the long hot weekend

Well, the past Waitangi weekend has been a scorcher. Although it's been uncomfortably hot here (especially at night), I can't imagine what it's like in Australia (esp. Victoria), where temperatures are up to 15° higher. Ouch.

It didn't feel like a particularly productive weekend, but we managed to do a few interesting things. We decided not join the hordes evacuating the city over the long weekend. I took my new road bike out twice for a couple of rides of about 20 km each, thankfully leaving early enough in the morning that I didn't evaporate in the heat. They were both enjoyable, apart from getting stuck in the middle of Waitangi day celebrations in Okahu bay on Friday. The bike held up well except for a clunk appearing in the headset and a squeak from the chain. I really must get some chain lubricant. I'm very tempted to repack the hubs with grease as well.

I decided have another attempt at bread baking, this time baguettes. Dean Brettschneider was again my tutor, and the DVD that came with his book has proved invaluable. In this case, one video is worth a thousand pictures! The recipe requires resting overnight in the fridge (as do most of his recipes), so it's not one for impatient people, Unfortunately, his recipe also includes onion and pumpkin, so I had to guess the water content somewhat. I think I used a little too much water, as my loaves spread out too much during the final proving. That said, the final product was delicious. Bring on the next loaf! What a challenge.

In DIY news, the bathroom is finished! It looks pretty damn good if I say so myself. Of course, despite my best efforts, my worst fears were realised. The first time fitting the basin, everything was perfect, but the waste outlet was misaligned by about 35 mm horizontally. It took me a few moments to realise that I had placed the template on the wall backwards! It would have been fine if the waste had been centred in the basin. So I had to remove and re-hang it, and this time the waste was perfect, but in my haste, I didn't take quite as much care drilling the mounting studs into the wall, and consequently, the basin slopes ever so slightly to the left. Bah. At least it isn't really noticeable to the naked eye, and it doesn't affect the performance. All that's left is to fit the towel rails. It feels odd not having that project lurking in the back of my mind any more. So, onto the next one - replacing the floor in the entrance way and laundry. In fact Vic and I went tile shopping for this area on Saturday, but didn't find anything decent. I'm in favour of a mid-light grey tile, but Vic wants something beige-y.

Having also pinched a big bag of windfall apples from our (absent) neighbour, the resulting stewed apples were a little lacklustre. So I turned half of it into spiced apple muffins, which turned out very tasty and moist. Success! I did make a mistake in sprinkling the tops of the muffins with brown sugar and mixed spice instead of cinnamon. This gave them an ever-so-slightly curried flavour! Nevertheless, they were still delicious.

Whilst out tile shopping on Saturday, Vic and I stopped by two farmers' markets - one at the Jubilee Building in Newmarket, the other at La Cigale in Parnell. La Cigale was much bigger, with a greater variety. I'm not sure why we didn't buy much, but I think you still need to have what you want in mind before you go. It was a fantastic experience though - great to see this sort of thing in the middle of Auckland! Once we'd finished there, we were suitably hungry, and headed for the reliable Dida's Foodstore for lunch. I was disappointed to find that the 'Eggs en Cocotte' wasn't on the menu, but instead I had the still-very-tasty Spanish scrambled eggs with lashings of diced chorizo. Vic had a delicious roast beef sandwich. The coffee was good, but unmemorable.