Conkers, anyone?

Yesterday I had one of the most fun days in my research job (which says a lot about my job). One of my co-workers from North England brought a bag of chestnuts with holes drilled through them for us to play a game called Conkers. You tie a shoestring through the chestnut and then take turns trying to hit your opponents chestnut which they hold dangling in the air. There is not much strategy and not a lot of rules but it is a very addictive game. The goal is to crack your opponent's conker and send it flying off the string. There are definitely different techniques of how to catapult your conker towards the 'enemy' and it takes a good deal of hand-to-eye coordination (which I have very little of). Duncan (the guy who taught us the game) wants me to be the 'pin-up model' for Conkers (just like Anna Kournikova is for tennis) and introduce America to the game.

So here is the rules of Conkers and the history behind the game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conkers

Quiz:

1. If your chestnut which is a 'twoer' beats another chestnut which is a 'twoer' what is your chestnut called?

2. What is the other name for a chestnut in America?

3. Who was the first lady to win the World Conker Championship?

Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wesley Jackson!!!

Summer Fun!

Mississippi Girls--Kellye and Laurel visit us!!!
This is a cricket bowler (pitcher), batter and umpire
It was Sam's birthday!!! We had a fun 7 hours celebrating at the cricket game

We have had such a great summer in Christchurch...great weather and lots of activities. Kellye (Chi-O friend) and her friend Laurel (who I've known through Kellye) came to visit NZ for 2 weeks and travelled around the South Island for a week and visited Auckland. I taught them how to drive on the left side of the road for a total of 1 1/2 hours before unleashing them to drive on their own! They did well but I do admit I felt very nervous for them and the people they would be with on the road. There are just so many different traffic rules, lots of round-abouts (even 2 lane round-abouts), the blinker is on the opposite side, etc. They had a good time and for the most part good weather. We loved showing them around Christchurch and having Southern accents in our house!!!!

I went to my first cricket game (Blaine's second game) on Sam's birthday last Saturday. It was a One Day test match and got rained out after 7 hours (would have lasted around 9)!!! I do like sports for the most part but 7 hours of any type of athletics is too much!! New Zealand ended up being declared the winner over England so that was the good news!

We have several trips planned for March. We hike the Routeburn Track (one of the Great Walks of NZ) over Easter weekend then the next weekend go to Austalia (Melbourne/Sydney/Great Ocean Road) for a wedding/vacation! We are very excited about our adventures upcoming!

Today one of our very best friends, Wesley Jackson married Audrey Gole!!! We were so sad to have missed it! They are off to Cabo for their honeymoon! Yea!