Well, arrived safely in NZ yesterday (7th Sept) to be met by John and Aime at Wellington Airport. A wonderful welcome from them both - Aime has grown a lot since we last saw her in April and can certainly talk the hind leg off a donkey. She remembers Grandpa OK, and hit me with one of her old tricks - undoing my shirt and poking me in the belly-button! Delightful, if painful.
We drove up the Kapiti Coast in John's new car which he took delivery of today. It's an Audi Quattro in British Racing Green, 2003 but very low mileage. It was imported from Japan and is in immaculate condition, and better now that the dealer has removed the Japanese voice that shouted at you if you hadn't put on your seat belt. We had a bit of luck at at the Airport as I found Nellie on the floor of the car park, near the rear wheel. Aime must have dropped her when they parked up, so my finding her was very fortuitous. God knows what would have happened had he/she/it gone AWOL - not the happy evening we had at the Beachhouse.
More about that later. First I should explain that I've started this blog as I feel it's the best way to record my thoughts, impressions and ideas, as I can add to it while I go along, rather than trying to write a series of e-mails. We'll see how we go......... . Bugger, the display on this laptop has gone all psychedelic again which is not helping my jetlag at all. I'll leave it there for a bit as I've got the Sky bloke coming soon to get the telly going for RWC 2011 which seems to be quite a big thing over here at the moment
We arrived at the Beachhouse at about 6 p.m. The journey through the 'rush hour' (everything in NZ is relative!) was easy, the only drama being when we stopped to get petrol and John realised that he didn't know how to open the petrol flap. After much scratching of heads a friendly Kiwi showed us how- 'Hire car is it mate? '- we kept quiet. Basically you just push the flap and then unlock, far too complicated for the combined intellects of Ballingall pere et fils.
The beachhouse renovations are absolutely stunning. John is so pleased with the improvements which have made a great house even better. The sense of indoor-outdoor flow is amazing, just what we planned; Doug has done a fantastic job and I will ask him round for a beer once we get a warm day. We got some grub from Big Gav's (not to be confused with Flat Eric) and so I snacked on beer, chips and a home made meat pattie. An indulgence, but we weren't going straight into the cooking malarky on our first night. The jet lag kicked in at about 8.30 p.m. and so I hit the sack, but only after putting Amie to bed with a reading of the Enormous Crocodile which is humungously long but Amie didn't seem to mind that I left out huge chunks. I slept fairly well,waking only for a pee at midnight and 4 a.m. I was treated to breakfast in bed (marmite on toast and a cup of coffee courtesy of John, and was joined in bed by Amie who was frighteningly talkative at that God-forsaken hour. Grandpa got the honour of supervising her ablutions and getting her dressed for school before they left for Wellington just before 0700. Amie is very amenable to an early start, I can't see the Parks having it so easy (especially with grumpy-guts Jeff). Then it was my first early morning walk to get the Dominion Post. The tide was in, so I couldn't walk along the beach, but the works at The Esplanade have been completed and there is now a super concrete pathway along its length just below the road. It was great to see the Sun rising over the South Island and reminded me of why we love this place. The chap in the Foreskin welcomed me back (good memory for his regular customers) and then it was back home for the paper, some fruit (healthy living, moi) and more coffee.
After unpacking and having a good look around in the light, I did some half-hearted tidying up and then set off in the Corolla for the delights of Paraparam Coastlands. The whole Mall is be-decked in All Blacks flags and the ABs feature in adverts for everything (what everythingVic?) I had a quick look around Countdown and Pak n'Save ( 'You don't have to be Richie to shop here' geddit -Ed.?) to get re-acquainted with the prices, which don't seem to have changed that much since earlier in the year. I didn't buy anything, but wombled back home to ring the Sky man and confirm the installation - no problems bro.
For lunch I made my first foray into the culinary world to the extent of managing to turn on the cooker and heat a steak and cheese pie kindly provided in the freezer by JSB. The fact that the cooker wasn't even connected electrically hinted that our son has not been over-taxing himself on the cooking front during his visits and I felt quite pleased that I managed to warm up the aforementioned delicacy of a Ponsonby Pie. (actually it wasn't as hot as it should be, although I followed the instructions to a T. A quick zap in the microwave soon sorted that out) I do hope that the temperature settings on the cooker are not temperamental as it will play havoc with my souffles (you lying git!). An orange and banana completed my first meal - bona.
The Sky blokes arrived as promised at 1400 and took about an hour to stick the dish on the roof and get it all working. They had a special bracket which fits onto corrugated sheeting roofs - very Kiwi! So anyway now we have 30+ channels of probably the most dire TV in the Universe but also Sky Sports 1-4 which are great. We also have the Disney channel for Amie, but we will probably lie to her and say that it isn't available so that she doesn't interrupt wall to wall rugby from Friday night onwards. After the opening ceremony and NZ v Tonga on Friday, there are 4 matches one after the other on Saturday which should produce a beer bottle mountain of epic proportions.
I felt a bit knackered then, but nipped up to the Four Square for some supplies; a pack of 5 (ripe!) avocados for $1.99, some hash browns and a lemon for tonight's extravaganza of 'Steak Cooked in the Tuscan Manner' courtesy of that nice Nigel Slater, with accompanying mushrooms (nice one our John), tomatoes and hash browns to be cooked on the BBQ. I will report back on the success or otherwise of this tastebud tingling potential disaster tomorrow!
Crumbs it's 1730 and I've missed Wine O'clock - must really be suffering from the effects of the flight. Will just go and have a pill (haven't missed one yet) and await a call from my Mary. Can't wait...........
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