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.