Going, going... gone!

Hey, so thanks again for the baby name suggestions and the encouraging comments about the wee guy. He's doing pretty well considering, as are his mum and dad, who have really been thrown in the deep end with this one.

Unsurprisingly he hasn't grown much in three days, he's still the size of a 1kg bag of rice. Perhaps I need to give him some time with the whole growing thing.

The big news du jour is that he will no longer be referred to as Peter Andre - which he was lovingly dubbed in honour of our ab-tastic friend - as he now has a name of his own. My dear blog reading friends, I'm very pleased to tell you that my new nephew shall, from now on, be known as Riley Oscar.

Sorry they didn't end up using any of your suggestions, but who knows, you may have inspired someone else who lurks around these parts?

I'll keep you posted with any significant progress on my favourite premature baby, but as it's going to be a while before he's doing anything fun like staying awake for more than ten seconds at a time, so you can assume that no news is good news on the Riley front.

Now for my next trick, I'm going to wind back time to before Riley was born - i.e. Saturday Night - when I attended a charity auction for the first time in my life. It was just like that episode of Friends where Joey accidentally bought a boat, except less giggle-worthy and no one accidentally bought a boat.

This particular event was held to raise money for the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre and involved a fancy dinner aimed at the upper echelons of the New Zealand Music Industry and a sprinkling of other corporates. Oh, and by the way, I don't really fall into either of those areas, but the intended recipient of my ticket couldn't make it, so I stepped into the role of what is more commonly known as Plan B.

Through the eyes of a fairly average-kind-of-a-gal I witnessed some very well-heeled folk offering up thousands of dollars for goods and services that were worth less than the amount they were bidding. It was quite a bizarre, backwards kind of auction as the whole idea was to throw truckloads of cash at the charity rather than trying to snag a bargain.

Now, my experience with auctions is limited to sitting in front of a computer hoping that Snappy24 will quit outbidding me for the retro lampshade, so I found the pace and immediacy of the live auction quite exciting. Here's hoping I feel the same way later on today when I head to the auction for a house we're really interested in. That's right, I don't mess around. With a bit of luck I might just own a house by the time you next hear from me...

So, what are your experiences with live auctions? Also, I'm feeling quite nervous about the whole thing so any auction tips would be greatly appreciated - I'd rather not accidentally buy a boat this afternoon.

PS: Casual Friday Five questions please!

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