Jordandchan

Its been a little while, so here’s an update of some of the things we have been up to.

Last wednesday night we decided to head out for dinner, so we headed to The Tap Room, a bar/restaurant in Christchurch’s little strip of restaurants on the river. We had read about their Stonegrill meals and decided we had to check them out. (click the image below for all the photos).

We ordered ourselves a bottle of wine and had some bread and dips/pate for starters, and then our Stonegrill meals arrived. The Stonegrill meals are cooked an a heated stone about 15x25cm in size. It is sprinkled with salt, and then the meat is simply placed on it. About midway through the cooking, the whole stone is served (with meat still cooking, and veggies on the side) for you to finish cooking the meat to your liking as you slice bits of it to eat.

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Our little birdy friend who we took to the bird and animal hospital. As we were arriving there was a young girl (with her dad and grandmother) with an almost identical looking bird. As we stood there waiting, the vet proceeded to try and explain how they were going to have to put down the bird because it had a broken leg.

“Maybe it will come back as a cat”

what?
anyhow, our little birdy was fine and feisty, so he has been left with them to recover and recuperate.

ok so this past weekend jordan and i did our part in animal rescue…

Friday we saw the hideous possum - jordan rescued me from that evil situation - GEW!!

Saturday - well it appears our little baby has figured out not only how to open cupboard doors and drawers - he has now figured out how to open the windows - which already makes him smarter than me - as it took a few goes for me to get it. Jordan was contemplating coming to wake me up to tell me he’d run away after spending half an hour looking for him when he re-appeared quite amused with himself at the front door… we shall have to fix this rebellious streak - i would suggest neutering - bur we’ve already dont that and he still misbehaves - masochist!!!

 yesterday jordan spotted a baby sparrow flapping around the back courtyard and with all the feral cats around the place i decided he should catch it and bring it inside - after shaking a bag of breadrolls, we managed to get some seed and bread and put it in Jaxons cat travel box upstairs - oh and some water too. it was then we discovered that such a  small birdy needs to be fed by its mum… as i am not in the habit of eating and the regurgitating dead insects - it was out of luck in that department - but a call to the animal hospital ensured that by tonight it will be a little more at home with other birds and not sleeping in an old t-shirt. also means that i wont be woken at 5.15am with it trying to communicate with its mother… it was more obedient than the cat when i told it to be quiet - maybe we should trade them.

who needs kids???

i hate them with a passion but somehow ended up getting photographed with one at the show…

apparently they have disease and are dangerous… well DER!!!

i like to describe the show as the Royal Easter shows retarded second cousin. but the wood chopping was awesome!! we got to see the best in the world - he was on a 28 second handicap and still won - he was a big and scary - almost as much as the possum!!!

• Rush Hour ipod

Hurrah for Show Day. We love NZ and their crazy holidays.

so - remembrance day fell on Sunday this year - i was unsure what would be happening as we were at church - i like to spend my minute in silence thinking about those who died to protect the freedoms i have but i didnt know whether we would get to in NZ (not sure why i was so unsure - its not like people did know there were wars on…)

anyhow - so in the middle of church one of the guys did a brief talk about remembrance day and then possibly one of the coolest things happened - we got to sing our new national anthem (minus the Maori first verse) and it sounded fantastic. luckily i had a few kiwi mates in aussie and watched enough rugby to know the tune…

Otto psp

it was an experience and one i will remember, possibly next remembrance day we will get to do the same…

Well its been a week since my last post, but i feel like there’s not an awful lot to say. I guess I will just fill you in on the week gone by.

Monday night was (as you know) the fireworks, and then on Tuesday it was good to be able to get back to our Bible Study group after a bit of a hiatus. I played a game and a half of soccer on Thursday night, and we won convincingly 9-2.

Friday night, and the parentals were back in town, so after running around after the normal chores, we took them out to Orana Park Otto rip for the afternoon. We even managed to get them in the truck in the lion pen for feeding time, and we all got to feed giraffes, which was very cool. again, the photos will be coming soon.

We headed to church on sunday, then back into town to give the parentals a final Dimitri’s Souvlaki, and a taste of C1 Espresso before bundling them on a plane home.

And here we are, back to now :)

Stay tuned for more riveting stories.

here are some photos of the fireworks and carnival. It would appear while being up close to watch the fireworks is a good thing, its not so good for photos…

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jordan wrote about my works golf day - this was possibly the highlight - the coffee before we played - when i still thought it would be “fun”

That was the best way to describe our excursion to see the Guy Fawkes fireworks at New Brighton last night. The weather throughout the day had been quite wet, but it cleared up in the afternoon and we decided to head out. We found a car park ok, and wandered up the mall with the crowds to grab some food from a nearby restaurant before everything started.

After dinner we ventured towards the beach, past the sausage sizzles and stalls selling all sorts of glowing items. We had a wander past the collection of sideshows and rides before making our way down to the beach. The sand was chock-a-block with people, many laying or sitting on the sand waiting, many more setting off their own fireworks amidst the crowds. It was dark by now, and we set out our towel near the front of the barrier (just underneath it actually) to wait, and watch people’s fireworks.

It started with a light show on the peir. The council has had coloured LEDs installed on the pier which change colours and intensity, so we watched the programmed show of lights on the pier. While this is quite impressive, there is still only so much you can do with coloured lights on concrete, so the 10 minute show dragged on a little bit, and people lost interest.  But then a glow started on top of the pier, and the fireworks began. It was fantastic, we were as close as you could get and the noise, the colours, the smell, the intensity of it all was phenomenal. By this time the weather had well and truly set in and it was raining quite heavily, but no-one seemed to mind too much.

As quickly as it had started, it was over, and everyone was trudging from the beach back their cars. The traffic was a bit of a nightmare (took us about a half hour to get out of our carpark), but that was to be expected, and it didn’t dull an otherwise fantastic evening.

p.s. Photos are coming soon.