Monday, January 17, 2011

New Zealand in January

hi everyone

well, Grandma and Grandad are away (and it seems have locked up the Jag, i discovered with some dismay) in one of their most favourite places in the world, the lovely, mostly island-ish land known as New Zealand! well, even in New Zealand was not all that lovely (which it is) i dare say they would wish to go as often as possible anyway on account of who lives there.

yes, that is indeed a reference to the dream that i have that my Dad shall one day bump into Paul Rutherford out of Frankie Goes To Hollywood whilst out and about, so to speak, in Auckland. in the mean time, however, i'm sure it's pleasant enough to visit Katie, Daniel, Gillian and indeed Grant.

Grandad wasted no time at all in reminding Katie and Daniel how wonderful it is to have Grandad around, it seems, as he more or less straight away had them shifting his suitcases around!





in fairness, though, the suitcases did seem loaded up with stuff for Katie and Daniel. well, it would be nice if the items i sent over for Grant and Gillian made it too, but for the most part it looks like Katie and Daniel did very well indeed from the cases!





as Dad usually objects to vulgar language (except when in the company of American "soccer" fans), i have never played him the mahic of Denis Leary. Dad is thus unaware of the sound advice he gives in regards of gifts for children, re : "don't buy the toys that make a noise.".





i think i would have saved those, as ace as they look, and give them to them just as i was heading off for the return flight!

i sincerely hope that the golfing paraphernalia i sent over for Grant made it into the case. i have not heard much about it, to be honest. however, Grant does appear to have got an unusual gift. Dad does tend to be of that "if it is on the internet it must be true" school of thinking, and picked up on my comments that sheep are the only meat supplying animals on the island. this might explain why he decided to take an entire cow over as a gift.

this is probably in contravention of various laws, no matter how well Dad clearly disguised Daisy in his luggage. Grant being the honest type would not doubt have been appalled by this, and decided that the best thing to then do was to cook it all up and eat it as soon as possible.





just look at the guilt all over his posture and face!

Grandma has been as welcomed as ever in New Zealand, of course. referring back to an earlier post, Gillian was even so kind as to allow Mum to hold the chocolate orange for a little while. on condition that she tackled all the year-to-date ironing Gillian had kept aside.





of all the gifts, ironing and bovine-related food items that come with a visit from Grandma and Grandad, nothing of course beats just taking a brisk afternoon stroll with them. nice one Katie and Daniel, have fun!





i believe the above was taken en route to the theatre, to go and see a magnificent sounding & looking production of Cinderella. now, whereas New Zealand has put up signs saying "DO NOT TAKE PICTURES IN THE THEATRE" in the auditorium, they neglected to say that this is indeed the message in English. Dad just assumed it meant something else, then, and took as many pictures as took his fancy!





i have little doubt that Dad will be sending on some more pictures, if not details of where exactly the Jag is locked up. with some good luck we will see images of him cooking breakfast in his usual attire at 6 in the morning, just as soon as he works out where exactly he can get "lamb bacon" from.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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