Bye bye Blogspot

Hello and goodbye!

I have decided to continue blogging elsewhere on the interweb.  For those of you who have enjoyed looking at my blog, you can find me on Just Dabbling

#52 Lists - List 10

* some notes on some, but not all, of the above:

• Mum's chicken soup recipe is so easy, and what's great is, it always tastes as good as she made, even when I've cooked it!
• By custard, I mean any type, including packet custard, but Faye's ice-cream custard recipe is fab and if you've got an egg in the house you can make it!
• I inherited my dad's lazy-boy chair and it's under a good light and perfect spot to read a good book.
• When I win lotto, I'm getting the bath put back in this house ... or buying a new house with a HUGE bath in it!
• I mean cashmere wool
• A duvet is the 'correct' term for a duna ;-)
• My sister-in-law bought me some yoga pants in the States and they have a gorgeous velvet feel to them - yet are just a knit fabric. They feel gorgeous, thanks Ali x
• My friend Della does the best roast dinner, which I am always grateful for, as living by yourself, you don't tend to cook a leg of lamb, or a whole chicken.

and finally, (not matching the above list) NOTHING beats a good hug.

Nomm Nomm... Chocolate

I have been busy in the kitchen today, trialling some Easter treats

#52Lists - List 9

An OLD list.

I just discovered a List I drew up 14 years ago, in 1999.  I was backpacking around Europe, had been living in Dublin and was on my last few weeks before flying home to New Zealand.

The list says:

I want to:

• do a varsity paper on something interesting
• do a photography course
• get a better car
• buy a house, or an apartment that I can decorate
• read some excellent books
• get back into piano
• be in a musical
• go to a ball!

I think that last one was because I was leaving Dell Computers just before the Christmas Ball which was due to be a pretty flash affair, black tie event in one of the posh hotels in Dublin.  I missed out on a Christmas Bonus of around 700 Irish pounds too.

But that list... well, I can say 14 years later...

I have:

• completed not just a varsity paper but a postgraduate degree... in HR.  I guess that's up to you whether you think that's interesting!
• completed a photography course
• bought a brand new car
• bought a house ... that I kind of didn't get around to decorating - I did paint the bedroom!  I'm currently decorating a different house, slowly, thanks to EQC.
• read some pretty excellent books ... don't ask me to name 14 years worth of reading
• not quite got back into piano - but I do now have one in the house
• haven't been in a musical... but I did form a very short-lived band for a one-off appearance at a work do!
• haven't gone to a ball.

So now, in 2013 I want to... well, I'm still working on that one, so it will show up in another blog!

They're back!

Back last week to co-incide with Ellerslie, another bunch of plant-animals have arrived in City Mall.  Elly my elephant made a return, along with giraffe and penguin friends!

They provide a little bit of extra vibrancy and fun to the colourful container mall.

52 Lists - List 8

Favourite Words

This is a hard one.  I do enjoy watching "Miranda" and love it when she gets a word she likes and has a play with it ... a recent episode had the word "plunge".   I don't know that I have favourite words.  I enjoy words.  I like a good word play and I love a bad pun... but these are some words I love to hear, so I'll settle on the following:-


Summery

Delicious

Salubrious

Pinot Noir

Stylish

Stunning

Mystical

and one from a colleague at work "GlamORRus".  I agree, the word glamorous doesn't sound as cool when it's pronounced correctly.  Sometimes you just have to play with the english language!

Chutney Time!

Final product - 3.5 jars (I've hidden the half empty one!)

I'm a novice when it comes to preserving, having only done one lot of chutney last year (with slightly disastrous results when I burnt the bottom of the pot!)  But with the amount of tomatoes my one plant has suddenly started to give me it was time to get out the recipe book again.

I used Aunt Daisy's recipe (today I just did a half recipe as I don't really own preserving jars... you can see I'm recycling from the photo!) and the resulting tomato chutney has a caramelised onion type of taste to it, so it makes it perfect to have as a pizza base for gourmet pizzas.  In fact, this is pretty much the reason I have made it.  Although I can confirm it does also taste good with brie and crackers!

Anyway I wasn't organised taking photos of the process today ... it was a bit messy in my little kitchen. One day, when EQC have been and I finally get my new kitchen, I'll be happy to take photos of my works in progress.  Today, however, it's just the final result.

Bring on the home-made pizza next week - I see spinach, feta, capsicum, cashews and either chorizo or pepperoni making an appearance!

Food & Other Things

Twisted Hop review up now!

New sounds

New sounds on the music page tonight The Saturday Sessions 2013

#52 Lists - List 7

Great Reads I've Read Lately (... or in the last 12 months)

Pip Lincoln's  list is recent reads... I'm stretching back a bit further as I read a lot of books (but a side-effect from the earthquakes is my concentration levels are lower and if I don't get into a book quickly it goes by the way-side).  I've learned that this is quite common.  I have some friends in a book club and they say most of them have found it challenging in the last two years.  So my hit rate is lower these days, despite my appetite for books and the library.  For this reason I'm looking at books I've read lately... or in the last 12 months.

In no particular order, my best "ahem, recent" reads have been:

Oh Dear Sylvia - Dawn French
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul - Deborah Rodriguez
The Prisoner of Heaven - Carlos Zafron Ruiz
The Drowning Girl - Margaret Leroy
The Legacy - Katherine Webb
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
The Table Comes First - Adam Gopnik (non-fiction)

Only one non-fiction in that list, but I do read a lot of articles and I've been concentrating on travel books with my non-fiction in preparation for trip to Europe.

I don't have one particular genre that I prefer.  I read the odd historical drama ("Painting Mona Lisa"), a bit of Chick Lit (Celia Ahern), Bloke Lit (Mike Gayle/Nick Hornby),  contemporary (Colm Toibin/Roddy Doyle), and everything in between.  Hey, I've even read all the Harry Potters.  On my bookshelf I have the classics (Victor Hugo, Jane Austen) and the medieval (both french and english literature)... so it's fair to say I have a wide interest.  I'll give anything a go, but I do have a page rule.  If I can't get to page 130 within 3 attempts... it goes.

Erin Morgenstern's book is one of the best I've read and it's a gorgeous book if you get the hard copy (the black pages and red edging are a delight).  I follow Erin's blog too (listed to the right) - where she regular writes a 10 sentence essay based on a photograph.  Definitely worth checking out.

My favourite author though, Maggie O'Farrell, isn't on this list as I'm waiting for her new book out (due  mid year).  "The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox" is a book that side-swiped me with its twist, and all of her books are stunning.  "After You'd Gone" was the book that introduced me to Maggie and it is a beautiful book.  It was a recommended read by Lisa Jewell, another author I enjoy - she's funny and witty and her books are all different.  I recommend you search both Lisa and Maggie out.

12:51 22 February 2011 - In memory

It was 12:50pm and I remember looking at my watch thinking the queue for lunch had been quite quick.  One minute later, as I went to pull out my seat in our staff cafeteria a rumbling noise came, the power went out and the ground underneath me lurched.  I didn't know whether to crouch, stand... there was no room under the small table.  I looked over to see our large fridge wobbling back and forth at nearly 90 degree angles, knowing someone was sitting directly in front of it.

The Blessed Sacrament Cathedral - post quake

That moment is etched in my memory.  It's the moment my life, and those of the 420,000-ish citizens of Christchurch, changed forever.

Others, have worse memories of that moment the ground erupted.  Mine are quite calm and non-destructive... the memories of the next two-three hours aftermath are far far worse.  I will never forget the faces around me, distraught and terrified.  I won't forget seeing bodies under bricks as we evacuated and I won't forget screaming an obscenity at a press photographer for taking photographs of a badly injured man (then turning around and seeing my Managing Director was standing right behind me!).

Two years later.... and I looked at my watch at 12.50pm as I stood amongst others, ready to observe a minute's silence in memory, I looked around me.  I didn't think the memories would still feel this raw.  But they are.  I hate to think how those that lost loved ones felt.

So at the same time as I stood in memory of those lost, I also stood in thanks.  Thanks that I was one of the lucky ones.  Thanks that I didn't know the names on the list of 185.  I knew people who knew people, but I had the reprieve from being hurt so directly.

I was lucky that I was in one of the safest buildings in Cashel Mall, when normally if I buy lunch I venture out ...    Something (my guardian angels?) made me choose the easy alternative that day and stay indoors.  I was lucky that I had people help me home and that when I got home to a mess in my house, it was just a mess and it wasn't too broken.  I was lucky that I got power back within 24 hours.  I was lucky that strangers gave me a car to use for a month when mine was stuck in the red zone.  I was thankful for being one lucky gal.  I was lucky I worked for who I work for and was kept in a job.

I have so much to be thankful for. The earthquakes have reinforced the fact that I have the most amazing family and friends, rallying around.    I already knew that I was resillient, and I am thankful for parents that encouraged me to be so, but this was a real test.  I think I've come through it.

This blog comes out of the earthquake.  After the aftershocks on 23 Dec 2011, I went into a black fugue - it was one aftershock too many and after "Being Strong" for 9 months, I had enough!  But I hated that blackness, so my challenge to take "a photo a day" was an attempt to push me out of it.  It worked in many ways.  Yes I documented broken buildings, but I documented change and improvements and ordinary life too.  This city will re-build.

So as 12:51 ticked over, today 22 February 2013, two years on, I remembered, I offered up a prayer and I gave thanks.

Eternal Rest Grant to Them O Lord.  May they Rest In Peace.

Summer sounds update...

Been listening to ... Richard Hawley

#52Lists - List 6

List 6 = (Some of) The Flowers I Like

Peonies

"Fresia" Rose

Gladioli

Baby Camelia

Trilium

Daffodils

Lillies

"Jubilee" Rose

The best thing about this list, is that all the photos come from my garden!  I do love other flowers too, but these are some of my favourites.

Weekend Mini-Break

I'm just back in from a quick overnight trip to Motunau Beach and taking in the Winery Tour at Mudhouse Winery.  Fabulous weather, and with the views like this...

Deck View!

It really is quite breathaking.  

The Mudhouse Winery tour was a fabulous evening.  I'm a huge fan of the Adults, and have blogged about Anika Boh & Hollie on the Listening To... page.  They were supported by Clara van Wel (a talent who will only get better and better) who was on stage as we arrived.

Perfect skies for a concert

The Adults (with Anika, in lieu of Julia)

NZ's own Spice Girls, "Sporty, Five-Spice & Sexy Spice"

The evening finished with a real summer feel and grooving out to the headline act,  Fat Freddy's Drop.

Fat Freddy's

Sunset skies - reflections

Awesome sunset

A perfect 25 degree warm evening kept everyone smiling until the end, and we went back to the bach (such a better idea than driving in post-concert traffic to Christchurch) and sat out underneath the starry starry sky, looking for shooting stars, satellites and the odd constellation with David Bowie singing Starman on the stereo, while we finished the evening with a civilised tea/coffee and chocolate nibbles.

Great music, great food, great company, AWESOME nature!  The perfect Mini-Break.

A View from Cashel Street

I haven't taken any Christchurch rebuild/demo photos for a while.  There's a bit of action happening across the cordon, however.  Te Waipounamu House on Hereford Street is coming down quickly, with the help of Twinkle Toes munching away at it.  We reckon once it's gone the views will be wide open - Latimer Square will be visible from Colombo Street.

I find it hard to imagine living in a built up city any more.  The views around us have changed so much.  While it is sad that such destruction happened, I enjoy the openness in many ways - the warm sun hardly blocked out, no wind tunnels.  The river and the Frame promise a much prettier surround to the CBD, so I really do hope the end result will enhance the city as much as it proposes to.

#52 Lists - List 5

Today's list is Things I Do Everyday...

Things like walking and exercise should be there, but that's something I do "nearly every day!"  Hey, even my PT says you should have a couple of days off!   I do at least one or two yoga stretches everyday, but not enough to call it a routine - just enough to wake me up or stretch out after using a computer.

Dulce de Leche Decadence

Mmm the house smells of caramel.

I know I'm on a healthy eating kick (and it's been a "good" weekend of veges and fruit etc), but I couldn't resist giving this recipe a go.... I blame my friend Tracey.  She made her's from scratch, whereas I've cheated a little, but instead of boiling the condensed milk can, I've followed David Lebovitz's recipe and baked it in a dish in a water bath ... with added salt flakes.  Safer, and too easy to make... and the willpower will get a work out resisting this!

Main ingredient.... add some sea salt flakes

Bake in a bain-marie for about 1-1.25 hrs

Whisk when cooled

Taste test - whisk

FINAL PRODUCT -MMMMM!

The photos are a little misleading, it's a lovely golden brown colour, but it was evening and the flash went on the camera.

Interestingly it wasn't salty, so I might have to play with the amount of salt I put in for a true salted-caramel, but then Dulce de Leche isn't a salted caramel sauce, it's just caramel decadence!    Now... where's the ice-cream?

If anyone has an opinion on how much salt to add, salted caramel is my newest favourite flavour (particularly macaroons and salted caramel chocolates!)

Lazy Days of Summer

Blissful sleep

Both Tatie and I are in recovery mode.  She was getting the gumflaps growing over her teeth removed and lost a tooth in the process when they realised there was a hole right through the base of it.  She was a bit unsteady on her feet still when I got her home yesterday and a little weirded out from the drugs - didn't really settle and wouldn't climb up on a chair or my lap - felt more secure lying on the floor.  Today she's back in her chair, so that's a sign she's feeling better, and she has been quite good at taking her medication (thankfully in a squirt syringe so easy to administer).

Tatie's drugs

As for me, well I have too much iron so every now and then I get blood taken off me, however as I have other issues (a congenital heart and lung condition), I lose my puff for a few days afterwards.  So today was very much about sitting around, snoozing and doing not much.  I'd finished my pile of books from the library* so I did venture back and picked up some more reads and a couple of mags to leaf through.

I'm looking forward to the Paulo Coehlo book - Brida.  I've read a few of his books and I follow his website too.  If you're looking for some thing a little deeper, or a little inspiration, check him out.  Paulo's blog

Four books for the month

However,  I think I'll start with something funny and Pauline McLynn (known to many as "Mrs Doyle" from Fr. Ted) writes a good tale usually so that's first on the list.

What are you reading... and what do you do when you just want to blob and take it easy?









*I do believe we have the best libraries in New Zealand.  Fabulous service, and friendly staff. 

#52 Lists - List 4

I'm veering away from Pip's topic today, and creating my own topic.  Today is Waitangi Day, a public holiday.  It has been called New Zealand day in the past and then got changed back to Waitangi Day.  I  consider myself reasonably patriotic, but to be honest, this particular holiday tends to pass me by as "just a day off".

But today, seeing it's List time, and Waitangi Day I decided to write the things I love about New Zealand.

*It's green - in that there are lush, lush places to visit, beautiful beaches, snow capped mountains, rivers, forests; you're never far from nature
*You're also never far from a beach
*We don't really have traffic, except in Auckland
*The rugby team is pretty good.  And they dress in black
*You can be sporty... or not
*We have some pretty cool musicians/bands - too many to list but I must mention the next on the list as it began my love of "newzildmuzic"
*The Dunedin Sound
*It never takes long to travel anywhere
*Kumara (the vegetable, not the place, although the races at the place are legendary)
*L&P (preferrably with bourbon as a mixer)
*The Kaikoura Coast
*Our sense of humour
*Our can-do attitude 
*Zambesi & Karen Walker
*Whittakers Chocolate
*Wellywood
*Cargill's Castle
*Central Pinot Noir (and if you like your whites, Marlborough Sav)
*We laugh at ourselves... and our cricketers.  Actually it might be more of a cringe at the cricketers.
*Speights
*The Pier at Governor's Bay
*Nor'westers
and, of course, because I live there, earthquakes and all, 
*CHRISTCHURCH

I'm not saying my place is better than your place - just what I love about it.  I lived in Dublin and loved it there - the view of Killiney beach as you come out of the tunnel from Dalkey on the DART rivals the Kaikoura Coast - on a much smaller scale.  Spain has beautiful food, Paris has the Eiffel Tower. Ireland has Bulmers, and a WICKED sense of humour so there are lots of things I love about lots of places... but today, it's about being ...

A kiwi :  A small flightless bird surviving against extinction...and about 4.4 million people.
  

Summer sounds

Check out the Listening to... tab for my latest music purchase.

Life's a Beach

I was born in Christchurch but we moved to Dunedin when I was a toddler.  As I grew up I have lots of memories of days at the beaches around Dunedin - St Kilda, St Clair, Brighton.  When we moved back to Christchurch we were on the west side of the city and it's a good 30-40 minutes across town to the beach, so we didn't go very often.  I went today though. Along with half of Christchurch!

Kites flying overhead

On a beautiful blue-sky day, and a Sand Sculpture competition going on, it was always going to be busy - but it was just great - I loved seeing the crowds.  Lots of families, and heaps of kids playing at making smaller sculptures of their own with their sand buckets further down the beach.

Crowds by the pier and the sculptures

Anyway, I took lots of photos of the sand art.  There are some very creative folk around.  I'm not sure what my favourite is. I do love the Gorilla, and the Rose Window.  Sea monsters were regular creations along with a couple of cars and some beer.

Reflective sand under the pier

I sat along the sea wall and looked out, looking at all the families.  There's still not a lot to do in Christchurch, in many ways,  but simple things, like a fun day at the beach, a walk along the pier, and the obligatory ice-cream in the sun (I did abstain, *touches halo*) are still some of life's simple pleasures that are available us all.

Rose Window (Cathedral)

A monster has captured a boat

Wanna go for a spin?

Zoo life, sand style

Hand holding a bottle of beer

Refresh Me!

A long hot day at work, 32 degrees outside, and the wind blowing up the dust from the demolitions.  Life in Christchurch on a hot nor'wester day is exhausting.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE the heat... I'm a summer girl.  I think it's just the dust.  I have a 10 minute walk to my car and it's past empty sections, dusty demo rubble piles and there's a layer of dirt on my windscreen every night to wipe off before I can drive.

Today with the wind, the dust got into my throat and eyes... it was a relief to get home, throw open all the doors, put a nice summery dress on and go barefeet.

Music on, drink in hand.... and breathe.

Oh and by the way, it's just lime and soda but it is as refreshing as it looks!

#52 Lists - List 3

Favourite Smells!

Smell is one of the most powerful senses we have.  There is plenty of neuroscience that links the olfactory bulb with both the hippocampus (important in memory association) and the thalamus and is probably the reason why smells evoke memories, and often strong ones at that.

Whenever I smell coal, I'm transported to holidays as a child on the West Coast, visiting Nana or my brother when he was working in Greymouth.

I dislike the smell of hospitals (have spent too many hours in them or visiting people in them).  I love the smell of good food, or a great wine.

But here is my list of favourite smells (in no particular order, it depends on my mood and my memories!)

Green and Self-Sufficient

Kaffir lime - great for Thai cooking

No! I'm not going to turn this into a gardening blog!  Nor am I turning into Barbara Good.  I'll never have chickens for a start (I'm ornithophobic!)... or pigs.  But I do like trying my hand at growing veges, and they always taste so much better grown fresh.

Particularly in summer when things just grow!  I always grow a courgette - one plant does me, and already I'm picking prolifically - about 3 a day.   My tomatoes look good (although only one red one so far) and for the first time I'm growing corn, with some success.

CORN!

So after doing the groceries this morning and realising I have tomatoes and courgettes,  and capsicums already, what else do I need?  I went off to purchase some plants to stretch out the summer garden.

A box of seedlings ready to plant up

So here's the box for this evening's planting (it's too hot at the moment).  Spinach, Basil, Coriander, and a mix of lettuce.  Lettuce is one thing I struggle with as it tends to bolt on me.  

Courgette cultivator

If anyone has any great courgette recipes please let me know.  I do have a Courgette Chocolate cake which I will be giving a go, but I am getting to that point where you can't have any more fritters (I do love them with my rocket, pepper, walnut and feta salad though).

It's A Cat's Life

So Gareth Morgan wants to eradicate cats from New Zealand.  Hmmm. I don't know quite what to say to that.  We've always had cats, from when I was young.  Cats, dogs, mice, budgies, guinea pigs and rabbits number amongst the menagerie I grew up around.  I couldn't imagine life without a cat.  I couldn't wait to get a cat after I bought my own place and ... look, fate, it had a cat door already installed!

My Tatie IS a hunter... although she's getting lazy as she gets older.  Also I've moved across town and there aren't quite as many trees in the neighbourhood.  Being terrified of birds, she caused me a few moments of terror bringing live birds into the house.  But she also kept the mice that lived under the house under control.  According to Morgan's website, a cat will kill something like 13 birds in any given year.  If that was the case I would be in an early grave from terror - as I'm not much better with a dead bird than with a live bird!  I have had Tatie 7 years this March and I can count in all that time four she brought in alive and the one dead one.  So she's really an under-achiever in this regard.

I wouldn't live without a cat.  I have considered getting a dog, but it's not as practical for me.  Tatie is family. However I like to think I'm a responsible cat owner.  She is de-sexed and won't be breeding.      As she gets older she's definitely more an inside cat, so is becoming even less of a threat to the native birds (of which we have none in our suburban city neighbourhood anyway).

What she is though, is company.  If I'm feeling unwell, she'll jump up and lie beside me and keep me company, she'll sit on my knee and watch tv with me.  We've been through earthquake terrors together - she doesn't even seem to freak anymore.  When an aftershock happens we look at each other to gauge the intensity and then she gives me a look, I give her a shrug and we go back to what we were doing.  Tatie also thinks she's human.  She thinks anything I cook is food for her.  Perhaps that's why she's not big on the birds - she prefers tomato chili pasta and cookies & cream ice-cream!  If I'm talking on the phone she'll wander through and sit in front of me, or on me, as if to say "whooya talkin' to Willis?"  My life, she believes, revolves around her.  Let's face it, that's how it is with cats.

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth... and I love her to bits.  Sorry Gareth, but Tatie's not going anywhere just yet, and when she does, I will get another four legged companion.. or two.