Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Annabelle's Christening - The Musical

Easter weekend, this year, was spent in Queenstown. Claire and I started our road trip on Friday morning with a boot load of vegetables, and got to Qtown around 4.30pm. It was a lot cooler there than it had been in Christchurch! It had been snowing around the MacKenzie Country a few days previously and we found snow down to ground level at Lake Tekapo. Very pretty.
Mum and Dad weren't due to arrive until the next day at lunch time so Aunty Claire and Aunty D got maximum cuddle time with Annabelle until having to hand her over to her adoring grandparents.


Saturday night was Annabelle's Christening which was incorporated into the Saturday night Easter service at church. Being Easter, there was a LOT of singing - but the Priest at this particular church obviously LOVES to sing so sang pretty much the whole service. He even asked the congregation if they minded him singing - by singing it. It was nice though.

Annabelle was extremely well behaved throughout the service - except for doing a nice loud burp at one point (better out than in, though, right?) and didn't make a sound while being annointed.

The service was at 8pm so we had a beautiful meal cooked by Catkin beforehand and then went back for dessert afterwards.

Gavin's friend Graeme and Catkin's friend Amy are Godfather and Godmother. Unfortunately Amy couldn't come over from the UK so I stood in for her... as a stunt double.

Sunday was full of Easter eggs, eating, and people visiting. It was a beautiful day. Claire and I managed to roll ourselves out of the house in the afternoon to go for a walk ... just a small one. We made it up to a reservoir and sat and admired the view. Queenstown is just so beautiful!


On Monday morning Claire and I said our goodbyes and got some last cuddles before setting off back to Christchurch. We stopped at Twizel (the town of trees) and had lunch which was really yummy. There weren't too many mad people on the road either which was good. We made it home just after 4pm.

Mark, bless him, came over and cooked us dinner which was just lovely.

NETBALL UPDATE:
Last week our team was short as Sandra had to work late. As it turned out our opposition never turned up so we won by default. BUT we did manage to get a game with some of the cricketers. It was a good game - our team won 32-25 but unfortunately the score doesn't count. Good that we at least got a game though.

Mum arrives in Christchurch tomorrow afternoon and will be with us until Sunday so Claire and I are planning an action packed weekend for her. She will be able to come and watch us at netball (if she wants to) and be a cheerleader tomorrow night.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Time For A Hoolie!



Last weekend I flew up to Wellington for the wedding of PJ Solomon who I met whilst living abroad in Edinburgh. There were others there who had also lived in the 'burgh so it was a great reunion! Swayze and I flew into Wellington within half an hour of each other which worked out perfectly.
We caught a shuttle to the motel in Plimmerton where we were staying (Note to Shuttle driver: Find 5th gear, and use it!) And were enjoying our first wine just after 5pm. Brilliant!

Jeremy and Kelvin arrived separately not long after and a few more wines were had before we headed down to the marae to meet up with the others. The Solomon family had prepared a boil up which was YUMMY and we got to meet the bride for the first time. Helen is from Estonia and just 16 weeks ago had a wee boy with PJ.

Saturday was the big day and it was beautiful weather. Helen looked absolutely stunning and PJ scrubbed up well too! The wedding was held on a marae and all the friends were welcomed on and got to sit up the front - perfect viewing position. After the short ceremony there was plenty of time for photos before heading up the hill to the reception. Again, we were invited to go in first and got front row seats!! The hungi was yummy.


Speeches were good and even the Bride got up and said a few words before all the guys got up and did a haka for her - even PJ's Dad had PJ's son, Rasmuss, in his arms while he participated. It was very cool and quite emotional.

It was a great night. Lots of catching up with fellow Flat 6ers and others who had not quite been lucky enough to live there but had been there and/or heard the tales.

Swayze and I headed out to the airport on Sunday morning after an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable weekend.


Another exciting win for us last Thursday at netball. Two for two. We better not get too cocky as we are playing the top team this Thursday. Eeek! We are third on the results ladder.


I had a weekend at home this weekend just gone. The first one in what seems like ages. I felt very productive and got lots done - including clearing the vege garden of weeds. It now resembles a garden again instead of a jungle.
Claire was feeling poorly during the weekend which wasn't good so I made her stewed apples. She is still not feeling 100% so hopefully will feel better soon. Not nice to be sick - ESPECIALLY on the weekend!


I went to Lynnie & Courtney's for dinner on Saturday night which was great. Courtney had a new 'Mike' story that went something like this: (I apologise if I get it slightly wrong)
Whilst checking in a passenger Mike looked over to Courtney and with one hand made a gesture that Courtney took as being scissors, and pretended to hold something up with the other hand. Now, any NORMAL person (Courtney) would think that perhaps he wanted a pair of scissors to cut whatever it was he was pretending to hold up, no? But NOOOOO, apparently from his silly gesture Courtney was supposed to work out that he was wanting to know where the security items are kept. What the??? The 'scissors' = 'sharp and pointy items' = 'security items'. Right.
No one can work out what he was doing with the other hand. He's a diddle.

Toby and Min say 'hi' too.