Blue-sky lunchtimes

I really love working so close to the Botanic Gardens, being able to go for a wander at lunchtimes, to sit by the river and watch the punts glide by. Definitely a nice way to spend an hour. When it's nice weather, that is. Like yesterday. Today, on the other hand, is not so nice. When Dad arrives this afternoon he's going to wonder if this is summer after all. The weird thing is that it's still warm, probably nigh on 20 degrees, but just grey. So grey. It's almost enough to make me feel homesick, clamouring for the grey Februarys of my youth. Almost.

I do hope the weather improves while my dad's here though. January has been such a great month, weather-wise while February so far's been a bit rubbish. And typically, I've been told, February is the better, more stable month. There's so much I've got planned that's weather-dependent.

I relaised yesterday that our six months of being in Christchurch has been and gone. Last Friday marked the six month point since our arrival down here. I've said it before, but time really does fly doesn't it? I've spent a bit of time recently looking over all the old posts from our first few weeks in Christchurch. It's so weird how the words can evoke the feelings from back then as well as the memory of the events. I am so glad I did this whole blog thing. It will definitely be something I look back over in the future. Like reading an old diary, I guess.

This Sunday just gone at church, after the service, a sausage sizzle was organised. Basically a barbecue was fired up and hundreds of sausages were cooked (while the barbecue worked, that is) while the church family and visitors (it was a guest-focussed service this week) can stand around chatting and stuff. A very good idea, I think. The reason I mention it particularly though is that the first time Jo and I visited St John's, three years ago pretty much to the day I guess, was the same sausage sizzle event. Back then we were just visiting Christian family we had been regularly praying for. And now we're part of that Christian family. Three years ago we never would have imagined that would be the case in three years' time. We never know what God has in store for us, eh?

Last night Jo and I met up with Cam and Ryan to discuss the plan and the format and stuff for the Christianity Explored course we're helping lead that starts next week. If you want to pray for us and for the course please pray we'll have time to do the prep we need to thoroughly despite my dad being around, that people who have signed up would come through the door next Wednesday evening, that people would continue to invite their friends and family along to the course, and that ultimately people would come to know Jesus through the course as their eyes are opened and the Holy Spirit works in their hearts. Thank you. If you don't want to pray for us, you can ignore that whole last bit.

Mellow yellow

The manager of the shop where we bought most of our furniture gave us a voucher for lunch for two at the Clearwater resort the other week. Today we made use of it. Clearwater is where the PGA Championship of New Zealand will be held this coming week. It's a lovely place and the restaurant overlooking the lake and the 18th hole was gorgeous.

It was such a mellow, relaxed lunch. A couple of hours in a virtually empty restaurant with superb food and a great view. We'd have happily paid to go there so the fact it was effectively free was a bonus. The hot chocolate pudding (with melting centre, natch) with coconut sorbet was delicious.

It's all been go in Christchurch this week. The airport was closed when a woman on an internal flight tried to hijack the plane and then attacked the pilot and co-pilot with a knife. Not your usual Canterbury tale.

The key to the door

Tonight Al & Naomi hosted a surprise 21st birthday party for Rebekah. It was such a lovely evening and so nice to see everyone there wanting to wish Bek all the best for her birthday. Everyone went to such an effort too, with a barbecue put on, salads and stuff brought and some awesome desserts. It really has struck me time and time again how the church family at St John's are there for one another and go out of their way for one another. Real demonstrations of Christian love.

There were loads of people there tonight. (And we knew most of them too! Maybe we're getting settled, eh?) It was impressive that no-one let it slip to Bek in the run up to the party and it really was a huge surprise for her. I do feel for Simon though. He was wracked with guilt about having to 'mislead' his wife. I'm sure she'll forgive him ;)

The rest of Waitangi day was pretty relaxing for us really. A nice lie-in (the gym on Saturday mornings and church on Sunday mornings means that the number of lie-ins we have is minimal) was followed by a trip to the gym, lunch in a coffee shop and then a few errands. The afternoon was spend relaxing before we went out tonight. I wish every Wednesday was as laid back.

Howzat!

It's a good day to be an Englishman in Nuzziland. The cricket boys made a great start to the tour tonight.

It's a good day to be a New York Giants fan too. Yesterday, in case you missed it somehow, was the Superbowl, and the unfancied Giants beat the previously unbeaten Patriots in a rollercoaster game with an awesome climax. Both teams scored early on and then the second and third quarters passed with New York's defense dominating and their offense misfiring. But then it all came to life in the fourth quarter. New York scored to take the lead then with 2:45 or so left the Patriots retook the lead and it looked all over. The Patriots were going to go unbeaten through the season, only the second team ever to do so. But the story had one final twist in the tail as the Giants drove the length of the field, including one spectacular play, to retake the lead with only 30 seconds or so remaining. The invincibles had been defeated.

And I got to watch it all. One good thing about the timezone I now live in is that the Superbowl is on on a Monday afternoon rather than overnight on a Sunday. No more staying awake till 4am. Instead, I took the afternoon off and joined 15 or so people Simon had gathered at the Holy Grail sports bar in the city centre. The place was heaving. I was quite impressed. The Holy Grail is a cool place too with a huge bigscreen thing. Almost cinema size. It was all round a great afternoon. The group I was with, including Kiwis, an Aussie, a Fijian and another Englander, didn't have extensive American football knowledge. I think I could count on one hand the number who had watched a whole game before. But by the end, they were all converts. The Superbowl afternoon could become a regular thing.

Tonight we went to a lovely pub called the Watershed along by the estuary. It doesn't so attractive when you say it's next to the estuary but it's a lovely spot. And a lovely little pub. The toilets have to be seen to be believed and the icecream dessert was very gastropub. We'll definitely have to go there again. We were there to celebrate Rebekah's birthday. 21 today. Happy Birthday, Bek! It was a shame that it wasn't warm enough to sit outside but it didn't spoil the evening. And we got to meet some new people too.

One week today my dad will have arrived. Exciting, eh? It'll be great to see him.

Ooh, and we have a day off tomorrow. Feb 6th is Waitangi Day. I like having this bank holiday in the middle of the week thing.

Typical

Why does it always, without fail, rain the day after you wash the cars? It feels more like a February day in the UK here today than a February day in NZ.

I feel like chicken tonight

We tried out the Christchurch Nandos for the first time tonight. Mmmmm, peri-peri.

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 :)