Snow, hard work again, honeymoon

Our last holiday until our honeymoon has just happened, and as most of you will already know from emails, Facebook and Twitter, it was an incredible four days spent at Mount Ruapehu, snowboarding, eating, drinking, snowboarding, and generally not being at work. This last bit was good, as it's been a fairly intense three months (only three months!!) and I was beginning to fear a little bit of burnout approaching.

So, for those of you who're not in New Zealand, Mount Ruapehu is an active volcano in the North Island, about four and a half hours' drive from Auckland on a good day. We were boarding at Turoa, and staying in Ohakune, about 20 minutes' drive down the hill and a genuinely lovely little town. The mountain's profile might be recognisable to some as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings - it's more covered in snowboarders in real life.

To save a bit of time, we headed to Hamilton on Wednesday night, to stay with the Kiwi's sister and other half, which shortened the morning's drive by an hour or so and provided a great lasagne courtesy of the younger Kiwi. Stupidly early on Thursday we headed south, and some time after breakfast we could spot the mountain in the distance. We were on the hill by mid-morning, my initial nerves about having forgotten how to do it long gone by the end of the first run. That said, it was only December we were in Whistler.

Thursday was good - Friday was better. The snow was some of the best I've seen in all my three snowboarding trips; as good as Whistler at its best. They'd had 10cm on the Wednesday, and the perfect balance of clear, sunny days, cool temperatures and cold nights ensured it stayed deep and soft until we left. Saturday was good, but busy - obviously word had spread and the world and his dog had made the trip to the mountain. Sunday we managed a good breakfast before making an unhurried journey back home through stunning scenery.

Work, which we temporarily escaped, is intense. I can't speak for the Kiwi, although I know she's mentally busy, but for my part the pace and strain are fantastic. I've just convinced the business to hire another member of staff to support me, which should help, and with another project workstream about to kick off I'll need it, I think. Development is moving slowly even so, which is a bit of a concern as I'm burning through my credibility with every extra dollar I spend without showing a result. Hopefully I've built up enough of it to last another six weeks or so.

As for the last point - we have booked our honeymoon finally. Torn between heading from a southern hemisphere summer to the UK in February, and going to a beach not far from here, we chose the latter. We're going to Aitutaki, a tiny island north of Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. Following a long time without any time off, and a wedding to boot, I think a week spent on a beach doing as close to nothing as possible will be just the thing.

Oh alright then...

In response to Kathryn's comment below (and the numerous requests on Facebook), photos of the ring have now been added to the album.

The ring thing

So if you're on my Facebook friend list, you'll already know this, but last night I asked the Kiwi to marry me, and cor blimey she only went and said YES, so we are now officially betrothed, I believe. Brilliant!

Very briefly, as I need to get in the shower and prepare for a fairly intense day in the pub, the whole night was excellent from start to finish. We started with Champagne (Pol Roger NV, if you're interested) at Vertigo, where I mumbled the question. At 600ft, it's the highest building in London, a real landmark, and the view from the bar's tremendous. Our table faced northwest, towards the Telecom tower - the weather was perfect too, watching the sun set over the most amazing city in the world.

Following that we got a cab over to Wild Honey in Mayfair, the sister restaurant to Arbutus, which we've also been to. Terrific food and superb wine was somewhat overshadowed by how excited and dizzy we both were, but it was superb nonetheless. Would definitely recommend it. It turned out that a friend of ours was having a birthday party over in Soho, so we dropped in on that on the way home.

I feel absolutely tremendous. And I can't believe the ring, whose size I guessed, fits perfectly and looks so completely natural on that wonderful girl's finger.

Sore head, busy week ahead...

I am physically destroyed. We went to a wedding reception last night, which was brilliant, danced like fools and drank like bigger fools, and wore a lovely new suit which I'd bought the previous week at Ted Baker as part of a horrifying splurge of clothes-buying. Tremendous event it was, both bride and groom looking superb and very happy indeed.

But this morning was a bit of a challenge. In fact, the whole day has been, and I'm a little concerned about the impact this is going to have on the week to come. You see, I found out on Tuesday afternoon that I'm being sent over to Houston (yep, the one in Texas) for a week to attend a conference over there. I'm flying out on Sunday afternoon, back on Friday morning, mental schedule in between and hopefully I won't have to present.

Now, today should be the day on which I print out all the stuff I'll need in order to get onto flights and into hotels etc, and although I'm fairly sure I've done all I need, I'm also acutely aware that I turn into a bit of an idiot whilst hungover so I'm bound to have forgotten something crucial. Ah, well.

So there we are, little me representing my company's retail function to lots of Merkins. It's either going to be REALLY REALLY GREAT or horrible, and I've decided to shoot for the former. If there's interweb access at the Houston Holiday Inn Express (I know), I'll see if I can squeeze out a blog entry or two whilst I'm there. Wish me luck...

Hoots

What. A. Weekend. Kicked off on Thursday night (as the best weekends are) with a work social at which we threw a baby shower for one of our consultants, complete with milk-based cocktails served in Tommy Tippee mugs. As with many of our work socials, it doesn't sound like it'd work but curiously, it did.

Friday was mental throughout, full of meetings in the morning and struggling over to Hampshire to the Hatter's house with boxes of wine and shoes, for 'twas his WEDDING on the Saturday morning and we needed to get ready and such, being as I was his very Best Man and very proud of it as well.

Those of you who have befriended me on Facebook have access to photos of the event, including one or two of your blogger in a KILT for the first time ever (and yes, I was wearing pants). A truly tremendous garment, I have to tell you - would happily wear one more often. Were I a true Scot, I would, but I'll have to settle for Sassenach Troosers as it is. Hey ho.