yum

Some thing is going on in my tummy.

I'm craving healthy foods

Quinoa patties

yum!

What I am having for dinner tomorrow is

courgettes with mozzarella and roma tomatoes grilled on top.

Like courgette pizza.

I eat a lot of courgettes.

Two years ago as part of my adoration

of the Pioneer Woman

Dae bought me Pioneer Woman's cookbook.

Oh the recipes in this book!

Wonderful looking and yet I made none.

The food was so American and heavy.

Entirely suitable for a farm environment.
Food that will fill your belly and put hair on your chest.

Is that the silliest saying or what?

always

thought it would be great to be one of those people who has the discipline to work from home.

I was awake at 5.45am as the lambies were tap dancing on the back deck. I thought "Aha! This is the perfect moment to get up and write that scoping document on the Rural Business Network!"

It's been 51 minutes and all I have done is reply to email, read Pioneer Women's site, facebook a little and now blog.

On top of that, my security settings keep resetting themselves as my webaccess work email address is unsecure and on top of that!! I have no phone at the moment because it threw its self into the bath - really it did!

I was using my phone as a bookmark and when I grabbed my book, forgetting the phone was in there, my phone flipped through the sky and into the bath. I kind of just looked it sitting on the bottom my very hot bath thinking "What the heck is that?" then squealed (not a natural sound for me), grabbed it and tossed it on to a towel, lay back and read my book.

In hindsight, maybe drying the phone immediately would have been preferable.

morning moon

At the moment the only daylight I seem to see is in the morning and then what do you know the moon was still up getting me all confused about the time of day.

The only way I realised it was morning was because I was heading south (does that have a capital S when you are talking about direction?).

I really am in two minds about whether you should tamper with photos.

Pioneer Woman does it a lot and has great results, she also had a better camera and software. If I didn't know if this was taken facing south I would think it was an early rising moon instead of a late to bed one. That's a bit tricky.

I gotta get my blogging mojo back.... good thing I'm going to Gore tomorrow.

That'll get it back for sure.

A discovery has been had

So when you blog, even though you do it for people you know and to practice some discipline in writing (Virginia Wolfe is right about a room of your own) it is also really cool when people you don't know comment or become your blog follower.

It validates what I'm doing here, which I hope is amusing you.

But I found a wee secret to getting more blog traffic.... because I am a generous person I'll share it with you...

Comment on Pioneer Woman's blog within a the first 50 comments and you get loads of visitors.

Until today Oti has pretty much been every dot in the USA on my world map (in the right column there) but the place dots went of the map (pun intended).

I love PW, I read her every morning over my omelette or steak (sod ricies and cornies). I have got to work late because of PW (I don't actually have a start time so it's relative). I love her photos, her posts, her instuctive recipes (remember ice cream pies - PWs), she funny and quirky - she makes my breakfast so much better. Her blog is my happy place.

Ice cream pie...

...doesn't that sound absurdly delicious!

doesn't that look absurdly delicious?!

Here's the recipe from Pioneer Woman's website, I'm making it ASAP = now if the weather would co-operate and make it ice cream pie kind of weather this would be heaven.

Did I tell you I love her?

super, fast weekend...

Due to a cancellation I took advantage of an air ticket that was looking for a home. Actually let me pause for a second here and say that since the invention of booking tickets on-line, I feel decidedly less committed to informing the airline if I'm not taking the flight - now before you call me a modern day Marie Antoinette, these are work tickets that plans have changed and the meeting is no longer needed but because you booked on-line, the ticket is unchangeable, non-refundable I feel no need to tell the airline I have a better offer. I wonder how that impacts things for them, not that I care since they got rid of snacks.

Anyhoo, the ticket was a one way to Wellington for Saturday morning so I grabbed me a cheap return ticket for Sunday night and off I went to visit and Jolly Hockeysticks and Gavy.

I don't know these people but that was the crappy plane we flew up on. Having said that I wouldn't have got a photo of the big plane I came back on cause you don't need to walk across the tarmac to get on and off that but also because the weather was so terrible on Sunday afternoon.

But I did fulfil one of my non-New Year's resolutions of talking to people on planes. I chatted to a girl who was on holiday from her OE and worked in advertising in London - I wonder why Kiwis on their OE seldom get out of London? She was saying that she had been there for four years and had yet to travel in Europe for a holiday - she did day trips to places like Russia for work. What is that about heaps of UK based OEers I know didn't do as much traveling as they hoped they would and I must admit on my own OE v2 I did plenty but there was so much more I could do. So a big tick on that resolution.

Jolly Hockeysticks met me, which was fab. I love being meet at the airport.

In a previous life I was one of those very efficient, executive types that passed through the airport directly to a waiting taxi like a heat seeking missile. After a while you miss the personal touch and excitement of being met.

We popped over to pick up Jolly's friends Tara and Elissa and then we went to the Hutt to shop - no photos as anyone who has been there will agree less is more for the Hutt but this is what the Wellington harbour looks like from the motorway when you leave the Hutt...
We shopped and shopped and I was glad when it was all over.

But wait! Then we stopped at Ezybuy in Thorndon - which I have to mention because I like this shiny photo I took from the car when I could no longer walk.

Actually let me explain why my shopping stamina is minimal. I live 40 minutes from any shoppy shops i.e. malls and streets of clothing shops, and let face it any other kind of shopping is just a 'have to shop' so doesn't count.

Now because I am 40 minutes away from town and I am a homebody, I go to town about once a month and mostly it is after hours so nothing is open so I don't shop. That combined with an aversion to taking my clothes on and off repeatedly makes me inclined to do a massive, get it done, shop til you drop kind of session. Which is what we did.

Damage was limited - I paid cash.

Back to Wellington..

I was going to post the non-dirty windscreen photo but politics is a dirty business and should be looked at through jaundiced eyes. This is the Beehive where the executive offices of our government have their offices. Interesting point that we seldom have photos of where our country's elected representatives actually debate legalisation instead we have photos of an iconic office building where the governing party has their offices. Way to go bureaucrats!

Jolly and I dropped the girls off and headed back to her place to basically look at our shopping and swallow our buyers remorse before jumping to a new top and going to meet Gavy for dinner.

I forgot how unforgiving the weather is in Wellington and also forgot to not take cues from Jolly because she is Coaster and so doesn't feel cold. Wearing a thin cotton top to dinner in Wellington was a freezing experience.

We got yummy pizza at One Red Dog for dinner from very under enthused waiting staff. Sorry we were interrupting your evening there folks.

Jolly Hockeysticks dove into a chocolate fondue. She had never had one which I find amazing as it was a standard default dessert in our house growing up.

Then we walked back along Courtney Place to Gavy's cozy, little but well appointed apartment where we ate homemade delicious chocy truffles. Gavy had got the recipe through the Pioneer Woman site as he is a cooking guru i.e. he actually reads recipes and then makes them as apposed to me who buys cook books, reads them and shelves them. We talked for awhile before leaving - good to catch up with you Gavy. Your travel plans etc sound such fun, remember to learn more acceptable German before you go!

Budget day!

Nooo! Not The Budget just a budget effort today. Well actually not that budget because I really like what I'm going to share with you....

The Cool Hunter - I bet you don't ponder what a big part that design plays in your life but when you take a look at this website you'll realise how enhancing design is to your life. I love all the ideas and really love the ads (freaken brilliant concepts), travel (blissful places that I wish, wish I was on a plane to), architecture (helps me get through the week between Grand Designs programmes) and just heaps of other cool stuff - be sure to put aside a bit of time to view.

So on The Cool Hunter today was this super, super touching tribute to Phillip Toledano's father - no I don't know him either but this tribute website called Days with my Father and is just the wonderful and moving and touching and reminds me of my grandfather.

Another website on my list of daily checks is Green Wedding Shoes - I love the photos and brides always look lovely so it's a feel good site and makes me happy.

My all time favourite (this may change though) is Pioneer Woman - seriously this woman Ree Drummond is my blogging hero. She started out blogging about living on a ranch. She was a city chick who married a rancher (read cowboy) and tells her story of how her life has changed with four kids, thousands of cattle, a herd of wild horses, a slew of cowboys and her to die for love story - watch the addiction factor!

Enjoy!