Patrick

I think our very much loved and valued friend deserves a post all to himself. Nick met Patrick, Coops, or if you're Joseph 'Toops', at the last school he taught at in London. It's a unique school with some difficult clientele and in those places I think the colleagues tend to bond a bit more than in easier places of work. When Nick was there it happened that a lot of the staff were young, child free and had time to spend with each other outside of school hours. Nick and Patrick had a year working together in Year 2. I think Nick was at the school a total of just over three years, or it may have been 4.
He made a lot of friends there and I was lucky enough to get to know them all a bit too before coming home.

Patrick was the first person Nick called when he had his bike accident and the person who kept me informed of what was going on with him while I sorted out coming back from the States.

Patrick values the same things we do and he and Nick share a great sense of humour. He understands our work and the joys and frustrations of being teachers.
Before we left London Patrick was kind enough (you too Sam and Liam!!) to let us stay at his home for three weeks when we had moved out of our flat. Nick had asked Patrick to be Godfather to our then unknown baby and now he and Joseph share a rather special bond. Joseph had kind of remembered him from the last time he was here when Rhys was born and he does talk on the phone to him albeit briefly, so he was excited that he was coming to stay for Christmas.



So, the last time he was here I was pregnant and then had Rhys so we couldn't stray far from home. This time however we managed to get to Akaroa and then over to the West Coast to Punakaiki for a couple of nights too. It was wonderful. Thanks Coops!

Christmas

Joseph woke at the fairly reasonable hour of just after 6 on Christmas morning. It took him until just after 7am to realise Christmas was here and ask about presents. We had a lovely morning, having breakfast, opening presents and then playing with new toys. We got the boys a model airport and a plane and some emergency vehicles to go with it.


We headed up to Nick's Mum and Dad's place for lunch and stayed until about the boys bedtime, or just passed it. We had a lovely day with all the Gunns at home and all 5 Grandsons there too. I must admit, it was nice to have two toddlers and not a baby in my arms all day! Rhys went to bed as soon as we arrived and stayed there until well after lunch was over.
Every Christmas/Summer since we've been back form the UK I've been either pregnant or feeding a baby. It was great not to be that person this year. I also had promised Patrick that I wouldn't be either of those things when he stayed this time and it meant we could get away and do some tripping around...

Quick trip to Akaroa

We decided that 30 hours on a plane was not a long enough journey for our dear friend Patrick, so we pushed him into a car and drove for another hour and a half to Akaroa. It was just as long as getting the tube from Heathrow anyway, but better scenery!

We had a couple of nights there staying in a bach near the town centre. It's a more of a village than a town and everything was in walking distance. The best part of the trip was the boat ride, there are supposed to be more than a few Hector's Dolphins around these waters and we were lucky enough to catch a wee glimpse of a couple. They are tiny, growing up to a metre long. We also saw some bird action, a wee blue penguin and some seals. Rhys was in true Rhys mode and wouldn't be held, he wanted rather to keep trying to climb anything and duck his head under and over the railings. He thankfully went to sleep about half way through the tour so I managed to get to see some of the wildlife too.