Food and friends

On Saturday night we had our Bible study group round here. The plan was to have a pub-themed evening. We all brought pub-type food, like chilli beef nachos and chips and chicken bits followed by icecream. I'm not sure icecream is particularly pub food but I cannot refuse any opportunity to eat icecream, especially this Deep South Boysenberry & Apple stuff I've come across. It was Blair's birthday too so that provided a good excuse for a Divine chocolate mud cake. To complete the evening we all joined in for a pub quiz thing. To be honest I can't remember idea which came first, the food or the quiz. Our team won though (Steve, Anthony, Bek and I) although the other teams reckon that it was only 'cos we had four people to their three. Sounds like sour grapes to me ;)

Yesterday, after church, Joanne and I met Gabi at the Westpac Arena, the same place we saw Jack Johnson the other week. It was the Christchurch version of the Food Show that we went to with Len back in August in Auckland. Gabi is as much a foody as I am and she's not been along before so I knew she'd be keen. It was great. As good as I remember it. Plenty of wines and breads and jams and chocolates and meat and curds and cheese and stuff to try. And dips and pestos and licquorice allsorts and sauces and all stuff like that. Yum.

The clocks go back on Saturday so tonight was the last night we get to play touch before next spring. (Still can't get used to the seasons being in the wrong place down here). I'm going to miss playing touch on Monday nights. I've quite enjoyed it, learning to play a new game. I am looking forward to starting playing football in a couple of weeks though. Is three weeks enough time to get fit, I wonder. Maybe it'll be best if I finish the icecream in the freezer sooner rather than later, eh?

Almost a taste of home

I went to the butcher's today to pick up our custom-made, specially-ordered Lincolnshire sausages. 52 sage and pepper pork sausages. The best $42 I've spent for a long while. I tried a couple tonight, practically the minute I walked through the door (after cooking them, of course!) I approve. I've had better, it is true, but not in this country. Given the pepper and sage proportions were guestimated from a range of online recipes I've found I couldn't really expect them to compare to Birketts' or Petitts' or Boston Sausage's but they're a really good step in the right direction. Maybe I'll get them to add a touch more sage next time.

I was speaking to a guy at work the other day about playing football. During the winter he runs a team, a proper 11-a-side team. He's recruited a couple of other people from the office. I mentioned I might be interested but unfortunately he's got a full quota of players. The good news though, is that one of the IT consultants we have around the office also runs a team in the same league and he's looking for players. I gave him a call and am ready to sign up. It's been quite a while since I've played full outside footy competitively. We had the fortnightly Barge footy back in London but it was still pretty much friendly stuff. The most recent regular stuff would probably be back at uni when I played for Ian's team sometimes, once the American football season was over. So Saturday afternoons from April onwards (except the 5th because the team has a bye and the 12th becuase we'll be up in Abel Tasman) I'll hopefully be playing a bit of footy. Training is on Wednesdays unfortunately, so given our current commitment to helping run the Christianity Explored course at church I won't be able to go along, at least for now. The guy who runs the team doesn't seem to think that'll be a problem though. I'm a bit worried about my fitness levels and my ability to last 90 minutes but with the rolling subs I've heard about I'll manage. And it'll get easier over time. And it's not like I'm doing no exercise at all or anything. I just need to ration the sausages.

Connections

Yesterday, while wandering round Lyttelton, I spotted this sticker in a car parked by the side of the road. I must admit, it wasn't something I expected to read in the window of a car parked by the side of the road in a small port town in New Zealand, to be honest. For those of you less familiar with the term, a Yellowbelly is a term to refer to someone from Lincolnshire, the county I was born and grew up in. I'm impressed someone bothered to bring a BBC Radio Lincolnshire sticker all the way over from the UK to stick in their car. Although is it any different to me having a Grimsby Town car window mini-kit in our car? I guess not.

Also yesterday in Lyttelton Tim & Christine introduced us to to another couple from St John's. They're from the UK too and have been here a couple of years now I think. It's a small world though, eh? Julie was at St Helens for some of the time we were there and knows some of the same people such as Vaniah and Juliette, and David was at Warwick doing maths (although it he was the year above me). It's just weird to think that we've probably been at the same parties as Julie back in London and at least have sat in the same church services, while it's conceivable that David and I walked past each other at uni, him coming out of a lecture theatre as I walked into it or something similar. And now we cross paths with them again on the other side of the world.

Last night Si & Bek came over for dinner (chicken fajitas followed by chocolate and banana filo parcels) and then we headed out to the theatre. They'd had some vouchers as a wedding gift and my sister had got me and Joanne vouchers for Christmas so we'd decided to go together. I was especially keen to go now because currently playing is Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. I studied it at school when I was 15 or 16 I guess and I seemed to remember I really enjoyed it. I wasn't disappointed last night. I think a small cast playing so many parts (only six actors played everyone in the play) made it difficult for people who didn't know what to expect to work out quite what was going on but by the second half it became clearer. The bonus though was the delivery by the actors. The play is such a lyrical, poetic piece with beautiful and innovative use of language. It would have been easily been spoiled with poor delivery but the cast did it proud, although the attempts at Welsh accents warbling between Indian and South African did make my toes curl a little. I actually found a copy of the play on-line so if you're interested you can see what I mean about Thomas's use of language. The way he uses nouns as both adjectives and verbs is like nothing else I've read.

Christchurch Idol

Last night was so much fun. Caroline, a friend from back on the Barge in London is a good mate of Sarah's, the women's worker at St John's. She's over here at the moment coming to the end of a one month sabbatical thing with a bit of holiday thrown in. With my dad being here and Jo going over to Oz and stuff last night was the first time we'd been able to all get together. It was worth the wait.

It started with dinner at Sarah's. Tasty food (balsamic chicken with couscous followed by chocolate brownies and fresh pineapple - actually the pineapple would have worked really well in the balsamic chicken dish, but that's another matter). It was just loads of fun. We laughed so much. It was great to catch up with Caroline properly and hear how she's going and how everyone back on the Barge is doing and stuff as well as being great to spend some time getting to know Sarah better. What I really liked was getting to see another side of them both, a side of them that only exists when they're together. As I say, we laughed so much.

The evening climaxed with a trip into town to the gloriously titled 'Christchurch Idol', a real Japanese-style karaoke bar. One of those ones where you hire a private room to do it rather than embarassing yourself (in my case) in public. An hour and a half later we were all sung out. Solos, duets, a group effort on 'The End of the Road', the evening had it all. A particular highlight was the emotion Caroline poured into 'Sorry seem to be the hardest word'. I was almost quite choked and nearly rather moved. Again, we all laughed so much and were more than a little hoarse by the end of the night. I am glad the machine seemed to reward effort and enthusiasm rather than talent though. At least I think it did. It's the only way I can explain my scores in the high nineties for my Bon Jovi cameo.

This morning Joanne and I got up and headed over to Lyttelton. We'd arranged to meet Tim and Christine over there for a wander around the farmers market and a coffee. It was a nice little place, lots of fresh produce and locally grown and made stuff. Sure it was no Borough Market, but taken for what it is, it did it well. Plus, as a real bonus, we met a butcher there who is willing to make me some Lincolnshire sausages! I have a recipe I found online so all I have to do is phone him on Tuesday to let him know sage and pepper proportions and he'll knock up a 10kg batch, 5kg for us (we had to take 5kg to make it worth his while) and 5kg that he'll take to the market next week to see how they sell. Mmmm, Lincolnshire sausages. I'm drooling just thinking about them.

Such a tough enchilada filled up with nada

We went to see Jack Johnson last night. The mellowest gig ever. Definitely a different vibe to the Bon Jovi concert. It was awesome though. He was on for two hours and there can't have been that many songs from his four albums that he didn't play. A great way to spend an evening, even if it did mean missing football. He's definitely the coolest Hawaian around.

Listening to him play took me back to the time I spent living in New York. Three months in May through July 2004. It was there I first heard his music, you see. Way before anyone else in the UK had ever heard of him. I have Ian to thank for that. He introduced me to Jack Johnson and I got together with him once a week to read through Ephesians. It always amazes me how God works to put us in places we can be useful to him causing us to cross paths with people when they're in need. We just need to be ready to fill that need.

Joanne and I went to church this morning. I always really get a lot out of Good Friday services. As a Christian sometimes we can become blase about Easter and what it really is about. Yes, we can trot out the right answers but it's good to think and meditate and reflect on it. On the surface, an innocent man was punished with death. Underneath that though, his death and resurrection achieved so much more than that. Jesus really did die on a cross all those years ago and the Bible makes it clear that it was for us so we can come back into relationship with the God who created us. If you're interested about why Jesus had to die you can read more about it here. (Thanks, Gavin!)

I got an big A4 envelope in the post this week. When Dad I went hot air ballooning there was an opportunity to buy a photo taken while we were up in the balloon, thousands of feet off the ground. I think it looks rather groovy. What do you reckon?

Smooth, round and shiny

Autumn has definitely arrived here. It's a bit cooler than it was (although there are still times when the temperature gets above 20 degrees) and the leaves are slowly filling the city with a golden sheen. One thing Autumn also brings is conker season. And there are millions of the things around. Each morning and evening between the car and my office my short walk takes me past a row of horse chestnut trees. And each morning and evening I cannot walk past without stopping to pick a few up. Well, I say a few. My desk is littered with them and I hate to think what Joanne's going to make of the ones filling the slots and boxes and compartments in the car when she gets back from Oz at the weekend.

I just can't resist them. Maybe it's something to do with them being so smooth and nice to play with in your hands, or maybe it's something to do with them being so shiny and mottled like an antique walnut dresser. Or maybe it's just a hang up from when I was twelve and the walk on Sunday mornings from church to my nan's through People's Park in town that involved stopping and hunting under trees for conkers all autumn and relishing the feeling when you found one and finding a suitable stick to lob up into the tree to try and knock down that elusive conker not wanting to leave the safety of its bough. Conkers were rare in those days. Everyone wanted them, everyone at school played with them, and they were a commodity. Today, especially here it seems, you can quite pocketfuls lying around on the grass each morning and then again each evening. It seems such a waste to walk past and leave them there, all smooth and brown and shiny nestled among the green green grass. So I don't. I can't. I don't know what I'm going to do with them all though.

With Joanne being away at the moment, the rare evenings I've been in have led to me watching some stuff on TV that I might not normally watch. Like an English dramatisation of the Mayor of Casterbridge. Or the first half at least. I presume the second half is on next week. I remember studying the book at school and not really enjoying it. It could have been the fact that we had to write essays on it every few chapters discussing the characterisation and interplay between key characters and such like. But after we left school I always remembered the novel fondly. I even bought a copy a few years later but never got around to rereading it. So when the chance came up to watch it on TV it seemed like a good idea. At least, it will have been a good idea if I find out when the second half is on.

But yeah, it's been a pretty busy week really. No busier than usual I guess, just what I've done has taken more time. Like on Monday at touch, perhaps as there's only a few weeks of playing left, we played half an hour or so longer than usual so that it was past half eight by the time I got home. On Tuesday I rushed out of work to the gym for the boxing circuits class thing before making my way to Lisa & Steve's for our bible study group via the supermarket and then ended up staying till 11 chatting to Ruth and Lisa and Anthony. And then last night, again a rush to the gym followed work before I arrived at church for week four of the Christianity Explored course. After setting up, the discussion times, the talk and clearing up afterwards Joel, Ryan, Tim and I headed out with a quick drink and again it was after 11 by the time I got home. It's been a non-stop week.

Oh, and yes, I am missing Joanne. The house is empty without her.

A bad sporting weekend

England lost to NZ in the cricket, England lost to Scotland in the rugby, Man Utd lost to Portsmouth in the FA Cup and Grimsby lost too. Could it get any worse?

On the plus side, I've just watched Napolean Dynamite. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't quite that. A bizarrely charming film. Or perhaps a charmingly bizarre film. Or maybe both.

Nacho Libre next. Thank you Si & Bek for the loan of the DVDs :)

And then there were two again, then three, and then one

So Dad's gone now. I can't believe how fast his time here passed. It was so great to see him though. I think he had a great time. So many first time experiences (for me as well as him). His time here has reminded me about my family back home though, my mum, my sister and Ellie, as well as my Dad. And then there's Pamela and Rob and the kids too. I know we didn't see them that often with us living down in London and them all being up north but we could see them you know, two or three times a year. But now we can't. I'm not going to see my dad again for a year and a half probably, my mum not until maybe Feb 2010 I think it was, and I have no idea when I'll next see Sarah and Ellie. It's hard.

Joanne and Shirley left for Oz this morning. Shirley arrived yesterday down here from Auckland only to find that their flight to Brisbane was cancelled and they had been put on a flight to Auckland to catch a flight over the ditch from there. At least Shirley got to see what we've done to the house since she was last down here, eh?

Joanne's really looking forward to seeing her sister and her family. It's been three years since she's seen them and she's not even met one of her nephews. She's ready for a holiday too. She's been working hard recently and could definitely do with a week off.

So now there's just me sat at home, wondering what to do with myself, recovering from a bit of a cold and sinusitis that kept me off work yesterday. At least the cricket's on. I just wish England were doing a bit better.

Up, up and away

Wow. That's all I can say. After last month's disappointing trip round Canterbury with a hot air balloon trying to take off only to be foiled by wind, today we got up. And it was so fantastic. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. It's such a shame that the photos I took really don't do it justice. It was just so calm up there, and peaceful. Just floating around in the wind, not knowing where we're going to end up. Quite an experience.

I woke at 4:30am and phoned the ballooning hotline to know whether we were going ahead. The weather forecast for today was mixed and so, going to bed, I was unsure what the message would say. It was quite exciting to hear the words "the flight is going ahead". An hour later we were parked up in the dark in the carpark of a suburban mall. It still felt very clandestine.

A further hour later we were at Darfield helping the pilot and ground crew unwrap the balloon (the technical term is 'envelope', you know) and inflate it. Less than an hour later and we were lifting off, rising above the tree-tops, the ground getting further and further away, heading up towards the clouds. We stopped ascending at around five thousand feet. The view was just spectacular. It would have been awesome if there had been no clouds and everything had been in plain view but it also made it more special when light broke through the clouds in places highlighting patch of the plains or a snow-capped mountain top.


An hour later and we were skipping over rooftops, knocking through treetops before we came down to earth in the middle of a field with a bump. The landing I didn't enjoy. Not the best part of the flight. But I'd go through the landing again to have the flight again. We'd travelled about 60km, I think.

We all chipped in to help put away the basket and envelope and then the champagne was dished out. The pilot related a story telling how the post-balloon flight champagne tradition came about. If he's to believed it is to do with the Montgolfier brothers and them wanting to prove they were actually French when landing in their early balloons in the French countryside to stop farmers attacking them with pitchforks. Supposedly.

If you get the chance, do this. Despite the very unsociable morning it was so worthwhile. I wish you'd all been there.

Rivers, valleys and mountains

Yesterday was a quiet day involving church, shopping for perfume and Joanne singing with the music group at church for the first time in New Zealand. She was rostered on for the evening service and we haven't been to an evening service here since we visited Chch and St John's three years ago so that made a nice change. It definitely has a different feel to the 10am service. Joanne definitely enjoyed singing at the front though. It's great that there's a way she can serve that she loves so much.

Today was a little busier though. My dad and I were booked on a jetboat-4WD drive tour thing. We headed out to Springfield to meet the tour bus and got dressed up for the jetboat along the Waimakariri river. It was great actually, very exciting shooting along the rocky river at the bottom of the gorge dodging in and out of boulders and scraping the paintwork of the boat on the rock walls. The driver looked a lot more relaxed than the passengers, especially when he threw the boat into a 360.

After the boat they loaded us all into a Unimog. I was expecting a 4WD vehicle like a Landrover or something, not an ex-military vehicle. It really was quite impressive. Unfortunately we could head up into the hills too much due to the volume of rain that's fallen in the past few days but we still had a great trip along the floor of the valley. I've never seen so much gorse. And I have no idea how three of the four Taiwanese girls on the trip fells asleep as we bounced over the beautiful scenery.

After lunch, which we had in a nice little cafe place back in Springfield, the sky started to clear a bit so I thought we'd take advantage and go on a little tour. Mount Hutt, a ski resort, was reasonably close to where we were so I thought we'd head there. I wasn't really sure quite what to expect as we sped along the Canterbury Plains. Even if it was rubbish when we got there the drive was still worthwhile, especially when we stopped by the Rakaia river for some photos.

What we found, as we turned off the main road, was an unsealed road heading straight up the mountain. We thought the view would be better further up so carried on going. It got steeper and steeper and a little narrow and a tiny bit slippery driving over the shale. When the car behind us turned back I remembered why we'd bought a 4x4. The view was pretty spectacular.

The view stopped being so spectacular once we headed into the clouds. The road kept going though. Up above the snowline we slowly made our way. Eventually it got too much. The clouds were getting thicker, the snow on the road was freezing and someone heading the other way said that 4WD was essential a bit further on. We decided to admit defeat and turn back rather than being brave/stupid and press on. No-one knew we were up there and it wasn't worth the risk getting stuck or something. In the winter when the ski season is open we'll have snowchains on and the road will be better manned. I'll feel safer then. Hopefully the clouds won't be so low too. Driving over snow-covered shale in the fog wasn't something I'd like to repeat too often. It was exhilerating but just a little scary too. It was a long way down off the edge of the road.

Canterbury is such a place of contrasts. Less than an hour after being up a mountain surrounded by snow we were back on the plains surrounded by sheep, cattle and crops. And a giant salmon.

Dolphins, seals and penguins again

You can't go anywhere down here without bumping into wild life. It's really quite cool.

Dad got back from the North Island today. It sounds like Shirley & Tom and Len & Val really looked after him. Joanne and I both really appreciate how welcome they made him. He went fishing, saw the sun rise, had dinner at the top of the Sky Tower, went to the glow worm caves at Waitomo and saw some kiwis (the birds, not the people - well, the people too, I guess). And that's just the stuff he's had time to tell us.

We picked Dad up from the airport this morning and headed into town. We'd promised him breakfast at Drexels, Joanne's favourite breakfast place in the whole world. He wasn't disappointed. The waitresses were impressed he managed all three banana pancakes.

After breakfast we headed on over Banks Peninsula to Akaroa. It's the first time we'd been back since we took the Hyundai for a test drive back in August. It rained that day too. I'm struggling to believe Akaroa exists when it's not raining, you know. I've heard it's a lovely place when the sun's out, but I reckon it's all a local conspiracy. Still, it's not a bad place to visit, even when it's grey and wet. Atmospheric, they call it.

We'd booked ourselves on the BlackCat harbour cruise. I still get blown away by the Nuzziland scenery. It's just stunning, even when the sky's gloomy. Add in dolphins, seals and the occasional penguins and the two hour boat trip was well worth the money. I just love seeing the creatures in their natural environments.

We definitely have to go back to Akaroa when it's sunny. Maybe take a kayak out or something.

Yesterday was a fun evening. It was Sarah's 30th birthday party. A pop star fancy dress party with added lip-sync performances from a plucky few. We had Abba, the Village People, Elvis, a memorable Flashdance number and a bit of Madness. And more than a bit of madness. Joanne and I didn't perform but we did get dressed up. Joanne went as the blonde one from Abba (Agnetha is it?) and I put a cowboy hat on to complete my transformation into Garth Brooks. Bit of a cop-out, I know, but lots of people guessed who I was, which was surprising. Si and Bek went as Justin Timberlake and Amy Winehouse. Other people were Pink or Posh Spice or Bob Dylan or JK or many others. I was well impressed with people's effort.

I so hope the weather clears up soon. We need good weather for Monday and Tuesday for Dad's last week.