Thanks for the poem mucks,
I'll have to send it to my Mum on her 60th later this year
Head not too sore, but it was a fantastic day
First John's friend Glen took us out for a ride on his trawler the solitaire (there's a piccy of her on his website
www.kendrickart.co.nz she is beautiful
)
He took right out along the harbour & out around Tairoa heads into the REAL sea. it was incredible.
In the harbour it was not much more than a bit bumpy, although, we got caught in the backwash of one of them container ships as she went past & that was fun.
It was one of the big maersk ships & although she had to keep her speed down in the channel of course, apparently they can do 34 easy once they get out the open sea. Gotta lot of 'ground to cover I suppose
One thing though. They look blo*dy big enough sitting in the port, especially when stacked high with containers, but they look a whole different type of big when one's comming up beside you in the water. & the channel through the harbour is pretty narrow so she seemed awfully close
So, we rode her wake most the way out the harbour, but then we went around past the heads & it was incredible. Seeing the sea going on forever around you is a completely different feeling from standing on a beach, or even out on the spit. It gives a whole new meaning to infinity
And the sea.
All of a sudden it was full of big wet lumpy things!!!
the solitaire is a 2-3 man trawler so, although she's not one of the deep sea factory boats (they stay out 6 weeks at a time. My sister used to crew on one years ago)
she's not tiny either. But we were riding up & down these waves like being on a rollercoaster
It was so cool
There was even that bit where your stomach drops out when you begin the plunge down. I wished we could just keep on going forever
& it wasn't even a really big sea. Glen had a video on his phone he'd taken once of the waves pounding up over the deck of the ship in a rough sea & he says in a storm they'll come right on up so they're smashing onto the windows of the pilots cabin.
although we were all over the boat during the ride, while we were out at sea my son & I were right up the bow of the ship. It was indescribable
Eventually, however, we had to turn around & come back.
But that was cool too. we went back much faster than we went out. We'd been fighting the tide on the way out & with the full moon a couple of nights ago, & the floods we've been having too I expect. Glen says the tides are very high at the moment.
But the main adventure here was getting to steer her
The chanel is quite narrow & very twisty & turny so mostly I was just shifting the wheel to however many degrees Glen said. I was really surprised at how responsive she was to even very slight movements. Then John had a turn & brought her right up close to the warfs where Glen had to take over to bring her into dock.
Getting off was much harder than getting on had been. When we got on Glen had her pulled up over at the warf used for unloading so we were climbing up from a pretty solid surface.
Comming home he put us into her actual dock so we were climbing down onto a rather high (standing on the planks the bollard came up to about my armpit level) & somewhat rotted bollard & from there down onto a couple of planks going over to the climb up to the warf itself. It was so cool
Then, after slightly hurried but very sincere thank you's
we rushed back home with just over half an hour to get ready for the dinner
The funniest thing... we did it rofl
& we actually made it to the restaurant early
John had used up his camera's battery taking piccys out on the solitaire (& I didn't even think to take mine) so we haven't got any piccys of the party itself
But there's plenty of the solitaire & I'm even in some if them (I think John photographed just about every inch of that boat
)
So I'll get some of them photos up later after they've been downloaded
The party was great, everyone except Tomo's friend (who'd only been asked that afti so hadn't had any notice & had to turn it down) turned up which I'd been a bit worried about when it turned out that John's daughter's freshly aquired new boyfriend & John's son Ashley have cordially hated each other for years.
But everyone turned up & a good time was generally had by all. Although I think some people (everyone else) felt a little left out when Tomo & her father (Raymond) started talking in binary
Maybe all this homeschooling not so good for them after all
It turned out even my boy, who's 9 years old, knows some bits of binary code as well & they had quite a sniggle when he was able to understand some Tomo got wrong just after she'd been saying how easy it was (showing off...? never roflmao) & that she could talk heaps of it
Me, I'm completely at a loss. I thought binary code just made numbers & have no idea how you could 'talk' in it. But Raymond teaches the stuff at varsity so I suppose he knows what he's on about.
I limited myself to 2 white russians (see... I'm a good girl
)
The first one was made by one of the casual staff & he made it with milk & 'watered it down' by putting too much milk in. But the guy who runs the bar heard (he knows me... I'm the only person who orders white russians apparently) so he made me one up properly & sent it over on the house
& one of his white russians can easily last an entire evening
If you're fond of breathing that is
When I'd phoned the booking in, it turned out that Joanna & Eric (one of the two owners) were not on the best of terms so she hadn't told him it was my birthday & Noel, the other owner was very discombobulated (gotta love that word
) to find out that it was at the end of the evening when everyone was leaving & apologised profusely for the lack of balloons & general sparkly things but he gave the kids a handfull of balloons & party hats to take with them so they were happy. & Joanna, who'd been on day shift yesturday, came in to say happy birthday & give me a hug
Asides from that... lots of talking, lots of laughing, & everyone (except ashley who said he couldn't sing... but then, that really is a requirement for happy bday
) sung me happy birthday... both versions
seems the rude version's got even ruder since I last heard it
& all in all it was a great party
