Chris's Birthday

We decided to have Chris's birthday dinner on the pier (after we had given it a mighty good scrub).

We lit candles and everyone brought some food.

Some story clouds rolled in right around dessert time, but we stuck it out and the sun came out again.

Dylan and Jemma.

Keith and you can just see a rainbow behind him, it was actually huge in real life.

Jamie and Lauren.

We stayed until it got dark and cold and then we trouped back to our place for cups of tea and coffee.

Instagram

 So I finally got a smartphone and now have Instagram, you can follow me @nicolemarieandthetumbleweed. Here is the last month or so in pictures.

 The way the I bike to uni and a toy robot I got for Chris from work.

 Record shopping for Chris's birthday and the architecture fest where they had models in giant plastic bubbles .

Chris had his birthday and I gave him some presents in pretty wrapping paper.

 Ice tea with coconut jelly in a break from study and the first strawberries of the season.

 Uni in the evening, I basically lived there last month.

 After I handed in my work and I could go out, we went and saw some bands playing at the Darkroom. There was also Guy Fawkes night with fireworks.

 A lazy morning with the cat and some drinks.

Last week we finally celebrated Chris's birthday properly and had a pot luck dinner on the pier. More pictures to come of this.

Sunday Driving

 Chris, Finn, Keith, Matt and I went for a Sunday drive.

 We went around the bays round Lyttleton and Diamond Harbour.

 It's a pretty area.

 The guys skipped some stones.

 We stopped at the shop in Little River, it was quite rustic.

On the way home we passed a bundle of fancy cars that Chris and Matt were particularly keen to have a closer look at.

Reunion!

 This weekend I had my five year school reunion. The first night we talked and danced and stayed up till five.

 I didn't get much sleep but I saw the sunrise which was so lovely, because we drove there in the dark and didn't know where we were.

 We went down to the beach on Saturday. Femke.

 Jess and Lil.

 Eddy.

 Paasca brought some of his home brew for people to try.

 We played lots of card games in the cabin. It was a really cool place, the living area was huge.

 In the evening Zac, Lenny and I went looking for some Paua.

It was really beautiful at the beach in the evening. I had fun exploring the rock pools.

 After dinner there was circle of death, where one of the rules was that everyone had to switch clothes.

 Before we left on Sunday we took a class photo. It was so lovely to see everyone again.

Take Me Like Vitamin

 New Brighton today.

Tamarillo

Dessert! Tamarillo with a quantity of sugar. So good!

Timaru

 On Friday both Chris and I had a day off so we went on a little road trip...

 To Timaru. We looked at the pretty buildings and strolled through the shops.

 We had some lunch.

 And had a drink at the historic pub.

 We looked at the animals in the pet store.

And drove home as the sun was setting.

One Year

 It has been exactly one year and a day since I started this blog. One year ago we had just moved to back to Christchurch after escaping to Gisborne following the earthquakes. Chris had just had knee surgery and our lives seemed quite uncertain. Blogging was something I had been thinking about doing for a while and a large drift of snow which I photographed finally brought this blog about. The idea of the blog was really just to recognise what in my life I thought was beautiful and what I loved and to remind myself what these things were. 

 Food is one of these things, and boy have I eaten well this year.

 There have also been some parties, festivals and adventures.

 Christmas and New Years spent in Australia with my family.

 There have been some outfits and hair cuts and shoes.

And there has been one very special person along on all my adventures.

So that has been a year of my blog. I have been a bit slow at making posts in the last few months, for which I could make many excuses. But really you have to make time for important things.
 I know I have a couple silent followers out there (they admit it occasionally on the sly), what would you guys like to see on here? More daily posts? Are there specific things about my life that anyone wants to know? Make it easy for me and give me a few ideas!

But most importantly thanks for watching and commenting and being cool. If no one ever looked I might well disappear off the internets.