From the ages of 6 to about 10 I had one career and one career only that I wanted to do.
I was going to be a solid gold dancer and nothing could stop me.
I wonder where that grand plan went!!
I would have been great.....
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Recipe (What we're having for dinner tonight!)
Lamb Shanks
Take one or two lamb or hogget shanks per person. Trim off all the fat and sinewy bits you can. sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brown quickly in a frying pan if you can be bothered.
Preheat the over to about 190 degrees C
For Four shanks,
Chop up into dice two medium sized onions and two or three carrots (depending on size) and place them in a large roasting dish along with four or five cloves of garlic. You can also put a couple of chopped sticks of celery if you like it, but I dont. Put two or three sprigs of rosemary in with the veges.
Place the shanks on top of the mixed veges.
Add a carton of readymade stock (I use beef but it doesnt matter much) and some water to cover about 2/3 of the shanks. If you dont have a carton of stock you can use stock cubes and some water, And if you havn't got stock cubes, just use water.
Add a good slosh of red wine and a bit more salt and pepper.
Put the dish in the oven and ignore it for about an hour, then turn take it out and turn the shanks over.
Put it back in the oven, and ignore for another hour and a half.
When its cooked, the meat will be coming away from the bones and be soft & yummy.
Take the shanks out of the dish, and using a potato masher or a blender, puree the vege/stock mixture to make a sauce. Sometimes it needs to be thickened with cornflour, sometimes its thick enough as is. Taste and season as necessary.
Serve the shanks with lots of mashed potato and the sauce on top of everything. Oh, and some steamed broccoli is good to have with this.
Mmmmmmmmmm
(A variation on this is to add some cubes of Kumara to the dish halfway through cooking, and not puree the sauce at the end.)
And again, Mmmmmmmm.
Take one or two lamb or hogget shanks per person. Trim off all the fat and sinewy bits you can. sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brown quickly in a frying pan if you can be bothered.
Preheat the over to about 190 degrees C
For Four shanks,
Chop up into dice two medium sized onions and two or three carrots (depending on size) and place them in a large roasting dish along with four or five cloves of garlic. You can also put a couple of chopped sticks of celery if you like it, but I dont. Put two or three sprigs of rosemary in with the veges.
Place the shanks on top of the mixed veges.
Add a carton of readymade stock (I use beef but it doesnt matter much) and some water to cover about 2/3 of the shanks. If you dont have a carton of stock you can use stock cubes and some water, And if you havn't got stock cubes, just use water.
Add a good slosh of red wine and a bit more salt and pepper.
Put the dish in the oven and ignore it for about an hour, then turn take it out and turn the shanks over.
Put it back in the oven, and ignore for another hour and a half.
When its cooked, the meat will be coming away from the bones and be soft & yummy.
Take the shanks out of the dish, and using a potato masher or a blender, puree the vege/stock mixture to make a sauce. Sometimes it needs to be thickened with cornflour, sometimes its thick enough as is. Taste and season as necessary.
Serve the shanks with lots of mashed potato and the sauce on top of everything. Oh, and some steamed broccoli is good to have with this.
Mmmmmmmmmm
(A variation on this is to add some cubes of Kumara to the dish halfway through cooking, and not puree the sauce at the end.)
And again, Mmmmmmmm.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Oh So Procrastinatey
Its been longer than a couple of months since I last made a post here.
Not because nothings been happening - but because I am easily distracted.
Ive visited Auckland and Tauranga and Hamilton, and spent a delightful (and incredibly drunken) weekend with as many of my friends and family as possible.
We flew to Auckland on Friday afternoon, then I borrowed Dads car and drove to Hamilton. The Friday night entailed drinking beer and playing poker, 500 and Monopoly with Sara and her boyf and his mates. It was fantastic! Ive never had more fun on a night in. Got to sleep around 4am, and up again at about 9.30. Sara gave me a pair of socks - theyre pink and angora and warm. MMMmmmm . Theres nothing so good as a new pair of socks. We share the belief that you should never have to buy your own socks. Someone should always give them to you as presents. It ought to be a rule.
Saturday involved a drive to Tauranga to visit my friend Karen and her gorgeous 18 month year old boy. He initially thought that I was a bit scary - until I gave him a present and then I was the new best friend. I also dropped in to see Mum, but was feeling fairly grim and hungover so didnt stay long!
Saturday afternoon was a drive back to Auckland, and a big big night out with Chuck and Nick laughing our butts off at The Classic , eating meat on sticks at Tanukis cave, and then playing pool at the K Rd ballroom. Doesnt get much better! Got back to Chuck's place around 4.30am, and got 6 or 7 hours sleep before heading off to check on MrFiji (who was also in Auckland, just visiting his family) and then spend the afternoon with my Dad. Felt a tad seedy, but thats just the price you pay i guess!
Only hassle was the 4 hour delay that we had to cope with at the airport on the way home - the weather in the south island was snow and storms which had closed many of the airports. Its just so good to have such great family and friends - I can visit them 2 or 3 times a year and its just like Ive never been away.
Not because nothings been happening - but because I am easily distracted.
Ive visited Auckland and Tauranga and Hamilton, and spent a delightful (and incredibly drunken) weekend with as many of my friends and family as possible.
We flew to Auckland on Friday afternoon, then I borrowed Dads car and drove to Hamilton. The Friday night entailed drinking beer and playing poker, 500 and Monopoly with Sara and her boyf and his mates. It was fantastic! Ive never had more fun on a night in. Got to sleep around 4am, and up again at about 9.30. Sara gave me a pair of socks - theyre pink and angora and warm. MMMmmmm . Theres nothing so good as a new pair of socks. We share the belief that you should never have to buy your own socks. Someone should always give them to you as presents. It ought to be a rule.
Saturday involved a drive to Tauranga to visit my friend Karen and her gorgeous 18 month year old boy. He initially thought that I was a bit scary - until I gave him a present and then I was the new best friend. I also dropped in to see Mum, but was feeling fairly grim and hungover so didnt stay long!
Saturday afternoon was a drive back to Auckland, and a big big night out with Chuck and Nick laughing our butts off at The Classic , eating meat on sticks at Tanukis cave, and then playing pool at the K Rd ballroom. Doesnt get much better! Got back to Chuck's place around 4.30am, and got 6 or 7 hours sleep before heading off to check on MrFiji (who was also in Auckland, just visiting his family) and then spend the afternoon with my Dad. Felt a tad seedy, but thats just the price you pay i guess!
Only hassle was the 4 hour delay that we had to cope with at the airport on the way home - the weather in the south island was snow and storms which had closed many of the airports. Its just so good to have such great family and friends - I can visit them 2 or 3 times a year and its just like Ive never been away.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Im A Very Lucky Girl
My father has been visiting me this week.
He lives at the other end of the country, so I dont see him particularly often.
Its been great! The general idea of the visit was that he would help with some of my work while he was here, but in reality we just played with his new laptop and went out for a lot of coffee.
I get along really well with both my parents, and feel incredibly lucky that this is the case. Theyre both intelligent, caring, kind wonderful people, and the relationship I have with them seems to be the epitome of a good parent-child relationship. Theyre my friends as well as my parents!
So many of my friends have dysfunctional relationships with their parents, or dont like them, or dont respect them, or are treated badly by them. I feel incredibly sorry for them, because I know what they are missing out on.
He lives at the other end of the country, so I dont see him particularly often.
Its been great! The general idea of the visit was that he would help with some of my work while he was here, but in reality we just played with his new laptop and went out for a lot of coffee.
I get along really well with both my parents, and feel incredibly lucky that this is the case. Theyre both intelligent, caring, kind wonderful people, and the relationship I have with them seems to be the epitome of a good parent-child relationship. Theyre my friends as well as my parents!
So many of my friends have dysfunctional relationships with their parents, or dont like them, or dont respect them, or are treated badly by them. I feel incredibly sorry for them, because I know what they are missing out on.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
I Have a New Friend
Its very exciting.
Ive been in this town for a couple of years now, and it has been fairly hard to meet people I like, and want to socialise with. I have met a few through work, but theyre work buddies, and kind of different to social buddies. I was starting to despair - and really miss my friends who are scattered around NZ...
But Ive met someone!
It sort of feels a bit like dating; I dont want to phone or txt her too often in case I scare her off, but its just so cool to have someone in the same town as me who i really like!
Mr Fiji plays rugby, and she's the partner of one of the other rugby players. And she is English, and cool and funny and a lawyer.
I suspect that I have a girl-crush.
We'd met a couple of times on the sidelines of the rugby, and talked a bit back at the clubrooms, but not really socialised properly before.
Last saturday night the rugby boys were having a boys-only court session, so Lisa and I settled down at her place (which is in the same suburb as the rugby club) with a bottle of vodka and got to know each other. It was great! we bullshitted for hours, and, when we eventually headed down to the pub to meet up with the boys, we were completely toasted. Ended up doing beer laybacks. Not totally classy, I'll admit, but very satisfactory.
Now Im really excited about this weekend when I get to see her again!
Its definitely a girl-crush.
Ive been in this town for a couple of years now, and it has been fairly hard to meet people I like, and want to socialise with. I have met a few through work, but theyre work buddies, and kind of different to social buddies. I was starting to despair - and really miss my friends who are scattered around NZ...
But Ive met someone!
It sort of feels a bit like dating; I dont want to phone or txt her too often in case I scare her off, but its just so cool to have someone in the same town as me who i really like!
Mr Fiji plays rugby, and she's the partner of one of the other rugby players. And she is English, and cool and funny and a lawyer.
I suspect that I have a girl-crush.
We'd met a couple of times on the sidelines of the rugby, and talked a bit back at the clubrooms, but not really socialised properly before.
Last saturday night the rugby boys were having a boys-only court session, so Lisa and I settled down at her place (which is in the same suburb as the rugby club) with a bottle of vodka and got to know each other. It was great! we bullshitted for hours, and, when we eventually headed down to the pub to meet up with the boys, we were completely toasted. Ended up doing beer laybacks. Not totally classy, I'll admit, but very satisfactory.
Now Im really excited about this weekend when I get to see her again!
Its definitely a girl-crush.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Travel
Its really about time that I saw more of the world.
Other than a couple of trips to Aussie, and the big OE when I was 18, I've done no travelling. As this map shows!!
create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide
Time to start saving to go somewhere else soon.
Other than a couple of trips to Aussie, and the big OE when I was 18, I've done no travelling. As this map shows!!
create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide
Time to start saving to go somewhere else soon.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Mindless violence
The shops below my office have had their plate glass window smashed again. The idiot burglers took the till and ran off with it, and smashed it open to get the money out, not realising that the keys were in it. They did about $400 worth of damage to get $45. Dicks.
Mr Fijis car was broken into yesterday too. Not that we bothered calling the police. Theyre all far too busy having saucy group sex to attend to a boring old car burglery.
I'd quite like to have a few moments alone with the louts that did it. Would happily flout my non-violence philosophy to kick a bit of sense into them.
Mr Fijis car was broken into yesterday too. Not that we bothered calling the police. Theyre all far too busy having saucy group sex to attend to a boring old car burglery.
I'd quite like to have a few moments alone with the louts that did it. Would happily flout my non-violence philosophy to kick a bit of sense into them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
