Hot stuff

Here I am in Leicester, England, yes England.  It's been ages since I have had time to blog, so busy have I been planning. My epic European and Scandinavian adventure has only just started and will see me traipsing all over the north of England, London, Amsterdam ,Helsinki , Sweden and Denmark.  I am fortunate to be sponsored for the trip but also carry the weight of expectation and the guilt of getting to leave broken Christchurch for some relief.  It is a luxury many cant afford.

I am currently hanging out at Louisa and Guy's and we are just home from the matinee session of Hot Stuff, a very British grown up panto kinda thing with Ceri Dupree, drag Queen extraordinaire and what a hoot it was. Funny being in someone else's culture and observing their ways of responding and enjoying a show.  I realised the music was 'their' music as Split Enz is ours.  Although world famous, the music has special importance to the people it belongs too. Very fun.

Easter '12

My love of Saturdays just never ends, no matter where in the world Saturday is just the best ever day.  Yesterday Saturday did not disappoint with the discovery of new things that just confirm Saturday as the BEST day of the week.   Three things we found...me and Marie-Anne on a moochy afternoon around Christchurch.  After an expected delicious lunch at UTRV (a survivor of the EQ world we live in..)

we then mooched down Colombo Street to The Colombo which is slowly being turned upmarket and interesting.  A mall without being a mall.  Nice work.  Anyway, two new foody additions to the space included Cooper & Co, looked deli delicious to us

 PLUS

 where we also discovered our lovely neighbours about to indulge in macaron loveliness.

 From there we headed towards the famous Christchurch Red ZOne to indulge in a much missed Alice and Videoland adventure.  It was truely lovely to be back in the familiar building, a testament to the over engineering of Post Office buildings.  Thank you for the NZPO.  At least there will be two or three buildings left in the CBD.  I picked up a lovely light French film to spend my solo evening with. 

Tiny Alice sign with soon to be demolished McKenzie and Willis building on Tuam Street.  The 'lanes' are gone....damn it.

 And then the best treasure of the day came in the form of the Dance-o-Mat, another great Gap Filler project in the city.  I am sooo going back there at night to see the glitter ball and get my boys dancing on a demo site in front of the passers by.  How liberating it is to dance like you just don't care who sees you.  It was such fun and so windy.

We found this fantastic family dancing away and so just joined in.

Definitely worth a visit when groups of dancers are booked in.

Holiday Shopping

One of the joys of going to a 'resort' style town for your holiday is that the shopping is great on the windy and cold days.  Due to some of the unplanned things that happened our shopping took on a slightly different tack than normal.  We found ourselves in the Salvation Army Store looking for a woolen blanket for Nic...the nights were very cold.  We also found ourselves at Wanaka Wastebusters which was fantastic- legendary - and you must go next time you are in Wanaka.  We got snow chains, brand new for $10.

Our disastrous boat trailer tyre incident meant we met Lucy who owns Escape in the main street and also Mr Robinson of Mrs Robinson in Tarras.  Nice people and retail outlets.  Our neighbour at Glandhu Bay owns the menswear store in town called Structure for Men.  Another very kind and lovely person.  I am doing plugs for their businesses because they are lovely people and their stores are good too.  So if you are in the neighbourhood, check them out.  

 Another joy of travelling is finding the farmers markets and we happened upon a very lovely little market on a cold an windy day which turned out to be a very cold, wet and windy night in which we bailed from our tent.  Another story for another day.

Francesca's Wood Fired Pizza with Stewart Island salmon, fresh Central Otago apricots and the plumpest cherries ever and lastly German cherry custard tart were our highlights...YUM

Oh yes and we spent a very happy time in Gallery 33 buying a stunning piece of artwork to add to our very small and learner art collection. 

Saturday /Autumn

Although the thing about autumn is the coolness in the air and changing of colours from summer green to golden tones, today is just like a summer's day and it feels great.  One thing I just love about autumn are the chrysanthemums.  I know they are not cool or hip flowers, but who couldn't just love these?

Nic and I are flying solo at the moment while Jonty visits his mother in England.  It has been a very busy three weeks but after tennis this morning, we treated ourselves to an autumn picnic on the long grass before I got the mower out.

On our (tiny) platter we had some very special treats.  Special because they were homemade but also some treats from  Mediterranean Foods which is open again after a long recovery from the earthquake.  Their building  which is the Monier brick and tile building, is in really good nick considering but the shop is very small until the floor slab can be fixed.  So, this is one of my 'adopt a business' places.  This wont be hard of course as the place is a haven of deliciousness.  Pass the word around ChCh people and get down there for your weekend cheese and Italian fare shopping.  It is a shame the cafe isn't open yet but it will be soon.  Keep you eyes peeled

The other joys of summer days is getting out your blow up play equipment and tents and making up stories and adventures deep in the garden.  Here is where I found Nic after a bit of searching. 

The Society Inc

In the rain on the earthquake Saturday in Sydney I dragged my poor Jonty around the streets of Paddington looking for the shop of one of my design idols.  I was so excited to be there and so excited to meet Sibella Court whose books I have poured over many times.  It is in the reading pane to the right.  She is a very cool woman and I was a tiny bit blushing as I talked to her.  In the picture below you can see the items I bought from her shop.  Yes it is a piece of velvet ribbon, a little jar of paint and two turquoise glasses.  You can laugh, Jonty did.

cosi fan tutti - sanctuary of sensory bliss

My favourite shop, a place where I can lose myself for many hours and come out not spending that much but wishing I have a blank cheque and a huge house.  I was allowed to sneak in there for a few moments on the way home from the beach today.  However, after what seemed like only a minute, Nic came in to ask if I was going to stay the night and would I like dad to go and get me a sleeping bag.  Cheeky.

Have you ever...

bought a pair of shoes that come with a one year warranty? Well I have and I just can't believe I would do that. A sudden rush of blood to the head in a place far far away. Well not that far away but under the influence of Auckland and my dear friend Karen. I believe I did gasp when I spotted the Camper store on Broadway. Meet Lucia. I will leave you to get acquainted while I continue shopping trip. Shopping and talking and eating and drinking were on the agenda but really the shopping and talking took over. We didn't really have time to do lots of eating and drinking. I did come home with three pairs of shoes and one skirt and assorted presents for my lovely family at home though. Plus some tasty treats from Zarbo. Spent over my budget but the credit card bill is a few weeks away so will worry about that later.
Saturday night was spent in the camp Civic theatre watching Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the musical. Heaps of fun, great costumes. Loved the building and the crowd really got in to it. Lovely to meet Karen's friends too. After a very pleasant nights sleep in the hotel we hopped on the ferry and headed for a very Auckland wander around Devonport. Lovely. Then a saunter up Queen Street after a peek at Britomart and off to the airport loaded down with shoe boxes and a heavy bag. Great weekend of chilling out. Forgot to mention we had lunch with my lovely friend Reg at the Cock and Bull so there was food but the chat far outshone the kai.Oh yes, and I missed the snow fall at home on Saturday but I did get a spectacular view of Canterbury in all its whiteness. Lovely

24 hour pass

We travelled 6 kms from home and booked in the the Hotel SO and so our 24 hours of timeout began. It might seem a bit odd to travel a mere 10 minutes from home but being a tourist in your own town is really fun. We met some friends for lunch at The Globe and managed to get ourselves a sunny spot on the footpath. Very nice. On the pretext of popping to the loo, I actually popped to 'One Big Sugar Bowl' and fondled the stuff. The upshot of that being the acquisition of a gorgeous red necklace, a mere trinket with love from my lovely husband.

After farewells we wandered through the central city stopping and inspecting the wares. No other purchases were made but a little list of birthday presents was made.
After reclining in our tiny and technology laden room we headed out for our night on the town. Starting at Cartel in SOL Square, we discovered everyone was off at the rugby. Yay, we had the lovely outdoor sofa, complete with hot water bottle to ourselves. After a very moreish Shiraz we wandered down to Pedro's restaurant. A long standing Spanish iconic restaurant. I indulged in a plate of perfectly grilled seafood and another Shiraz.
The city was eerily quiet as everyone was either at AMI stadium watching the match or watching at the pub or at home. As we ended our evening watching the last minutes of the game in our hotel, I knew the whole town was about to explode with celebrating rugby heads. Having had my fill of wine and food, I chose to snuckle in to the lovely soft bed with lovely linen and get some sleep. Shame that the pub next door to the hotel...5cm from our wall...has a late liquor licence that also included thumping base music until 5.30am. Shitty way to end the 24 hours of fun. The freezing cold air con in our room was another bummer but I wont dwell on those little annoyances. If you are going to Hotel SO, ensure you have a room very high up or on the west side of the building or you wont get any sleep.

Bean Scene

After a yummy breakfast of eggs and mushrooms at Bean Scene we headed home to our lovely pusscat Georgie and really noisy Nicholas. What fun we had laughing and re connecting after a couple of really hard months. Thanks to Ruth and Simon for looking after the boy, we owe you.

Bunch of random things

There is so much random stuff roaming around in my head at the moment and a few days ago I composed a really good blog entry in my head as I was biking to work but now it has all disappeared. Such is the nature of my overburdened brain. Anyway, I am going to punctuate my ramblings with some random photos just to make this entry a tiny bit more interesting and to break up the text.

I have been playing around with some of the features available on Blogspot and have managed to add some links to the right of where you are looking. These are some of my favourite places to visit. Mostly Blogs of interest and inspiration and some other work related places that you might find interesting too.

Christmas is looming and presents are starting to arrive from the UK which is fun. We have sent one load off but were not quite finished so others will arrive late. I am finding it really hard to get myself organised for present buying. It is a bit about time but also capacity. However, it might pay to make a last minute dash to the present line because there are more sales appearing before Christmas and you can get great stuff if you are prepared. Nic and granny Rosemary headed to Ballantynes Christmas shop this week to seek out a special decoration for our tree. Nic selected a Santa in a helium balloon...very 'new' Christmas.

I was wandering through Whitcoulls the other day when they announced 'buy one book and get another half price'. Having planned to buy a book for someone anyway, I took the opportunity to get myself Jamie Oliver's 'At home' for $25...a bargain. I have already cooked one of the recipes and unsurprisingly, it was delicious!

If you want to read a really funny, irreverent and smart blog, check out Moata's blog. Cleverly, Moata won NZ Blog Idol on Stuff and every few days posts a very much anticipated entry. I read them and then we chat about them at lunch when our paths cross. That is the really weird thing about 'social networking' on the Internet...reading peoples stuff and then ringing them up or catching them at their desk to talk about their entries. Like texting someone in the room with you.

We are getting another new sofa. Last year we spent a kings ransom on a gorgeous dark coffee colour leather sofa the size of a small African nation. The other day as I was lying on it watching Outrageous Fortune, I noticed some damage to the leather that was natural and not the work of a small boy. We took the cushion back to Hunter Furniture and they are REPLACING THE WHOLE SOFA and the other one to match!!! So shocked am I that I am thinking of writing to FairGo and trumpeting the service. You might think that it should have been perfect to start with...agreed. However, leather is a natural product and is there is always a degree of error in perform ace to be expected. I thought a new cushion would do the trick but no, a new sofa. This could be great, but it might not be because I love the ones we have now and a new one will not be the same.

Later in the day....

Back from Christmas shopping. Did not buy one thing but it was nice to be out and about in a very quiet Christchurch. I guess most people with children were cowering at home waiting to head to the city for the Santa Parade. Alas, our poor son knows nothing of the parade as we didn't tell him about it.

My workmate Simon won 'Best Porn Star Mo' at the Christchurch Movember event the other day. Mild mannered business analyst and accountant by day....

I hate it when I lose people in my life for whatever reason - usually carelessness. Fortunately most of the people I have lost have not disappeared all together, just momentarily out of range. One such person, through no effort on my part, popped up in my life again the other day. I was very excited and continue to be so. Let's hope it is a trend that will continue.

Thought you might like to see the new look bach colour scheme...very Mediterranean