SHARKBUS!

Zed and I enjoyed lunch and walk around the waterfront yesterday. We walked from Mission bay back towards the city. It was a glorious day, sunshine, heat and an ocean breeze to keep us from overheating. And to top it all off, parked outside Kelly tarltons was the Sharkbus! I'd never seen it before so I took a photo.

Okura walking track

Just north of Torbay is the Okura Scenic reserve, a chunk of native bush along an estuary. The fool hardy can also undertake a 10km hike through said reserve and along a beach to visit a tiny historic brick cottage.

The Okura track is promoted as easy, and its not too bad apart from a couple of steep climbs which my calf muscles are still recovering from, but the track is in good condition and there are steps where necessary (yay thanks DOC!). A more accurate description of the Okura track can be found on the fatmandu blog.
I wouldn't want to do this track after any amount of rain though, looks like it would turn to mud in a flash.
The cottage has trees and shade a plenty to provide good picnicing spots, we took a lunch of apricots nectarines,boiled eggs,nuts and christmas cake. I felt very famous five.

A low Alcohol Christmas.

This year, I have to stay sober for Christmas. I'm the on call technician, so I be sober and clear headed to have the wits about me to "turn if off then on again".

My favourite low alcohol beer is Clausthaler. You can get 4 packs at Foodtown and Countdown for around $7. there are 0.5% alcohol each.

I can drink ten of these before reaching the equivalent of one standard beer. You may be thinking, yeah but whats the point if you can't drink alcohol, why bother with the poor cousin low/no alcohol? I actually like the taste of beer! I would quite happily have one of these for lunch, if it didn't look so dodgy in a hospital cafeteria. I know a lot of people would stick to orange juice and coke, but do like the flavour of alcoholic beverages and not just the getting drunk part.

Cooking POWER!

I bought myself a christmas present today. A heavy stainless steel fry pan. I keep killing those teflon ones. I do have a great cast iron pan, but there are a little bit of a hassle to clean and season each time (but absolutely the best thing to cook with)

I watched this video over at Houseboat Eats about the water test in a stainless steel pan to determine correct cooking temperature and why an under heated pan will "grab" at your meat. I was convinced to test my mettle with this pan.

Lucky for me Briscoes had a 60% off stainless steel cookware sale today. Destined to buy this pan I was!

Wanderings

I got an A- in my exam, I am stoked, i only had a B+ heading in, so I really nailed that sucker. heh heh.
Such an adult student now.

Been wandering around the neighbourhood, I stole 3 miniature rose blooms and stuck them in my hair. Bought a coke, sauntered up the hill in the setting sunlight.

Been reading lately, using the library online request system is the bomb. I browse for what i want, request a hold and a couple of days later I get an email saying everything is ready for pickup. Its brilliant. But does some what lessen the library browsing experience. (Or how I choose books to reading based on the pretty covers)
What its really good for is when you see a book on the internet or a friend tells you about it you can immediately hop online and request the book, ...before you forget. Which I inevitably do.

So I've read some classic science fiction. Heinlein and Clark, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and Childhoods end. That stuff just blows my mind. I know a lot of adults that don't read science fiction just because its "science fiction" I don't know how it got such a stigma attached to it. These are  old, not even the books of my youth, but books I read in my youth. And even at thirty, they are still fresh exciting books to read. The best thing is that the library is full of them, or you can buy them new for almost nothing.

You know what I did today?

Got up, ate avocado on toast for breakfast and a cup of tea.

Checked my shares. No change. I still suck at investing. (Except for the stock Dylan told me about. It was up)

Worked, had the $5 Chinese lunch from across the road because someone said it was good yesterday. I was average. Worked some more, slacked off in the afternoon. Cleaned my slide drainer. It was quiet.

Drove home. Opened my parcel from 3 deals. Oh boy 2 new work shirts. I put one on, mmm new fabric smell. Opened other mail.

Opened a beer.
Internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet internet
Put empty beer bottle in recycling bin.

Vacuumed the top floor. Vacuumed the curtains. Filed some papers. Sorted out lights from darks for the washing. Ate some nuts. Wished there was more beer.

Remembered I wanted to go to the library today (dang)

Read some recent papers about fatty acids. Reading computer moniters still sucks when will the future be here!

Read a real life book.
Emptied the dishwasher.
Prepared dinner. Cauliflower/garlic concoction, asparagus and fried meat (my favourite)
Kissed my husband as he walked in the door.
Ate dinner. It was yum.
Accepted an invitation to an outing with my Father.
Poured a whiskey.
Considered my study options for next year

Posted this on my blog

damn older husband

God damn husband, being older than me.

He'll be retired while I'll still be slaving away, 8 hours a day working for the MAN. Although technically working for the government is a pretty good gig in this country, work is work, is working for others gain and a minimal wage.

So I've got to get a plan, somehow I need to retire at the same time as my husband, then I can dedicate my time to pottering around in my garden, tasting beers of the world and writing that erotic science fiction novel I've had floating around in head for the last week. You know, the things we all dream of.

Now, I'm not really the start a business, entrepreneurial type. I have very little of that tough edge or drive that successful people seem to have in droves. I'm mostly lazy and would just like to win the money. Paying the bad at math tax hasn't worked out so far so I am forced to actually try and save and invest. OH THE HUMANITY.

I bought some shares, my tycoon brother gave me a stock tip, I checked out the company and it looked pretty good. The CEO bought a huge parcel of shares so he's obviously confident in what they're doing. But I had minimal cash to invest. Most my spare monies goes on the mortgage, but I invested what I had. Banks don't really want to lend you money to buy shares these days, its definitely a cash buy only. Sure you can get margin lending, but I don't know if they would set that up for a small time investor like me. Also as my brother tactfully worded it "the NZX moves slowly" that's putting it mildly. Its pretty unexciting, especially when you're only investing tiny tiny amounts like me.

Most average joes when they want to invest go with property, I would say thats because its the only assets class that banks will lend you a shit load of money for. So that is my next plan, to buy a god damn rental. I don't want to be a landlord, I really can't imagine anything worse (I'll fork out for a hard arse property manager). It does seem to be the only way to get any kind of decent capital gain in this country. Its going to be a god damn nightmare. I can't afford Auckland so I'm going for Waikato, maybe Whangarei at the right price. I'm going to try buy by the end of 2010. I'm scared, bank managers, lawyers, accountants, ARGH, I had a bad enough experience buying our own home. Our broker was a dick and so was our lawyer. Nuts. 100% using our own home as security? Seems risky to me, but trying to save a second deposit while we pay off our bastard mortgage will probably take 4 years. Too long really. A pity we've already committed to the last family holiday before the kids grow up because that holiday savings account is just asking to be invested in something.

Anyway retirement at 45 seems like a fantasy, but if I can at least work it so I can work part time, I'll be happy with that.

If you are old like me, don't go to Moonsoon Poon

I'm a grumpy old woman now.

Officially. I never thought 29 would be the end point, but what can I say, I'm over it.
I'm over loud obnoxious music being piped into the restaurant.
I really don't enjoy shouting at my friends for 2 hours or crappy service.

Monsoon Poon is a restaurant that thinks its a nightclub, with their policy of sending everyone to the bar to spend money on drinks first and pumping out the music so loud that you can't talk and all there is to do while you wait for your table is drink drink drink. Very devious.
I won't be going back, but some demographic obviously enjoys the place because it was completely packed.

I'm just over the loudness.

How to like beer

Some 21 year old guy was asking advice on reddit on how to like beer. 21 is pretty late to learn how to enjoy beer but I'm sure it can be done. In order to give the guy some decent advice I reflected on why I enjoy beer so much.

I think alcohol enjoyment is a learned cultural phenomenon. While in the past unsafe water supply was mitigated with the production of alcohols ,today we enjoy clean safe water. So the drinking of alcohol is now a custom passed down through the generations.

While I was growing up all adults in my family drank. I separated it into two kinds, stupid alcohol that caused noisy parties and slurring adults and the there was normal alcohol, the beers after hard work, the homemade wine at Granny and Popsies place and shandies.

Shandies were the best thing ever, half lemoade and half beer. The sweetness of the lemonade with the bitter homebrew beer in a perfect ratio. This was the drink served at 5pm just before dinner. Popsie would decant a bottle of home brew in a jug and make a lemonade soda stream. Us kids would all get one and it was the perfect summer drink. We rarely got shandies at home so its was all the more special. Some nights, probably winter, we would get a small glass of home made wine. It was always in a fancy etched glass and the wine was plum or feijoa. If we were good we could have a little extra at dinner. Alcohol was associated with happy family dinners. So to enjoy beer it helps to have ritualised happy memories associated with it and to start off by mixing it with lemonade.

Intersting things all around

I was buying a tomato plant at Kings Plant Barn in Porana road when my husband had a hankering for coffee, thanks to the trend of installing cafes in garden centers I was able to oblige and whilst waiting I admired the mosaic of the queens jewels.
I bought cucumber and tomato seedlings so I hope the cold weather is finally at an end.