City of Tauranga Marching

When Nicole was little my sister Christine lived with us. Christine belonged to a marching team called City of Tauranga in the under 16 grade. She marched for a number of years and came 3rd at the New Zealand Nationals in 2000.

Nicole brought home a school notice which included information on a new marching team being formed in the under 12 grade. Its called City of Tauranga. Its coached by a lady called Tracey who, and whose mother, marched for Christine's old coach. She used to have an under 12 City of Tauranga team a few years before Christine marched, but gave it up to have a family. Now her daughters are at an age where they want to march. So shes back again.

I talked it over with Nicole who was super mega keen and gave Tracey a call. We're going to take a look at one of their practices on Wednesday. The only problem is going to be my work. The practices are from 5pm till 7.15pm. But I finish work at 5pm and don't get to Hometime to collect Nicole till around 5.30pm. There is another child from Nicole's school who is in the team, so there may be a possibility of her mother taking Nicole and me picking up both children and dropping the other one at home. We shall see how it goes on Wednesday.

We bought a new computer!

Processor: Intel Latest Q6600 Quad Core CPU, 2.4GHz x 4, 8M Cache

Motherboard: Asus Intel Chipset Motherboard, Supports latest Intel CPU

Memory: 4GB DDR2-800 Dual Channel

Graphic Card: Factory overclock nVidia G92 8800GT 512MB DDR3 PCI-E 2.0, SLI Support

**Factory over clock version**Output up to 30% Performance Boost
-Core Clock 675Mhz (original 600MHz)
-Memory Clock 2000Mhz DDR3 (Original 1800Mhz).
-Four heatpipe, Dual automatic speed/temperature control Fan, super quite
-Full Microsoft DX 10 support, Full HDCP Support
-PCI-Express 2.0 Support, provide up to 2x PCI-E 1.0 Bandwidth

Hard Disk: 250GB SATA2 7200RPM Hard disk.

Optical Drive: 20x Dual Layer LightScribe Super Multi DVDRW. Easily backup your data into DVDs.

Case: ATX Midi Tower Case w/500W Power. 9 x 5.25' bays, w/Front 12cm Blue LED Fan, USB 2.0, IEEE1394, audio front jack, Silver/Black Front Panel

Sound Card: High Definition 5.1 Channel

Network: 1000Mbps GbE

I have no idea what all that means, but it supposedly goes faster. I'm frustrated that I've had to download and reinstall my messenger and that it doesn't have my MIRC and favourites. But Stewart said he'll hook the old computer up tomorrow and burn them all to disc for me. I could do it myself, but I'm feeling lazy.

Our Australian Schedule

Thursday
Arrive at around 9.30am. Collected from airport by Stewart's mother Lynn and little brother Brodie.
Drop Brodie off at home then go to visit Stewart's Aunty Denise and grandfather at work. They make delicious pestos!
Stopped at a Cole's supermarket for kabana and a few other things.
Arrived at Stewart's Dad's house. Tided up and sorted out a few things there. They were due to have a house inspection the next day.
Went to dinner at a pizza restaurant on Clayton road.

Friday
Nicole and I walked up to the shops and got our nails done at a Asian nail salon.
Stewart met us after and we took a train to see our friend Anne-Marie.
Hung out at her place for a bit then went for a look around Chadstone shopping centre.
Met up with Anne-Marie again and made our way to Rod Laver Arena to see WWE. It didn't finish till late and we then had to tram/train/taxi our way home.

Saturday
My Dad picked us up to go watch my little brother Mark play basketball at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. His team beat a team of older boys.
Nicole left with Dad, Sofima and Mark to do some errands. Stewart and I took the tram into the city and looked round a few shops. We bought some things at Target, which were having a sale.
We met Dad etc back at their house and got ready for Stewart's party at Topolino's resturant.
We had dinner, he proposed etc lol

Sunday
Nicole spent Saturday and Sunday night at Dad's house. We slept in, hung out round the house then went to an internet cafe nearby called CoolYa.
Stewart's brother Kristian cooked us a potato, onion and cheese pie and some weird skinless sausages for tea.

Monday
Was Stewart's actual birthday!
We went and hired a car from Rent-a-bomb. It was a heap of shit Toyota with a slow leaking front tire.
That night we joined Stewart's family at TGIF restaurant. Yummy food!
Watched Jeff Dunham DVDs and fell asleep in Stewart's arms on the couch. Woke up to everyone laughing at me because he was touching my nose and I was reacting in my sleep. What a meanie!

Tuesday
Nicole went up to the local 'strip mall' and looked around. They have pharmacies like supermarkets!
Stewart's grandmother came over to visit.
We went shopping at Southlands Shopping Centre. It was a lot easier to get around with a car. Though the traffic was really congested.
Went to Stewart's Aunty Denise's for dinner.

Wednesday
We went back to Southlands. I brought some clothes from Myer. It was more expensive than Target, but nice stuff.
I bought a new nose stud from Off Ya Tree which is the same place I bought my favourite nose stud from 3 years previously.
Took the car back. Tried to visit Anne-Marie again but couldn't get hold of her.
Took the train home.
Went back to CoolYa where Nicole discovered Achmed the dead terrorist on youtube.
Kristian shouted us McDonald's for dinner.

Thursday
Got packed and organised to go home. Kim, Stewart's stepmother dropped us at the Skybus on her way to work.
Ate McDonalds for breakfast at the airport.
Flew out at 12.00

My ring!!

I'm still in shock...

Last night was Stewart's 21st. It was at a restaurant called Topolinos. After Stewart had blown out his candles on his cake he made a speech. He then got down on one knee and proposed to me!!!!

I now have a beautiful sparkling diamond ring... oh and a fiance.

4 Sleeps to go!

Only 4 sleeps to go until we're off to Aussie again. I started packing today but aren't feeling very motivated. Its all the little things that are doing my head in.

Stewart had a favourite pair of jeans. They were so worn that they'd developed holes. The waist band was falling apart. Today we went shopping and he bought two new pairs for $57. They were 30% off $40 each. So not a bad buy. He has a dark pair and a blue pair. I like the dark pair, I think they look hot! When we got home we had a moment of silence for the old jeans before I dumped them in the rubbish bin.

We're leaving Tauranga at around 1am, flying out at 7.30am and arriving in Melbourne 9.30am local time. I'm not sure how we're getting to Stewart's Dad's house from the airport. Stewart Snr and his wife Kim work nights so will be sleeping. We may have to take the Sky Bus and a taxi. We're going to be tired and grumpy that day.

On Friday we're going to see WWE Smackdown and ECW. My good friend Anne-Marie is going to be coming with us. Our seats aren't the best, but I think we'll be able to see more than we did at the Auckland show last year.

Saturday afternoon we'll be watching my little brother Mark play basketball for a Melbourne rep team. Then Saturday night is Stewart's birthday party.

I haven't made plans for the rest of the week, but expect we'll be catching up with Stewart's family and doing a bit of shopping. The weeks have gone really fast leading up to our holiday, I'm just hoping the week we're away won't go too fast.

Last night Stewart and I both had vivid dreams. Mine involved 3 cars having a crash outside our house and lots of people hanging around. Stewart's involved us having twin sons! Apparently we named them Justin and Jeff, and called them JJ. Go figure for a guy who's not ready for to have kids yet!

Anyways, I'll sign off for now, go take a shower and get ready for bed.