Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends on Saturday. Kiwi's are not given the Thursday off of work and it is much easier to snag a few of them for a Turkey dinner on the weekend. The average Kiwi believes that Turkey is a big dry bird that has little flavor. I personally think it is a urban legend that has its roots in fowl envy. And to show everyone I, once again, choose to grill the bird!



The foil wrapped around the grill is to keep the heat an smoke in as the bird itself is too large. I am quite pleased to say that this approach worked like a champ. The bird came out golden brown smokey in color and flavor and was just so very very good. Unfortunately that is the best picture you will get of the bird as I forgot to get the camera out when the bird came out.

I did fortunately take the camera out and get some pictures of our guests. Here is Monique and Gerry getting out of the car, they were the first to arrive which is only appropriate as they live less than a mile away.



As you can tell from the picture it was a beautiful day here in Wellington. Just one of those amazing days where the phrase "You can't beat Wellington on a Good Day" originated. Which was a good thing as like any BBQ in the states the men found themselves relegated to the grill while the woman sat down on the leather lounge set drinking white wine.

Now this was not a bad thing, as you may know Gerry and I have been known to brew the occasional beer together. It is a male bonding exercise that has the added benefit of lowing the cost of beer in both our households. Gerry donated two bottles of Ol' Number 17. This is a Belgian brew we bottled back in August, I matched that bottle for bottle. And I am speaking for everyone when I say it aged very very well over the past four months. The men had no hardship cooling their thirst under the warm sun as we watched the smoke waft up from the grill.

We, the men, were eventually allowed back in the house, but only after we had removed the bird from the grill, brought it in the house to rest, and ran out of beer. And all the women did was drink more white wine, who says life is fair?


The food was served buffet style as packing 9 people around the table just seemed too crowded for the food. Fortunately this house has a buffet ... here you can see some people going in for seconds.

A good time was had by all, I especially liked the end of the day; after desert and cheese were enjoyed, the dishes were stacked; we grabbed the wine bottles, our glass and headed out to the balcony overlooking the mountains. What a glorious time, views of Wilton and Wadestown, the cool evening air, subdued conversation. We chatted until the stars started to appear.

Cold Water Tap

I managed to strip the cold water faucet on the tub last week. Good news is that I had an external spigot handle which worked so there was no hurry. On Friday I eventually got around to calling Richard, the landlord, and asked him if he would like me to fix it or call a plumber. He wisely said I should give it a go.

So on Saturday I went over to our local Mitre-10 and asked if they have any handles laying around as I could not find any in the by all the kitchen and bathroom fixtures. The helpful man walked me to the other side of the store (okay it isn't very big but you get the idea, not by the fixtures and fittings.) And there they were nice metal handles (that would be pressed tin that will rust in two years in our humid climate) for only $84 a set! Sticker Shock! He saw the look on my face, and probably heard the audible grown. And said "We have cheaper ones they are sold out now, but I can order them." He then pointed to the rack of "crystal" handles (that would be cheap chinese plastic) for a mere $75 a pair. As this is a family blog I will not let you know what I said to that.

Knowing that I would not be buying anything (as I did not walk into the store with enough cash I opened the box anyway and noticed something that once again reminded me of how much I love this place. Instead of a dozen different types of handles each with a different type of fitting to the faucet. In the box there were four (well eight) little nylon inserts to fit on the various different types of plumbing around here. I jokingly said to the guy "How much for me to just take this little piece of nylon?"

He walked down the aisle and pointed to another rack with a bunch of individually bagged nylon inserts for only $3.50 each. Now were talking! Getting down to my price range. And as luck would have it nothing was quite the one that I needed. I imagine what I was looking for was in the sold out rack to the left. But hey after 30 months in the country I have adopted the kiwi can-do attitude (we would call that good ol' Yankee ingenuity) and bought the closest match.

Back at the ranch I confirmed that it did not fit and ignored it for 24 hours. The next day I tackled the job. gathered my tools in this case a hammer and pocket knife. First thing I did was find out if there was a polarity to the insert, and yes it was, it only fit in the handle one way so I marked it and moved on to the fun stuff, playing with knives. I carved a bit of the nylon out of the the insert and gently (very gently Richard!) tapped it on the fixture.

I then slipped the handle over the nylon and screwed it in voila it worked!

My respect for Maori culture grows

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10685215