Due to a bit of a stuff up on the part of our hotel, I was lucky enough to get my own room, and not have to share with mum & dad, which was quite nice. The Saturday was Adessa's & my 9th month anniversary, so she called me up, I sat with the ranch-slider open facing the beach (with the venue of Suzanne & Bevan's wedding reception from 6 years earlier in my peripheral vision) that was kind of awesome.
That afternoon, for lunch we went to Bevan's parents, and met his sisters' boyfriends. And later on we joined them all again at the restaurant for the birthday celebration. Awesome food, but the courses just kept coming, so it was hard to pace myself, or know whether to save room or not.
The following week I went to an information evening on African travel, which was OK, but aimed at older, more affluent people, and the presenter was an Australian who thought his jokes were the funniest things ever.
That Sunday we were reunited with Bevan's family again to celebrate Bevan's 30th birthday. This was achieved by eating lots of Chinese food and homemade pizza, in Bevan's recently finished outdoor pizza oven.
A few weeks later I spent the day at the NZ Family History fair at the Claudelands centre. It's probably hard to convey the interest in words, but I had a good time, and managed to find out several things about various ancestors. For example, my Irish ancestor - John Reardon (my Great-Great Grandfather) turns out wasn't born in Ireland, but rather Chelsea in London. It appears his parents married in Essex, and would have moved across initially to escape the effects of the Potato Famine. His daughter (my Great Grandmother Burley) it looks like, was named after a street intersecting with the one he lived on (Burleigh Street intersects with Exeter street in Covent Garden, London.)
For those of you who know my parents, would you agree that John Reardon (jr.) here looks like Dad when he was young, say in the late 70's, early 80's? (ie when he shared the same sense of style of facial hair) John is pictured here with his wife Sarah Ann (nee Bruntlett). One last piece of interesting family trivia, Sarah Ann's younger sister, ended up marrying their son-in-law's (my Great Grandfather's) brother (Albert Bartz - who died when the Ranui sank at Mt. Maunganui in 1951 - ironically topical at the moment).
Anyhow, once I finished up there (after catching up with the workmate I covered for when I was working at the Wananga) I went around to Scott's to hang out with him before he headed back to Kuwait on the Sunday.
The following week Adessa had her birthday, so again we had a special phone conversation. On the Wednesday Suzanne, Bevan & I went to see Te Movie (about Billy T James) after a dinner and the Cock & Bull. The movie was OK, but not super awesome.
The second weekend of September was opened with the Rugby World Cup opening, and on the Saturday morning I found myself walking 6kms for a fun walk along the river.
Several days later, Suzanne, Bevan and I shared some drinks and dinner in town, making use of a deal Bevan had got off the internet. On the Friday I dropped into the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants for a drink and piece of cake, and that evening S, B, Mum, & I went to the All Blacks vs Japan game which was being played here in Hamilton. It was pretty awesome. I was actually grateful that the night was quite cold, as I had on a thick All Blacks jacket, and didn't want to cook. I checked out the Hamilton museum and some cultural festivals they had on in the weekend.
The next weekend I went to another family tree thing, happening to meet up with an old Toastmasters colleague, and also a lady who I'd met at the first fair, who'd subsequently found heaps out about a line of my ancestors. I then went to Huntly to have dinner with Nana and my Great-Aunty and Uncle, to watch the rugby, but also find out more about my Popa's family, as my Aunty is the only one left.
The end of September brought the Hamilton Fringe festival - I managed to make it to one thing (I would have liked to also have checked out some of the stand-up comedy) a play about the Massacre of the McDonalds of Glencoe, which, of course, happen to be my ancestors...
Saturday was the Parish fair - I went late, which saved my from the temptation of buying anything. It was actually good in the sense of I managed to clear some of the clutter from my life, and in recent weeks, me and my parents have made good headway on tidying up the house.
And that pretty much brings me to the present day. I'm still working, still trying to work out what I want to do next with my life.