design fault

It cracks me up sometimes when you see the stupidity of some peoples ideas right in front of your eyes. Auckland recently spent alot of money to make the place prettier (apparently) and one of these improvements was widening footpaths so the trees had to be circled with tarseal as you can see originally they thought large loose stones on a hill was going to cover the roots and look nice not really taking into account, wind, rain, gravity or people that they would just stay in place which of course never worked so now they have glued the stones in - can't imagine the 100% seal is too good for the tree.

renovations day 3

So now after parting with alot of money I have new walls and wall plugs - can see it taking shape slowly. Can't wait to get a coat of paint on to really get a good impression of how it will look finished.

Demolition before rebirth

I have finally saved enough to get the renovations done on my apartment that I have been dreaming about for 9 years its quite cathartic seeing walls smashed down and beams going up. Will have more pics as the transformation continues.

Happy 40th Anniversary (Ruby)

In a world full of divorces my parents have actually made it to their 40th Wedding anniversary a pretty amazing achievement. If you are wondering what their advice is they don't have much bar compromise sometimes, Argue always - keeps the fires burning and never gets boring and marry someone who is your best friend. If you are wondering why they are both dressed in red its because we all went out for dinner in ruby coloured clothes.

Christmas and New Years

Happy 2009 everyone hope yours all started with a bang like mine.

I was responsible for cooking the Christmas dinner and hosting this year and after 3 days of prep it went off really well (I am biased of course) Unfortunately in my flurry of asctivity on the day I didn't take any pics but below is a menu of what was served.

Entree
Mini sesame seed sausage rolls
puff pastry tarts with goats cheese, tomato and thyme

Mains
Sage butter and Lemon Roast Chicken
Golden syrup and orange glazed Ham
Honey mustard carrots and sweet potato
Roast potatoes
Coriander, sesame and pumpkin salad
Pea and broadbean salad
asparagus

Dessert
homemade Cherry, Strawberry, Maple walnut and dark chocolate icecream with sorbet top
Plum pudding with brandy cream and custard
mini toblerone mousse cups
Choc dipped strawberries
Mince tarts

so mmmmmmmmm! it was good all topped off with a summer pimms punch

On boxing day I headed up north to Taupo Bay for 8 days of bliss camping, swimming, reading, sleeping and eating. It was a lovely beach. I was away with a group of 9 and during the week we had fun on the blow up Jolly Rodger, saw dolphins, faught off mozzies and sea lice, ate NZ's best fish and chips, found out what an octo (beer) funnel was, star gazed, played oodles of Jenga and asshole and generally had a great time.

On return I caught up with the holiday movies and saw Australia, loved it but couldn't help compare to Nicoles Far and away movie and american cowboy and indian flicks, Twilight which I enjoyed as love the whole Vampire thing and finally the best of the bunch the curious case of Benjamin Button which was an amazing idea of a person being born with a brain that ages but a body that gets younger - talk about make me cry.

Anyway am back at work now but trying to keep the holiday buzz going.