Arohanui: another lovely week

The end of another week! As I write this I'm watching the RWC Scotland v Argentina game. The Argentinian players wear stripey shirts and socks and the effect is very strange; they kind of look like blue Tiggers.

Anyways, I had a very nice week, and here are some things that happened:

• I've spent all this weekend at a wedding up on the Kapiti coast. The wedding itself was lovely; the bride played murder ballads on the banjo; I saw killer whales breaching off Peka Peka Beach; and Jess Chambers and Rosy Tin Teacaddy played during the wedding and reception respectively. Shannon and I camped on the lawn which was not as cold as I thought it would be - but it did ignite a desire to spend all summer camping at the edge of the bush in DoC campsites.
• On the way back from the wedding we dropped into my Grandad's house in Waikanae and were fed by my lovely step-Nana Dorothy. My Grandad is always happy to discuss history indefinitely with me which I'm sure must be tedious beyond belief for Dorothy and Shannon. I was crazy tired from the wedding the night before, but it was very awesome to see them.
• This evening I made some baked oatmeal from the Budget Bytes recipe: part of my plan to be better organised in the morning and eat breakfast every day. My decision to make it was inspired by the Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal that Beth posted about earlier this week, but as we're heading out of pumpkin season at the moment, I thought I'd better use her earlier seasonal fruit recipe. S and I had some for dinner and it was delicious.
• It was my lovely Nat's 30th birthday yesterday. I had a drink with her at Little Beer Quarter on Friday night - the first time that I'd been there. Good beer selection, lovely atmosphere (much less crowded than the Malthouse), and the nuts were good too. I'm just nuts about nuts (lol, obv). The best thing though was Nat. She's such a legend - starting university after working and travelling and living in the UK for ten years, studying incredibly hard, and absolutely blitzing with her marks. Happy Birthday darling - super proud of you, Ms. Fabulosity.
• My flatmate Hayley arrived back from her trip to Burning Man and around the States - it's great to have a gender balance in the house again, and to have someone to cackle with.
• My other James bought a pig's head for his birthday on Friday. Did you know pigs have very human looking eyes? I discovered this as a pair of them peered out the the head on the counter top. However the food made with the pig head has been good so far (some kind of Brazilian bean thing with the cheeks). There is something that looks suspiciously like brawn in the fridge at the moment that's freaking me out a bit but I'm sure it will be fine - nay, delicious!
• I dropped in yet more books to the second hand book store and I think I've finally reached an equilibrium with my book shelves, and THAT knocks another of my resolutions from my list.
• My new raincoat from Wet and Wendy arrived and I love it. It's raining rather heavily at the moment, and I'm hoping that it will be again tomorrow - can you believe that? I figure, if I can't have beautiful sunshiney weather then I want a lot of rain to splash about in.

And now I figure that it must be my bed time. Goodnight, lovelies!

The image above is from Simply Breakfast. The recipe the Simply Breakfast lady used is a different to Beth's, but Amazon has hosted a little preview that includes the recipe. Keen to try it out!