Sheep - in New Zealand!!!

We were driving up our street and saw this guy and his pet lamb. Iain brought the car to a screeching halt so I could leap out and take a picture. Apparently they live right down the street from us!

Gypsy Tea Room

We've had some a-MAZ-ing weather on the weekends. The weeks have been semi-crappy, but once Saturday hits - damn! I'll take a little rain on a Tuesday if it means drinks with friends outside on Saturday.

Last weekend, on a whim, we drove to The Gypsy Tea Room. You may remember The Gypsy Tea Room from such blog entries as Julia's Birthday.

Julia and our friend Tash live in the neighborhood so we met up with them and Julia's bf Ian. It was just such a novelty to be able to sit outside again! Bring on spring and summer!!! The place was really hopping, too -- you can tell that everyone is just DONE with winter and rain.

After drinks, Iain and I picked up an American style pizza from Sal's. Thank god for Sal's.

Election time

It's election time here in Auckland. It's a really big deal, as all of the local townships around the city recently merged to form a Super City. It's changing everything, although I admit that I haven't been paying nearly as much attention to it as I should.

Some of the big issues facing the next mayor include taxes, public transport, the Harbour Bridge, and what the hell Auckland intends to do for the throngs of people coming here for the Rugby World Cup. It should be an interesting race.

I've been at home for the last two days with yet another horrendous head cold. I went in on Monday and revolted my coworkers with endless coughing fits. On the bus home, I sat in the way back to minimize bothering the other passengers as I coughed and hacked from Auckland, over the Harbour Bridge, through Northcote Point, past Birkenhead, and finally home.

Iain's delicious hot toddies aren't cutting it, nor is the codeine I had leftover from foot surgery. Last night was so bad I stopped talking altogether and wrote to Iain on a whiteboard: "I'm still hungry." ; "I'd rather watch 30 Rock." ; "We've seen this episode." ; "How were your meetings?" ; "Where's Tama?"

For two nights I've kept Iain awake with my constant coughing. Last night we were going to set him up in the guest room with the Aerobed, but totally forgot forgot. This prompted Iain to say the words every wife longs to hear: "Well, I might as well sleep with you tonight since I forgot to make other arrangements."

Winter Weekends

I think I've said this before but we've had an absolutely stunning winter. With the exception of a few freezing (not literally) days, it's been sunny and mild. And thanks to my massive down coat, I've been able to sit outside and enjoy the sun!

Tama doesn't like the cold, however, and prefers quick outside trips followed by long bouts of lounging in the sun. He's definitely not a winter kitty and would much rather have us all in the house together. Conversely, Blue is like a polar bear.

I've also sort of kind of maybe possibly started to watch rugby, or at least tolerate it. It's entertaining, to say the least. I never got to this point with American football (and never will) and still can't fathom cricket.


This morning, after I finish rewatching the hilarious Old Spice guy spots, we're heading out for a clifftop walk in Mairangi Bay. We'll make the walk to Browns Bay, have brunch, then walk back. It helps justify the hollandaise!

Birfday

Our friend Julia turns 33 this weekend so she invited everyone out for drinks. We're chronically early for events. For us, fashionably late for a 7pm event means arriving at 7:04.

To stall ourselves we decided to go out to dinner.
In Devonport (totally out of the way).
We still managed to get over the bridge and across town by 6:50pm. Arrrggg!

We went to this place (Gypsy Tea Room) last year and it was FUH-REEZING, so I made sure to wear wool socks and a big poncho/coat thing that's more blanket than coat. Thankfully, the place has made the leap into modern times and has heat now. The service is still a little chilly, but we were just there for a few drinks.

By 7.45 most of the guests had arrived, including the guest of honor (who thought she'd put "7.30" on the invites). It's an interesting group, half of whom are from our original New Kiwis group, the other half friends we've met along the way. It was fun getting dressed up again -- it's been really cold lately so everyone was complaining of only being able to wear thick sweaters and jeans everywhere.

Click HERE for some more pictures (if you haven't already seen them on FB).

A Good Two Weeks

It's winter here which means a few things:

1. Clothes take like 4 days to dry unless you have a dryer (we don't).

2. Because NZ has this ridiculous idea that it doesn't get cold, 90% of restaurants have little or no heat. Certainly none of them have central heating. We went out to eat last week and you can see me pictured, right next to a fire with about 3 layers on. The food here was really crap, too. You know how places in really incredible locations (right on the beach, anywhere in Niagara Falls, etc.) often have really bad food? This is one of those places.


3. Blue is doing really well -- getting lots of love and attention!

4. But the winters in Auckland aren't horribly cold, really, so you do get some lovely days where you can sit outside. We had friends over for brunch and enjoyed an hour of warm sun before it got chilly again. Thank god we have central heating!


If you're wondering what that red liquid is in our friend Catherine's champagne glass, it's evil sparkling shiraz. It combines the fun of champagne with the hangover of red wine. It's delicious, but you can only have 2 glasses or you'll hate yourself the next day. Last year they had a party with a bunch of this stuff and we're still talking about it.....

Catherine and her husband Steve just returned from a 10 week honeymoon around the world. Incredible!

I finally remembered my camera!

We went for a walk this morning -- one of my first long walks since my foot surgery. It was only 50 minutes but better than nothing. Last week I went for a few walks at lunchtime, and managed to get down to the Viaduct and all the way around before my foot started hurting. It made for a painful walk back to work, but I'm glad I got out.

It's been raining intermittently all day (welcome to winter in Auckland!) but we managed to have a nice wander through Northcote Point. It's a beautiful neighborhood 15 minutes from our 'hood, on the north shore of Auckland. Full of old villas and fantastic views of the Harbour Bridge, most homes run around $900K+. We actually looked at buying a house here - the price seemed far too good to be true, which it was. The house was right next to the motorway, right as people got off the bridge. We didn't even bother going in. The house pictured here isn't the house, but you get the idea of what the neighborhood is like. And I love the blue roof!

For Kate Brill

Hey skank,

Here's a picture of what we have in our fridge.

I hope this lays your fears to rest!!! (Although, I DO say "toMAHto sauce" in restaurants.)

What Aucklanders are Eating

This is a neat link promoting the Auckland Museum's latest exhibit. They've asked people to upload pictures of typical (and not so typical) Kiwi culinary delights. The Auckland Museum has great exhibits -- from what I can tell from walking by, viewing stuff on Twitter or seeing their posters. No, I've never actually BEEN to the museum...

I don't know the people in this picture, but based on where they are and what they're eating, I wish they were my best friends.

http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/1429/showcase

Token House Shots, part one

A few shots of the house (taken right after we cleaned). More to come.

We're Back!

Okay, after a few month's hiatus I've decided to start up again. This is mainly due to the (sad?) fact that I really missed blogging, and while Facebook is great, I don't always want to post everything on it.

I promise not to keep rattling on about the bloody house - we're in it, it's great. I'll post some pictures.

Here's a quick run-down of what we've been up since I last posted:

1. I had minor foot surgery. This thrilling undertaking was 500x better than the same surgery I had on my other foot back in 2003. Incredible -- either they've made huge medical breakthroughs in bunion surgery (doubtful) or the first guy I had in Philly was crap (likely). I got to work from home for a week which was great!



2. Iain got promoted! (I can't remember if that was mentioned before). I'm still working for the same folks and am enjoying it a hell of lot more than I used to. Karma can be a good thing.

3. Iain's parents visited for 9 days in May. They were our first official houseguests! We spent the week eating way too much. It was a really good time and (hopefully) nice and relaxing for them. I think Blue had the best deal: he received twice the number of belly rubs and pats. Tama was still skittish but not totally freaking out, so that's progress.







More posts to come!

Weekend

This weekend was going to be all about packing, cleaning, and getting prepared for the move.

So why did we wind up:

1. eating lunch by the beach
2. wandering around the Viaduct
3. visiting friends, Jenny + David and week old baby Max
4. watching rugby (Iain)
5. seeing Precious (me)
6. having drinks with our 85 year old neighbors, Mitch + Lois

Maybe it had something to do with the weather -- spectacular!!

Famous!

I've been in this country two years and I've been featured twice in national magazines! (this might having something to do with the fact that it's a country of slightly over 4 million people.) Here's a picture from this month's issue of MiNDFOOD. It's me with two friends at the Kiehl's launch at Smith + Caughey. Truthfully, we were just there for the free wine and samples.

P.S. They made me hold that magazine.

Slow News Day

This breaking news story appeared on page 3 of the New Zealand Herald. Come on. Page THREE?!

The Floor's So Clean I Can See My Head Right Through It!

The title of this post is courtesy of an oft-quoted guy named Fred who 3 people who read this blog will remember from Plum Dandy.

Last week, all work on the house came to a standstill as the floor guys went in and did their thing. We are so happy that we didn't choose to stain the floors a different color to cover up the imperfections - it looks great, the imperfections add charm, and the parts that are a bit conspicuous (foyer and hallway leading to bathroom) will fade with age.

We're down to the end here, thank GOD. In the next three weeks, we've got radiators, screens, double-glazing, plumbing, carpet, kitchen backsplash, VANITY AND SHOWER INSTALLATION, kitchen appliance and rangehood install, door-rehanging, blinds, and of course landscaping. Anything else? I cant remember.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day in Auckland. After a Skype call with the 'rents, we quickly ran errands and got home in time to enjoy a few hours in the backyard with our books. The older couple next door had what sounded like Sinatra playing loudly from their home throughout most of the afternoon -- at first we were like, "What the hell is that music?!?!" but as soon as we realized it was them, we relaxed.



Mom and Dad, this is what I was talking about with the screens!

The landscaper starts next Thursday - thank GOD!