A decade

Ten years since my last post. Huh. A lot's happened in the last decade. As it does. Spent most of the day working on the bathroom. Got most of the floor tiles down. I wish my knees were ten years younger. Victoria took the kids out with their cousin. Had a nice day out getting ice cream and driving bumper cars. Watched 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' on Netflix. I remember watching it before, but not when. Very affecting movie. Interesting portrayal of mental illness.

la vita e bella

Another beautiful day. Life is good. I got up early today, and even left for work early! That meant I was crossing the harbour bridge again as the sun rose under some low clouds on the horizon, bathing the whole of Auckland under a vivid orange glow. Stunning.

and it's a...

We had our 20-week ultrasound the other day, and I'm thrilled to report that we appear to have a healthy (and very active) little girl-in-progress! Everything was where it should be and working as it should, and there were the correct number of all the important bits. It was amazing seeing the little one so clearly and looking already like a little person (albeit in cross section).

Now we get to the fun part: choosing her name!

Vic is still doing well, and her bump is becoming very pronounced. She's feeling Pfeffernuss (don't ask :) moving around all the time now, although I haven't been able to yet.

peanut butter problems

I like a good peanut butter sandwich, me. But lately I've become a bit frustrated with the peanut butter that's available in New Zealand. In the last couple of years, just about all of the pb manufacturers have moved their production to China. It may seem a little reactionary, but politically, ethically, and and from a health point of view, I'm just not that happy buying everything I eat and wear from China. The recent San Lu baby formula scandal has cemented many people's fears (rightly or wrongly) about the ethics of Chinese business, especially when it comes to food products. To me there seems to be a cavalier "Let's see what we can get away with regardless of the effects," attitude. Besides, I try to buy New Zealand-made wherever I can.

But I digress.

This move to China has been accompanied by a change in flavour in the peanut butter. The insidious addition of sugar to some brands notwithstanding, it doesn't taste as good as it used to. It just tastes wrong - like cheap, poor quality peanuts. I was delighted when, in response to public pressure, Sanitarium announced that they would sell Australian-made peanut butter here. But I needn't have got my hopes up - the flavour is just as poor as the awful Chinese stuff. So I'm left with the choice of buying New Zealand-made organic pb like Ceres (delicious actually, but a lot more expensive) or making my own. I think I'll try making my own - now where can I find decent peanuts...

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.

diy catch up

During the long Christmas break I had time to work on a few projects:

The shelves in the garage are finished, and are already overflowing! They worked very nicely, even though on the opposite side of the garage, there was no continuous joist line to screw the brackets into. A bit of creative spacing helped that, and they are screwed solidly into studs instead.

The bathroom is now so close to being finished - there's only the basin left to hang on the wall. I'm procrastinating a bit on that one, as I'm a bit worried that I'll hang it in the wrong position and the waste won't fit. The shower walls were a little harder than I anticipated, mainly due to the walls not being plumb or in fact straight (not my fault!). But they're up and sealed and look pretty damn professional. I sealed the grout in the shower with some hugely expensive stuff from the Tile Depot. We'll see if it works.

I've begun looking at the front door hinges too. There's something seriously wrong here - with only two hinges, the door works beautifully, but when the third hinge is added, the door jams. And even though the top hinge has been butchered, and is now set about 5 mm further into the door than the bottom hinge, the door still lines up. Somethin' jes' ain't right thur.

frustration

I'm getting really frustrated at work. I thought that I'd come back after a nice long break envigorated, but nothing has changed.

I have zero motivation, and I feel as though there is nothing for me there. The management have made it clear that there is no chance of a pay increase, which is one thing, but there also appears to be no chance of progression within the company, which is just unspeakably depressing. I feel that if I stay, I'll be there eternally churning through the same old stuff ad nauseam. The very worst thing is that it seems as though I've learned all I can from them, or perhaps more accurately, all they are willing to teach me. I just can't do that, I have to keep learning, changing, moving, growing. I have to get out.

I've started on my CV, but I don't have a clear picture of what it should be like, so I've hit a wall. In some ways it's too short, in others, too long. I've promised myself that I will get it finished this week, and Vic has said she'll help me with it.

and a happy new year!

Sayonara 2008, we will nae miss you.

This year we spent New Year's Eve at Mel and Dayne's place in Waiau Beach, as we have done for the last two years. Our hosts put on a really nice night for us with a great barbeque and plenty of snacks to keep us going 'til midnight. Mark, a friend of Mel and Dayne's was the only other guest, so it was a pretty quiet night. We passed the time talking crap, eating strawberries, and playing Rummikub, a strange Israeli number-matching game... do we know how to party or what? :)

The heavens opened at about 11pm, but luckily it was fine enough by midnight for us to stand out on the balcony in the cool air and welcome in the new year with good friends. May the coming year be bigger, better, brighter and bolder than the last one. It sure is going to be a big one for us!

merry christmas!

We had a fairly low-key Christmas this year. We’ve been keeping our spending on a tight reign in preparation for the new addition to the family. There will be lots of extra costs coming up, and Victoria is going to be taking perhaps a year off work. It’ll be a stretch, but I’m sure we’ll be fine. Fortuitously, our mortgage will be coming up for renewal in February, so we have the option of reducing our repayments for a while at least (not to mention the current lower interest rates). But I digress…

As has become the tradition, we headed around the corner on Christmas morning, the car groaning under the weight of presents, to Victoria’s sister’s house for Christmas lunch. We sat around in the proper laid-back Christmas attitude ruminating on the events of the year, nibbling strawberries and sipping punch. We exchanged presents before lunch, and unsurprisingly Charlotte, our 5-year-old niece collected the most impressive haul, although bro-in-law Steve made a late surge with a complete Guitar Hero World Tour setup for his PS3. The highlights of my pressies were the book ‘Global Baker’ by Dean Brettschneider – a very successful kiwi baker, and a bag of Grano Tenero ‘00’ flour from Vic. Oh, and a new wooden spoon! Bring on the pizza baking!

Afterwards we headed to a beautifully-laid table replete with goody bags at each place. As usual, Steph put on a very impressive spread, starting with poached Salmon fillet (sure to become another tradition) before moving on to the traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings. Two types of stuffing, multiple roast and fresh veges, bread sauce and cranberry sauce left little room for dessert. Luckily, I found a spot, as we had the first of my puddings along with the requisite cream, custard and brandy sauce. As it turned out the pudding was a triumph (if I say so myself) – even better than the previous year’s efforts. It was very flavoursome and dense, but also surprisingly light, soft and moist. It didn’t suffer from the lack of figs, and the three types of toasted nuts (walnut, almond and hazelnut) added a subtle earthy undertone. Yum.

We’d barely started digesting lunch when we had to abscond to my parents’ place for dinner, although we did sneak a quiet hour at home in between. More indulgent lounging around ensued, punctuated with a few bouts of GT4 racing using Dad’s new Logitech steering wheel control – a present from Mike. Also from Mike was a ticket for me to see Top Gear live! Very cool, and way too generous! Dinner was fantastic, the main course being an amazing Beef Wellington, the first Mum had made. With the horseradish sauce and roast veges on the side, it was nigh on perfect. Dessert was pudding again, only this time it was last year’s that Mum had kept. This one definitely had suffered from the year’s aging. It was a bit dry and hard, and much of the flavour seemed to have disappeared somewhere along the way. Lesson learned.

It may have been a low key Christmas, but it was all the more enjoyable for it. I actually felt quite Christmassy this year, and played all the Christmas music we have to death all through December! It’ll certainly be a different dynamic next year with a baby in the house!