You can guess what he’s famous for…

I’m quite glad I don’t have the holiday posts to catch up on any more. It means I can get onto posting about all the fun stuff I did on the weekend!

On Saturday morning Emily, Alannah and me drove down to Balclutha for Craig’s 21st. We stopped in at Emily’s Grandad’s place on the way. Twas quite cool meeting him. He was quite cheeky really. We got there at about 5:30 and the 21st was starting as 6, so it didn’t take long before we were down at the A&P showgrounds where we had some good conversations and an awesome roast dinner and dessert before hearing some embarassing/funny stories about Craig. There were a few I hadn’t heard and also a few which possibly were not elaborated on as much as they could have been… We also got to watch the rugby, which was a little scrappy, but we finished them off in the end. We cleaned up and after that we all bedded down in the lounge at Craig’s house. I was in the other half of the lounge, which was quite convenient as apparently I fall asleep quite quickly… and they could shut the dividing doors to block out most of the chainsaw.

In the morning we went for a drive around the farm on the back of the ute, which was heaps of fun. - I really should do that more often. Jeremy followed us around in his primera, which suffered a few knocks to the front skirts and also found a few of the steeper slipperier hills a bit of a mission. Then we went to church, after which we got to have a go with Craig’s shotgun and clay bird thrower, which was awesome fun. I know I hit at least one target… Merodie was the star of the occasion, having never fired a gun before, she managed to hit the first 2 clays and then moved onto doubles, hitting one of the first pair and both of the second pair if I remember correctly.

Then after lunch, we eventually had to head home again. We arrived back around 10pm, after showing Alannah how steep Baldwin street was and stopping for Burger King in Timaru. I was actually quite disappointed to be back in the city. Anyway, an awesome weekend which would have been made even awesomer if it wasn’t just a weekend. I’m sure I’ll go back sometime, in fact I’m planning on it.

Well, I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday night we had Kelly’s 21st which had a 1920-1950 swing theme, so there were lots of interesting outfits. I was kitted out with a black double breasted suit and a black fedora. I will post photos when I find some - I forgot my camera again. A little bit of swing dancing and lots of talking to people. I also smoked my first cigar, which I apparently looked far too professional at. It kind of went with the whole gangster outfit.

On Saturday I slept in followed by waffles and ice cream for breakfast. Then I did a load of washing and helped Matt bleed the brakes on his car, after which we discussed cars and engines for the rest of the afternoon. I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again in the evening with Merodie, Craig and Mark. It just makes you want to bop your head. I’m still loving it.

Sunday I had a very lazy day. On the productive front, I did find out that our local liquor store has a reasonable selection of Dutch and Belgian beers (no I’m not talking about Heineken and Stella), although at $4+ a bottle, I can’t see it being too regular an indulgence. I did buy a 4 pack of Hoegaarden though. I also cooked tea, with a little bit of assistance from Craig at the closing stages, after which we ate tea, during which we consumed aforementioned beer. Mike wasn’t too impressed with the beer and passed his on to me - I will find one that he likes. Then went to bed reasonably early after Top Gear and CSI.

I think part of the reason why I haven’t posted much in the last week is that I decided to buy a playstation. However, as I haven’t actually played it that much, it’s kind of hard to use that as an excuse. I have spent a fair bit of time on Trademe though, looking at second-hand games. I did a little too well at this and am now up to a total of 18 games once they all arive… I’ll add a list at the end of the post for those of you who may be interested. Some of them I bought in a set with others, so I may sell them individually if I don’t like them.

On Friday last week I went into town to Anna’s farewell party, which was at Iconic. I actually had quite a lot of fun, although when I arrived there was pretty much noone I knew there. On Saturday I cranked out some washing, washed my car, oiled my bike chain - although now my gears are behaving strangely and generally enjoyed the awesome sunny weather.

On Saturday I went to the rugby with Mark, Amal, Andy and Mess, confident that Waikato would reclaim their Ranfurly Shield. Unfortunately my cowbell broke relatively early on in the piece and from that point on they were like sheep without a shepherd - or is that a cow without a cowbell, or just doomed. Anyway, I think Canterbury got a little lucky, but I do owe Mess a Double Cheeseburger meal at some point. I once again learn my lesson about the folly of gambling. :p After the game we came back to my place to watch the election results, which was made more digestible with some cheese, crackers, wine and chips. We also played a little bit of Tekken 5 ,which I’d bought earlier in the day, just to break it in…

Sunday was also a bit of a lazy one, played a fair bit of halflife and drank banana milkshakes. Also went to Spreydon Baptist in the evening and saw Luke and Ferg getting baptised. Then back home again for more cheese and crackers and wine - I think I’m getting quite cultured… Also at church they asked a few people what they thought of when they thought of Love, and one girl said she loved Cheese, which I may have cheered at. I think Merodie was quite glad we weren’t sitting at the front

Monday morning I awoke to snow everywhere. It was still snowing, and I decided it would be a good idea to bike to work… They actually closed all the schools in Christchurch, and the university and stopped the buses and a number of companies closed. A number of people who lived further away or on hills went home from work early, and I managed to get 12/10 for trying, eventually going home at about 3pm. I arrived home to a big pot of mulled wine and a movie (Finding Neverland) which I hadn’t seen, but did enjoy. Then later in the evening I enjoyed rewatching Sahara. Excellent light-hearted entertainment action movie.

Oh, I saw this igloo on the way to work - the following day I think. Today was an awesome sunny day again, so pretty much all the snow is gone. I’m really looking forward to summer, where pretty much every weekend will be warm and sunny. I love warm sunny weekends. Warm sunny weekdays seem kind of a waste when I work inside all day.

Well, that should just about do… List of games to follow as promised.

Singstar Pop
Tekken 5
NBA Street 2
NFL Street
Soul Calibur II
Tony Hawk’s Underground
Max Payne 2
Final Fantasy X
Colin McRae 4
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
FIFA 2001
Tony Hawk pro skater 3
Cricket 2002
Crash Bandicoot, the wrath of cortex
Hitman contracts
Return to castle wolfenstein
Driven to destruction
Gran turismo 3

I think I may have had a few too many late nights last week with the lure of the playstation. However that has now all changed… On Friday night I went into town with , Amal, Andy, Matt, Mark and Megan. I think I was the odd one out because my name starts with L. I got to the dux just in time to catch the start of the rugby (Canterbury vs Wellington) and despite my cheering Wellington came up 2 points short in the end. Although I guess they can claim the satisfaction of actually having scored a try… The others were eating a BBQ seafood pizza which smelled sooo good, but I refrained as I had already had a great feed at the Validation team BBQ at work.

We then moved upstairs to the lounge bar and sat around talking for a while before deciding to head to Rockpool, where my pool skills were somewhat rejuvenated and occasionally in evidence. I also quite enjoyed the ginger beer I had, which Mark had been told they’d run out of. - I think Andy, Amal and Matt quite enjoyed their’s as well… I think Mark was the first person to ask.

Saturday I helped Matt with his car a bit once I finally got up and spent the afternoon attempting to tidy my room amongst other things. Then watched Dodgyball with Merodie and Craig, which I have to say I wasn’t all that impressed with, although it definitely did have it’s funny moments.

Sunday morning I woke up with a headache and really tired, and realised that I hadn’t had any caffeine for about 36 hours. I decided over the course of the day that I wasn’t giving in and haven’t had any since, which has actually resulted in a lot more alertness for the rest of the week so far. My current replacement for my 4-5 cups of coffee a day is Rooibos tea, which I’m quite enjoying. I think I’m being a little bit more sensible about going to bed too, which is also helping, although possibly a contributing factor to the lack of posts.

I just made it to church on Sunday morning, which was definitely worth the effort, and spent the rest of the day doing the groceries with Merodie and some washing, which meant that the weather went kind of bad. I did play a little bit of playstation in the mix, but I have been remarkably restrained.