Hail and Sunshine

Today around 1:00pm it started to hail. Shortly afterwards the sun came out, then it hailed again, real hard this time we watched the hail coming down over the bay, it was both lovely and scary. Then the sun was out again and the house started to warm up. Not to be outdone by a little sun the clouds came back and it started to hail again, and just now the sun came out.

It is now 1:45pm. The above, as described, took place in 45 minutes.

Wellington weather is fierce and alive.

PS - Seven minutes after publishing this post it started to hail again. Uggh

Dinner

Last night I was in charge of making dinner. This seems to happen more frequently in NZ, I expect it is because of the new foods and recipes I want to try. Well back to last night ...

We had salad, pasta, and muscles. It was actually a feast, about 20 muscles boiled in white wine, garlic and olive oil; which was reduced to a sauce for the angel hair pasta; and served with a salad made with greens I have never tasted in the US.

Now this is the kicker. All up we spent $8 on dinner last night. Most of that was for the half bottle of wine I dumped in the pot. The muscles were $2.20 a kilo and we had 3/4 a kilo which means we spent about $1.5 on 1.6lbs of muscles.

Day after his birthday

Showing off ...

Changes to Wardrobe and Eating

Since we've been here over a year now, I've been thinking about the changes we've made over the last year. Here are some.

My wardrobe has undergone some upgrades. I now own some kiwi made and kiwi designed items. Winter here feels colder than in Chicago due to the high humidity. I am replacing my cotton turtlenecks (polo here) with merino wool tops. I've also bought some warm cardigans and scarves. So my wardrobe is becoming stylish and warm.

I make pumpkin soup. Here pumpkin is the generic term for winter squash. Pumpkin soup is popular and easy to make. I buy a wedge at the supermarket, steam it and mash it. Then I add it to broth and flavor it with fresh ginger and some seasoning. I serve it with a little bit of fresh cream on top. Pumpkin soup has become a new favorite.

Another favorite meal is stir fry with curry sauce. I keep jars of red and green Thai curry sauce in the refrigerator. Some meat, frozen vegetables, some coconut milk, rice and I've got a tasty dinner.

We make pizza at home. The easiest way is to buy ready-made bases at the grocery store. I buy ready-made sauce as well. For Dennis' pizza we grate Tasty cheddar cheese and put that on top. For the grown ups I saute onions, peppers and mushrooms. Sometimes we put on some pepperoni or sausage, sometimes just veges. Some days I plan ahead and make homemade crust. That is the best! We seldom eat pizza out and I don't buy frozen pizzas.

We enjoy eating some new fruits. In late fall, feijoas are in season. They have a green skin and are aromatic with a sweet perfume. I peel them and put them in our fruit salads. Our neighbor has served them to us in a cake and in a pudding dessert with custard and ginger cookies (gingernut biscuits). Dennis ate 3 or more slices of the feijoa cake.

We eat more kiwi fruit and pears. I buy kiwi fruit and pears in a package or bag; the quality is usually high. I try to buy more NZ grown produce. I buy less melons since they're imported and a bit expensive.

We eat silver beet or Swiss chard. I put it in a lentil soup that is hearty and delicious.

Dennis and I eat Weet-Bix cereal. I especially like the mini variety with bits of dried berries in them. Dennis likes the standard large size. He puts milk on them and then adds 3 spoonfuls of sugar.

We drink hot lemon, ginger and honey. It is a treat anytime and especially good when I have a cold. Another great item for colds is active manuka honey in tea.

Those are some changes, some ways our horizons have been broadened.

wainuiomata

What do you do on a Saturday when your son is at a friends house? Well you drive to yet another view of Wellington that you have not seen before. This time I wanted to go to Wainuiomata, which is called nappy valley around here. (nappys are diapers) so nappy vally roughly translates to “new family town.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wainuiomata)

It is across the water from Wadestown, and we see the lights of the road going over the hill every evening at dusk. So today with some time on our hands I wanted to go over to this town and see what there is to see.

Let me tell you there isn’t much to see. As a NZ town it is pretty blah. Quite a bit of 1960’s vintage housing (the same stuff as there is in the states.) And no views to speak of. Nothing but some hills as it is in a valley.

However on the way out we stopped at a scenic lookout and wow Wellington fresh from a different angle…

One of the tings I love about Wellington is the fact that the weather is alive here. You are always so close to it (not just because we were 1000’ fee in the air for these pictures) but it seems to come from no where. See how the light changes in these next two picture (this is looking at the hutt valley)

And here is a picture of Chris with wind blown hair …

Hey how did this picture get here ?

hehe)

How things really are

An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the world. So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to Orlando, thinking that he would start by working his way across the USA from South to North, then into Canada and on to the rest of the world.

On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read '$10,000 per call'. The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God. The American thanked the priest and went along his way.

Next stop was in Atlanta. There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign under it. He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in Orlando and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was. She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 he could talk to God. 'O.K., thank you,' said the American.

He then travelled all across America, Europe, England, Japan and Australia. In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same '$US10, 000 per call' sign under it.

The American decided to travel to New Zealand to see if the Kiwis had the same phone. He arrived at sunny Red Beach in NZ and again, in the first church he entered, there was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read '40 cents per call.' The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. 'Father, I've travelled all over the world and I've seen this same golden telephone in many churches. I'm told that it is a direct line to Heaven, but in all of them the price was $10,000 per call. Why is it so cheap here?'

The priest smiled and answered, 'You're in New Zealand now, son - it's a local call'.

My first day here someone said 'Welcome to the God Zone.' It is very true.

What does Kiwi bring to mind?

If you are anything like me if someone was to ask you the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word 'kiwi' you would say 'shoe polish.' Well maybe now you would say 'the weber's great adventure - carpezealand!' but before I told you what kiwi meant you would have said shoe polish.

Well today I broke down and purchased ... shoe polish. I had been meaning to do it for a while just that the stars aligned and I looked down at my shoes when I was near the shoe repair store. So I walked in and asked them for some 'kiwi black shoe polish.'

Guess what. You can't buy the stuff in New Zealand. They stoped selling it a while back. Kind of amazing if you ask me but there you have it.

When I got back into the office I googled the topic. (For those from MoH who are reading this I do not always google personal topics when I get back in the office - sometimes I do it before I leave!) Well this is what I discovered.

KIWI BOOT POLISH - In praise of Kiwianna

New Zealanders are undoubtedly the only nation group whose colloquial identity has been consolidated by a brand of shoe polish. In the early years of European settlement a variety of symbols— predominantly the moa, silver fern, Southern Cross and kiwi—were used to represent the new nation and even by the early 1900s there still wasn't a clear consensus. The silver fern and Southern Cross enjoyed official recognition but the kiwi enjoyed popular appeal, a popularity that was soon to be enhanced by the success of an Australian shoe polish company.

When in 1906 William Ramsay developed a new shoe polish, he named it "Kiwi" in honour of his wife's country of birth. The kiwi had the additional benefit of being an attractive and conveniently rounded image suited to a polish tin and, as well, the name is one that is easily read and pronounced in most languages.

In 1914 the advent of the First World War saw a huge demand for polish for the millions of men under arms—leather booted and belted—and for horses' tack. Ramsay's polish, which had developed a reputation for a quality, deep, long-lasting shine, was the subject of huge orders from both British and US forces.

The transference of "Kiwi" from its shoe polish association to First World War New Zealand soldiers was a simple matter. It was a connection further reinforced by the continuing success of Kiwi polish in postwar markets.

Following the Second World War "Kiwi" came to be synonymous with New Zealanders in general, not just those under arms. (And the shoe polish was to be found just about everywhere troops ventured. The American correspondent Walter Graeber wrote for TIME from the Tobruk trenches in 1942 that "old tins of British-made Kiwi polish lay side by side with empty bottles of Chianti".)

Oddly enough the kiwi has never received official recognition or legal protection as the emblem of New Zealand.The kiwi bird itself is of course one of the wonders of this country's fauna. New Zealand's long geographical isolation, which occurred before the arrival of browsing and predatory mammals in this part of the Gondwanaland super-continent, resulted in a unique environment. Among its special features was the evolution of a number of flightless and ground-dwelling bird species that adapted themselves to ecological niches that would elsewhere on Earth have been filled by mammals.

Best known of the ground-dwelling avifauna are the kiwis, survivors of an offshoot of an evolutionary line that included the now extinct moa. Flightless for thousands of years, the kiwi has only remnant wings hidden under a shaggy, hair-like plumage. Other unusual characteristics include a long bill that has the nostrils at the tip rather than at the base, as in the case of all other birds. In short, then, a unique animal.

http://www.kiwiphile.org/sep2000.html