Christmas Weather

Wow - Look at all the suns!!!

G'on Burke

Breaking Sports News.....


Mike's come back year has ended well with a "Best Player" award from his GAA 7's team mates. Here he is proudly wearing his medal.



Well, I managed to put it on him and take a photo. I didn't try pushing my luck by asking him to pose, but at least I got a picture for posterity.





The other weekend we went to the beach, had a bbq and put up the Christmas tree all on the one day - how weird is that! Some people may think that the 6th of December is slightly early to put up a Christmas tree, but they're just Scrooges.


Well I hope everything is going ok in Ireland - as it seems that even the politicians are descending into anarchy! Paul Gogarty's "unparlimentary language" even made the 6 o'clock New Zealand news. That's what happens when you let the hippy green party into government.

The Quest is over!

I have been meaning to put up these fireworks pictures since Guy Fawkes night, but now we have even more reason to celebrate.......

Our 10 month search for an acceptable sausage has finally ended in triumph. It's been a tough journey, munching through the many substandard offerings which are only to be expected in a country which seems to prefer beef sausages (what is that about???).

But then, just when we were close to giving up and accepting vension as our sausage meat of choice we found :

Black Rock Sausages

Supreme award winner of the Great New Zealand Sausage Competition

and now life is complete.

Here are a few new pictures of Wellington to try and entice more visitors.

That lovely blue thing towards the top of the pictures is sky minus rain, just in case people at home are confused.



.

And finally......

Thanks Colleen for the ENORMOUS Christmas box of Irish crisps and chocolate that arrived today. I am trying to find somewhere to hide it as Mike has allegedly heard a health board press release today which recommends that chocolate and crisps make up 75% of a balanced diet.

Dr Meghan Stephens

I eventually graduated!! Obviously it wouldn't really be worth flying home for the ceremony, so Patrick (now Dr Patrick Browne) recorded it for me on his phone. If you turn up the volume you can hear my name and thesis title being called out, and Patrick saying "yay".

Cheers Patrick!

More Irish immigrants.

Brian and Sandra have also decided to escape the recession and move to Wellington. What can I say, we're trend setters.

It's all fine with us though, as they keep on making us dinner.







New Zealand is all very exciting for them..... just look at the joy on their faces after seeing their first Kiwi sheep.

New Job, New House and EARTHQUAKE.

Mike got a new job this week, working for someone who was involved with this building. I'm hoping to retire soon.

For the first time in years we are now living in a proper house and not a tiny "apartment" (cupboard)! It's so big that we have had to buy walkie-talkies in order to keep in touch, and this morning it took me 15 minutes to find my keys. Our new address is 39 Tarikaka Street, Ngaio, Wellington.

We thought it couldn't get more exciting than that, but then we felt our first earthquake! Afterwards we realised that our reaction of grinning at each other from the excitement probably wasn't what was recommended by the experts.

<-- Mikes Old Office

Mikes New Office -->

Tsunami!

It's ok, we haven't washed away. But it was apparently the biggest risk of a tsunami in New Zealand in my managers life time (he's 40 I think). As you can see by these squiggley lines from http://www.geonet.org.nz/tsunami/gauges/index.html :


I was slightly worried when the data from Raoul Island stopped coming in!

On a happier note here are Stephanie and Collen (who are well away from any seismic activity)-->

Queenstown

Mike doesn't go on holidays unless they involve a sporting event, so I went off to Queenstown for a week snowboarding with Brian.

Unfortunately, it took a lot of throwing myself at the ground when I was going scarily fast (hmmm well maybe not that fast), as well as multiple bruises on top of bruises. To add to the annoyance, a girl kept on following me around taking pictures.





Eventually though, I was able to pretend I knew what I was doing, even if I didn't quite get used to getting off the chairlifts.







Brian is a good snowboarder (previous broken collar bone aside), but not when he wants me to take a picture of him :

Brian : "Right, take it now"
Me : "Ok"
Brian : "Splat"

I think it is actually written into Queenstown local by-laws that you have to do a bungy jump when you're here, so who am I to say no:


<--

At this point I'm probably my most scared.

You can just about see it in my face ;)









About now I've decided that there's no going back (my street cred would be ruined), so I may as well enjoy what could be my last minute alive.

-->










<--- Now I'm thinking "why did I think it was a good idea to jump off this perfectly safe bridge?".

"weeeeeeeeee" -->

<-- "woohooo"

Now I'm talking complete jibberish to the
two guys in the boat, a possible side effect
of the endorphine high. -->

Hello family and friends!!

As you may all have noticed, I am really bad at keeping in touch. When I lived on the same continent as you this wasn't so much of a problem, but now it may seem like I am lazy (which COULD also be a factor). So, in an attempt to find a “work-around” for my telephonophobia, I have started this blog.

First of all I should say that Mike has issues with blogs. He thinks that they are mostly personalised versions of “Anne and Barry” books (or “Peter and Jane” books in the UK). Hence the title and the fact that he is in no way affiliated with this blog or any subsidiary blog which may arise in the future. With this in mind I promise not to write too much rubbish, but to put up lots of pictures.

However, if you are related to me (us), you are obligated to read this on a regular basis and I (we) expect lots of loving comments ;).