Beware of the Double Bogey man

Just a little bit of excitement in our lives on Sunday as Duncan was in the 19 man shoot out at golf. It begins with 19 players and one person gets dropped off at each hole. Naturally it takes nearly all day. Duncan had promised to ring when he good knocked out. By 1.00 I thought "the B*****d's forgotten to ring me. By 2.00 I thought maybe ......, and just as I was heading off to the movies at 3, he rang to say he had won the whole lot. And the amazing thing was, he had 6 double bogeys. (Bad news, for you non-golfers) BUT when he had a bad hole, someone else had a worse one, and he hung on until the end, finally having to have a "chip off" with Gray Clapham to clinch the match. The next excitement was opening up the winner's envelope - over $600! I didn't find this out until after returning from the movies - Samson and Delilah, about some aborigine kids (very bleak and sad and hopeless)
I have been in Auckland for 2 days on a course for taking classes on video conference next year. Stayed in the Holiday Inn which was nice. Very stimulating course - but as you can imagine with a pack of teachers pretty full on talking and listening.
On Thursday we head up to Auckland with a cargo of wedding wine. Not long to go now!!

A Topp Weekend

Race Day Theme this year was "The Rich and the Famous" Duncan and I went as the Topp twins. I'm Camp mother and Duncan is Camp Leader.

The Blacks were Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady. Here they are with their son Andrew who is back to get married - on the 8th of January. The Kemps came as the Papa-Rat-C and Paris Hilton 30 years on - she has just had another nose job, and her dog has grown up. I'm afraid Shirley couldn't stand the bandages for too long, but quite a lot of the costumes got abandoned as the day went on. All except Camp leader (Duncan) who galloped around in his dress all day.

Everyone contributed a dish of the rich and famous and we had a great meal - so that no-one needed dinner that night. The wind was quite cool so we were very glad of the conservatory.

Here is the formal lineup - I don't know what Duncan was doing with his hand!

Roger was Lord Ascot,the instigator of race meetings and Sue was Julie Andrews. We were also very fortunate to have Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip join us (alias Dawn and Paul)

Karen Crosby came as Imelda Marcos and bought a collection of wonderful shoes, which she proceeded to change before each race. The boots were the luckiest.

But in the end Camp Leader was so tired he even went to sllep through the Golf Show. A good day was had by all.

We're on the road again.

It was a great sense of deja vu as I headed off to support Duncan on a run. Here he is, just starting offbehind one of the people in a red shirt.


The course is now a two lap course around the centre of town. Here he is on the first lap. As you can see from his number 1691 he could have done it on his head and still be recorded as 1691!

The second lap and the sweat and dribble off the chin is starting to grow. The man in full fire gear was only doing 5 km. He did the 10.4 km in 55minutes and was 4th in his age group. I had heaps of people asking me why I wasn't doing it, but my muscle tone after my op has been very slow to return. For every day you spend in bed it is a week to fully recover. (Advice from nursing friend) That is why they try and get people up as quickly as they can.

The garden is producing heaps at present, but no flowering on the grapes yet. More meetings with lawyers, but not much headway on the land sale.

40 Days and 40 nights

Some of you will have heard of my exciting plan to loose 4kg in 40 days. To this end I have devised these little diet cards which insist on 2 forms of exercise, restrict my protein, carbohydrate and wine intake. As you can see most cards have a star on them, but days 3 doesn't - and another day 3 had to be done. Hopefully this will enable me to be svelte in my wedding dress! Simon informs me yesterday that there is 63days to the wedding, so I hope to get my 40 days done reasonably soon, or I'll be on dieter's rations on Christmas day! I am on day 6 today, but sadly it is a redo.

And finally, I have finished the jigsaw puzzle that Warren (vineyard manager) lent me from his Mum (who is addicted). I did it while I was in recovery mode, but the sky was last to be done, and took ages. She has lent me one to do at Xmas - only 750 not 1000 pieces this time.

Jo's husband (see last blog) has been flown to Waikato as Gisborne only has one ventilator and they dont want him to be kept on it over the weekend incase there is a car accident. Dawn's motherinlaw has had a heart attack. so many medical updates this week!! What a bugger it is getting old. (Oh, have I already said that?)

See this in cyberspace

I'm afraid that you will have to imagine these scenes as they unfold as I have sent the pictures off into cyberspace never to return. Picture the scene at Ohiwa - the girls are in their short shorts and spaghetti strap tops, the sky is blue, the sun is shining, small boys are busy saying "whats your name? - you want to play cricket?" , a mother tries to join in the game of touch rugby, but is soon sent back to do the unpacking. The nights were colder, but we didn't have to have our Electric blanket on. Duncan, Roger and Paul were playing in a golf competition in Ohope, so Sue, Dawn and I enjoyed the craft market at Ohope, shopping and lunch in Whakatane, and a swim at Awakeri Hot pools on Saturday, and a visit to Opotiki and the Hukutaia Domain on Sunday. I had some splendid photos from this walk, so will have to go back again at Christmas. Each wife had prepared one evening meal, so we ate really well. We played Trivial Pursuit on two nights - not without a few arguements - but what are friends for!!
Jo Kendall, who was one of the ladies I went tramping with until she had a stroke, has her husband in hospital in ICU with lung problems, so we had afternoon tea today and tried to sort out how we can support her. Its a bit frightening for her as it looks like Colin will not make a full recovery, so who will look after who?? It's a bugger getting old.

Social Whirl

The need to sleep has been that some things have gone by the board - like writing a blog. We have a few social events on, and these, plus being back at school have been quite tiring - however I am getting back to full health in steps.

Had a memorial service for Bob Carter - one of Duncan's running mates- last Saturday followed by a Bollywood 50th birthday. Didn't find a sari, but we both put on head wear that we thought was appropriate.

This week of to Duncan's Opto class reunion in Chch. As there is a conference he left yesterday with most of my clothes in his bag. The top of the bag ended up absolutely drenched, and my clothes were on top. Not sure how some of the more silky fabrics will react to this so ended up taking a bag anyway.

Room redo and ducks

Jill has been showing off her painting skills - well they must be inherited as I have been repainting the furniture in the spare room and everyone says it looks very good. New duvet cover, chair and curtains have really jazzed up the spare room. Its still a bit of a mishmash because we didn't start from scratch but fine for a spare room. If you look closely at the first picture there are my wedding shoes and hand bag (not the odd sandal on the top). Today I bought my wedding underwear too!! I'm ready. Just over 3 months to go.

You might remember that we are having trouble with the wildlife now that Bella has left us. It has been fascinating to watch as these ducklings have grown into flappers (I knew I'd get to use that term sometime, Dawn), but the crap on the concrete is huge and very disgusting.

Feeling much better now but only for an hour or two at a stretch, and then it is time for rest.