Kia Ora Folks

It's been nearly 3 weeks since my last ramblings so I thought I had better share whats been going on in our part of the world lately.

You will be all pleased to know that after much messing around we have decided on Tasmania for our holidays this year and are very excited about it, although we haven't got around to booking it yet we know it will be there and sometime in September so we have made progress....

The weekend after we went back to work a friend and I took the bikes out for a spin, it was a glorious day and we made our way North through Matakana and onto Leigh where we stopped at the Sawmill Cafe for refreshments. It was such a great afternoon and the sun was hot. We made the most of it and got some fresh air in our faces. After our pitstop at Leigh it was on to Omaha Beach and Sandspit, 2 places I had not visited before but they were both cool, the former having a fantastic beach.

Our spate of good weather continued for much of the next 7-10 days despite having rain forecast it just stayed away and along with the humidity it made for some sticky days in the City. It has been my month for weekend working so Mel has been keeping busy having friends over for brunch and various other girl's things so there hasn't been a dull moment.

Because the temperature was rising I had to go and get a haircut to try and cool down a bit and it seemed to do the trick. We met friends in the City last weekend and had a good old evening with plenty of laughter to go around. The good weather kept coming on the Sunday and we were up early so walked down to the beach for a morning dip. It was a bit bracing at first but once you were in and moving it soon warmed up.

We had an unsuccessful hunt for shorts Sunday afternoon and eventually gave up and armed with our trusty coupon book it was off to the Cardrona Ale House in Mt Eden for lunch, which was delicious.

This week has seen most people returning to work after the Xmas holidays so things have started to busy up again on the roads getting to work. On Wednesday we were at a lose end and decided to take ourselves off tenpin bowling at Takapuna which turned out to be great fun. Neither of us have bowled for years and it showed in the first game with both of us not doing too well, btu the second game things picked up and we managed a few strikes between us!!!!

It had been a long lay off but Thursday saw the return of the Pub Quiz and we were eager to get stuck in, it was a close call this week with Britpop just being pipped at the post by another team, but we were happy with a secong place finish and will live to fight another day although we are going on the road next week and revisiting the Masonic Quiz that Mel and I used to do, so will let you know how that goes.

I was working again yesterday so Mel took herself off to Albany to what is touted as the biggest mall in NZ, which isn't actually that big!!!! She ended up with a couple of bargains before taking the boat into the City to meet me for dinner. We had a fantastic meal at Merlot Wine Cafe yet again thanks to the coupon book we got a main course free. We had bread and olives to start with and followed that up with roasted belly pork in 5 spice (for Mel) and rack of lamb and broad beans for me with a glass of wine each. On the way out I couldn't resist the jelly beans on the counter and took a few more than I should have done!!!!

As we walked down the street eating the jelly beans I got a range of flavours from banana and bubblegum to aniseed to apple I felt like I had got them from Willy Wonka's factory....

Mel had her eyes tested last week and today we decided to go and find some new glasses,it is a task I always dread as it seems to take forever to narrow down to a few pairs she likes and this time was no different. After 1 1/2 hours I was losing the will to live but eventually we got there, then came the decision to go away and think about it as they were more expensive than she wanted to pay!!!!

Over brunch in Takapuna it was decided that they were the ones for her but we would leave it six weeks or so until we have saved the money for them. I agreed as long as I didn't have to step foot in the opticians again!!!!!

We have just got back from the museum in the Domain, Mel is gearing herself up for work tomorrow while I bask in the knowledge that I get a day off and don't return until Tuesday.

Next Saturday we have the Seafood Festival in Auckland which we are both looking forward to as we had such a good time last year.Wehave a bank holiday here on February 1st for Auckland Day then the big event of the year on Thursday when AC/DC roll into town which should be awesome.

Will be back soon to let you know how things went.

Lots of Love

M & M

xx