Merry Christmas to All!!

Have had a lovely Christmas with plenty of fun, drinking and eating with friends and family. I started the weekend on Friday, when I arrived down from Christchurch. I went up to my mate Shanna, to wait for her arrival with two mates from England . Had a few drinks with her Mum and brother etc. When they arrived we continued to drink! It was great fun as there is always hilarity when drinking at their place and it has been so long!

After we headed into town, where I was meant be meeting up with a hen night. We were walking up the street and around the corner comes my Mum. "AHHHHH, " she squawks, "I've been wondering where you were!" Yip Ann, was well and truly on the piss too! Met up with Casey too and heaps of other mates and had a brilliant time. Think I got home at about 3.30am. Oh yeah, then I called Tori! Good to catch up, even if my voice was fading fast!

Xmas Eve - after rain and bad weather for a few days before, it was a primo day. Had to be, as the inaugral Donovan Xmas Eve BBQ was on! After a couple of years hiatus, Shaun, Casey and I were sure it was going to peak and be the best yet. Definitely up there, good times, bit of hacky and Vietnamese foot badminton games, drinks, yarns, a reindeer outfit... couldn't have been much better. My mates wanted to go into town, so we did but since the pubs were closing at 12am, it wasnt very good. I came back home, and the others were still cranking so I had a few more drinks with them out by the brazier and got to bed at about 2am.

Xmas day, slept in, got up opened a few pressies with the fam. Dad's Ma, bro and sis with my cousins came over and we opened a few more pressies. Had the whole turkey Xmas dinner thing, a few drinks and then of course the Xmas sleepiness! Was all good!

Boxing day - pretty chilled out, awesome weather again so took Shaun and Ann out for lunch, and visited some mates. Went to Grandma's for Indian takeaways, and pooped next door to where my mate Greg's parents live and had a beer. After dinner, I went to Shanna's relatives where they were all well and truly tanked! Honestly, most crazy, drunken family there is!! Had fabulous time! Obviously, the next day was very chilled out, went out for lunch with Casey and mates, then headed to Shan's for a BBQ before driving back to CHCH for work.

So here I am, on my 3rd day of work and then got 4 days off for New Years. Going to be a goody...

Wedding Photos

Jem and I with our wonderful dressmaker - Jem's Mum! I'm so so surprised we look so sober in this photo considering it was near the end of the night and we were making a last ditch attempt to finish the bar tab! Check out my pot of gold!! I being the most important woman there (seeing as the bride had left) got biggest glass!

Paul's sister, Jem, Shanna and I singing "Stand by Me" - a wee surprise for the wedding video! This photo is just prior to Shan and mine's impromptu "Greatest Love..!"

Jo and Paul cutting the cake at the reception. Cool cake eh! The fun and had lots of funky touches, just the way they are!

The Bridal party (minus the kids) over looking the bay.

Wedding Photos...

3 December 2005. Jemma and I after the ceremony at the church.

At work...

When transfering to another dept, I always smile when the hold music is instrumental "The Greatest Love of All"

I also smile when I check my bank balance and see my pension refund has come thru.

update

Finally got internet at my Auntie's, so now I can check emails/blog some photos/write emails more. Works been good. Gradually being able to help customers more without having to ask for help myself so often. After new year it's back to training for the other side of our products and services.

On Friday we had the team Christmas competition. Our team had a sleigh with santa in it at the end, then some genius bought reindeer costumes for us to wear! We made some wee black noses to wear, with our team leader wearing a red one. When the judges came thru we sang "Rudolf the red nose reindeer". Was amusing, and we won the comp, so have $200 to spend on a night out or something.

Got the rest of the week at work then home for Xmas. Having the inaugral Donovan Xmas Eve BBQ, obviously on the 24th. Can't wait eh, better be good weather. Might have to pop down to the Bay Carnival since I haven't been for years. Back to work for 3 days, then 4 days off at New Year... not sure what's up yet.

The wedding...

was fantastic!

I went down home on Friday for Jo and Paul's wedding. I took our mate Amandha, who'd come down from Wellington. When we got to town we met Jo and Jem to do some last minute shopping, had tea at Paul's Mum's, then went out to the church for rehearsal (after going home again when Jo forgot the key. The rehearsal was cool, and it was decided that Jem and I were doing a speech at the reception (were going to, then weren't...but got swayed again). So after I went to Jem's so we could work on it. Jem has been to a few weddings recently so had a few jokes we could say! Also we'd worked on a poem to give them so we finished that to say.

Anyway, on Saturday we got up early and went out for breakie, then at 9am to the hairdressers. I was done first, hair in curls, so I went off to the beautician's for makeup. THen Jem followed. I went back to the hairdresser's as Jo was being finished. At this stage it was 12.45pm. We had to leave the house for the church at 1.30pm-ish. So I dropped Jo at makeup, Jem and I went back to her Mum's to change, and her Mum went to pick her up! Talk about rushing it! I got well nervous by then, mostly cos I knew Jo was starting to stress out. There was time for a few quick photos, then help Jo change, for her to have some photos, then off to the church!

It was meant to be rainy, but the weather was perfect. We arrived at the church, and Jem and I each walked down the aisle hold hands with the wee page boy and flower girl. I was shaking! The ceremony was lovely, though I didn't even look around the church at the decorations. Before we knew it, they were married and we walked out behind the new Mr and Mrs Keane to Smash Mouth, "I'm Believer"!

After hanging around outside with friends and fam we went for photos. First with a steam train, then overlooking the sea, then to a surf beach (but only the guys and Jo were in those photos so I don't know what they're like. We finally got to the reception at about 6.15pm. I was so tired. We sat, then wandered around talking to friends, then Jem, Jo's mum and I got stuck into the wines to build a bit of Dutch courage for the speeches. We ate our main, then it was speeches. All were awesome, Jo's and her Mum's were really good and touching as her Dad died 12 years ago. Mine and Jem's was awesome! The hit being, Jem: Now Selene and I are quite the singers, we love doing duets a lot, so thought we'd sing a wee song for Jo and Paul! (of course everyone got excited and laughed cos we really do like to sing!), then she said: But we've got a wee problem with our throats... Jo said she'd cut them if we dared! Hahaha!! Then we said our wee poem. Jem always used to write funny rhyming poems for our birthdays, and this was along the same lines so it went off! After that, we were all free to relax and get on with the fun of the night! Got well stuck into the wine...really well stuck into the wine! As had my parent's, Jem's parent's, and all that their table and our friends' table!! My bro's mate Rangi was playing, and singing, so I decided I'd help him out and kept going up to the mic and singing! We were all dancing up at storm! At one stage I went up to the bar to get another wine. Upon getting a half filled glass (the proper way), I said "now Jase (the bar guy), I know this the ponsy way to drink wine, but don't worry, just top 'er up and I won't need to come back so soon! Then after Jo and Paul left, I went up to get another one and he says, I'll get you another glass. He came back with a HUGE bucket of a glass! I then kept raving about since Jo had left I was the most important woman left being chief-bridesmaid!

Before the end of the night, our mate Shanna got Rangi to let us borrow a guitar and we sang "Stand By Me" for the wedding video that she was in charge of. We did that...quite badly. After that, I decided it was a good time to take the mic with Shan for my karaoke signature "The Greatest Love of All"!!! Yip... wasn't pretty! But, man I thought it was at the time. After that, before we headed out into town, Jem and I decided we'd try finish the bar tab... but I was pretty much over my wine, so I shoed up and we all left. We danced around like idiots at one bar. At the same bar I slipped over in my shoes and landed on my arse...classy! Then we went to another nite club. We met up with Jem's brother and I decided my feet hurt so I gave him my jandals which he put in his back pockets. When Jem gave them back to me, it was discovered that I'd worn her's into town and left mine at the reception place (she'd changed shoes). No wonder my feet hurt, after about 2 hours I'd discovered I was wearing a size too small shoes! When that bar closed it was home time.

Sunday morning was not happy. Mum and Dad cooked a hell feed of bacon, eggs, sausages, spaghetti etc etc. It went down a treat and I tried to refrain from taking any drugs to cure my killler headache. I went out to get my stuff from Jem's and my car and I was seriously not sure if I'd be sick or not. Things could easily have gone either way for a while there. Once home I took some drugs, then some more. When mate Brenda picked me up to go out to Jo and Paul's for BBQ I still wasn't flash. But a decision to have a lemonade ice block on the way out there, made me! I was back on top of it all and ready to face the day - at 3pm! Got stuck into a few beers, laxed out in the sun and had a good bbq dinner and had a great afternoon!

Other highlight was this brilliant painting that Jo and Paul got from a friend of their's. It's 9 separate square paintings and together in the 3 by 3 square they tell a story. Not sure what it is totally, but the paint has their wedding vows on it, and other stuff. Two of the squares come off, and under one all the names of the wedding guests in painted. Anyway, Jem and I were given one of the square paintings each, and it has "True friends leave footprints on your heart" painted on it. So when people see their painting, they might ask "where are the other two panels?" and They'll say, "my two bridesmaids have them." Cool eh! Such a memorable and lovely gift.

So yeah, sorry for the long long story of the weekend! But it was a truly awesome day, and couldn't have gone better. Before I was thinking, my god it's so weird Jo's getting married, but it was so perfect seeing them marrying each other and having such a happy day!

I'll post some photos sometime soon when I can connect my laptop to internet.

The job...

is going good. There are 6 of us starting in the same position, and have been training together. We are in a classroom type place, and learning the products and systems we need to know to help customers on the phones. We have the rest of this week training, then we're on the phones for a few weeks, then more training. So much to learn, and to tell the truth, I don't have much confidence in myself that I can do it. All of us training though get on really well. Me and two of the girls have a good laugh most days, and generally end up giggling for ages! Last week especially. This is all down to the other girl training, who is 18 years old. We've decided that she was just nervous about being young, and less experienced (she's been working at McDonalds for 2 years), with les work-place appropriate social skills. We learnt just about everything about her, her boyfriend, upbring etc in the first 2 days, including that her mum is 36, her g-ma is 53, so she has already broken the trend of having a baby before 18. One day she randomly says "I need to find someone." We thought she was talking about in the company so we said look online, but then she says "I want to find my dad, see I've never met my real dad." The killer that had me in tears of laughter was after we were joking about asking customers if they are single? What colour eyes do you have..? etc. Our trainer Jo, says that some of the call centre staff have hooked up with each other, and there'd even been a wedding. Then this girl says, this one time at a MacDonalds party this guy hooked up with this girl, then he hooked up with another girl the same night, who was pregnant and then.... etc etc. I kind of lost what the story was cos I was laughing so much, as were the rest of us. Totally unrelated and inappropriate story to tell! Jo did so well, keeping a totally straight face, then saying "wow, that's crazy. I'd like to think our staff are more mature!" Very funny. Anyway, she has since quietened right down, not telling us any stories really, and actually doesn't talk much. I feel a bit bad, but really...!!

So yeah, all is going well. And I get 4 days at Xmas and 4 days at New Year off cos we aren't experienced enough to work of those times when there will be less staff to help us! Yay!