Festivities & Fur

This was our first Christmas spent in New Zealand. Last year, we’d made a surprise trip to the Northern Hemisphere and dropped in on our families in the Czech Republic and England. This year however, we checked the accounts and "computer said no.” So, we did what we could to make it seem more like home.

Lucie went shopping with a friend in the direction of St. Luke’s Shopping Centre, and after checking out a couple of garden centres, managed to pick us up a splendid Christmas tree from a private seller. We bought a few decorations from ‘The Warehouse’ and Lucie made up tissue paper white roses for the tree. We reasoned that Christmas in summer would need slightly different decorations and the result she made was ‘perfick’.

On Christmas Eve, along with a couple of English mates, we headed over to ‘SnowPlanet’ and got our white Christmas. First we took things seriously and enjoyed our own ways of getting down the slope, by way of board or skis. Then, we borrowed a few sledges that were lying around and took about 20 years off our lives as we bombed down the slope, out of control, getting covered in snow-spray and giggling like kids.

On Christmas day, I couldn’t go without all the normal traditions, so I’d stocked up well. I started drinking around 10 o’clock in the morning. Normally this would be either while making the fire at my parents’ house, or just sitting around it. We snacked on nibbles, breadsticks and the like, and had a melon starter sometime around noon. We watched the film offerings on TV, and prepared the Christmas Roast. I certainly wasn’t going to go without that. Mum emailed me the recipes for dishes I didn’t know, and our feast gradually took shape. For dessert, we destroyed a Strawberry Double-Decker Cake that Lucie made and then succumbed to the sofa.

In the evening, I made ‘skype’ calls to my brother and then my parents. On most ‘skype’ occasions it’s usually Saturday morning for me, and Friday night for my parents, so my dad is well past at least one bottle of wine. It was nice on this occasion to be the one that was under the influence and being somewhat silly.

In the days following Christmas, we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, and took walks around the city. Any illusion we’d established of it being Christmas in our decorated apartment was broken once we stepped into the summer heat. I don’t think it will ever feel like Christmas this side of the world.

Lucie and I had made pretty regular visits to the various pet shops of Auckland for some time now. In fact, even back in England, we’d kill time by popping into one to see the animals. For me, this was more of a relaxing pastime, but for Lucie, I think each of these was a scouting trip. She missed her cat back in Czech, and really really wanted another. However, our uncertainty over how long we were going to stay in New Zealand had always stopped her before, but then a little Christmas magic took over. Two grey and white kittens in the Newmarket pet store put a spell on her. I saw them with her on the first occurance, and then when she returned alone the next day, she left with company.

I came back from the gym, and found I had a new and furry flatmate. I acted pretty blasé about him at first, but it was damn hard not to love the little critter.

On New Years' Eve we had a pretty quiet one. Gone are the days where I’d look forward months in advance to one of the biggest social nights of the year, and more often than not, have a night that vastly differed from what I’d hoped for. On this occasion, we kept it low key. A few cocktails in front of the TV and brief walk outside at midnight to watch the bringing of a new year with fireworks from the skytower. Not quite the displays you see in London, but it was good nonetheless.

So, we began 2008 with a new addition to the household and a firmer tie to New Zealand. Our future now looked as though we wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon, and certainly not before we’d saved enough money for one extra plane ticket.