Nameless makes a name

Good news!  We won our netball game tonight.  It was a good game and everyone played really well.  Lots of intercepts. Final score was 17-14.

This weeks team was made up of the following players:

Karati 'I Believe I Can Fly' Metcalfe (GD)

Sandra 'Broken Fingers' Metcalfe (WD)

Claire 'The Interceptor' Bartlett (C)

Kyra 'Can't Touch This' Guckert (GK)

Ashley 'Black Eye' Hampton (WA)

Alicia 'Gimme That Ball' Duggan (GA)

Danielle 'Old Yella' Bartlett (GS)

Next week will be tough as we are playing the team at the top of the ladder.  Fingers crossed.

Celebrate Good Time, Come On!!

Well, it feels like a lot of time has passed since I last updated this blog. I turned another year older a few weeks ago and had a fantastic birthday week! I arrived at work on the 21st to find my desk surrounded by balloons and a 'Birthday Girl' sign. My colleagues and I had a shared morning tea and then Claire and Mark cooked me dinner. It really was a great day.

Along with all that we also had our dear friend Renee McInnes home for 3 weeks from the UK to surprise everyone (except me and her Mum who were in on it).

A group of us went to the Lone Star for dinner on Friday night. Lance came too so got to meet some of the family. I think Kathryn & Moos just got eyes for Christmas as they seemed to be staring at us ALL night. Take a photo... actually I think they did.

Kathryn and Moos came down for one night only on the 24th before heading to Queenstown the following day to FINALLY meet Annabelle. They have added photos on Facebook and Annabelle looks more grown up than last time I saw her which was 2 weeks previous. They grow up so fast, don't they!! Still a little button though and I still want to eat her up!

Claire has taken a weeks holiday from work this week. She has had her head down/bum up doing an assignment for the papers she is doing to gain her Degree. Very busy indeed but seems to be all on track.

We lost 2 netball players from our team a few weeks back. Not really sad days to be honest. The male of the two had a terrible attitude on court and gave one of his own team mates a black eye - apparently accidently - and argued with the ref a LOT. The female is his wife so, as sad as it was to see her go, she was being loyal to her husband. We have found replacements and have been enjoying fun games again without the embarrasment of a gobby, shoulder barging player.

We finally got the outside windows painted and finished to match the lovely newly painted house. We employed Mac & Co (Eion McInnes and his brother-in-law Kev) to do the work for us. It basically took them 3 days but there were a few wet days in between which meant they couldn't work so they finished it off this week. They even gave the garage doors a fresh coat of dark green paint and they look GOOD! It should hold them together for another year or so.

I finally finished my stone carving on Monday night. Phew!! I'm very pleased with the finished product and now have to find a sunny spot in the garden for it..... and keep the area weeded so I can see it!

The MOST exciting thing is that Lynnie and I walked up the hill on Sunday - all the way to the Sign Of The Takahe and back. Phew!! An hour and a half round trip but it was well worth it. I was so proud of us both. I can now check that off my list of '50 things to do before I'm 50'.

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.

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.

Oh, Happy Days!!

Last night we won our first game of netball!! Oh you can imagine our delight. Even the ref said she was so proud of us. It was a momentous occasion for all concerned.
We started our Winter season last night - and have been moved to Division 4 which is much better for us.
Final score was 17-14.
I feel a high-five coming on.

All Things Cute And Beautiful

The most exciting thing that has happened lately is that the Queenstown Bartlett Family came to stay on Friday night.... which means Claire and I got maximum Annabelle cuddling time! They arrived just past midnight after a long, slow trip up with a massive trailer on the back to pick up the car and motorbike from the garage (which, can I just say, looks rather bare now!)

Claire and Catkin went out and 'ran some errands' (shopped) on Saturday morning and Gavin and I were in charge of Annabelle. Gavin's job was to get the car and motorbike sorted so they would be all ready to leave early afternoon and head to Ohau for a night of camping. I managed to keep him talking so said job never got done and they ended up staying Saturday night as well! Mwha ha ha - my plan worked!!

It was so lovely to see them and Annabelle is nearly twice her birth weight now. Still as cute as a button and plenty of smiles. Only 3 weeks and we will be seeing them again in Queenstown.

The Fowlers had their Wine Fest/Housewarming on Saturday night which was really good. G,C & A came along as well. There was blind wine tasting that Catkin and I won! Whoop whoop. It wasn't a late night but it was very enjoyable.

We had a afternoon play date with the Metcalfe's yesterday which was nice. Tahlia was keen to come around and play on the Dance UK Playstation mat again so while her and her friend were having a dance off, Sandra, Claire and I discussed netball tactics and drank tea. It was nice to see them. Asha was also there and was practising his ABC with a game of Claire's by matching the shapes to the letters. I was very impressed he was very good. He told me he loved the letter J. ** Too cute.

And I got given this mini wheeley bin from a guy at work which I love (the bin, not the guy). You know my love of all things mini!!!

Och Aye Nae Noo!

Things are ticking along nicely at Roxy Inn. Claire and I have both been relatively busy and almost have to book in to see each other!! I've been a bit slack with walking with Lynnie and Courtney due to one thing or another but have been walking during my lunch time with Val so at least that's something. Although I do feel that I haven't seen L&C for AGES. Must remedy that as I've heard that Courtney has new 'Mike' stories.

Dad turned the grand old age of 60 on the 24th - Phew! Who even knew people got that old?! I talked to him on Tuesday and he said he had talked to all his kids which made him happy. Mum surprised him with dinner out in Warkworth with some friends the following night. Sounds like they had a really nice time.

Alex has started at Uni now. Exciting for him. Apparently he hates Thursdays as he doesn't have time for lunch. Let the hardships begin!

So last week I had the week off work. Jenni and I managed to paint the town tartan on Saturday night - not getting home until after 5am!!! It was messy. There were quite a few vodka & redbulls consumed along with a few shooters - never a good idea! It had to be done though.

Sunday was the Waipara Wine Fest and after a few days of rain Sunday was beautiful. Just as well as the wine fest is all outside so rain wouldn't make it very pleasant. Lance drove me, Jenni and Megan out to Waipara and I had managed to score 4 free tickets from work. Result!! I was still a bit drunk on the way out so was glad I wasn't supposed to be the driver. After getting there and setting up a possie in the sun, the hang over kicked in. What I SHOULD have done is have a wine - hair of the dog and all that - but, alas, I didn't and ended up having to go and sleep it off in the back of the car. Sad days for me. Anyway, the others had a great day and Megan and Jenni were quite tiddley when they all arrived back to the car. Jenni even got to see the phenomenon which is Stove Pipes. She liked. The Black Velvet Band were playing there.

On Monday Jenni and I set off on another whirlwind adventure - this time to the West Coast. We stopped at Shanty Town for a looksie. We even got to pan for gold... and got some. Exciting. Although I think they rig it so you are guaranteed to get some. Not enough to leave work and retire though. Ho hum. We both loved Shanty Town.

Then onwards to Punakaiki to look at the pancake rocks. Very cool and well set out. The weather had been pretty wet but every time we stopped for something the rain stopped so that made it nicer. From there we went to Westport... hmmmm... not the nicest place I've ever been. We had trouble finding accommodation that night due to a bowling convention being held in Westport.. ha! Managed to get a really nice room at a back packers though so that was nice.

We headed home on Tuesday and cooked a nice Kiwi dinner of roast lamb for Jenni. On Wednesday we went to the 20/20 cricket which was brilliant. The Black Caps won. Hurrah! Another perk from work. Thanks CHH!!

On Thursday afternoon I had to say goodbye to Jenni as she headed back to Scotland and I departed for Auckland.

Thursday nights netball went well apparently. Roving sports reporter Claire filled me in as I wasn't there. The score was neck and neck and our team was actually ahead at the start.... giving the team a burst of confidence that we might ACTUALLY have a chance of winning. Everyone played very well but they other team got a good lead in the second half with the end score being 20-37.