Happy Days

Posted on Sunday 15 July 2007 at 08:31 - Post Comment

All in all, another good week under our belts.  During her time away from school T has done a fantastic job on the kitchen and hallway walls, painting them yellow and white respectively.  It never ceases to amaze me what a change a fresh coat of paint makes - and the place looks better already.  To keep up my end of the bargain, I have spent all day today edging and cutting in the lounge ceiling.  My god what a bitch of a job!  My neck is killing me now, but I have got the whole thing done.  All it needs now is a once over with the roller, and job's a good un, and the whole palce will look so much better.

I've felt really motivated at work this week, which has resulted in a few good leads and a couple of decent deals and so that is going well.  T went to see the school she will be applying to next week, to discuss how to construct her CV and application etc.  It went well and so this can only bode well - still trying not to get too excited though, but it is hard not to!  Fingers crossed on that front.

My work had a 'teambuilding' afternoon on Friday, which was great!  All of the Select staff were divided into 3 teams, and then sent off on treaure hunts around the city to get pictures on a mobile phone of certain things, along with answering a lot of local knowledge questions.  The pictures were then sent back to the office via e-mail and collated for a debrief etc, along with a team being declared the winners.  Our team, named 'Pork Sword' as we had a pig soft toy as our mascot, did a brilliant job and got some fantastic pics of us in phone boxes, with topless builders, busking, up the Cathederal towers and all sorts of other stuff.  Unfortunately, we were robbed!  Half of our pictures didn't get sent properly and so weren't included, and another team got the glory.  Still, the night out that followed certainly numbed the pain, as we were all (partners included)  treated to dinner at Winnebago's, along with beer and wine a-plenty.  We both had a great evening, and arranged to meet a couple - Ed & Donna - for lunch today.  Had a great time too, and it was really nice to get out and do a bit more socialising.

As a result of Friday's fun and frolics, we were a little wolly yesterday but were firing on all cylinders byt the time the All Blacks match rolled around.  It was brilliant!  We walked to the stadium, and met up with a couple of friends, as well as Penni (my boss), her husband Jeff, and a few others for pre-match drinks.  The bar there was absolutely rammed, but we managed to get a few down us in preparation for the game.  It was then that we found out that you can buy beer in the stadium and take it to drink at your seast - so I managed to procure 4 Tui's and a bottle of wine for T to combat the cold.

The Haka at the start was a real highlight for me, as the match itself was slow to start off.  As a result, the crowd were pretty quiet, and the 'electric' atmosphere you get from a buzzing stadium took a while to get going.  Certainly different from walking into Upton Park anyway.  Come the second half it all started kicking off, with the first try coming (typically!) when I was off for a pee-break!  I'd even said before going 'I bet they'll score while I'm away' and they blimmin well did, the cheeky beggers.  Anyway, another 2 swiftly followed and it ended with a the AB's securing a confident win.  We both loved it, and it is a definate highlight of our time here so far.  Toni had got us some New Zealand hats, scarves and gloves to keep us warm, and to suppoer the AB's at the same time so we were toasty in the cold weather.  Here's a couple of pics to give an idea of the whole thing:

First off, The Haka:

Us and the field behind us:

And finally, us with our flags, placards and stuff:

As I reckon you can see from the pics, we were more than a little happy to be there.  After it had finished - with a last minute try by the AB's! - we walked back home with Steve and Kat via the local sports bar for a celebratory pint. 

So, that leads us today which I've already recounted.  A full week awaits, with T back into the teaching scene and me back to the heady heights of recruitment.

Happy days!