Entries from August 2008 ↓

Was v. excited to see the giant orange carrot welcoming me into Ohakune this morning. And how apt on the road between Ohakune and Raetihi that I saw carrots that had fallen on to the middle of the road and a flat bed truck loaded up with carrots!

Am currently in a cafe serving Supreme!!! coffee – not that I’m having any because I had the obligatory Brown Sugar stop about an hour before arriving here. The locals are talking about how warm it is. 10 degrees! The guy making coffee in this cafe doesn’t even have shoes on and the floor is concrete – I can feel it’s freezingness through my fur-lined boots.

Have met all sorts of sad people, as you do when there’s a gathering for a funeral, people I’ve never met before. Mother just sprung on me that I might have to do her speech (can’t figure out how to spell uligy…) so am getting a bit wound up about that!

Next knitting project is going to be interesting – am going to go through the by now quite big bag of wool scraps from all my knitting over the last 2 or 3 years to find bits of 8 and 10 ply to knit a couple of little blankets for our friends who are getting 2 kittens soon. Probably going to look like a first-timer’s effort all stripy and warped due to mixing plies (plys?) but once the kitties get their fur on them will hopefully be a big hit!

They went to visit their kitties at the weekend – still too small to be taken from their mother.

Absolutely bowled over to be given lunch on the house at Superfino today! Not sure what we’ve done other than be loyal customers and members of the Superfino Society but it was an amazing gesture on their part. We already love the food, atmosphere and people there – and you know us – suckers for feeling special and recognised. Yaaay for the free lunch!

They’re opening a couple more nights a week from next week and we found out that while they don’t serve anything more than their counter food in the evenings they can order in Pizza Pomodoro – what a great idea! That’s one less night we have to figure out what to have for dinner this week!

Went to the supermarket early this morning for a change. It’s far less pleasurable than wandering along to Moore Wilsons but we have to face it every 3-4 weeks. And we saved $15 this week through our choice of products with coupons! You don’t want to know how much we had to spend that the totalled savings got that high! And the petrol coupon we got on the till receipt was only 4c/litre off … I thought if you spent over $200 it was something like 10c off!

Anyway, had a little drive around enjoying the spring day. Perved at a guy in a very nice black S5 – young guy with very nice specs (as in eye glasses!) and clothes – and spent a bit of time discussing what we thought he did for a living that afforded him a car like that.

Oriental Parade was lovely – before it started raining again.

Great Uncle Cyril has died Have to take a day trip up to Raetihi on the Central Plateau on Monday to the funeral. Will be cold but hopefully clear enough for some stunning views of the mountain – Raetihi is beneath of Mt Ruapehu with a population of about 1000. Will have to pack a Thermos.

Spent the last part of my afternoon playing have-laptop-will-travel and enjoyed my coffee and Belgium biscuit like Nana used to make at Superfino while churning out the last bit of some help I needed to finish today. The girl working was our ‘Saturday girl’ and she’s fantastic! She put my afternoon tea on a tab because she knew the Mister was coming by later; she brought me a carafe of water after clearing my dishes thereby signalling that it was OK that I was there hogging a table even though there were no other seats free and when the Mister ordered a second gin she noticed that he had ditched the straw that came with the first one and put down the straw she was about to put in the second one. Good on her for being so observant. Now that’s great service.

Finished the 6th Xero knitting and it’s winging it’s way airmail to London for a new Xero lad. His older brother got the first ever Xero knitting back when the brand colours were teal and pink.

V. V. exciting – hot off the Mister press is a poster of the next Transporter (3) movie which is being released in the States while we are there!!!!! So that’s going on the list alongside the next James Bond film Quantum of Solace which will also be newly released when we’re there.

Check out these lovely boys …

 

Pretty damn cold this morning. Gorgeous blue day but only 2 degrees when we left for work. We’ve seen ice or frost or some white coldness on the roof of the building across the road before, but not on the poor tui’s back.

Not sure how easy it is to see in this pic …

I don’t want to taunt those who can’t be at home with their coffee machine (or wife who makes them coffee) but I have to say the ristretto lattes (or piccolos if you’re a Mojo drinker or bongos if you’re a L’Affare drinker) that I’m making at the moment are incredible. Taste So Good.

Or maybe they just taste good because there’s nothing nicer than sitting at your own kitchen table in the peace and quiet, with the door open and fresh air and sun streaming in, tapping away on your keyboard with homemade coffee and bikkie. Plus have saved myself about $25.