My first Red Carpet Premier - Monday, December 14th

Image via Wikipedia

The other day while riding the bus Nicole and I noticed that there were flags up promoting The Lovely Bones premier right in the middle of Wellington so of course we wanted to go. The movie doesn't actually open here until January but we've both read the book and can't wait to see it. Monday morning, we actually got off to a bad start. We kinda forgot that it was the night of the premier until we were too far away from the house to go back...seriously when you leave the house you take a spare change of clothes and provisions for the day, you don't go back for anything. Luckily Manuel hadn't left for work so he saved the day by bringing the camera with him. He even brought Edward even though this was his first day at his new job and he could have been horribly made fun of for forever if Edward was discovered.This hotel is just right around the corner from where I work, all of these cars were waiting to take people to the event. The side of the car says 'The Lovely Bones' and it had an all access pass in the window. The coolest part though was that the drivers had really cool headsets.

This is Courtenay Place which is a pretty happening little spot in Wellington and there's normally tons of cars and buses on this street but tonight there was just a red carpet and lots of people. Straight ahead is the theater that the premier is being held in. That's me off to the right with the gianormous bulging backpack...I told you that you take lots of things with you!
This is a shot of the Red Carpet before all the action. This is looking towards the theater.
The other direction, around that corner a tent where everyone was coming from.
Self portrait of Nicole and I in our matching jackets and huge sunglasses.
The girl with the blonde hair and pretty dress is Saoirse Ronan. She plays Susie Salmon, the main girl in the film.
She was in the movie Atonement and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008 at the age of 13! Unfortunately this was as close as we got to her. This guy getting his photo taken was really nice, they held out our little book for autographs!
The lady in the black dress is Susan Sarandon. The Susan Sarandon. She's been in excellent films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Banger Sisters, Stepmom, Thelma and Louise, Enchanted and many many more.
Like other Kiwis, she decided to walk around barefoot. These people are crazy by the way, as soon as the the sun comes out they're in sundresses and shorts but it's still cold!
It's a little blurry and we didn't get her autograph but she did come really close.
She seemed really cool for the 20 seconds that we saw her.
Edward got his picture with Rose McIver! She's a New Zealander who's done a lot of work here, she plays the other Salmon girl in The Lovely Bones. She also signed our book!!
Getting out of the car is Peter Jackson and his people. (!)
This was so exciting. For those of you who do not know, Peter Jackson is a pretty famous Kiwi in the film industry. He's written screenplays, produced and directed huge films such as Heavenly Creatures, the Lord of The Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Lovely Bones and next up is The Hobbit. So basically...he's awesome.
And we sort of met him! I guess you can't really say that you met someone when all they say is "you're welcome" when you say "thank you" because he signed your book.
This is Peter signing our book.
Edward tried his very hardest to get a picture with Peter. This was the best out of about 10 bad pictures.
The man used to be quite a fatty but he lost a lot of weight a few years back and now he looks great! He was so good to his fans, he really tried to see as many people as possible.
If my hand weren't there, it would look like Edward was on the red carpet. He's the same size as the other people!
It's hard to see in our pictures, but people were hanging out on roofs to get a good view of the festivities just like these kids. The funny thing was, no one cared. Even the cops are laid back here.

So our first real Red Carpet Premier was a success and lots of fun! There were a bunch of other people there that might have been famous but since we don't watch TV here, but we didn't really recognize many others. But it was so exciting and we can't wait for another one!!!

Christmas at the Races!

Welcome to Christmas at the Races!! Horse racing is a huge thing around here so we thought it would be fun to go to one of the special events with Neil and Vanessa. Vanessa's father and family have been following racing for years so she knows all about these things. All I knew about horse racing is that you get to wear a big hat!
Neil and Manuel very excited to be up so early for a fun day.

Me and my headband on the train. (This was a very casual family day at the races so not really dressing up. Only a few people had hats...like the horse owners...most people were wearing a fascinator/headband of some sort.)
Vanessa on the train. It was only about a 30 minute train ride to get to the Trentham race track.
We got there a bit early so we could get a good spot to set up our 'camp.' We even had a little sun shade which came in handy since it was such a sunny day...and yes, I'm actually assisting Neil with the building!
Vanessa and I sitting in the sunshade waiting for a race to begin.
These colorful people came parading by...it was a little weird. Even Vanessa hadn't seen them before.
This is Nicole modeling her race book (it has all the races and horse stats in it) and first betting ticket.
Edward holding one of Neil's winners!!!
This is the Birdcage where you can scope out your horsey and make sure you picked a good one before they go out into the gates.
This is jockey Robert Hannam on Our Centrefold. I won about 2 dollars off of these two. woo hoo!
This is our little camp. Neil is teaching me how to read the race book correctly.
I forgot the official term for this person...but there was two of them. They basically lead the horses and riders on and off of the track. I think...
Annnnd they're off!I'm not sure which race this is, there were 10 that day. So exciting.
Neil and I displaying our winning tickets. It might have been Cracker Tee Pee or Tip The Wink, we won on both. I started out picking based on cool names but by the time it got to race 4 or 5, I was getting pretty good. Plus there were a few realllly good jockeys there.

I mentioned that Vanessa's family is really into racing and she wanted to say 'hi' to jockey Opie Bosson. She was very excited when he said 'hello' back. She bought her Dad a book for Christmas about famous jockeys and racing for Christmas that she brought to the race in case she was able to get anyone to sign it. So we set off jockey hunting.
And we found Opie Bosson!! (this was a huge deal for her...can you tell?) He signed dad's book.
Along with Michael Walker...at least I think that's him. Jockeys are soo short! Just like Vanessa, in fact her dad has always wanted her to be a jockey. (he's really into racing...)
Nicole and I were trying to get Edward set up so that he could get a picture with the horses running behind him when a girl was like 'oh my gosh, is that Edward Cullen?' She's obviously a Twilight fan.
'Hello from Trenthan Racing!' love, Edward.
Edward was a big fan of the races...even though it was sunny.
So sunny in fact that he didn't want to stand out so he hid behind Vanessa's leg.
We all had a great day at the races! It was a beautiful day out there and it was so relaxing and we had a great picnic thanks mostly to Nicole and Vanessa. Neil won the most out of all of us. I took twenty dollars out there and came back with $19, not too bad. I tend to just make safe bets. I think Vanessa is going to take Nicole and I to Ladies Day at the Races in March and that's where we actually get to wear a big hat!!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Unfortunately I had to go into work for a few hours yesterday since Thanksgiving is not a holiday here and Farmers was having a huge one day sale. But I didn't have to work the whole day, just the busy lunch hours. YAY! Nicole walked down the hill with me in the morning because she had to go to the grocery store in preparation for our thanksgiving feast. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafe right by the bus stop, called Mint and we decided to take a quick picture. I should have taken more pictures of the Parade...the main street in Island Bay...but I didn't think about it until I could see the bus coming. I'm sorry!!!
I got out of work at 2:30 and had some time to kill before my bus arrived so I thought everyone at home might want to see where I spend my day. This is Farmers. On Lambton Quay, pronounced 'Key.'
I learned that my camera can do a panoramic shot. So here's the street. This is the downtown area, what you can't see is that farmers only occupies 3 small floors of the building, it's about 20 stories full of offices...at least that's what I'm told. I'll try to get a good picture of downtown sometime.
This is my bus stop across the street from work. And these are the bright yellow buses that we have here that look like bumblebees. There are a few old ones too but these are all the electric ones that are most common. I wonder if that lady knew I was taking her picture...
So, you've all heard about 'the Hill' even though I've yet to take pictures for you. Well, there is another way home..besides a taxi. There's a bus that goes to the very tip top of this mountain, the walk is longer to get home but it's easier. The problem is, it only runs about once an hour opposed to the every 10 minutes like the bottom of the hill one. And the last pick up for the day is around 7:21 and sometimes you're just not done in town by this time. This is a shot of the street where the bus drops us off.
Edward is showing you the other side of the street. Similar view from our house.
Mostly just a downhill walk, this is much better.
Until you get to that hill. That's our street that goes straight up.
Good old Hudson street.
This is our blue mailbox. And these are the stairs to get to the house. See where the railing hides behind the bushes...
it's more stairs!!!
I made it to the top! We have a little people gate and this is the house. At least part of it. That's the inside of the kitchen that you can see, if you look closely, you might see Nicole in there cooking Thanksgiving dinner.
Manuel invited his friend, Tony and his family over to have a traditional thanksgiving with us so we made all the favorites. And by we, I mean Nicole. I did however make biscuits from scratch with Edwards help.
And if you're wondering how they turned out, they were ok. I feel like there's a secret to it that I should probably find out. maybe I kneaded them too much? I would like to try making them again sometime because they actually don't have biscuits in New Zealand. Just scones. Not the same. At all.