Sniffles, Sore Throat & Santa!!

I had been looking forward to Christmas back in the UK since we got back from our travels and I wasn't disappointed as I had a magical time. However, I was dealt a bad hand a few days ago when I came down with quite a bad cold and have suffered with it all over Christmas, but I wasn't going to let it ruin this special time of year. We spent our time visiting family and friends and this is the first year I've felt like both sides are starting to become one big family, it's a wonderful feeling. Here are a few photies from over the past few days.






















































BRING ON CHRISTMAS 2007! xxx

I've been good all year Santa...honest

4 more sleeps to go
4 more sleeps till Santa
4 more sleeps till the big fat fella comes down your chimney and give you pressies
4 more sleeps till Santa......

WOOOO HOOOO!!!

Ok, so if you don't know the Nottingham 96.2 Trent FM radio jingle then this will probably seem a bit wierd, but whoop it up people coz...."Santa Claus is coming to town"
Got our first presents off family yesterday and along came the tingly, excitedness of wanting to
know what's inside.

xxx

P.S If anyone has the Mariah Carey 'All I want for Christmas' ringtone, please let me have it xxx

Tis' the season to be jolly!

As I'm feeling very crappy at the moment, I thought I would make a list of all the things I'm still enjoying;

1) Five Life (on sky) Every episode of Dawsons Creek is shown nightly at 7pm, tonight it's the beauty pageant, yeah!
2) Chocolate Orange Hobnobs, Mmm Mmm!
3) Cheesy TV Christmas films
4) Prisonbreak, what a hottie!
5) My Christmas tree, it's still alive and smelling great
6) My slobbing tracky bottoms
7) Gourmet Pringles, I seriously can't stop

Ok, I tried to make it to 10 but can't really think of any more so I wont force it. Kinda bummed at myself as Christmas is supposed to be a happy time and here I am stuggling to find reasons for being happy, gotta get that Christmas spirit back from somwhere.

Hours of festive fun!!

Enjoy...

http://calm.adventcalendar2006.co.uk/home.php

....and rest

Last night was the first night in 2 weeks that I was able to relax. I found out the other day that I may be out of a job by mid Jan, so I decided it was time to take control of my life again and not just live through each day. All of my spare time has been spent on 3 application forms and although it's been a week since I handed one of them in (so prob not got an interview) all the work I've done has made it easier to fill out future applications.

Anyway, with Christmas only around the corner I refuse to dwell on hard times. We bought our wonderful smelling Christmas tree the other day and it is now standing proud in our living room (still not bought a camera, so no pics of it yet).

Note to self for next year...'Do not open the Quality Streets tin until the week before Christmas'

xxx

Feel good FRIDAY!!

It was my mummy's birthday on Weds, so I'm dedicating this blog to her.

Reasons why I LOVE my mum.........

She's my confidante, best friend and my rock all rolled into one
She loves me no matter what I do
She has a strength of character that I can only hope for
She's independent, strong-minded & determined
She always listens to me
She never criticises me and always knows when to offer advice
She's now turned very girly and wears more make up than I do....Love it!!
She's still learning from her mistakes and always encourages me to do the same

There is so much more to my mum than what people may see. I love you mum and can't wait for you to walk me down the aisle!!

Blogs & Wobs...

Don't you just love predictive texting on mobiles. I have just been trying to send a text and instead of getting the word Xmas (I know some people don't like the shortened version) I end up getting Wobs. This made me giggle out loud in the office (don't know why, it's just a funny word when you say it out loud) but it highlighted the fact that I was doing something I shouldn't, damn it!!

More importantly, what the bloody hell is a WOB anyway!!!

What a weekend!!

I absolutely love fireworks and to my delight I went to 2 displays over the weekend for Bonfire Night.
On Friday night we were babysitting and took our niece Louise to see the display her dad Gary was helping out with. This was at someones farm (I keep forgetting whose and where!). The 2nd was at Mayer Park, just around the corner from where we live.
Now, we have seen the most amazing fireworks ever and these were in Sydney, Oz last New Years Eve (see pic). However, they didn't last very long and my joy at seeing fireworks was short lived and needless to say was slightly disappointed. So, when the length of both fireworks displays outlasted the Oz Experience I was over the moon.
Fireworks at the wedding?.....Sign me up!!

In between the joy of fireworks, on Sat Liz came with me to view our wedding venue and 'The Dress'. First stop was the venue and again it was a lovely day, which only confirmed my feelings that this place is IT. I also needed a girlfriends perspective and Liz was great, complementing in all the right places! Next stop was the dress shop where they stocked 'The Dress', which I had fallen in love with oh so long ago in Australia. To my disappointment back then, I was told via email that the dress would cost between £14,000 and £16,000 (see June's Blog). After trying 'The Dress' on I fell in love with it again and when the shop assisstant wrote down the price, I realised that the price on the email must have been a typo (too many noughts) and I can now afford it. HURRAY, WOO HOO, YEAH, CRY (tears of joy this time!!)
Only problem now though is that I've decided to still try on other dresses and they look good as well, Noooo. Too much choice, don't like it!

Anyway, I had a great first wedding 'expedition' and hope there will be many more to come. Liz has also restored my faith in friendship, which had been slightly dented, so a HUGE thank you.

More wedding posts to follow xxx

For the first time in a long while I will actually be in for the Trick or Treaters knocking on the doors. I have an image in my head of children in costumes coming round with their parents wanting sweets, etc (kind of America stylee). However, am I a bit negative in thinking we'll only get scally's knocking on the door wanting money and if they don't get anything they'll end up throwing eggs or water. Stay Posted!!

Oh yeah, it would help if I had some sweets on hand for all the terrors. I did buy some yesterday, but Cadbury's chocolate eclairs were just too tempting and ate most of them myself, hehe!!

On my own in the office!!

Has anyone flicked through to the next blog site after the one that you may be looking at. I've done this for about 20 minutes, reading extracts from each of them. Some of them are the most randomist (not a real word, I know!!) things I've ever read, but quite funny as well.
Try it, some sites will definately bring a smile to your face, great for a Fri afternoon and a start to the weekend!

xxx

Just the two of us

Alright....I know it's almost been a week since Harry and Viv left, but I just wanted to let everyone know that they got off safely, although it was a very emotional departure.
So now, Colin and I are in the land of living on our own (This last year doesn't count!!) and very nice it is indeed, although Colin's hours at work are very sporadic at the moment and haven't seem him that much. Bless him, he is working hard to save for our wedding (the bills can wait!)

Anyway, back to Harry and Viv.....As far as we know, the first night they arrived they stayed in Dar Es Salaam and lived it up in a hotel with a pool and the day after, they travelled to the village. Now, I have heard that there house in the village is very nice with 2 double bedrooms (ready for us when we visit!) I believe they have settled in, although this is on the grapevine. Updates will be posted when I hear from them as unfortunately internet is too expensive for Harry and Viv to have their own blogspot and keep it up to date.

We're going to look at our 2nd wedding reception venue on Sat, Aaaargghhh, cant wait!!!!!! (and believe it or not, Colin got the wedding bug and became excited after visiting the 1st one, yeah!)

xxx

So, here I am ready to post a blog, but can't for the life of me think what to write about. Every time I have something to gripe about I usually moan to Colin (need to re-think my methods of stress management!!) and whenever anything good happens I'm usually to excited to remember to sit at the computer. One of these things is birthdays (that I know of) to celebrate and therefore I have posted a belated birthday wishes list.....

September was the month for my beautiful friends Kelly Cartman and Liz Wall and great nights were had with both of them.

October has been the month so far for Gary Bateman and his daughter Louise Colyer (birthday was yesterday) who both had fantastic birthday cakes with their photos on.

Now, one thing we are both excited about is watching the 2nd season of LOST. We missed both seasons whilst we were away, but we did mange to buy the 1st seasons box set in Vietnam for £4 and watched all 25 episodes in 7 days (good going, eh!!) when we got back.
We have now just started to watch the 2nd season and really excited to find out what's happening!

Actually, now I've started writing I can think of loads of things to be sad/happy about, but I won't go crazy. I'm am gutted though that I missed Nottingham's annual Goose Fair this year. I vowed not to miss it again after last year, but with everything going off at the moment I actually forgot about it, boo hoo!! : (

Anway, enough!!
B4N xxx

TFI Friday!!!

It's now back to reality and to the joys of work again. Colin and I have almost completed our first week back at work and it's now FRIDAY!!! Oh, that joyous Friday feeling is back along with my no work policy on the last day of the week.
It's not been the easiest of weeks though, what with sleepless nights (being scared that the alarm won't go off on your first morning of work) and with Colin having to commute quite a way to get to the hospitals and getting stuck on the motorway for 2 hours coming home. It's going to be a bit of a struggle over the next couple of weeks until things become familiar again.

Well, I have been left to my own devices on the computer at work this morning, hence my midday blog, hehe!! It's nice to get away from the bloke that has been training me, as although he is lovely, he doesn't half talk a lot.

I'm off to the estate agents after work to try and start the ball rolling on learning about the current market situation, to prepare for mine and Colin's investments in our future property developments. I'm looking forward to getting my claws into another project, after that year away I'm going to have to keep busy or become bored.

Hope all you travel buddies are coping with being back at home and if you're still travelling, well, enough said!!

Feet still an inch off the ground!

We're back on home soil!!

I would like to say that now we've been back almost a week our feet are firmly on the ground, but no such luck. We have both found it quite-very hard to settle back in to 'normal' life. It has been fantastic seeing friends and family again and catching up, but after having a year of total control and independence and having hardly any concept of the day or time, adjusting back seems like it might take a little longer to accomplish. Hopefully with the support of our friends and family it will be a smooth and easy ride.
I still feel caught up in a whirlwind and haven't really stopped since I got back to Nottm, although I'm not complaining as I've had a great time. My sleeping pattern is still very messed up (I was having a midnight chat on messenger with one of the girls off our SA trip, as she couldn't sleep either!)

Seeing all of my friends has been fantastic (and unfortunately running out of time for this week) but the best thing has been meeting Mason, my godson, again. He is the cutest little man you'll ever see and my heart just melts. He amazes me when I see him, with just how much he can do. I think partly because when I saw him last he was still a babe in arms, but he also seems very intelligent for his age. I am looking forward to getting to know him now we're back and vice versa.

There are a ton of things that I haven't mentioned about our trip as my last blog was, I know, a loooong time ago. Every now and again I'm sure I'll make reference to one or two stories, but the last country we were in, Brazil/Brasil (spelt differently depending on the country!) was the best. I would love to post some pics, but as some of you are aware, when we were in the Pantanal (jungle/swampland area) our camera decided to take a dip in the swamp. We were horserding and Colin's horse felt like galloping and Colin had no other choice! It was after this that he realised the camera had gone. Miraculously after going back, our guide the cowboy managed to find it, apparently it was glistening in the water from the reflection of the sun, how clever is he!!

Rio De Janeiro was an experience to say the least, but left a lasting impression as we hope to go back out at carnival time in a few years, whilst we're still young enough to enjoy it anyway! We were staying in Ipanema for most of our time, with some of the gang and it was gorg. Although the weather was very changeable, the shopping was to die for and bars/restaurants were up there!

Anyway, there are so many stories and adventures to tell, but a bit at a time will suffice. Don't want you all getting bored to soon!! So for now, I must go and make myself look decent for Colin who is making his way to Nottm as I type.
On an end note, it has been awesome seeing those who we have and are looking forward to seeing those who we haven't.

See you all at the engagement party (If you haven't had an invite, it's coz we dont like ya!!) No, seriously though, if we have happened to miss anyone out, please get in touch.

Won't leave it so long next time xxx

We´re off to the jungle tomorrow for 3 nights and 2 days, so we´ll be out of range for a bit. We´re hoping to spot some Anacondas, Jaguars and Pumas and we´ll be sleeping in hammocks for the original experience, yeah!!
Thanks Harry and Viv for your lovely thoughts and words and Liz we´re on our way, get the wedding mags at the ready!!

Gotta go back to our campsite now as we´re having a fruit punch night and don´t want to miss out!!

Lovin you all xxx

P.S 16 days to go!!!

I´m feeling rather crappy at the moment. Colin and I have spent enough time with our group now and just really want to get back to doing our own thing, but unfortunately we can´t afford to leave, plus there is only twelve days to go and there are some pretty good things to look forward to. I know I´m being unreasonable as we have had a great time and have had access to some wild things, but you know when you´ve had enough of something and that time is now.

We are now in Brazil, but my last blog we were still in Bolivia and have also crossed through Argentina since, so it´s been a while!! One last thing we did in Bolivia was mountain biking down none other that Death Road. It was 68km downhill on a very narrow dirt path with a 300m drop on one side. This road is still being used for two way traffic by enormous trucks and it is known as death road as it has been classed as the most dangerous road in the world. It took us four hours to bike down and almost 7 hours to get back up. It was pretty treacherous, we also found out that the next day a coach, full of people, had actually slipped 100m down the side of the road and half of the people lost their lives. Scarily thinking, that could have easily been us.

I´m being kicked out of the internet place, so I´ll save Argentina and Brazil for another time.

See you all very shortly xxx

I'm not drunk, it's the altitude!!

I'll never take Engish internet connections for granted again, as with a lot of things. We've come to realise that as English people we are very spoilt with the amount of choice and availabilty we have, especially when it comes to buying certain things. Girls, imagine if you only ever had a couple of brands of beauty products to choose from and guys your choice of beer was limited. I know the people who live out here do not know any different, but my point is that we should be very grateful for where and how we live.

On a lighter note, we are now in Bolivia and I have never breathed in so much dust in my life! It's a very dry country, similar to Cambodia. We left Peru a few days ago and on our last night out all the lads tried the local delicacy. I wanted to show a photo, but I thought I would leave it for when we get back as those with a weak stomach might not appreciate it. The dish is none other than England's household pet, the guinea pig!!!! It came on the plate teeth an' all and had been deep fried. I tried it and it 'tasted like chicken', hehe!! Well, it actually tasted like roast duck, but with less meat.

We are now only in Bolivia for another couple of days. We visited the largest salt flats in the world yesterday at a staggering 1200 sq kms. We are now at 4000kms above sea level in a silver mining town called Potosi and tomorrow we visit a silver mine which is still being used. We get to go in and have a look around and visit the guys who still work there. We also get to buy dynamite and blow stuff up!! In a couple of days we will be crossing the border into Argentina, which I've been looking forward to for a long while. Hopefully my next blog will be from there.

Ciao xxx

Exhausted & smelly, but still going strong!!

Has it really been that long since my last blog, time really does fly when you're having fun!! Our time in Chile was fantastic and we will def be going back to travel the south of the country as we didn't have the time to do it on this trip, however, Chile has been and gone and we have been in Peru for the past two weeks with our tour group. What a two weeks they have been!!

We have just got back from doing the Inca Trail trek through the mountains in Peru. We reached Macchu Picchu yesterday morning after getting up at 4am to start the last day of treking. Macchu Picchu is the ancient ruins of the lost city in Peru and the trail we took was the one the Inca people took 500 years ago to reach Macchu Picchu and what a privilege it was. It is still not known what Macchu Picchu was used for, so there is a lot of mystery surrounding it. We trekked 38kms over 4 days and reached an altitude of 4200m above sea level. It was trying at times and Colin fell ill, yet we both made it through with the help of our group (pic of our group starting the Inca trail) On top of all this, we weren't able to wash properly, let alone take a shower!! There wasn't even running water in some of the places we stayed, so you can imagine how the toilets smelled, all part of the experience I say!

Reaching Macchu Picchu yesterday morning was amazing (see left) and a great end to our treking, however I am a westerner at heart and am very much looking forward to a hot shower (hair is like lard) and a comfy bed!!

One thing that amazed me along the way was how very much on par I felt with the Incas and Peruvian people. The main religion for them is Catholicism, but that aside they are very spiritual people and have so much faith and belief in who they are. They know where they've come from, where they are and where they are going after life and now matter how hard times are for them this never comes into question. For me, I have always questioned my faith and beliefs and have struggled for many years to understand what I have been put on earth to achieve. At this stage in my life, as I'm preparing to get married the right thing would probably be to follow the Christian beliefs, but is it so wrong of me to acknowledge that I find it and have always found it hard to believe in and am not sure if I could even begin to or want to understand. However, I have always felt I have had a spiritual connection with something in some way but am yet to understand what this is about. Anyway, I digress plus a story on my faith is a whole other blog!!

We are now chilling back in Cusco for 2 days, tonight we are having a group photo taken of us dressed up in traditional Peruvian clothing, which should be a laugh. On Monday head to Lake Titicaca where we will be spending a night with a local family, before moving on to Bolivia. We are having such a wonderful time in South America and experiencing so many things, however we are really looking forward to getting back home. We have become very weary travellers and are in desperate need of some TLC from friends and family!! Only 6 weeks to go, so everyone prepare yourselves for many tales of our travels!!

I'm not sure when I will be blogging next so I'll love ya and leave y'all for now and will be in touch soon xxx

Hola!

So here we are in beautiful Chile at last. I've definately had mixed emotions since being here. There has been elation at being able to speak ¨the lingo¨ and yet frustration at not being able to understand it! It's all good and well being able to ask for a diet coke, but when I get asked the question back, do I want it cold or room temperature? I get a bit stumped. I hear the word 'cold' in the sentence and I'm trying to figure out what being cold has to do with me wanting a drink. I got there in the end, when the waiter bought out a cold coke bottle and a warm coke bottle!!

We have picked up so many more phrases than what we were taught in our lessons back in NZ though and we've only been here 1 week, who knows what we'll be able to say in 2 months, I'd like a cold diet coke, maybe!!
We spent our first couple of days in Santiago, the capital of Chile and stayed in a great area with many artsy cafes where we spent our nights chilling out and having a drink or two! They serve beers out here in litre bottles, so you can imagine how Colin's loving it!!
We took a night bus 2 or was it 3 nights ago (I've lost track!) which took us to our first beach town of La Serena. The sun was shining when we got here and for the first time in 4 months we've been able to walk around during the day without wearing a jacket and it felt goooood!! Unfortunately we had to leave the next morning to continue our journey North to Caldera. Here was the prettiest beach town called Bahia Ingles, we even spent a couple of hours on the beach and burnt our faces, hehe.
We also met the nicest bloke and his wife (Francisco and Alexandria) who were on their honeymoon. He took us under his wings, almost literally as he's a pilot, and helped us with getting into town and they asked us to join him and his wife for lunch. The people in Chile have been some of the friendliest we have met on this trip, it's amazing! We took another overnight bus last night and we are now in Iquique which is still on the coast, but not as nice.
We're hanging around for a couple of hours, waiting to catch our next bus up to Arica tonight and from here we will cross the border into Peru and fly up to Lima, phew I'm exhausted justing typing about all the travelling that we have\will be doing. We have travelled almost 25ookms in about 5 days, hardcore!!

We're both looking forward to travelling with a group of people again, we meet up with our tour group on the 15th July and begin our tour the day after. We're also really looking forward to taking our first helicopter flight, which shouldn't be too long now, yeah!

I seem to be having trouble uploading our photos on this computer, so I'll try again soon.

Adios xxx

Up and away!!

Ok, so we haven't flown yet! We're in a lace called Matamata where we did a tour to the film site of "The Shire" from Lord of the Rings. It was pretty cool, but then again Colin and I are movie geeks, oops I should really say movie buffs!!
We are now finishing off a few last things before we drive to Auckland and fly to Santiago, Chile today. I made a phone call earlier and booked a room for when we get there and had to speak in Spanish! It was sooo funny, but I managed it and I'm quite proud of myself. Am really looking forward to speaking and learning a bit more when we get there, we just need to get this 13.5 hour plane journey out of the way!

Anyway, just a quick blog, they charge the earth out here for using the internet. Will post some more photos of our week around the North Island soon. Just imagine my next blog will be from South America!

Bye for now xxxx

Farewell Wellington

Can you believe on my first day of no more work I still got out of bed at 6am and went to the gym, now that must be dedication for you. When I got back Colin was still in bed, so I crept out again (in the dark may I add) to make a last post on here from windy welly.

It was very sad saying goodbye to my work colleagues, weight watchers group and Spanish class all in the same day, but on a happy note I lost 700gms yesterday at my final weigh in, now that was a surprise! I actually reached the target of losing 10% of my starting weight, which I received a pin for. It was a really nice way to finish off my time with them.

So, it really is time to leave here and we'll take a lot of good memories with us, but now for the next leg of the trip. I can't believe we'll be in Santiago, Chile in a weeks time, sooooo excited!!!!

Backpacks at the ready!

Once again on our journey of discovery, we find ourselves packing our belongings into our backpacks and heading off into the unknown. It is our last day at work today and first thing in the morning we will be on our merry way.

The place where I have been working for the past 3 months, the 'Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board' (complete coincidence that I'm working in the same field as back home) put on a morning tea for my leaving do, which seeing as though I am only a temp was very nice of them. The chairman of the company told me this morning and I quote 'If i had a wish list, on it would be for you to stay with the company in a permanent position'. He has also offered me a job if I ever returned to Wellington, well, I must be good!!

Pictured above is a view of Oriental Bay from the top of Mount Victoria, we walked up it one day and took this photo, very scenic. We'll be emailing you all very soon with an update of our photos on the kodak gallery, so make sure you all check them and keep up to date with our antics!

I feel like a bit of a blob at the moment, I've been doing really well with going to my weight watcher meetings, eating the right foods and going to the gym. I've also been pretty good at controlling myself around chocolate and not pigging out, but for some reason today I've gone on a rampage. All the food for my farewell morning tea was savoury foods, sausage rolls, mini quiches, etc. There was also a tray of biscuits that I've been picking at every time I walk past. I have a weigh in today and it wont suprise me if I've put on a tonne, it certainly feels like it. I wish someone else would eat the damn things!! Oh no, the shortbreads are calling.......bye!!!

I know I've been a bit slack recently with the blogs, sorry liz (gorg friend and blogging mentor!!) There's no excuse either as the availibilty of using the net at work is pretty flexible, not supposed to though but hey ho! Well, it's our last week at work, YEAH and the weekend just gone was our last in Windy Welly. Very sad to be saying bye so soon, yet happy to be moving on.

The weekend, which was going to be a fairly quite one, ended up being very entertaining. Sat morning we met up with our Spanish tutor and a few others from the Spanish lessons to enjoy a free (anything 'free' is our idea of good entertainment) viewing of "Abros los ojos" which in English is "Open your eyes" and the original of Vanilla sky. Not that we understood the Spanish much though, we're not that good!! It did have English subtitles however and found that I actually preferred the Spanish version so much more than the hyped up hollywood version.
After that, I had a bit of a set back to my great weekend when I got my hair trimmed (trimmed being the operative word!) the hairdresser got a bit scissor happy and decided I needed a proper cut. Needless to say, I was gutted and still am but hey, it'll grow back.

We then met up with one of Colin's work mates who took us and a few other work friends to the Illot theatre in the city to see two of his friends, who are from England, perform in their play called 'Hot Pursuit' (see pic left). It was hilarious and witty and very English, which made me quite homesick. After the play we met the stars of the show, Clare and Adam, and had quite a few drinks with them. The night, or should I say morning, ended up with us in the 'good luck' bar. Nicely fitting for Clare and Adam who are continuing the tour of their show in the North Island of NZ, break a leg guys! Def recommend anyone to go and see the play if it's in your area, as they are touring England as well.

I'm typing this blog with my eyes half open (trying to be positive, cup half full an' all!) as Colin set the alarm for 3am this morning for us to watch the England vs Ecuador match. I managed the first half and of course missed the goal in the second half (fast asleep!) and I am now starting to struggle.
Staring at a comp screen all day doesn't help matters either, this is where reciting the Spanish alphabet backwards will come in handy!!

Hope this has made up for my lack of blogs, you're all probably asleep now to!!

Lovin you all xxx

Heartbroken : (

I am, at the moment going through a greiving process for my dream wedding dress (pictured left).
Since being in NZ I have been able to excitedly start looking through wedding magazines to search for ideas. There are even English ones over here.
In every magazine I've read so far, there has been a picture of this Maggie Sottero dress taunting me. So, one day I sent an email to Mrs Maggie, innocently asking for a rough idea of the price for a dress like this and can you imagine my surprise when they emailed back with a figure of.....14,000 - 16,000 pounds (don't have pound signs on these comps out here!)
Why, why, why??????? Sob, sob..why?..sob. It's not faaaiiiirrrr!!! Ok, so that's my little tantrum over with but seriously, it's ridiculous. Dont get me wrong, I think the wedding mags are great for certain ideas, but other than famous people, gold diggers, scam artists, lottery winners, etc who is really going to be able to afford these fabulous dresses and the castles that the people get married in, in the "real life wedding" stories.
I's thinks they need to find some affordable yet designeresque type dresses that we poor folk can afford. I know they're out there so, Jim please fix it for me!!!!

Road Trip!!!

We were quite honoured last weekend to witness something that people love to watch, but may never actually get to see in person. Yes.....we saw the All Blacks (the creme de la creme of NZ rugby players) perform the Haka in front of a 25,000+ crowd, WOW!
The game against Ireland, although wasn't the best, was a fantastic experience. The opening ceremony (this was the first game of a test) went off with a bang, literally. They had fireworks on the ground and the final explosions were huge vertical puffs of fire, I really can't think of another way to describe it, but I'm sure the people at the front of the stands had their eyebrows singed as we could feel the heat come off it from about 10 lines back!!
Unlike football, where they segregate the fans because of the very likely event of a brawl, we were surrounded by giant green leprachauns!! Well not literally, but you get the gist. The behaviour and at times the respect of all the fans here leaves much to be desired for, especially when you're standing next to an Irish group who are applauding the All Blacks for scoring a fantastic try.

Anyway, listen to me getting all hooked on Rugby (it really is hard not to get swept up in the moment here).
The next thing I know Colin will have bought me a season ticket for Everton!! This may not be such a bad thing as long as they start to win a few matches!

For the weekend we drove to a place called Cambridge, just outside of Hamilton (where the game was played).
Chris, bless him, drove most of the way there and back and the day after the game, they took us to one of the thermal springs in Lake Taupo where we had a quick dip. It's amazing how the geo-thermal activity causes the water to run hot and cold. Here we are in our togs (NZ word for swimming costume) it was about 15 deg that day, if that and we're sitting in water, which felt like a bath. Awesome experience and a great way to end a fantastic weekend!!!

I would like to give myself a huge pat on the back for accomplishing a couple of things this week. The first is that I've finally accepted the fact that I DON'T have straight hair....what? I hear you cry...but yes, it has taken all of my 25 years to admit it. So, to heck with the straightners, it's time us wavy/curly haired girls made a stand!!!
There have been many occasions on this trip when my hair has done a Monica and became a mop of fuzzy hair, but now it has grown a little longer it has thankfully become more manageable. Even so, I can now manage to say that "I love my hair" Oooh that was easy, I'll say it again, "I love my hair"

Now the second achievement of the week is quite a big one. As some of you are aware I joined weight watchers here in Wellington about 7 weeks ago. Colin and I became a couple of porkers before we arrived in NZ, what with our deep fried food diet in Vietnam, our creamy curry diet in Thailand, chicken satay diet in Bali and our meat/bbq diet in OZ, it was time to admit that my jeans were actually too tight and not that they had shrunk in the wash!!
So, on my 7th week of weigh ins I finally managed to lose 5kg (well, 5.2kgs to be exact.) which is a bit of a milestone and one where people tend to start noticing differences, i.e dropping a dress size. 5.2 kgs is the equivalent to 11.5 pounds and to be honest I've never felt better. Joining weight watchers has made me realise that you can eat well, feel full and still lose weight. Everything's on the menu (yes, chocolate included!)and it's never been easier to eat it!!!
I'm feeling quite proud of myself this week, so YEAH to me!!!!!

Boy talk

If there's one thing that we've missed from being away for so long, then it's not being able to see our gorgeous godson (not officially yet, but soon to be) Mason grow during the first year of his life. Needless to say we haven't been able to see him during his learning to walk or talk phase of his life.
Although Mason won't have any idea of who we are when we get back, it hopefully won't take to long to change that and we're looking forward to taking on full godparent duties.

Whilst I'm on the topic of babies, I'd like to congratulate Clair and Gareth Ellis on the birth of their beautiful baby boy, Kian. We hope you're not having to many sleepless nights and smelly nappies, but even if you are, I'm sure you're loving every minute of it!

Come on the Canes!

Here we are at the semi final of the Rugby Super 14's, supporting Wellingtons local team 'The Hurricanes'.
Now, with Wellington ('windy welly' as it's known to locals) literally being the windiest city in the world, then the name kinda fits. We've been to a few of the games now and the atmosphere at the Westpac stadium has been awesome. The Canes won the Semi final, but sadly lost to 'The Crusaders' (Christchurch, NZ) in the final.

The main reason though for publishing this photo is to say a huge THANK YOU to our Kiwi friends, Chris and Aimee. Colin met Chris at work and they have both shown us heaps of kindness and generosity. We'll always remember our night out after this rugby game and def won't forget those P P!!!
Our only hope is that we are able to show them just as good a time when they get over to England, which we're really looking forward to.

P.S CONGRATULATIONS to you both on your engagement!!

Finally!!

I've finally managed to create my own blog page, phew!
I started to create one for both Colin and I back in January to showcase the rest of our trip, but at the time, we were in Australia and cost an absolute fortune to keep using the internet. When I thought I had actually got somewhere with it my money ran out and the damn computer turned itself off.
Anyhow, I've decided to make this page my own but will still be posting details of the rest of our trip. So to all of Colin's friends, this won't be just about me! I'm just ecstatic to be able to write my thoughts somewhere rather than go crazy by talking to myself or drive Colin crazy as he's the only one around to talk to.

The inspiration for my blog title came from a wonderful saying by Marcel Proust. We stumbled upon it in Byron Bay, Australia whilst we were staying at what was once an old hippy commune. All you fellow travellers will know it as the Arts Factory.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes"

This made us both think about what we wanted to get out of our trip. It would be so easy to continue life as 'normal' and visit all the great places but visually let many of the small and wonderful things pass us by, which is what most of us do wherever we are, but here we both have this chance to see and experience things that a lot of people don't and this has definately opened up our eyes with a new outlook on our lives.

So, here's to my first of many blogs to come!!