So who's Maui again?

Wow. The weeks really fly by, don't they? I can't believe it's Saturday evening again already. Only just over a week now till my Dad arrives in Nuzziland. Exciting, eh?

We've been quite busy again this week, hence the lack of an update. Work's been pretty full-on too (why is it that you only realise a database report is broken when the information is needed NOW?) so what evening's we've not been busy have been spent doing nothing at all.

On Thursday we went round to Dave & Julia's for dinner. They're a lovely Canadian couple we met first on the church parish camp back in November. We've been promising to arrange to meet up pretty much since then but you know what it's like. On Tuesday they're heading off overseas for a year (including a few months with Dave working at Tunis University) so it was now or never. Well, now or not for a year would be more accurate I guess. It was nice to hang out with them and see their house. They showed us pictures of how the house looked when they first moved in. Julia, it seems, is a more than handy builder and carpenter. It's just amazing what they've done to the place.

And dinner I had to shoot off for the late 5-a-side footy slot. I don't know if everyone if my team had just eaten a burger and sausage and stuff before playing, or whether it was just me, but either way, the less said about out performance the better. They were the top team in the league, I guess, and had one awesome player who pulled the strings and is definitely one of the best footballers I've ever played against (definitely up there with Mark the student who worked with me for a year in London and the kid in the Marseille shirt who joined in in a kick-around with us in a park in Watford after a Grimsby game once), but we still should have performed better.

Last night, Dan and Katherine (who we first met back in August at lunch at Sarah's on our first Sunday at St John's, the day we provisionally bought our house) held a 'young couples' get-together thing. It was a great idea really. We all went round to their place (well, more accurately, Dan's folks' place), about ten or eleven young couples from church just to hang out, have some food and get to know each other a bit. There are so many young couples at St John's and it's hard to meet them all so it was really good to get together. Loads of the people there I didn't even recognise. One of the downfalls of a bigger church, I guess. The plan is to all meet up and encourage each other in our Christian marriages maybe four times a year or so. And as we do that we'll recognise each other at church and speak to each other there as well and stuff. Anything that means we get to know other people better is a grand idea as far as I'm concerned. Well done, Dan & Katherine. Brilliant idea.

Today we went to the gym this morning and then picked up Simon & Rebekah. Christchurch City Council is really good at putting on free stuff over the summer, like the kite thing last Sunday, and one thing that's on at the moment is an open-air theatre thing called The Complete History of New Zealand Abridged. Joanne and I had been to see The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged and The Complete Bible Abridged back in London so thought it sounded like fun.

The weather forecast was meant to be a bit drizzly but optimism abounded as we headed off with our picnic to grab a pozzy in the Botanic Gardens in front of the stage. We were so lucky with the weather in the end, the clouds cleared, the sun came out, and the play was very well done. I actually think I learned quite a lot about this Nuzziland place in the 1,000 year history done in under 90 minutes but there were a lot of the more cultural jokes that just went completely over my head. I had to stop leaning over to Jo to ask her to explain them as it was starting to annoy the people sat behind us. I guess it would be like making a Kiwi watch The Complete History of the UK Abridged and having references to Mr Blobby, Pan's People and the PG Tips chimps.

This evening, at Dave's request, I've been copying all the Barge sermons and talks I have on my laptop to a DVD for them. There's about 350 in all, I think. One for everyday they're away almost :)