October

I know, it's been a while. But I'll attempt to update you on all that's been happening, starting with October.

The first weekend in October we hosted Suzana & Michal from the Czech Republic, and Brie, an American living in Germany. Brie was a super-nice lady who was a real character - 36 years old and completely obsessed with moose. Almost every item of clothing we saw her wearing had a moose on it somewhere, and as a thank you gift she left us a soft toy moose! Since it was lamb season we took them for a walk through a paddock full of them, which had our friends oohing and aahing and taking crazy amounts of pictures. The next day we went on a thoroughly enjoyable day trip to Rangitoto Island. I really came to appreciate this active day in the following weeks as I was stuck at home resting my sore leg.

With Michal, Suzana & Brie

On Rangitoto Island

You see, I'd had this little red lump on my thigh for years and had thought it was some sort of blood blister. But when it suddenly turned black I thought it would be best to visit the doctor and see what was up. He mildly freaked that it was a melanoma and insisted on cutting it out ASAP. I wasn't worried but since my step-father (Dave) had been diagnosed with fairly serious melanoma just a few days before some of those close to me didn't exactly appreciate the coincidence. So I got myself cut open and stitched back up, and got to spend a few weeks limping about the place. And you know what? It was a blood blister after all! But it's all good as now the ugly lump is gone and I've got a cool scar in it's place. Oh, and after some surgery on his leg Dave is fine too and has an incredibly impressive scar of his own to show off.

The end of October saw Shanon getting a surprise promotion to branch manager. Go Shanon! This caused him an awful lot of excitement as one of the perks of the job is a brand new company car. That car is currently getting repairs thanks to a young guy driving into the back of Shanon at a roundabout. That's the first time Shanon's been in an accident in NZ - pity it had to be in the new car.