Christmas randomness

Our gifts for our families – not quite what I envisioned, but then again my great ideas never quite work out (hark back to high school Graphics…) My baking FAIL = less baked goodies than I’d planned for.

My present for T? A new phone. He lost his last week – believe me when I say he has a terrible track record with cellphones. He’s lost two out the window of a moving vehicle (bounce, crash, explode), left one on the top of a car (he either then walked away or the car drove off, I can’t remember). One broke after he threw it across the garden and I’m sure he’s also just had a couple die on him from age or hard living. We’ve established this one has to last him two years or it’s the cheapest, most basic POS for him until then.

So he wasn’t thrilled at his gift being a replacement phone, but c’est la vie. He definitely believes in gifts being fun, and something you wouldn’t get yourself, or being something you want, not need. (Me? I’d be THRILLED to get something that I need but don’t have the cash for. Eg, new boots, a microwave, etc). But he insisted that his present for me had to be something special and indulgent. Along the way, peeking into the displays at fancy jewellery stores, I remembered that I really wanted a charm bracelet, and what better time to look for one? And because we did our shopping for each other on Boxing Day, we hit the sales – 50% off silver in Pascoes, no less.

And other randomness

Playing with my auntie's newest family member - Curler the bichon frise

Alongside the usual pavlova and strawberries - homemade fruit tarts!

Christmas dinner with friends after the family lunch - ham, salmon, potatoes, salad and trifle!

What a week!

View from the bach

I’m back! Back from what, you ask? A lovely couple of days off in the Coromandel, relaxing, swimming and getting a tan. Followed by graduation – the culmination of the last three years, the last time where we get together and cut loose and congratulate ourselves for making it through.

From guest speaker Tessa Duder (legendary Kiwi children’s author) to our ‘doffing’ of hats to acknowledge our friends and family, it was interminably long, and by the time we’d finished with all the communications grads and moved on to the engineers, we were exhausted. I simply couldn’t clap anymore.

I have to admit, I got caught up in the whole ceremony, from the crazy ugly regalia, to standing up for one of our tutors who received her PhD, to singing the national anthem (I got a lump in my throat). I managed not to trip, or miss my cue; I knew I’d be called out under the legal name that I’m not used to hearing. I’m just so proud of all of us for making it through.

Now, to catch up on my google reader, laundry (there’s sand EVERYWHERE) and most excitingly, Perfect Fifths!

Spending roundup – Nov 22

I worked on Saturday afternoon, so my weekend consisted of Thursday off and Sunday. We had lunch at Mercury Plaza and drove over to Mission Bay, where we were going to hire out a tandem bike and go for a ride, but decided not to because the weather was pretty crappy. On Sunday, we hit DressSmart and bought T a new wallet and me some new underwear, then he cooked up a huge roast and we had a group for friends over for dinner.

$110 groceries, plus an anticipated $20 for lunches
$47.60 eating out
$83 for a full tank of gas (HAS to last us two weeks!)
$28 for T’s wallet
$6.50 for clothing

The iconic fountain

T doing a backflip on the beach

Rangitoto looks so close, yet so far…

Bike hire

Wordless Wednesday

It was a beautiful Sunday. Had friends over, cooked up a feast of a brunch, and headed over to Whatipu beach. White sand is beautiful (one day I want to go to the Whitsundays) but the west coast’s black sand is pretty awesome too; it’s black but still sparkles in the sun. Worth the drive over the hills and the last 10km over nothing but gravel.

Wordless Wednesday

(I’m a journalism major. Gotta sneak a few words in! Whatuwhiwhi (Doubtless Bay) was great. The drive home was a little painful once we hit traffic from Wellsford, but this was tempered by the free sausages/cookies/fruit/coffee on offer on the highway back courtesy of State’s Driver Revive. I’m not a fan of them – their auto insurance quotes are skyhigh – but this was a great idea. Long drives get people sleepy and dangerous! )

This is what a 100yo book looks like

It’s T’s 21st next month..and it’s kind of a big deal for his family.

His mum is selling off a bunch of stuff so she can buy him a present.

Stuff like silverware, jewellery, creepy old dolls…..and a reeeeeally old Bible, that’s over 100 years old.

It’s kept him pretty busy recently, polishing off all the silver, driving around to pick up stuff, and driving to antique dealers/appraisers, etc. She’s making him work for it! Seriously, after buying the silver polish and gas for all the travelling, it’s probably cost us about $40. Better be worth it.

Anyway – it’s a pretty awesome Bible. It’s huge – MASSIVE – and really delicate. But it looks well preserved; it’s not falling apart, probably due to the hard cover, and only a few pages are ripped.

Road tripping

More photos from the journey!

Paeroa

Cute retro buildings

Passing through Tauranga

Matata?

Edge of the world

Sand flats

Quick one

I’m back in Auckland! Whakatane was really something. The whole sunniest town in NZ is so true, and you know what, good weather is nothing to sneeze at! Heat pumps in the motel and at work meant I was pretty much never cold and my hayfever was under control. I even wore my contacts a few times. Coming back to my cold damp house kinda stunk….but I guess there’s nothing like home.

The drive there and back was really pretty. Just before we got into Whakatane proper (around Matata??) the ocean view was a.ma.zing. It looked like the very edge of the world…like you could just sail out to the end, and fall off and disappear. Photos below…

Expenditure: Well, BF and I went to the supermarket on Sunday morning and spend about $35, mostly on food for him. I bought $30 of groceries in Whakatane, another $10 in food for a big shared dinner we made on Wednesday, $11 for seafood chowder (my first chowder ever!) in Opotiki, and about $25 on drinks. Drinks were $2.50 in Opo but normal price in Whakatane… I also spent about $5 on random tea and wedges on the way home.

Looking down on the town

At the riverheads

Down by the riverhead

Possibly not the most picturesque part of the township, but I liked the light

Here we go - postcard perfect

A couple of weeks ago we (meaning, my girlfriends) managed to organise a night out and amazingly enough EVERYONE bar one showed up! It was my first introduction to the Chocolate Boutique in Parnell – and I honestly don’t know how I had never heard of it before.

Here's my choc/raspberry tart - crap phone camera quality!

Seriously. Go there if you get the chance. It’s so cute and quaint, and a great place to go for dessert or a quick sweet treat. You can also buy all sorts of chocolate goodies (which methinks would make great presents) and even sugarfree chocolate for diabetics (which was a huge coincidence, as my mum had just been wondering about where to find such chocolate – she’s going back to Malaysia to see my uncle, who recently developed diabetes).

I had the chocolate raspberry tart; insanely rich and so satisfying. And the prices were pretty reasonable. Mine cost under $5, with other desserts running up to $7 or around $12 for dishes big enough for two to share. The one disappointment was my friend B’s chocolate  pudding, which she said tasted just like the choc fudge cake from Denny’s.

Some of our desserts

We also felt a bit rushed, getting there at 9.45pm and being told the kitchen closed in 9.50! Not only was it insane trying to get an inside table, we then had to fly through the menu and quickly pick out something – not easy given the huge range of delicious things on offer. And when we snapped a few photos of us pulling faces and tucking in, the staff came over to tell us that we couldn’t take photos of the inside of the shop (not that we were – just of our food and each other).

After that we discovered this funky retro phone booth just outside – which we just HAD to crowd into for a quick photo – and then ran down the street in the pouring rain to a pub where we chilled out for a couple of hours!  A good night all around.

My first go at baking cookies…

Damn you BF, for lying to me. You said cookies were the easiest thing in the world to make!