Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Celeb and Plans

Celeb and Plans

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Sun 25 Jan 2015 23:57

Scott-Free Afloat and Planning on State of Mind

Saturday. We jumped into Mrs Puki with Rod and Mary and off we went to Whangarei, we were dropped at State of Mind and settled. Rod and Mary would join us later after they successfully executed the virgin erection of their brand new tent, a working test for their forthcoming road trip to South Island. Later on Rod, Brenda, Bear and I bimbled along from their marina to the Town Basin. Lovely to see Scott-Free back on the water after nearly a year of rest, recuperation, lots of hard work, new fixtures and a smart new pram hood. What do you buy a boat that houses enough glasses for a society wedding ??? A couple of really tacky Mason jars complete with sealed straw holes and complimentary red and white straws.......... Soon put into good use, red for Steve and rose for Chris – well Maj to us.

We love this pair of pictures. A cheeky face and the happy couple who produced a wonderful celebratory meal - nibbles and dips, chilli and rice, then a real winner – rhubarb crumble and hokey-pokey ice cream.

Red for royalty.

Much later, Rod and Mary went off to their new nest and four of us tottered out onto the jetty and bimbled along the road. Back on State of Mind I had a lovely surprise, Brenda had a bundle of booklets that relatives had put together on her family tree. Straight to it for a couple of hours, inputting onto Ancestry, joy. Two o’clock, with Bear snoring peacefully beside me, the eyes asked to be closed. What a smashing day.

Sunday. Up bright and early, the others arrived bearing bacon, Rod and Brenda swung into breakfast, then the first question of the day, how did the camping experience go at the Top 10 site ??? Rod was very upbeat and satisfied but Mary found herself rappelling off the mattress due to being on a slope. Bear and Rod went off to sort our old friend Gallivanter, in the morning Rod and crew are taking her to Auckland to be loaded on a transport ship bound for the Caribbean, we wish Adam, Tam and the children many fun holiday on her in the future. Rod and Mary went back to Sheer Tenacity, on the hard with a few jobs to finish post newly finished body painting. Jealous ??? Not arf. The Royals left for a few hours rest knowing we were in for a ‘serious’ evening of planning. I settled to input more family names on Brenda’s tree. Brenda pottered about in the kitchen causing all kinds of wonderful aromas, tonight we would be well fed, yet again. The students arrived and out came the maps of Australia. Rod shared his vast knowledge of the east coast from Sydney right up as far as Darwin.

Several glasses of wine and a freshly made mojito or two saw Bear needing ‘special needs’ one to one with Brenda, who soon gave up and Rod took to the task in a very serious manner. Good to see that I’m not the only one who struggles..........Brenda kept us going with nibbles and we were allowed a break for venison, potatoes, kumara and salad.

After our wonderful supper the master took us back to classroom conditions and on page six of notes Brenda produced this beautiful sweet. Now whether it was just being tired and emotional by now, or whether the various sherbets had taken their toll things collapsed in a messy heap. Reading this now in the cold light of day may gather peoples eyebrows but at the time............. Anyhooo, Brenda had served Chris and I our sweets, bear in mind we had been taking about family trees. Now, Brenda was just about to serve Bear and Rod, Chris and I were talking about Pavlova, I had a mental blank on her first name and Brenda said “Ivy”. Well that was it. Utterly helpless........ Ivy Pavlova. Chris was helpless. Tears were streaming down my face and I haven’t laughed that hard in quite some time. Rod held an iron face and that made those who had up-until-this-point held it together fail completely. It took such a long time to recover. Back to talking about Brenda’s tree when she said Starnley and Majorie, well that started us off all over again. Rod stood like a stern teacher, sat, buried his head in his hands and reached for more wine. Somehow we made it to Darwin, now exhausted.

Monday. Bear and Brenda went to see Rod off on Gallivanter, I carried on inputting names until the Royals arrived with picnic lunch. Bear and Brenda came back and off we all went to the Quarry Gardens for another lovely day.