Labour day

If you are a regular reader of this little blog you will know that all summer I talk about the beach and the great days we have there and I make no apologies for that as it is just the best part of our life. Today was the first day of summer fun this season and we shared it with Ruth and Simon and family as well as Lesley and Julian plus Alex, Pete, Oliver and Joseph. It was a busy day with our neighbours coming and going as well. Perfect

This weekend has been a weekend filled with people and it has been great. Nic has collapsed into bed after playing for hours and hours all weekend. Here are pictures of some of the fun things we got up to...

Jonty's first surf of the season

Hut building with Morgana

Fishing with Alex, Owen and Rachel

Building with Oliver, Joseph and Olivia

Just finished reading #2

I managed to finish two books today. Reasons? Sunday is my 'sleep in' day and combined with a late night last night for Nic it meant no movement in the house until 8am. With sleet, rain and hail lashing the windows I felt well within my rights to lie in bed for a couple of hours reading. Jonty and Nic were up and the fire was on slowly warming the house.

I completed what I call a 'sorbet' book. The one you read between two weighty books. Something to clear the palette, light and refreshing. Today I laughed my way through the final chapters of 'Fearless fourteen' by Janet Evanovich. I have read all but one of the previous 13 titles....I skipped 13 as I just couldn't face the sameness of the stories. However, 14 was a bit more interesting and funny to boot. So that was my sorbet.I also managed to read another in its entirety which was pretty easy considering there were lots of recipes and travel notes - well written and sweet. 'The cookbook tour' by Flip Grater, whom I mentioned in my last 'George and Helen' entry, was the perfect quiet Sunday read. I did get very peckish reading it and had to stop and make butter bean fritters for lunch just to get through the book. Not a recipe in the book but a made up one seeing as there was no corn in the house. Met with great approval from the blokes so was a good attempt. Made a salad thing to go with it to provide a bit of crunch and semblance of healthy eating. Flip toured NZ solo in her Lada called 'Lada' to play a few gigs and decided to use the tour as an opportunity to collect some vegan and veggie recipes along the way. Consequently the book is an interesting combo of a road trip, musings of a muso and cookbook lover. Perfect for a cold Sunday.
I love libraries because when you get someone into your head, like Flip, you can go online and reserve the book, the album and whatever else you can find and continue the tiny obsession for a little longer. I am about to start another book but haven't decided what yet so will get back to you on that.

Now the sun is out and the boys are gone for a few hours so after reading on and off during the day, it is time to get stuck into the ironing pile. Ahh reality!

Secret

Wow, I am half a day through a special day. A day of annual leave all to myself. I have discovered the secret of 'at home' mothers and now I know why they would never want to go back to work. I am, of course assuming that most are at home because they can afford it and that shopping is part of the package. So far today I have dropped Nic at school and chatted to his teacher about her upcoming trip to Europe and North Africa. Sounds like bliss. Then I had to pop home to get Nic's lunch box which I had forgotten. It is not normally my job to fill the backpack so missed it. No problem though, nothing to rush off to so popped home and back to school for the delivery.
Then I took myself off to a lovely cafe near home (Piccolo) which I had heard about but not had time to get to. While I drank a fantastic smooth and entirely delicious (Underground Coffee) long black, I flicked through the pages of the latest URBIS magazine which I normally try to read for work but seldom get to. Got to have a brief conversation with a couple eating breakfast together. While sitting there I sent off a few txt's. Then realising I didn't have the credit card I called Jonty and popped over to his work to pick it up. No problem, nothing to rush to.

After a quick visit, kiss and cuddle with my darling I popped out to the French Bakery to pick up some pizza bases for flatbreads I am making for an Italian pot luck dinner we are hosting tomorrow night. While there I whipped out to Aramunga to get some bunches of gorgeous cream and red roses. Lovely! Couple of mothers there with small children enjoying the space and the lovely flowers.While I was out Ferrymead way I thought I would pick up a mask for the masquerade ball I am going to at the LIANZA conference next week. What fun I had trying all the masks on. No hurry, nowhere to go. What a pleasant experience. I also popped into the stunning Casual and Country design store. Being surrounded by stunning Designer Guild fabrics stimulated my senses and I left having spent no money but feeling very calm and happy.
From there I popped to the Mediterranean Warehouse to pick up some amaretti biscuits and then cruised home to make a lovely Ricotta and raspberry trifle type thing for the Italian dinner party. While in the kitchen I whipped up a batch of biscotti and some bright yellow lemon curd. Threw a couple of loads of washing on the line as well as listened to some entertaining and interesting things on National Radio.

Right now I am listening to Shona Laing chatting away. Might make myself a lovely sandwhich for my lunch. Loving this day. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to give up my job but now I know why 'at home' mothers walk around with relaxed looks on their faces and are a little smug as they congregate in cafes after dropping the kids off at school. They have a secret and it is all about having time to themselves. I have achieved in one morning things that would probably take me about a week of dashing from place to place getting what I need, baking at 9 o'clock at night and not spending time with my boys to achieve. I wonder what the afternoon holds. I think it will be forshortend with the school pick up only about 1.5 hours away. No worries, no rush, no where to be.

Please note: This is not meant to be offensive to my 'at home mother' friends and I know it gets lonely and boring sometimes but really, the good times are really good, especially when the sun is out.

George and Helen

I have had a busy week with lots of social activities and busy work stuff. I composed an excellent blog post while biking to work the other morning and for the life of me, have not been able to recall it since. This lead me to thinking about doing a post called 'Inappropriate thoughts' but thought it might get some very inappropriate porn hits. Anyway, the tenor of that post would have been the constant stream of thoughts popping up just when I don't need them. Example: thinking about what needs to be in my bag when I am about 100m away from home on the way to somewhere and having to go back and get forgotten things. Websites/houses for sale/phone calls I need to make, when I am on my bike and miles from any from of technology. Things I need to do in my lunch break at times that are nowhere near my lunch break and finally thinking about things I need to do at work at about 4am. What is that? When will my thoughts align with my physical location?


Now, about George...'The George' to be precise. I scored a free nights accommodation at said hotel and Jonty and I made the most of that last night. Very nice. About Helen. I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the Beca Heritage Week on Friday night. I took my friend Karen who was in town for the weekend and we got to hang out at the COCA gallery with a cross section of the architecture, local government and other heritage type people. Nice wine, nice food, GREAT music courtesy of the very talented and sweet Flip Grater (whose sister is a friend of Jasmine's).

While we were deliberating over Chardonnay v Sauvigon Blanc, there was a buzz and hustle behind us and in walked Helen Clark our Prime Minister. She looked tired, trim and toned, short and prettier than expected

She spoke for a long time, very knowledgably and in a very relaxed manner,

She had very cute security guys and was rushing to catch a plane so whipped out pretty quickly

Whether you like her or not and aside from the fact that it is election year, I was kind of tickled to see the PM up close.

Check out the events this Heritage Week and enjoy something interesting and different in your life. The theme is 'Retrospective' and here are a couple of pics representing some 70's Christchurch architecture

Sunday

I have been going to Taylors Mistake for about 45 years and yesterday was just another day at the bach. There was a nippy easterly wind blowing so the beach was quite deserted and I am sure everyone else who did decide to go to the beach was thinking that Saturday would have been the go. It was a perfect beach day. However, I was having a blissful day of another type with the market, delicious food and wine and the company of my oldest friend. Where I am going with rambling is - how refreshing it was to see the beach from a different direction. Walking the cliff path isn't new for me but with the spring flowers and the air cleansing breeze it looked shiny, green and new. By approaching from the cliff top and not the road, Nic and I had a fantastic walk and discovery trek. Gorgeous!! And this is what we saw.

Just finished reading #1

Six Suspects - Vikas Swarup

One of the most lingering and enjoyable books I have ever read was the last book written by this author, called 'Q and A'. It is the only novel I have seen Jonathan read and he loved it. Everyone in our book group loved it. I loved it! Mind you being a real fan of Indian fiction I was a push over.

This latest book is much longer and follows the successful formula of weaving a complex tale of six different characters and the reason they were at the party at which the host is murdered - shot. The six people in the room with a gun are the suspects. From early in the novel we know this and through various methods we discover, over 400 pages, how each of the diverse characters end up at the party and ultimately the holding cells at the police station.

Although not as fantastic as 'Q & A', I really enjoyed Six Suspects as Vikas is a great writer, but I didn't LOVE it. Still worth the many weeks it takes me to read a book. Now I am on to something amazing but will have to tell you about it in the next instalment of 'Just finished reading...'

Book group

I hosted bookgroup this month. The way it goes is that the host buys about $110 worth of books, makes some yummy nibble, gets the wine in and makes a cake type thing for coffee at the end of the night. It is great fun and a monthly social event that I really look forward to. We had a full turn out at our place and it was a bit of a tight squeeze in our little house. Nic couldn't work out why there was so much noise - how could 10 women be reading books together so loudly? Of course there is no reading but lots of talking and laughing...yay.

However, we do talk about books a lot and here are the ones I bought for the group this month.

How to look at a painting - Justin Paton

The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society -Mary Ann Shaffer

The Art of racing in the rain - Garth Stein

The other hand - Chris Cleave



I didn't pick any of these to read and now I have to rush off to work so will chat more about the books later in the day.

Changes

Tonight, in lieu of anything else to do other than watch tv, do the dishes or get an early night, I have been playing around with my blog template. I thought it was time to move away from the over-worked colours and go for something simple. Thought I would start changing the pictures more often on the right and also added a list of labels. I am not sure if many people come and visit, but if you do, I would love to know if you like the new look, or not.

Greasy Finger Hands

Yesterday was Jonty's birthday. He got a bunch of lovely presents from his family including lots of chocolate, a first aid kit, a book and a chainsaw. We also baked and awesome and huge chocolate cake which has all kinds of sweet decorations on the top. We went out for a family dinner at Lone Star which was fun and really expensive. Lovely people, great food and so many families. A welcoming adults restaurant with great food and service for kids - great combo. Nic was a tremendous help to Jonathan his waiter who I am sure got more than he bargained for when making friends with my son. As always seems to happen when we go out for dinner, Nic ended up delivering glasses to other tables and making friends all over the place. He did have one negative comment to make about having 'greasy finger hands' on his tiny paper New Zealand flag. Oh well.

Also, as one baby gets married and starts a new life, another baby enters the family. A little boy called Chase in Melbourne. Pete and Lisa are now grandparents. Congrats everyone and welcome Chase.

Wedding

So, the wedding part of the weekend, the real reason were in Southland, went well. It was an intimate gathering of about 45 people.
A good combo of family and friends.

Anika

Keirran, brother of the bride and most stylishly dressed bloke there....thanks to his mother

The weather held out although it was bloody freezing and it did snow later that night. Sonya-Leigh and Andrew made a lovely couple and obviously have a committed relationship already. They are a good match. Lovely to see all the family.

Is it called Fluff? No, Bluff

Just back from a whirlwind family adventure in the deep south. Jonty and I went to a family wedding and left Nic at home with a friend and Ruth and Simon. We met up with my folks down there and had a chance to do some tiki touring around the place. It has been about 20 years since I was last there, for Pete's wedding. We took the opportunity to motor down to Riverton Rocks...and I think it might in the summer, and also popped down to Bluff before catching our flight home yesterday. We were talking to Nic explaining that the Bluff was at the end of SH1 and he obviously misheard and thought it was called Fluff....anything but fluff I would say. Anyway, here are a few pics of the touring bits of the weekend and I will post the wedding photos later.

10 random things

i read in the paper today and what i have to say about them.

I buy the paper every Saturday, usually late afternoon and it usually remains unread, folded in perfect presicion in some corner of the house. This morning I had to get to dairy to buy breakfast bread and picked up a paper at the same time. I got to read while eating breakfast and drinking my mouth puckeringly strong coffee. I have to admit I have yet to finish it. However, I have found enough interesting/annoying or cool things within the first 25 pages and here they are...

1. Nude butchery on the front cover...very excellent. Nothing like a young man's naked butt to enjoy over your yoghurt and apple to start the weekend in great style

2. Closing a couple of bike paths in Hagley Park for 11 days in March for the Ellerslie Flower Show. OH FOR GOD SAKE!!! Find something important to moan about you narrow minded cycle Nazis. So, you have to divert your course and travel an extra 170m for a few days? Get over it. Why not spend your spare time trying to get alchopops put in plastic bottles so us commuter cyclists don't have to ride eyes down to dodge the masses of broken glass bottles every Monday morning?

3. 'Zones of obsession' - couldn't get through this large article on the middle class mad dash to the 'right suburbs' so their children can go to the high decile schools in the hope they are sheltered from the poor people and other terrible things that can happen out here IN THE REAL WORLD. Say no more.

4.' Talking daffodils'... interesting story about a couple and their daffodil farm made a bit more interesting as the woman in the story used to work at the library.

5. Still on gardening. A great quote...'If your garden doesn't look great this month when nature does most of the work for you, then it's possibly a lost cause' Jude Gillies

6. Rotten baby formular in China...breast is best.

7. 19 year old bride and bridal party catching the number 5 bus to her wedding. What is odder than being the only person ever to do this in Christchurch, is the fact that there are 19 year olds getting married. Can't imagine why you would do that. Oh well, good luck.

8. Sarah Palin - US presidential trump card. Another indication that the US is a very strange country...check out the names of her children and grandchild....Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig....painting a picture? She is going to get a 73 year old war monger into the Whitehouse and then disappear off the face of the earth.

9. World banking and financial crisis. Shit! Keep your head down, stop putting stuff on the credit card and get paying off the mortgage. Not envying anyone having to watch this crisis unfold for other than interest and I don't mean interest of the banking kind.

10. From the 'Your Weekend' magazine...a range of really interesting articles of the weekend kind. I am going to make one of the recipes for our beach lunch tomorrow.

Nic's pics

Nic and I had a great morning visiting the market, family and friends. Food, pets and flowers featured highly in our morning. We decided Nic would take photos to record his morning and here is a selection.

Auntie FayEbonyUncle BrianBeautiful Nellie Mable

SPRING!!

About bloody time too! Sunday was spring at its best. Sunny, a bit windy and air filled with promises of warm summer days to come. We got out in the sun and walked around Travis Wetland. The place was humming with bees overdosing on pollen. I expected to see baby ducks, swans and other watery birds but there were none to be seen. We spent the afternoon in the garden planting and pruning.Here are some lovely photos Jonty took to celebrate a beautiful spring day. The great thing about it was that everyone was happy at work today and we don't have the fire on tonight. Fantastic.

Sydney, I love!!

I am in one of my favourite places on earth. I never get sick of being here and had a great day yesterday doing tourist stuff and catching up with some of the whanau ...perfect! Today was work and a great day also. Saw some lovely libraries and met some more lovely librarians. Here are a few pics.