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.

Aching bones

Don't make me laugh. To quote the Molenberg bread ad - "It hurts when I smile." All over. I had my gym induction yesterday and the trainer made me work. It felt fine at the time but it doesn't now. And it's getting worse. I hope it feels better tomorrow otherwise I'm not going to be much use for kayaking. Or for touch in the evening.

Why is it I sit here almost every Sunday evening and write about how busy we've been the past weekend? Tonight will be the same.

As I said, I had my gym induction yesterday morning and then the guy came to fit the shelves in the wardrobes. (And a great job he's done too.) While he was here Joanne and I loaded up the car with all the boxes and recyclable packing materials we had lying around. Once the wardrobe fella left we headed off to the refuse centre to dump that lot. The Santa Fe was full. Total fully of cardboard and paper. It seemed such a waste throwing it away but at least we could take it to be recycled. Then there was the weekend's obligatory trip to Briscoes followed by the supermarket, where the Saturday girl packing the bags was most bemused by my t-shirt.

Today we had another early start for the rugby final, followed by church, and then a picnic. The rugby was a little disappointing but I guess we have to focus on the fact that no-one expected England to do anything and some even predicted, after the 36-0 SA game that they'd fail to get out of their pool, but they ground out some dogged results beating Australia and France to reach the final. Which of course, is two rounds further than the ABs. I do wonder what the reaction has been like back home to reaching the final and stuff. I can't really remember the media coverage back in 2003 really, just the made Trafalgar Square stuff afterwards. I guess that won't happen now though. I do hope they get a heroes welcome home though. They deserve it for the fight they've shown to overcome all the odds and surpass everyone's expectations.

Church saw another great and challenging sermon by Wally from Deuteronomy. Today was the start of chapter 5 and the prelude to the Ten Commandments. And then the picnic. The guy who organises the touch rugby on a Monday night from church, Ailers, organised a picnic. It was a BYO thing but just an excuse to go and hang out together enjoying the sunshine (and it was gorgeous for most of the day.)

There were a few people at the picnic we knew, and a few faces I recognised from touch, and it was good to see Simon and Rebekah there and have chance to catch up with them. At one point though everyone was chatting and we were kind of left on our own a bit. It would have been easy at that point to get up and say our goodbyes briefly and slink off. But I was determined we wouldn't. We're not going to make friends by doing that sort of thing, so we sat it out, and a little later a few people came over and introduced themselves to us and we had a good chat. Making friends is a slow and hard process, but I guess we just have to put ourselves out there. It's be easier when we have a dining table and can invite people over for dinner, I reckon.

In church today, someone from the mission team stood up and gave us all a quick update. It turns out that one of the mission teams St John's supports is David Mann and his wife, the doctors at the hospital in Madagascar where Chris and Ros spent last summer. Small world, eh? I need to get around to emailing Chris to see how Oak Hill is going, so I'll make sure I mention it.

Earthquake!

It's a strange sensation to be sat at your desk one minute and then suddenly find you and your chair moving away from it the next, especially when your chair's not got wheels. This morning I felt my first earthquake. A certain and easy way to freak out an Englishman - make the building he's in shake. I know I was meant to be expecting this sort of thing, but it just kind of crept up on me, you know. One minute I'm working away and the next there's a strange tremoring feeling. I don't approve.

Last night at Simon and Rebekah's was a lovely evening. We had a great time chatting away and getting to know them. And they bought us some welcome to New Zealand presents - L&P, Cookie Time cookies and a packet of Minties. All Kiwi favourite. As it says on the L&P bottle - "world famous in New Zealand". How nice of them, eh?

Ths making friends lark feels a bit like dating, you know. It's weird. You meet up, spend an evening together chatting about life before you knew each other, your likes and dislikes, work and family and so on before worrying if they liked you, whether you should text to say thank you for the evening and wondering how long you leave it before arranging something else.

Entertaining

This weekend we've done our first proper entertaining in our new house. Yesterday Joanne had the girls from our bible study group round for lunch and then today Tim and Christine and Lizzy (an English lady who's been here about five years, lives less than five minutes from us and goes to St John's too) came round after church for lunch. Next weekend's the house is going to be full of people too. We've got Mark and Renee and their kids over for tea on Friday and on Saturday Sarah and Anne and Simon and Rebekah are coming round for dinner.

It's so great to be able to have people round and have plenty of space. The open living room - dining room - kitchen space worked exactly as we had hoped it would. I always felt that when we had people round at our flat in London I missed half the conversation as I'd be in the kitchen cooking. Now I can be in the kitchen, Joanne can be helping and neither of us are ignoring our guests.

I never realised before today how satisfying it can be to wash a dirty car and have it gleaming when you're finished. I'm not sure washing house windows will give me the same sense of satisfaction but I think perhaps I ought to give it a go as they're looking a tad grubby.

I spent a decent amount of time yesterday going through our photos on my laptop. We have three or four groups of four photos in the same frames (there's the four seasons of the same bridge in Central Park in New York, the four iconic New York structures, four San Francisco shots, ...) that we like the idea of and wanted to replicate with our own memories. I think we've come up with some striking combinations but you can tell us when you see them maybe. Now we just need to get them printed and framed. But the main thing that struck me when going through all these shots is just how fortunate we are to have been able to travel and see so much of the world. Why even only this year I have been to Ghana, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Romania. It all made me realise I am so fortunate to have been born in western society and to have the priviledges and opportunities that's afforded me. I pray I would never take that for granted and would always thank God for how he has blessed me and use what He has given me to serve Him better. In our bible study group at the moment we're looking at 1 Timothy and last week we studied chapter 6 verses 3-11. As part of that we spent some time thinking about how godliness should bring contentment and love of money leads to "ruin and destruction." We need to remember that money is a gift from God given as a blessing, true, but also (and mainly) given to us to allow us to serve Him. It's something I forget sometimes. Why is it that the more God blesses us the more we take His blessings for granted?

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.

Happy New Year

I wanted to get on here before 1pm so that I could do a Happy New Year from Nuzziland in 2008 while the UK was still in 2007 but sleeping in late and then tidying up the house after last night's little get-together meant I didn't manage it. But anyhow, happy new year everyone.

Well, the party seemed to go well last night. It wasn't quite on the scale on previous London ones (10 people made it along as opposed to the 40 or so we've had along to previous ones) but it was a select group (Steve & Lisa, Simon & Rebekah, Kirsty, Anthony, Blair & Amy, Sarah and Gabi) and at least we now have laid the foundations for future years. We've a big house and we want to fill it.

There were a couple of big differences we noticed last night between UK NYE and NZ NYE. Firstly, and it's more a general cultural thing rather than a specific NYE thing, but in the UK if you invite people over at 7:30pm there is kind of an expectation of some sort of supper being served. In Nuzziland, if you invite people over at 7:30pm they eat before they come. Hence, we over-catered. We had over-catered, as usual, but seeing that no-one came hungry, we over-catered in a big, big way. The second difference concerns the countdown to midnight, specifically the countdown on TV. In the UK every single channel has some sort of countdown, be it Beeb1 and ITV's mainstream countdown, Channel 4's alternative countdown or even Jools and his hootenanny on Beeb2. They all countdown to the new year. And then there will be fireworks galore, both outside and on the TV. Here, last night, for a brief moment we thought we had the wrong night. There was no countdown, just Elton John's birthday concert and the concert for Diana, some films and the usual late night TV stuff. Not a countdown or a firework in sight. Even outside we struggled to see more than a bit of a flash off in the sky in the distance to indicate someone else somewhere was celebrating the arrival of 2008. Thus we had we make up our own countdown which was definitely late as we struggled to get a concensus on the actual time. But 2008 arrived all the same, so it wasn't a world-ending problem. I just needed some sense of order and to be told when to cheer by some grinning couple on television.

New group

We went along to our new bible study home group for the first time tonight. They all seem like a lovely bunch - Lisa, Steve, Anthony, Al, Blair and Amy. Joanne and I really appreciated being back part of a group again. It's been a long time since mid-July when our groups on the barge ended. Everyone was really welcoming. It was so encouraging. Of course it's going to take time to build up the accountability and support and encouragement network through these brothers and sisters but at least it's the first step.

Tomorrow we're going round for dinner at Simon and Rebekah's, a couple we met at St John's a few weeks ago. It turns out Simon was over in the UK a few years back and was at St Helen's at the same time as us, just before we left for the barge. He remembered us from chatting together on one of the weekends away, probably the one I flew back from New York for. Small world, eh?

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.

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 :)

Over the other side

This afternoon Joanne and I headed over to Diamond Harbour with Simon and Rebekah. We had a nice walk along a path along the cliff, took plenty of photos and then stopped back at Godley House for a refreshing drink. I love the way that only half an hour's drive out of Christchurch can see us in completely surroundings.

It was really nice to get out of Christchurch to see a different bit of Canterbury today. It really wasn't that far away but it was worth it. It just feels sometimes that it's non-stop "doing stuff". Shopping or getting stuff for the house or hanging up pictures or whatever or whatever. It was nice today to stop and smell the agapanthus. I can wash the cars tomorrow.

Time away

Joanne and I booked a bit of a holiday for ourselves today. In April we're going to drive up to Motueka in Abel Tasman by the inland route, have two days kayaking in Tasman Bay, before driving back to Chch by the coastal route, spending a night in Nelson and then a night in Kaikoura. I'm really excited about it. I've been wanting to do some ocean kayaking up there since we arrived and throwing in a bit of mountain scenery, the wineries of Marlborough, coastal scenery and some whale-watching means it should be a great five days.

So with Len & Val coming in a couple of weeks, Dad coming next month and the stuff I've got organised with him in Feb and March, Shirley & Tom coming in April and now this holiday it's going to be a pretty active few months. Oh, and Joanne's got a week in Oz visiting her sister on the Gold Coast in March too. We'll need a rest come May. Phew!

We're out to dinner tonight, at Simon & Rebekah's. It'll be good to catch up with them. It's been a while since we've had chance for more than a quick hello.