loose ends...

Well, today I spent most of my working day packing office.  I don't like to write about work in such a public forum such as a blog, but I love my job and I loved my office. Our new office space is also very lovely, but I will definetely miss the views from my old desk...

         of the library

and civic square

To help me cope, I've been making crazy stirfries every night for dinner. Tonights adventures was rice noodles boiled in beef broth, browned beef mince (ground beef) reheated with chili sauce and black bean sauce, sauted bok choy tossed with ginger & soy sauce, and some brocali and green onion.  Its only been a couple days since the veggie market and I've already eaten through two basketball's worth of green leafy things:)

My other new comfort food is coconut Panna Cotta.  Its this amazing thing I was introduced to in Melbourne. To experience it properly, I would seek out Soul Mama's restuarant in St Kilda.  For now I adapt a recipe I found over at egullet and make it at home.

Basically I take 1 1/4 c cream and mix it with 3/4 canned coconut milk/cream in a sauce pan.

Then I remove 1/4 c to a small bowl and then sprinkle 1 teaspoon unflavoured gelatin over this smaller amount.

5 minutes later or so, I start heating the sauce pan
another 5  minutes later I stir the gelatin mixture then added it to the sauce pan

While I'm letting it simmer, I add  1/4 teaspoon vanilla (make sure its not a very alcohol'y type) and 2 tablespoons sugar.

Then when its mixed and the gelatin thoroughly disolved, I let it cool a bit in a measuring cup while I clean up.  I then pour the mixture into small bowls and let that chill a few hours.

You can eat it plain, or to be fancy make a tamarind sauce:


I mix about 1/4-1/2 cup of tamarind with about the same amount of sugar & honey mixed together. I toss in a few whole cloves, and then let is simmer for awhile playing with the ratios to make it work the way I want.  

afternoon light

I have always loved the afternoon light in Australia and New Zealand.  I don't know if its the latitude or the angle, but there is this amazing warm yellow light the hour before sunset.  Yes it probably exists in the States too - there is a term for it I hear in the movie industry - magic hour or something like that - but I see it a lot more when I'm out of the rat race I let myself enter in the states.

It looks something like this

Sunday Drive

Spring
There are so many signs that spring might already be here after the shortest winter of my life!




Car
And with spring comes new beginings, such as our new-to-us car.  I never thought you could love an object as much as I love our car.  It is straight from Japan, and has a crazy contraption inside that speaks to us in Japanese. I currently call it my laugh medicine, because I crack up everytime I hear the voice and imagine what it might be saying.   We hypothesize that it could be any of the following:  toll booth money reader, music player, navigational aid, or alarm system.  I'll have to call in a Japanese speaking friend once I no longer crack up laughing when it speaks - its just too great to have a free laugh creater, but once the effect wears off I'd be keen to know what it is



Market

With out brand new-to-us car, we were able to sleep in an extra hour before heading down to the market for our weekly fruits and veggies.

This is the herb table, all herbs are $1 and you get quality over 
quantity.  Today we boughtbaby baby basil.







Moore Wilson's
We also drove over to Moore Wilson's, which is a grocer, fish market, home goods, and warehouse store all in one. I always enjoy it, then later regret going for how much I spend. The prices don't seem that amazing, but then again we found the best sausage so far here today, so all was not lost.






Hiking
With our car, we were also able to sneak in a hike with friends.  We started at this soccer field, that is complete with signs saying "do not climb fence, dangerous animals"



this is because the zoo is right behind the fence. The Baboons can literally watch kids playing cricket and soccer if they want.


From there we explored the hill you can see from our friends' house.


On the hike we had great views of Island Bay,

Cook Straight

Lyall Bay and the end of the WLG runway


Our favourite cafe at Lyall Bay


and the view towards the hutt valley, with evan's bay in the foreground (the other end of the runway)

and the city

Melbourne

Last week I took a week of leave to visit Australia. My dear friend Amber was celebrating her birthday in grand style, and I just couldn't bare to miss it.  So I was off to the lovely Wellington airport to test my passport for the first time since moving to New Zealand.

I spent the first 2 nights swing dancing. The dance scene in Melbourne is fantastic. Turns out that my friend Amber knows several dancers, so there were even people to dance with before I showed up!  I learned some new moves and just had a marvellous time dancing!!!

I also had plenty of time to just enjoy this wonderful city.  I sat on this ledge for awhile reading and enjoying a great coffee and the interesting city scene....



I also love that Melbourne has public toliets in the city, though you have to look for them, these were under ground:


I also am a huge fan of public transport that works.  Now every city has its nay sayers about public transport, but Melbourne certainly is doing a pretty decent job, particularly on certain routes.  The trams are great. The trains are great. And its flat enough to my cycling doable for the average person --- if you have the courage given the traffic and tram dodging required.

Here is an example of a trip...

1.  take a tram down to Flinders Street Station. 
You'd be hard pressed to miss this landmark.



2. Take train out of the city


3. Get off at your stop and take note of the signs that will 
lead you back to the platform


4. Enjoy the mini shopping area that prevents you from
having to travel far from home to get bacics like coffee


5. Walk a few minutes to your destination


When I wasn't enjoying the tranport system, I returned to some old haunts...

City sights

This is the Yarra River

St Kildas's


which has this amazing veggie restaurant called Soul Mama's. I'm making coconut panna cotta tonight in honor of the amazing dessert I haven't stopped thinking about since leaving the table there.

Thrushermans

No trip to Melbourne is complete without a visit to Lygon street, at least for me since it used to be my daily commute to uni, and this bake house has many many fond memories for me. I enjoyed a lovely pastry here and wished I hadn't just had pizza down the road when I eyed the salads and soups here.

Melbourne Uni
This uni has everything I'd ever wanted in a college. Vibrant student life, great mix of 
architecture, open spaces, accepting culture, basically everything buy a degree program in my field.  I loved the 6 months I spent here. I had a really lovely personal home coming of sorts here last week. Granted no one really knew I was there, but I felt welcome and happy all the same. Funny, because I experience the same level of anonimity at my primary alma mater, but that didn't feel quite welcoming and lovely....

HIkikng boots outting

So my hiking boots finally arrived from America last week. It was painful to purchase a new pair here at 3x the cost, when a perfectly good pair was sitting on the back porch at my parents house (or wherever I carelessly left them).

The boots were a perfect excuse to go for a walk around the southern coast of Wellington. Wellingtons's shoreline is very much coastline, with few 'beaches" in the traditional sense. We borrowed a car and went to explore along the yellow line on the map below.




At the trail head, we saw a sign that intrigued us for a moment..

The last property at the end of the road was for sale. On one hand, absolutely amazing view of the ocean just across the road, on the other hand you are pretty isolated. This is only 15 minutes from the city airport, but you feel like you are in Timber or Trolley Park. Probably the only type of beach front property we could even consider affording in our life time :)




But one we put aside dreams of beach property, we started our walk...


Along the way are a few 'baches' which I assume are grandfathered in. They were classic kiwi baches, very no frills, and very much reminded me of something my father would design/create.




As you can tell, its a fairly bleak landscape, but also hauntingly beautiful with little surprises along the way. This pond area was striking in contrast to the surrounding areas.

Just out of the shot are a bunch of male seals that I didn't notice until the walk back.

The beach here is all gravel and rocks, with a bit of dark sand. Its the type of beach that I find soothing for thinking and walking, but some might not enjoy as much.


The geology along the route is also very striking. I found myself wishing the my geo prof from Northwestern or my friend Alex was there to help explain it all to me.


the 'red rocks' that are the name sake of the trial..





Along the way, a couple local boys offered us a ride in their pick up truck. Trav hopped in, so I had no choice to follow. The boys said to stand and hold on to the bar. Major flashbacks to land surfing in high school. I was terrified and having the time of my life all at the same time. They didn't go very fast, but it felt fast with all the curves and funny grades. They dropped us off before they continued on to Devil's Gate, but we caught up with them as they drove back through it. There is a photo of them driving through something I NEVER would have considered taking a wheeled machine through - maybe a mule, but not a truck.


Traveler finding his way through the path we'd just seen the truck go through. The rocks were like steps, I still can't believe the truck pulled it off...


On either side of Devil's Gate is the seals colony. I guess the male season hang out here, while the mothers and baby seals chill on the South Island. You might have to click on the photo and look closely, but there are probably dozens of seals in this photo. The rocks were covered with them.


Then we made our way back toward civilization.

And if we would have kept going, we would have ended up at Island Bay and still further to Lyall Bay (where the airport is)