Mum's 60th Birthday Bash

Well I wasn't going to miss mum's birthday like i did dad's, ha ha ha... As usual mum and dad picked me up from the airport, and i was really looking forward to mum's bash. She was just having an open day, where everybody could come, anytime of the day, have a bite to eat and a drink and be merry. And it turned out to be a fantastic day. I caught up with people i hadn't seen for years. Most of the Cuzzie's made it down. And i might add so did the tequila shots. Altho Aunty Sue was spotted trying to tip hers onto the lawn, ha ha ha... with a bit of cuzzie persuasion and encouragement she managed to slug it back. Mum had a blast, i think we all did. It really was a great day. Tania sung, Sarah played guitar and Collette and myself managed to belt out one of mum's favourite's as well.
I finally got to meet Peggie, all the way from Broken Hill, Australia. What a crack up she is. A barrel of laughs.
Once all the guests had departed a couple of days later, i jumped in the car and headed over to Tracey's in Katikati, and what a night that was. I met Tracey's new lady, Eileen, and Tina and Christine came for dinner also. Needless to say several beers and a bottle of Tequila later, Tracey couldnt stand up, and we all crashed, 3am in the morning i am told. I must say Tracey was certainly in better shape than me in the morning... not good at all.
Then all to soon i was back on the plane and heading back to Dunedin. It had been one of the best trips i've had.

Aunty Bev

Loving, Warmth... A couple of words to describe Aunty Bev, but the one word for me would be Caring. It didnt matter what the situation, if you walked into a room you always felt that she cared. You could feel the warmth and love radiating from this amazing person and always, yes always you could feel that she cared. Her smile, wow... need i say more! She was truly a beautiful soul. Unfortunately now we are without her (in body), but as i sit here writing a letter to Uncle Peter i seem to get that warmth around me. Its really unusual, yet calming.

I write these blogs to get out of me what i am feeling, and i for the days surrounding her funeral i felt i had lost a piece of me, an aching piece of my soul lost that i cant get back. It was heart breaking, I felt so down, so low and so terribly sad for the loss that was handed to me and my family. Such a significant person in our lives gone, not able to be replaced in anyway what so ever. But also not a soul that is suppose to be replaced, irreplaceable, thats the word i am looking for. She was now out of pain, and the family can start to heal from the loss that happened so long before she actually passed. Thats what we asked for, for Aunty Bev to be out of pain and free, and now she is, and this is a good thing. Why doesnt if feel good? I just dont understand it!!! This is a lost i find very hard to bear, did we ask for the right thing?

With faith i carry on, day to day, knowing what i asked for wasnt for me, but for Aunty Bev... she is free, i sure of it and smiling again. An Angel...

Watch out Dunedin - here come the Dodges!!!

Look out Dunedin!!! After a very nervous phone call they hung up and were about to get on the plane. First plane trip and i think both Tania and Sarah were a bit nervous. But they made it down here, no problems at all. I had so much planned for them, it was going to be great!!! The first day i took them out to have a look around the Octagon and check out what they wanted to do. And what are 3 ladies on the town suppose to do???

Yep we got our nails done. Tania kept her own nails and got an amazing design on them. Sarah and I went for the long nails option and yep they were long. We all looked great, even tho Tania had to pick everything up for us cause we couldnt with the lenght of our nails, ha ha ha ha...
Then all hell broke lose when Mike arrived home and the electric guitar was spotted in the corner, yee haa!!! The Rocking Dodges!!! I left them to it.Plugged into the effects board there were all sorts of versions of guitar boogie coming were from the lounge room.

We did so much, The Mad Scientist, Cadbury World, The Chinese Gardens, The Movies, Ladies Day out (make-up and lunch in the octagon), The Cadbury Crunchie Train, The Baldwin St Jaffa Race, Mr Green and Corneillis, Velvet Burger, Ice skating Disco, The Otago Muesum, the list goes on...But i think we cant go pass The Tri-nations Rugby, NZ Vs S.Africa, now that was fantastic. I wanted to take the girls to the All Blacks Roadshow at the Oval, where you can try "catching a high ball", "throwing the line out", "kicking for touch", "passing" and last but not least " scoring a try". They had a photo booth there where Mike decided he wanted to be winner of the Bledisloe Cup.

He's the man!!! Then not to be out done, Sarah got picked out of the crowd to go head to head with Brett Stevens from the Crusaders trying to score a try. And she kicked butt. She also got her photo taken with Buck Shelford (altho i had to explain who he was, ha ha ha)... It was a great day. She is still at the top of the leader-board on the All Blacks Roadshow web site.

Well you cant go to an All Black game at Carisbrook Dunedin without a banner, so outside we venture to make our Banner. What a ripper!!! We all had a go at writing on it, with pride... Then hello, before you know it, it was time to get ready for the game. The tatoo's came out, the Black supporters clothes went on and we were finally ready. We had front row seats, right under the posts, it was a sell out stadium, and the crowd was just wild. The girls loved it!!! I was so glad they did. It was a fantasic night, they loved it and Mike loved it too. He can now say he has been to his first All Blacks Rugby game. It was certainly a moment in time to remember.

Tania was in the spotlight this time, and this time for the whole of New Zealand to see. Yep, a close up of Tania, plastered across the t.v at the live broadcast of the rugby game. Fantastic!!!

Well it was a great week for all of us. And I loved it!!! I'm sure Dunedin didnt know what hit it.

7 Days in Oz Heaven

This was a well needed break i can tell you!!! Mike and I were totally past the cold Dunedin weather and looking forward to the beautiful weather of the Sunshine Coast, and it didn't disappoint. We left home at 11pm and drove thru the night to be at Christchurch Airport at 4 in the morning. The flight was good, but we circled for an hour before landing due to fog. Finally we made it to the hotel, it was lovely. Portobello By The Sea. Picked up our rental car and did some shopping then by 6pm i was bugger and flaked out in bed. Australia Zoo was our first stop and here we met up with Brett and Amanda, Ella and Macy. Gosh!, those girls are just so sweet. We all had lots of fun, my favourite was the Tiger Show.

And better not to forget this cute little fellow also. Lots to see, Koala's, Elephant's, Wombat's, Snake's, Crocodile's, Alligator's and not to forget the Kangaroo's. It was great. We all had a wonderful day.

In caloundra they have the Bulcock Street Markets, I bought a bikini, $113.00, and i like it. Came home and sunbathed straight away and even went for a swim. Mike took me to the Pineapple Plantation, they were closed but we walked into the feilds where they were growing. It was the first time i had seen how a pineapple grows, it was great.

Then we found the Billington Maze, you had to walk around and find 6 of the 7 dwarfs. Snow White had lost them. That was a bit of light hearted fun. They also had little maze's you had to figure out as well. Quite entertaining.

The next day was quite mixed, we started out heading to Aussie World, a small amusement park. Had a great game of mini golf (which i won), then headed for the adrenalin rides. Unfortunately it wasn't long before Mike was feeling sick, so we packed that in and went next door to the Ettamogah pub for some lunch, Yum Yum...

We were both feeling alot better after the lunch so we thought we would just drive around a little. We drove to Mooloolah, Palmwoods, Montville and eventually came to an Exclusive Hideaway. It is called "Secrets by the Lake". We were lucky enough to be shown through one of the cabins, and it is just georgous. They are all in the tree tops and very isolated, complete privacy. It certainly had the Wow... factor.

Mike had a big sleep in the next morning which meant i could have a lay in the sun and a bit of a swim, no rushing today. Then we did some kart racing in the afternoon. As usual i was the slowest. Mike waited for me on one lap, then decided that wasn't fun so took off leaving me in his dust, ha ha ha... We stopped at the Strawberry feilds on the way home and picked our own berries and had the most delicious strawberry icecream.

Eumundi Markets was next, then onto Noosa Heads, we had a lovely walk along the shoreline track then had a bit of lunch (gourmet burgers on the beach). Once we got home we both decided to do our own thing for a few hours, then i surprised Mike with Zone 3 Laserstrike and a Mexican Dinner. It was a lovely evening spent together. While walking back to the car, we got offered a scratchie, Mike won accomodation for 2 on a island just off Thailand. But to claim our prize we had to go and listen to a timeshare seller. We had nothing else to do, so the next day we headed to Mooloolaba Beach. We got ourselves a lovely massage. Feeling good, we went and listened to the seller, claimed Mike's prize and headed to the beach for awhile. It was great, swimming and relaxing at the beach in the middle of winter.

For our last meal, we went back to our favourite place, Viva, at the Caloundra RSL. They have fantastic meals.

Some photos of the lovely apartments we stayed in. I had the most wonderful time. Cant wait for the next time.

Portobello By The Sea is situated on Dicky's Beach, which is named after a shipwreck on the beach. This is a fantastic picture of it.

Road Trip to Middlemarch and Naseby

The long weekend finally arrived and Mike and I were off for another roadtrip. To where, who knew??? Mike drove and i was allowed to choose the way. So into middle-earth we travelled. And we stumbled across Middlemarch... there is not much to it, but as we drove thru the town we spotted a painting of a map on the side wall of a garage. It had all the things you could visit in Middlemarch. So off we went to find them all. Like our own little treasure hunt.

So off we went to find them. First we came to the stone cottage, then we saw pine cone hill, then onto the stone cattle yards (that was quite amazing) and last but not least the suspension bridge. As usual i took heaps of photos, they are in my album if you want to look thru them.

Now we had to find a place to stay so we ventured onto Ranfurly. Stopping at several different places to look and read about the famous Rail Trail. Ranfurly - Certainly is an Art Deco place. The information centre pointed us in the direction of Naseby. So we drove another 10 minutes down the road and came across The Black Forest. Now that was a surprise. After being in the Black Forest only a year ago (in Germany) I found out we have our own little Black forest here in good ole New Zealand.

Time to find a place to sleep, but first we took a quick detour to the curling rink. It was just on closing so we decided to come down first thing in the morning and have a go. Naseby seemed just as small as Middlemarch, blink and you'd miss it. We found an old pub (The Britton) to stay in, had some dinner, a few to many drinks and crashed for the night.

Well today i woke up feelin good, i knew come 10 oclock i'd be on the ice giving curling ago. After a good breakie, we departed our accomodation and headed for the ice. What great fun. We got a run down on how to play the game, then it was Mike Vs Pip. I must admit that Mike was in front on points to start with and then i made a come back to win the game. Yee haa!!!! I think we played for a good hour, great fun!

Well time flys and we had to start finding our way home again. We took a road called "The Pigroot Road", that lead us passed "Dead Horse Gully" and onto Palmerston, then back down the main road to Dunedin. What a great couple of days we had. Last but not least we headed straight for the car wash, our poor car was covered in mud.

Bon Jovi!!!

Meeting old friends again and making new ones, i had it all this weekend, and it was great. Vicki and I had planned this weekend for months and we were both looking forward to it so much. Saturday morning came and i was working, yep up at 3.15am off to work, i managed to finish 2 hours early tho, so once 10.30am came, i was off... Literally too, i was buzzing!! On such a high. Michelle, Toby and Vicki picked me up at 1pm, and we were off, look out Christchurch! The first 15 stubbies seemed to dissappear very quickly, i think someone must have been hiding them somewhere cause it was only me and Vicki drinking them. I think we must have stopped 4 times on the way up for a toilet break, change of driver and to refill the pub. By the time we hit Christchurch Vicki and I were, lets say, "well advanced in the art of getting pretty messy". Storm the little darling she kindly opened her home up for us to stay. So we had a place to stay, to much beer, what next to do but head into town... what i didnt know is that the others had no intention of going out that night, bumma... i had arranged to meet up with some friends, so i was dropped off (with Storm's address in my pocket), and gate crashed Kat's dinner plans at a Thai restaurant. Man it was so good to see her again. We babbled on for ages, then headed to a bar down the Lane. Gina and I txted and they said they were on there way so i took off to meet up with them and bring them to the Lane. I rang her, she said she was opposite some street?, and what do you know? i was too!!! So as soon as we realised we were on the opposite sides of the road the traffic split and we did this big run to each other, so funny. They looked fantastic. It was the best thing seeing them again. Anyway... i got home at 1.30am. And the next day... i was not well at all. Storm took me and Vicki for some breakie, found that they had the busker's week on so sat and watched that for an hour, it was great, so funny. Off home for a sleep before the concert.
I meet up with Gina and Spike again before the concert, then we said our good byes and parted our ways. Bit sad for awhile but it didnt take long before this man filled the gap, sorry Gina and Spike, hee hee hee...

But i couldnt help it, i had the most fantastic night, just me and Jon Bon Jovi and 40,000 other people. ha ha ha... Sang, danced, laughed and managed not to cry once. Wasnt close enough to throw my bra on stage but im sure he knew i was there anyway!!! And how could i not mention Richie Sambora, bloody amazing!!! He rocks something wicked!!!



Bon Jovi, 27th January, 2008. I was there!!!

Xmas 2007 at home!

Dad turned 60 this year, i flew up as a surprise trip on his birthday. And yes they were surprised. A couple of days before he had had an open day for all the family, it went off great! But i missed it, stuffed up the dates for the flights, ha ha ha never mind, i had a wonderful 3 days with Mum and Dad all to myself. Life is very good to me! We celebrated both Dad's 60th and Mike's 30th on boxing day, smiles all round. Back home in Dunedin Mike and I met a few friends at the Kensington Tui Clubrooms for drinks and a meal to celebrate his birthday. It was a good night.

Its been 3 years since i have been at home with my family for xmas, and i was so excited about!!! Bevvie was lovely enough (as usual) to take us to the airport and then whoossshhhh!!! We were flying. I wore my Durndl home for xmas. I go stopped at the airport by a lady who wanted to have a look at it. She thought it was lovely. It made me giggle. hee hee.

Well when we landed nobody was there to meet us, so we waited... Mike turns and says to me, "ha ha ha look at this car coming!". Oh my god... "yep thats them i said"

Dad had a black long haired shaggy wig on, Tania was dressed as the queen, Sarah as a rasta and young Courtney as a punk rocker. They looked so funny, and they got a few weird looks as well, funny as i reckon. We had alot of the extended family there, aunts, uncles etc... Had some drinkies and too much food, it was great. For me it was very relaxing just being there, lazing around. Boxing day arrived and so did the next round of people. Blair, Kim, Darryl, Janelle and her friend, Nic and the kiddies, Taz and of course not to forget Pete. Tracey made it the next day. So we had even more drinks, got pretty messy, well kimmy did, ha ha ha ha... jumped in the spa, life is just so cruisy sometimes. No one got much of a sleep in the next day thanks to the chicken i got for xmas... Tania and I made pretzels for everyone then after breakie it was a beautiful day so what else were the girls suppose to do... yep i went and got Muriel out. Kimmy and Janelle fell in love with her, who wouldnt!!

We had the best day in her, i took the cuzzies for a ride in her, and kimmy drove home again. Then when everyone had gone home later that day, Mike, Collette, Tracey and I drove her into town, it was a beautiful day, we had ice cream and a great day. It was the best!!!Mike and I spent the next few days at Morrinsville, we did a day trip up to Cook's Beach and saw Sammy and Donna with their 2 little girls and it was a great surprise to see George there as well. We also had a great day at golf, it was very relaxing before we flew home.

Back at work now and looking forward to Bon Jovi concert, Yee Haa!!!! Bring it on!!!