Visit to Christchurch

I’ve just spent a few days down in Christchurch. I stayed with Denise who has a very productive garden – she is very proud of her magnificent broccoli!
The main purpose of the visit was to see the Phoenix play – they have had a couple of home games away from Wellington as the stadium had other commitments. Noreen and Jenny came down for the game which was held at Lancaster Park.

They have been upgrading the facilities in preparation for next year’s rugby world cup. Although only half full, the attendance of nearly 20,000 was a record for a NZ club football match.

It wasn’t the best of games and the Phoenix were lucky to win 1 nil. They are in with a chance of making the playoffs which will be the first time for them.

Denise and I did a couple of walks, which I’ll blog separately. Meanwhile here are a few pictures from a barbecue Denise held with us, her boys and Janie and two of hers.

Royal Visit

No, Kathy is not here again. However someone of far less importance, namely Prince William of England, is in our fair country to carry out some official engagements on behalf of his grandmother. She is our head of state but there is a growing republican movement here. I support it but I appear to be the only one in the family who does. Grrrrh!!

William was in Wellington to open the new Supreme Court building. Ironic they had to import a Pom as the Court is only necessary as we have removed the UK Privy Council as the highest level of our judicial system. The assembled crowd was made up of equal parts demonstrators (Republicans and Ministry of Justice staff campaigning for more money), supporters of royalty and general interested bystanders.
I managed a couple of shots of the lad himself, together with Prime Minister John Key being the chief host.

Jenny was in the crowd and got to shake his hand. But she didn’t get time to propose. So we went and had lunch to commiserate with her.

¡Viva la Republic!

Happy New Year

Belated greetings. Nothing majorly exciting has happened here but I thought I should post something – there have been rumblings from certain quarters.

While most of you in the northern hemisphere have been experiencing a fairly cold winter we have had a somewhat ho-hum summer so far. There have been warm and sunny days, but it seems rather more wet and windy ones. I haven’t been able to get out into the garden as much as I would have liked and the vegetables I planted after Christmas are struggling a bit with the conditions. Here is the veggie patch with some netting for the beans if they ever get established.

We have also been working in the front. Noreen wanted some dahlias planted and Sam was volunteered to dig the hole. Unfortunately he put the spade through the water main.

Coincidently a fire engine turned up three doors up the street. I’m not sure why as there didn’t appear to be any fire to put out.

In other news our football team the Phoenix have been doing well. They have a new signing for the rest of the season in a player from the Ivory Coast. His name is Eugene Dadi and he has made an immediate impact scoring in both his first two games. Jenny doesn’t approve of his haircut but his sense of position and ability to make chances is wonderful. We are now in fourth place and hoping this will be the best season ever.