Another video...

Here's one I've been meaning to do for a while, a little montage of quad biking from mine and Jo's trip up north a couple of months ago...

Kara-not all that-oke

An off the cuff night out had been a long time in coming. As I toiled in the gardens of West Auckland, Rob and Bonzo were busy buying some beers and 3 dead men's suits from the local charity shop.

I got home to find them in their outfits, chuckling away to Max and Paddy's. A perfect way to start a night out.

After the fridge was emptied we headed to the local for the $3 pints and karaoke.

A few songs later and we headed into town. Drunk...

For the masochistic among you, here are a selection of songs...

Shout outs

First shout out goes to Tranter for getting the film quote. Congrats. I think I put that up there several months ago. Which just goes to show how little traffic comes through here these days. Damn those social networking websites. I've now put up a slightly more high brow quote.

Secondly, welcome back Swiss/Seoul/Shanghai James who has finally found a way round Communism. Now where's my link???

Third one goes to my Dad, who's regular watching of his favourite film made sure I knew the answer to a tricky question in the quiz last night.... Which Rodgers and Hammerstein musical contains this song? (there was musical accompaniment to this question, but you'll have to make do with the song lyrics... #gonna wash that man right out of my hair...#)

Sadly I wasn't paying enough attention to one of my sister's favourites as I didn't get this one...

Which of these wasn't one of the Von Trapp children in the Sound of Music? Liesl, Louisa or Max?

Gartside's homecoming countdown........... exactly 12 weeks from today........

Catch up...

I have a spare moment to share what's been going on of late. And it won't take long.

There have been a couple of quizzes recently, we finished 5th in our second attempt at the one at our new local, then 3rd. My proudest quiz moments so far are getting Waiting For God from the theme tune, and knowing the Poirot novel where there are 13 killers.

Bingo has also been successful. Just when were getting a bit angry at the same 2 people winning every game going, I took out the last game for a $30 voucher. Nice.

As for sports, well, the 11-a-side season is over. We have an awards do next weekend where I'm not expecting to come away with anything. I only scored 3 goals and had a niggling heel injury for the second half of the season. Not much to shout/write about really.

I have made my long awaited return between the sticks with a few appearances for a mate's indoor 5-a-side team. Mixed results but I've been playing pretty well and enjoying the fun to be had playing in nets. One thing I haven't been enjoying so much is the penalty situation. I'm used to the the taker only being allowed a one-step run up, but not so in this format - they can take as much of a run up as they like. I've had to face 3 so far and the only joy I had was when I jumped and turned mid air, offering my substantial backside when the ball was struck. Not surprisingly I saved it, but the ball fell to the striker and the good work of my arse went to waste.

Sports viewing has been at an all time low. England couldn't seem to put in a half decent performance, let alone win, in just about any sporting code. But a win for the rugby, and Oldham getting off the bottom of the table has cheered me up momentarily.

So as you can see, not much exciting has been going on. Maybe this is the calm before the storm - Lunt's visit is only a few weeks away...

And people say moving is stressful...

Not for us it wasn't. First of all, we had time on our hands and an old house that was going to be renovated. The solution - clay pigeon shooting with darts and an old smoke alarm. Lots of fun to be had. Even more than chairiot racing.

As for the new area, there's now a new local... The Thirsty Whale. Quiz nights are still on Tuesdays but you get a free plate of chips, 3 pint jugs are $12 (5 quid ish) and there are a lot less teams. Only 10 in fact last week. We flirted with the top 3 but ended up 7th. Not all bad though as this was the designated random prize place. That's a nice $20 voucher to get us started tonight.

On Wednesday's it has bingo! Yep, it's something more commonly associated with the fogies but, just like lawn bowls, we're making it cool. I was a winner too! Sadly not the Warriors play off tickets with free taxi to and from the game and an hour's free drinking beforehand... I won a meat pack, which is not to be sniffed at. Especially after it went off in the fridge after 2 days. Cheapskates.

Thursday is karaoke night. We haven't given it a go yet, maybe we'll try when Lunt is here...

And finally, the local barber may be $3 more expensive than the last local place (I'm paying $15 now... about 6 quid), but this place has swinging saloon doors to get from the waiting room to the cutting zone. Sweet.

A sad start to the weekend...

Pavarotti has gone, and now the actor that played Amos in Emmerdale has kicked the bucket.

The budget was tight on that show, he and Seth had to share a beard...

Moving on up...

After exactly a year in our last place we've moved. We're a little further out of town in a fancy pants fully furnished 3 level apartment. If I remember right, fully furnished is the norm in England but it's pretty rare over here. On the plus side it's got everything we need, on the down side we aren't able to give it our own unique style.

That said, this was the style at our old place so maybe that's a good thing...

This is the sort of furnishings we now have to live with...

To celebrate our new place a night out was in order. Casey Eden was back in town so myself, Rob and Casey devised a Shortland Street drinking game for the beers and tequila we had before heading out.

The night had a twist - Rob lost a sweepstake during the cricket world cup. One of his teams, Ireland, scored the lowest team total in the tournament so as part of the punishment he had to go out in the national costume of that country.

As we all know, a Leprechaun outfit is Ireland's national dress. Here is Rob and Casey in an apt cricket pose...