Happy Birthday Issy

Birthdays are one of those times where i get a bit of a pang to be around family. There's nothing like a bit of jelly and cake (and of course a good sav) to get me reminiscing. August 3rd heralds the birthday of my niece Issy (or Isabel if her behaviour is less than good - which I am sure is extremely rare). I have fond memories of a bunch of 6 year olds screaming their heads off to Show me the way to Amarillo a couple of years ago. Well Issy is 8 on Friday (that's her on the right with her 2 brothers - pretty obvious I know). It doesn't seem 5 minutes since she was being 'birthed'. Sorry I can't make it to this years party Miss Fancypants. Enjoy being creative - and if you want to see how the old timers did ceramics - ask your Nana for a viewing of the famous sunflower plates and the elephant foot vase. I'm sure they are still on display.

Domestic Goddesses

How does Nigella Lawson do it. I've just been watching a repeat of Nigella Bites on the food channel. Nigella was doing trash food today - Ham in Coke, fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches etc. My heart was going into spasm just watching it.

Here in New Zealand we have a bit of an epidemic with diabetes, heart disease and obesity. You wouldn't have thought so - us being the clean, green nation with outdoor lifestyle and activity being one of the things that attracted us over here in the first place. Nevertheless, being in the health industry, one has to walk the walk and talk the talk -so whilst I sit here drinking my red wine - a glass a day keeps the strokes away - I'm also doing a bit of study on stroke rehab. It's one of the areas 'the team' are specialists at - and as I'm not that specialist at it i've volunteered to go to Sydney (all expenses paid) on Wednesday for a 2 day conference. No doubt there will be lots of talk about thrombolysis and MCAs - very exciting stuff..and hopefully I will come back renewed and rejuvinated after a couple of months of being really busy at work (something I thought I used to be but never actually was in the UK). And best of all, Sydney has soooooooooo much better shopping than Wellington. Kerching!

Summer sunshine / winter blues

Summer's here....... well it is the 26th July - Mid winter actually, yet today we basked in temperatures of 16 degrees with little of the windy stuff. 16 degrees might not sound like much, however when you conside top temp in London today was allegedly 17, and with that hole in the ozone layer above us making the heat feel so much hotter.... I felt like getting the shorts on. Sunsets have been rather staggering this week - as have the sunrises - all the better when you have the accreditors in at work. The snap attached is the view from the dining room. Enjoy!

I think Thursdays are my favourite day of the week. It's the anticipation that there is one more day left before the weekend that gets me. It's like the day before you go on holiday... so much to look forward to. This weekend we will be mostly doing some walking and gardening. And as all the wallpaper is stripped off in the hallway, I'll also be contemplating a theme. Sydney is beckoning and I have an empty suitcase.

Mind you as the reserve bank raised the official cash rate today and our mortgage rate will be about 10.5% in the next few days, I might be putting up newsprint with flour and glue... Thank heavens I've still got those creative OT juices.

Sunday Walks

Christmas was last night. A bit odd for me as it was the 7th July 2007, however mid winter xmas is more like what we did in the uk - cold weather, dark early, rain etc.... so the 7kg turkey came out, 25 people had dinner and a good night was had by all. Now normally after a night such as this, the following day is a write off - but not for us. All this healthy living stuff invigorated us for a walk along the Northern Walkway to Mount Kaukau, where we had amazing views out to the South Island and the Sounds and D'Urville Island, the Kaikoura ranges with their snow capped peaks, and in the North Island over to Titahi Bay, the Rimataka's covered with their frosting and amazing views over Wellington. If ever there was a cure to get over home sickness this is it. Shame I didn't take the camera. - so we'll have to make do with one that someone else took.