Aroha

My Dear Fellow,

Er Indoors bounced back remarkably well from her Friday-night tequila-fuelled frenzy. Not well enough to get her phone though, so I walked into town and stopped off at The Cambridge to pick it up. It was a good excuse to walk along Thistle Street, the site of some of our misadventures.

I walked past The Queen's Arms, which is the first ever pub I went to in Edinburgh, and where I had my first ever stovies and bannocks. Also past The Bon Vivant restaurant which used to be The Sun (I think). I appreciated the sign in their window (above) following my experience at Cafe De La Poste with Princess Normal.

It was as well that Er Indoors was feeling better, because we then picked up Lisa and went to see "Modern Maori Quartet". They are a great fun band of Maori singers who mix traditional and pop songs switching in and out of Maori. They made Er Indoors and Lisa all nostalgic. "These are the songs they used to make us sing in primary school," Lisa explained.

While standing in the queue before the show, the wind was up and was whisking Er Indoors's and Lisa's hair around. "I'm mentally preparing myself for Wellington being like this all the time," I said.

This prompted a little Wellingtonian chick in the queue ahead of us to start a chat. A typically friendly Kiwi, she told me it wasn't like this ALL the time. "Most of the time, yes," she conceded. It was at this point that her boyfriend showed up. He had bought a street-waffle on a paper plate and "the bloody wind just blew it away."

Not very reassuring.

After the show, we went to Princess Normal's house for tea. She is a really terrific cook and wanted to see us off before we leave. And the last time we were at hers we had such a great time it took me two full days to recover. We got a great welcome from both Prince and Princess Normal and Murphy the dog too, who spent the evening under the dinner table in the hope that one of us would drop something.

Unlikely.

You will be glad to hear that I made the most of the occasion by finishing off our final two bottles of Sekt. I knew you would approve.

I did spend the entire evening kicking myself for not doing this sooner though. It was another brilliant evening, Prince Normal is every bit as funny as his missus and told us about some of his hair-raising adventures on stag nights. I remember when I first got to know the Princess well - this is back in 2011 - and hearing about her husband and her kids and thinking, "They sound like the COOLEST family."

And I was right. My judgement is sound. I feel really lucky that they let us get to know them. 

Meanwhile, Er Indoors kept everyone laughing talking about the various times she has fallen over, out of, or into things. I am very proud of my wife also. She is the best storyteller I have ever met, and you know I love anyone who can tell a good yarn. Even so, I could tell she was flagging by 1am, although like the Evil Husband I am, didn't call a cab until 40 minutes later. I was just having too good a time.

So we got home just before 2 and poor Er Indoors collapsed into bed. I can still hear her snuffling away now. I think today will be a day of murder mysteries, and afternoon naps for the pair of us.

Parsones