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Published: January 3rd 2009
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Hi blog readers, A Happy New Year, and congratulations if you've made it this far. All these tales of excess consumption of alcohol and food, it has to stop, though not yet. It's no different from home really, except that we don't publish it. If we had, the kids would have been taken into care years ago.
Anyway, Christmas is over now, we trust that you had a good one without going bankrupt. Speaking of which, the economic situation over here seems just as bad as it does at home, with job losses and uncertainty dominating the news. We just have different faces here telling us the dire stories, but it's just the same stuff.
So what's been happening? On Sunday morning we got a call from Roy, who is Natalie's dad, inviting us down to their house for dinner on Tuesday, so that was something nice to look forward to, as we hadn't met Nat's parents before though we had heard a lot about them of course.
Five minutes later Roy rang me again and offered us the use of Terry's car while we were here. Up to now we have been coping well on foot and
on the buses, but this was an added bonus and we took up his kind offer very gratefully. It has certainly made our trips out (and shopping!) much more convenient and you don't have to plan in advance quite so much.
So we have had trips in the car to Takapuna, Orewa, St Heliers and yet another trip to Devonport (we love the Manuka restaurant for lunch!), all seaside places, as we love wandering along different beaches and promenades and enjoying coffees at seafront cafes. The seaside places all seem very laid back here, with none of the hustle and bustle you get in the large resorts at home. On New Year's Eve afternoon Becky picked us up and took us up to Mission Bay for fish and chips, as she'd borrowed a convertible from a friend, so there we went and did a bit of posing up and down the seafront.
Tuesday was dinner at Roy and Terry's. When we got there, all the family were there - Mum & Dad, Nat's sisters Jess and Rachel, Rachel's partner Tony and the kids, Nathan and Luca, oh, and the dog, poopie. What a welcome we got! We had
Nathan's Sky Tower
Building with the Professionals a wonderful meal and the conversation flowed all night, with lots of embarrassing childhood stories that Matthew loves so much! It seemed to be all over in a flash, it was like being with old friends even though we had just met. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other, for a start we'll have to hand the car back at some stage! Terry calls it "The Mercedes".
The other night out we had was New year's Eve. After the quietness of the pubs on Christmas Eve, we weren't sure what to expect. We went in a couple of pubs with Matthew, then Becky joined us, and after a while we wandered down to the Viaduct Harbour, what a contrast! The place was heaving, many of the bars full to capacity and not allowing anyone in, others trying to cash in by charging $20 per head. The English disease! Don't know the Maori equivalent of "On your bike" but we managed to get the message across. We found a little bar round the corner where we could get a drink and see midnight in. Then out onto the dockside to watch the fireworks, which any self-respecting city has
to have these days. They were brilliant, shooting out of the Sky Tower in all their glory. Next stop Queen Street, via an impromptu burger bar that some enterprising charity had set up outside the Ferry Building. Delicious! Queen Street was awash with people, they had stopped the traffic and it was just like Wembley on Cup Final Day. We managed to find a pub still open for a last nightcap, with an ear-splitting heavy metal band playing. Most of my senses were numb by then, but Phyl and Becky waited on a seat outside as they couldn't stand the noise.
As per tradition, we sent and received lots of New Year text messages from friends and family, it's amazing when you're so far from home. We spoke to Sally and Jonathan on New Year's Day (his birthday) and were interested to hear all about their celebrations. This year we also added the new dimension of Facebook.
New Year's Day is normally a quiet one, and this was no exception, we stayed in bed most of the morning and then walked up to the Domain and sat in the shade with our books for a couple of hours,
New Year's Eve
Sky Tower at midnight as the day was a real scorcher.
So, back to normal life, if we can call it that while we're over here. Matthew has another week off, but I think most Aucklanders are back at work on Monday. We have our new apartment to look forward to this week, we've slummed it for long enough. And next week we have Matthew's birthday to look forward to.
And perhaps we might get some comments, abusive or otherwise, from our blog readers - it's a lonely life being a blogger!
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