Night out with Marie G and Neil

Well, this week saw the arrival of another Jordanhill-er to Wellington, Marie Gannon (fae the Isle of Skye)

Marie is a lot taller in real life......

Marie is on a rotary club sponsored trip to NZ for what seems to involve mainly travelling around the counry doing a series of presentations and then having to befriend rich, old people and then enjoy their hospitality. (inc. food, drink, and sparties - parties in spa pools apparently)

All sounds a wee bit sinister and my suspicions were confirmed when it turned out they were staying with one old couple who told them on the first night that they were members of the local naturist club. Neil, one of Marie's travelling companions said, "ah, back home that would mean you were into being naked in public  all the time." Turns out it means exactly the same thing here.

Actually, it isn't sinister at all - the Rotary people seem very nice and I suppose they are guilty of being eccentric if anything, their hearts are in the right place and their generosity seems to be considerable. Where do I sign up? ;o)

Anyway, we had a great night out with Marie and Neil although because Good Friday was the next day all the pubs shut at 12pm - can you believe it? It probably turned out to be the best for us though as we were a little bit drunk and Marie had a 9.30 am pick up the next day to get onto the Interislander ferry.

Marie and Neil have sailed off to the South Island and we are currently contemplating jumping on the ferry ourselves and meeting up with them - this is really the first school holidays where we haven't had a big trip planned and our feet are itchy. Perhaps we should stay in Welly this time.........erm, nah. More to follow.

Our current home

As I mentioned in one of the last posts - I realise we haven't shown you photos of our new house yet, so as promised here are a few photos.

It's not as slick and new as our last place but it does have a huge, private back yard and more importantly, central heating (winter is on its way)

A lot of hot air

Katie and I drove out to Masterton today (takes an hour and a half over the Rimutaka hills) to check out a Hot Air balloon event called Night Glow. Basically there is a Hot Air balloon event on and they pick one evening to get all the balloons together and light themselves up at night along to some music. Last year it was in Wellington, this year it was out in Masterton.

It was quite a family focused event and there was plenty for the kids to do - check out the rides of death in the photos. $3 to put your kid in a cage and have him spun round by a contraption from medieval times. New Zealand - it's so laid back, wouldn't get this kind of thing back home any more.

New Zealand Kingfisher

Just spotted this bird out of our back window today and thought he looked suspiciously like a Kookaburra so I took a photo. After a bit of research it turns out he is a cousin of the Kookaburra and is a New Zealand kingfisher (aka the Sacred Kingfisher). These guys and the kookaburra are related to all Kingfishers. Here endeth the lesson on birds of NZ.

Karate Grading

Yesterday was also my latest Karate grading - I was attempting to go up to the next level which was Advanced Yellow. I am pleased to report that it all went well and that I successfully got my black tab for my yellow belt. Hurrah!

The next grading is in June and that will be for Green belt.

(just realised that I still haven't posted photos of this new house we are in - the carpet in this photo tells you a little bit about the age of the decor!)

Blackcaps versus Australia

Yesterday was yet another afternoon at the Westpac stadium, this time we were there to watch the Cricket One day International between NZ(The Blackcaps) and the arrogant Aussie's.

This was the final game in the series that Australia had already won by by winning 3 of the games so far so there really wasn't much to play for. However, as us Scots can understand - there is always a good reason to stuff your sporting neighbours. There is also always good reason as a spectator to get really drunk whilst watching.

We were there from 2pm until about 10pm and I can honestly say that I didn't watch much of the cricket. I was however looking forward to seeing Australian batting legend Ricky Ponting play so when he came on the match had my full attention - unfortunately for Ricky (and me) he got caught first ball and off he went. I went back to drinking beer.

We then went into town with Katie's Australian colleague Clint - and had a bit of a wild night on the town - still recovering!

Round the Bays 2010

Katie and I went for a run recently and here are a couple of shots that a "professional" took (seriously) that we have borrowed rather than paid $25 for.

For the statisticians amongst you

Katie did the 7k in 34 minutes

I did the 21k in 1hr 48 minutes

;o)

ACDC gig

So we arrive back in Wellington after our Australian adventure and the next big thing on the agenda was ACDC at the Westpac stadium.

Paul had sneakily managed to get a ticket for the gig from Scotland and it was all go - Paul had already seen them in Glasgow and had raved non-stop about the show, the fact he was really excited about seeing them again made the whole build up even better.

We went for the obligatory few beers before the gig but we were determined to get there nice and early to soak up some atmosphere so Paul, Steve and I headed off to the stadium. when we arrived we found out that there were different areas and depending on which ticket you had you might be restricted to the back of the field. Paul, having purchased his ticket much later than ours, unfortunately ended up in zone 3 when Steve and I were in zones 1&2. We were gutted, for Paul to have travelled all this way and to be so excited about the concert then to end up in a different area from us would have been a nightmare. (In reality it would actually have meant Steve would have been on his own though as I would have stayed at the back with Paul.)

Anyway, what happens is if you are in the front sections you present your ticket and get a blue band - I was racking my brains thinking about ways in which we could beg for or obtain a blue band from somewhere when my eyes were drawn to the ground near where the blue band fella was standing. There was a stray blue band lying on the floor next to his feet - it was a sign! A chance I had to take - so I hid my own band and swooped on the other one as if I had just dropped it, scooped it up right in front of a couple of Police officers and hastily made my way back to Paul and Steve.

It was an absolutely amazing stroke of luck - the band was in perfect nick and it now meant that as soon as Paul had that band on his wrist nobody would check his ticket again and we would be all together for the gig down the front. Fantastic.

So we made our way down to the front and had a flippin amazing time. Lots of noise, bouncing up and down and a spectacular set from the old geezers.

Best concert ever, and one that i will be thinking about long into old age. (when I will probably still be wearing the T-shirt Paul bought me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gXTxWAeaj4

Attention!

Sorry about the lack of entries recently - just to let you know that I have put in 3 or so new entries tonight so you will need to use the links to see the older posts.

Hope you are well! (and not too cold!)

I lied - here are some tennis shots I couldn't leave out