Back to NZ after my visit home I got back into my routine of dance classes, swimming, meeting friends for brunch, work drinks, cooking, cinema, drinks with friends, Book Club etc. Our friend Tamara had a leaving do as she set off to Mauritius for a 4 month stint for work and several of the Book Club girls announced engagements; Cath to Paul, Delis to Eric, and Sonia to Bryan.
August to December 2009 were very full-on at work, we were implementing new waste minimisation legislation and I was part of a team of in-house ‘subject matter experts' working alongside external contractors who were business analyst, IT or document specialists. It was a hard slog with many late hours and weekend work, however we punctuated the hard work with some fun nights out with our contractors. One memorable night involved 5 hours of karaoke at the Korean Restaurant with our waste levy collection contractors!
At the beginning of September I went for a weekend to Melbourne again to visit my sister. We went shopping and had pizza on Lygon Street, caught up with an English friend Pete and visited the Pompeii exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. I went to Melbourne again at the beginning of December - Fliss and I met up with Mike Cook and spent the day in Geelong including a visit to the Serendipity Wildlife Reserve and dinner at Carols. Another day was spent touring the Mornington Peninsula with Lyn and Nora, including a few wine-tastings along the way.
Sadly on 25 September 2009 a close work colleague, Francie, died after a brave fight against cancer. She ‘walked the talk' and was passionate about the environment and working at the Ministry. I attended the funeral and we held a service at work. It certainly hit home that life is too short and opportunities mustn't be wasted. Ensure that each day time is spent doing something that you enjoy and that makes you happy.
I managed to get out and about including a tramp up at the Belmont Trig, only a day walk but a chance to get outside after a winter spent hibernating from the wet and windy weather. In October a group of us went to Christchurch to attend and present at the annual Waste conference. We were well received by the stakeholders which was a relief and not too many complaints about the new legislation. The best part of the conference, other than my workshop, was the formal meal at the Air Museum sitting to eat dinner amongst some world war two bombers and other aeroplanes. I also went up to Auckland with a group of girls from dance class to watch the New Zealand Miss Pole dance competition. Very good. The competitors make it look so easy, even the 57 year old granny!
My sister came over for my birthday weekend at the end of October and I took her out on the town and treated her to a ticket to the Peter Pan ballet. Her first ballet. We also went to see the Michael Jackson movie. Later in November my house held the famous annual Paterson Ball – this year's theme “Grimm nights in the faerie dark forest” – I went as ‘foliage'. As with last year, the house and garden soon filled up, we think about 450 people turned up with the last guest leaving at 1pm the next afternoon! This year we also managed to attract a celebrity to the party – Brett McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords – although he didn't come in costume.
As summer slowly approached at the end of the year, I went to my first wedding of the season (3 or 4 more next year), Peta and Bryan got married on the beach at days Bay in Eastbourne –across the harbour from Wellington. It was a ‘bring a plate' wedding – each guest was allocated a ‘dish' to bring, such as a warm meat starter or cold vegetarian main, and then all the dishes were presented as a huge buffet for everyone to share. A great idea and resulted in a wide selection of really tasty food.
December and the end of the year I was busy finishing off the Waste Act project and enjoying Christmas parties, drinks, bbqs and Christmas dinners. My favourite was the work camping trip out to the Kaitoke national park just north of Wellington. We managed to rig up a laptop and microphone so we could do karaoke under the stars. Great fun.
My Christmas was relatively low-key, I spent the day with other expat Orphans – Aileen, Fazleen and her husband Richard and their daughter Izzy. I made a nut roast and we ate out in the garden. A couple of days later, me, Aileen and Megan headed up north to Lake Waikaremoana, a huge lake west of Gisbourne. We met up with our friends Derek, Ellie and Anita and spent 4 days tramping around the lake. It is an amazing place and the scenery was spectacular. The tramp itself wasn't too difficult, the first day was a 5 hour uphill but the next 2 ½ days were shorter, downhill or ‘undulating'. The weather was great and at the end of the tramp I felt that I could carry on for at least another day! For new year we headed a few hours south to Wairoa, a small town on the river south of Gisbourne. We had planned to spend New Year in a posh bach south of Hawke's Bay but the owners ‘double-booked' and cancelled our booking just one week before Christmas. The Wairoa bach was the last one still available that wasn't too far from the Lake. Luckily the bach was very nice and we joined Tamara and Andrew and had a great few days eating, going to the beach, dancing, sleeping, drinking and chatting round the outdoor fire. Not a bad end to the year.
Next instalment: Summer 2010 (arts and culture, parents holiday to NZ, new babies and weddings).