Family visit!

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So this weekend was pretty awesome! Definitely more awesome than I would expect it to be, seeing it was the first time Pepe met my mother and sister!

Background: I met Pepe through a wrong number (crazy I know), he lived in a city called Christchurch at the other end of the country from me. A few months of nannying around, and I decided to move there – all the while he’d never met hardly any of my friends, and none of my family!

I have a mum, a dad, (separated) and a little sister who’s 12. My sister will be the hot one. She has legs that go on forever and when she’s older she’s going to have a killer figure. (Yes, I’m jealous.) Anyway, she loves Batman. Loves loves loves Batman. It’s an obsession.

Mum and Mel, my sister, arrived in Christchurch early on Saturday. Mum met up with a friend, and I took Mel out sightseeing.

Christchurch has this absolutely beautiful place called the Arts Center. It’s the site of the old university, and all the buildings are gothic architecture. It’s like going back in time. It’s the home of the most awesome saturday markets ever (can you say cheap as food from every corner of the world?), a place called the Fudge Cottage where all the sweets are freshly made on site, and right next to the best pub slash brewery in town, the Dux. We filled ourselves up on Bavarian sausages, home made chocolates, Chinese spring rolls, fudge, cupcakes, crepes until we almost popped. Then, Pepe turned up!

He rides a motorcycle, and my sister was beside herself with excitement as she heard the VROOM VROOM and he pulled up in the car park. “OMG his bike is SO COOL!” I’m sure it had NOTHING to do with the fact Batman rides a motorbike in the Dark Knight.

So they got on great, as was expected, because she is 12 and he acts 12. We went to the museum and saw dinosaur bones, which was freakin awesome, then headed back to the Dux to finally meet my mama.

It went well, I think. Mum’s friend gave him 10/10 when he jumped up to help mum carry the drinks back to the table, and then Pepe and my mum got into a huuuuuuuuuuuge conversation about Richard Stallman and open-source software and Linux la la la. Ah, bonding over computer issues. So modern day.

By then it was dinner time and we headed over to a place called the SOL Square, which is just about as cool as the Arts Center. It’s a tiny little square in the middle of an intersection of alleyways, packed with incredibly unique restaurants and bars. We decided on “The Fish and Chip Shop”.

“A tribute to 1960s New Zealand, the Fish & Chip Shop is redefining our national takeaway. For those baby boomers that are old enough to remember the 1960s it will be a trip down memory lane and for those too young to remember, it will be like a history lesson, but without the exam and with cold beer on tap.

Come down and see when New Zealand was on top of the world, when the ABs were invincible, Hillary had just reached the top, we had a Prime Minister called Keith and everybody had a bach.”

So yeah it was pretty awesome. The walls were decked out with 1960’s newspaper and although it was quite fancy, we ordered the “beer battered fresh fish of the day, with a generous helping of thick cut chips and homemade sauces, house favourite” – it was basically fish n chips! – they served it to us wrapped in newspaper on a plate. So cool!

Mel was the only one with enough room to manage dessert, so she got a huge pile of brandy snaps and cream, which was pretty impressive I must say.

All in all, a fucking cool weekend. I am enjoying this Christchurch thing.

Mel on Pepe’s bike, with the Batman mask he bought her.

Pepe and myself. *cringe*

Mel’s huge pile of brandy snaps. Stop drooling Pepe.

The Arts Center with markets in the foreground.

SOL Square, with the fish and chip shop on the left.

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Filed under Family, Food, Pepe