2 posts tagged “fun”

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!

The Vodafone Warriors vs The Paramata Eels - Friday Night

Well it all started when I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to go watch a movie. But instead of a movie we ended up watching a rather sad match between the Warriors and the Paramata Eels. We got grassy seats, beer and good company and settled in to watch the game. You could hear the beating of the drums of a clan of warriors in preparation to crush the opposing team with pure braun. Clearly, the support base for the Eels was lacking and the entire stand was black. As they say in the NZ Mastercard advert that all kiwi's blood is black, that relates more to the All Blacks, and not the Warriors, but their official colours are black too. There were 39 000 people packed into the stands and it was looking good for most of the match. Fortunately, we has some comic relief in the form of Claire, Kim's friend, and the staunch Maori supporter behind us that kept yelling "Come on Warriors, bring 'em down." The Warriors gave the Eels a good run for their money and for a good long time we believed that they were on a roll. We were, so to speak, having Eel on the menu. Except that comment about the roll. After being in the lead for a good 40 mins, the Warriors started to get slower, and make more mistakes and well..the eels had roast kiwi-bird on a roll with a delicious win of 12 / 10.

IMG_5262

The All Black Debut Match - Rugby World Cup - Saturday Night - pretty late.

The following night, we all convened at the Rika's house, to watch the first All Black game against Italy. We were all reved up and ready to go, with the anticipation of an exciting game ahead of us. Italy, having a good idea of the All Black power and strength should have been awake. Clearly they had only heard about the Roman Greats. Julius Caesar, Achilles and all the other Roman Soldiers and even possibly gladiators. No they seemed to have been living entirely in the great empire of Rome and to an extent, became very much like Americans who generally don't leave their state and have no idea about other places. Alright, so now we have established that although the Romans are known for their greatness, they didn't quite know where New Zealand was, and what kind of team they were facing.

Right, so we had our beer, some chips and dip, good company, a big screen tv (with struggling reception) and the game began. The All Black traditionally (Haka) asked for assistance from their predecessors and ancestors and watched as the very sleepy, pizza eaters appeared in front of them. The Italian Team brought all their equipment, pillows, duvets and settle in on the green grass into a dreamy sleep while the All Black took this to their best advantage and scored about 3 tris in a matter of 6 minutes. Somehow,

when the sleeping ITs were thinking about defence, there alway happened to be a hole! All Blacks pummelled the crap out of the Italians and only later after the second half started did Italy, try to stop the All Blacks. It was a

s if they had finally woken from their state of relaxation and thought about winning for the first time. By this time,

 the All Blacks were so far ahead it didn't really matter how many tris they scored because there was just not enought time. The game was pretty boring and I was just wondering who let those blerrie smurfs onto the field. It looked more like a light practice for the All Black team. At least my bosses will be in a good mood on Monday.