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I am homesick for my turkey dinners. I LOVE thanksgiving and am missing out. Patrick's not really understanding the big deal, so we're not having any kind of mashed potatoes and gravy tonight. Probably not tomorrow night either. We dont' have an oven, so we're sort of SOL on having roast anything. I'm kind of hung over, so I don't feel like going all out either.

Last night some of patrick's students were having a housewarming party. They've got a super cool apartment - it's an old office floor with seven offices, two bathrooms, skylights, a kitchen - so all the offices are bedrooms. They found a large smurf and a guitar in the ceiling. They are planning on getting a pool table for their super large living room space (which already has two sofas, couple of coffee tables and about five chairs). I didn't see the second bathroom, but I didn't see a shower . . . I don't want to think about it.

Work is work - I've settled into the routine and things are rostered so that I do 'mat time' one week, art the next etc. There aren't as many long weekends here. I really need a long weekend. My new head teacher is from South Africa. She was away for a couple of months because her mother was really ill and passed away. She's coping and is kind of nice.

Last tuesday night Patrick phoned me to ask if I wanted to go to 'quiz night' at the pub since a number of people he works with were planning on going. I met up with them after work - we had about twenty people at our table and our team name was 'NZ Initiation' because two of us are from canada and two of us are from LA. Most teams were made up of two to five people. We came in third place and won a whoppin twenty dollar certificate for the pub. We're using it next tuesday when we come back for quiz night. it was a lot of fun.

shayne - the boys have dentist appointments on october thirtieth in the morning - you might want to phone jennifer.

This weekend we drove north. We wanted to get as far as Whangarei, but that didn't happen - we made it to Leigh, which is gorgeous and we had a really really great time! It didn't start out so swell though, and we made quite a few side stops on the way. The first and longest stop was at the super huge mall in Albany. We went into the food court first and only one shop was open. This lady was super chatty, in a really great mood, asian accent, and she kept calling us a beautiful couple, pretty lady, beautiful smile, it went on, I love that woman!!! She gave us each a sample of her 'lasagnas' which looked more like shephard's pie and some weird spinach gloop stuff, but it was good - we felt like having breakfast though. It was the absolute best service in the world - but then I'm a super sucker for flattery. We shopped around the outdoor mall and I found a copy of "No, David" for only sixteen dollars, so I bought it ( I think my copy at home was only four bucks), but these pages are

On the way we were held up along the motorway because a work crew had to come along and clean the orange pylons because they were all dirt grey.

We drove through a 'historical' town. There was a wedding going on and a cheese shop to find, and Patrick was wondering where the historical stuff was. I said it's the whole town, since there's only this one road . . . we stopped for some juice & cheesecake and left.

Orewa is gorgeous.

I found some very super cool seashells there and stuffed my pockets!

We had driven past it, stopped at a look out point ( I could see where the toilets were and had to go) and drove back. I wanted to see what the sign said, so we had to pass that torrential river without getting the camera wet.

The bottom line of the sign says 'beware of falling debris' and the motor was on the ground right beside the sign. :D

There are more pictures to come from this weekend - We went to Leigh and saw some very cool things. Patrick was saying that new zealanders must be jaded - "oh look honey - MORE gorgeous scenery!" in a mocking slightly sarcastic tone. It's bloody beautiful here and I hate to say that it really is more beautiful than bc (marginally) it's freakin gorgeous. It's spring, so the blossoms are blossoming and there are these really great trees that only bloom red flowers - I can't wait till they are out in full force! The sand at the beach isn't very dus

Brennen - I hope you have the bestest birthday ever!

Missing you millions, loving you lots,

April

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