After the show the boys went out for the night at the Mount (Maunganui pronounced morng-ga-new-ee) and although us girls felt like we should be going out we actually went to Video-Ezy and hired some arty films, grabbed some snacks and settled in for the night - just perfect!
Sunday saw 2 very hungover blokes and 2 (quite sprightly!) lasses lazing about - despite good intentions to head to the air show for the day. Allan & Tracy's home is in a flight path and it just so happened that the planes were often flying over so we had a great view from the lounge! We headed into the garden to watch them fly over and one spitfire (I think?!) was flying around and then it disappeared...all of a sudden it came whooshing over the top of the house! It was so low you felt like you could have touched it if you were on tippy toes (I know you couldn't have!) The OH swears that the pilot saw us watching and thought "I'll have them!" It was seriously like something off Independence Day - so loud and invigorating!
Later on in the day we went on a merry jaunt to Papamoa beach where we could continue to watch the planes who were flying over the beach in a loop. We were going to head home on the Sunday night but Tracy lured us to the thermal pools at about 9pm where we relaxed in the hot pool until closing time and then we headed back to theirs all relaxed and tired. It was lovely.
We headed home on Monday and were back to work on Tuesday for a nice 4 day week. Only to be greeted by another long weekend the following week! Monday Feb 6 is Waitangi Day - if it falls on a weekend you don't get the Monday off, you only have a day off work if it falls on a weekday. It's an important day in New Zealand as it marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The Treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Māori rights to their land and gave Māori the rights of British subjects. There is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the document and it's translation but I won't go into that as I am certainly no expert.
From the Friday before Waitangi Day we were cat (Molly) and house sitting for friends for a week. It was lovely having a house with outdoor space and a balcony to ourselves and such a delight to have a cat again - if only for a limited time. On the Monday we headed out to Mark & Debbie's on the North Shore for some lunch. After lunch we went for a nice walk along the beach - it was a lovely day with stunning weather.
The gorgeous Molly
As we were house sitting for the whole week I had to master another form of public transport...the bus! To be fair, the website for public transport out here is brilliant. You pop in your starting point and your end point and it uses Google technology to show you the options you have for getting there, prices, etc etc. Being used to commuting by ferry it was quite hard to get back into bus routine...you see - the ferry doesn't stop to pick up more passengers from other places on the way - it goes from A to B via nowhere. So the bus was supposed to take me 40 mins from the house to work but it always ended up being an hour or more. It was fine though and I still wasn't driving which suited me perfectly :)
It was the first time that I had really seen Auckland traffic in full swing - it's crazy. OK, it might be nothing compared to traffic in the UK on the M25 or whatever but it seemed manic. One of the good things they have is that on the way onto the motorway they have traffic lights which continually turn red-amber-green-amber-red-amber-green to slow the flow of traffic onto the motorway. One car goes per green light and it stops the eejits that you usually see trying to overtake people to get nowhere - faster than everyone else. They do have some good bus lanes on the motorway though - which cars with 2+ people in can also use. If you are driving a car and don't have 2 people in it the bus drivers know how to use their horns!! They toot like it's going out of fashion...and glare at you as they drive past. As they should to be fair.
The first day that I caught the bus I was waiting at the stop with a few other people when I saw the bus coming...'fab' I thought...until I saw the 2nd bus behind it. Both pulled into the bus stop and I had to make a quick decision which one I was going to commit to. I knew I needed the 07F and the first one was the 079 and the second was the 07. I jumped on the first one and asked the driver "what's the difference between you and the bus behind you?" ... he didn't really know, except that the other one went on the motorway but "there's not really much difference" so I got on. Handing him $20 was a bad move but I didn't have any change so he said "I'll keep hold of this until I get some change" so he did. As we pulled away I turned around to see the bus behind us now said 'Flyer' on it...that would be the 07F then...bugger - I was on the wrong bus.
We drove along - not going on the motorway - and after about 45 minutes there was a load bang on the side of the bus...the driver had driven into a sign on the side of the road! Admittedly he didn't purposely drive INTO it but the side of the sign went into the road a bit and he just didn't dodge it. At the next stop he got out to check the damage on his bus - which I assume was fine.
A bit random: Sal's Pizza - that's not childs hand, it's mine
When I got off the bus he gave me my $20 back and said "don't worry about it, just have some change next time" but I really wanted to pay so I asked if I could pay him on my way home or the next morning to which he replied "no, I won't be driving it" which sounded a bit ominous! I was worried that he was thinking he'd get sacked for the road sign incident! But nevertheless thankfully a few days later he was back driving the bus. The journey took just over an hour so I was sure to catch the Flyer for the rest of the week! On that first bus trip as we were nearing downtown one of the other passengers was talking loudly into her phone (think Dom Joly) saying "no, I'm still on the bus. Yes it's the longest journey in the world! I'll be there in ten minutes." It's always nice to know when the longest journey in the world is going to end.
On the final day of house and cat sitting the following Sunday Ursh & Dan came home from their holiday looking all relaxed and sun tanned and they cooked us a BBQ to say thank you. We had lovely Kingfish that they'd caught on their holiday - it was delish!
February has been completely manic in work - we take on 100 graduates each February and their induction is arranged by our team so you can imagine that it's all systems go! The girls in work have given me a nickname too...it has stemmed from one of the partners who seems to have got stuck on my name being 'Trudi' - you know what it's like when you assume someone's name - or get it wrong once, it's hard then to rectify it in your head. So the girls now call me Trudi - and having heard that my nickname in the UK is Nangle (don't ask!) thanks to the Ooooodex girlies, they have ensured that my new name is Trudi Nangle. I came back to my desk one day and we have proper name bands on our desks - well mine now says Trudi Nangle. It's cause lots of confusion - with people looking for 'Trudi Nangle' on the phone book to see who she is! I have decided that Trudi is my alter ego, she's the naughty one and I'm the good one.
My desk....hmmm what can you see...?
That's right - my new name!
We had our delayed Christmas & New Year function on Friday just gone. The organiser decided we should go and do lawn bowls after debating paint balling (too many pregnant people in the team) - it was brilliant fun! We split into 6 teams and 2 competed against each other - our 2 teams were surprisingly good! It was quite satisfying to get your ball close to the jack and we all had a good night.
Our bowls
Last Wednesday the OH's parents arrived from the Welsh valleys for a month. His mum (it's mam in the valleys) has been like a trojan in her resistance to jetlag - it hasn't affected her in the slightest! We were sure it was going to hit at some point but no, she's fine. They spent their initial few days at ours in Auckland and this weekend we spent Saturday at Auckland viaduct where we walked around and had food. Then Sunday we headed to Bees Online to get some honey, Coopers Creek vineyard to do a wine tasting and have a cheese and fruit platter while sitting in the summer sunshine listening to the jazz band they had playing there, then we headed to Piha to look at Lion Rock and then on to Karekare beach (where they filmed The Piano).
It's so lovely having them around - I was in tears when I first saw them - you really do underestimate how much you miss seeing faces that you know in your everyday life. This morning the OH has taken them up to the Bay of Islands for a few days to see Paihia (pronounce pie-hee-ya) and Whangerei (fang-er-eye) among others. It's grand timing for them to come out as summer has well and truly arrived (albeit late - but we're used to untimely summers!).
The pretty NZ evening sky
I have a bit of a random request to end on. I am trying to find out where the name Scroggin comes from. It's used out here for trail mix (nuts, seeds, etc). If anyone knows where this name comes from PLEASE leave a comment informing me. The request has even baffled Google who could give me no answer so I am relying on REAL PEOPLE to answer me now and I'm sure we can do it!! This is soon to become a thing of the past as the Internet becomes the harbinger of all information. We should relish it and be the ones to inform Google...who's with me?? No making up answers now...
A final hello to all of you from SuperTom. He's fed me well for the past few weeks - and the OH and his parents too. He grows THE BEST tomatoes ever! Check out his new frame :)
The emperor has new clothes
