Communal table at Cereal Killa, Dominion Road, Auckland
Yesterday was Simon’s twenty-seventh birthday. I am as bewildered today about having a son who is 27 as I was when he turned five years old and could go to school. I wondered then how I could have a school aged child, and I wonder now how my son got to be a full grown man. How the heck does that happen?
Of course I know how that happens: if you keep feeding them they grow but still, the years, where are the years going?
We started off the day with a late breakfast/early lunch at Cereal Killa on Dominion Road, Auckland. This place is magic. The staff have the right balance of friendly cheeky, and hands off - they’re perfect. As is their food. I chose the coconut porridge with rhubarb, ginger and pear - it was so delicious. Like a less sweet version of coconut ice and what a way to start a day.
For dinner we regrouped once again. We actually don’t have many chances to all go out to dinner and leave the grandchildren behind, so it was a special treat to have all three of my children there. Even better that they all sat on the opposite side of the table so I could photograph and film them during the evening. I guess I’ve been doing that so long it doesn’t phase them and they just carry on in their normal fashion in front of my camera.
Wildfire on the Auckland waterfront has two sittings for all you can eat meat courses. This is a perfect place to take David (youngest) as he has hollow legs. For a tall, trim young man, he sure does pack away the protein when he gets going - it’s a sight to see!
David, Simon, and Amy
We had a little go/no-go green and red indicator on our table. While the green was uppermost, the food runners would bring skewers of roasted meat to our table - marinated lamb, pork, beef, chicken, sausages - and carve onto our plates. Platters of vegetables would be dropped onto the table too - steamed brocolli and almonds, potatos, roasted onions and lemons - with pasta ragu and other carbohydrate type things to follow. This place is for serious eating.
With so much meat, we all had had enough pretty quickly, but when we were asked if we’d like dessert, and saw the teirs of delicious tarts and puddings well - we all managed to find room.
Microscopic assassins
I have the shittiest cold right now - with extra sneezes. I’m usually a two-sneeze sneezer - bam, bam and I’m done - but with this cold I’m a multiple-sneezer and I do not like it. This cold has allowed me to discover the whole paranoia around cold and flu medicine seems to have run its course. I don’t have to give two forms of ID and my home address and a blood sample and my first born son just to get my hands on some medicine to dry my nose up anymore. It’s just there, on the shelf, for me to peruse at my leisure and decide whether I really want to pay $39.95 for relief of cold symptoms.
This is the third cold I’ve had since coming home from Australia. I blame the kids I live with. Between them and their creche/school/dribbling our house is pretty much a petrie dish of bacteria, molds and spores, all hungry to attack the least robust and most mobile of the clan: me. They know that I come into contact with more humans than anyone else in the household and those microbes have a plan to become the dominent species. They’re managing their plan quite well with enough of them in my system for me to cough, sneeze and generally spittle populate all the surfaces I come into contact with, but not quite so sick that I can stay home from work.
They’s smart them little microbes.
Makes me wonder what kind of microbes or bacteria they might find on Mars. Curiosity is roving around looking for any signs of life and the smart money is on the microscopic kind.
Chompers
In other news, I’ve been seeing a dentist lately. I say this as I inelegantly try to hook a morsel of food from the hole he picked out of my wisdom tooth last week so we can safely assume ours is not a romantic relationship.
I’ve not been very kind to my teeth in the last decade. It’s surprising that they’re not in worse shape resulting in two fillings (upcoming) and one root canal (done). The hygenist’s scraping of tartar and plague has made me a born again dental evangelist. I never want to go through *that* again. So I’m flossing, electric toothbrushing, mouth washing like a person possessed. After I get the filling in my wisdom tooth seen to I’ll be done until my next checkup - but it’s been a bit of an ordeal to get to this stage.
My teeths are looking nice now though.
Khool cooking
Discovered a really lovely cooking programme on Choice Tv last night. Rachel Khoo is a British woman living and cooking in Paris. She dresses as one would expect a Parisian to dress - lovely cardigans, full skirts, polka-dots and neatly tied scarves. She cooks everything in her tiny flat, with a small gas burner, some old opp-shop type bowls. Her pantry is on the shelves in mis-matched jars and bottles.
She’s utterly delightful and has lots of simple ideas, and great hints and tips. I’ve decided that she is the female version of Jamie Oliver. Her show is well worth a look, and from now on I’m on the lookout for her cookery book.
30 Days to Done
Relly Arnett-Baker is running a 30 day course called 30 Days to Done. I signed up and we started on September 1. She sends a prompt every day for thirty days with an activity to complete in 15 minutes. These activities are all centered around updating or creating a web site - but I’m bending it to my will as I have another project in mind.
This course is great. I do at least 15 minutes on my project everyday. Even if that’s all I did I would still be further down the track with it by the end of September than if I was left to my own devices. Often, the prompt she provides spins me off down a the track and I get a lot more done. It also means the project is always on my mind and I’m thinking, planning and scheming about it all the time.
We have a forum to share what we’re doing, and it’s broken up into the different days so no having to wade through threaded discussions to get to where I want to be, or share what I want to share.
All in all, we’re nearly half way through and I can A1 recommend this venture as a real kick start to get a web based project off the ground.
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