Tuesday continued..........

The meeting in Backbenchers was arranged for me to meet Ros the senior officer of the New Zealand Council for Social Services - another partner in the Workplace Wellbeing Project and a long standing friend and colleague of Conor. Also Roger who works with Wellington Council, he claims to change his title almost weekly but most importantly he's the man responsible for providing the venue and lunch for the Seminar taking place the following day. Great people both of them and we had a very very pleasant hour together.

Backbenchers is a haunt of MP's and Parliamentary staff but you'd wonder why when you look at some of the decor. There are some truly wonderful 'spittin image' type figures on the walls - including on the outgoing and incoming PM's. I hope the photo's have come out ok. From there Conor and I went to the offices of the CTU (council of trade unions) in Wellington for the long heralded 'think and drink' session on equal pay. It was very very good - once again lots of interest and some sharp questions - including the one about how the New Zealanders avoid what we have! I have always liked Sauvignon Blanc - I've not had a bad one since I've been here and having had quite a lot of practice I'm even learning to call it 'Sav' like a kiwi.

After the think and drink Cheryl the Regional Secretary of the NDU (National Distribution Union) collected me and my baggage for the journey to Conor's.

And I've just lost an entire paragraph of beautiful prose on this d*** laptop! It keeps happening and I don't know why! I'll try again............

We stopped at Cheryl's house to feed the dog, the cat and the chicken and to detour on to the beach that she walks on each morning. When we resumed our journey I had the very serious task of holding the 'pav' that she'd made for dessert. The Aussies claim to have invented pavlova. The Kiwi's know that it is a NZ creation. It was wonderful - but I'm getting ahead of myself......

Conor and her husband Dennis were hosting dinner for Cheryl and her colleague Annabel from NDU, Pat - the 3rd member of the conference debating team and the one who wore the pith helmet. His partner Moira and I. They live at Pokerua Bay on the coast and I'd been told by Graham Cuffley to admire Kapiti island from the bay. Except like Edinburgh castle when the haar moves in - it was invisible.

Dinner and the company were absolutely great but the best part of the visit for me was that I got to meet Paddy and Joey - Patrick and Joseph - the three year old twins who are gorgeous and great fun. Fortunately definite preferences for green and red were identified so the tartan bonnetted teddies were acceptable! I slept that night in Conor's studio - fear not it has a bed and an ensuite! Aswell as everything else Conor is a very talented artist and I enjoyed seeing several of her works in the house.

On Wednesday morning Dennis drove us, with the boys, into Wellington for the seminar there. Conor travelled on the back seat in the space between the boys car seats - watching her getting in and out was a joy! Problem is the boys thought it was great to have mummy so close and she may have to continue what she started.........

I'll need to continue this an other time as I have stupidly left the adpator and the blackberry charger in Christchurch. Its annoying because I had planned to bring the blog up to date this evening. I'm actually in Portobello on Saturday evening but as far as you know I'm still in Wellington on Wednesday morning!