Have a Great One!

We are just about to set off for the airport for our flight to New Zealand, Cathay-Pacific threatened rolling-strikes and Cyclone Evan permitting.

And let's not forget the threat posed by ...



... so we'll be in the air and in the direct line of fireballs.  Still, there are worse ways to go.

We'll be gone a week and I'm hoping we'll have lots of new stories to tell in here.

Yes, I know I've been very remiss about blogging this year, but I only ever intended to do 1000 posts and have now exceeded that number, and so I've got all these stories about our travels and adventures this year that I've yet to tell ... but I will get around to it.  That I promise.

And if I don't drop by from New Zealand, here's wishing you all a very merry christmas and a fabulous New Year.

Cyclone Evan

We all know that Fiji - along with Samoa and The Wallis & Futuna Islands - took a nasty battering by Cyclone Evan this week.  It's all very sad looking through the photos of the damage, but nothing tore the heart out of me more than this:

Nooooooo!

That's Tata's Restaurant, the place that serves absolutely the BEST curry-roti in Nadi. It's always first up on our list of where-to-eat whenever we arrive in town.  In fact, let me show you a shot from our visit to Nadi in July this year:

 

That's us at Tata's Restaurant, with Molly checking out the photos Baby Jane took with her new Nikon - which were all vastly superior to mine.

We'd just hit town and Molly, who'd just picked us up, said "What do you want to do first?" and we're all immediately "Tata's!"  simultaneously ... apart from Talei who'd never been to Nadi before and didn't know the low-down.

So, yes, undoubtedly Tata's is a Nadi LEGEND ... and now this has happened.  So very very heart-wrenching indeed.

So good luck with the rebuild Tata.  I have no doubt that you'll be up-and-running and serving up the BEST curry-roti in Nadi again in no time.

New Zealand's Got Talent 2012. Winners.

Well, Our Lili didn't get into the Grand Finals of "New Zealand's Got Talent", but the results are now in and these are the Top Five:

At Number Five was Fletcher Oxford, the little boy who writes and sings about his lost cat Sushi. I couldn't find his Grand Final performance which it appears no one has posted, but here he is from the Semi Final, singing, yes, the song he wrote for his lost cat Sushi:



Honestly, from the mileage he gets out of that cat, I hope he never finds it.

At Number Four was J Geeks and ... well, from earlier performances I thought they were simply a nightmare of naughty schoolboyishness and didn't like them, but their performance at the Grand Finals was - although really quite silly and schoolboyish - also showed they had real talent and true substance:



At Number Three was Sinclair Evans or some name like that and much as I hate that he sings with an American accent, I must say that his cover of this song is amazing:



At Number Two was the amazing and incredible Jessie Hillel:



Remember how my money was on her for a WIN, but I was wrong.

And at Number One was someone who I dismissed as negligible. 14 year old Clara van Well:



Nope, I still don't see it. But maybe you do.