Richard's Graduation

This story starts at about 3 oclock on thursday when Stephen decided to wimp out and not come up to Hamilton and through to Auckland that evening, oh it'll be to late when I can leave, oh i've got work to do, oh i'll be to tired wah wah wah ;) . Anyways, having made the commitment, I did go through that night after work. The parade was at 9oclock the follwing morning so just to be sure we left Dan's at 8 oclock to make the normally 10 minute trip. An hour and ten minutes later we arrived having battled through morning traffic. Luckily the navy was later than we were and we had time for a quick drink before the bus left to take us to the parade.

The actual parade was about two hours including the 15 minutes after everyone marched on which they spent trying to get the sound system working. First the m.c. said his speech into the mike which clearly wasn't working so only the two people either side of him heard. After some scurrying around by austin powers like henchmen he tried again. Ladi....................followed by the second worst feedback squeal they could have had. More scurrying around followed by his third attempt at which stage the worst possible feedback occured: ladi........................... followed by the sound of someone farting for about 15 seconds (an arse fluttering raspberry which changed notes at least three times!) followed by Guard Commander Richard Easton ovbiously trying very hard not to piss himself laughing. I don't have many photos, my camera wouldn't zoom in far enough, have some video but don't know if I can get it on web.

After the parade we went for a luncheon at the officers mess. As Dan and I left the buffet with our third helping, some navy lady wearing a splsh of gold braid started talking to us. Turns out she was an advisor to the minister of defence, while she was talking to us who should also walk up but the actual minister of defence, Phil Goff. Dan talked about the police and probably wisely (for his career) Richard did not mention Uncle Helen or ask about the scrapping of the sky hawks.

Stephen arrived shortly after 5:30, just in time to leave for the cocktail party that night by the base which was pretty fun, (as free beer tends to be, cheers Richard). We walked down to the ferry and went across the harbour into Auckland, Dan who had been drinking spent his time with the captain at the wheel. As we left the ticket booth at the Auckland end, we heard a shout from the ferry. Dan had decided to do some exploring of the boat and had been locked on, luckily they let him off and he didnt have to jump, though jumping may have been somewhat more entertaining. The following morning Stephen and I left Dan and Alistair to move Dan's house in a rather less engergetic way than they may of with out the large amount of alcohol they had consumed the night before!