Auckland Anniversary! Anne's Wedding and Fireworks

It is so incredibly great to wake up on a Monday morning and not have to go to work. You can sleep late, do a bit of shopping and go to the beach. I must admit that this weekend has been busy, what with being the Maid of Honour at a wedding and having a South African braai on Sunday and now a day at the beach.

But first a paragraph about the weather. We hear that in South Africa it has been raining none stop for weeks and hasn't stopped to give anything time to dry. Well in good ol NZ, we have had a bout of perfect weather for at least 2 weeks. This weekend, the skies are clear and blue and the temperature has been at a warm 24 degrees. We had no rain on Anne's wedding day and we a truly happy about that.

Anne's wedding went off without any hitch, aside from the fact that some of the flowers were missing from time of collection and that the bride was in the wrong car on the way to the wedding, thus making her 30 min late because we wanted to wait for the nice car for the nice pictures. Everyone was waiting patiently and we eventually got in there, Anabel looke beautiful and Kevin, much more handsome than his usual Domino's Pizza uniform, and then we got Anne and Kevin married.

After the ceremony and 2 quick snapshots, I really would have liked to stick around and chat with everyone but I had to run off with Amy and Leon to set up the venue, which relied on the flowers we were previously missing. We managed to sort that out really quickly. I then could not for the life of me remember where I had put the name places for everyone! That was very stressful, until I realised that I left them in the bag with all the table decorations so the I deliberately wouldn't forget them, and then I go and forget where I put them. Poor old Sarah was standing ready with the camera to get a couple of shots, and then we were gone in the blink of an eye.

Got the the venue but then the bride and groom were missing. We tried to get everyone settled in and eventually they arrived. Kevin only to get a cigarette and jet outside to relieve his aweful addiction to death sticks. Later I set him straight about them, telling him that if they were going to have a long happy marriage, the death sticks have to go. It was a really fun wedding with a Bollywood twist at the end. All the Indian boys got up and did a Bollywood Spectacle. It was superbly fun and we all left in high spirits.

Then on Sunday, we did a traditional South African Braai, with our mates, Hannes and Eylene. We spoke Afrikaans all night long, discussed South Africa's problems and whether people should stay. This is the usual immigrant's commentary. I think often it is an internal dialogue, that is on-going as a justification for moving away from what you know. It seems that there is a constant need to be reminded on why you have left and you just need to take inventory on what there is here, that there isn't there. Leon is more concerned about these topics and I just generally feel quite at home here, and I know that I am happy here. I do miss my friends and family but that is all I miss. I love the outdoors here, and the safety, and oh, look, I am rationalizing once again!  I just wish that Gerard would come so we can have adventures like old times with people that don't drive me crazy, believe it, Gerard, does not drive me crazy, although he has been known to drive other's crazy! He is crazy! We took Hannes and Eylene home and watched a spectacular fireworks display from the harbour. It was amazing!

Moving on, today we are just chilling, Leon is still in bed, and since I was talking about marmite and lettuce sandwiches the other day with Sarah, who was making a marmite (kiwi marmite) and walnut sandwich in the kitchen, it just reminded me of one of my favourite food discoveries, Marmite (South African) and Lettuce sandwich. My mom used to make it for me for school lunch and so for breakfast I had an old favourite and a cuppa tea. I left a txt for our newly weds, one of which is also still sleeping due to a late poker night at their mates place (3am). I get a very sleepy Anne calling me about it and we will be seeing them in a couple of hours at a beach in Takapuna, called Cheltingham Beach. We heard from the boat ride on our bosses beach about how nice this beach is. So we'll be smothering ourselves in sunscreen and hats and cover up all our exposed bits from the harsh kiwi sun, peeking through that massive hole in the ozone over us, and go out for a good time with some really great company!

I hope all of you have a public holiday coming up soon, because it really is a joy!