For the last few wednesday evenings (into the night) I have been doing a rogaine series with Steve and his lovely girlfriend Michelle, and our friend Mike who has just returned from travels (and about 150 other people). For some reason best known to Steve (who’s into bugs & suchlike) we are called the rostrums. Good fun though… great to get out and stretch the old legs after work!

So a long time ago my friend Declan sent me over an Irish leprechaun – who has been called Seamus. He always comes out on the town given a chance – and St. Patrick’s night (not Paddy’s day – heathens!) is usually a big one for him. The pictures speak for themselves really.

Well one of my crazier (and I should know ;) friends, Florian, is leaving NZ to head back to Europe to become a teacher. He has – by a country mile – the most messed up (interesting??) accent I have ever heard. He is French, but spent quite a while in Ireland and Scotland. He was the reason I got to live in my wonderful (if run down) house – with my own river and a huge garden – and lots of great house mates. I was flatting with a guy called Jim – who is a very nice guy – just very different from me. I’d moved in about a month and then 39 Fendalton came free… and I was agonizing over leaving Jim after just a month… but Flo said something along the lines of Who’s life are you trying to make happy. Now I don’t think one should be selfish… but I was really glad he said that to me and that I moved in. I have met so many great people and just had a great time.

Then there was the time we went hiking (Flo leading) with the tramping club – and off we set into the depths of Arthur’s Pass. Up a ridge, and we were walking along and it became apparent things were a little off. Flo was adamant that we were heading South.. and said – “Look at the Sun – of course we’re heading South”… one of the party disagreed and eventually it was resolved by pulling out a compass. At which point Flo gave in (and then realised he was in the Southern Hemisphere so it was all backwards).

Then there’s his cooking… he is an AMAZING chef.. but the kitchen is a complete bomb site afterwards… and I should know as I lived with him for a few months … still.. acceptable tactical losses.

Anyway – he will be greatly missed – but I’m sure I’ll see him again somewhere!

There’s a discount card in Christchurch through one of the local radio stations – RDU… and I went into a music shop to pick a replacement up. The assistant basically refused to sell me one unless I took the $5 more expensive option and bought tickets to a music gig with the discount card thrown in for free.. So on Sunday Steve & Michelle and Aroha and I went off to the Cheap as Chips concert. It was a good gig if a little cold – the highlight definitely being a dub band called the Blackseeds..

Other than that a fairly lazy weekend, tried to find out what was wrong with my camera (takes about 4 pictures and then dies) and it looks like it might be the charger.. I had no idea those things could break!

So I’d been looking forward for aaaages to visiting my cousin Thomas up in Palmerston North with his family. Thomas has been working to get cluster munitions banned by coordinating NGO’s. Very exciting (and demanding work)… so when I get the chance to see him and his lovely wife Paula I jump at it.

There is a darker side to our re-unions. From a youngish age (say 7) we’ve been reasonably competitive with each other. I think it was when I saw him in Geneva that we conceived of the Scrabble championship – whereby we play a game and the victor has bragging rights until the next meeting.

The last time I was up in Palmy I beat Thomas. Paula decided that as we took it so seriously we should have a championship cup… she bought it and had ‘Scrabble Champion’ engraved on it. It was a beautiful day when it arrived by post to my house.

So it was with a light heart tinged with a small amount of trepidation that I arrived into palmy to be collected at the airport. The day was spent catching up – and then that evening we had our game. Two pics – left before – right after…

It was a good game – even if I came second. Thomas amassed 460 to my 304. I was sad to see (my) cup go.. but was happy to get over 300 points… 460 is just ridiculous. I shall have to do some intensive training before meeting again at Christmas.

The rest of the weekend (once my tears had dried) was spent having happy family times – it was lovely to see my cousins growing up… and I suppose it does make me – admit? – that I am missing my nieces and nephews growing up back in Dublin – and the US. Why doesn’t everyone just move here? They know it makes sense!