Holidays!

A couple of weekends ago we went to watch Dave Dobbyn play as part of the 'acoustic church series'. Like last year we went with Keryn and Brendon. The initial plan was to grab some dinner at the General Practitioner (buy one main get one free using the entertainment book...) but it was absolutely chokka and we couldn't get a table. Keryn and Brendon then suggested the 'Buenos Aires Tango Bistro' off Cuba St. With our bellies full of very tasty empanadas we headed to the concert. As usual Dave put on a great show, and the acoustics in the wooden church were fantastic.

In a similar vein, we have just bought tickets to 'A day on the green' at the Alana Estate Vineyard in Martinborough on February 19th. Crowded House and Supergrove are playing, so it should be a great way to celebrate Will & my birthdays (17th & 20th Feb respectively). A couple of my friends & their partners have also got tickets, so if anyone else fancies joining us, the more the merrier!

http://adayonthegreen.co.nz/concert_calendar/Crowded_House_NZ

Anyway, back to the holidays... They kicked off with a pretty full-on social weekend. On Friday night we had dinner at Lucy's. Her and Emmaline are both English with kiwi partners, and then Will & I are the other way around. Hence we had an English themed meal. Em & Wayne were in charge of starters & produced a smoked salmon terrine. Lucy & Paul cooked toad in the hole with mashed spud, leeks and onion gravy for the main, & Will & I rounded off the meal with sticky toffee pudding. It was a very enjoyable evening, and a great way to start the holidays.

Saturday was a glorious day so Will and I spent most of it outside in the garden. My job was to prune & tie back the roses, which took a while as they were pretty wild! I don't think they had had much attention for a while... Will mowed the lawn, which you can see below needed doing. Those magnolia flowers are no more, being a victim of the notorious Wellington wind...
Saturday night was a house-warming party over in Lyall Bay. One of Will's korfball team-mates has bought a house there, right across the road from the surfclub. The only problem with living right on the beach is that their backyard was under a metre or so of sand! Some of the team had spent the afternoon shovelling it out, but Will & I decided we had too much to do on our own property first.


We also spent a lot of Sunday outside, before heading to dinner at the home of Will's head of school. He lives on the same street as us so it was nice to just walk up the road & both be able to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine with the meal. Will had driven on Friday night, whereas I was the sober driver on Saturday.
Monday was a glorious day, I got to bust out my jandals & singlet for the first time this 'summer'. I had a very productive day tidying up the patio & clearing all the leaves & debris that had accumulated. I bought some petunias & geraniums at the local garden centre & put them into pots. I also had to re-pot some of the succulents that we inherited with the house. It is looking very nice, especially with all the tulips in full bloom. I had bought the tulips 'reduced to clear' from the Warehouse, & put them in quite late. I wasn't expecting too much from them, but every single bulb has come up!



On Tuesday I had a big seed planting day. I have got lots on the go on our sunny lounge windowsills, including beans, butternut squash, courgettes, sweetcorn, several varieties of tomato, plus all manner of herbs. I also have peas & carrots ready to plant directly into the garden on the next nice day. On Tuesday night Marty & one of his workmates came for dinner & stayed the night. They were heading down to the south island for work & had an early morning ferry crossing on Wednesday. It was great to catch up with Marty, he has dubbed our place the 'Wilton Hilton' which has quite a nice ring to it! The other exciting news regarding Tuesday is that once again we have got tickets to the sevens. No mean feat considering that just like last year they sold out in under 4 minutes! This time we have Brendon to thank for getting them. Now we'll just have to plan our outfits...

Unfortunately today wasn't nice at all. It was pretty wet & wild, so a good chance to do a few indoor jobs. I made it into the gym for the first time this holiday, so will have to make that more of a habit. Touch starts in a few weeks, so it'll be a good incentive to get fit for that.

That's about it, this is starting to get quite long... This weekend we have Nicky & Neal staying, as Nicky is competing in the tree-climbing champs on at the Botanical gardens on Saturday. It was tulip day at the gardens last weekend, so I'm looking forward to having a walk around & checking them all out.