My Garden: in progress

Tomorrow I fly to the USA for 4 weeks!  I spent a bit of time today tidying my garden up for while I'm gone. I know it's going to be mental when I get back though! The tomatoes are going to be CRAZY and possibly even ripe?  The pumpkins may have taken over by then too. LOL (laugh out loud).

I've been meaning to do a post on my garden for ages now.  I got distracted in my last blog and ended up writing about last year's garden! hahaha.  I've written a whole heap of things for this blog.....but, as usual, I know want to change it all (this is why I rarely revise papers I write!).  So, I think I'll scrap round one (which has a couple of cute antidotes I suppose) and just go with a more easy to follow format similar to my previous blog:  each of my plants gets it's own spot :)  Probably far less writing for me and far more pictures for you! LOL

At the end of summer last year, Dave gave up a large junk of his lawn so that I could attempt to have a winter garden. I had hoped that bringing the plot away from the fence would allow the low rising sun to get over the fence's shadow, but in reality the tip of our round only got a small amount of light.

I did put a few plants in: the silverbeet (aka swiss chard) grandma give me hung in through winter to give us yummy silverbeet pies this spring.  I got a few turnips, but the radishes were eaten by either slugs or ants.  I ended up letting them go to seed

Radish flowers

The onions (and weeds) did pretty good in the two spots I placed them.  They are slow to start and take about 8 months until you can harvest.  I'm pretty pleased with my results:

Row of onions among grass weed and turnip (left)
 (10 Sept)

Onions getting bigger! (28 Nov)

Onions today! (21 Dec)

While waiting for the wet winter to pass, I also planted garlic (which never even sprouted!) and shallot (I'm pretty sure they are doing something; they have lots of green).
I also bought my first ever flower bulbs.  I was delighted with my first spring Hyacinth (a bit worse for the slugs) and my lovely Japanese Iris

I quite liked my surprisingly bright anemone also.

Windswept and rootbound,
but starting to fruit

I planted capsicum (sweet/bell pepper) from the seeds of a store bought pepper sometime in late summer/early fall.  I was surprised to find EVERY seed sprouted! Capsicums, however, don't like the cold.  That meant they had to be in the warmest room of the  house; the dining room where the fireplace is.  We had a lovely forest of plants as our centerpiece throughout all winter!

Bigger Fruit!!!!

Having babied these plants for MONTHS, I was as nervous as a mother letting her child ride her bike alone for the first time!  Would they survive the slugs?  Should I have waited for a less windy day!  Will it be too much direct sun all at once?  I put the 6 pepper plants out on the same day as two store bought tomatoes and an eggplant.

The tomatoes have been doing well, a bit to well actually. I didn't manage to keep their lateral shoots trimmed, so I've had to tie a million different branches to the stakes!  I got a little ruthless today and broke off several well developed laterals, just because I couldn't be bothered supporting them!  As you can see, these two tomatoes have gotten quite bushy!  The little plant in the middle is one of the capsicums.  I've had to tie it up to support he massive fruits :)

My potatoes have done pretty well too!  I can only hope that the massive amount of foliage is producing lots of starchy tubers under the dirt!  It's a touch annoying having them take over the path, but hopefully our patience will be rewarded.

Planting seedlings

While we are really happy with what we've got going so far, the two big crops (we hope) this year will be the sweet corn and the pumpkins!  Dave planted out corn seedlings from the farmer's market as well as popping a few seeds in the ground.  The seedlings are already producing silks and tassles, while the seeds are well established and on their way.

tassels being formed

I have 3 different pumpkin varieties, started from seed.  I've really enjoyed watching their fast progress!  I'm pretty sure they will have taken over by the time we get back.

My baby seedlings on 11 Nov

11 December

and TODAY 21 Dec!

We put in drip line last month.  The idea being we could put a water timer on it for 90 minutes each morning.  We have yet to get the timer going (one from the store was broke, another shipped out without the important attachment piece!)  We are hoping to get something sorted tomorrow before we fly out!  I can't have all my lovely plants die from lack of a plan!

Oh wow, I wonder what everything will look like when I get back!?!

I actually have more photos (the lettuce garden, the plum tree in blossom and fruiting (we ate a few plums yesterday!), but I just don't have the patience to upload them all.  I'm sure this is plenty for all of you anyway ;)

Hopefully I'll post again fairly soon - with some pictures of a white Christmas :)

Happy Holidays!

My Garden: a look at last year's work

Kat tree already for planting

I've been back in New Zealand, living with Dave, for a bit over a year now. While I go through restless periods every so often, wishing I was travelling again, I am generally quite happy being settled.
 One reason for being content is my ability to have a garden.....and cats.
  I LOVE Dave's two kitties.  (Gardening and cats really go hand in hand anyway.)

From the moment I arrived last November, the garden was being created (well, actually, before I landed!  Grandma had been growing tomato seedlings for nearly a month before I arrived so I wouldn't be starting from scratch!).

Grape tendrils

Dave was more than happy to let me have free reign over his bare dirt - as long as I didn't mess with his grape vine! LOL (laugh out loud)  While Dave is more than happy to enjoy the fruits of the garden, he has never been one to water or weed.  Had I not taken over planting tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, peas, beans, etc he would have been quite content to occasionally spray the weeds and look at dirt while he mowed the lawn.  However, along came Mel! :)

A quick look my facebook (FB) album "Back in NZ" shows that the main garden item to get FB recognition was the tomato.  Between the photos of our work on the house and trips up the coast lies photos of our first tomato turning yellow to red to being eaten.

My next FB album "Coromandel Life" shows a bit more variety in my garden pictures, recognizing potato flowers, purple bean flowers, and cats rolling in the dirt.  I'd say the highlight of last year's garden was: .... in no particular order.....and with now attached links (just pretty colors)......

After a long wait the tomato is FINALLY ripe!

The tomato. As previously mentioned, grandma (Dave's grandma that is) grew them for me as a surprise for my welcome home party.  Dave had thought I'd be arriving too late to start a garden from scratch - little did he know what he was in for!

The radishes.  I dug in heaps of compost to the orange clay outside our kitchen window.  We grew turnips too, but the radishes are much more photogenic. I love all the different colors!!!  

The kumara!  WOW.  How could kumara not come to mind the first time I think about last years garden!

Dave lies amongst the kumara vine. The bushy bit
by his head are potato plants.

Kumara is a New Zealand icon. It's basically a sweet potato and comes in gold, orange, or purple skin colors. Grandma gave us a few shoots she didn't want from her garden.  They went mental! This picture was taken before we decided to just mow the vines.  In the center of the viny madness is a couple of potato plants too, they didn't produced much though.  The kumara, however, produced surprisingly well! I harvested a few MASSIVE roots and lots of average sized roots.  I was harvesting for months before wet winter weather set in and made the few unharvested ones turn to mush.  

Corn!

The sweet corn.  Corn was Dave's idea.  He LOVES corn, so figured why not have some of our own.  It did fairly well, we got at least 4 edible ears off of 2 plants.  The other two were transplanted a month or so after their first planting (from seedlings).  They weren't getting enough sunlight and so they were growing really slowly.  Transplanting them to more light helped them grow, but they didn't get too big before it was time for them to produce (they must be on an internal clock of when to seed - makes growing and harvesting easier I suppose!)

The Dahlia went wild once it had dirt!
Corn plants on each side.

The Dahlia.  Another one of grandma's cast offs.  She had a tuber lying about her yard, unburied yet trying to grow.  She knew how much I liked Dahlia's - as a reminder of my dad and his "dinner plate dahlias".  The hardy tuber should enjoyed it's chance to really shine!  WOW.  It went a bit nuts, taking up heaps of room in the garden.  I was able to divide it several times when I dug it up in the fall.

The purple dwarf beans.  These weren't grown in the garden, but in pots on the deck (along with some sweetpeas).  I love the deep velvety purple color they have! We enjoyed having these in our garden salads throughout summer, along with the snow peas I grew in another container on the deck.

I must not have taken a picture of the "apple cucumber" :(  We bought it from the farmer's market, because the idea of a round cucumber was so novel to me!  It didn't produce terribly well, but we got around 3 or 4 edible fruits for our salads.  Grandma told me she thought a lot of people's cucumbers hadn't done well.  True?  Who knows, but I felt better for it ;)

So, if this is last year's garden, what have I done this year???

My next post is nearly written answering that question, but I thought I'd tease you first ;)  Now, I'm off for a nap before work.....

It's not all work

It was just brought to my attention that it's been 5 months since my last blog..... FIVE MONTHS!!!!! Wow.  I can't believe I didn't even get around to sharing the fantastic 10 day trip to Idaho 5 months ago!  Sigh, I guess that's what happens when the motivation to write has been completely sucked out of you. I'm not sure where the motivation has gone; it hasn't sent me postcards or updates so I've no idea when it's coming back.  Even if you're not a follower of my blog, you may have felt the implications of my runaway inspiration: I am SO far behind my e-mail correspondence!!!!  I am at least 2 months late in replying to the same person that just e-mailed me to mention she misses my blog; she figures SOMETHING must be going on!

Well, to be honest - there isn't a whole lot going on! I work quite a bit, but sometimes not enough to keep my bank account full (just enough to save for our Christmas trip to USA). I work most every weekend, so that keeps me from spending too much money, or having too much to blog about.  That said; we have had a few outings.  The most recent being "Brits at the Beach", which just happened to coincide with our British friend birthday! 

Having a taste of British food: Yorkshire pudding & Pig in the hole

 

Here Joseph is checking out a few of the cars from his homeland 

 We've also indulged is some GREAT food!

Dave's improved sliverbeet pie: more
silverbeet (swiss chard) leaves & less
cheese (yes, you can have to much cheese)

Silverbeet Pie with garlic sauteed silverbeet stem and
 steamed asparagus & beetroot

Avocados from our flatmates office: we made a yum guacamole
 to share with a Canadian Couchsurfer

There's nothing better than food from the garden
(broad beans and beetroot), unless of course
it's being cooked FOR you!

So, life isn't all work!  There's going to the gym and eating well too! I'm working on keeping my gym motivation from running off to join my writing, but I only have 1.5 moths of gym membership left, so I HAVE to keep going with it (granted I did exceptional at going 5 days a week for over a month...until I severely sprained my ankle (I probably should have gone to the doctors, but then I'd have been on crutches and that would have cramped the paycheck)).  I am still going to the gym though - just not as enthusiastically.  Perhaps if writing my blog was tied to money I'd have more incentive? That's why I go to the gym - when I bought my membership I spent ALL of the savings I'd put aside since getting a job ($350 I think - yeah, expensive!).  I don't regret it though, I would be an absolute sloth if I hadn't started the gym to get me exercising during the wet, cold winter.  When I started though, I calculated that my membership cost between 3 and 5 dollars per weekday.  So - if I opted to skip a day, I was pretty much giving away $5 that day. That's kept me pretty  motivated to keep up the attendance....that and stickers. I bought colored stickers to put up each day I went to the gym: green for resistance training (3x a week) and blue for cardio (2x a week).

I have heap of garden pictures loaded onto the computer. I hope to get another blog out before Christmas vacation ;)  But for now.....I gotta get ready for work (for the cafe lunch rush), then go to the gym, then go back to work (for the restaurant evening shift).

Pavlova

I was first introduced to the “Pavlova” one and half years ago, at my partner’s birthday.  Though I had told Dave’s mum that I was making a rocket cake for the event, she brought a store bought pavlova, along with the traditional whipped cream and fruit toppings, for my education.  The store bought “pav” was tall, round, airy on the inside, and sugary crispy on the outside – reminding me of an angel food cake with the yummy overcooked parts all over the outside.  Kathy was sure to tell me not to expect such a tall concoction at Christmas lunch (just 1 week later), as most homemade pavs are notorious for falling and cracking (but still tasting good).  True to her word, the Christmas pav was quite a bit flatter; but that just meant there was more crunchy goodness of the outside and a less marshmellowing interior (which is good, but a bit too much for me when it’s as tall as the store ones). 

For those who don’t know (and that’s probably half my readers), pavlova is a type of meringue traditional to both Australia and New Zealand (don’t bring up the origin of the Pav when around more than one of these nationalities – they’ll both claim it as theirs…..though Wikipedia does credit New Zealand to having the first published recipe).  Pavlova is made using egg whites, sugar, vinegar, vanilla, and cornstarch (called corn flour over here).  Apparently (according to the same Wikipedia page) it is the addition of the corn starch that leads this meringue mixture to produce a light, marshmellow-like interior that nearly melts in your mouth. 

I’d been told that making a pavlova from scratch is not hard.  However, much like a lemon meringue pie, the thought of making one is daunting.  I had visions of a cracked, crumbling, and flat product.  Despite my fear, I’d been meaning to get around to giving this kiwi icon a go for a fair few months now.  I probably would have put off the attempt for a fair few more months if I hadn’t been thinking of kiwi dishes I want to serve during my visits back home.  While the pav is very often seen at Christmas lunches, I thought the airy dessert covered in cream, blue berries, and strawberries might make a nice addition to my Fourth of July spent stateside (red, white, and blue….get it ;). So, in an effort to present a reasonably accurate kiwi dessert, I’ve decided to make one pavlova a week until I depart (I’ve got 2.5 more weeks to go)…..

Here is my first attempt:

Dave and I had checked out the internet several months ago, when I first mentioned wanting to try a Pav.  He immediately went to the Cowell’s website, stating that they must know how to make a good pav – since they are in all the grocery stores.  Before we trusted our faith in Cowell’s (who knows, maybe they want me to fail so I buy their perfect pavs!?), we checked out the Joy of Baking’s recipe too.  In the end, we stuck with Cowell’s recipe but kept some of the helpful tips from Joy of Baking in mind (such as making sure the sugar was dissolved in the egg whites by rubbing the mixture between your fingers: gritty texture = not dissolved sugar). 

Next was the ingredients.  Cowell’s recommends using the freshest ingredients possible.  I know the cornstarch was pretty old (been in the cupboard since I moved in!), but I was more worried about the eggs.  We had a nice walk in the sun (and chilly breeze) to get some new eggs (we picked up some krantzky sausages to try for lunch too, but that’s off the topic).  Speaking of off topic – if a typical American was to get off the plane and go to a grocery store here in NZ, there are two things off the top of my head that they would notice:  1) there is no orange/yellow cheddar cheese to be found, and 2) the eggs, while most likely located close to the milk, cheese, and other chilled foods, are not refrigerated!  I’ve mentioned this to several couchsurfing Americans and we all think it’s rather bizarre.  However, I’ve NEVER gotten sick on unrefrigerated eggs.  In fact, I’ve never even cracked a rotten egg!  (Though Dave and I do tend to do the water test on our old eggs before using them…..if they sink, they’re perfect; if they half float, half sink they are good for baking; if they float to the top, chuck them before you regret a cracked shell).  After reading the pavlova tip of making sure the eggs are at room temperature before using, Dave wondered if that’s the reason kiwis don’t refrigerate their eggs?

Anyhow – back to the main story!  Well, there’s not really much to tell.  After being sold on how yummy krantsky sausages taste (they have bits of cheese in them), I got the beaters out and started on the egg whites.  I used the recipe from Cowell’s and eventually had a stiff mixture.  Dave concurred that I’d hit the “stiff peak” stage and was ready to bake.

I used the 23 cm (9 inch) diameter marks I’d made previously (per Cowell’s directions) and spread the mixture into a near circle, piling the mixture on top too.  Then (after a short delay to warm up the oven that I had in fact not turned on, despite having set to temperature) I put it in the oven.

15 minutes later I was delighted to see that my pav had raised ever so slightly.  I turned the temperature down 20 degrees (celcius) and put the timer for 75 minutes…… 75 minutes later, I turned the oven off but left the pavlova inside.  This was one tip I hadn’t seen mentioned, but had been relayed to me by our café cook – “Don’t open the oven door, EVER, until the oven is cooled”.  I wasn’t taking any chances, I left that oven door firmly closed for the next 4 – 5 hours.

After letting our delicious dinner (of thai pumpkin and chicken curry, thanks to a recipe on the pumpkin soup can) settle a bit, I finally opened the oven door.
I must say, I was a tad disappointed

that it hadn’t kept it’s puffed up size…. Perhaps it was only an illusion that the pav had risen in the oven, but what I took out was the same size as the mixture that went in.  On the upside, though, it also hadn’t deflated to the thickness of a paper plate!  It was a slightly crackled in texture, but it was not cracked or crumbling. 

I put the knife in for the first slice, the outside cracked and flaked like a well cooked sugar coating should.  When I pulled the first slice out, it stayed nearly intact – breaking the quarter slice into an eighth.

The first bite?  Delicious!  Crunchy addictive outside, melty (possibly slightly too gooey) inside!  Dave confirmed that it tasted like a pavlova should, though I thought it was A LOT sweeter than I remembered.  I guess that’s why whipped cream and fruit is the traditional topping…..what else would you put on a cup of sugar carried in egg whites?!

Obviously, we didn’t eat the whole thing in one sitting.  While we were both somewhat tempted, the pure sugar rush was making me a bit ill and we were both full from dinner.  So, we put it back in the oven for the next day…..seemed like a logical place to put it, since that’s where it had spent so much time……

Of course, the next morning, when Dave got up for work, the pitfalls of storing pure sugar in a non-airtight environment became apparent……..

…….When Dave returned to our room after breakfast and lunch making, I asked (in a mumbly, sleepy voice from bed) “What’s burning?”.  His reply, “Nothing, I turned the oven on to get rid of the ants”!  Ooops!!!

Oh well, at least we weren't sick of my first pav!  We'll have a bit of help eating tomorrow's pavlova, we've got a couchsurfer from Germany staying for 2 nights.....wonder if she wants to learn to make a pav? :)  

Going home in a month.

So. I've been a bit lazy with writing lately....obviously!  I have had a few ideas, but never got around to getting my fingers moving.  I think I've been in a bit of depression lately.  Probably most of it is to do with my complete lack of exercise, but it's REALLY hard to get out of bed when it's cold outside!  haha  I've also had a hard time lately thinking about my dad.  It's weird how random scenes in the cafe will make me want to cry over missing him!  Dave knows I've been having a hard time lately.

However, I'm doing much better now. I'm still slightly unmotivated for doing anything, but I am typing aren't I? (probably because the Australian Tax Office website won't cooperate with my application to get my money back (it crashed and won't reload the page) and Koshka the cat is sitting on my lap (finally after thinking about it all morning) and I don't want to move her. LOL).  Anyway, I think the reason I'm feeling heaps better is because I'm going home in a month!!!!!

Yep, in 4 weeks and 2 days I fly out of Auckland and head to Boise.  I'm not really looking forward to the flight or the LAX airport, but I am so excited to see my mom, sister, friends, family, and MY CAT!!!!! I can't wait to cuddle Yang!  Unfortunately, the visit is only for 8.5 days (plus 2 days of travel) :(  I'm afraid I just can't afford more time off work, and I'm a bit afraid I wouldn't have a job to come back to if I could afford more time off!  I wouldn't have even made the trip for such a short time, except mom wants me to visit as much as I do and she jumped at the chance to split the cost of the ticket with me. Granted, she did pay more than her half!  I soooo very much appreciate her help!!

I'll be several weeks to late for the family reunion my sister has planned, but I don't mind.  I'll be there for the 4th of July, which sounds like it will be at a cousins cabin - where I've never been!  Plus, I'll be home with family when 6 July rolls around....the day dad died last year.  Not a date to celebrate, but one that is hard to ignore. I look forward to remembering him without all the immediate sadness of his death.  I look forward to seeing my mom's garden.  I look forward to the hot summer sun.  I look forward to seeing my niece and nephew.  I'm just really looking forward to a vacation!!!!

Still a little bit American

Despite having lived in Australasia for nearly 2 years, I still have some American ingrained in me.

While my friends and family may have laughed when I spoke to them last July, many Kiwi's can pick that I'm American right away.  A lot of times people wonder if I'm Canadian (people always have, even when I was guiding in Alaska) and occasionally people swear I'm Irish (if you've ever heard a true Irish accent you have to wonder what these people are thinking to hear me as Irish!).  An American couchsurfering couple we hosted didn't think I sounded American, but I certainly don't sound kiwi either (despite all the slang I use).

However, it's the little differences that remind me that I'm living in a country I didn't grow up in.  In all honesty, there isn't a huge amount of differences between New Zealand and America.  McDonalds and KFC are as popular here as they are there, we sleep on mattresses, have dishwashers, watch American movies/TV, and have a pretty similar set of cultural standards (education, economy, environmental debate, farming).  The largest, and most glaring, difference to a new arrival would be the driving.  We drive on the left hand side of the road here - with our steering wheel on the right.  I'll admit, I still wander to the wrong side of the car sometimes!  However, I rarely have to repeat, in my head, to myself "Stay left, stay left, stay left" when turning a corner anymore.  Trust me, I used to!

I've adapted pretty well here.  I almost always say biscuit instead of cookie now, but I'm probably still half and half on calling fries chips.  Ironically, I sound more Canadian than ever now, having picked up on the kiwi use of "aye" after many comments.....though I haven't sorted out the subtle nuances of making the one word have many definitions: question, exclamation, indignant affront to my intelligence.

But regardless of how comfortable and natural I feel here in NZ (pronounced "N Zed"), there is one thing that will probably always get me.......The light switches!  To this day, it still feels unnatural to turn the light switch DOWN to turn the light ON.  This point made me chuckle (and write this blog) when it became so obvious this morning how much I haven't let go of my American "up = on" philosophy.  We have two light switches in the kitchen right next to each other.  I had only turned one on to make my breakfast.  When I went to turn it off again I saw one switch was down and one was up....... Now, I'm pretty sure I mentally said "Okay, the switch that is down is the one that is on.....so you need to hit the upside to make it go off"........
What do I do?  I turn the other light on!!!  Ah hahahahaha Ah hahahahaha   hahahaha.  Aaaahhhhhhh
It really is the small things in life!      :)

TOTAL Freedom

Today I am COMPLETELY free!

I have a  list of projects I could choose to work on (puzzling, poking holes in an old hose to make a drip line, painting and sealing Dave’s valentine  box,  reading, etc, etc), however I don’t really feel like doing any for those projects. J  Not a one of them NEEDS to be done today… tomorrow…. or even next week!  Ha, all of those projects have  been around (plus one or two more) for a few days  anyway (hello, valentine’s was 2 weeks ago!).  So what makes me EXTRA FREE today?

 On 16 February (Tuesday), 2 weeks and a day ago, my passport was returned from Immigration New Zealand (ImmNZ).  In it was not the 1+ year work permit for which I had been.  Instead, I had a 4 month permit!  Whoa, wait, what?  4 months!  I’m not leaving in June!  Turns out ImmNZ want a copy of my United States police certificate.  Once they receive the certificate, therefore verifying that I am of good enough character to be in their country,  ImmNZ will extend my work permit to Nov 2011.  I plan to apply for residency by January 2011 – when I’ll have to obtain ANOTHER copy of my police certificate!

On 18 February (Thursday) I mailed my police record request to FBI headquarters.  I had filled out the request, included a set of fingerprints (taken by a Thames constable on an official NZ police fingerprint sheet), and completed a credit card form for the US$18 fee (fortunately I still have American debit/credit cards ;).  I also took the liberty of including a copy of my passport, certified by a court clerk.  I’m watching my debit card transactions to find when the FBI will have actually received AND begun processing my request.  The FBI website tells me it can take 8 weeks to process the request….. good thing I have 13 weeks!  That gives me 5 weeks leeway for ImmNZ to process my new work permit.  Thankfully, ImmNZ isn’t charging me an additional processing fee!!! 

So – again….. why am I EXTRA FEE today? 

Well….because I’m employed!!!!!!!  Yep!  The day I received my work permit, I started looking for a job. ( I didn’t dare look for work before I was legally employable; I knew I would just disappoint myself when I found the perfect field/lab technician position being advertised and I couldn’t apply for it).  2 weeks later (to the day), I had dinner and went to bed knowing that I was an employed person! :-D   That means, that not only am I free to NOT look for a job today – I am free to NOT WORRY about getting a job!!!!!!!  WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO

My first day employed – and I don’t have to work! How awesome is that?

What is my job?  When DO I work?  This Thursday (tomorrow) and Friday night will be my first training days at Rocco.  Rocco is a tapas and wine bar that opened last year.  I’ve been wanting to visit the restaurant for over a year – but I never have the money.  Since I’ve been back in town, every time we walk past the old house (with fantastic outdoor seating and landscaping) I tell Dave that “when I get a job, we’re going to eat there”.  Ha.  Now I’ll be working there! LOL.

However, Rocco will probably not be my main serving location.  The owner of Rocco is opening a new pub in Town.  It will be located in the historical Brian Boru hotel; along with a small art gallery (apparently selling very expensive paintings by a famous guy I don’t know!).  “Brew” sounds to be niching into a sophisticated, yet simple, café with fresh (mostly local or handmade) food.  But, I’ll let you know when I actually see the place.  I believe they are opening the doors next Friday (12 March).  Brew will retain the old pubs liquor license, creating a venue for dinners and shows.  Saturday (13 March), three New Zealand comedians will be performing at Brew – dinner optional, free beer tastings!  I’m very excited to be included in the team that will be working at Brew!

Short update

Hi.  In case your wondering - I have not been killed or incapacitated by any of Australia's myriad of poisonous animals ;-)  I've just been SLACK!

In fact, I'm not even IN Australia anymore!  I know, the last post I wrote was about the beautiful Blue Mountains outside of Sydney.  My mom hadn't even been a week into her 3 week visit by that time!

Mom has been very patient with me despite her really wanting to read the blogs of her trip.  However, she told me a few weeks ago that it was okay if I didn't blog the rest of the trip.  Obviously I was having a hard time getting myself motivated to tackle the epic trip, so she told me she would be happy just having me upload the best pictures to Facebook (FB) for her..... 3 months later, I still have our last week of the journey to post on FB!  See - SLACK.  However, I am tackling that project right now - between randomly typing this.

Anyhow..... I'm back in New Zealand.  I flew out of Australia the same day as mom.  It worked out well, I was just about able to walk her to her gate - just about, apparently flights going to the US have extra security now; the gate was blocked off and boarding passes checked.  Shortly after mom's plane left I flew "home" to Dave (greeted, as expected, with a big bouquet of flowers and a HUGE smile!).

I arrived on the partner sponsored visitor visa.  I've pretty much been living the life of a kept woman ever since my arrival in November!  I pull my weight around the house - cleaning, gardening, etc etc - but I am starting to get antsy about having no money and Dave paying for everything.  Fortunately, I got my work permit last week!!! YAY!!!!!  So, the last week and half I have been desperate and antsy for a job!  LOL.  I've got my fingers crossed that the few leads I have will pan out in the next week or two.


Okay - I best get back to sorting through pictures for FB now ;-)  Here's my favorite out of the few I've sorted through already.....  It's my favorite because it is the epitome of our sunset picnic on the beach, our first night back from Tasmania.  It was such a lovely and relaxing evening after a LONG day of driving and wondering if we'd make to the park in time for sunset.... as it was, we were there ages before the sun neared the horizon!!!  And, we had nearly the entire beach to ourselves!