Operation Entertainment Book

Dinner with friends in the Bog on Friday night. I had a lovely steak melt, Skry had lasagne, and we saved $20.

- 39.90
+ 20.00
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- 19.90

Operation Entertainment Book

During the week we ate out twice, courtesy of vouchers from last year's Entertainment Book which were given to us by other people. Although I can't count those towards savings produced by our own book, they are still worth noting. People tend to give away lots of vouchers at the end of the book's year when it becomes clear that they won't use them before they expire.

Domino's pizza - saved something like $9 on a BOGOF deal. However, one pizza was covered in dollops of raw garlic which was not very pleasant to eat, so we won't be hurrying back for that particular selection. I always loved Domino's pizza when we lived in Northern Ireland, but it does not seem to be made to the same standard here, and based on personal and reported experiences so far I will be switching allegiance to Pizza Hut.

The Flying Burrito Brothers - saved $20, and had an absolutely fantastic meal too on our weekly dinner date. I love that place and look forward to visiting again. We wouldn't normally have Mexican food two weeks in a row, but my chicken burrito was well worth it, and the service is always great there. It is my favourite Mexican restaurant in Christchurch.

Some photos

I usually get up for work just after 7am. Often I am treated to a beautiful sunrise, which is visible from our bedroom window. Friends and family in Ireland, this is what you get to see eleven hours later!


Last week I had to make a site visit for work, and luckily the site was very near our house so I was able to walk there. Turns out there is quite a large park just up the road, with some lovely old trees in it. Autumn leaves = pretty.

Operation Entertainment Book

Dinner at Alva Rado's Mexican restaurant on Worcester Street (a fine meal, by the way, and I took home enough leftovers for my lunch tomorrow). Buy a main course, get another free, saving us $17.50

- 57.40
+ 17.50
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- 39.90

Operation Entertainment Book

We're starting small. Lunch for two in Subway today, total saving $7.60.

-65.00
+ 7.60
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-57.40

An excuse to eat out more

Through our workplace, Skry and I got a copy of this year's Entertainment Book for Christchurch. This is a book stuffed full of vouchers and special offers for restaurants, local services, and entertainment. For $65, we get a huge array of offers for buy-one-get-one-free main courses, or money off bill totals, so I think this will be a great excuse to go out for dinner more often. The two of us are already going out for dinner together once a week, and the place we had in mind for this week is in the Entertainment Book so that's a saving straight away. Of course, we can use the 25% off vouchers for more than just the two of us, if there's a group going out for dinner, so that's good too.

I wonder how long it will take us to recoup our $65. Let's find out!

Southern exposure

So I was walking through the city centre at lunchtime, as is my wont, when I stumbled upon this unusual sight:
That's right - these girls were wearing nowt but an apron. It was part of a publicity stunt by the bath and body product shop Lush, which was encouraging people to get rid of excess packaging, and starting with its own staff! Lucky for the four or five girls in question that it was a bright and sunny day in Christchurch today, otherwise they would not have been able to stand in the street in such a state of undress. I asked one girl if she was cold, and she said she was too nervous to be cold, so maybe that helped a bit, but still they were very brave to go for it.

I can't help but notice the high percentage of men in the photograph above. Coincidence? I couldn't possibly say...

An afternoon in Lyttelton

The sun was really shining warmly today, and Skry and I went to Lyttelton for the afternoon. Lyttelton is a small and pretty harbour town about ten minutes' drive out of Christchurch, and is also home to a busy port. On arrival, we caught the tail end of what is apparently a really good farmers' market. I bought some smoked venison sausages and a caramelised onion and feta pizza, while Skry ended up with goat's cheese, free range eggs, and some sort of pie. We were both happy with our purchases, and I'll definitely be back.

After the market, we took a stroll along the main road closest to the port, and looked at the ships and containers coming in. This is where our own belongings arrived when they got to New Zealand, and we were able to imagine the journey that the container took to get from Belfast to Christchurch. There were lots of ships with Russian names and what looked like Ukranian emblems, and there was also a large Australian Navy ship. I'm not quite sure what that was doing there, but we met several very young-looking New Zealand cadets who were on their way to take a tour of the ship while it was in port. Skry was sorry that he couldn't join the tour too!

Sightseeing done, we stopped in a small cafe and enjoyed a hearty lunch. I had a delicious ham and vegetable quiche, Skry had some sort of Indian style filled pie, and we were both full and happy afterwards. It was lovely to be able to sit outside in the sunshine with our jackets off, and imagine that summer hasn't quite departed just yet!

Hello Winter

It's winter here in Christchurch today. All night it alternated between heavy rain and hailstones - enough to wake me up more than once - and today the trend has continued. Our house has no central heating and right now we are trying to stay warm with one tiny four-fin oil radiator, with limited success. It's only able to heat the small study, so I am barricaded in here with four layers of clothing, a long wig (for head insulation purposes), and a hot water bottle.

Here's my view:Pretty grim, isn't it?

The balcony is currently covered in hailstones. Don't think we'll be using the outdoor furniture any time soon!

This week's new wig

Too lazy to write a proper entry, so here's a picture of the wig I got yesterday. I wore it to work today and got a great response. It feels great too, really soft and silky against my face.