Post 10

It's nearly Christmas! I'm feverently hoping for a sprinkling (or more) of snow for Christmas Day but fear I am hoping in vain. It's meant to be cold but clear. Andy and I are spending Christmas at home with just the two of us, lots of food, plenty of wine and several DVDs. It will be really nice just to relax as the past few months have been hectic.

We've had lots of going out, a couple of trips to Rotherham, a trip to Rome to see the mighty All Blacks in action plus I've had a weekend in Edinburgh for Lesley Hay's hen weekend. It was lots of fun. Thanks to Brits TV filming we've seen a few bands in action. Girls Aloud, Brian McFadden and Razorlight were all pretty average but the Lost Prophets and Kasabian were excellent. I also went to see the Beastie Boys with Ruth which was brilliant. Andy went to see England vs Aussie rugby at Twickenham recently. Sadly England lost but it was still a great game.

We've both been really busy the past few weeks with Christmas parties. This week has been a little quieter but we are out in town tomorrow for Christmas Eve drinks with Chris and Annette. London is lovely at Christmas time. The lights and decorations look beautiful and it's nice to be able to wrap up warm and eat and drink lots of Christmassy things. Plus there is cool stuff like ice skating. It's just like a Christmas card and I love it.

So, from both of us, lots of love and a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Bec

Post 9

It's been a busy few months with weekends away, family and friends coming and going and plenty of other thing to keep us busy.

We bid farewell to Julie at the end of August as she headed back to Nelson. Blake was in and out of London during August and September so it was great to catch up with him. We've also seen a few other family and friends on their visits to London which has been nice.

There have been no big holidays but we have managed to fit in a few weekends away in the past few months. We had a trip to Rotherham in July which was good. Andy went to Wales for Dave's stag weekend in September which sounded like great drunken fun. The following weekend we went to Kent for Dave and Nic's wedding which was fabulous. Early October saw us back up North. We spent a night in Rotherham where we took part in the local pub quiz night and I saw dripping sandwiches for the first time. Yuck. Although Andy and Steve tucked in. We spent the next night in Boston Spa with friends which was nice. We then drove up to Whitby via the North Yorkshire Moors which were very bleak and quite spectacular. We spent two nights in Whitby eating and sleeping lots plus fitted in a trip to Scarborough which is the most 'English' seaside resort I have ever been to. The jury is out on whether that is a compliment or not! Whitby was lovely, Captain Cook hails from there and it is also the landing place of Dracula.

Weekend just gone Andy was in Barcelona for his stag do. From all reports (and the state of Andy when he got back) they had a great time. Three nights away, two days of golf, beers on the beach and hitting the clubs in town until late.

I had a good weekend in London as Lesley came down from Scotland for a visit. A few wines, lots of chat, nice.

I'm off home now. We have a gas leak (behind my shoe cupboard - horror!) so we have someone coming round to fix it. British Gas came round last night and cut off our supply so we didn't blow up. Heating and hot water would be nice!

Bec

Post 8

We had a lovely week in Icmeler, Turkey. We stayed at the Efendi Hotel which was only 50m from the beach, lovely and had a great bar that did fabulous cocktails.

The weather was perfect, we didn't see a cloud the whole time and the temperature was in the mid thirties with light breezes. It was a very lazy holiday, most days we would get up late, go out for breakfast then hit the beach where we would spend the afternoon reading, sunning, swimming and having watermelon, chips and beer brought to us by our nice sunbed man, Patrick Swayze.

Late afternoon we'd drag ourselves off the beach, go for a walk then find a restaurant for dinner. The food was really good, everyone was more than happy to accommodate my fussy eating although trying to explain vegan was sometimes a bit tricky. 'No animals, eggs and nothing from a cow' normally worked! I managed to eat roughly my own weight in baklava during our week there. Mmmmm. It was a stroke of genius going on holiday during Euro 2004 as it was the quarter and semi finals and there was a game most nights which would watch in a bar with Efes beer for Andy and buckets of cocktails for me.

We didn't deviate from our exhausting daily routine much apart from one afternoon when we hired a speedboat for three hours and checked out the coastline. Andy's phone took an unscheduled dunk (or three) in the Mediterranean when he forgot he had it in his togs pocket when leaping off the boat. Oops.

It was a fantastic holiday and we recommend Icmeler and the Efendi Hotel to anyone wanting a week or two too chill out, relax and have a great time.

We arrived back in London late Friday night after a marathon journey, with a four and a half hour delay on our flight. Mum, Dave and Bev were staying so it was good to see them. On Saturday we headed up to Hertfordshire to a pub to meet a few of the Coppard (Grandma Warren) side of the family. We met at a lovely village pub where we had lunch. Everyone was really nice, there were three of Julie's cousins plus a few partners and kids, John and Doreen drove down, plus Dave, Bev, Mum, Andy and I so it was quite a gathering. After lunch we went to cousin Stephanie's house in Buckinghamshire where we carried on the drinking, eating and catching up. It was a very nice day and interesting to meet a side of the family I hadn't before.

This weekend we have John from Guernsey coming to stay so a few drinks are planned. Next weekend we are going up to Rotherham to see Andy's parents and brother. Madge and I are going wedding dress shopping on the Saturday which I'm looking forward to. We are bidding the Merc farewell next week so will be driving our new car up to Rotherham. How exciting! It's a Mitsubishi Shogun Warrior (known as a Pajero in NZ) and is black.

Photos of the Girl's Weekend Away, Turkey and the family day will be up soon. Along with some shots from my Waimean dinner a few months back.

Bec

Post 7

It's been six months since my last post and we have been keeping ourselves busy. Summer is now in full swing and we have been having some glorious hot summer days to enjoy. England got through to the second round of Euro 2004 last night with a win over Croatia and the St George's cross flags are flying from cars and houses everywhere.

A quick run down of the past six month. Early February I went up to Scotland for the weekend to see Lesley and Katie and had a great weekend. We've had newly arriving, arriving back or holidaying friends and family to stay in the form of Grant and Sherilyn, Carlene, Lesley, Rob and Justine, Flob, Toby and Mum. Mid Feb, we went to the Brit Awards which was a great night as usual. The highlights were probably The Darkness and Duran Duran although it was all fantastic. We've had lots of catching up with friends, a reunion of about 15 Waimeans who are all in London, a glorious Easter weekend in Guernsey, the Classical Brits, Andy's birthday, a Britney Spears concert for me and we visited Rachel and Paul in Berkhamstead. We've been to Dawn and Tim's wedding in Bristol for which we stayed in the lovely Avon Gorge Hotel and took in trips to Weston-Super-Mare and Bath. We had a day out to the rugby 7's at Twickenham with lots of friends where we saw England win the day but NZ win the tournament. We've met up with John, Doreen, Dave and Bev for lunch and a trip to the Tower of London and I spent last weekend in Hollingbourne, Kent with Jules, Ruth and Laura on a very enjoyable girls weekend. We had a day trip to Leeds Castle, made good use of the hotels pool, spa and steam room and even better use of the local pub and hotel bar.

In upcoming events, I've got two girls nights this week, Andy is going to a seeing off the Olympians dinner and we leave for a week in Icmeler, Turkey on Friday morning. Hoorah!

Bec

Post 6

We are back in London after our glorious 32 day break from work.

Christmas was spent at home in London with Andy's parents and brother travelling down from Yorkshire to spend it with us. There was no snow but plenty of eating and drinking making it very Christmasy.

We left for NZ on the evening of December 27th and arrived in Christchurch on the 29th after a good flight and two hour stop over in Singapore. It was a bit weird but very exciting to be there. We spent the afternoon looking around town with dinner at the Dux de Lux then left for Nelson at 5am the following morning as jet lag and excitement wouldn't let us sleep much. We took the coastal road up to Nelson, stopping in Kaikoura for breakfast and arrived in Nelson late morning. Nelson looked gorgeous and it was great to show it off to Andy. The next week and half was spent in Nelson catching up with family and friends and travelling round the area. New Year was in Mapua where I caught up with many people who I hadn't seen in a long time.

We took in the sights of Kaiteriteri, Golden Bay, Wharariki Beach, Farewell Spit, Pupu Springs, Abel Tasman - boating to our own little beach with friends and getting out on the biscuit - Lake Rotoiti, Marlborough - where I was the lucky sober driver on a winery tour and Andy bought up large - and the Rai Valley to see family. Around Nelson we enjoyed swimming in the Maitai (Andy's first swim in a river!), Rabbit Island, sailing in a boat race along the Boulder Bank, apricot picking in Waimea West, Mount Heslington to see family, Wearable Art and lots of eating out, eating in and spending happy time with many family and friends.

We left for the North Island on January 11th travelling as passengers of Blake and taking the scenic trip to Picton through Queen Charlotte Sound. After a sunny three hour ferry ride we arrived in Wellington and set straight off to Hawkes Bay for a flying visit to Napier. We arrived late and spent the night with friends then checked out Napier in the morning before heading off to Tauranga. We stopped of in Taupo where we swam in the lake and went for a kayak. We also stopped briefly in Rotorua then arrived in Tauranga late afternoon. We stayed at a beautiful apartment in Mount Manganui right by the beach. Dinner was had with friends at the Mount. The following day was my birthday which started with an early morning swim then breakfast and shopping in Tauranga. We set off for Auckland early afternoon with one stop at Waihi Beach. Once in Auckland we went out for dinner at the Viaduct with a visit to a bar afterwards. The next day we had breakfast at Mission B ay then checked out the views from the Sky Tower. After looking round town we got the ferry to Waiheke Island where we spent the afternoon on the beach then went out to dinner at the Mudbrick Cafe winery which had a amazing views over the water to Auckland in the distance. We got a late ferry back then flew to Nelson the next morning.

We spent our last day and night in Nelson driving out to Mapua, looking at wineries on the Waimea Plains and saying goodbye to family and friends.

We drove to Christchurch via the Lewis Pass taking in the lovely scenery. We had three nights in Christchurch staying at a lovely apartment by Sumner Beach. The time was spent seeing more family and friends, lying on the beach, going to the End of the World, Taylors Mistake, along the Summit Road overlooking Bank Peninsula and enjoying the relaxed restaurants and cafes of Sumner.

The flight back was fine with another short stop in Singapore. We arrived in London on Tuesday morning and went back to work very tired but very tanned on Wednesday.

On Thursday we went to a rugby charity dinner. Andy had booked a hotel room over looking the Thames and Big Ben. I arrived to find a path of flowers, champagne and Andy on bended knee with a gorgeous diamond and platinum ring he had designed and made in Nelson. Of course I said yes so we are now engaged. We had a great night at the dinner meeting some of the England rugby team and seeing the World Cup (it should have been ours!).

That is enough for one post, photos to follow soon.......

Bec