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Published: January 5th 2006
Kitchen Chaos
Graeme & Anna hard at work on the brekkie preparationsHappy new year to all readers wherever you are in the world! And welcome to new readers that I've added since the last blog.
Well, Christmas was a bit different for us this year - apart from the whole 'summer' thing, having no family around to share the day with was certainly a bummer and something that we didn't particularly like. Well, what do we expect to happen!?
Anyhoo, after finishing work on the 23rd we met up with Graeme & Anna for drinks and food (after I collected Jo-Ann from the pub - she'd been boozing since 2pm whereas I was working like a trojan until 5:30!). The 24th was used for last minute present wrapping and getting our stuff prepared for our trip to the south island (more of that later).
On Christmas morning we headed to Graeme's house for breakfast (the other Graeme that lives there was home in Scotland for Christmas) where we were joined by Anna and her parents. We exchanged $5 gifts although I think Graeme & Anna got screwed as we slighty misunderstood the ground rules and slightly underspent on them. Also our presents were especially tacky and useless!! We'll get
Cheers!
The black velvet or should that be the black death?! the hang of by the time Christmas 2006 comes around! Best present was definbitely my plastic finger that fartas when you pull it! As you can imagine this appealed to my childish side and will gives hours of fun for all the family. We also got practical gifts for our camping trip, especially the wee fold-out chairs which were a god-send.
The breakfast itself was fabulous and featured majestic black pudding cooked to perfection and spicy chorizo sausages that predictably had me sneezing after a single bite. There was even pudding and mega-strong espresso just to top it off and send us on our way to our Christmas dinner destination a touch too full up! Graeme also prepared an interesting drink called a Black Velvet - 50% Guinness and 50% bubbly and it was not too shabby, I must say.
Then we headed off to Paulinne's house (Simon's Mum) in Upper Hutt pretty close to where we stayed for our first couple of months here. And what a spread there was!! Her hubbie Ivan was master bbq-er (no sheila's allowed near the barbie!!) and produced a huge pile of steaks, suasages, etc. which was complemented nicely by loads
Hmmmm....
....pudding.... of salads, pasta dishes and veggies and washed down with wine and beer.
Luckily the weather held out OK - it was warm enough but a bit dull and it began to spit with rain as we approached the end of the meal. We moved inside for desserts and pressie opening and Isabella and Dominic were very able elfs to Ivan's santa.
We got some very generous presents and we were shocked to get something each from Simon's sister who we've never even met before! She came home for Christmas from Sheffield and brought us a Terry's Chocolate Orange each which was superb - although I have a battle on my hands to stop Jo-Ann eating all mine as she is addicted to them. Simon and Liann gave us a great book on Wellington through the ages with some great factual information and old and new photos that show how the place has changed since the first settlers arrived in the 1800s.
A few more visitors came and went and then it was our turn to move on. It was so kind of Paulinne and Ivan to invite us round and we had a great time there.
I come bearing crap gifts
Anna and her folks empty their stockings with a mixture of excitement and dread! Then, it was back to Simon and Liann's where we relived old times by taking over their comfy charis, raiding their fridge and generally free-loading!! i.e. we stayed over.
On Boxing Day we had to miss their BBQ as we were on the 6pm ferry to the south island for our camping and walking trip and we had to complete our packing and get to the ferry terminal.
The next blog will cover our Queen Charlotte Track trip if I can manage to narrow down the photos from the 105 that I took!!
Until then, take it easy! I will be taking it easy tomorrow at another IBM freebie at the one day cricket international against Sri Lanka - I know, your heart bleeds for me!!
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