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.