Tony Pepperoni

At the weekend we celebrated our good friend Tony's 40th Birthday - known to some of us as Tony Pepperoni, amongst other things! Tony is a Londoner who has been in Kiwi-land for many years, married to the gorgeous Denyse who is a kiwi and they have two stunning girls. You have probably seen them mentioned many times before on this blog!

For Christmas Michael and I were given some Experience Vouchers by our lovely family, and from a list of 'experiences' you can choose whatever takes your fancy. Saturday night we thought would be an ideal opportunity to stay in Wellington City and enjoy the night properly so we used some of the vouchers as a stay in a hotel.

We have had some really nice nights in hotels and some not so good ones too, so we were little apprehensive, however this time we didn't need to be. We stayed at the James Cook Hotel and our room, although small, was lovely. Modern and clean, just what you need - and not only that, the best pillows I have ever had the pleasure of in a hotel. And if you weren't happy with your pillow you could order 'pillow service' and someone would run up with a whole host of pillows for you to try out!

Shame about the view however!

Bethany stayed at my much appreciated friend Jo's house, and of course Denver went into the kennels which he just can't get enough of, Homelands is definitely his second home now.

After lazing around in the hotel on the afternoon we popped on our party clothes and headed out early evening, we met up with everyone at JJ Murphy's which definitely had that Irish spirit. We also got to spend some time with our fabulous friends Stef and Rich, it was good to see them, plus we also got to meet the many other lovely friends of Tony and Denyse too.

Onwards we went in true Kiwi style to our restaurant (as we were late!) which was for the evening called Tulsi - Indian Cuisine of course. I am partial to an Indian meal, it's something I grew up eating and my mother can cook up a mean curry (despite not having any Indian relations) and so I always enjoy trying new restaurants, and of course to find something similar to what we had in the UK is a bit of a mission - Kiwi food is very different.

It made us smile to see something written down that we had only ever heard mentioned before - English Hot!

Anyway, the meal was lovely, the wine flowed a little too easily and the conversation was delightful. Very successful, and I think we all had a lovely time. I had a wonderful chat with Denyse's sister - I was very much appreciative of her advice regarding children and what to expect as the years go on!

Afterwards we tumbled out into the street with our tummies full and headed for a place called Good Luck which is a strange name for a nightclub, a name we associate more with our favourite Chinese back in the UK. Anyway, a club it was, and fantastic it was too.

Yippee for proper music! Not an 80's hit in sight and we loved it, Michael and I danced together and just loved the Hip Hop tunes that were blaring out. The place of course was absolutely jammed and our party started to filter off -I naturally managed to grab some photos before they left!

After saying goodbye to everyone and a final Happy Birthday to the old Pepperoni we hung around dancing for another half hour before tottering back to our hotel, making a loud fingers over lips 'shhhh' type arrival just before 2am.

A fantastic night!

Bethany came back with treats and was very pleased, a successful sleep over - yey! Bethany has done nothing but ask when she can do another one. Denver didn't want to leave the kennels and although excited to see us was obviously miffed by the fact we had taken away his fun.

Oh damn, it's such a shame really, our children fine without us. Just means we need to plan more nights away just Michael and I more often!!!