We’ve made it as far as Auckland and we’ve found the koru lounge. So it’s another beer while we wait.

Hopefully we won’t be too pissed when we finally board our LA to London leg.  But anything can happen as our next flight is premium and the wine will be flowing.

After repacking 6 times we are finally on our way.

After a short 25 minutes drive to the airport and an even shorter mini bus ride from the car park to the terminal, we are now enjoying a drink in the koru lounge waiting for the first flight of three.

The first one is a little hop of one hour to Auckland. The others are 11+ to LA then London.  The flying time of 25 hours and elapsed time of 30 hours. Oh the joys of International flying.

At least at the end of this i will be able to see my grandson.

While we were in Hamilton we visited our house as the tenants had moved out.

In the garden was a Feijoa tree full of fruit, too tempting to leave to rot so we picked the fruit off the ground and then shook the tree to get some more.

If we didn’t they would only go to waste, or god forbid the new tenants would eat them.

Now back in Wellington it is my job to preserve as many as possible as there are far too many to eat before they rot. So I am having to remove the pulp ready to freeze in syrup and this is how it went.

One Feijoa for the bowl, one for me.

Two Feijoas for the bowl, two for me.

Three Feijoas for the bowl, three for me.

Four Feijoas for the bowl, four for queezy me.

Five Feijoas for the bowl, five for me, how many left I’m not feeling too well.

Six Feijoas for the bowl, I’m not too sure if I can finish them all.

Seven Feijoas for the bowl, who the heck likes these blooming things.

Eight Feijoas for the bowl, Wish I’d never seen a Feijoa.

Nine Fejoas for the bowl, I’m sure these are the devils fruit.

Ten Fejoas for the bowl, Jo can do her own Fejoas next year.

Is this the score from the Lions v The All Blacks?

Or is it the thrashing AFC Bournemouth will get in their first game in the next division?

Having just returned from a weekend in Hamilton, it is neither of them.

To break the  boredom of the 6 hour drive each way the result is in fact the number of police cars we spotted on the trips.

Next thing to do is to create on android app, voice activated to keep the tally for us. Also to geo tag  the location and then map the most likely locstions to encounter such meetings.

Any budding programmers?.

Jo is off to work’s drinks after work tonight and we are arranging to meet up afterwards for a meal out at City Thai.

As this is a combined office and client drinks hopefully it will be quite a sober affair with everyone on their best behavior.

I sit at home wondering when I will get the call to go and meet Jo.

5:30pm comes & goes so does 6:00pm, will she call shortly or do I go and get myself a snack to keep me going until later. After all I will have at least another 30 minutes after getting the call before I can eat.

Finally the phone rings. It’s 6:30 and Jo doesn’t sound too bad, perhaps she has paced herself and perhaps she has only had one drink.

I set off and heading to a bar we’ve stopped at before, so at least I know where I’m going this time.

In town I fortunately find some where to park fairly close to the bar, at least there won’t be a long walk back before going off to find the restaurant. The last time we tried going there we both forgot the address and couldn’t find it, so tonight will hopefully be second time lucky.

I enter the bar and get myself a drink before going to find Jo. I then wander around the bar until I find a large group of rather noisy patrons wearing name tags, this surely must be the right group. I then spot Jo, she’s still standing, so this must be a good sign.

After a few words of greetings she tells m,e there is plenty of food around and to help myself as no one will realise I’m not an employee. Also she tells me that she has had plenty to eat herself so doesn’t want to go to Thai after all, oh well perhaps it will be third time lucky.

So off I go, drink in hand find lots of tasty treats.

I return to Jo’s group of friends to notice that as soon as Jo’s drink is empty the waitress disappears and returns with a fresh drink for her.

This happens through out the night, as soon as one drink is finished a waitress appears and asks if you would like another. I managed to hold onto my empty bottle for at least an hour before giving in and agreeing to another Corona.

As the evening continues I sit and listen to the conversation Jo is having which goes a bit like this.

Jo’s colleague : ‘What an evening. I’ve had 5 or 6 glasses of wine and don’t feel the least bit drunk. A bit hyper knowing this is a work event, meeting and talking to the owners of the voices I hear on the phone.’

Jo: ‘ I know what you mean I’ve had quite a few beers and don’t feel the least bit dru….’

With a tremendous crash and bang Jo and the stool she was on end up sprawled across the floor.

Her work colleagues come rushing across the room to help her up and back onto the stool.

She turns to me and says………..

“Few that was close, I don’t think any one noticed, and I’ve got away with that.”

 

 

Yesterday was Anzac day. A day of remembrrance, when ALL shops are closed for the morning.

So what else can we do?

Nothing for it, but to drive to Hamilton.

While we are there we can get into training for our UK visit.

No we’re not taking baby photo’s.

We are going to try and sort out some  of  our junk (treasures) we have accumulated under the house at Polorus.

Today we headed back upto Hamilton. Jo had a half day working from home so we could leave at 12:00.

The drive back takes about 6hrs, but with stops this soon becomes 6 1/2 or 7 hours.

Most of the journey is un eventful excepting the morons who don’t want to be behind an MPV so overtake at the very last minute and then jam onthere brakes as soon as they have pulled in front of me.

The mountain had it’s head in the clouds so we ouldn’t see it very well.

The savior for this return trip is we are heading off to Jenny’s for dinner, she never fails to provide a delicious meal.

 

Tonight was a repeat of last night’s walk apart from a couple of things.

1. We didn’t stop at the yacht club tonight.

2. We took the camera.

This enabled me to get a short rest while Jo took a photo of me enjoying the sunset.

After eating a Moroccan styled chicken on Couscous with caramelized onions, for tea we decided we had better extend our walk this evening.

So we headed off down towards the beach and walked to Plimmerton yacht club and back.

I think Jo might have had an hidden agenda as on arriving at the yacht club she suggested we went in and have a look around. We didn’t join but took an application form just in case.

Here is the tonight’s route.

 

Tonight’s fitness exercise was going to be a walk around the bay, but while Jo was putting on her shoes she saw the tennis racquets. ‘Let’s go have a game of tennis instead of walking’ so off we went to the tennis courts. Luckily a court was available so we had a game for 50 minutes.

Being a gentleman I let Jo win, although she will say I never had a chance of beating her.

We then decided to go for a walk along the prom towards Plimmerton and back.