Entries from January 2006 ↓

The radio station we listen to has a new guy doing the morning traffic reports – he sounds just like the traffic guy on the radio station we were listening to in New York while we were there. It’s amazing. He even makes Wellington businesses sound like they’re American companies in his little advertising sentence at the end of the report. And when he says “traffic flowing well on State Highway 1” I swear he could be talking about the giant East Coast 1-95!

I have an MLIS (Master of Library and Information Studies) so as long ago as 1996 when the Web was really gaining momentum I had lots of long and involved conversations about traditional vs. online publishing and how the Web ‘allowed’ the publishing of stuff that would not normally be published. Also publishing by people who would not’ve considered themselves as someone who had anything to publish – whether that be their personalities, the lack of anything to say or ‘questionable’ nature of their content. Back in ‘96/’97 the Web was behind the ultimate accessory – a homepage and an influx of information from the gay population. Of course this unedited, unmanaged, publishing free-for-all lead to the fears that if anyone could publish anything then we’d see porn and bomb-making sites and violent images every time we turned on our computers.

I digress. My point is that I am still amazed by what ‘resources’ are out there which would be unlikely to exist or be published if it wasn’t for the Web. A joke request I made earlier today about needing a “plane-spotters” site turned out to be no joke at all. There are loads of them. And they’re very serious. Just check out this section of a plane-spotters site – devoted entirely to Air New Zealand 746’s! And what a crazy URL!

http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?offset=90&where=search|Boeing%20747-4|Air%20New%20Zealand|-2|-2|||1|||||||Boeing%20747-4|-2|Air%20New%20Zealand|-2||||1||-2|-2||||all|2|||||||||||||||

I’ve finished my children’s book! All 12 pages of it – wow! It was great fun doing it and I feel very virtuous. In the end it’s not just a story to go with a few spare photos from the Macy’s parade but it’s a story about going to New York, some of the things we saw and did and a bit of a geography lesson. Now I just need to transport the monster file to a colour printer, get it bound and send it off

Tried to befriend this cat who was sunning himself on the rocks under the wharf behind Shed 5 yesterday afternoon. No luck – he ran off before I could actually climb down …

beting able to make a decent cup of coffee in your own home on a Sunday morning.

I do sympathise with search-engine/web novices who complain that they don’t like search engines because they always get a million hits when they search for something, so they just give up. I try to explain that if you choose your search terms carefully and use more than just one word, chances of more relevant results will be higher.

However, today I share their frustration! I’m a reasonably good and patient searcher but I have just spend the last hour trying to find a list of pre-1965 buildings in the Wellington CBD. Following recent press about earthquake strengthening required under the Building Act 2004 I thought I would try to determine when our building was constructed. Hrrummfff – not as easy as it sounds! My conclusion is that this information doesn’t exist …

In my search, I found a couple of random and interesting things about people that live in our building (similar to my discovery about the parliament guy):

• one was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace in February last year


• one is some kind of medical research sponsor for a calcium inhibitor drug used for lowering blood pressure.

I also found out that our building is wired for CityLink – but I already knew that.

As I’ve already mentioned, I had to buy a bottle of this stuff for the pan dolce I made for Christmas last year. And not wanting to be wasteful I’ve been keeping my eyes open for other recipes that make use of it. Recipes for things that I would eat … it’s main use seems to be in Middle Eastern cooking …

Came across a recipe for Orange Blossom Butter Cookies – bit like orange flavoured short bread – weren’t too hard to make and they look impressive but unfortunately, taste like (as I’d imagine) Granny’s orange-fragranced powder puff!!

Have since found some useful tips in a Cuisine magazine:

Orange-blossom water is distilled from the fragrant blossoms of Seville oranges. The result is an intriguing flavour. However, too much and it smells like a garden and is too overtly floral to enjoy with food.

[It] enhances fruit, particularly apricots, figs, strawberries, rhubarb, pears, dates and bananas. Add a few drops to fruit salads, summer pudding, fruit pastries, stewed or poached fruit, fruit creams and fruit crêpes.

A few drops added to savoury dishes such as lamb with apricots and almonds, chicken with white wine and grapes, duck with cherries, and Persian or Arabic rice dishes, adds an irresistibly exotic touch.

Try adding half a teaspoon of orange- blossom water to salad dressings. This is intriguing with carrot salad, avocado and smoked fish and stir-fried peppers with ginger and chilli.

Yep – I was just asked by the current Hunter St barista Wayne (I’ve decided to start using their names as when I read back over all the posts I’ve made about Fuel I realise it would be interesting to know who was working at the time) whether I actually did any work for Fuel! He is coming to terms with my hardcore fan status and is intrigued by a) the length of time I have been going to Fuel and b) the lengths I go to in order to get a Fuel.

Before he started a few months ago he was apparently *warned* about me – on the first day I showed up when he was there he said “You must be Catherine (stuck out his hand to shake) – Hi, I’m Wayne.” Transpired that the previous barista (Cosmo) had told him all about me (she arrives every morning around 10.30, she knows the boss, she has a latte, she doesn’t like it if you put the cup down in the chocolate sprinkles or let any chocolate sprinkles get in her cup from a neighbouring drink, she knows when it has too much nang (just watch her, she always does a little test of the cup to check it’s weight before she takes it away and you can tell by the look on her face if it’s right or not), she’s always wearing or carrying something orange, she’ll complain if something is not right and not always to your face – this one time she told the boss that someone needed a refresher course in doing milk – that person got transferred out to the airport) … you get the idea!

Aaaaanyway, Wayne asked what my story was, and I said that it was just because I had been drinking Fuel for so long that I knew what to expect and had become educated in what they were trying to achieve over the years, and as a customer, if I saw anything to the contrary, I let them know. From an individual barista’s performance, to a burnt roast, to bad service, to what I see competitors doing – stuff like that. And the good stuff too! I am concerned though that he tells me he feels under such pressure whenever he makes my coffee – I don’t mean to be like that! However – he makes bloody good coffee!!

I just wrote a very appropriate closing line for most of the work-related emails I send:

“Don’t worry, I sometimes confuse even myself with all these questions I always have!”

On one hand it is surprising that people continue to ask me to read stuff (from all parts of the organisation) or write documents for them or what my opinion is on certain things given the raft of comments and questions I always generate. On the other hand, it’s not surprising – people who are really seeking feedback are getting it! Openly and honestly.

Last night I started writing a children’s book.

Actually, it’s going to be a story for my niece – not quite as formal, but still, a children’s book! She was very fascinated by our photos of the balloons at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and when my mother suggested I could get some copies for her to take to school as ‘news’ I thought about turning the photos into a bit of a story. Which means trying to explain some interesting stuff to a 6 year old, like what and where New York is and therefore the concept of the ‘other side of the world’, the enormity of Macy’s itself, the balloons being the size of buildings – but not NZ buildings – New York buildings! All in words that a 6 year old can read themselves. I’d imagine this exercise will be fun and frustrating but worth it – she’ll love it.