I found this among my emails the other day. If ever I needed even more motivation for heading off again, then this is it.

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The photo was taken, courtesy of Erica (Thank you!) four weeks ago today on the bonny banks of the Basin Reserve. A warm day in Wellington; England were very handily placed on Day Two of the Test Match, despite the departure of both over-night centurions Cleggy & Trotty in the morning session. We’d just returned from playing on the outfield, as New Zealand cricket protocol encourages, over the course of the Lunch Break. KP was beginning to get stuck in to the Black Caps attack. We thought we’d do likewise.

We’d decided beforehand to mark Friday lunch with a picnic. We’d all signed up to contribute various items to the meal. Charlie provided the picnic blanket (a spare sheet from his hostel if memory serves) and three cheeses, Jackie contributed the highlight of any cricket picnic, the pretentious foodstuff, in this case some kumara & pumpkin seed hummus as well as the olives and a quiche, Lucky Paul brought the French stick and Chups, Keith got the pizza (not pictured), Greg Tredwell added some robust local red wine he’d managed to sneak in and I, naturally, sorted out the pork pies and an additional quiche following a quick, hungover sortie into the local supermarket fifteen minutes prior to the start of play.

It was, as the photo captures perfectly, a marvellous occasion. Another of the highlights of my time away and of my third visit to one of my favourite ever cities.

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