Relatives in Town!

A couple of weeks ago, four of my relatives were in town. They were only in Christchurch for 2 days and 1 night due to a forced itinerary change by Malaysian Airlines who decided to cut their visit to New Zealand by 2 days - supposed flight changes. Unheard of!

Anyway, Christchurch was their final stop in their tour around the South Island before heading up north to Rotorua and Auckland. My Uncle and Aunty then flew back to Malaysia while my cousin, Evelyn and her husband, Damian flew back down to Blenheim to be with the inlaws for a week and then flew back to London.

Unfortunately, the weather was absolutely horrible while they were in New Zealand so they had to cancel some of their plans but they were lucky enough to play with snow further down South - definitely my Uncle's highlight of the trip!

My brother and I went for dinner with them on the Wednesday night - I had to miss out on the Guy Fawke's fireworks at New Brighton Pier as my cousin and her husband had already booked a dinner for 8 of us (including 2 of their friends) on the Christchurch Tram.

We settled for the Rutherford Dinner Package which was $68.00 per person for a 4 course meal - didn't really feel like indulging in all the beverages or the cheeseboard.

• Starter - Freshly baked breads with roasted chick peas, Mexican veggie dip and a pumpkin cream


• Entree:
  1. Oven baked mussels baked with a garlic and parmesan crust and drizzled with a chili and sesame dressing
  2. Chicken and apricot vol au vent with a creamy paprika sauce
  3. Roast tomato and capsicum soup topped with sour cream and crispy bacon


• Main:
  1. Racks of lamb coated in a garlic and thyme crust, on gratin potatoes, vegetable ratatouille finished with sage jus
  2. Crispy filo parcel stuffed full of tasty mushrooms & Herbs on a pool of white wine cream sauce, served with a timbale of spinach and rice
  3. Coq au vin chicken drumsticks cooked in red wine, with a vanilla scented potato mash
  4. Fish of the day baked in white wine, chili and lemon, placed on a bed of egg noddles and a fresh tomato and basil salsa


• Dessert:
  1. Cheesecake marbled with dark and white chocolate on a pool of vanilla pod creme anglaise
  2. Apple tart sliced apples encased in a crisp puff pastry case with a sweet caramel sauce

Personally, I wouldn't recommend this as a must-do during a stay in Christchurch. In fact, I think it was pretty much a waste of time - all you do is to keep going around and around on the tram tracks (I don't know how many times but even the attendants lost count!). The whole ride takes around 3 hours with a brief 5 - 10 minute stop in the middle (for which you'll be thankful for because you've been in such a cramped area, especially for those slightly bigger than the average male/female who have been too scared to move in case they were to knock over the table or cutlery onto the perfectly measured aisle for the skinny waiters). And the food! I don't know where to start but I like to compare it to the food you get on the aeroplane, only served on a plate. I didn't see it for myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if they brought it onto the tram pre-cooked and heated it up. *YuCk*! So yeah, I really didn't enjoy the whole experience. Can you tell? Thank goodness for the great company!

Christchurch Tram Dinner Wagon



Before hopping on!

Dinner

Entre - Mussels

Main - Lamb

Dessert - Cheesecake

The relies~




All 8 of us: (Note: The formation was not planned!)

By the time we got off the tram, it was just after 10:30pm. We dropped by at their hotel for a while, and then called it a night as they had booked us for breakfast the following morning at 7:30am at Copenhagen (my cousin's favourite bakery). I forgot to take photos during breakfast, also cuz I had to rush off to work. But the memories are definitely priceless!

Labour Weekend

It had been 147 days, over 4 1/2 months since the last public holiday. Was it a long time coming? Hell yeah!

It's absolutely amazing how much difference an extra day to the weekend makes. It’s almost a weekly ritual that Sunday is when I moan and groan that I have work the following day. But during the Labour weekend, it was different. Good thing was that it came to Sunday and thank goodness it wasn’t the end of the weekend! Bad thing was that the Monday felt like a Saturday. So when I woke up on Tuesday morning, I definitely wished it was Sunday again! *SiGh*!

There isn’t too much to say about that weekend. I tried to get more sleep in order to recover from my cold. It seemed to have worked. I went to 2 drinking/BBQ parties during that weekend – Saturday evening and yesterday afternoon. Crazy people! They ended up wrestling on the grass. *fAiNt*! Check it out:

Don't know how it switched from basketball to wrestling but it all started with Simon and Jia Ming...

... Soon after, joined by Ah Tuan...

... Followed by Chin Yang & Jackie (who initially just wanted to pose for the camera) ...

... But ended up at the bottom of the pile!

... And so it continued...

It took three of them to attempt to bring Jackie to the ground who managed to get away but ran straight into the knot of the clothes hanger wire. *OuCh*! I don't know which would be worse.

And yet, that didn't stop them...

Jia Ming: "Can you smell what the rock is cooking?"

They soon got over the amusement of wrestling and endured in pouring beer all over each other - poor unwilling bodies were carried out from the house while some were attacked while innocently watching them do their thing...

Ah Tuan & Chin Yang...

And to think, that their combined age would be almost 200 years old. Need I say more?

P.S. Justin: This post is dedicated to you. I bet you're missing Christchurch right now! :P