The most incredible weekend of my life!!!
I don't know where to start...
A 21st is a huge huge celebration where I'm from in New Zealand. It's a time when your whole family and all of your friends from the past and present get together to party and honour 21 years that have gone, and have left you as the "adult" you are today.
Where I live in Canada though, it's not such a big thing -at all!
So as my 21st approached, no one really mentioned much about it, and admittedly I got a little down about not being around the family.
On Thursday night tommy and I went out to Toronto to pick up his friend Creepy Jeremy, from out west in Calgary (he was coming to stay with us over easter for a job interview in Toronto).
I was pretty grumpy that he was coming since it was our long weekend (Easter), and coz it was my birthday and Jeremy IS a bit of a slob...
We got to the airport at 10:40pm and I was looking for Jeremy.. couldnt see him. Tommy started pointing at something and telling me to look -
"what are you pointing at??" I had no idea what I was meant to be looking at... until I was standing right infront of a poor lady pushing a cart with suitcases
"tommy this awkward" - i was starting to get pissed off
"beck.... it's your MUM"
I looked up, and mum was standing there, about 5feet infront of me - I had been looking at her, and looking away etc - i hadn't recognised her!!!!!!!!!!!
after lots of hugging and crying and "what the HELL!??"s, we got home to our apartment and the three of us stayed up talking, crying, laughing, drinking wine and listening to Neil Young until 2am, when we all passed out.
In the morning, we did that all over again, as it started to sink in what was going on!
Mum had booked the flight over 2months ago in February, and tommy had known about it and they had been planning and talking about it since then too. It actually turns out that the entire family back home in New Zealand, AND the entire family up here in canada has known for weeks aswell! (I'm a bit slow to not have picked up eh?? i had NO idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
So we took mum on a big tour all around St. Catharines - our little home, and then we made the long awaited trip to Normas house, where the whole family was anxiously waiting to meet mum!
We sat and talked and ate dinner and everyone got to know eachother and it was just great!
On Saturday morning when we woke up, I was officially 21!
First of all we watched a video that my best friends from back home had made with their webcam - an AWFUL rendition of "Happy Birthday" - it was awesome!
Then we made a big breakie and got comfy, sitting on the couch as we watched the dvd that dad had made for me, which was a compilation of all the footage of my life that he has caught on video camera since I was born.
It was SO incredible - it was awesome for tommy to see that part of my life - how and where I grew up, and to see all of my family - it felt like they were all there too.
the dvd was just hilarious - we were rolling around laughing at some points including the awesome footage dad managed to get of me and nick (Little bro) having the punch-up from hell when he made me fall off my bike when we were little.
I opened pressies that mum had brought up with her from the family.
That night we went to normas for a "family" dinner/ barbie. We walked in and the house was PACKED full of people and decorations - family and friends. we had an incredible dinner (they even made LAMB CHOPS!) and a cake that would be impossible to have more chocolate on it, and So many pressies, and it was SO neat for mum to meet so many of our friends and family up here - and everyone gets along so well!!!! and YES the embarassing dvd got put on again for everyone else to see...
Mum stayed at normas that night in the big spare room as people boozed and partied it up in our apartment, then migrated to our "usual" bar - where we met another 100 people that had come out to celebrate!!!
A huge highlight of the bar has to be when the maoris turned up!! ("the maoris" are 2 guys and 2 girls from New Zealand that are staying in Niagara Falls doing a tour of america on a maori cultural thing -they dance and sing etc. we met them when they came out to play rugby for the team. it's SO great to see people from the motherland up here!). they told me they had a birthday present for me, and they told me to sit on this stool in the middle of the bar, as people cleared out of the way, then they did a huge haka - the men AND women. EVERYONE in the bar came over to watch, bar tenders stopped - and it was SO huge and powerful, 3 feet infront of me. there were chills running down everyones spines, that was for sure!!
we partied and drank until the wee hours of the morning, when we all got kicked out of the bar at closing time, and as everyone migrated to Jumpin Jacks for some subs, tommy and i darted off home, to make ourselves some veggie soup and garlic toast, as we belligerently tried to watch the Running Man whilst commenting numerous times about how much we both want to be like Arnie.
Sunday morning was brutal - we all (including mum - jetlag) woke up at 1pm!
mum, tommy and i drove to niagara falls, where mum was introduced to one of the 7 wonders of the world - it was awesome! that was just a peek - we haven't even scratched the surface of the falls yet.. but it was Easter Sunday and we had ANOTHER appointment with MORE family!! Easter up here is a huge deal, and everyone's families get together for a HUGE dinner (like we have at christmas back home). Mum met the rest of the extended family and we ate and drank like royalty all night, till we waddled home and didn't move from the couch (thankfully Lord of the Rings was on and it's a long movie).
I have 3 more days of work now before my work visa expires on the 19th, so it's perfect timing!
Mum even came in this morning to work, and met all my friends and co-workers. She's staying until the 27th - so we have her for 2 and a half weeks! We have lots of neat stuff planned and I'm LOVING her being here, to meet tommy and everyone, and to see our little apartment and to see the life we've made for ourselves up here.
it was the BEST birthday I think I'll ever have - everything has been so perfect!!! I'm still on a high from thursday night!
A 21st is a huge huge celebration where I'm from in New Zealand. It's a time when your whole family and all of your friends from the past and present get together to party and honour 21 years that have gone, and have left you as the "adult" you are today.
Where I live in Canada though, it's not such a big thing -at all!
So as my 21st approached, no one really mentioned much about it, and admittedly I got a little down about not being around the family.
On Thursday night tommy and I went out to Toronto to pick up his friend Creepy Jeremy, from out west in Calgary (he was coming to stay with us over easter for a job interview in Toronto).
I was pretty grumpy that he was coming since it was our long weekend (Easter), and coz it was my birthday and Jeremy IS a bit of a slob...
We got to the airport at 10:40pm and I was looking for Jeremy.. couldnt see him. Tommy started pointing at something and telling me to look -
"what are you pointing at??" I had no idea what I was meant to be looking at... until I was standing right infront of a poor lady pushing a cart with suitcases
"tommy this awkward" - i was starting to get pissed off
"beck.... it's your MUM"
I looked up, and mum was standing there, about 5feet infront of me - I had been looking at her, and looking away etc - i hadn't recognised her!!!!!!!!!!!
after lots of hugging and crying and "what the HELL!??"s, we got home to our apartment and the three of us stayed up talking, crying, laughing, drinking wine and listening to Neil Young until 2am, when we all passed out.
In the morning, we did that all over again, as it started to sink in what was going on!
Mum had booked the flight over 2months ago in February, and tommy had known about it and they had been planning and talking about it since then too. It actually turns out that the entire family back home in New Zealand, AND the entire family up here in canada has known for weeks aswell! (I'm a bit slow to not have picked up eh?? i had NO idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
So we took mum on a big tour all around St. Catharines - our little home, and then we made the long awaited trip to Normas house, where the whole family was anxiously waiting to meet mum!
We sat and talked and ate dinner and everyone got to know eachother and it was just great!
On Saturday morning when we woke up, I was officially 21!
First of all we watched a video that my best friends from back home had made with their webcam - an AWFUL rendition of "Happy Birthday" - it was awesome!
Then we made a big breakie and got comfy, sitting on the couch as we watched the dvd that dad had made for me, which was a compilation of all the footage of my life that he has caught on video camera since I was born.
It was SO incredible - it was awesome for tommy to see that part of my life - how and where I grew up, and to see all of my family - it felt like they were all there too.
the dvd was just hilarious - we were rolling around laughing at some points including the awesome footage dad managed to get of me and nick (Little bro) having the punch-up from hell when he made me fall off my bike when we were little.
I opened pressies that mum had brought up with her from the family.
That night we went to normas for a "family" dinner/ barbie. We walked in and the house was PACKED full of people and decorations - family and friends. we had an incredible dinner (they even made LAMB CHOPS!) and a cake that would be impossible to have more chocolate on it, and So many pressies, and it was SO neat for mum to meet so many of our friends and family up here - and everyone gets along so well!!!! and YES the embarassing dvd got put on again for everyone else to see...
Mum stayed at normas that night in the big spare room as people boozed and partied it up in our apartment, then migrated to our "usual" bar - where we met another 100 people that had come out to celebrate!!!
A huge highlight of the bar has to be when the maoris turned up!! ("the maoris" are 2 guys and 2 girls from New Zealand that are staying in Niagara Falls doing a tour of america on a maori cultural thing -they dance and sing etc. we met them when they came out to play rugby for the team. it's SO great to see people from the motherland up here!). they told me they had a birthday present for me, and they told me to sit on this stool in the middle of the bar, as people cleared out of the way, then they did a huge haka - the men AND women. EVERYONE in the bar came over to watch, bar tenders stopped - and it was SO huge and powerful, 3 feet infront of me. there were chills running down everyones spines, that was for sure!!
we partied and drank until the wee hours of the morning, when we all got kicked out of the bar at closing time, and as everyone migrated to Jumpin Jacks for some subs, tommy and i darted off home, to make ourselves some veggie soup and garlic toast, as we belligerently tried to watch the Running Man whilst commenting numerous times about how much we both want to be like Arnie.
Sunday morning was brutal - we all (including mum - jetlag) woke up at 1pm!
mum, tommy and i drove to niagara falls, where mum was introduced to one of the 7 wonders of the world - it was awesome! that was just a peek - we haven't even scratched the surface of the falls yet.. but it was Easter Sunday and we had ANOTHER appointment with MORE family!! Easter up here is a huge deal, and everyone's families get together for a HUGE dinner (like we have at christmas back home). Mum met the rest of the extended family and we ate and drank like royalty all night, till we waddled home and didn't move from the couch (thankfully Lord of the Rings was on and it's a long movie).
I have 3 more days of work now before my work visa expires on the 19th, so it's perfect timing!
Mum even came in this morning to work, and met all my friends and co-workers. She's staying until the 27th - so we have her for 2 and a half weeks! We have lots of neat stuff planned and I'm LOVING her being here, to meet tommy and everyone, and to see our little apartment and to see the life we've made for ourselves up here.
it was the BEST birthday I think I'll ever have - everything has been so perfect!!! I'm still on a high from thursday night!