Housewarming

Dec. 20

This was the day that Derek and Sue had long scheduled to celebrate, with their friends and family, the completion of their house renovations with a drop in. It has been two years that Derek and Sue have been living in their small rental apartment on the ground floor while having their house renovated. And the result is spectacular! Very stylish, with clean lines, great colors, the latest in kitchen and bathroom technology, and wonderfully coordinated furnishings.

John helped his hosts to set up for the get together, scheduled to start at 1:00pm. There was every kind of finger food you could imagine. Many kinds of dip, crackers, chips, snacks, fruit, chocolate to dip strawberries in and on and on. In fact, if you have seen a dip and something to dip into it, that combination made its appearance at this party. He also helped to carry up drinks from the basement - at least eight types of beer, every kind of wine, punch, ginger beer, soaft drinks, juices. For a moment John wondered if Queen Elizabeth was invited but then thought, no, none of them would have invited royalty!

In the end, including the three children, some thirty one people attended. The first to arrive were Derek and Sue's daughter, Julie, with her husband Paul and their delightful four-year old, Ben. He is a wonderful child. John had had quite a bit of fun with him the first day John had arrived at Derek and Sue's. Ben is usually shy with strangers but took to John, when John seemed very afraid of the monsters that turned out to be Ben in a Halloween mask. It was soo cute!

John met a lot of very nice people young and mature alike and all extremely friendly and outgoing. One of the nicest surprises of the day for John was seeing an old buddy that he had taught with at Auckland in 1998. David was one of the two science educators who welcomed John to the School. His parents have been friends of Derek and Sue since they came to NZ in the 80`s and they have literally seen him grow up to be the professor he is today. John and David spent a long time catching up on what has been happening to each other professionally since John left NZ in 2001.

It was evident that everyone was having a wonderful time!

The 'do' ended some time after 7:00pm when the last guests headed home and then John helped Derek and Sue clean up. They were done by something after 9:00pm. The three then had a drink and headed off to bed. I had to stay up and write this entry!

TRB