Peter celebrated his birthday by going out drinking three nights in four days! Admittedly the first was the monthly Beer club and the third was when Ann took him out for a meal. He and Greig had been promising to organise a Whisky tasting at work for some time and with Craig leaving for the UK and Canada it was decided that the time was right. An enjoyable evening during which eight whiskys were tasted, and some old favourites shown to be no as good as people remembered. Ann joined the boozers for a curry and then drove Peter home.
For his birthday Ann gave him a new electric shaver whilst Jaz and Maxie gave him the two ‘Shrek’ movie DVD’s.
Maxie continues to challenge our memory skills. If we forget to put everything away she’ll have a ‘chew’ at it! Latest casualties include Peter’s treats bumbag, followed by Ann’s glove, shoe and boot.
Both dogs have also slowly chewed their way through their beds so we bought a new one for Jaz to try. This lasted three days before a hole appeared so Ann made a new cover for it. This was so good that she then made a brand new bed for Maxie.
Jaz is working on a new angle to gain more food. When we’re out walking, if Ann doesn’t keep the treats (for good behaviour) coming fast enough Jaz makes her way around to Peter’s side and tries to sneak the treats he’s holding in his hand ready to reward Maxie!
Ann’s school gave her two beautiful, scented roses, a red and a white one in memory of her mum. These have been put into larger pots at the moment until we find a suitable place to plant them in the garden.
The weather has been a ‘bit’ wet and windy – there’s been flooding up north and Tornadoes spotted in Taranaki and Auckland (from the news it seems that the Uk is also suffering from a ‘bit’ of flooding)!
Peter’s work has a new multi-function colour copier / scanner / printer so his boss has given Peter the old colour laser printer. It’s taken a bit of juggling to get it into the study as it is quite large but Peter can now print the Bonsai club newsletters at home. Thanks Andrew!
Ann has been accusing Peter of playing sneaky tricks on her. Whilst vacuuming the car before we went on a Bonsai tree dig with some friends, Maxie decided to help by sitting in the car after Ann had cleaned it. She got her own back though, she encouraged Maxie to ‘help’ Peter by jumping up and putting her front paws on Peter’s back whilst he was pushing a trailer full of gravel around the garden.
We went over to Tauranga with Dianne, Noel, Sandra and Jeff to collect a few more bonsai trees.
During the dig at Adriaan and Poppies we collected five trees, 3 for Ann and 2 for Peter.
We have trimmed one of the two hedges in the garden. It took Peter nearly the whole of one weekend to cut the Pittosporum hedge and put all of the clippings onto the bonfire. Now we only have the berberis hedge to do.
Peter has finally finished the path to the clothes line. We have also finished the gravel area in front of the dog’s kennels. All we have to do now is level off the ground with some of our spare topsoil and spread grass seed.
Even though it’s mid winter, we have managed to have lunch on the deck at least once each weekend.
Although we haven’t signed up for Term 3 dog training – (it’s too cold and wet!) we are continuing at home. Each weekday morning – 6.30am – sees the four of us walking around the house doing sits, downs, stays and waits.
One of our friends in the village is in a part-time band. We went to see the ‘Grey Haired Daddys’ play at the pub after the All Blacks beat the Australians (again)!
Gavin’s the singer – second from the right
News from Home
Mark has done more filming – a feature film called The Bridge of Lies with some well know actors in it, including Maureen Lipman, Ralph Brown (Coronation Street, Alien 3 & Star Wars: Phantom Menace), and Steven Spiers (Eragon, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest & Dr Who). He’s also done a night shoot for S4C called SOS Galw Gari Tryfan playing a CSI cop, complete with white suit and mask, dusting for prints etc behind the main actors.
The really big news is that he’s been called to do Torchwood and has been asked to be John Barrowman’s double/stand in – for his legs and feet as they are both the same size! So in essence he was Captain Jack for a day!!! How cool is that.
Ann’s godson, David, got a 2.1 in his degree – congratulations! He’s now waiting to hear if his application to join the police has been successful.
Whilst travelling in the USA recently ‘Captain Alex’ and ‘First Officer Michael’ were asked to help with the preflight checks on their flight!
Dave & Ann have a new home. After a few delays they have finally moved into a lovely looking barn conversion near Hagley – downsizing in the process.