auchmeddan

I held off buying “Guitar Hero 2″ for a little while as I was afraid it would get “old” quite quickly…which I was totally wrong about. In the end, I was seduced by the chance to play Motley’s “Shout at the Devil” and GNR’s “Sweet Child O’ Mine”.

I had also held off as Jules told me she was looking forward to laughing at me while I played it. However, this never had a chance to happen as Jules took a keen interest in the game as soon as she heard me playing “Strutter”. In truth, Jules is just as addicted to this game as I am and was initally doing waaaay better than I was - a fact Jules took great delight in. I have since caught up, and won the “Eddie Van Halen” award today for hitting a 500 note streak on Sabbath’s “War Pigs”. Another three hours of my life gone forever chasing Xbox achievements!

Jules and I are now locked in combat over “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, the Kansas Song “Carry on Wayward Son”, and Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”.

This is my first blog for a while, sorry its been so long in coming. Just had my 32nd birthday and to celebrate Dave and I decided to go out and look for a car…well I think that I really decided that. I’d already given our details to a dealer in town so that was our first port of call the morning of my birthday. He showed us a nicely priced 2yr old gold, Nissan Pulsar. Think the colour was putting Dave off but I really liked it. We went around a couple of other dealers but everything in our price range was 6 years old or more, not really what we were looking for. Went back to the first dealer and had another look at it and Dave said it was my decision so we bought it. They were kind enough to give us a lift to the bank to get the draft cheque and our insurance sorted. After not having driven in a little while I got Dave to drive to the parking spot we have in town. More than going out for lunch i wanted to know where it was for driving into town the next day. This annoys the crap out of Dave but driving somewhere new when I don’t know where I’m going stresses me out like you wouldnt believe. Anyway, we went out for a late lunch and having plucked up the courage I said I’d drive home if he wanted a beer. With my co-pilot Dave by my side I wasn’t as nervous being on new roads. Only just realised today that 75% of my driving experience has been in Bermuda so its no surprise that driving on a 3 lane motorway was making me somewhat nervous.

Today I ventured out by myself for a little shopping spree, below is the picture of me driving off. Got a very nice top and necklace and a couple of glossy lipsticks. Feeling much more comfortable driving the car now but its going to take me a while to get used to driving in all this traffic.

I also got flowers from mum and dad today, they were supposed to come on my birthday but with Dave and I being out all yesterday I didnt get them until today. I’ve put a photo of them below, they’re gorgeous. Didn’t even have to re-arrange them, they fitted perfectly into the vase.

We finally got the last of our shipped items yesterday. It’s taken a couple of months to get here, but everything turned up in one piece and Jules unpacked our boxes today. This is the first time in 6 years we’ve had all our belongings in one country.

We went out last night to see “Casino Royale” and were shocked at how good it was. I really wasn’t expecting much from it (or the new Bond) but it looks like I was very wrong. After the horror-show of “Die Another Day” it appears the franchise is back.

For our first movie going experience in NZ we used the Gold Lounge at Reading Cinema which is full of reclining seats, free popcorn and sodas, and unobstructed views of the screen. They also let you order drinks at the bar and set times for them to bring them to your seat. It was definately nice having beers turn up at set intervals, but I think in future I’ll order spirits to keep the liquid content down.

….and it blows. Literally.

Today is the first day of summer in NZ, and it’s been cold, windy and rainy in Wellington today. Just to cheer me up even more I took a look at Ondrej’s website and saw that he’s been diving with Eagle Rays and Octopus.

I’m very jealous. I need a dive holiday.

For the first time since January, Jules will be in paid employment as of tomorrow. Hooray!!

Jules working will not just have an impact on us, but also on the pair of ducks that live around our apartment block. Jules has been feeding them bread and muesli every day, and I think they have come to expect these regular handouts now. We spotted them outside this morning hanging around the grounds and when we opened our kitchen window to throw some bread out we almost ended up with the female in our kitchen. I guess she was hungry since she flew up to us as soon as she realised food was on it’s way.

We’ve also finally got around to uploading a few photos of our apartment today. They are available here.

For now, here’s a photo of me playing the Xbox 360 on our lovely 50″ TV.

We finally have broadband access at home again! Hooray!

Not having internet at home is incredibly hard for me, especially as very restrictive policies at work mean I can’t check personal email there.

We will start updating the blog and responding to emails again shortly.

I start work on Tuesday for Axon Computer Systems in Wellington, and We found an apartment near George and Emma which we move into this weekend. We went out yesterday and bought some essentials for the place - fridge, bed, etc. It’s the first time we’ve owned furniture since 2000, so it was a strange experience to be in a store choosing appliances, especially since we took out Credit for some of the appliances (which is shockingly easy to get).

We’ll update some photos once we move in.

We are definately into our final days of catching up with people now. We just saw someone that we haven’t seen since 2002, and my aunt and uncle called from Canada tonight to have a quick chat and wish us well. Have a few more nights to organise, then we’re off. I’m sure we’ll both be wiped out by the time we get to NZ.

Managed to get down to Easter Road on Sunday with Malc to watch the Hibs vs Rangers game, and was very happy I went! I think I’m a good omen for the team as I’ve been to ‘the Leith San Siro’ twice this year and both games have been 2-1 victories. Having been to the Hibs supporters bar before and after the game I was in a very good mood Sunday night, but unfortunately my luck didn’t extend to the Miami Dolphins who suffered an embarassment at the hands of the Bills and notched up their 2nd defeat in a row.

Oh, and I’m taking the fact that both Hibs goals were scored by Kiwi Striker Chris Killen as a good omen.

We haven’t updated for a while as time has just started to slip away from us now. In three weeks time we’re going to be in New Zealand. Scary!

The Edinburgh Film Festival ended pretty well for us with “The Oh in Ohio”, an interesting documentary called “The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief” and Kevin Smith’s “Clerks 2″ which was one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. I love Jay’s Buffalo Bill/Silence of the Lambs bit, but the deconstruction of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was probably the biggest crowd pleaser.

Now that Edinburgh has calmed down a bit with the end of the Festival I’ll need to try and get around the town to take some pictures and visit a couple of places I just couldn’t face in a huge crowd of tourists. It will be nice to spend some time in the city before we leave, revisiting some old haunts.

Morag arranged an afternoon out to Vogrie with the kids, my mum and her mum. In the morning I thought it was going to be rained off but the nearer we got to Vogrie the brighter the sun got.

Mum had to meet dad to drop off some tools so she met us later along with Morag’s mum. When we got there Kimberly, Rachel and Joshua all set off running for the park, Morag and I not quite as enthusiastic about the whole thing just walked. Once there the first thing I spotted was the swings, felt like a kid all over again and practically bolted to them. Kimberly, Rachel and I all got on and started swinging for all we were worth. The swings are all set in a circle so when you swing forward all your feet end up together in the middle. Of course this means that we were all trying to kick one another.

Next up was the trampolines where Morag and I tried our best to knock the kids off. It’s set up as lots of little trampolines strung together with rope, pretty cool. While down there my mum and Auntie Doreen (doesn’t seem right to call Morag’s mum just Doreen) showed up with Murphy (my Mum’s Border Collie).

We headed back to the main park where we spun and flung the kids all over the place. Both the mums sat at the side chatting away and probably laughing at Morag and I running around like idiots. Kimberly challenged Morag and I to leap frog the pillars in the park. Kimberly although much smaller than us had no problems leaping over all 6 of them. Rachel gave it her best shot and did them all by jumping, sitting then sliding off. Morag almost head butted the next pillar in the line so stopped at just one. I decided to go for it and to my surprise I managed them fine. Think my mum was just as surprised as I was that I didn’t trip and end up flat on my back. Much fun was had by all.

While having our mid afternoon refreshments I remembered I had the camera on me and got it out to get a few photos of the kids, the best two are below. It was a great afternoon out and I look forward to our day out to North Berwick next week.