Too late now

I wanted to catch up on here with everything we'd been doing since Christmas day tonight but now it's too late. And with all the organising and stuff we need to do tomorrow before 'The Holts' Relocated Annual New Year's Eve Bash' ("Karaoke not compulsory") it's probably going to be New Year's Day before I finally get to write about the past week. In the meantime have a look at some photos here and here for a taster.

It is good to be home. Driving back from the airport tonight I asked Joanne if she felt "home". It's strange, as it's the first time, but we both did. We knew we'd have that "aaaah" sigh-thing when we walked through the door and crashed on the sofa, and so it proved. Apart from the earwig infestation in the postbox it was good to be home. After a week in a couple of 'finished' homes though, our house does feel a bit bare. I cannot wait to get pictures up and a rug or two and a cd rack and some shelves for my cookery books and some sort of storage solution in the garage. I'm so impatient...

Merry Christmas

May God's perfect gift, Jesus Christ, bring you peace and hope throughout the New Year. (If you're reading this, Anita, I hope you don't mind me quoting you here - it's just that it summed things up perfectly.)

So, Christmas in Nuzziland, eh? It's warm but there's not so much of the sun to be seen. I was fed a lie ;)

This morning Joanne, Shirley and I went down to the little church in Leigh with Leon, Nigel, Claire and Cleo and Georgie. Tom and Jennifer stayed at home. It was nice to be able to go down for the Christmas morning service together. The church was full though. Standing room only for the late-comers. It was good to be reminded on the real meaning behind Christmas, and why we really celebrate it. It's a great time for families to get together and all that peace and love at Christmas stuff is good, but there is more to it than that. Much more. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of that (he says moving right on to talk about his presents...)

After church we came back and opened our pressies together. I got a nice shiny new camera from Joanne. I'm really rather excited about getting to take lots of photos of the New Zealand landscape now. She also bought me some Acqua di Gio aftershave. Shirley and Tom had one of my photos printed on a canvas for us, a long panorama shot of the Thames that we took on our day up Tower Bridge. That'll look great near the dining table at home. Jennifer got me an awesome recipe book that mixes NZ recipes with beautiful landscape photos while Leon got me a very useful electrified fly-swat. Given the number of mosquitos that were feasting on my sweet English blood last night I could have done with it a day early. My sister got us two ticket-vouchers for a theatre in Christchurch - I really want to see Under Milkwood seeing that we studied it at GCSE, while we didn't have space for the present from my mum and James in our suitcase so we'll have something to open when we get home.

Right, it's nearly 1pm now so I had better head up to see how lunch is doing. Yum!

Snags

There must have been 20 or so of us at the barbecue in the end. Maybe more. Even the mayor of Leigh turned up. I've never eaten sausages with a mayor before. It was a really nice idea getting everyone together like that though. A lot of the people up here are parents and grandparents with family to stay for Christmas and it was nice for everyone who lives up here to meet their friends' families.

It was a bit strange though, for me at least, to be standing outside in shorts on the evening of Christmas eve at a barbecue. At least Dennis brought HP sauce though. Always rely on the Englishman.

Ducks at the beach

This morning the weather was a lot clearer and the sea a lot bluer so after breakfast we headed down to Goat Island. Nigel, Claire and Georgie did a bit of snorkelling around the marine reserve while Joanne and Cleo caught some rays. Leon and I headed out around the island on kayaks. I really did enjoy the kayaking. It was a bit daunting round the far side of the island with the waves getting up to a metre or so but once I had confidence that the kayak wasn't going to capsize it was fine. It would have been even better had the sea been calmer so that we could have gone closer to the island and even explored the caves. Maybe next time, eh? Despite that it was still great fun. I really am tempted to invest in a sea kayak. It is definitely something I could see myself getting into.

A rather bizarre scene at the beach involved first one, and then a whole load of ducks waddling through the sand and then heading into the surf and paddling away. I always thought ducks were fresh water birds only. Maybe these ones were just on holiday or something.

Tonight we're meant to be having a big barbecue with all the people from the surrounding houses joining us. If the weather holds it'll be good.

Joanne is in her element. For her, this is Christmas. For me, if I wasn't sat next to a tree and a big pile of presents right now, I would easily forget tomorrow is Christmas day.

Old feelings

It's a little strange waking up here now. Back here at the start of August everything was new and exciting, there was lots of uncertainty and we really didn't know what to expect. Now we have a house, jobs and are beginning to make friends at church and at work. But being back here all those old thoughts and feelings come flooding back, even though they're not still valid. As I say, a little strange.

More of that view

So, we're up north. The Christmas trip. We eventually got to Jo's mum's at about 5-ish. It's been a long da but it has been good to see both sets of parents. The weather's not so hot here so I'm not sure Jo is going to get her warm summer Christmas but the forecast is uncertain for Tuesday. It's nice to be away for a few days, to forget about work and stuff but sometimes it's tiring meeting all these new family members. I am looking forward to a nice big family Christmas though.

I'm looking forward to getting the camera out tomorrow. I always manage to get some awesome shots up here. Tonight while we were having dinner we saw a whole flock of gannets bombing into the sea afer what must have been a huge shoal of fish. It was amazing the way they flew in formation, queued up for their turn, and then peeled off like World War II spitfires before folding their wings back and dropping like stones. Unfortunately there weren't close enough to get a decent photo. If only I had a camera with a decent zoom.

I've just been watching clips of The Mighty Boosh on you-tube. I miss English surreality. I'm not sure it translates into Kiwi. The sense of humour can be quite different.

Shaky stuff

Another earthquake hit Nuzziland last night. 6.8 on the Richter scale. The strongest since 1987 supposedly. The cloest town was Gisborne up on the north island but according to some people at work it was even felt down here. Not sure what I was doing at half past nine last night but it wasn't feeling earthquakes, that's for sure.

It seems I misjudged the ability of my boss to get everything resolved regarding my department in view of his imminent departure to western Australia. We were told today what the score will be in the new year. Most of the marketing department will be reporting to a new woman coming in as the Senior Communications Manager. Me and one other in the marketing department will be effectively moving into the sales department, I think. But as the GM Sales has loads of reports already, and way more than is recommended in the company, the other person will be now reporting to him but I will be reporting to her. At first I didn't think anything of this but when I was told the news a big deal was made about the fact that I was reporting to a member of the Executive Committee (Ecom) before and now I won't be. I wouldn't have worried about it that much if they hadn't made such a big deal out of it. I'm not sure what to make of it really. At first I was reporting to an Ecom member, the same as she was, so effectively we were on the same level of a company organogram. But now she is reporting to an Ecom member still (albeit a different one) while I am reporting to her. Has she been promoted or have I been demoted? I'm not really sure. Supposedly the job won't change and I will appreciate having a manager who actually has time in the office to spend with their staff so should I really be getting that bothered about it all? As I say, I wouldn't have had a second thought had it not been brought up by someone else. Let's just see what happens, eh?

The other thing no-one quite seemed certain of is whether there is still a marketing department or whether there is a communications department and we just become part of the sales department.

One thing I hope doesn't happen is that my direct contact with the GM Sales is effectively filtered. I do a lot of work at present directly for him. That's good having that contact and exposure. I hope that doesn't change with my new boss having that contact and just passing work down to me. Again, we'll see, eh?

We got all packed tonight for the trip up north tomorrow. It's going to be nice to have a change of scenery. Just hope the weather is as nice as the forecast predicts.

Almost feeling festive

I had a mince pie at morning tea today. It was the first time I've felt remotely festive. I suppose tomorrow lunchtime, when we have some sort of office Christmas lunch thing (they had a spit roast a couple of years ago I was told) that I might begin to feel Christmassy. Especially at the end of the lunch when I can come home and not think about work until 3rd January. Other than a couple of public holidays I've had half a day off since I started at the end of August. I am definitely in need of a break. How do people survive in this country with only 20 days holiday a year? It's a big drop after I had 28 in the UK.

Last night my department (plus partners) all went out to dinner. I was unsure beforehand, with Thai food not being my most fave (due to the heavy use of noth lemongrass and coriander), but in the end the food was fantastic. Hardly a whiff of lemongrass or coriander to be found.

I guess last night will the last time we all go out together like that. In the New Year things are going to be very different. Lisa is leaving to set up her own creative design company and my boss is heading off to Perth to manage our new venture out there. There are all sorts of plans afoot to restructure the marketing department once he leaves at the beginning of Jan, but we're not privy to them at the moment. In theory we'll be told tomorrow before we all head home, but I'm not holding my breath. There are sorts of rumours about who will be reporting to you and the department being split up between different managers and stuff. I guess we'll find out at some point, eh? The uncertainty has definitely caused some unrest recently in the department though. For various reasons there are people with a lot to lose or gain depending on the outcome of senior level decisions being made.

It was so good to be able to play football again tonight. It's the first time for ages. It's just happened that the past few Thursdays I've had something on. I've certainly missed it. We won again tonight, 14-4. We're really playing some nice football at times.

I've just been reading Ruth and Keith's blog about their trip around the south island. It's great to find out what they've been doing and seeing so far. Although it sounds like they've had a bit of vehicle trouble.

So, one more day or work and then we fly up north for 8 days. It'll be good to catch up with all of Jo's folks. Gabi has offered to give Joanne and I a lift to the airport on Saturday morning. How lovely is that, eh?

Shorts or mac?

To say the weather here is changeable at the moment would be an understatement. It was 30 degrees at the weekend and yesterday morning. It dropped down to 16 degrees in an hour yesterday. And it's been raining now for the last 12 hours.

Summer Christmas? Pah!

Rugby and salad

Melanie came over for dinner tonight. It's nice having guests, being able to have people round. I know Jo enjoyed being able to catch up with her too. We've not seen Mel since Marvin and Tianhao's wedding in April, I guess.

I had the best game of touch ever tonight. I was like a spritely Inga the Winger. I actually began to feel like it made a bit more sense. It helped that we played five a side and had a bit more space than usual but it did feel good to be doing something right for a change. Much credit must go to my team-mates though. I couldn't have done it without them ;)

We've started inviting people to the New Year's Eve bash we're planning on having. It's not likely to be as big as the three we've had in London in past years, but you have to start somewhere, eh? People don't know about the tradition yet. We're bringing New Year's karaoke to the Kiwis. I'm not sure the Kiwis are ready for it but I guess we'll find out, eh?

Shepherds in shorts

Today I got to see my first summer nativity. It was carol service day today at church and the kids of the Sunday school performed the traditional nativity play. Bless. How cute. Nativity plays, singing carols and the usual passages from the Bible about Jesus' birth do seem a little out of place when the sun's shining though. I wonder if I'll manage to feel Christmassy once we're up north.

Melanie is over from Hong Kong at the moment, visiting her family. She just spend a week in Wellington with her mum and is now down in Chch visiting Mon and Barry and the kids so came along to church this morning. Afterwards we headed to Northlands for a bit of lunch. It got me thinking how nice it is that we're friends with Monika as a result of knowing Mel and Marvin back in London. Mel's over here for dinner tomorrow night so it will be good to catch up a bit. I know Jo's looking forward to spending some time with her bridesmaid.

Joanne and I stopped by Animates on the way home. They had two gorgeous little schnauzer-shih tzu cross puppies, one biscuit coloured and one black with brown 'detailing'. Getting a dog is a big commitment though, eh? And which particular variety is the rightr flavour for us? I think we'll revisit the issue in the new year.

Daylight

We moved one step closer to having everything done in the house today. We had our curtains fitted. Still no blinds, but at least we have curtains. It's so nice to have daylight streaming into our bedroom instead of daylight filtered through old real estate magazines. On the down side, it does mean we can now see just how filthy the windows are.

On Thursday evening, Keith and Ruth and Zack came over for dinner. It was so great to see them and spend time just chatting and stuff. It is kind of weird to see friends from London over here though, as I mentioned before. Just so out of place, I guess. It was a lovely evening though. We could have chatted for hours, and would have done if it were not for work the next for us and the start of their trip around the south island.

Zack did have time to christen our bath though (unless Shirley took a bath the other week) and to fall asleep on the running machine. It was where he chose to lie down. We did offer him more comfortable options.

Last night I got to play poker for the first time ever, with people with real intelligence rather than the artificial kind at least. Al was having a few guys round for a game and invited me when I saw him at touch on Monday. In the end there were only four of us, me, Al, Rick (another guy from church who plays footy with us) and a guy called Brendan. It was a great evening. A bit of banter and some cards. Can't go wrong, eh? And I didn't lose either, which was great for my first ever game. I came second in fact. I was winning until the final hand too.

Today Joanne and I had our usual Saturday morning gym trip before we had to rush home for the curtain guy. Early afternoon was spent at the unfortunate-sounding Groynes. It's a reserve up past the airport somewhere, for those too lazy to click. The reason we were there was for Joanne's work's Christmas picnic. Although it was more a catered barbeque than a picnic, to be honest. Lovely food too. The highlight for me was definitely when Santa arrived on the back of a ute and started giving out pressies to the kids. One little lad told me that Santa lives in Liverpool, although I'm not sure how widely held a view among little Kiwis that is.

Being at the work family party thing reminded me of the Christmas parties that Sartah and I used to go every year at the bus depot in Grimsby. I can't remember if it had been my nan or my grandad that had worked there, but either way, it was a party for the families of employees (and ex-employees too, I think). There would be cheese and sausages on sticks, ham sandwiches, some crisps, jelly and icecream, a few party games and then Father Christmas would turn up and give everyone a present. I still remember the curly-wurly straw I got one year.

I have to say that today was definitely the best weather I've ever enjoyed on my birthday. It's going to be weird having a summer birthday from now on. I'm used to my birthday being grey and miserable. It's been a good birthday so far though. The sun is shining, I got some cool pressies (a Transformers t-shirt and a DVD of the movie from Joanne, a barbecue implements set from my mum, a little golf ball and accessory holder thing from my sis and Ellie, and a Mr Bump t-shirt from Shirley and Tom), Joanne bought me a really delicious banana cake. Tonight we're off out for a meal. Probably a curry I think. We've not had one since we've been here.

Aural memory

Walking to work today the air was full of the scent of hops from the brewery just down the road from the office. I closed my eyes and was whisked back to Grimsby, maybe twenty years ago, to the kitchen of our house on St Nicholas Drive, to a vision of my dad straining his home-brew through my mum's tights.

The butcher of Halswell

Much of this evening has been spent attacking a 8kg ham with an electric carving knife. My company gives each of its employees a ham each Christmas and I got mine today. We decided it made sense to portion it up, cut some into useable chunks and generally freeze most of it in varying size lumps. I can't believe how long it took though. Getting on for two hours in all, I'd say, including cleaning the skin and fat off and stuff.

At half-time in the great butchery extravanganza Joanne and I nipped out to the airport. Ruth, Keith and Zack were due to arrive just after ten and we thought it would be a nice surprise to meet them off the plane. I'm so glad we did. It was so good to see them. It's going to be great to have them over tomorrow evening for dinner for some food and a bit of a catch-up and to hear all the news from our friends on the Barge. They're in Nuzziland for about a month I think with Christchurch at the beginning and end for a few days. It'd be great if they were around on a Sunday to come to St John's with us. I think Joanne's got their itinerary somewhere. Otherwise we can just ask them tomorrow night, of course.

It is strange to have people from our London life over here though. Sort of out of place. London is like a different world now, in some ways it seems like such a long time ago, and it's strange to have an overlap of worlds. Does that make any sense at all?

Let's get it on

Joanne and I went to a boxing fitness class at the gym tonight. I did some boxing-focussed circuits classes back in London and Joanne, of course, has her karate, so it was something we figured we'd both enjoy. And enjoy it we did. Although I'm not sure either of us will be able to move our arms tomorrow. It was kind of full on. The guy taking the class has both boxed and trained at international level it seems, but he does have a rather disconcerting way of persitently referring to himself in the third person.

I got my Christmas presents posted to the UK tonight. Finally. In theory the last cut-off date for pre-Christmas delivery is tomorrow so I just made it. Hopefully. Postage is expensive though, eh? Some of the postage cost more than the presents! Next year people get light pressies ;)

Ooh, and I forgot to mention, Jack Johnson is playing here at the end of March. Bon Jovi and Jack Johnson within two months. I'm not sure I can take the excitement.

Ruth and Keith and Zack arrive in NZ tomorrow evening. It'll be great to catch up with some friends from London. Sometimes it feels like that life was just a dream. The internet is a great way to remind myself it wasn't. I love email and Facebook. A great way to see what people are up to.

Blinded

Don't you just hate it when you know you had something with you and then you don't have it with you and you can't quite remember when the something's with you/not with you status changed? I lost my sunnies today. My favourite Bloc sunnies. We were Christmas present shopping up at Northlands and I had them when we sat down for lunch and then I didn't have them when we were coming out of Amazon. Somewhere in between they ran off. Most frustrating. I did get my dad am awesomely cool Christmas present though, so I guess it's a trade-off.

My work Christmas party last night was pretty cool. It was at a surprise venue so everyone got on the bus picking them up not really knowing where we were headed. The theme was "White Christmas" (just to mess with my head some more - this whole summer Christmas thing is so weird) and I kind of had an inkling where we might be headed but wasn't sure that held events there or not. It turns out that I was right. The Antarctic Centre does indeed cater for functions. It was pretty cool too. They even had a urea silo ice sculpture. We got to go in the antarctic storm room where there was a 30mph wind and a -40 wind chill or something and also to see the penguins, which was pretty cool. I like penguins. They're definitely quite a cool little bird really. I definitely want to check out the penguin colonies further down south at some point.

This week is going to be a bit quieter, I think, which is nice. Joanne's out tomorrow night at a practice for the choir for the carol service next Sunday (her and Naomi were trying to persuade me to go along but I pointed out that enthusiasm is not necessarily a beneficial attribute for a choir unless it is matched by talent) but other than that it's fairly quiet, especially since last week was the last bible study group of the year. I really can't believe it's nearly Christmas. The time since we arrived in Nuzziland back in July has simply flown by.

Oh, while I remember, a sausage update - they were not what I'd hoped, despite being assured by the woman in the butcher that were an authentic English pork sausage. Authentic southern pork sausage maybe. Not a herb to be seen. I'm going to have to make my own at this rate.

Right, that's enough. It's time for Burn Notice.

A small world

We've just got back from Joanne's office chrimbo party. I got to meet all of her workmates in the finance team finally. But then there was no room on their table so we had to sit with some other people who weren't in her team. But that turned out ok in the end as both couples either side of us happened to be Christians so we had a good chat about that and why we moved to Christchurch and stuff. The couple who were to our right used to go to church in Wellington with a couple who were in our team for the quiz at the St. John's parish camp last month.

And then we met a couple from Scunthorpe who have been here about two years and had their kids going to St James school in Grimsby. And then we met a couple from Hull who have been here about five years. Despite the Scunny bloke calling me a "cod 'ead", it was still nice to meet people from the little corner of the country in little corner of the world that is forever "home". I think the Hull fella invited us to go tramping with them (that is "walking in the countryside" rather than "hunting for hobos") sometime too.

The party was a very different thing from the ones I'm used to in London. For one thing partners were invited. That, in my experience, never happens in London. I've actually had people tell me that if the work party was "partners included" they would not be attending. That is quite worrying. What are they intending to get up to that they wouldn't do if their wife or whatever was there? Also there didn't seem to be the hard drinking sort of feel to the party that I'm used to from London. Perhaps those two differences are connected?

The team activity at Adrenalin Forest yesterday was awesome. And everyone had a go, which surprised me. There were four 'paths', each getting successively more difficult and, more tellingly, higher. One person could only manage one and a half paths. A few finished two paths, a few more the third path, but only three of us finished path four. At its highest we were 17m off the ground. That's about 55 feet. Or, if you know Christchurch, just short of the height of the Chalice. So quite high. I am so proud of myself for finishing the course. I was determined not to let it beat me. Despite not being a huge fan of heights. To be honest, while you're doing it, you don't actually realise how high you are. I was so focussed on each particular crossing activity, whether it be monkey bars or a a tarzan rope or a nepalese bridge or a monkey bridge or death slide (called a 'flying fox' here) or some weird rope bridge or moving logs or whatever that I had no time to focus on how far off the ground I was. Which was a good thing. I was very relieved to be sliding down the final commando slide though, I can tell you.

Moving on up

Every October at work there is an appraisal for each and every person and that feeds into the pay review system. Yesterday I found out about the results of my appraisal. The variation of employment agreement mentioned my "developing competence and performance in [my] role" and my "rapid and successful integration" into the company and the team. Sounds good, eh? It's nice to hear my work is going well and even nicer when it's rewarded. A payrise is always nice. Also, as it was only for a part year, I have been promised a further formal performance and salary review before June next year. Nice, eh?

More good news is that I have found a butcher in Chch that sells pork sausages. They're not called Lincolnshire sausages but they've "a pepper and sage taste." They have to be worth a blast, eh? Hopefully they'll satisfy my craving. Watch this space.

We got out flights up to Auckland for Christmas booked this weekend. Not cheap at all but at least they're booked now.

Tonight our bible study group had a Christmas social. Part of the evening was a present-giving game. We had all bought something for around five dollars and wrapped it. All the presents sat in the middle of the floor. Then the first person picked a present and opened it. The next person in the ring could then choose whether to claim the first present opened or pick another one to open. And so it goes, with each person in turn choosing to claim an open gift from someone else or open a new one. If someone had a present taken off them they could then nick someone else's present (although not the one that had just been taken from them) or open a new present. And so it went one until finally the last present was opened. At various times I had a quacking duck keyring torch a black and silver Santa Claus Christmas tree decoration and a 400g bar of Dairy Milk, before ending up with a Mr Bump floating soap. It was a fun game and much better than just picking presents out of the middle and keeping what you first get.

We've got another busy week this week. Tomorrow the garden designer woman is finally coming round to see us and discuss the plan she's drawn up for us. On Thursday and Friday I have a Crystal Reports training course. It's a database querying tool some people use at work. Thursday evening the Sales and Marketing teams have a social event at Adrenalin Forest, a team-building up in the trees rope bridge and commando slide type place, before heading out for dinner. Friday evening is Joanne's work Christmas do at the AMI stadium and then on Saturday is our work Christmas function at some yet-to-be-disclosed venue. Somewhere in there we have to fit in some Christmas shopping, and buying some sausages.

Christmas in the summer. Pfff! What's that all about then, eh?

Choo-choo

Burgers in buns followed by jelly and icecream followed by riding on trains. The kids were happy. I think the adults were too, to be honest.

After church today Mon and Barry and the kids came back to ours for lunch. Xavier likes trains and we'd promised a few weeks back that we'd get together one Sunday for lunch at our house before nipping across the road to the trains. Today was the day.

I thought it was just going to be a little circuit round and round, but it wasn't. In and out of the trees, over a bridge, round the duck pond, underneath the the bridge, back through the trees and back to the station. I can see why it's always heaving over there when the weather's favourable. Trains are always a winner.

Brain-dead

My head hurts. After two days at the start of the week listening to presentations about the company on the staff induction, a busy day on Wednesday trying to do a week's work in one day, and two days at the end of the week in Pukekohe listening to all sorts of stuff on soil science, arable farming and aspects of animal health products such of supplements and anthelmintics my brain is dead. It was nice to have a non-mentally taxing day yesterday. Really what I needed.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the week. It was great to meet some of the other new staff and spend time with the new group of account managers, it's just that it was kind of full on. Plus there was the eating out every night with no time to unwind really.

The last two days, the course up north, were really interesting though. For me it was just interesting context and background while the rest of them on the course actually have to know the stuff as they're the ones who will be face to face to the farmer trying to advise them what's best for their farm, trying to balance an economic optimum scheme with a biological optimum one, and all the while trying to persuade the farmer that they know what they're on about despite only being in the job five minutes. I don't envy them, but they are all keen and excited about the prospect, which is good. Half of the group were just out of uni after completing agricultural degrees or commerce and agriculture degrees, a few had experience working on or owning farms while a couple had worked for other companies in the mrarket. As such they all had a deeper initial knowledge of the content than me. As I said on the first day, I last studied biology when I was 14 and where I grew up I could see a field. I was definitely the benchmark for the tests we had to do. If anyone finished below me there would have been questions asked. But, as it was, they didn't. Maybe that shows our recruitment policy works, eh? I passed though, which I was pleased about. Not bad for a beginner.

On Thursday I got an email from Joanne to say that Shirley, her mum, would be flying down to stay with us for a few days, which was a nice surprise. We certainly didn't get surprise visits from my mother-in-law when we were in London. So we currently have our first house guest (other than the birds), which is nice. The first person to stay in the guest bedroom. I think we approves of the house. She had only seen it empty before.

Ooh, and speaking of the house, we have some blinds up now. The lounge/kitchen/dining room bit (I never know what to call that room - the family room maybe?) has all the windows done, which is nice. It means that we aren't being watched whenever we eat at the dining table or sit down to watch some TV now. The rest of the blinds and curtains should hopefully be here in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait to get the newspaper down off the windows!

I've been messing around with graphics packages, trying to turn photos into interesting stuff we can stick on our walls recently. We have an awful lot of wall space and not enough pictures to go round, I think. This is one I'm quite pleased with. What do you think?

We've got Monika and Barry and the kids coming round for lunch after church today. There is a ride-on model train thing that goes on opposite our house either every Sunday or every other Sunday and we'll head over there for a look after we've eaten. Ariana and Xavier will love it.

Warm and fuzzy feeling

You know, for me the biggest thing to come out of the induction course was the fact that it is all the general managers and CFO and CEO etc that turn up to give their presentations. It would be easy for them to send a minion to present the face of their department but they don't. It does make you feel valued. Also I like the way that there is one course for everyone in the country. Whether you're a tea lady in a factory, a loader driver at a lime works, an account manager or even a market analyst you all meet at head office for one induction course. There aren't streamed inductions depending on your job and perceived 'importance'. It makes a difference.

Semi-inducted (or is it induced?)

I had the first day of my staff induction today. Today we heard from the CEO about the company in general, the General Manager - Sales, Technical Development Manager, GM - HR, GM - Manufacturing and Stores, about the superannuation fund and then went on a tour of the Hornby factory. It was pretty full on but good to hear from a few more departments about what goes on in the rest of the company. And touring the factory was interesting. It wasn't quite as clean as the cocoa processing factories I looked around in Malaysia in March though.

This evening all of us who were being inducted/induced went out to dinner with a couple of people from HR and a couple of other HR staff. It was quite a pleasant evening really. All the other 'new' people were very friendly and it was good to be able to put faces to names for all the new field staff I report on week in week out.

Tomorrow we have the second day where the GM - Marketing (my boss), GM - IT, GM - Supply, Manager of the Customer Services Centre and CFO will all speak to us. It really is a good programme they run. It's a great idea to give new employees this background info. Definitely a good way for them to feel involved in the company right from the start.

A whole new world

It's amazing the things you have to do when you have a house that you don't have to do living in a two-bedroom flat on the fifth floor. Last Sunday I was washing the windows and I've just been watering the lawn. I don't know how people with a house and kids get anything done.

A global lunch

Claire and the rest of her TEAm met us at St John's as planned today and then followed us back to our place for lunch. Hopefully they got a lot out of the sermon today on Genesis 4 and 'the sophistication of sin'. It was so nice to meet them all though, open our home to them and get to hear all about their time in NZ so far (7 weeks down, 3 to go). They are a really lovely group of people from different countries and different backgrounds but united in Christ. It's great to hear how God has encouraged and strengthened them in their time together. Aswell as the others on the programme, Shirley, one of their leaders, joined us too so it was good to hear from her about the idea behind TEA and how it all happens and stuff.

It turns out that one of the guys and Shirley may possible have met Jason back in August at OM's global orientation conference in the Netherlands before he headed off to Chile. Small world, eh?

Gees, it's windy outside. I now know what the three little pigs would have experienced.

I've got a busy week this week. Tomorrow and Tuesday is the staff induction programme where everyone who has joined in the past six months gets to hear from all the general managers about how their teams fit into the big picture. As part of that we're out to dinner tomorrow night. Then on Wednesday I fly up to Auckland before driving south a bit to Pukekohe for Thursday and Friday's Soils 101, Arable 101 and Animal Health 101 courses. I hope Joanne remembers to pick me up from the airport on Friday evening.

Sealed

I know I really shouldn't get as excited as I do about kitchen gadgets and equipment, but I do. Hence my eagerness to attend Amy from our bible study group's tupperware party today. Tupperware can be really rather exciting, you know. All those containers that are just the right size for whatever you need them for. Yes, I know, sad.

Last night Joanne and I had dinner with Cam and Jo from church. Ryan was there too, which was nice. Cam and Jo are the couple who head up the Christianity Explored course at St John's which we're going to be helping with come February. Ryan works at St John's, will be starting on the St John's ministry training programme from January and plays 5-a-side with me on a Thursday. It really is lovely to be able to spend time with people getting to know them better. We were discussing the church parish camp last weekend and how we'd all found listening to the testimonies, listening to how people became a Christian, such a great thing. So we shared our own testimonies after dinner last night. It's amazing how much better you feel you know a person once you hear how God has been working in their life to bring them to know him.

Tomorrow we're going to have a busier day than we had expected. To explain, when we were back in the UK and back at St Helen's we were part of prayer group called KFC that met to prayer for New Zealand. In that group was an English girl called Claire who really felt a call to prayer for NZ and to one day come out here to tell people about Jesus. When we left St Helen's we kind of kept in touch with Claire occasionally and just before we left the UK we heard from her that she was planning on finally getting over here. Actually I think that it was Facebook was caused our paths to cross again. She had signed up for TEA, a ten week discipleship and evangelism training course for young people run by Operation Mobilisation in New Zealand. (TEA - training, evangelism, adventure.) So in October she arrived over here and met up with the other six people on her programme and after much travelling they all arrived in Christchurch today. I'd told Claire to get in touch when she was here as it'd be great to meet up and I got a text last night. The outcome of the texting back and forth was that she's coming to St John's with us tomorrow and then back here for lunch. The other six on the team are joining us. So tomorrow we get to meet Bellanie, Lisanne, Arne-Joost, Koen, Janine and Edgar, along with Claire again, and get to open our home to them and get to hear all about the last couple of months of what God's been doing with them in NZ. I'm quite excited.

Beaten

We lost 8-4 tonight. Out-run and out-passed by a better team. Hats off to them really. At least we haven't got a manager to sack though, eh?

Frustration

At work at the moment meetings I have scheduled keep not happening. It tends to be because one particular person always seems to be doing something else that is clearly more important. I wouldn't mind so much if he'd let me know rather than just not turn up. I'm not the only one who is getting a little frustrated be it.

There's a lot more facial hair around in New Zealand at the moment than there was last month. It could have something to do with Movember.

Powerful

Another thing I forgot to mention about the weekend was that before each talk one or two or three people would be called up to the front to be interviewed, to give their testimonies basically. It is amazingly powerful and moving to see and hear how God has worked in people's lives, bringing them to Him, how this is all real and practical. I love hearing people's testimonies.

Runners-up

I forgot to mention yesterday, on Saturday night on the parish camp there was a quiz organised for the evening's entertainment. We may have travelled 12,000 miles but Saturday night entertainment on church weekends away never changes, eh? Well, Joanne and I organised a team of six, and out of fifteen teams we came a very respectable second. We were definitely worth the bag of fun size Snickers we won.

I am really having difficulty believing Christmas is only six weeks away or so. It just seems wrong to see a giant Christmas tree in Hagley Park (ready for Christmas in the Park, a fizzy drink-sponsored music event being held on Saturday) while the sun shines late into the evening. It's definitely confusing me. And to make it worse, this year my company's Christmas party has the theme "White Christmas". They're just trying to mess with my head, aren't they?

Family growth

Well, we're just back from a marvellous long weekend away. The site was awesome, sitting just the other side of the Porthills, overlooking the Lyttleton bay and being perfectly equipped for the kids and familys and everyone. Just look at that view. It took less than 25 minutes to get to Living Springs from home.

The whole weekend was awesome really. Apart from the sunburn - I really need to learn that the NZ sun burns so much faster than the UK sun, even when it doesn't feel hot. We arrived on Thursday evening and in total I think there were almost 200 people either there the whole time or coming out for day visits. Probably 50 of that number were kids. I think that's one thing that has really struck us about St John's, is the family feel. On the Barge we had some people with kids but they were in the minority. At St John's, at least at the morning service, they're a whole lot more prevalent. Also, becuase the kids have grown up around each other and around each other's parents there is a true family feel. When a child falls over, anyone's child, any parent will comfort them. And more tellingly, the child is willing to be comforted by someone other than their parent. It made quite an impression on us.

We are really enjoying being part of a church family with a whole mix of people and ages. We had a church camp photo taken before we left today. I'll try and post a copy when I can get hold of one so that you can see what I mean. We've had chats this weekend with young people, people our age, and older people alike. Sometimes it was easy, being at St Helens or on the Barge, to think that the evangelical Christian world doesn't have any older people in it. It's refreshing to be around older, experienced Christians, Christians who have lived their lives following Jesus and so have so much to give to the younger generations.

The teaching has been fantastic this weekend too. Jay, who is Wally, our vicar's son, came to talk to us and taught us around a theme of Firm Foundations, the building blocks, if you like, of the Christian faith - faith, love, hope and repentance. Faith - trusting in and relying on the work of Christ on the cross; love - for God and our neighbour, as perfectly demonstrated in the Father sending his Son for us; hope - hope in the world to come, focussing our hope on God's promises for the future; and repentance - the right response to our salvation through Christ.

There were also a couple of seminars we attended. One on living a rich married life - we shouldn't need it, but it is good to be reminded to refocus our relationship with each other on God, and another on St John's - the next ten years. This weekend was perfect timing for us in so many ways. It was great to have a chance to spend time with our church family (the last one was four years ago) and given we moved to Christchurch to be involved at St John's it was great to have a chance to hear about the developing plan for the next ten years.

Speaking of our involvement at St John's we've been asked to be involved in the Christianity Explored course that is being running, starting in February. We're really looking forward to it. We enjoyed leading CE back on the Barge and then the follow-up course. It's going to be exciting, and challenging, to be involved in it again. Also, it's on Wednesdays so we can still be involved in our Tuesday bible study group.

Farming life

Today, despite the terrible weather, I headed with a couple of colleagues to the A&P Show at the Canterbury Agricultural Park. As the website puts it - "The nationally renowned Royal New Zealand Show brings country to town and offers an experience that makes you feel like selling up your eighth of an acre block and heading to where there's not a neighbour in sight." Well, I'm not quite sure I was persuaded to sell our house and buy a big remote farm, but it was interesting.

My company have a big stand at the show and the basic agenda for today was to go out to see what goes on. There was talk of having to 'be on duty' and talk to customers but in the end there weren't enough customers to warrant it. I think that may have been down to the weather and the fact the show has two more days to run. The way I saw it, so long as there were Account Managers free and able to talk to customers it made a lot more sense for them to do that rather than me just tell the customers how little I know.

I wore my wax jacket today to try and feel a bit more 'rural'. I think I almost pulled it off. Only the amount I was bothered about getting mud on my shoes ruined the facade. And there was a lot of mud. There's a time and a place for mud and it's when you're dressed for it, not when you're in office clothes. Who ever thought of having an Agricultural and Pastoral Show in a field, eh? It would have been ok if it hadn't rained for the previous 12 hours.

I think the highlight of the show for me, other than the excellent burger off the barbecue in our tent, were the Belted Galloways. If you're too lazy to click on the link, imagine a cut and shut job on two cows, one black and one white, or maybe a black cow in a white boob tube and you'll be close. There were some pretty sizeable bulls too. One of them was just huge. If it had wanted, the little blonde lass holding its rope would not have been able to stop its rampage.

Ooh, and Grimsby won this morning (NZ time, of course) to reach the Johnstone's Paint Trophy northern area semi-finals. Bit of a mouthful, I know, but reaching the final eight in any competition is worth being cheerful about, however unwieldy its name. Now all we need to do is get a run going in the league.

Right, better go and pack. We leave for the church family weekend away right after work tomorrow.

Cooking with gas

Hurray! The new 'internet month' has begun and we are back up to full speed after two weeks of dial-up speed. It's amazing how spoiled you get with broadband speeds. How did we ever manage with dial-up modems to do everything on the net?

Well, it's been a full on weekend of entertaining. On Friday night we had Mark and Renee round for dinner and their four children. I don't know how people manage with more than two kids. How do they keep their eye on them all all the time. The food seemed to go down well and the kids loved the Playstation once we fired it up after dinner. Pro Evolution Soccer is the answer to so many questions.

In case you're interested, I cooked gnocchi bolognaise (kind of like a lasagne but with gnocchi instead of pasta) followed by chocolate and black cherry crumble.

On Saturday Joanne and I had a good sesh at the gym and she joined up as her one-week trial pass was up. I've really enjoyed going to the gym with her and sharing that time with her. I try not to be too bossy forcing her to squeeze out another two reps. I don't always succeed.

On Saturday evening we had more guests over, namley Simon and Rebekah and Anne and Sarah. (The menu consisted of a lamb tagine done all day in the slow-cooker followed by a spiced tropical fruit crumble.) Again, it was a really lovely evening. It's so nice being able to entertain and have people over. It really is something we enjoy.

Something that's different here to back in the UK is how people at church are more spontaneous. To arrange to do something with someone back at the Barge, or at St Helens before that, you'd need to diarise about six weeks in advance. At least six weeks in advance. Here it's quite normal to invite someone over for lunch as church finishes. That's less than half an hours notice in some cases! It's going to be hard for me to adjust to that, I think, but I think it's a good thing. Last week Al and Naomi invited us over as we were walking to the car after church (but we couldn't make it as we had Tim and Christine and Lizzy coming over to ours) and then this week Jane and Jona invited us for lunch. I cannot stress enough how welcoming and encouraging it's been how inviting people have been, wanting to open their homes and lives to us. It really is the way church should be and our new family at St John's have modelled it perfectly.

After lunch we headed back to home to get some chores done. I don't know how people have kids and look after a house and get their washing done and everything. Where does the time come from? I washed the little car and then made a fist of washing the windows (they're not too streaky) while Joanne did a load of washing and zapped some weeds. The 'wild flower' garden is coming on rather nicely.

A short week this week, with Friday being 'Canterbury day' or whatever. And next weekend is the church parish camp. We're really looking forward to that actually. It'll be a great time to get to know people at church a bit better by spending some time with them. Plus the location looks idyllic. Much like much of New Zealand, to be honest. I never cease to get blown away by the scenery here. I have to pinch myself sometimes when I suddenly remember I live in New Zealand. It still strikes me as rather an abstract concept sometimes. It's going to be interesting having friends from 'our previous life' visiting us out here (as we hopefully will have in the next couple of months - fingers crossed), or my family. I'm not sure what will happen when the two worlds collide. I remember when I first moved to London it took ages for it to sink in and the novelty to cease. I have a feeling it will take a lot longer here.

Winning ways

Football is going so well at the moment. We won again tonight. That's five in a row now I think. Tonight was a tougher match, against a very physical team, but we let our football do the talking and ran out 8-5 winners (or maybe 9-5). I can't make next week which is disappointing. We have the church weekend away starting next Thursday, so it's not a bad reason to miss the match, I guess. It will be the first one I've missed so far though.

We're really looking forward to the weekend away. It's going to be great to spend some more time with people from church getting to know them better.

A few weeks ago Joanne noticed there was a dojo in Christchurch for the style of karate she used to do, and tonight she went along for the first time. It's been quite a few years since she's done any karate but they have a 'returning members' class which is ideal for her. I think she really quite enjoyed it. I know she's missed karate. It used to be such a big part of her life.

Succumbed

Joanne's finally joined Facebook. It's what all the cool kids are doing.

It's Guy Fawkes night tonight. It seems strange that it's warm outside and fireworks displays are delayed until 9pm so that it's dark and you don't need to wrap up like the Michelin man in Alaska to stand outside for an hour.

This time last year I was in Manchester, going to Old Trafford and then a bonfire and fireworks display with Miles, Cath and Louis. Seems a million miles away now, when in actual fact it's only around 12,000. 12,000 miles. Wow. It's like the other side of the world and everything.

Nuzziland News - the pdf version

I forgot to mention, I spent some time yesterday (while Joanne was entertaining the girls from our bible study group) knocking up our second newsletter for Christian family. I've emailed it out but if you would like a copy and haven't received one somehow please do let me know. Although, as I said last time, if you're reading this regularly, it won't contain anything you don't know already. Again, Barge folk, I've emailed it to Marcus (and John and Jane and Melissa) so hopefully one of them will do the do and have some copies for you at some point in the near future.

One point I made in the newsletter though that I'd like to re-emphasise on here is how encouraging Joanne and I find it to hear from our friends, being so far away from them all, and so we want to thank those of you that have supported us with posts on here, messages on Facebook and good old-fashioned emails. I wish we could fully express what it means to us to know we're in your thoughts and prayers as you are in ours.

We love hearing your news too. Congratulations, Debbie!

Entertaining

This weekend we've done our first proper entertaining in our new house. Yesterday Joanne had the girls from our bible study group round for lunch and then today Tim and Christine and Lizzy (an English lady who's been here about five years, lives less than five minutes from us and goes to St John's too) came round after church for lunch. Next weekend's the house is going to be full of people too. We've got Mark and Renee and their kids over for tea on Friday and on Saturday Sarah and Anne and Simon and Rebekah are coming round for dinner.

It's so great to be able to have people round and have plenty of space. The open living room - dining room - kitchen space worked exactly as we had hoped it would. I always felt that when we had people round at our flat in London I missed half the conversation as I'd be in the kitchen cooking. Now I can be in the kitchen, Joanne can be helping and neither of us are ignoring our guests.

I never realised before today how satisfying it can be to wash a dirty car and have it gleaming when you're finished. I'm not sure washing house windows will give me the same sense of satisfaction but I think perhaps I ought to give it a go as they're looking a tad grubby.

I spent a decent amount of time yesterday going through our photos on my laptop. We have three or four groups of four photos in the same frames (there's the four seasons of the same bridge in Central Park in New York, the four iconic New York structures, four San Francisco shots, ...) that we like the idea of and wanted to replicate with our own memories. I think we've come up with some striking combinations but you can tell us when you see them maybe. Now we just need to get them printed and framed. But the main thing that struck me when going through all these shots is just how fortunate we are to have been able to travel and see so much of the world. Why even only this year I have been to Ghana, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Romania. It all made me realise I am so fortunate to have been born in western society and to have the priviledges and opportunities that's afforded me. I pray I would never take that for granted and would always thank God for how he has blessed me and use what He has given me to serve Him better. In our bible study group at the moment we're looking at 1 Timothy and last week we studied chapter 6 verses 3-11. As part of that we spent some time thinking about how godliness should bring contentment and love of money leads to "ruin and destruction." We need to remember that money is a gift from God given as a blessing, true, but also (and mainly) given to us to allow us to serve Him. It's something I forget sometimes. Why is it that the more God blesses us the more we take His blessings for granted?

Suitably appraised

The appraisal happened on Monday. It was scheduled to last 45 minutes. We finished four and a half hours after we started. It was thorough, I can tell you. But, in the looking back bit, all the feedback was positive, which was nice to hear. It was so good to finally get some feedback too. I've kind of been flying blind for the last couple of months. My boss says I'm exceeding expectations, he's had great feedback from other people in the company, and he's excited about where things are going to go in the future. Monday was definitely one of my better days.

Speaking of work, my corporate uniform finally arrived. There is a sort of grey pin-striped everyday shirt and then a white dress shirt and green and black striped tie for best, for meeting the customers and the like. Joanne says I look like a salesman. It's good it arrived though. In a couple of weeks it's Show Week down here in Canterbury and as part of our learning experience Gabi and I have to go and press palms with the farmers at the Royal New Zealand Show, representing the company and getting out there meeting people. To be honest, I'm a bit nervous. I hope the farmers are understanding that we're not quite experienced enough to be able to give them a fertiliser recommendation plan or anything. I think we just have to be nice and friendly and welcoming, directing people to the people who will be able to help them. I'm looking forward to the show though. It looks like it might be fun. I hope we get to wander around a bit as well as manning the stand for a while.

It's a shame the show is so soon actually. A guy in our company, a soil scientist nicknamed Dr Dirt, gives a two-day 'Soils 101' course for the new field staff every so often. One thing I mentioned in my appraisal is that it would be useful for me and my background knowledge to attend, and the next running of the course is at the end of November, up in Pukekohe. Come December, ask me about soil. I promise I'll know more than I do now.

Gah, this internet is so slow. With Joanne still consulting for her old company this month (until today - hurray!) she's had to download quite a few files and hefty email attachments. This has meant that we've exceeded our monthly broadband limit of 3gb. So now we're having to run at a capped speed. It's dial-up speed. It's 2007 and we're restricted to dial-up speed internet connections! Roll on 11th when the next 'month' starts.

Better news, however, comes via the UK taxman. They've repaid me my tax I'd overpaid for this year, which was nice. It's just a shame they repaid it to my UK bank account.

Did I tell you we got our tickets for Bon Jovi? Me, Joanne and Gabi are going to relive the 80s. I wonder where I can find a poodle-rock wig to wear for the night...

Paddling

We awoke this morning to beautiful blue skies. This was good news. It meant our plan to visit the Christchurch Arts Centre market after church followed by a bit of kayaking on Avon through the Botanic Gardens could go ahead. I've been looking forward to both of these things for ages. Everyone has recommended the market to me while I work opposite the boat sheds and often, if I take a walk at lunchtime through the Botantic Gardens, I see tourists paddling on the river and it looks like fun. I've always had this idea that I'd like to get into kayaking.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with the market really. It wasn't comparable to Borough Market, or the markets we used to go to with Bints and Rene in Vienna. There were some nice handicraft things, I guess, but I suppose it was aimed at the tourists really. The food was good though. Down one bit of the Arts Centre there was a 'street' with food stands both sides where you could get all sorts of different foreign foods, from Egyptian to Indian to Chinese to Thai to Lebanese to Hungarian to Greek to German. Pretty much something for everything. A slice of leberkaese and a souvlaki later it was time to hit the kayaks.

It was really relaxing, paddling along the river, ducks and ducklings swimming by, the sun shining and the trees and river bank sheltering us from the breeze. Definitely a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, working off lunch. I'm going to ache tomorrow though. I had a different kayak to Joanne. Hers cut through the water like the cliched hot knife through butter. Mine was more like a brick through a window. I don't think it was down to technique. Still, it was great fun. And Joanne enjoyed it too, once she got in the boat and set off.

I think I'd like to investigate some sort of kayaking day-touring thing (down-stream, of course). I think it'd be an awesome way to see the countryside. Lots of people have their own kayaks, it seems, and just head off into the back of beyond at weekends. I presume there's some sort of kayaking map you can get to let you know when you're about to fall down a waterfall or have a bit of fun down some white-water rapids.

Last night we were out to dinner at the house of a couple from St John's, Tim and Christine. Another case of friends in common. They know a guy, Tim, from the barge from his time in Chch, and also they have just got back from five years overseas, the last few years of which were spent in London where they went along to St Helen's so we're bound to know some of the same people from there. It was a lovely evening though. It's so great that people have been so welcoming. And with Tim and Christine having spent time in London and at St Helen's it gives us all something in common right away. We had roast lamb again, like at Monika's on Wednesday. I do wonder whether Kiwis do eat roast lamb all the time or whether it's just the traditional Kiwi meal so with us being new here it's the traditional first meal to be cooked. Not that we mind. We both love roast lamb.

I've got my rearranged appraisal tomorrow. Supposedly. I guess more time will be spent on looking forward rather than backwards, given that there isn't that much backwards to look at. I am looking forward to some feedback though, just to get an idea whether I am beginning to deliver what they employed an analyst for.

And speaking of illumination, in a smooth linking way, I found some lights outside the garage door at home last night that don't appear to have a switch to turn them on. How frustrating is that?

Early finish

One thing that's strange here is how going out for dinner with colleagues after work means just that, and then straight home. Table booked for 6pm, order food, eat and then straight home. Home just after 8. Not like London where meeting someone for dinner after work means a whole evening thing usually.

Maybe it's because there's no 'pub culture' as such over here. You don't meet in a pub for a drink, or before dinner. Or go for a quick one after dinner somewhere. You're much more likely to meet in a coffee shop and, as we've seen, go straight home after dinner. There are a few sports bars and stuff with big screens, but no proliferation of pubs and bars like the UK. It's a little strange.

Joanne's been to a music workshop at St John's tonight, with a view to joining the music group to start singing again. She did so enjoy that on the barge, while it happened. At least it means she's not firing up the Singstar, at least ;)

Embarrassing

Here's a free bit of advice for you - never go to dinner at someone's house taking the box of chocolates you were just given at the end of a work conference for the host without checking inside to see whether your company have enclosed either a letter thanking you for your hard work or a big company logo sticker or both.

Luckily the chocolates were excellent quality Belgian-style chocolates so Monika was understanding of the thought behind the gesture.

Dinner was lovely though. It was so nice to spend time round at theirs surrounded by the kids and seeing Marvin, Melanie and Monika's mum, Elizabeth, again. We had met her a few years back at St Helen's when her and Lloyd were over in the UK visiting, and then also again when she and Mel were over for Marvin and Tianhao's marriage. We will have to make sure we get in touch with her when we make it up to Wellington for a weekend sometime.

It's felt kind of strange meeting the third sibling after knowing Marvin and Mel for so long but Monika and her family have been just so welcoming to us. It's really made the move so much easier having contacts in Chch but the real difference has been as a result of these contacts being so lovely and welcoming. I mean, just because Joanne and I are friends of Melanie and Marvin's doesn't really mean Monika had to have anything to do with us but her and Barry have been brilliant, getting in touch with us, and then getting in touch with us again when everything going on in our life meant we were rubbish at getting back to her, and then having us over for dinner and everything. It's people like this that have really made things easier. Sure we still miss all our friends back in London loads and stuff, and that's been one of the hardest things so far for Joanne and I, but having people like this over here has helped fill the gap a little.

Someone from church called today to invite Joanne and I for dinner on Saturday. We are definitely being welcomed whole-heartedly. Our dining table arrived tonight, finally, so we can start having people over to ours too, which will be great. We do love having people round.

Football went amazingly well again tonight. A second consecutive 12-3 win. And this time against a team who had beaten us before. We're getting better and better the more we play together. It's amazing to look back and how we were a month or two back when we first started playing.

In hot water

The definition of caution - driving your boss's car in a hurry with him sat in the passenger seat next to you on roads you've never driven in gale force gusty winds. The drive to Hanmer Springs for this work off-site conference was interesting, I can tell you.

Hanmer is a really nice little village tucked around in the foothills of the Southern Alps, famous for its thermal pools. It’s got a really Alpine feel to it. Maybe it was the chalets, or the pine trees and mountains, I don’t know, but it felt familiar somehow. The sunshine we had for the two days certainly added to its appeal. A strong wind blew for most of the time we were there but it wasn't a problem as we weren't there for recreation, I guess. And the one time we did have some spare time, before dinner last night, the wind dropped so I got to wander around and do the touristy thing with my camera. I didn't have time to visit the thermal pools though, which was a shame. Joanne and I will definitely head up there for a weekend at some point though, so we'll do all that then.

The conference was interesting. I think the main thing to come out of it, for me, was the chance to meet some of the people who work around me in head office and for them to meet me. In the course of the everyday work environment I don’t really have cause to interact with the finance or supply or admin teams so it was good to hang out with some of them a bit.

The theory behind the conference was mainly a thank you for the work the people there had put in over the past year. In addition there was a suggestion it was a strategic conference for us all to discuss company strategy. Given the people that were there it was perhaps inevitable that the outcome of the discussions took a more operational tone. It was probably more beneficial that it did really though. I'm not sure how much strategy, if we'd come up with any, would have been adopted by the management committee. I guess another thing to come out of the conference, for me, was a better understanding of how what each team does all fits together and how it interacts. I also learned that the marketing and sales teams, the two teams I am part of, are not particularly favoured by the rest of the company. Everything seems to be either the fault of the sales team for not selling or the marketing team for not communicating properly, either internally or externally.

The whole time away, as good as it was, could have been better. It was kind of spoiled by my having one of the worst night's sleep ever last night. It rivalled the night in Hull after 6 cans of Wild Brew or the night in southern Spain at Joanne's relatives' for lack of sleep, but this time wasn't self-inflicted. I not sure what caused it, but it wasn't the one and half glasses of wine or the Baileys. It really must have been something I ate, but I spent all night in alternating hot and cold sweats flitting between the bathroom and the bedroom. Not pleasant. And we're out to dinner tonight too. I hope we're not having anything heavy.

It was strange driving back today, arriving at the outskirts of Christchurch and thinking "I'm home." It's the first time I've felt that. It's good to be home though, and to see Joanne. Last night was the first night we've spent apart since we moved here.

Ooh, and changing tack just slightly, Bon Jovi is playing here in January! We are so going.

Aching bones

Don't make me laugh. To quote the Molenberg bread ad - "It hurts when I smile." All over. I had my gym induction yesterday and the trainer made me work. It felt fine at the time but it doesn't now. And it's getting worse. I hope it feels better tomorrow otherwise I'm not going to be much use for kayaking. Or for touch in the evening.

Why is it I sit here almost every Sunday evening and write about how busy we've been the past weekend? Tonight will be the same.

As I said, I had my gym induction yesterday morning and then the guy came to fit the shelves in the wardrobes. (And a great job he's done too.) While he was here Joanne and I loaded up the car with all the boxes and recyclable packing materials we had lying around. Once the wardrobe fella left we headed off to the refuse centre to dump that lot. The Santa Fe was full. Total fully of cardboard and paper. It seemed such a waste throwing it away but at least we could take it to be recycled. Then there was the weekend's obligatory trip to Briscoes followed by the supermarket, where the Saturday girl packing the bags was most bemused by my t-shirt.

Today we had another early start for the rugby final, followed by church, and then a picnic. The rugby was a little disappointing but I guess we have to focus on the fact that no-one expected England to do anything and some even predicted, after the 36-0 SA game that they'd fail to get out of their pool, but they ground out some dogged results beating Australia and France to reach the final. Which of course, is two rounds further than the ABs. I do wonder what the reaction has been like back home to reaching the final and stuff. I can't really remember the media coverage back in 2003 really, just the made Trafalgar Square stuff afterwards. I guess that won't happen now though. I do hope they get a heroes welcome home though. They deserve it for the fight they've shown to overcome all the odds and surpass everyone's expectations.

Church saw another great and challenging sermon by Wally from Deuteronomy. Today was the start of chapter 5 and the prelude to the Ten Commandments. And then the picnic. The guy who organises the touch rugby on a Monday night from church, Ailers, organised a picnic. It was a BYO thing but just an excuse to go and hang out together enjoying the sunshine (and it was gorgeous for most of the day.)

There were a few people at the picnic we knew, and a few faces I recognised from touch, and it was good to see Simon and Rebekah there and have chance to catch up with them. At one point though everyone was chatting and we were kind of left on our own a bit. It would have been easy at that point to get up and say our goodbyes briefly and slink off. But I was determined we wouldn't. We're not going to make friends by doing that sort of thing, so we sat it out, and a little later a few people came over and introduced themselves to us and we had a good chat. Making friends is a slow and hard process, but I guess we just have to put ourselves out there. It's be easier when we have a dining table and can invite people over for dinner, I reckon.

In church today, someone from the mission team stood up and gave us all a quick update. It turns out that one of the mission teams St John's supports is David Mann and his wife, the doctors at the hospital in Madagascar where Chris and Ros spent last summer. Small world, eh? I need to get around to emailing Chris to see how Oak Hill is going, so I'll make sure I mention it.

Shocker

I am having trouble comprehending the fact that there are no moles in New Zealand. Joanne broke this to me the other evening. It just seems a strange concept, not having moles. She'll be telling me there are no squirrels here either next.

Have I really not written since Sunday? It really has just been one of those weeks, I guess. Just non-stop. And when I have had a spare five minutes to relax I've just been exhausted.

On Monday we had someone come round to discuss wills and powers of attorney. Cheery stuff. Then I had a run around in the park playing touch. Let's just say last week's bright start was beginner's luck. Tuesday we had bible study group round at Lisa and Steve's. Wednesday was a quieter evening, but I was shattered so just crashed. And then last night was 5-a-side again (we won 12-3, but the team were a bunch of novices who it seemed had done little more than kick a hackysack round in the park) after climbing up a ladder to put empty suitcases in the loft.

Joanne's been busy though. Most of the crates we bought at the weekend are now filled and we're down to our last ten boxes or so. This weekend we're probably going to head off to the refuse centre at some point to dispose of all empty boxes and used packing materials. She's done a great job. I just hope she remembers where she's put everything!

We've got a three day weekend this weekend, which is nice. Monday is Labour Day, a day that celebrates the event of the eight-hour working day. It's just a shame that hasn't filtered down to the place I work, eh? Although, to be fair, my boss does insist we get away from the computer at lunchtime and insists we take morning and afternoon tea breaks. I do wonder whether that's for our own good, or to aid our productivity levels though. Speaking of work, and my boss, my appraisal didn't end up happening yesterday. There's some secretive company business stuff going on that needed urgent analysis doing. I got involved, my boss was involved and so we postponed. No return date has been set up yet though. On the plus side, the longer we leave it, the more we'll have to appraise.

We've no real plans for the weekend really. We'd hoped to get away, at least for a day, but with my gym induction tomorrow, trips to the refuse centre and shopping for book shelves, the walk-in wardrobe being fitted, the rugby final and church on Sunday and potentially kayaking with a guy Rick from church and footy on Monday there doesn't leave a lot of time for days out. Plus I've a few boxes with my name on them that need emptying to prevent me ending up in the dog house.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday we have an off-site office conference. Supposedly where we're going, Hanmer Springs (described as an alpine thermal holiday resort), is pretty idyllic. Why are conferences, when you spend hours inside rooms being talked at, always held in idyllic places. I remember the Cocoa one last October. The place was gorgeous. Not that we got to enjoy anything other than the inside of the Chiltern Suite though.

DIY

I have just finished the first little DIY job on our new house. We now have towel rails in our bathroom and the toilet. And Joanne said I am useless round the house. Pah! ;)

Yesterday we went to the Canterbury Homeshow. It wasn't quite the Ideal Homeshow. It turned out it was more for people redeveloping or building a house, rather than for people in our position, but we did buy some lovely stone-coated saucepans. German technology, supposedly.

After that we headed to Payless Plastics and spent a bomb on 'storage solutions' crates and boxes and drawers and wireframe-cubes and underbed storage galore. We might nearly have enough storage to empty all of our boxes now. That's the plan for next weekend when we have a bank holiday on the Monday.

Oh yes, I guess I should mention the rugby at some point. England reaching the World Cup Final, eh? Better than most Englanders could have hoped for before the tournament and following the South Africa game. They look a completely different team, but I still worry that they've done nothing all tournament past No.10.

I spoke to my Dad last night, once we got his mic and speakers both working. Which was tricky from 12,000 miles away. Skype rules though. Free calls. What a brilliant idea. It was good to talk to him. We're looking forward to having him out here in Feb.

Joanne and I have been chatting about how we're both settling in and how it feels and stuff, two months or so in. It still doesn't feel quite like home yet. As Joanne said, after hanging up some washing yesterday morning, it feels like we're playing "house". It's quite different living in a house after ten years in a flat, having a garden and a garage and drying clothes outside and stuff. It's a lot of responsibility, you know.

Monika made it along to St John's this morning, which was good. She said she was going to come along and check it out sometime. Wally's sermon again was very challenging, looking at Deuteronomy 4 and what God has to say about idolatry. The six of us (Barry was working so it was just Mon and her three kids and me and Jo) then headed to a cafe called Scrummy Mummies. Rather a bizarre name, but a lovely place. It used to be Papanui train station before it was converted and it has been designed to be very welcoming to parents with kids. They have stuff on during the week for "mums and bubs". A really cool idea having somewhere for mothers to meet and hang out that is kid-friendly.

Joanne's working at the moment. I can't wait until the end of October when she eventually finishes with her old company in London. It'll be nice when they eventually pay her too.

Time flies

These weeks are flying by. I can't believe it's Friday evening again already. I'm not sure if it's because work in just non-stop or because I'm getting old. Maybe a bit of both.

Canterbury lost in the Air NZ Cup semi to Wellington tonight, which was a shame. How am I meant to start supporting and being emotionally attached to a losing team, eh? ;) I did use the word 'we' during the game for the first time though. That's a step forward, I guess.

A well-oiled machine

A 6-3 win tonight in the 5-a-side football. We're definitely getting better as we learn how each other plays. A lot more organised, structured and disciplined. Just as unfit though.

"What have the Romans ever done for us?"

Last night we had our small group meeting. No bible study last night, but just a social dinner and prayer time. Steve had the idea last week to choose a country and then prepare food from that country and then pray for that country too. Quite a neat idea.

We'd settled on Italy so someone made pizza, someone made canneloni, someone else risotto. I knocked up an authentic Italian peach and almond tart (at least the Beeb Good Food website said it was Italian) and someone else made pannecotta.

It turns out that Steve and Lisa in the group know a couple of missionary couples in Italy so then we prayed for country as a whole (briefed by details from CMS and Operation World) before praying for the missionary couples. It's great to be able to support them in prayer. I hope Steve and Lisa will tell them we were praying for them. We know ourselves (from when we were involved with Kiwis for Christ at St Helen's, and also from us being over here) how encouraging it is to know people are praying for you.

Is it a small cow or is it far away?

The grieving process in New Zealand for the All Blacks crashing out is pervading every part of every part of everything. It's everywhere. The TV news leads with stories about when the team will fly home, follows up with tales of tragedy for those with now redundant travel plans for the semis and final, jumps back to speculation about which ABs won't wear the black shirt again, shows interviews with counsellors and psychologists to help people in the grieving process, before finally ending with news of three people dying in a car crash. Er, I know it's big and everything but, hello, a bit of perspective anyone?

I fully expect to see telephone and on-line polls dealing with the question of whether the English ref should be extradited to face charges over here.

I've tried to compare it in my own mind to the situation when the England football team lose an important match or go out of the world cup or European championships or something. But it just doesn't compare. Maybe it's because the English expect our national team to lose eventually. There's no true belief we'll win the tournament. Everyone expected the All Blacks to win. It was so much more than even just a belief that they'd win.

Speaking to a few people at work and playing touch tonight (didn't wear my England shirt as I thought the red rose would make a pretty decent target) and at the parish prayer meeting it seems that most of the hype is down the media. As Ryan put it "they hyped us up beforehand telling us we could win and now they hype it up telling us how disappointed and depressed we should be." Even the Beeb is in on it.

Train rides, pancake rocks and a country in mourning

I'll start with the train and the weekend away and come to the rugby in due course.

The plan for the weekend was a return train trip to the west coast, staying overnight in Greymouth. So that's just what he did. Unsurprisingly the train was full of tourists. I guess it's mainly a tourist sort of an activity, plus the cost of the tickets makes it a little prohibitive for your everyday Kiwi, I'd say. It's not cheap. It was interesting seeing different national characteristics at play in our fellow passengers, it would have been a great place for a sociology study. At a few 'major' stations along the way the train would stop to give everyone chance to get out, stretch their legs and have a quick cigarette if needed. When it was time to board the locomotive would sound it's horn/siren thing. At that time the Malaysians passengers would sprint to board the train, while the Aussies had a much more "it'll wait" attitude.

I've never been on a train journey before where the reason for the trip is the train journey itself, rather than the destination. Except maybe when I went on a steam train at Pickering on a school holiday when I was about 10 or 11. The reason for the Tranzalpine train line is definitely train line itself. The scenery was just stunning, and so varied. After leaving Christchurch the train sped across the Canterbury plains, heading towards the Southern Alps. The contrast between the plains and the mountains was remarkable. Without the mountains, the plains would just be... well... plain. As well as the plains, there was gorse-covered foothills complete with yellow flowers, alpine valleys, wide glacial river gorges, rocky wilderness, snow-capped mountains and subtropical rainforest. You couldn't take your eyes away. One blink and you'd miss the next stunning view or beautiful, craggy outcrop. It all seemed to be too much for the person sat opposite us though. He slept for at least three hours or the four and a half hour journey. He'd nod off for half an hour or so before waking for ten seconds, videoing some scenery and then nodding off again.

Some of the farms we passed were really barren and isolated. It wouldn't be an easy life living and working up there, I can tell you. I now know what is meant by "the middle of nowhere".

Halfway through the trip we reached a station called Arthur's Pass. In the commentary the train staff gave us over the PA we learned that some bloke called Arthur Dobson found the pass over the Alps in the 1860s and that it proceeded the west coast gold rush. It's New Zealand's third highest train station, supposedly, at 737m about sea-level. (I've always wondered, is sea-level measured when the tide's in or out?)

We arrived in Greymouth about 45 minutes late. It was a good job we weren't on the day-trip. In theory the day-trip ticket has a one hour turn-around, enough time for a little wander around and some lunch. Being late would have severely restricted that.

Greymouth is a town of about 9,000 people, the biggest town on the west coast of the south island. I don't know what Gabrielle was on about. It's no Darfield. It's got a Warehouse after all. And a Subway. And the sun was shining, just like it had for most of the train journey. Our first impressions were that it was more than OK for one night. We were definitely glad we didn't listen to the girls at work and decided to stay over, especially with the train being late.

A big tourist attraction not to far from Greymouth are the pancake rocks at Punakaiki (not Pukekohe or Pukeka), limestone rocks that look like stacks of pancakes and are eroded in interesting shapes including blowholes through which the sea bursts at high tide. We thought it would be a good thing to do so checked out hiring a car and getting a taxi. The hire car was definitely the best idea, so we did that. It was well worth the 45km trip north up the coast, not only to see the rocks themselves but also just for the drive and because we got to see a weka (bizarre little thing).

The coast road was just stunning. Beautiful coast line, hills and cliffs straight falling straight into the sea. Palm trees, giant ferns, creeks and streams. Strangely it reminded me of Ghana, the road from Accra to Takoradi. I'm not quite sure what it was about it that seemed reminiscent of West Africa, maybe it was the green-ness and the wild sea breaking a hundred yards or so from the road, and the limited evidence of human inhabitation. It's hard to explain.

Back at the hotel it was time for a little kip and the perfect time to watch Canterbury romp home against Otago in the Air NZ quarter-finals. Following that we headed out for dinner. There was just no-one around. The town, apart from the odd taxi, was deserted. Like really deserted. I presume it gets busier in the holiday season, but it certainly wasn't busy last night. The first place we tried for dinner closed at 8pm and the second, the one we chose, was empty. Halfway through our meal another couple came in, and at that point the customers outnumbered the staff. The food was very tasty though, and beautifully presented.

England were playing Australia at 2am NZ time in the rugby world cup quarter-final and I'd intended to get up to watch it. In our hotel room there was an advert stating that the bar downstairs would be open to show all the rugby games. At 2:10am, after wandering around a deserted hotel, I found the advert to be false. Back up to the room, TV on, trying not to wake Joanne (with no luck), I watched the game. I'm sure everyone knows the score by now. 12-10 to England. Bring on the semis.

And speaking of the semis, England will be playing France, not the All Blacks. I didn't want to support France really. I really did intend to make the ABs my second team but it was impossible. In the UK sports commentators have to be impartial. That rule doesn't apply here. The commentary was a little partisan, to say the least, and blinkered too. True, the yellow card was debatable, and the second French try was scored after a forward pass, but you can't blame that (or the English ref...oops!) for the final result. They didn't do enough, nuff said. Before the two matches I was actually thinking an England loss might be preferable. I was so sure (like the rest of the country) that NZ would win and an England v New Zealand semi would make work unbearable, this week and following weeks.

We drove down to Hokatika this morning. Leaving Greymouth, the skies reflecting the country's mood, we spotted a silver fern All Black flag at half mast. It's good to see someone with a sense of humour in defeat. At least I think it was meant to be tongue in cheek.

One of the most amusing things to come out of the weekend is how everyone thinks Joanne's an Aussie. They know her accent has some sort of Antipodean thing going on, but it's not quite Kiwi.

Oh, and on the train on the way home (delayed, again, meaning we missed church this evening) I learnt the true meaning of optimism - trying to build a house of cards on a moving train. The woman on the other side of the aisle to us had high hopes. Unfulfilled hopes too.