Loving it - week twenty one

As I mentioned earlier, I spent the long weekend in Tairua with Ben and his family. The weather came out to play (sort of) and I spent a really nice Sunday driving through to Waihi to have lunch with my dad.

We went to the Ohinemuri Winery, which is hidden from the main road through the Karangahake Gorge, but is nevertheless teeming with cyclists from the rail trail and other visitors.  I had carrot soup and a delicious chocolate orange mousse and dad had a duck liver pate with crusty bread and then a really fresh lime tart covered in berries.

The Karangahake Gorge is awesome- i really want to have a holiday there at some point.  I'm dropping mad hints to Ben, that we should camp there over Anniversary weekend, but he's pretty lukewarm about it!

I also had my first ever go at playing golf, which was pretty unsuccessful but surprisingly fun. It is so fricken hard to hit those tiny balls, but when you do, the feeling is pretty great.

On Monday, we went to JB Hifi to recoup our stolen losses and walked away with a huge haul of gear.  It was actually pretty exhausting trying to spend that money and wracking our brains about what we actually needed etc... but we weren't complaining.

I got the National's High Violet album, which I haven't even listened to yet, but am looking forward to cranking at some point.  And Ben got a tonne of PS4 related stuff and a PS4... so he's pretty much counting the hours until he's home alone now so he can binge on it.

So, what else am I loving...

Well, we took the girls to Western Springs the other night which was a fun glimpse of things to come as summer stretches out before us. To be fair, we probably jumped the gun a bit- it was kinda chilly and the girls were kinda scratchy, but that could have been because we had been to an open home before hand.

We are looking to move back into town, which is probably gonna be a hella expensive exercise, but we think it will be worth it because of commute hassles and our general dislike of living in Avondale. The house we looked at was a bit small when it came to living space, but it proved to us that there were nice places we can afford in the area that we want to live in, so that was a nice positive outcome to hold on to.

So in summing up... the things I love this week and am forever grateful for are:

Long weekends -hell yeah, gimme more.

Long lunches - my dad is great mealtime company, never dull!

Open homes - a legitimate opportunity to snoop in other people's houses

The perfect marriage of chocolate and orange - I've been craving jaffas all week

Grumpy children - it's always fun teasing them a bit, then having a crack at cheering them up

The National  - why would anyone not love this band

Spending up large when it ain't your money - enough said.

A catch up post (again)- week sixteen and seventeen

Once again, I'm playing catch up!

Quite a bit has been happening over the last couple of weeks, I started my new job with Auckland Libraries last Monday, which has been pretty time consuming and exhausting. I honestly come home so tired, I feel drained of energy. But, I figure that once I learn the systems things will be come a bit more normal and i'll stop being so goddam sleepy!

Last Friday Ben and I went out to celebrate the end of my first week, which was fun. We went to The Cav on College Hill, then Bonita in Ponsonby for a drink and finally stopped in for dinner at Mekong Baby, which was super delicious and I can't recommend highly enough.

The previous weekend was fairly low key...the girls were with Anton and Ben and I hung around the house and went up to his parents for Father's Day dinner on the Sunday. On Monday, after school, the girls gave Ben his 'step-father's day' present, which was a pie magic- kind of a present for all of us really... We made bacon and egg pies, which featured the silverbeet Bug had grown in our vege plot.  They were pretty tasty.  We have also been eating a lot of the broccoli out of our garden, so we are achieving to an exceptionally high gardening level.

I've got quite a lot to love at present, though my positive thoughts vibe is clearly a little skewed as I somehow managed to incur two speeding tickets within an hour of each other on the first day of my week off. Furthermore, that entire work-free week I carried around an annoying head cold that wouldn't quit and I ended up on the couch watching telly for half the time.

Ah well, you can't win them all I guess :) Thankfully, there were some highs to celebrate among the lows.

To start; I checked out Kim Gordon's autobiography Girl in a band  and I'm really enjoying it so far, she's an awesome writer.  Also, we went to the museum with the girls on the weekend and I hadn't been for ages. It was cool, I liked the special Auckland exhibit currently on as well as old favourites like Wild Child and Auckland 1866 (the old school town set up with the apothecary and whatnot).

A couple of weeks ago I went out for lunch with Viv, Luca and Liz at the new Scratch Bakery in Milford, and Viv and I did a spot of shopping afterwards.  I got myself some new pants from Topshop and a couple of of plain tees from Glassons.  I always love getting new clothes! I also went out for lunch with Ben and his mum on my week off (I've been lunching a lot of late) and I got some new dinner plates from Deco to Retro as well as two second-hand Elton John records- score!

I'm also loving my new coffee spot Elsie on Mayoral Drive, the novelty of using public transport for the first time in ages, working with a bunch of cat mad women, watching Bug throw herself into her swimming lessons (finally), catching up with my pals at a baby shower, getting to goo and gah over little people and lastly I'm loving the anticipation of the long weekend that lies ahead in honour of my upcoming birthday....hurrah!

Loving it - week nine

Well, it's practically week ten but I've said it before and I'll say it again- better late than never!

I'm trying hard to stay positive at the moment but the stress of having an uncertain job future lying ahead of me has taken a toll on my body somewhat and my pbs has flared up.  Having a chronic condition is a real pain in the ass.... like totally.  I have been pain-free for quite some time after months of prolonged discomfort and 'flare up' after 'flare up'. So as you can imagine, I was pretty upset when I was struck down on Tuesday. I ended up crying on the couch, pumping myself full of nurofen and hugging a hot water bottle. Ugh.

Anyway, the thing about chronic conditions is that you're stuck with them, so at some point you have to make peace with it.  I've spent too long envying other people their ability to eat anything and drink anything, to never have abdomen pain that feels like fire in your lower belly. Getting stressed about the situation only makes it worse, so now I try to be as zen as possible about it. But sometimes that's easier said than done.

Still, making my list of things I love serves to remind me that life 's not really that bad and of course they're all things that make me happy, so the stress levels drop and the pain reduces - score :)

The pics above are all of  a cake baking session Mila and I had when we hung out during the school hols.  We made a chocolate cake on Bastille Day in honour of my nana Sylvie, who died earlier this year.  July 14 is her birthday but I couldn't really think of anything particularly French that my nana would like (she was a pretty fussy eater). She did love chocolate cake though so that's what we went with.  A little bit of tweaking was required as I didn't have exactly the right ingredients (happens to me all the time) but Mila and I were pretty stoked with the end result. The cake we made was adapted from a recipe from the book Gran's Kitchen by Natalie Oldfield.

Other fun things we did on our day together, which I'm loving, include watching make-up tutorials for ages and trying to achieve a 'smoky eye' (we didn't) and also doing a couple of yoga videos thanks to the lovely Adriene from YWA (she's awesome, youtube her). So basically I'm loving the internet, days off with my daughter and chocolate cake!

The International Film Festival is on in Auckland at the moment and I've managed to check out two films so far. First up was The Lobster, which was the opening night film.  It was so good, but so weird. On the weekend we took the girls to see Enchanted Kingdom in 3D, which was an Our World-type nature doco about Africa.  It was pretty cool to and was narrated by Idris Elba (Stringer Bell from the Wire), which for some reason made me giggle.

On the Thursday we saw The Lobster, Ben and I also went to Little and Easy for an after work drink and checked out the Street Food Collective for dinner; a pretty sweet date night all in all. I'm definitely loving the Street Food Collective and am keen to head back to try some more stuff.

And well yep, I think that sums up what I'm loving at the mo.... onwards and upwards I say xx

Loving it - week eight

This is a two part post, the first part being a re-hash of my weekend fun times on Saturday and the second being a list of some of the things I've been loving of late (there's some overlap, I admit)

First up, a nod to friendly occasions.

This weekend my pals and I threw our first ever mid winter Christmas complete with turkey, presents and the best feckin' dessert you can imagine (thanks Chris).  We had the party at our house and Ben spent all Saturday smoking a pork shoulder in his new Smoky Mountain Weber bbq. 

The smoke was intense! So much so, that a sheet that had been drying on the line had to go through the wash again the next day because it stunk. The weather totally played ball, it was one of the most beautiful clear Auckland days you could have hoped for, but so, so cold. 

After about 11 hours of cooking the end result was pretty amazing, although the intense smokiness of the meat did take some getting used to.

We also had amazing vege loaf, potatoes, salmon, stuffed turkey roll, brussel sprouts, broccoli, Yorkshire puddings and gravy, I was stuffed afterwards. Liz and Chris were in charge of pudding and made chocolate orange souffles with custard. They were divine.

Before dinner we 'secret santa'd' and had mulled wine. Seriously, could a group of people get more festive? I don't think so.

I scored 10 scratchies, which I thought was a pretty swell gift- so much fun scratching to be had and then I made $5 and won an extra free ticket - sweet!

Felice Navidad peeps.

And on that note, a list of things I'm loving of late.

First up a shout-out to Chris and Liz, who own OTT patisserie in Birkenhead.  Our Christmas desserts were so yummy and the almond croissants and lemon meringue pies you left behind were life-saving the next day. If you're day-tripping to the shore, or more importantly if you're a shore-dweller, you need to visit this place for bready goodness.

And while we're giving out shout-outs, one to my pal Viv of Revival massage therapy who organised for me to have an hour-long massage on Sunday with a new, prospective therapist.  It was so good! I am now able to move my neck again without any pain- life-saver Viv!

I'm also loving leftovers, especially the pulled pork sliders with coleslaw and bbq sauce Ben created on Sunday, along with afternoon drinks at the pub on Sunday (the best way to pick up your kids!), impromptu visits from sisters and nieces who helpfully sit with you and make crepe paper streamers, cuddles with Olive- who just gets cuter everyday, and having my girls back home under my roof again. 

Bliss x

Loving it - week seven

I had the girls over the weekend and as mentioned in my previous post we had a fairly quiet one on the Saturday night; just Hook and meatballs for the win!

On Sunday, we visited my grandad and raided his lemon tree, so one of my things to love this week has been all the citrussy goodness brightening up our kitchen. There are bowls of lemons on the divider, on the kitchen table and on the butcher's block. Lemons everywhere and ripe with possibilities... Ben made an awesome cake with the last load and I made lemon delicious for pudding which is basically the most epic thing you can do with lemons in my opinion (apart from lemon curd which is also a triumph).  This time round we may look to incorporate them into some savoury dishes and an alcoholic beverage or two.

I had a baking fail on Sunday, but I'm gonna spin it into a positive and say I love baking- win or lose- and taking into account the wonder that was pudding on Saturday, I can live with the failure that was my date scones on Sunday.  They smelled great but looked like deformed pancakes and tasted like chewy, weird, baking powder-laced crap.  Still, I love to bake and I shall not be beaten!  Just need to find a better recipe perhaps....

Mila has gone off with my mum for the week and Juno heads off  today, so a child-free and quiet house for the rest of the week.  Have to say, I'm loving grandparents stepping up and taking care of the girls- it's a massive help and I'm always super grateful.

Hard to believe it's Wednesday already, I'm so keen for the weekend... x

PS: Check out my pretty flowers in the pic above given to us from my pals Tori and Carl who visited on the weekend.

Loving it - week six

It's a Monday and I'm already fantasizing about the weekend and the down time that hopefully lies ahead!

The weekend just gone Ben and I road-tripped up to Whangarei to buy a new bbq/smoker type thing he bought off trademe. We missioned up early Saturday morning, stopping in Wellsford for a pie. On the way back we hit the op-shops in Waipu and stopped in Warkworth for a snack and a beer. We also had an 'almost' accident and nearly slammed into the back of another car- way too exhilarating!

Still there was plenty to love about the day- lots of sunshine and a bit of adventuring.

We also went out for dinner which was super nice, and one of the things i'm loving this week is definitely friendship. Friends are ace and without them the world would be a lonely and boring place.

Here are a few other things I've found to love in the week gone by:

* Pad See Ew (spelling is iffy) from Mekong Neua -yum.

* Chia pudding - Ben and I are late adopters when it comes to jumping on wholefood crazes, but better late than never with this one, so, so yummy.

*My poppa - I visited him twice this weekend in hospital and he's just so damn sweet.

*My step-dad John's birthday afternoon tea up in Orewa- Harriet took me up with my darling nieces and we got to eat delicious egg sandwiches and catch up with step rellies that I haven't seen for ages.

*The NZ International Film Festival- tickets went on sale on Friday and we've booked ourselves in for The Lobster and Enchanted Kingdom, which we are taking the girls to.  Exciting!

Still so many things up in the air at the moment; haven't heard what's happening with my job yet, my poppa is in and out of hospital, my mum's been sick, I seem to have spent all my hard earned dollars in about two seconds flat and... Olive ate my iPhone cord!  Aargh!  

Yet, despite this, I gotta say things have been pretty sweet and I'm just glad i get to spend most of my time with those crazy loons in the photos up the top.

xx

Loving it - week three

It's been a funny kinda week out here in Avondale...  After the long weekend slipped by, my grandmother also slipped away and then suddenly it was a Tuesday and only four working days stretched out ahead of me and at the end of the road there was meant to be a kitten.  But alas!  The following forks in the road followed... Illness and a sickie on Wednesday threw a spanner in the works and then on Thursday the cat breeder rang to say our wee poppet has really bad diarrhea and couldn't be collected on Friday after all and we would have to wait till Wednesday. Ugh!  Major disappointment.  Still, despite this, I have managed to find a fair few things to be thankful about this week.

First up is the unexpected fancy breakfast you can allow yourself to have when you are 'sick at home'  (no honestly, I was sick). On Wednesday, once my early morning school run was done and the emails had been sent and the coffee drunk, I turned my attention to making a bang-up brunch and I was completely satisfied with the end result. One piece of multi-grain bred, some feijoa chutney, delicious ham, avocado, rocket and a fried egg - what's not love about that?

The next thing I'm loving is a Friday night date with Ben, which really just consisted of wine, burgers and the telly at home... So good though! Sometimes it's all you need to kick a shitty week to the kerb. We made epic cheeseburgers with ingredients we picked up from Farro in Grey Lynn (a spot we don't get to much, now we're westies) and we listened to the new Florence and the Machine album while we cooked, which was another thing worthy of some lovin'. Long live child-free, slightly boozy, food-filled Fridays I say.

Last but certainly not least, I wanna give a shout out to family fun times, a concept I reckon we in our tri-surnamed household have down pat.  Today it was a trip to Avondale markets before home for a cooked brekkie and then out to the art gallery and later Silo Park. The girls love the art gallery and we spent an easy hour there checking out the new Laurence Aberhart exhibition and the Lisa Reihana work on the second floor.  They also loved the interactive light display in the kids section on the mezzanine and the gift shop (naturally). After our art gallery fun times, we headed down to Silo Park, which is another cool place for little people. The girls went nuts on slides, astroturf hills, swings, sand pits and what not and we also got to check out some cool photography festival exhibitions in the silos. Lunch was fish and chips form the seafood market; salty, crispy and drenched in vinegar and tomato sauce - perfection.

(Shout out to Ben for taking great pics at the gallery today xx)

Loving it - week two

Sometimes it's hard to see the good in anything. Especially when you're hit with the 'disestablishment' of your job and then the somewhat unexpected death of your grandparent, whilst the other grandparent lies in a similarly desperate condition two rooms down in the same hospital ward.

But on the whole, I have always been a person who sees the positive in any situation and since I've dabbled a bit in trying to understand the law of attraction and positive vibrations and whatnot, I have made a concerted effort to try and see the good in everything no matter the circumstances!  So on that note, check out all the things I'm loving this week.

First up is soup. I've discovered I could pretty much eat soup all day long and never grow tired of it if I was allowed.  For the last week the boyfriend and I have been on somewhat of a soup bender making various batches like vegetable and barley, leek and potato and pea and ham.  I currently have three quarters of a pumpkin squandering its life away in the back of the fridge and I can see it making a pretty damn tasty soup too, so its days are numbered.

I'm also loving a bit of sugar-free experimental baking, the likes of which has been a weekly occurrence in our kitchen. I do still occasionally crave something slightly sweeter than the treats I have created (pictured are raspberry, yoghurt and oatmeal muffins) but on the whole things have turned out pretty well.  Not strictly sugar-free as honey often makes an appearance, but more often than not things are sweetened with dates, bananas or berries. Nothing has been exactly how I envisioned it yet, but the experimenting is half the fun... and best of all, it all seems to be getting eaten (surely some sort of parenting win).

My last shout out of the week goes to mandarins, which, quite frankly are epic, juicy, mind-blowing morsels of winter deliciousness.  We (stupidly, because it pissed down) tackled the Avondale Markets this weekend and came back with about a kilo of easy-peel beauties, which not only taste great but look super pretty in the kitchen too.

It hasn't escaped my notice that everything I'm loving is basically some sort of food, but hell, when you're having a shit week, it's often food that offers the most basic of comforts, so why fight it?