housemousepixiewixie *

Wow! What an eventful weekend.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks. This weekend LoM and I walked Tawharanui on Saturday, and the Shakespeare and Wenderholm parks on Sunday. It rained both days so we were pretty good at getting the ole wet weather gear on by the end. There were heaps of people around too, even way up at Tawharanui.

Highlights

Tawharanui - clambering up and down the trail to get to the lookout. Plus the wood pigeons we spotted in the bush part of the ecology trail. This park is an open sanctuary so there is lots of wildlife around. (Including some surfers and camping teens.)




Shakespear - the waterfall area. The fall itself wasn't so impressive as there isn't much water around but the atmosphere was pretty good. Also the lookout to the city with a map - apparently there was a map looking back to Orewa but someone vandalised it.





Wenderholm - stonking up the hill in double quick time. It was weird going through the manuka bush. It had been raining pretty heavily so there was water on the ground except in the bush where you couldn't even tell that it had rained. Freaky.




Sad bad points - realising that 'packing in, packing out' (re. rubbish) for some people means 'dumping rubbish including used nappies in the carpark' or 'dropping snack bar wrappers on the trail'. Granted the second could have fallen out of someone's pocket (like the MAP of Tawharanui which fell out of my pocket HALFWAY around the track when we were making up our OWN combination of trail and it was getting DARK) but there isn't any excuse for the first instance. What must those people be like at home? Still on Saturday we stopped off at Waiwera hot pool on the way home for a bit of a soak. It was enjoyable but I'm not sure that it's worth the $27 (entry plus locker) fee. Maybe if I was more into the slides I'd have got my money's worth.

That night another friend came over and we had Mexican (#38 Host a (foreign country) themed meal) with margaritas (#33 Margarita night). Finally I get the appeal of tequila. Yum yum!



Today (Monday) I have been baking like a demon. (#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook)Not with the fire and brimstone but just lots of things from the Edmonds. (Oh - visited Couldrey house at Wenderholm where there is an 'Edmonds kitchen'. The family were related somehow.) Three types of biscuits, nachos and FUDGE! (#8 Make fudge) It was much more successful this time. Mojojojo says that the key to fudge is to make it lots of times. I think I can do that. Went out and bought some measuring spoons too.

*my cat

Don't have more police, just give out pies

#86 Complete A-Z reading challenge - authors

Eisler, Barry "Choke point"

About an assassin and his latest mission. Includes an old girlfriend, a new country, an old friend, a new enemy and a new girlfriend.

What did I think?
This I think is number three in the series. Easy to read although squeamish readers may not enjoy the fight and kill descriptions. (Plus if he is a smart assassin why does he make so many mistakes after deriding them in others? Perhaps because he's human?) One of the issues bought up in the books is the challenge soldiers face when they come back home. They are taught to kill and to fight and to stay alive. They see terrible terrible things. When they get home we expect them to just integrate back into society without any problems. This make the character a bit more 'real'. Two comments - One. [hearsay from the 60s] there are high rates of spousal abuse in marriages where the husband is trained for war but doesn't go- he has no way to release the tension built up inside or to prove that he has learnt the lesson. Two. Soldiers who have been to war years ago will still not talk about what they have seen due to trauma. Have we any reason to believe that today's soldiers will get any different treatment? (Actually three comments.) Three. I have heard of someone's grandfather who will not talk about the war. He didn't go to war. He was a conscientious objector in WWII. What must he have experienced in that era of intense patriotism that he still will not talk about it? (Okay. Four comments.) Four. It's not just the soldiers who suffer.



#87 Complete A-Z reading challenge - titles

"Fat" by Rob Grant
A cast of characters all dealing with eating and body size issues. Best characters - sad wasting little Hayleigh and furious Grenville. Worst character - exposition girl who's name I can't be bothered looking up. (She's the myth de-bunker of the novel.)

What did I think?
Fantastic. A book that takes the mystic of dieting, shakes it by neck until it's dead and then chows down. Yes. There are unhealthy fat and thin people out there. Yes. School uniform sizes are going up. So yes. There is a problem. The main 'fact' that annoys me so much it practically makes me froth at the mouth - The BMI. Based on calculations from an insurance company. Goal posts shifted some years ago so that a previously healthy individual was now a overweight individual. No allowance for ethnic background. No allowance for an individual who lifts weights regularly. No allowance for All Blacks. It drives me CRAZY when I see magazine articles still touting this as an essential tool in your body diagnosis. There are much more appropriate measures out there. e.g. waist measure vrs hip measure; waist measure vrs height measure; do your jeans still fit? *froth* * froth* This is discussed in the novel. If nothing else it will make you question what you think you know about health and other weighty issues. (Except for the smoking thing...I haven't quite got my head around that one.)



Reading is going to be postponed on the list for a bit. I've started "Night Watch" by Sergei Lukyanenko. Can't put it down, I'm finding it that interesting. I'm surprised because I don't usually enjoy translated material. It always feels as if there's something missing. A gap between what was meant and what is written. There is a movie based on the book which is where it came to my attention.

#8 Make fudge
Made it. Tastes great. Looks like dirt. Not marking off until it's successful. My sister used to make this when she was 8. How hard can it be?

#100 Send Power company the key to the house.
I received the receipt from the power company today. Hurrah!