Sound, A big Icy Crevice and Christchurch so there is still some catching up to do.

I will leave you with a photo from the very beautiful Glenorchy which was a wee day trip away from Queenstown



Hope you are all well - missing all you lots.

SB

Ski time

I've already mentioned the ski trip but didn't go into detail really so here goes!

We travelled up towards Mount Ruapehu (the town we stayed in was Ohakune - which sounds hilariously like "oh I couldnae" in a West coast-ish accent. Ok, so you had to be there) to meet Iain and Lorna, Clare, Barry and Kaz - it was a long blinking drive but when we arrived we were really impressed by our accommodation and the sight of the fellow Scots. Twas a 5 bedroom villa with all mod cons - another good choice from Katie.

The ski hire shop was open until midnight so after a few drinks and a bit to eat we walked 5 minutes round the corner and got all of our gear for the next day. I was amazed at how cheap it was - we had borrowed gear from colleagues and friends but the shop would have hired us all the warm clothing for $25 for a day. (£10) The board itself (or skis) came with all the boots and bindings and that was only $25 too. Really cheap and really easy to organise.

It was off to the slopes the next day and again, it was all surprisingly easy - it was busy but really simple. We turned up, parked the car and headed to buy our passes - $90 (£36).

Katie tried boarding on the first day but didn't really love it ( fallin on yer backside and taking the board off every 5 minutes does get old fast) so opted for skis on day 2. I was boarding all the way, bruised bahookie and all - and, as I have always said, I feel a lot safer when my legs can't go on either side of a comedy tree on the slopes (I didn't see any of those by the way.) I once saw a video of a skiier falling down and his left foot hit him on the back of the head and his right leg hit him in the face, both legs snapped to pieces - can't really do that on a board.

Anyway, back to the action - my highlight of the weekend (although there were many) was when Lorna and I decided to throw caution to the wind and go all the way to the top. There we were at the top of the mountain at the start of a run called Vertigo - I was of course not frightened at all (aye right) but we both made it down and looked super cool in the process if I must say so.

In the next episode of "My 3 week winter holiday from school" - I will be giving you an hilarious report on our South Island visit with Clarey Doll. I will also be trying to seek out some ski video footage from Lorna - and some footage of me doing the best ever tennis smash.

Steph

back to reality again! D'oh!

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that we are back safe and sound in Wellington after a very exciting and enjoyable trip to the absolutely jaw droppingly stunning South Island in full snowy winter glory. We did Doubtful Sound, Queenstown, Lake Wanaka, Franz Josef Glacier and various other bits and bobs including a wildlife park where the residents almost joined us on the road trip!

I promise I will write some more this week about what we got up to but I have posted a couple of photos here to show you we are both still having fun.

We also haven't even had a chance to mention Steve and Shona's wedding, meeting Ghyll and Morven from back home, going to Steve's 40th and other general chat but I will get on it this week!!!

Steph

ski

Hi,

We've been busy since my school term ended - we drove up to meet Lorna, Iain, Clare, Barry and Kareena up in Ohakune to go skiing and we had a brilliant time.

I will write more later but for now have a look at the wee video of Katie skiing and some of our photos!

Next week Clare, Katie and I are off to Queenstown for another sightseeing road trip - hopefully I will get a rest when I get back to school ;o)

Steph

Sparkly Sparkler!

Hi all,

We thought you would like to see some pics of the engagement ring! Again, a bit of a whirlwind as we didn't plan to get it so soon, but just before my birthday we decided to have a 'browse' for rings at a Jeweller in Wellington called the Village Goldsmith and only went and bought one! We looked at lots and then sat down with the designer (who was the owner) and he takes your ideas to draw and then make it from scratch. We thought this would be quite a long process and were quite thankful as hadn't worked out how to pay for it but to our surprise it was ready within a few weeks. The best bit (or most worrying) is we don't actually own it! They do an option here that if you are leaving the country even for a weekend you can purchase tax free which as you can imagine was quite appealing as the tax back just about covers the cost of a holiday! So basically, we hand the ring back 2 days before going on a flight, they clean it and send it to the airport where you pick it back up before going through departures. All sounds quite straight forward and by that time we will have saved enough to pay for it!

Anyway, we wanted you to see the ring and hope you like it! I think its really beautiful, exactly as I had imagined when describing my ideas to the Jeweller.

I love it!
Bye xox

Flippin' heck

Flippin' heck!

It's July! And i am back on holiday - well off school at least so should give me a chance to get myself more sorted and should give Katie and I a chance to get some more photos from some fun times.

We bid a fond farewell to Vicki, Adrienne and Kirsty this week - Vicki and Adrienne put us up in Melbourne and we returned the favour here in Welly. We cannot believe that it was back in November that we stayed with them in Oz - where does the time go?

Staying with people you know makes life so much easier - you can get a proper wash and get your clothes cleaned and dried. Not sure our house was much warmer than their camper van but at least they had cooking facilities. (And Adrienne is a fantastic chef) We hadn't met Kirsty before but we now love her as she pretty much completed the Wasgij for us. For those who don;t know a wasgij is a jigsaw where you don't have the final picture on the front of the box you just have a clue. Wasgij is jigsaw backwards but it's not really a backwards jigsaw if you know what I mean and it's pronounced Wasjig but spelt Wasgij. Crazy. Here was the result though for posterity:



They stayed with us here in Welly on route to the rest of the North island. Was great to see some familiar faces and it was also great to have an excuse for midweek drinking and going out to the pub! Good luck to the girls for the rest of their trip - we're so jealous now that we are stuck in one place again but the good thing is we know we will be moving around again really soon.

Katie and I are planning on going skiiing with Iain, Lorna, Barry O, his girlfriend Kaz (who is also working in NZ just now) and Clare Young from home. We are also planning a trip down to Queenstown and Milford Sound etc in the South island so all in all a busy old time as usual.

Questions on my mind this week:

1) Is anyone reading this blog anymore?
2) How much can I cram into 3 weeks off when I don't have a car?

Hope everyone back home is doing well, I will definitely be scheduling some get in touch time this week now that I am off during the day. So expect a phone call some night this week - I will be trying to get round as many people as possible!!!!!

Thanks to my Dad who sent me through a new Rangers top as requested - thanks Dad.

All the best everyone,

Steph