Entries from December 2007 ↓

It’s been a while since I wrote! Had a snotty afternoon in the rain (the poor old Mister has got a delayed season-change/I’m-off-work cold), two wild, crowded, wet shopping days in New York and an afternoon back in Washington wandering through Georgetown. (Still no snow although ‘ice pellets’ are forecast for tomorrow – hail perhaps?). Here’s a few thoughts and pics.

• Amtrak is pretty amazing. Expensive but efficient. We thought Switzerland was efficient but it seems that all places we’re going in the States we’re experiencing the same thing. They’re so set up for crowds and so staffed to cope with the crowds. Jam-packed metro (underground train) stations are always clean and escalators always operating, there’s always a bus when you need one, there’s always your size, or it’s ‘just out the back ma’am’ – you get the idea. Aaaanyway, back to Amtrak – we got to Union Station in DC and shoved the credit card into an eft-pos looking machine (and yes there were plenty of these machines, and signs pointing to where they were, just when you needed them) and it asked us to confirm our itinerary and printed our tickets. Then whether for the early morning departure or late night arrival – cafes and shops are OPEN in case you need a snack. The train left and arrived perfectly on time, the conductor told you what all the stops were, the train was wired for the internet, and went fast. Fantastic.
  
  
  
• New York was wet. We rejigged our plans for our walking route through the city and left Central Park until day 2 (lucky for us – gorgeous and fine the next day). There was Christmas stuff everywhere – every tree down every side street was covered in lights. The Rockerfeller tree is tear-enducing (hmmm, kind of embarrassing!) And man there were crowds – the sidewalks, the shops, the Apple store (although if there’s a word for MORE than a crowd, that’s the word to use to describe that place – just crazy – but again – set up for the crowds – there were tonnes of staff including mobile cash register people so that if you were buying something small off the shelf you could just do eft-pos with a person wherever you found them instead of having to line up), the toilets (*every* toilet stop involved a 10 minute wait), the dressing rooms (again, the 10 minute wait) and special mention must go to Times Square and 5th Avenue. Wall to wall crawl. But god we love that city. Our second day was lovely and fine so we had a lovely wander around Central Park.

• Beef is different here. Tender. The Mister had a blue beef Wellington at Morrell’s on Rockerfeller Plaza on Thursday night and he was almost bawling with ecstasy over it – or was it one of the many glasses of wine he sampled. What a wine list! 19 A4 sides of wine that could be ordered by the glass from all around the globe. He made me try the beef – it’s not that I don’t like beef – I just wouldn’t choose it for myself and I don’t much like cooking it. I have to say, it was damn good. For the rawness of it, it didn’t taste of smell like raw meat which is what puts me off rare stuff in New Zealand. It tasted like the best well done steak I’ve ever had. The Mister’s brother tells us it’s because the beef here is fatty, grain fed.
  
  
  
• Today we had a lazy day and took a trip out to Georgetown. A great different view of the malls and monuments of Washington. Wide outdoor streets full of fairly high fashion shops. Lots of lovely helpful sales assistants. The Mister came home with 3 designer store bags including Diesel shoes for the grand total of US$150! Absolutely unbelievable – boutique sales are amazing! Didn’t see anyone famous out there though although we’re told that’s the place to spot movie stars, diplomats and politicians.

• Only 2 more days here The Mister’s off at ‘the game’ tonight (basketball) – how American!

No white Christmas for us this year – but instead a gorgeous sunny wintry day and what a lovely full day it was.

• Presents presents and more presents for the lucky little girls! And some great stuff for us too – my American presents were a vote for Obama ‘08 t-shirt (lucky I was clued up enough to know a) who Obama was (not sure what party, not versed in the difference between right and left, no idea what his chances are or who he’s up against!) and b) that there’s an election here next year!), a Christmas holiday DVD and a gift card for Macy’s!

• Had a breather from presents and eating and went to play at the local school.

• While out we saw what Santa brought the neighbours – either a huge pick-up truck or a small Mac truck but either way it was a ginormous almost orange vehicle to go with the massive house, Porsche, 4-wheel motorbike, segway, motorised scooter and various other toys we’re told they have.

• After lunch we went out for more air before the big cook-up. This time to the Lincoln memorial. There were loads of people out and about. There’s such a big contingent of non-Christmas-celebrators here that other then the shops being closed on Christmas Day, you’d not know it was going on.

• Back home after the kids were in bed we were allowed to help out with the amazing Christmas feast. MAN it was good – and soooo much fooooood. Grooooaaaan.

Christmas Evening Dinner – Washington 2007

Fig, beetroot & feta tarts

Pork fillet stuffed with leeks & drunk prunes

Sticky date pudding & caramel sauce

A gorgeous day in Washington on Christmas Eve meant we did lots of going out and enjoying the sun and mingling with the locals doing Christmas Eve things.

• Wandered around the Jefferson monument in the morning.

• Hung out at the mall – a real American mall, on Christmas Eve!

• Went to the supermarket which was far more enjoyable than going in New Zealand on Christmas Eve – granted it was all new and exciting to us seeing all the different things you can get (and do … there was some kind of electric water bath thing in the wine section that you could chill shelved wine in to the required correct serving temperature in 3 – 7 minutes!). We were *very* impressed to see that Christmas wasn’t going to catch this store by surprise and at 5pm on Christmas Eve with a chocka store they were fully prepared with jam-packed shelves and fresh food and bread being pulled out of ovens and chillers to meet every demand. So we came home with all the makings for kumara (yes, there’s a kind of sweet potato (actually called large yams) that almost passes for kumara) salad with feta dressing, chilled Californian chardonnay AND a warm just-baked baguette!

• Gave the parents a night off and cooked dinner, more Christmas mince pies and a baked cheesecake for Boxing Day.

• After everyone went to bed we snuck out down the road and looked at the neighbourhood lights (brrrr chilly but now snow  ) and unpacked the gifts we’d brought over from family at home.

Hmmm … 1 step closer to being a bona fide Mac Fan Girl … have just seen this amazing site where you can order a new (or send in your own) Macbook in a colour of your choice – and yes hey have orange! Colorware – choose your product & experiment.

Mia and Daisy Duck model the ponchos – in Washington DC!!

Day 2, a rainy Sunday afternoon and I’m still awake! No snow yet so we’ve been out on a few adventures. Some bits and pieces so far:

• There was a totally lime green Air NZ plane in Wellington – like a big jelly bean with wings.

• People seem to travel differently in the States – there were log jams of people in LA all waiting for stand-by flights – everything seemed to be consistently overbooked which wasn’t helped by weather delays.
  
• On our fight there was a woman with a hand bag dog and another taking a lovely puss called Lunar on the plane in an overnight bag. He’d had a couple of sips of Benadryl so was a bit dopey and didn’t mind being patted.
  
• Dulles International airport is out in the sticks.
  
• Ran out of petrol … The Mister saved the day by running down unknown streets trying get locals to understand that he wanted the nearest petrol (a.k.a. gas) station and when he finally got there than he needed to by some ‘gas’ in a tin (a.k.a. can) to take back to the car.

• Went to the supermarket – you can get *everything* there – all kinds of berries in the middle of winter, egg nog, many brands of peanut butter, NZ wine but ready rolled pastry was a bit of a mystery.
  
• Went to the zoo yesterday and today on a big old family outing to the air and space museum today.

• Boys watched ‘the game’ (why is every game on every channel (and there’s lots here) that involves a ball ‘the game’) while the girls made Christmas mince pies with the fruit mince I smuggled here from New Zealand and home made pastry!

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  When the game’s not on, the kids get a go with the TV

• Uncle Mister is making friends niece by niece.

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  There’s a big old scarey furnace in the wash house! No wonder poor old Kevin is scared when he’s left home alone and he has to defend himself from Christmas burglars!

Man – even in the airport people can’t escape their Facebooks! Me, I’m in this computer cubby emailing my mum and dad to say bye and Merry Christmas seeing as we’ll be on the other side of the world in 18 hours or so.

America, here we come

P.S. Saw a totally LIME green Air New Zealand plane in Wellington – like a big jelly bean with wings. What’s that all about?

Last night – 6.8 – that’s pretty big. Mum phoned to check we were alright as it was felt up and down the east side of NZ. They’re not that far from Gisborne and reported it was the worst they’ve felt in years and almost comparable to the Edgecumbe earthquake in 1987 – I was in Rotorua at the time and it was pretty bad.

Gisborne was pretty shaken up last night – this picture from stuff.co.nz:

It got me thinking about what I remember from the Edgecumbe quake. I was at high school.

• I was in a biology class, rows of 2-by-2 old style desks – those wooden ones with lift up lids and a hole where the ink pot used to go.
  
• We all hid under the desks – back then there was no triangle-of-life confusion. It was just get under something!
  
• The fences around the tennis court outside our class room were warping like crazy!
  
• Our wobbly old biology teacher just stood there swaying (as was her natural state) wondering what all the screaming was about.
  
• The water in the axolotl tank at the back of the class room was sloshing out over the sides, and I was petrified of those walking carnivorous fish, so I confess, it was me that started the scream fest!
  
• We had to evacuate the school.
  
• I couldn’t ring my parents who lived 1.5 hours away because all the phones were down.
  
• The pictures in the newspaper and on TV of cracks in the land around Edgecumbe where the fault line had opened up were really alarming.
  
• I saw on the TV news that the 2 main bridges into Whakatane (where I needed to go through to get home to mum and dad) were cracked or fallen off the river bank so were impassable and I couldn’t get home for 3 or 4 days.  Amazingly enough a bridge out in the sticks, made of sticks and tied together with twine built way back when was the only one unharmed. It just creaked and swayed but didn’t break.
  
• Cars that were angle-parked outside the shops in Edgecumbe were bumped up onto the footpath and into shop windows.
  
• I made a scrap book. I must dig it out!

I found this old archive of pictures on the local radio station website. I remember seeing all of these at the time! Yikes 80’s fashion was bad.

Had our staff Xmas do a couple of afternoons ago – not bad as far as a function for 50+ people goes – well at least it didn’t involve drinking competitions, dancing on tables, shouting to be heard or strangers (although a couple of blokes came in for a Scotch at one stage…) It was lawn bowls (we had to wear whites (except for yours truly … no guesses there!)) out in the ‘burbs and even though it was raining (there were a few committed souls) most of us managed to amuse ourselves inside with food, pool, darts, indoor bowls, Santa and chatting. We all got to sit on Santa’s knee to get a gift – mine was an orange ice-cream scoop!

I always knew one of my nieces was pretty bright and last night we found out what *she* decided to do for her end of year project. They could choose any topic to present to the class and hers was cellular biology and more specifically the difference between animal and plant tissue.

She’s SEVEN.

We were blown away. I must admit I don’t really know what 7 year olds know and it’s so long ago that I can’t remember what I knew then but I’m sure it wasn’t the complexities of single and double cell membranes! The Mister and I wondered on the way home what we would have assumed a 7 year old would do a project on:

• Dinosaurs
• Quilt-making
• What birds and animals are on our money?
• Gymkhana
• Shortland Street
• Bones in the human body
• What lives in Antarctica?
• Who found New Zealand?