Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday dear me-ee!
Happy Birthday to me!!!!
Well! Who'd have thought a couple of months ago that I'd be in Invercargill on my birthday, picking up paua shells (abalone) from the beach at Riverton and eating baked salmon with lemon risotto for lunch at the Beach restaurant, blowing out candles on a thistle-shaped birthday cake at teatime... and in short, getting spoiled rotten by Eunice and her family!
I've obviously skipped a few days from the last time I blogged, so let me fill you in! I arrived in Auckland on Monday, having stayed the night before in a motel close to Tullamarine airport. The morning flight was very early and meant getting up at some awful time - I don't DO mornings - to catch a courtesy taxi to the terminal, so that was how I found myself blogging at the airport. The flight to NZ was fine, and Mike, my cousin, was there to meet me. He drove us back to their suburb overlooking one of Auckland's two harbours, where his mother, Margaret was waiting with lunch ready! After lunch Mike headed off back to work at the boatyard, where he and his brother Chris are renovating a couple of boats: a small boat for going out fishing and on trips not too far afield, and a 70 foot yacht that will probably take them several more years to complete - and then who knows where on the seven seas they'll get to! Margaret and I visited the yard one day and saw the progress they'd made. It is possible that the small boat MAY be back in the water by the time I get back to Auckland, so I'm hoping for a short trip somewhere on my last day in NZ. We'll see!
I spent all of the first few days at home with Margaret, going through the family tree and sorting out pictures of previous generations. She fished out a manuscript - a handwritten book - by her grandfather, Bert, who described a tour in Scotland in 1887 that he had made with my grandfather and a couple of other companions into the hills of the west. There were photos too, which I began to photograph, till Margaret told me she wanted me to have the book. Was I delighted, or what!!! On the last day I was with them, another of the cousins came over for lunch so more chatter and reminiscences.
On Friday when Mike dropped me again at the airport, my flight to Invercargill was in jeopardy due to some "disruption" earlier in the day. They had tried to contact me to tell me that they wanted me on an earlier flight - but that message didn't reach us! It was possible they were going to have to "overnight" me at either Wellington or Christchurch as all other flights to Invercargill were full for the day! I did the girlie thing and gave them my sob-story (which was absolutely true - I had to be in Invercargill for a birthday) and well, wouldn't you know it, there was one seat left on a flight from Christchurch that would tie in with a flight TO Christchurch - so I was off... no time to phone Eunice, and I landed in Invercargill an hour before I was due to arrive on the original flights via Wellington! I discovered later that Eunice had been checking up on my original flight, found it just wasn't happening and had to try and find out which flight I was on instead! Finding out my plane was due in five minutes they screeched down the road to the airport to arrive just after I disembarked. It was great to see her. We have both been looking forward to this visit, so here I am in Invercargill, being spoiled rotten, as I think I said before, and enjoying every minute, and that is how I managed to be picking up paua shells on the beach at Riverton, and eating baked salmon with lemon risotto for lunch, followed by lemon poppyseed cake and cream, by the way, today - my birthday! The forecast had been for wet weather today but the day turned out fine and Riverton's coast was beautiful with pale greeny-blue sea and huge waves breaking over rocks and sandy beaches.
Thanks everyone for your texts and emails! Thanks for remembering the date, and thanks for all the little goodies, the flowers AND the beautiful birthday cake, to Eunice and Rosemary and the family. The cake is in the shape of a thistle, a chocolate cake, covered in purple and green icing, which I cut at teatime with great ceremony amid the flashing of cameras! I suppose my birthday is still going on for those in different time zones, but here it is all over. However we'll be doing it all over again tomorrow - well not quite! Tomorrow is Eunice's birthday and we are going in another direction for lunch, this time, not only with Keith, Kenneth and Eunice, but with Rosemary, Geoff, Johnathan, Rachel and Robbie too. (Rachel danced a Highland Fling for me when I met her and her wee brother for a short time later today!)
So, time for bed again. I'll sleep like a log after all that sea air today!
Talk again soon.
Happy Birthday dear me-ee!
Happy Birthday to me!!!!
Well! Who'd have thought a couple of months ago that I'd be in Invercargill on my birthday, picking up paua shells (abalone) from the beach at Riverton and eating baked salmon with lemon risotto for lunch at the Beach restaurant, blowing out candles on a thistle-shaped birthday cake at teatime... and in short, getting spoiled rotten by Eunice and her family!
I've obviously skipped a few days from the last time I blogged, so let me fill you in! I arrived in Auckland on Monday, having stayed the night before in a motel close to Tullamarine airport. The morning flight was very early and meant getting up at some awful time - I don't DO mornings - to catch a courtesy taxi to the terminal, so that was how I found myself blogging at the airport. The flight to NZ was fine, and Mike, my cousin, was there to meet me. He drove us back to their suburb overlooking one of Auckland's two harbours, where his mother, Margaret was waiting with lunch ready! After lunch Mike headed off back to work at the boatyard, where he and his brother Chris are renovating a couple of boats: a small boat for going out fishing and on trips not too far afield, and a 70 foot yacht that will probably take them several more years to complete - and then who knows where on the seven seas they'll get to! Margaret and I visited the yard one day and saw the progress they'd made. It is possible that the small boat MAY be back in the water by the time I get back to Auckland, so I'm hoping for a short trip somewhere on my last day in NZ. We'll see!
I spent all of the first few days at home with Margaret, going through the family tree and sorting out pictures of previous generations. She fished out a manuscript - a handwritten book - by her grandfather, Bert, who described a tour in Scotland in 1887 that he had made with my grandfather and a couple of other companions into the hills of the west. There were photos too, which I began to photograph, till Margaret told me she wanted me to have the book. Was I delighted, or what!!! On the last day I was with them, another of the cousins came over for lunch so more chatter and reminiscences.
On Friday when Mike dropped me again at the airport, my flight to Invercargill was in jeopardy due to some "disruption" earlier in the day. They had tried to contact me to tell me that they wanted me on an earlier flight - but that message didn't reach us! It was possible they were going to have to "overnight" me at either Wellington or Christchurch as all other flights to Invercargill were full for the day! I did the girlie thing and gave them my sob-story (which was absolutely true - I had to be in Invercargill for a birthday) and well, wouldn't you know it, there was one seat left on a flight from Christchurch that would tie in with a flight TO Christchurch - so I was off... no time to phone Eunice, and I landed in Invercargill an hour before I was due to arrive on the original flights via Wellington! I discovered later that Eunice had been checking up on my original flight, found it just wasn't happening and had to try and find out which flight I was on instead! Finding out my plane was due in five minutes they screeched down the road to the airport to arrive just after I disembarked. It was great to see her. We have both been looking forward to this visit, so here I am in Invercargill, being spoiled rotten, as I think I said before, and enjoying every minute, and that is how I managed to be picking up paua shells on the beach at Riverton, and eating baked salmon with lemon risotto for lunch, followed by lemon poppyseed cake and cream, by the way, today - my birthday! The forecast had been for wet weather today but the day turned out fine and Riverton's coast was beautiful with pale greeny-blue sea and huge waves breaking over rocks and sandy beaches.
Thanks everyone for your texts and emails! Thanks for remembering the date, and thanks for all the little goodies, the flowers AND the beautiful birthday cake, to Eunice and Rosemary and the family. The cake is in the shape of a thistle, a chocolate cake, covered in purple and green icing, which I cut at teatime with great ceremony amid the flashing of cameras! I suppose my birthday is still going on for those in different time zones, but here it is all over. However we'll be doing it all over again tomorrow - well not quite! Tomorrow is Eunice's birthday and we are going in another direction for lunch, this time, not only with Keith, Kenneth and Eunice, but with Rosemary, Geoff, Johnathan, Rachel and Robbie too. (Rachel danced a Highland Fling for me when I met her and her wee brother for a short time later today!)
So, time for bed again. I'll sleep like a log after all that sea air today!
Talk again soon.
1 comment:
Happy Birtday Evee! Your ScrapbookMax friend Marion.
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