Tinsel- advanced vocabulary education

Learning some advanced vocabulary, working on my PhD in Kiwi.

My friend Anna and I are organizing the "Christmas-do" for our office (the holiday party, which is completely and totally okay to call a "Christmas" party, even though we work for a government agency for a country of heaps of atheists and agnostics.) But I digress.

Anna was discussing decorating the function room of the Indian restaurant we'll be having the party in, and saying she "might put some tinsel on the back of everyone's chair." At this point I felt the familiar-- hey, that doesn't add up. hmm. Might "tinsel" be used differently here? I had to make my Julie Confused face, say, "um, i don't know if that's the best idea, maybe we think tinsel is something different?" "why?" "Oh, you know, my idea of tinsel--- that would sorta stick to people's backs." "Huh. Well tinsel is silvery and kinda thready." "Huh, that's my 'tinsel' too. Okay, maybe we do think it is the same thing. ha ha never mind."

Anna sent me an e-mail later with a picture labelled "tinsel" which helped really clarify everything:

Ohhhhh.
I showed her a picture of "American" tinsel (which was surprisingly difficult to google image btw)-- she said she had never really used that before.

Pumpkin Pie

Today I made pumpkin pie, with no crust. Bryce was aghast.

It turned out great, I always thought crust was a waste of calories anyway. Real whip cream helps too. (I will trade crust calories for whipped cream calories any day).




Freeeeeezing and raining today! Just last week we were having drinks in the sun. What happened, agh!

Blogs are tricky

I would love to update this blog more often, but I feel funny about putting people's names or pictures on here. I'm getting long past the point on my New Zealand adventure where this feels like a little vacation, like I should after over 2 years. I do feel like this is home and the things that occupy my mind are slightly deeper than the cool blue pukeko I saw on the way home. Not like I didn't have deep thoughts before of course, but I don't have much to share in regards to what has charmed me lately.

I'm proud of putting blog entries in as much as I have though--I have a journal too though that's been sorely neglected for months. Such a pain to hand write things out. Dear Prudence advises against private journals because someone will read it after you're gone-- so where's the release?? Maybe time to ignore Ms. Prudie.

Well here's my assessment of NZ-related situation, suitable for reading by wider internet viewing audience.

I am grateful for opportunity to move here, and get residency. I had no idea I'd meet so many wonderful people. I had hoped I would grow into a better person as a result of this experience and I know for sure that I'm more thoughtful. I hope to live here later, but for now I find the idea of living in the States a little exotic. As opposed to a post I made this time last year, now I'm ready to settle down in a permanent place. With a garden, dog, and puppies. Bonus points for a lemon tree. Who knows what kind of crazy ideas I'll have this time next year.

I will take this time to document that at approximately 2:30 PM 2/10/11, Bryce promised me that one day we can have a home with a lemon tree that will be so full that lemons will be on the ground. (We passed a lemon tree on someone's front yard, on the way to a party at Josien's, that made me jealous. Who could take a lemon tree for granted so much that they would just let the lemons rot on the ground???)

Baking

Today I made Highlander Biscuits, nom nom nom nom


From my kiwi cookbook that Josien and Marc gave me for my birthday last year---


On a completely separate note, orcas were found in the harbour again today! And again we weren't there to see it, agh! So close!

Mountain Biking

We went mountain biking early this morning, finally. Bryce has been itching to go for awhile. I went despite the fact that I had only ridden a bike once in the last 10 years, and 10 years ago when I did go mountain biking on Crystal Mt I got a sweet cut on my knee that I still have a scar for.

Now I can see why mountain biking could be fun. I could see that even through the rather intense fear I had on the twisty, dippy, narrow single track with a steep drop off. Some parts were wider and flatter and I could see how this could be fun exercise. But mostly during the one hour (rated 1/2 hour) ride, all I was trying to do was to get through it. The route was circular and you can't reverse directions so once you're on it you just have to keep going. Walking my bike was definitely an option I took up but it was so freakin slow and having the dad with the little girl on the attached hitch-like bike rattle past me was a little embarrassing. That little girl is going to be the biggest adrenaline junky. She was about 4 years old and went down the trail on the bike behind her dad going, whoa whoa hoa wo wo wo! Sigh! Big smile.

Here's a picture of a nice tame section of trail. The scary parts of the trail were too scary to think about stopping to take pictures. (That is I was scared I would fall off my bike if I unfurled my fingers from the handlebars).

Got some bruises and a sore butt but actually I can imagine going back mountain biking, maybe on the nice, wide, rail trail up north in Upper Hutt.

New Fav Song: Gotye

Okay the video looks a bit scary but I definitely recommend downloading the song on itunes, Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know
(Aus and Kiwi singers):

Sunday mornings

Sunday mornings I usually go with Bryce or Anna on a short walk to the market by Te Papa. Buying flowers for my foyer is one of the highlights of my week. (The other one being pouring myself a glass of wine in the staffroom Friday at 4:30 after tearing myself away from the computer).

Flowers are usually so expensive at the supermarket and florists, but I got these purple flowers for $10 NZD at the market.

Usually Bryce and I buy crepes from the real and true French dude at the Crepes a Go Go stand at the indoor Market-- This morning we decided to forgo the frenchies for some home made ones. While we're in NZ we're making an effort to buy all the foods that taste best here: honey, beef, kiwifruit, scallops-- so naturally we try and have kiwifruit filled crepes at home. Kiwifruit costs about 10 cents each; can't beat that.

The rest of the day I usually spend trying to get Bryce to go to a museum while he tries to get me to walk to the snowboarding store with him. In the end we get so lazy with skyping and internet-ing that the least lazy one will go a few doors down for take-away Vietnamese (go #37!) for dinner. (That is usually Bryce.)

And that's our Sunday.