I am extremely fortunate to have an Aunt and cousins who live in New Zealand. This year Maaike came up with me to Palmy and experienced her first Christmas lunch with Turkey & Ham etc. (Dutchies are weird and don’t have that tradition).

Maaike was an immediate hit with the wee cousins.

I suspect the circus course helped. But when she tried slapstick and they wound up in hospital* it wasn’t so funny.

It was lovely seeing Mary (Aunt) and just relaxing.. a gentle?! intro to what awaits us in Europe when we visit our respective families (more details to follow – just as soon as all the flights are booked – but arrive into Dublin on the 2nd April)

Went to this old (for NZ) house for a bbq and drinks. Lovely place. They did have a real skull on the mantelpiece though. Which was strange (left over from anatomy lessons I think).

Also took in a quick trip to OTaki, spent far too much in the merino outlet store (if that’s possible) and went for a walk on the beach (above), saw my cousin Williams garden (very cool – has all the ingrediants for Mojito’s in a single tub (ok, Lime tree + mint). I think this is an idea to be copied.

All in all really good times.

*may not be true

The last three weeks have been spent tidying, cleaning, cooking and organising.

Moving in takes quite a bit of effort and time to be spent on these things. After we’d got most things organised it was time for our first guest. Val, who’d just left the flat – came back for a couple of nights before leaving for the Antarctic (again). Also, we won a rocky road cake (unrelated).

Which is, probably (certainly?! – definitely, absolutely / completely …) why Maaike chose these few weeks to run away and join the circus. Well, run away and do a three week (5 days a week, 4->8pm) circus course. Coming home to cooked meals and cleaned rooms. Hope she doesn’t learn to expect these things ;)

Heh… anyway.. she can now juggle, knows one end of a trapese from the other, can beat people up even more effectively – create human pyramids etc. I’m actually really impressed and more than a little jealous. Might have to go on a course myself.

Anyways – here are a few video’s of the performers..

Trampoline…

Rollo Bollo?! (something like that anyway)

juggling (and passing)

trapeze

Maaike’s part in the performance was as MC. She gets really really really irritable though when anyone gets in her way (on or off the stage).. next three video’s of Maaike..

Most impressive..

Finally for the performance there was a human pyramid formed (well, lots of different figures really). Well done to Ollie (housemate) for organising the whole thing – and to all the up and coming performing artists.. great work.

Not quite finally for the evening though – Maaike took out the rest of her agression in the pub. Narrowly avoiding being thrown out on her ear..

Honestly… no idea where she gets it from – but will be meeting Maaike’s mother in the New Year, and will have a few questions..

p.s. … I’m sure you’ll agree the best thing about Maaike’s performance was, of course, my shirt..

So… happy and sad I suppose. Val and Dom (below) have moved out from “The House” (39 Fendalton Road) – and have moved up to Kaikoura… which is the sad part. They have really been amazing house mates. From organising dinners and whiskey evenings, volleyball opponents (never did beat them) – to just being around for a cuppa tea and a chat. I will really miss them.

That said, there’s the upside that there will be trips to Kaikoura – and hopefully catching Paua fresh out of the ocean.

So yes, it’s a real shame to loose Val & Dom, but great to be able to move into their flat. No pictures yet though, it’s not ship-shape :)

So I was toying with The end of the world as I know it as the title – but shied away at the last minute…

In a couple of days (less than 72 hours) Maaike and I move in together. My cave has been (happily) invaded (but invaded all the same – Maaike feels exactly the same!).

Still, exciting stuff. Picked up some couches at the weekend so the place should be decked out nicely in a wee while – flat warming to follow.

The new (house) phone number will be +64 3 3551426. Now I need to find all the places where that has to be updated. Going with Powershop.co.nz which is a smart retailer of electricity. You buy your power online and can track usage etc.

Shit this is a ridiculously domestic post. Isn’t it?

I have enjoyed playing backgammon for quite a while now (since 17? – maybe earlier). I really only play online (on FIBS) – as I don’t know anyone who plays in ChCh*… FIBS = First Internet Backgammon Server. It’s a free server and there are decent players there.

Anyway – about a year or so ago I played against a kiwi player online (Grant Hoffman) and we got to chatting – and I was complaining that there was no tournament in NZ. Long story short.. he and his friend Tony were thinking about setting up a tourney – and this weekend was the result.

So I flew up on Friday night – and Tony (and his lovely partner Jo) put me up for the weekend. Everyone (I hope!) has their eccentricities, Tony’s is collecting vases. However, he and Jo put them to excellent use and the house is just filled with flowers. It’s great.

Onto the competition then.. 12 of us were split into two pools of 6 for a round robin qualifier. So, you had to play five, 9 point matches. Top two from each pool went through to a semi final – and then final.

I had the nervous pleasure of playing Mike McManaway (inventor of Tantrix, gravity trap, and now Palagos).

Mike was also the NZ Backgammon champ back in 1986 – though I think he has played more tantrix than backgammon recently. I’m sure it’s not all roses, but being a (successful) games inventor would be quite a bit of fun I suspect. Good work. I would reccommend Tantrix or Palago’s to anyone – fun games to play, and really enjoyably tactile.

That evening we had a bbq at Rays (another of the competitors). This view would cost you $320K(NZ) (about 6 months ago).

Yet another reason to move here ;) Heh. Interestingly Rays dad (grandad?) was into early industrial espionage and spent his days touring the world and … identifying products which hadn’t made it to NZ yet. The pictures below (called Greedy Nigger Boys) are things that his company manufactured out of Christchurch!. Obviously wrong at the time, and wrong now.. but.. that aside – they were really cool! And I do like the idea of kiwi industrial espionage well ahead of time…

I *wish* I had taken a video of these.. You put a coin in their tray – and then pull a lever. The tray gets lifted up and the coin goes into the mouth while the eyes roll back. Quite the piggy bank really.

Then came the semi final (11 point match) on Sunday morning. I played Grant (having qualified behind Mike) and Mike played pip. Grant and I had an epic battle. He’s definitely the better player – but I think the dice were a little favourable to me (yay for chance – and the four leaf clover imprint that Maaike had given me). So scraped my way through that – but was defeated by Pip in the final.

It was a good match – unfortunately got gammoned when the cube was at 4 (going from 5:5 to 13:5) and didn’t come back from that. In any game involving dice – sometimes you feel that chance robbed you. However, Pip definitely deserved to win the match – the better player on the day. (will get her next year ;)

We split the winnings 50:50 – which almost but not quite paid for my flight up!.

Oh, the tourney was played in Founders park. A great period themed attraction close to the city centre.

Finally – met up with an old work mate and Squash terror Fraser. He is now the area manager for Red Cross (top of the South Island). Sounds like a fascinating job – and one that he is enjoying and doing really well in.

Well, he would make it sound like that ;) but still. From organising the first aid courses, charity shops, relief work etc. etc… certainly varied!

And then back to ChCh. Maaike picked me up from the airport (with a bottle of champagne) – Val, Steve, Mark and Maaike had made a delicious dinner… and Val a poster!

It was simply a superb weekend. Roll on next years tourney!

*
Note, I do have friends who I play against on Wednesdays (often) in ChCh – Magnus set it up… and it is great, it’s just I’ve played about 9 years longer! so it’s not quite the same as the Nelson Crowd