Labour Day - first work, then play, then thanks

So Labour Day fall on a different weekend in NZ.  For me, it was a 4 day weekend since I do not work on Fridays at the moment.  It was an amazing weekend.  I gave myself permission not to work on the poster presenation and instead just said 'yes' to each social opporutnity that arose.   

I had frisbee practice,  joined a kiwi style lunch of grilled yumminess, a dinner party with a never ending stream of great conversation, clothing 'shopping' at a friends house, veggie market adventure with a person I met on the internet, and a few dates with Traveler... 

I didn't fret about my ASHA poster presentation at all...
Normally I don't do anything, but painfully procrastinate. 
Today I just got on with it.. 
               ---- well got on with not doing it:) 

There was work to be done though:

I cleaned up the closet

and the closet room

and got my sewing maching working

and even made a fun fort in back out of the old lumpy futon mattress.

It completely reminds me of the hideaway in Marita's stairwell cupboards and bathroom fort as a kid.  I've been doing a lot of fort stuff lately. I frequently throw my threadbared yellow blanked overmyself and yell out 'fort.'  

Perhaps this says that I haven't grown out of the 'fort' thing yet... then again the best houses and places have a sense of hiden forts, and I think that's true for other people too.

After work, play is a good idea, and today Traveler suggested that it was time to go to the zoo.

I left my keys, wallet, and drivers licence and just brought my camera.  Not having my wallet is so freeing for me - and annoying for those around me, but today he kindly let this be part of our zoo date.

The zoo has animals



servets - long legged cats


views

with Dr Suess trees!

and really really great signs.





they're not kidding! its quite a fall too...

Now there weren't signs for all behavior. Not to judge too strongly, but I completely approve of the boy climbing the trees, but am not sure what to think of the man leaning over the fence with sticks to remove porcupine quills from the enclosers. His kids thought it was really cool though...
 
The baboons here are on the opposite side of the fence from our last zoo exerience.

So is this lady reading the paper on her deck (she is a very small red dot on the deck). I wonder if kids come to her house and think how cool it is that she really has lions in her backyard!!!

After all those fun and games, my dearest friend Laura emailed me. So I immideatly emailed her back.  soon we were IM chatting in the most inefficent way possible. But that is alright because I was able to email her a photo.  Trav snapped this photo while I was racing about doing just that.  

Today I hope she got a sense of how grateful I am to have such an amazing postive person as my best friend.  I'm honoured that she shares so much of her life with me and sad that she's so far away (yes I know Laura, that is ALL MY OWN DOING).  She is one incredible human being - and I think she still loves forts too!

domestic joys

this post is dedicate to my mother...

So today I found myself mending my clothes... this isn't inherently amazing, but this is something I never actually did back home. I always had a pile of clothes with tears, but this 'to be mended' pile never really was dealt with. Sometimes things didn't even make it to the pile, it just stayed on my clothing shelves with a mental note in my head that read “do not wear you will only make the hole/tear/rip worse.”

But now that I live in New Zealand and find clothes to be quite expensive (but the minute the NZ dollar falls to 50 cent to the US dollar I'm taking some of my American saving and buying some nice merino wool shirts – think smart wool and 300 count sheets!), I realize that mending is very very worthwhile, even if I have to do it by hand. It also helps that I left behind much of my wardrobe, so just about each article of clothing serves a functions and when it is in the mending pile it it is sorely missed.

 

My friend Laura recently asked about my laundry set up here... I am thrilled to have graduated beyond the laundromat, not that I've seen any here yet. Also I'm lucky that my landlord provided a washer and dryer because typically you have to provide your own white wear when you rent (a pain for moving). One thing of note is that my washer shoots water on to the laundry as it agitates... new one to me.

   

I also have told some of you about this incredible mop I bought. For those who haven't spent much time sharing living spaces with me, I HATE to sweep. Mostly I know I am bad at it. I have a very difficult time getting that dirt pile into the dust pan. I also realize that I only collect about 70% of the dirt on the follow with my sweeping techniques. I gave up on sweeping and typically only vacuum, and even then don't do it enough...

But now I have a solution... I found this great mop for less than $20 at the local grocery store. It combines mopping with sweeping and makes our flat a very happy place for bare feet.

Let me introduce you to the various bits..

the microfiber mop cloth, much easier to clean and reuse than the standard mop sponge or rag head

 

 

the mop bit, which consists of closed cell foam (like what the Grays use for snow camping) with these nifty fastners

 

and then you attached like so...
 
Now some may not think this is cool, but for those of you who love vacuuming and the positive reinforcement you get from seeing the dirt collected in the canister (say perhaps some honorary aunts residing in ohio...) and others who share my issue regard the work of sweeping/mopping not being worth the piddly amount of dirt collected, here is the results of my mopping adventure today:
 

Now there were other moments of domestic joy today... the best was Traveler helping and then making us lunch. I don't know what he calls this recipe by he placed it on the table with this proclamation “it has everything a body needs including YUM!”

 

For those interested this is how you make enough for 2:

saute ½ red onion in lots of olive oil (at least 3 tablespoons)
When soft, add the following and heat through
½ can chicken broth
1 sliced fresh tomatoe
2 cloves of garlic sliced thinly
1 can of mixed beans (our can today had cannellini, butter, green baby lima, borlotti, and red kidney beans)
juice squeezed from 1 lemon
just before serving add a pile of chopped fresh parsley