EDS Class of 2004!

Saturday 27th Nov - EDS School Disco / Christmas Party!

Happily for Jen, EDS kindly invited partners to their Christmas Party and even made it fancy dress! Jen was in heaven! The theme was EDS Class of 2004, so we all had fun dressing up as school girls and boys. Jen and Emete did their best to persuade the boys to go in drag, but no go!

We had a very amusing 20 minute walk to the party, collecting funny comments along the way, like 'See me in my office!' to 'Get back to class!' etc Ho ho ho!

We had a quality night boogying to cool 80s music ('That 80s Band' - Which one? - That one! - etc...), schmoozing with the big boss of EDS New Zealand, meeting all Nige's work mates, and drinking and eating lots of free stuff - yeh!

The 'Headmaster' ie the big boss, gave out prizes for 'Award for Excellence in Maths', 'Outstanding in Music' etc, which was basically a raffle based on our ticket numbers - the prizes were ace so needless to say we didn't win!!

We danced till the early hours and then limped (Jen - not used to high heels!) home...




Who wants to be in our gang?

Dunce!

Yo!

Da boyz

Dancing queens!

Schmoozing with the big cheese

Skool days!

That 80s Band!

Ready for school!

Wine, food and music - Toast Martinborough!

On Sunday 21st November, we jumped aboard a big green bus at 8am (on a Sunday!!) to drive over the hills to the Toast Martinborough Wine, Food and Music Festival!

We paid our entry fee and were given a wine glass attached to a string so we could hang it round our neck (to prevent loss or spillage!). We then strolled from vineyard to vineyard in the sunshine, tasting lots of wine, eating beautiful food and listening to some quality live bands.

Jen's work colleague Fiona, and her husband Simon (a fellow Pom) came along too and we had a cracking day chillin' in the sun and getting nice and merry on some delicious vintages of Sauv Blanc, Merlot, Shiraz and Chardonnay.

There is a shuttle bus round the vineyards for when you're too tired/pissed to walk, so we had a few rousing verses of 'The Wheels on the Bus' etc with a bus full of merry folk!

On the bus on the way back to Wellington, we met a very amusing couple of blokes from Upper Hutt Wine Club, who were flaunting the no-drinking-on-the-bus-home rules and slipping us surreptitious swigs of vino, and cheese and biscuits - very civilised!

Not wanting the day to end (especially as it was a school night!), we had a slow walk back along the harbour and stopped for an Italian on the way home. A great day was had by all!!


Vineyards of Martinborough

Jen & Nige luvved up among the vines

Jen, Simon and Fiona, and a few glasses of wine!

Last drink of the day

Nige with the Hutt Valley Wine Club reps

By the harbour

Views of Wellington from Jen's desk

Jen is working on 23rd floor of the 2nd tallest building in Wellington and her desk just happens to be right by the window, so she likes to show off by taking stunning photos of her view!


Tug boats!

The docks

CBD and Westpac Stadium

View across the city to Mt Victoria

The Waterfront with Oriental Bay in the background

Nick's BBQ

Friday 19th Nov - Jen's ever up for a party work mates had a barbecue at Nick's house. Much fun was had by all and we got to meet everyone's partners, so increasing our circle of new Wellington mates! After much beer/bubbly drinking and steak eating, we ended up back in town at the Monkey Club!



Da boys at Nick's BBQ (left to right Dan, Nick, Jack and Nige)

Views from our new house

Although we do not have a harbour view from our house, much to Nige's disappointment, we can see across the valley from our upstairs bedroom. And Wellington does have a few lovely sunsets...


Sunset from our new house

Red sky at night...

View towards the harbour!

First visitors!

Our first visitors to our new home were Darren and Emete. We cooked them a rather delightful thai green curry, although we needed help with the rice from our resident expert, Emete! A lovely night was had by all, and our house felt much more homely afterwards!


Nige and Emete cooking rice