Trivia Time

Just before we came out to Tara it was our wedding anniversary - 43 years. Val brought me some beautiful red roses.

The photos are of my mother as a young woman and my lovely grandaughter, Rowena. She is 7 going on 23 and is an absolute girly girl who loves to dance and is pretty damn good at it.

Talking about our wedding anniversay brings back memories of when we celebrated our 40th. We incorporated the celebration in with a trip back to New Zealand to visit friends in Christchurch and Taupo.

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Our final stop was Auckland and I had booked the hotel online. I chose Parnell because it was a reasonable area when we were kids. Oh my how times change.

The hotel was really drab from the outside and the foyer wasn't much better. The first room they gave us still had people staying in it much to everyones surprise when I opened the door. The second room was a backpackers type room with shared bathing facilities. We told them that if the next room was the same they could forget about it and refund our money.


Finally we got a room that was the equivalent of a one star. The paint was peeling, the room was really shabby and the bathroom was ugh, grotty to say the least. I was just so upset about the whole thing that we didn't bother driving into the city to see all the things we wanted to see.


After seeing the room, the last thing I wanted to do was eat in the hotel so we drove out to Royal Oak where we found a place that dishes up really great roast dinners. We went there again in September this year, when we went over.


Then it was off to visit my stepfather Derek in Glen Innes. When we arrive he is in the middle of negotiating to sell his house. My sister Laura is helping with the details and Derek is moving to Torbay to be near Laura. This is a good arrangement for them both.

We head of to Laura's place over the North Shore for a few drinks and to catch up on the family comings and goings.

Back to the hotel and now comes the good part. It turns out that the hotel is right next door to a Japanese Karaoke Strip joint, so for a good part of the night we are subjected to very loud, not very good music. The night drags on with the noise penetrating the room. The morning can't come quick enough.

Thankfully we are only here for one night as we fly out the next day.