2006 closed.

My general slackness has continued through the festive season and into the new year, though I have been picking up the training for the half marathons that are coming up in February.

I have just read back to the last post and I had missed a fair bit out of that, so lets do a brief summary of the end of 2006.

To celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on the last week of November my wife and I went to Queensland for a holiday without the kids. The youngest stayed with my sister and the older two stayed at home by themselves. This was a big trust thing for us and we were pretty pleased with how it all worked out. The holiday itself was good, 4 days on the Gold Coast with the In-laws was OK and then we went up to Cairns for another few days which was great. We did a snorkel/dive on the barrier reef which was expensive but just amazing, drove up to the Daintree and around the tablelands for a couple of days. It was a great trip, no stress for 4 days, one of the better holidays I have had, and would have deserved a decent post.

Our daughter moved out for her first taste of flatting the week we got back from our holiday, it is strange not having her in the house. Though we have made her bedroom the computer room, which probably means less internet time for me as I usually surf while watching TV.

Had family Christmas day a week early this year as my parents were away for Christmas day in the south island with one of my sisters and my other sister was with the in-laws in Tauranga. Had a pretty good family afternoon, all the “kids” behaved themselves.

On the last day of normal work we packed it in early and had a few wines with lunch, I then went down to my old employers for a few drinks and ended up in the pub for a few more. Somewhere along the line things got beyond blurry and I have no recollection of anything at all happening between 6ish and 10ish. My memory kicks back in again around 10 and by this time I was at the Kings Arms tavern to see the Mint Chicks play. The support act Shaky hands were really good as well but the Mint Chicks, sans their recently departed vocalist kicked arse. I spent the whole set leaping up and down like, and with, the teenagers. My daughter was there as well and she gave me a lift home which was pretty cool.

The next day I vowed to stop drinking after new years eve, though I do not drink much or often, when I do I have a drink I seem to have blank spots in the night, this I have concluded is not a good thing !

Christmas was OK, we had a friend with us for the day and went visiting other friends for the afternoon, the weather was OK, had a few drinks and ate too much. I am not a big Christmas fan so it was all a bit ho-hum. Did get some good books though !

On Boxing Day we took the youngest up to Goat Island and went snorkelling, he has been wanting to do this for a while and the weather and tides were right. Had a great time, though the water is far from warm yet. Goat Island has been a marine reserve for many many years so there was a ton of fish and things to see. Youngest son had a blast.

I was meant to work through the non-stat holiday days, but the first day back at work was so supposed to be the only dry day for a few days I took the day off and a few of went down to Rotorua for the day to ride. Had a great ride, I took the SS and never regretted it, even though I did have to push up the hill to the top of a new trail called Billy T that is the highest point in the forest. The ride back down was grin inducing. As always we had a blast on the BRNT and Diamondback trails. Great riding was had by all…

Had two days back at work and didn’t really do much, surfed the net and fixed a few things, I should have been blogging then !

A while ago I decided that if I got a decent bonus this year I would buy myself a good camera, I spent a large portion of my two work days researching cameras and seeking opinions on them from friends. An old friend of ours who we haven’t seen for years even though they only live less than 2kms away is heavily into photography so I gave her a call and we went down to visit and talk cameras. It was really nice to catch up and decided then to get a Canon 400d twin lens pack as it was on special for $1800. I bought it the next day…

New years eve was quiet, went to a friend of Deana’s for dinner then to another friends for drinks and downtown to watch the fire works.

Finished drinking until at least April 28th when the Marathon is on.