Maintenance

While many people we know were enjoying a long weekend back home in the US, camping, watching baseball, having a barbeque, we unfortuantly only had a standard 2 day weekend down here.

I struggled all weekend to fight a cold that started to come on towards the end of the week, but despite that we still had a good weekend. Saturday morning Erin and I got up nice and early to bring our car in for a tune up and an oil change. It's the first service we have brought it to, since we purchased it. Unfortunately it has a slight oil leak and had to be fixed and it costs a couple extra hundred dollars to get repaired. In addition, we were told that we should get the Cambelt replaced as well, because it is old and could break which would result in major engine trouble. We will make an appointment to have this done this coming week (another $500).

We went over to our friends Brian and Diane's house to have dinner, watch a rugby game, and play with their 3 month old son (Matthew). We had some Indian food and it was very tasty. On the way home, we drove through an alcohol checkpoint and I had my breath tested for alcohol. I had only had 3 beers over 4 hours, so we were free to continue on home.

Sunday was a relaxing day, where Erin did a lot of cleaning and I watched the Celtics win their first road game of the Postseason to take the series lead 2-1.

We hope that everyone is having a nice long weekend!

Erin the chef

A couple weeks back Erin and I talked about how we weren't trying many new or different recipes in the kitchen. Erin took this as somewhat of a challenge and has created a number of new dishes. She's focusing her efforts right now on soup type meals. Here's a break down of the various meals she's put together over the past couple weeks:

Pasta Fagioli - Otherwise known as Pasta and beans, Erin used her newly purchased crock pot (on Trademe which is the NZ equivalent of eBay). It made a large portion and we ate this for a few nights.
Sausage with White Beans and Escarole - This meal was served with a garlic white wine sauce and tasted "professional".
Grandma's Spaghetti - This is a meal that Erin has made before and if you couldn't tell, came from her Grandmother. Always a yummy meal.
Manhattan Seafood Chowder - Attempted to make Clam Chowder first, but it was changed to seafood chowder which included crab, shrimp, and oysters. This was made in the crock pot as well and brewed all day on Sunday, but because we went out to dinner on Sunday with Mascha and Jeroen, it wasn't eaten until Monday.
Italian Wedding Soup - Unfortunately Erin didn't find any mini meat balls, but she was creative and took sausage and cut it open and into small bits. This was a very tasty meal as well and we ate this one tonight.

I'm sure Erin is busy searching for more recipes, so if you have any specialities to suggest, let us know and we will give it a try and post our results.

Entertaining Clients

I've had a big week with entertaining various clients. As we wrote earlier in the week I attended the Elton John concert with a few clients. The tickets were $400 and we had drinks and food before hand, so I was glad that I wasn't paying.

Erin was able to secure a ticket from one of my co-workers, so she was very excited. Her seats were $320, but she was able to get up to the stage and dance. She was only a couple feet away from Elton.

On Friday I had another big client entertaining event and we went to the Blues vs. Hurricanes Rugby game. It was the last game of the regular season for the Super 14 (which is 14 teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa). The event was great with dinner, drinks, and good seats. The Blues won the game in the end and it was a lot of fun.

This weekend we have dinner with a few friends and plan on enjoying the sunshine before the winter rain starts falling.

We also send our thoughts and prayers to Wendy and Paul's friend Mary Ann who lost her husband Bill to cancer last night.

Elton John in Concert

Jeremy and I are off to see Elton John in concert tonight. He was able to get a ticket through a work event and I am going to go with one of his co-workers whose husband can't go. Our seats aren't together but I'm sure we'll still enjoy the show!

Erupt Lake Taupo Festival

Our free weekend in Taupo at the festival was GREAT! We headed out of Auckland at 2:30 on Friday so we could make it down there for the first show and beat the traffic. We stayed at the Miro's Motel which is close to the town centre as well as the lake. The place was very nice and we had breakfast included which was brought to our rooms both mornings. In addition to the shows, we walked around the town and Erin found an All Blacks sweatshirt which she quickly snatched up so she will have something to wear when we go to the game in June. On our way out of town we stopped at Craters of the Moon which is a really neat park which has all this geothermal activity (Don't worry the last eruption here was in 2002 and we made it through our visit).




Here's a summary of the shows that we saw:

Hotel: This was play that brings the audience in to experience what goes on behind the closed door of Hotel Room 22. There were only 13 of us in the audience and we were like flies on the wall as we watched the lives of different people and how they used/stayed in the hotel room. We both loved this show and would see it again in a heartbeat.


The Songs of Kurt Weill: This was a cabaret which brought to life the songs of German born Kurt Weill and murder, prostitution, and political corruption. The band and singer were amazing and they were so skills in the various instruments that they played. It was a very entertaining show. We sat at a table for this show and met 4 individuals who have retired in Taupo. They were great to talk with and were very interested in our travels, etc.


Arte Kanela: This was a flamenco musical group from Australia which had 2 dancers, 2 musicians, and a singer. The dancing skills that both the male and female dancers had were absolutely unbelievable. The combination of the Spanish music and dancing resulted in a standing ovation at the end.


Moana and The Tribe: A band which pull together traditional and contemporary Maori, soul, reggae, and classical music along with moving images of the New Zealand landscape. The music was very soothing and we purchased their newest CD at the end of the show which is called "Wha".

Big Win

We renewed Citymix magazine last week and we entered a contest for a weekend away...Erin got a call today...WE WON!!! We won a weekend away in Taupo which is 3 hours south of Auckland. A good vacation spot. We have lodging and tickets to a big festival that is happening. The festival is called Erupt Lake Taupo Festival. We are so excited as we never win things like this! We are going this coming weekend. The package is worth $850...we can't believe it!

Pilobolus

We continued to ensure that our cultured backgrounds are improved and went to a dance show at the theatre. The show was called Pilobolus and is a US based dance company that actually started at Dartmouth College in the 70's. The show was very good and we had great seats. We were very pleased with our decision to buy tickets.

This weekend we also said goodbye to Jochen who headed back to Germany. We had breakfast on Saturday morning and then a few of us headed to the airport with him. We had a great time with him over the past year and look forward to seeing him and his girlfriend Susanne in a year when we head home.