Chris turns 18 and Ashley Cooper rolls into town...

So at long last Chris has made it to 18 years of age! He can now legally go and buy booze from the off-licence - he's got ID!
Unfortunately for Chris, his birthday started at McDonalds on the night shift. He decided to stay up for the night - clearly eager to receive all his cards and pressies first thing. He was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a new car for him parked on the driveway. He also seemed a bit unimpressed with the tandem para-gliding experience that we had provisionally booked for him - so that was duly un-booked!

We eventually agreed on a course of action for the morning - breakfast at Cafe C1 and then a wander around town to buy him a watch. He chose a nice adidas model - which we hope he will get many years use out of!
He then decided that he needed his bed so celebrations were put on hold for a few hours...that is until Maria, Sarah and I headed into town to a couple of bars for late afternoon drinkies in the expectation of Chris joining us. But he never arrived - deciding to spend some time with pals instead and then settling for a take-away Hells Pizza for his birthday dinner rather than the planned posh-nosh in town! Ah well, his choice. At least we had a pleasant time on Oxford Terrace.


He had a few pals around at Desmond Street on Friday for a few beers and PS3 games before heading off into town to hit a few bars to celebrate R18.

Elsewhere this week, we enjoyed the presence of our first UK visitor - Ashley Cooper. In Christchurch on business, Ashley entertained me at the Addington Races on Friday with a gathering of the local aerospace elite.

I actually managed to come away from the event having beaten the Bookie!

Ashley stayed at Desmond Street on the Saturday after we had enjoyed a day out over in Akaroa.

The trip was made extra special due to the fact that we were lent a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow for the afternoon - compliments of Allan Jones, one of Ashley's team who is actually from Christchurch and has a couple of them sat in a garage just on the outskirts of town - as you do!

So it was a rather smooth ride over to the French quarter that is Akaroa - and we certainly received a few admiring looks as we purred through la ville.

We had a great time out on the Akaroa Jet Boat experience - despite it being a bit choppy out on the water and suffering a few salt-water facials!


Looking forward to going again on a still day when he can really open it up - so just waiting for the next visitor to arrive!

We had a drive out to Sumner for breakfast this morning (Sunday) and a stroll along the esplanade.

We drove back along the summit road before heading back to town and a saunter around the botanical gardens before Ashley had to bid his farewells and head off on the next leg of his round-the-world business trip; next stop San Francisco.

Earlier in the week I'd managed to catch up with Bill Southgate from Rolls-Royce who is over here on holiday, staying with friends over in Governors Bay. We met up for a run along the Harry Ells track in the Port Hills and then enjoyed a pleasant cuppa tea and jam scone at the Sign of the Kiwi. He and his wife have headed off to the Abel Tasman National Park for a few days and I hope to catch up again some time next week for another run before his stay in NZ comes to and end.

So Cup and Show Week has come and gone here in Christchurch and it's now the run in to Christmas! Sarah goes off on School Camp tomorrow for 2 nights and Maria and I are contemplating a trip out to Hanmer Springs or the West Coast for an over-nighter - it's been a holiday weekend here, so why rush back to work!

Birthday Time

Sorry all you blog-fans(!) - it's now a 3 week gap since last update rather than the usual fortnight. So what have we been up to over the back end of October? Looking forward to my birthday, of course!

Just in case you missed out sending me a card this year, get it entered in your 2010 diaries - it's the 5th Nov - same date each year - easy to remember, remember, the 5th of November....etc!

We thought about going to the Firework display over at New Brighton but instead our fantastic landlady Nicky gave Maria and I a couple of complementary tickets to a wine tasting (Sauvignon Blanc) and charity auction evening at the Christchurch Casino - very enjoyable indeed

Maria and I have managed to get out on our bikes a few times - we took on Dyers Pass Road to the top of the Port Hills one Saturday morning a few weeks ago. Let's just say we had a few recovery stops along the way - it's a steep climb, especially when you've not done any hills for some time!

Maria also completed her 2nd NZ triathlon last Sunday (1st Nov) over at QE2 stadium. The distances were a bit longer than her first one - they build up again for the 3rd one in the series at the start of December. .
She did very well. The conditions were a bit more pleasant this time around. Steve Frodsham's wife Viv also competed in the Duathlon event.

I've managed to get a couple of longer rides out to Tia Tapu from Christchurch with a couple of different cycling pals. I think we are building up for something called the Long Bays which is around 70km of ride with a few hills along the way.

Sarah's school held aTwilight Fair last week which Maria and Sarah made some cakes for - Sarah and I did our bit manning the stall for a while - before Sarah subsequently disappeared off with her pals whilst Maria and I headed to the bar and then went listening to the live band - very Rock 'n Roll!

Maria and I enjoy walking around the Botanical Gardens - which are on our doorstep. There are some fantastics plants and trees - some quite grand!

Sarah's had a couple of sleep-overs over the last 2 weeks - first one was an away fixture, then one at home. This weekend her pal Frannie stayed. The weather was really great here and the girls made the most of the swimming pool - despite the fact that I've not cleaned it for Summer as yet!

Maria and I enjoyed a trip over to Akaroa a couple of Saturdays ago - when Sarah was sleeping away.

What a beautiful place. My previous experience of the place had been at the end of the recent NZ national relay champs - when it was cold and grey - plus I only really saw the inside of a pub next to the finish line and the inside of the mini-bus. On a warm Summer's day it's very peaceful and scenic. A must for our visitors.

We went along to the Christchurch Girl's High School last week for a New Entrants evening - it's where Sarah has a place for next February. She'll have had 3 different schools in 6 months - that's quite some change! She's doing well to deal with it all, really.

Maria's been working at least 4 days per week recently - one was a 5 day week too. She's doing her best to keep us solvent at the moment. It's a bit tough on her - she's getting quite tired at times - missing her cat-naps! Hopefully she won't need to work quite such a full week once I start to earn some money.

On that front, I have secured my first clients here in NZ. They are individuals wanting personal coaching - which is really great news. Still a long way to go before I "break even", but it's a start. I also took part in another seminar last week - this time with a couple of others who also wanted to "showcase" their own businesses. The set up seems to work at the moment, so I'm hopeful that we will all benefit from it. We are currently planning on monthly events in Christchurch.

Chris is still enjoying his career at McDonalds. His hours went a bit thin for a week or two but seem to have filled up again this last week - I think he's worked 6 nights running up to tonight including a few shifts where he has been called in at short notice due to no-shows of others. He's looking forward to turning 18 this week. He keeps telling me he wants to buy a car with the money he is expecting to receive from relatives! He has high hopes!

I have joined a BNI networking group to help to develop my business - it's a way of generating and receiving referral business. It seems to be very effective and is paying dividend already (see earlier comments!). One of my BNI colleagues is a real-estate agent and she invited me to a property auction last week - it was really fascinating - though I think it will be some time before I will be going along with my cheque book!

We've had a lovely weekend of weather here this weekend and I finally got around to cleaning down the BBQ and getting some sausages sizzling. Yum yum!.


It's Show Week here in Christchurch this week. It's like Royal Ascot without the Royals. For many, it signals the start of the Christmas Festivities! There seems to be lots of parties being organised over the next month or so. I've been invited to the Races on Friday where Ashley Cooper will be hosting a marquee full of Christchurch-aerospace movers-and-shakers - I'm looking forward to talking about engines after 6 months out of the industry! Just hope I remember which end is which - actually, I'm not sure I ever really knew anyway!