Nov 2005 Update

i everyone
Nice to see you, to see you nice !

This posting was delayed a wee bit as we didn't want to post any pics of Manu before we went home... Manu wanted to surprise his Mum with his spiffy new beard. He definitely got the desired effect when we arrived at the Auckland Airport and his Mum didn't recognise him. November is a busy time of year in the US, at the end of October is Halloween - refer the cute pics of our friends kids - quite a funny day. On the way to work Anita saw The Tin Man & Dorothy behind the counter of her local Rental Car company and a rather masculine fairy in her local supermarket (actually that's not such an unusual sight in San Francisco really....).
There are people dressing up for costume competitions at work and lots of kids out after dark with their parents. Friends Goce & Stacey took their kids down to the local Mall, where the shop owners provided a safe 'haven' for the kids trick or treating activities. Apparently in prior years some sickos have poisoned kids candy, so parents only accept securely wrapped candy. There is also the ever present concerns about paedophiles, so parents are very careful about where the kids go trick or treating. The shop employees stand at the entrance of the shop to hand out candy to the kids and some of the employees dress up for the occasion (see 'Freaky dude' pic). In the middle of the month, we decided to have a combined Bachelor / Bachelorette night with our friends in the US. We booked our apartment complex community lounge for the occasion, hired a bartender and asked our guests to bring bottles of spirits.
The lounge had some tables that we played poker on, a pool table and a shuffleboard table - so between drinks we entertained ourselves with various games. Eliza - Anita's friend from work - came up with a clever game to test our 'pre-marriage' knowledge, the questions included
- What's Manu's nickname
- What's Anita's favourite movie
- What would Manu do if he got his pecker caught in his zip
- If Anita was never born who would we be celebrating the marriage of (multiple choice answers included: Pamela Anderson, Amanda Tapping etc).
Unfortunately Manu and I got a pretty terrible score on this test, to ours and everyones amusement. Our next November event was our attendance at a Rolling Stones concert. While we aren't huge Rolling Stones fans the opening act was Metallica which drew Anita (like a moth to the flame). When we arrived we found that Everclear were the pre-warmup band - of course if we'd known that we would have turned up earlier to see their whole set.
Fantastic night, Metallica were great, although some of their songs sounded like an extended version of distorted guitar due to the speed of their songs. The Stones were pretty wicked too, they had a very high tech stage which rolled out into the crowd at one point. Mick Jagger was a bundle of energy, left us wondering where he gets the energy from. Near the end of November is the Thanksgiving holiday - it's a 4 day weekend (the only one we get as Easter isn't a holiday over here - although it is celebrated). We had Thanksgiving dinner at Goce & Staceys (just as we did last year). Stace went down to the local Whole Foods (supermarket that provides organic foods and cooked meals) where she purchased a Turkey meal for $100 which was enough food for all 12 of us. Eliza & Eric (our only American guests) also turned up with a Turkey, yams, salad etc - it turned into a meal fit for a king. That's about all of our adventures in November. Thanks for joining us, take care. Love and big Manu hugs

Manu & Anita xx