Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The 'OOO' diet

No, it's not about getting down to an impossibly small dress size. It's what I envisage I will be consuming lots of when we go to live on a boat in Greece. It stands for "Olives, Octopus and Ouzo".

However a friend pointed out the other day that there needs to be Humus, Halloumi and even Pita added, so its going to have to be called the oHoHo diet.

It raised another issue I hadn't previously thought about: the Mediterranean diet is thought to be very healthy however, has anyone established whether it is the food component or the manner in which it is eaten? I had a very healthy tuna salad organic bread sandwich for my lunch yesterday - I consumed it while running between meetings and writing emails. Surely whatever you eat has to be healthier if taken outside in the sun for 2-3 hours with family, friends and some wine?


Meanwhile Mr Micky takes it easy in our home
office where he is employed as chief rubbish compactor.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Taking it literally

This video of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart re-done as a 'literal translation' gave me a few chuckles. It starts off just silly but gets funnier as it develops...



I spent much of the last weekend in domestic mode - baking (fruitcake, cheesecake, eggplant mozarella pie) and cleaning windows while John painted window frames.

This weekend I'll be heading 'down country' to Paeroa for a Mensa gathering and a few interesting diversions such as a tour of a working gold mine, a glow worm gorge walk, and paintball on the beach. All very intellectual stuff.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Bob Who?


I've really enjoyed reading Novel About My Wife, by NZ writer Emily Perkins. It had me gripped in the way Ian McEwan manages to, you can't help wondering why everything is not quite as it seems.




Bob has a reputation for going out in disguise, dressed as an old lady or a down and out to try and lead a normal life. But maybe he no longer needs to worry about the recognition. Bob was picked up by the cops while wandering around a not-so-smart New Jersey suburb recently. He may have been looking for Bruce Sprinsteen's boyhood home as he seems to have a penchant for rock history and has also been spotted outside Neil Young's childhood house and went undercover on a Beatles tour in Liverpool.

The sound file explains what happened, with musical interpretation...

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Travels in the deep south

The weather was amazing for our mini break in Nelson. Although colder than Auckland we had plenty of sunshine and blue skies.
Having not been there since 1991, couldn't remember much about the place and I was pleasantly surprised. Something about the light made everything seem brighter and more colourful, like in Scandinavia, or it could be we've had weeks of cloud and rain up north. The locals seeemd so much friendlier than Aucklanders too and the Saturday market was notable for all the creative goods on offer, not the same stuff we normally see.

Arriving Friday lunchtime we had lunch and then browsed in the town. Saturday we drove towards Marlborough Sounds and up as far as French Pass, through a lot of very winding hilly roads. On Sunday we went the other direction to Motueka and Takaka and beyond. A beachside pub served us a full roast pork sunday lunch with all the trimmings for $12 (about 4 quid) .

The best restaurant in Nelson itself was BarDelicious near the Cathedral - we had two great meals there. The place we stayed Warwick House is a grand old colonial manor house that has been restored since 2003. Our suite was the partially turreted "Tower Room".

Monday the flight wasn't until 5pm so after a leisurely breakfast we browsed in the town again and went to the WOW (World of Wearable Arts) museum.

A few of the pics....

Snow on the distant hills reminded us it's not yet summer
Warwick House. The turretted tower suite we stayed in is at the back
Mussel beds are part of the aquaculture of the area - the famous green lipped mussels come from around here

Being spied on by a local
View from the winding road
The waiting room for the ferry to D'Urville Island, complete with old style letter box
Strange what you see in the middle of nowhere ...
Man or beast? Across the road from the Penguin Cafe which serves a great $12 Sunday roast
Low afternoon sunlight hits the beach at Kaiteriteri
One of the classic cars on show at the WOW museum
and a river runs through it - man and dog leave their mark on the sands at Cable Bay

Since getting back to the big smoke, i had my hair brightened up.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Blood in my eyes....

To cap off a series of minor ailments, for the past week I've had red infected eyeballs that stopped me wearing my contacts and entailed squeezing antibiotic ointment into my eyes - yuck. I am now just about back to normal. (oh that bad you may say!)

It made me think of 'Blood in my eyes' - and this video - with Bob cruising around the Camden Lock area of London, in fact right past the venue where my wedding reception happened back in 1990.

Woke up this morning, feeling blue, Seen a good-lookin' girl, can I make love with you? Hey, hey, babe, I got blood in my eyes for you, Hey, hey,...


A great song - very slow and bluesy. It's the highlight of the 'World Gone Wrong' album.

Looking forward to the coming weekend, for we are flying to Nelson, at the sunny top of the South Island for a 4 day break.