Parties, beaches, pipi and visitors

Happy New Year. A little belated, but heart-felt all the same.

So, another New Year's Eve another New Year's Eve party. Our fifth in a row and the tradition seems to be catching on in New Zealand. Most of our guests even turned up without eating first too. I think we had about 35 over this time so well up on the 10 or so we had for our first Nuzziland one. It seemed to all go well, I think. Enough people that karaoke wasn't compulsory, good enough weather to use the garden too, and enoough food for everyone, despite Jo's panics all afternoon prior to the party. Four chickens, a roast pork loin (with tremendous crackling might I add), some of Auntie Doreen's stuffing, a big dish of bobotie, and plenty of bread and salad seemed to satisfy everyone. I do love the way that people who swear they'll never sing in public weaken by the end of the evening though. It never ceases to amaze me.

Next week it's time for YLC again. Quite a few of the strand group leaders come over from Australia and often they need a place to stay while they're here. On New Year's Day a couple, Andrew & Jess, arrived. The conference starts on Monday but they arrived a little early so need a place to stay. We've got our spare room of course, so were happy to be able to open our home to them for a few days when we were asked. They're currently cooking us dinner and it smells pretty good, I have to say. It's always nice to meet Christian brothers and sisters you've not met before. Just having that one big important thing in common breaks down so many barriers. You might have nothing else in common but there is always a starting point with Christian family.

Today Joanne and I decided to have a day out. The weather for the past week has been lovely, right since Boxing Day, so we thought we'd head to the beach. Someone Jo works with recommended Tumbledown Bay, over on the south side of Banks Peninsula so we thought we'd give it a go, not knowing anywhere better. It was a lovely place. A long shallow beach protected by hills with clear water. We had a bit of a picnic, sat reading our books, went for a paddle and also 'caught' some pipi. I won't eat them of course but Jo loves seafood and catching them took her back to her childhood summers on the beaches.

Christmas no.2 - baked ham and leprosy

So, Christmas is all but over for another year. Our second Christmas in Nuzziland has gone. My second summer Christmas passed. If I've not spoken to you or emailed you or chatted to you in the past few days merry Christmas, eh?

Joanne and I have had a lovely last few days. Starting with Christmas day, we got up early enough to open presents before heading off to church. Among the many wonderful gifts I received I got a couple of Rachel Allen cookbooks, a bundt tin, a digital photo frame loaded with pictures of family and a copy of Football Manager 2009 that I'm scared to install because of the days it will eat. I also got a Billy T. James DVD and an album of Neil Finn, Anika Moa and Dave Dobbyn music. She's trying to educate me about kiwi culture.

The rest of Christmas day, after church was spent with our friend Sarah and her family. It was so lovely of them to invite us to share their day and they all made us feel really welcome, even though we'd never met any of them before bar Sarah's mum, and even then only briefly. Lunch was what was described as a real Kiwi Christmas lunch - baked ham, salad and some meat off the barbecue. Not quite what a typical UK Christmas lunch but very tasty all the same. I do love baked ham. After lunch we headed out for a walk around the beautiful Canterbury University grounds before heading back for the real Christmas action - sing-a-long-a-Mamma Mia. I'd not seen the movie before and I have to tell you, despite my preconceptions, I enjoyed it. Just a fun film. You can tell the cast had loads of fun making it too. And after watching some famous people sing we thought we'd give it a go ourselves. We'd taken the PS2 along and the rest of the evening was spent introducing Sarah's family to Singstar. We persuaded them it would be a good opportunity to practice before they have a bigger audience at our NYE party. It's amazing how people adamant they will never do karaoke soften as an evening progresses.

Yesterday, Boxing Day, was a relaxing day. Neither Joanne or I left the house. Lazing around, not doing anything imparticular was the order of the day, and the order was filled. Perfect.

Today we met up with Mon and Barry and the kids and Mel and their mum. Mel is over from Hong Kong spending Christmas with her family so it was a great opportunity to catch up with everyone all in one go. And it was definitely great to catch up with everyone. Mon had the idea of heading over on the ferry to Quail Island. It's an island in the middle of Lyttelton harbour that has at various times been used for quarantining both animals and humans, including a period spent as a leprosy colony. Now it's a nature reserve and general beauty spot. It's hard to believe that only fifteen minutes out of Lyttelton on the boat, in the middle of an extinct volcano cone there is such a lovely little place.

We met the others in Lyttelton at about midday (after a lovely panini and chocolate banana smoothie in No.6 cafe) and headed down to the ferry. A fifteen minute boat ride, as I say, and we were pulling up alongside the quay at Quail Island. There was plenty of time for a spot of afternoon tea, a fast-paced stroll round the island and some time for lazing in the sun too. So this is what a Kiwi Christmas is all about is it?

So far it looks like we've got about 30 or so people coming along at New Year. It's still not quite as big an event as the London ones where we had over 50 one year, but we're getting there. The word is spreading. The entertainment for the evening is taken care of with Joanne's massive selection of Singstar disks (she's practising in the other room as I type). Now we just have to plan the food side of things.

Getting there

It's amazing what effect a few lengths of tinsel and some ribbon will have on someone's festive sensibilities. All I need is a glass of mulled wine, a bowl of peanuts and a slice of stollen and I'd be almost feeling Christmassy.

So no more work for a week and a half or so. I'm quite looking forward to the time off. January 5th will come soon enough though. And I've got three months' work to do in January too. Everyone wants everything by the end of the month. I will try to forget about it all for the next ten days. We'll see if that works.

Another thing I'm pining for from Christmas past is my mum's Christmas cake. There really was nothing like it. Dense, moist and so tasty. With rock hard icing on top and a thick, bright yellow vein of marzipan. When I was at university she'd make two so that I had one to take back with me after the holidays.

Not quite Christmas

I'm still struggling to feel Christmassy. I need advice. I want to feel Christmassy but I can't. Everything I used to associate with Christmas back in the UK just jars here. The winter imagery, the smells of cinnamon and cloves, fairy lights when it's still daylight outside, shopping for presents without being wrapped up in scarf and gloves. It just feels all wrong.

Help?

Doesn't it feel like Christmas

Grey, miserable, rainy weather. I almost feel like I'm back in the UK for Christmas.

Kiwi germs

I don't know if it's foreign germs I don't have antibodies for, or if it's being too busy combined with not eating enough fresh fruit and veg during the week but either way I've definitely been more ill here than I used to get in the UK. I had another day off work today with a head cold and sinusitus and stuff. I seem to get everything going at the moment. I've had more days off sick over here than I had in the previous ten years in the UK.

Too summery to feel festive

I do like three-day weekends. I think I've said that before sometime. This one was our own doing though, not a public holiday type one. It was my birthday yesterday, so following another hectic weekend Joanne and I decided to spend the day together, just hanging, doing stuff on our own time, with no place to be by a set time.

The day started with a trip to the immigration office. I won't bore you with talk of residence permits and returning residents' visas. All you really need to know is that I can get back in the country when we leave for the UK trip in June. Following that we wandered round town for a bit, seeking Christmas present inspiration, before dropping a tasty pie for lunch at the crumpet club. Real steak pieces. Yum. The latest James Bond film followed that (had to do it, despite less than rave reviews, just to tick it off) before dropping Joanne at home, heading to the park for a game of touch (last of the year) and then picking up a Chinese on the way home for our tea. What a great day. I think we should hang out every birthday really.

I think we both appreciated the day off too. We had another busy weekend. The sort of one where two days are just not enough to relax and unwind after the week of work.

Friday night was Joanne's work do at the Convention Centre. It was a good evening. Santa goes on Safari was the theme. The buffet counter was full of tasty meat, so no complaints from me.

On Saturday we helped Tim & Christine move into their new house before going to buy a Christmas tree. We'd bought all the decorations a few weeks ago when they were on sale in Farmers so Saturday evening was spent decorating it. It almost made me feel Christmassy. Almost.

I also spent Saturday knocking up a black forest trifle. We had the bible study group round for a barbecue after church on Sunday (the carol service complete with shepherds in shorts like last year) and my part of the deal was a dessert. I do love that trifle and any excuse to make it and share the love is grabbed with both hands. The barbecue was kind of an end of year social thing but also I guess a sort of goodbye to Lisa & Steve for just our group before they head off to Bible College in Sydney in January.

Sunday was also spent carving up the ham from work. In case you missed the explanation last December, every year everyone who works for the company gets a ham as a Christmas present. Last year it was 8kg, which I thought was pretty big. This year's was 10.7kg. That is a big ham.