home from work today

I got sent home from work today for being sick so I'm just time wasting now cos I'm not sick enough to be in bed anymore. I hate being sick its so not worth having a day (two actually plus the weekend) off work if I'm stuck inside feeling crappy!!! grr hope I feel better tomo!!

We went to Invercargill last weekend it was pretty cool. Actually it was sunny and really hot, surprisingly (on the Saturday at least)!!! Even made Gore seem like a nice place, no offense to Gore. If you're ever in Invercargill go to the ZooKeeper cafe, its pretty hard to miss it has a big Elephant on the roof (which is why i insisted we go there), the food was really great and our waiter was wearing overalls!! cool wee place!

We went to look at more lighthouses that Jeremy's Grandad was a light house keeper at. We saw Dog Island from the lookout at Bluff, man that's a windswept place if there ever was one!!! And we drove down to Waipapa Point to look at the other one! Waipapa Point is just down the road from Slope Point which is the southern most part of the South Island!! We didn't go there cos it was cold and windy by then.

We drove back up through the Catlins which was really nice, we had only been to the top bit of the catlins before (well Jeremy had, I'd been there with Mum last year). We stoped at Curio Bay with all the fossilised trees, really amazing! and we walked up to the Mclean (or Mclennan??) falls which were beautiful, unfortunatly we forgot the camera on that walk cos they were way better than we expected and very cool.

Another random eating place that was really good was the wee cafe at start of the Mclennen Falls road. Its really flash inside and the food looked really yum (we only had coffee) it was very unexpected being in the middle of nowhere!!!

We also went to the cathedral Caves which were cool too!! They were actually quite scary cos it was dark, (not that I'm scared of the dark but...) and the tide was coming in. Pretty amazing big caves and two that join together, hence the dark!!!

Toodle pip
Gem

Posting update

Well so we've been a bit slack on the posting lately. I think its mainly because we don't think we've done anything worthy of posting up here. But the point of this blog was to post stuff whether or not its exciting stuff or mindless blather.

So onto the mindless blather....

A while back Gem made these totally awesome chocolate moosse cone thingy which were made of white chocolate and filled with morobar/nougat moosse. They looked and tasted like they came from a restaurant.

Last weekend we headed up to Christchurch to see Crowded House. It was super fantastic. Supergroove was one of the supporting acts and they were pumping full of energy and jumping round the stage and being very entertaining. I was of course hanging out for "Can't get Enough" and "You gotta know" but it surprised me how many other songs that I knew and loved but didn't know were Supergroove. Crowded House were awesome and they got the crowd singing along to all of their old songs (the crowd actually sounded not bad). I really really enjoyed and am so glad that I was able to see them live.

Also went to a costume party at Meredith's and the highlight really was that Gemma went dressed as a Rubix cube. I'll try and dig up a photo of it once I locate the camera.

As for other news there isn't really much to report. I'm just sitting here trying to learn to play "Blister in the sun" on my guitar and enjoying the saturday morning.

So with that I'll leave you and hopefully I will blog a bit more often.

So i've tried to put a picture up the top. The words are a bit hard to read so i might have to fix that up. But anyway, do you like the picture? I couldn't quite get it as thin as i wanted, it would've been cooler if it went all the way across the screen. Anyway let me know what you think.

Cutlery - gem is a geek

Guess what we did today?
we unpacked our new cutlery set, it is so pretty and smooth and shiny and i love it soo much. it looks super nice in our newly clean top drawer and i'm so excited about my next meal so i can use it!!!
on the weekend we un packed our plates and glasses, they are also pretty and are soo nice to use, the beer glasses are so fine they are nice to drink out of!!
Clearly i am a homewears geek and i get very excited about this kind of stuff!!!! wedding pressies are like the most amazingly exciting thing for me, i just go into the spare room and gaze at the ones we havent found homes for...aahhh
Jez reckons that i should work at stevens or something and i'd jsut be in my element!!!

I'd just like to state that if I'd met Gem at a dating agency her profile would read: Turn ons are damaging natural phenomenon and cutlery by the beach. yeah yeah what ever

Lots of Love
Mr and Mrs Jeremy and Gemma Chuah

Honeymoon!!

Hey we've uploaded some of our Honeymoon photos into our web album so go check them out.

Here is a story about our honeymoon holiday:
First of all it was fantastic, sunny days, crystal clear ocean water (but too cold for swimming), beautiful native bush and also no work for 3 weeks!

Um, we flew into Auckland on Monday and we stayed at the Penthouse suite at the Duxton hotel. It was on the 10th floor and had a great view out over the city and to the Sky tower. There's a pretty shot of our view in the photos. The room was two stories with a kitchen and lounge downstairs and bedroom and bathroom upstairs. And the windows were floor to ceiling so they were two stories tall!!

We had a hire car and so we drove over to the Coromandel the next day. We stopped into Thames for lunch (which Gem tells me is pronounced Tems and doesn't rhyme with flames) and since we were very smart (not) we had booked our accomodation on the other side of the pennensula! So we drove further north and west to Whitianga where we stayed in a very 70's motel. Whitianga was okay but not much to do without a boat. I was a sick and Gem got a bit bored (but she assures me it was still relaxing and prettyness). But while we were there we went to Hot Water Beach which was super awesomely cool. We hired a spade from the store and went spading, i mean we dug a hole in the sand. The hot spring water running across the sand was really really hot (like burning your feet hot) and it pooled in your hole making a convenient mini sandy spa pool :). The trick was to get the right mix of burny and coldy water which is trickyer than it sounds because it doesn't mix very well with you sitting in the middle of it. It was also funny to watch the japanese tourist running across the unexpectedly hot beach.

We then headed over to Coromandel town on the west coast and looked at a couple of pretty beaches along the way. One beach had a truly amazing sand city (yes sand city not castle) with harbour and bridges and everything. The motel we stayed at in Coromandel town had a super flash bathroom which was bigger than the bedroom. It had a disco bath with in built speakers and coloured lights! We went up the Driving Creek Railway which was really cool and had lots of native bush along with the first Kauri trees we've ever seen. It rained once during our holiday (and it poured that day) but luckily we had Shrek along with us and we watched it twice, one of which was in Spanish (spanish donkey is pretty funny)

We did a coast walk up along the northern tip of the Coromandel and from there we could see Curvier Island which was where my Grandad was a Lighthouse keeper about 50 years ago. The coast walk was very pretty and there were lots of Manuka trees and Pohutakawa trees (although they weren't in blossom)

Then we went back to the east coast to Hahei and we went sea kayaking from there up to Cathedral Cove and back. This was like the highlight of our holiday as it was really fun and the guides were really funny too. When we got to Cathedral Cove it was deserted (and very pretty) and they plonked down a picnic rug and said "Welcome to Cathedral Cove Cafe!" and proceeded to make us proper cappacinos and hot chocolates with real froth and everything! So cool.

On the way back home we went through Paeroa and did the Paeroa thing (we ate pies and drank L&P). Then we drove back to Auckland and stayed with Haidee and went to the Zoo! Gem fed a giraffe and there was a baby giraffe! there too. Then we came home. The end by Jeremy

I just want to mention some of the most memorable things for me:
The day that Jeremy misunderstood the breckfast menu and accenedtly ordered two breckfasts for himself, then has to eat them both!!! he got the pancake sweats eww
Seeing all the huge Kauri Trees, they were actually massive and soo old, it totally blew me away. also all the native bush, i've been all sorts of places in the world but have seen so little of my own country so it was really cool to check out the native forrest and learn about the different trees and the ferns.
jeremy's right seakayaking was awesome, we did better at being together in a double one that i expected and didnt fall out at all (apparently its quite hard to fall out but we were sure we would). tho i'm not sure i trust j's steering skills, he probably feels the same about me!!!

I would totally go back to the coromandel, it was awesome and there were heaps of things that we didnt get to do.
Love Gem

Wedding Pics

So the big day has come and gone and we're married now!!!! how exciting
the day was fantastic, went by like a blur and we had huge smiles on all day.

We've put some pics online so check out the link to the right to have a look.
Will write more later and tell u about the honeymoon and stuff

love the new Mrs Chuah

15 sleeps

Oh yeah and its only 15 Sleeps to go!!!

Hey so its getting pretty close now. Can't remember if I mentioned before but I've finally gotten a wedding ring (leaving it late as always). My knuckles are gammy and they're bigger than the base of my finger which means that its hard to get on but then sits loose :( oh well, I'll just have to get fatter fingers.

Also I'm starting to get freaked out. I was pretty calm and collected about the whole thing up until now but its starting to get all a bit much! Hopefully none of my fears will be realised and it'll all go off without a hitch.

Gemma's cousin Ben and his partner Heather are coming visiting tomorrow. Should be good to meet more of Gem's family but not sure what to do with them while they're here. Hopefully we won't end up at Larnarch Castle again as I've been through it enough times already!

Yes well it has surprised me just how much jez has freaked out actually tho I know that he has just has icy feet. I think I'll get him some warm socks and see if that helps.
I has a bit of a moment at work yesterday too, I was looking at my business cards box which is still half full and i thought "Oh mY gosh these are going to be WRONG in two weeks!!!!" I'm not going to be Gemma Knight any more. That is sooo weird!!!

I'm excited about Ben and Heather coming to visit tomorrow. I don't think I've seen Ben since I was about four so I'm guessing he'll have changed a bit!!

I don't think we actually have much else to say today
Hope everyone is well and happy
Love Us

Stationary - as in paper not as in stopped

So this weeks project has been making the service sheets for the wedding. this is a big undertkaaking and i'm still dubious about it cos i'm sure that everyone is going to leave them behind and then all our time and effort will be wasted. so everyone that is comming and reading this, please admire how awesome they are and treasure them forever (or at least dont throw it away till you're at home and i dont know about it!!!)
we went inot the craft shop to do all the embossing, the same pretty flower as on the invites. they're all impressed that Jeremy alwasy comes along and we do it together, i dont think many menfolk go to the craft shop!!!! we tried to emboss onto the candle for the church but it all melted and we've now rethought that idea!!

We're still going to ballromm classes, we learnt the Carosell last week which is cool and everyone does the same steps around the room, its fun. But we tried to practice dancing in our living room and even with as much furniature as possible (couch and the coffee table) out of the way ther isn't enough space and we keep bumping inot he TV!!!

speaking of which our TV is having a spaz and keeps filckering on and off!!!


here's Jez
Okay i'll just geek it up a bit and see if i can make myself appear green. Its been awhile sice i've done any web stuff so it might not go according to plan

So what do i have to add to this post? Not too sure. Gem just bought a whole lot of candles (to replace the one we stuffed before) and now we're super prepared if a blackout occurs.

I was just pottering around with the guitar a bit (I go through on again off again stints). I feel like i'm getting better but that might just be my wild imagination.

Aside from that we both set up bebo accounts this week but not sure if that'll take off or not, have to see how many people look at my page i guess (hint hint)

Getting close to the wedding and even closer to time off work which is really exciting (take your pick of which one i mean). 11 work days left.

Okay that's me.

and its only 22 sleeps till the actual wedding jez didnt mention!
all our planning is comming along nicely, did we write about our weekend in Chch?? well we went ot chch and got a whole lot of stuff organised so nows its pretty much just a waiting till we come up to finalise everything!!!!

i picked up my dress the other day, prettyness!!! except now i have to store it a secret from Jez and not let it get damp in the spare room!!

righty ho
love Gem and Jez

its snowing again...

it is snowing again...but slushily

Dunedin is a very cold place to live. fortunately our fire is going nice and warm tonight (last night it wouldn't burn at all :( ) even so its pretty exciting to have so much snow this winter, and hopefully if it snows more tonight then we'll have a real snow day and wont have to go to work!!!

Today i went up past Middlemarch through to Macraes for work to talk to a farmer. there was heaps of snow on the Rock and Pillars which was pretty, it looked like icing on the hills!!! we drove past the Stanleys Pub in Macraes. lots of one horse towns around that area but beautiful dramatic country and especially with a dusting of snow!! Richard (my workmate) showed me where the central otago rail trail starts and part of the way along it. hopefully this summer me and Jez will bike it, just gotta get jez on a bike!!

me and Jez are excited at the moment cos everyday when we come home there are wee silver cards in our letterbox rsvping to the wedding. its soo cool to have post that isn't bills. we hate bills at the mo, our savings aren't going well cos we had to buy pink batts and wedding stuff is adding up. why are weddings so expensive!!!

wedding planning is exciting tho, at the mo we are choosing the music that the DJ is gonna play and I've got a dress fitting on Saturday!! the first time i get to see my dress in real life!! yay

we made biscuits tonite, and for the first time in ages they are not burnt, we seem to be having trouble with that. not that it stops us eating them. actually jez ate them quicker cos he wanted to get rid of the burnt ones so we could make fresh ones!!!

anyway that's enough crap for one day
love Gem

Snow Day

Guess What??? Its snowing!!! well its not snowing right now but it was last night!!!
when we got up this morning there was snow all over the place and it was about 20cm deep!!! look at our street in the photo!!!

We had a bit of an adventure last night with the snow, when we came home from work it was just raining and cold so when it was time to go to dancing we figured it'd be fine, but it had snowed a thin layer of snow and so we had to take it real slow. but it was ok in town and there was no snow at dancing!! Except that the sky had cleared so now everything was freezing

ACTUALLY IT IS SNOWING NOW!!!! (but it wasnt when i started typing!!) jeremy just confused me to tell me that!!

anyway, when we got to dancing it was freezing everything and dancing got called off. so we tried to drive home but we didnt quite make it cos the wee steep bit just before home foiled us and we slipped back down. so we had to walk the rest of the way home!!!

well that was exciting but there is heaps more snow now

We made a snowman and had a snowball fight and i went for big treck around the neighburhood. it was super fun.



its stopped snowing now but i hope it will snow some more this afternoon then we can have heaps of snow!!

righty ho - keep warm everyone who also has cold weather

love gem and Jez

poor jeremys car

today someone reverdsed into jeremy's car. we are sad about this!!! :(
i had italian class today, it was cold int eh classroom - fa freddo (its cold)
we also learnt how to say where is stuff around town
c'e bar qui vicino - where is the bar
nighty night
gem

Our first post

Hey this is our very first post. We're sitting in the living room trying to figure out how to work all this blogger stuff. Hopefully it will all turn out well and we'll be posting here lots and lots when we go travelling.