Saturday 23 July 2011

Part 9 - Kai Ora from Catherine Zeta-Jones

It seems that people don't feel the cold here as much as we do in Wales despite having somewhat similar climates in winter. We were driving down the road a couple of weeks ago after work (so it was after 5pm) and the wind was howling, there was rain on the floor - if not falling from the sky - and we drive past a guy walking his dog....all normal so far. However, this guy was wearing shorts...not just shorts but SHORT shorts - as if he didn't realise it was winter / cold / July (in New Zealand!) People wear board shorts and flip flops (they find it hilarious when I call them flip flops over here, they're called jandals locally) all year round, even in the frost. It's extremely positive thinking to be fair, I always thought I was a positive person but in comparison I'm not even in the same league.

Talking of the weather, we finally had snow last week - hurrah! It happened a week last Thursday morning and although it was too wet on the floor for it to stick it was just beautiful to see. A few of the roads into Invercargill were closed due to the snow and this caused some issues re: delivery of bread in work but we powered through with wraps and ciabatta and paninis and so on, panic not. After Queenstown not being able to open their ski slopes due to a lack of snow they actually had to close some slopes last week due to too much snow!! One particular report on the news stated that their snow levels had increased from 60cm to 1.4 metres so that is some substantial snowfall! On the topic of Queenstown I have finally gotten round to uploading our video of the snow-free Queenstown mountains during Winter Fest. If you're interested in taking a look (it's only about half a minute in length) then please do at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFzvoDMbn6I

Britain was in the news here last week - not just for the whole Murdoch scandal - for the baby naming of the Beckham's new daughter. Gave me an idea...if we decide to actually have kids I might name it after my favourite British mag...yep, Take A Break Thomas does have a certain ring to it ;-)

A week last Sunday we went for a meal with a guy who works with the OH (Other Half) and his girlfriend. We went out to Otatara for a meal at The Cabbage Tree. The restaurant is really lovely and has THE BIGGEST menu I have ever seen - pages and pages of it. If you feel so inclined then take a look at their menu online - seriously they have 13 menus to choose from online!! Admittedly it's not THAT intense in the actual restaurant but there is a lot of choice. The meals were as HUGE as the menu! I had calamari to start - had to just eat the squid and leave the beautiful looking salad as it would have filled me up completely. Then for my main meal I had the fish burger - again, absolutely massive! I had to leave the ginormous bun and just eat the fish and the salad. The food was absolutely gorgeous (as was their pinot gris) and if you're ever in the area you should definitely go there - super recommendation :o)

Something that is blatantly different here to in the UK is at the supermarket: you never pack your own bags - the checkout person does it all for you as they scan. But that's not the huge difference...here the checkout person actually TALKS TO YOU. I know - it's a real novelty. They ask you how you are - but not just as a token gesture - they ask what your plans are for the day / night / weekend and then talk to you about your plans. If you're going anywhere they'll offer you suggestions of places to visit. It's all very lovely, provided you're in the mood for a nice chat after just leaving work...

The kiwis are also very keen on making things themselves. The other day I was talking to someone about my 1st week in NZ - before I was working at the cafe - and about being bored: there's only so much hoovering (read: Mahjong Titans) you can do in one day, and so on. Then the conversation went like this:

Kiwi lady: "Yes, it would be OK if you were living in your own home at least"
Me: "Hm, at least then I could spend the time doing something constructive....maybe decorate or something [clutching at straws]..."
Kiwi lady: "Yes - you can't really make bed clothes or curtains for a home that you're renting"
Me: "[stunned] yeah....."

MAKING BEDDING AND CURTAINS?! Wow, I really need to up my game.

Getting used to being in town and in a new home - last week we were planning on watching a DVD but noticed that the DVD player was set on the timer to record something on TV. Eventually - after much confusion - we found the information regarding what channel it was recording and how long it would record for...2 hours. So we decided we'd put the DVD on when it finished recording so that we didn't disturb the recording for the owners of the house. This meant that we couldn't watch the DVD until 10:30pm which is quite late on a Friday for putting on a 2 hour film but we waited, and waited, and waited. Then eventually half past ten came and it stopped recording. So we ejected the DVD to put the rental in and the DVD tray was empty...after much more confusion we realised it had been recording to the hard drive all along and thus we could have watched the DVD earlier...Grr

I had a lovely start to my weekend last weekend. First off I celebrated the fact that it was Friday by polishing off a heated brownie with yogurt after lunch from work. It was absolutely amazing! Chocolate and raspberry brownie - my 1st ever (!)....mmm mmm mmm. Then Friday night the OH went out and I was going to go into town but instead I stayed at home with some fish n chips, a bottle of shiraz cabernet and my good friend YouTube. After looking up the usual: cute kittens; horses; Adele; laughing babies, etc etc I decided to move onto Welsh themes. This was somewhat prompted by Doctor Who being filmed in Cardiff Bay and hearing the beloved Welsh accent on the TV. I started with a commendable Newport Ymerodraeth State of Mind - if you haven't seen it then you must! Followed by a 'male voice choir' search and the Welsh national anthem (I had started to spiral at this point). So I then felt inspired to make some Welsh cakes for the 1st time in my life. I ate one while they were still warm and I must say the wine definitely improved my baking skills as they were delicious! A little taste of home....albeit made from New Zealand butter, New Zealand flour, New Zealand raisins and New Zealand egg. Still - divine :o)

I have made them once more since then and my 2nd attempt was not quite so successful. I had been cooking with chillies earlier on and couldn't get rid of the chilli from my hands (they're v strong here!) so I inadvertently had Welsh cakes with a hint of chilli. I took some into work and Kate asked 'do they have chilli in them?' so I had to come clean and admit that they're not supposed to - but they were a hit nonetheless. They liked them in work but they also abused the humble Welsh cake...they put creme fraiche / cream cheese on them!! Ach y fi!

Saturday we went down to Bluff which is only 20 mins away from us and it's the Southern-most town in NZ - right on the tip of the country. You see lots of signs in shop windows advertising the fact that they sell 'Bluff oysters' so it was nice to go there and take a walk around. We walked up to the Gun Pit which was really interesting and had absolutely breathtaking views across the ocean. It would be amazing to go there in a storm and watch the sea in all its glory crashing up against the rocks. You can also see Stewart Island from Bluff and we plan to visit that sometime soon for an over nighter. On Sunday we ventured into Dunedin - a student city (due to the university there) about 2 hours away from us. So many people had told me how grey it is and I'd never been - the OH had been briefly when he was here in November - so off we went. It was an absolutely glorious day - blue skies and sun shining - and the city looked lovely. I think your impression of many places is dependent on the weather / season when you go there. Needless to say I liked it. Don't get me wrong, I felt a little old what with the majority of the population seemingly in their early twenties but it has some good shopping facilities and we had a great day.

Highlight of last week: Someone came into the cafe and told me I look a bit like Catherine Zeta-Jones. I don't look like her but it was a nice thing to hear nonetheless! Makes a change from being called Charlotte Church anyway.

This week has been much of a muchness, work was a little quieter at the beginning of the week (still not 'quiet' by anyones standards!) but more than made up for it on Thursday & Friday when my feet were aching by Thursday lunchtime...not a good sign. I went out on Wednesday evening with 3 other girls to a pub quiz at Invercargill Workingmens Club which was good fun. Now you guys at home will be thinking of Llanyravon Social Club or the Nalgo in Croesyceiliog when I say Workingmen's Club but it was far from it. It was a HUGE hall with a bar at the end of it. Absolutely gigantic. All the tables were set up like a bingo hall and there were 48 teams!! It was a one off fundraiser and each team had their own table. Us 4 called ourselves 'The Biggest Losers' (Thanks for that one Sarah!!) and although we didn't win we didn't do too badly either. It was quite a tough quiz with 5 rounds and the 1st question was 'name 3 consecutive days of the week without using the words Sunday, Wednesday or Friday' now don't ask me how I knew the answer but I did - it was 'yesterday, today and tomorrow' and it just came out of my mouth...amazing. So my team members thought they had a good quiz master in their midst....oh how disappointed they were as time went on. There was a whole section dedicated to The Who (seriously) and some really hard questions overall. Still, we stood our ground to some degree and didn't come last (unfortunately, as they actually won a prize!) which was a nice surprise. I also got the right answer when the question was 'in which area of London would you find the department store Harrods' (Knightsbridge) and we overheard another team saying 'where are all the poms??'. Last night (Friday) we watched the All Blacks vs. Fiji game with friends at their house. It was a good night and the All Blacks slammed Fiji but the commentator still felt the need to say "I expect Wales will be nervous after that performance by Fiji"...I think not. Talking of which I bought tickets to the Wales vs. Fiji game in the world cup for me and the OH for his birthday. Even though it's not his birthday until September I had to tell him as he would have found out via our bank statement!! Lol. Couldn't risk waiting because I had to book flights and accommodation too so it had to be done asap.

Today we have had a nice day out and about in Invercargill - we went to look at a house earlier on and then went car hunting. Took a lovely Subaru for a test drive and were very impressed by it (insert 'Impreza' pun here). I'll keep you posted on that one!

Hope all is good in God's land, I miss you all.

Sunday 10 July 2011

Part 8 - Mother Nature is MAD!

I must update you on the VHS situation - since we have moved into the city we seem to have also moved into a new era as we now have a DVD shop. Alas it's called 'United Video' but rest assured it is full to the rafters with DVDs for hire :o) So that's good news :o) Not so good news however was reading in the paper this week that a woman was wandering around the streets of Invercargill brandishing a machete and threatening motorists - until the police caught up with her. See? You can never escape mentally unstable people, no matter where you go.

One thing that is different in Invercargill to the rest of NZ (some other cities here may do this too but not to my limited knowledge so far) is that you can't buy alcohol in supermarkets here; you have to go to a liquor store. The reason they do this is because they take a percentage of the money made from alcohol sales and put it back into the community. What a lovely idea?! Don't get me wrong it can be a little inconvenient as you have to do your shopping and then go to Liquor Land or similar for a bottle of wine but I think it's a very good idea indeed. Wales' community funds would be minted if they took it on board.

Well on Thursday morning we awoke to news that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the Kermadec Islands at 7.03am, raising a tsunami warning for NZ and Tonga. The news stated that IF there was a tsunami then it would strike North Island at around 9am and as such people should 'stay away from the beach'. To me this seems like a laughable piece of advice - the nature of a tsunami is that you don't have to be on a beach to be affected by it. However, having spoken to a few New Zealanders that morning in work they said that when a tsunami warning was issued it was not uncommon for people to flock to the beaches in order to see the big wave come in!! Turns out it's not such a ludicrous warning after all. No one seemed to know if a tsunami had been generated or not and the only news was to 'wait and see' - it turns out the tsunami alert was cancelled at 9am - when it should have hit. This reinforced my belief that no one actually knew whether it was going to happen or not until it did / didn't happen. Amazing given all of the technology we have today that no one could say if there was going to be a BIG wave as a result of the quake.

The weather has changed dramatically here this week. Last weekend we were basking in the cold but very sunny, clear skies of Queenstown. Since Thursday the winds have picked up and they are bitterly cold that freezes your fingertips. The rain doesn't seem to be drizzly here like in Wales - it's either torrential or not raining. Suits me as I quite like torrential rain and I love no rain at all. The winds howl down the side of the house at night and the rain really is vicious - it actually woke me up on Saturday morning (although not for long!). I have come to the conclusion that mother nature is extremely angry at the moment - or possibly going through some mad PMT as we often have very light, bright sunny periods too (no pun intended).

This morning (Sunday) we actually had some snow but not enough for it to stick to the ground, I still have my fingers crossed for some on the ground soon. The great news is that ski resorts finally have decent snowfall and can officially start ski season. In spite of the weather we went for a walk yesterday for over an hour - it rained in part and was dry in part but all in all it was lovely. I'm trying to be able to find my way around but it just doesn't seem to be sinking in. I blame the length of the streets. In Wales we don't tend to have streets that have house number 500 on it but it's part and parcel of life here. Each house is detached (more often than not) or semi detached (less common). Every single house is different too - that's the joy of controlling your own build I guess. Whereas in the UK the houses are largely built by housing companies and you decide whether you like it or not and you buy it or you continue your search. Here people build their own homes so you might have 500 houses along one BIG street and no 2 houses will look the same. It is quite striking when you look at it through stranger's eyes. We walked into Windsor town - a nice part of Invercargill - and through the park back to the house. When we got back I had a card in the mail from my best mate in Wales (she actually lives in England these days but we don't talk about that ;-)) which provoked both laughter and tears so last night consisted of a cheese and wine evening at home and a film.

This afternoon's plan is to go for another walk but going the other way - into the main town - and hopefully I'll be able to figure out where I work without the OH (Other Half) having to take me there each morning and pick me up each evening. It is literally ten minutes away walking so I really need to get to grips with it.

Friday night we decided to make the delicious Jamie O recipe that we loved in Wales - it consists of tandoori salmon on naan bread with a natural yogurt / chilli / cucumber / lemon dressing. It is simply divine - if you haven't tried it then look online for the recipe as it's simply amazing. However, while searching for the ingredients in the supermarket the OH said "maybe Jamie Oliver should come to New Zealand and try to make this dish!" Trying to find the ingredients was not the easiest task in the world. Our first obstacle was chillies - we couldn't find any in the 1st supermarket so off we went to the other one. Finally we got chillies and then searched for cucumbers. Well they must be seasonal prices because even though these cucumbers were grown in NZ they were $5.69 EACH! That's about £2.85 to you people at home. Insane huh?! We made it nonetheless and it was as amazing as I remember it.

Naan breads are different out here too though - we had to buy pita breads or panini breads in order to get what we know as naan breads back home. The naans over here are actually more like tortilla wraps.

The Rugby World Cup tickets went on sale here this week. We've been looking into going to watch Wales play, however the Wales games are in Wellington and Hamilton. The tickets are reasonably priced but the naughty airlines have sky rocketed their prices and a return ticket from Invers would cost around £300 each per return. I haven't even looked at the cost of hotels. So it looks like watching a Wales game is off the cards unfortunately :o( There are games here in Invercargill. Scotland are playing 2 games and Argentina vs Romania is here. We could go just to be part of the RWC but it won't be any rugby we'd generally go out of our way to watch in person (no offence intended!) We may make our way up to Dunedin (2 hours drive) to watch the Ireland vs Italy game but not sure yet as it's at 8:30pm on a Sunday. The tickets are nowhere near sold out for any of the games we're considering so we have time to decide.

I hope all is well in Wales and your summer is going strong. I've heard mixed reports of sunshine and it being too hot to sleep mixed with people saying there is no summer as yet. I'll cross my fingers for decent sunshine for you guys and you cross yours for decent snowfall for us...deal?

Sunday 3 July 2011

Part 7 - Magners sidder

Well we went out last Saturday to HMS Kings in Invercargill with the OH's (Other Half's) work. It was a really good night. The food was absolutely delicious - I had calamari to start followed by the chef's special of Blue Cod & Brill (both fish) on potatoes and fennel. It was yum yum yummy. They sold oysters in various states - fresh / battered / with cheese & bacon. The OHhad them fresh to start & I couldn't bring myself to try one because they look gross. However, I did eat half of a battered one after practically the entire table 'encouraged' me to. I have to say it actually tasted nice. NICE! That's only cos I couldn't see it though I think. I need to stop eating with my eyes and start just trying things. One of the other guys had seafood chowder, that was absolutely gorgeous so I think I'll try that somewhere next time. While we were in the restaurant one of the boys said to one of the others "are you going to try that stuff... (looking at the drinks menu)...is it...sidder?" It was in fact good old fashioned Cider. It's so unknown here. They only had one on the menu called Nallys or something, it was hilarious to think they didn't know they name of it. They'd never heard of Magners or Koppaberg so you cider drinkers might have trouble here in Invers!

Saying that I have also learned some new words here. I'll give you a little taster:

  • Friand - a small gluten-free cake. We sell them in the cafe and they have raspberries and cream cheese in them
  • Friselle - a toasted sub-like roll
  • Infomercials - adverts that they play on certain TV channels ALL DAY LONG
  • Chips - crisps
  • Hot chips - chips
  • Afghan - a chocolate flavoured biscuit
  • Jandals - flip flops
  • "Far out!" - "wow!"
  • Liquefaction - something that happens when water mixes with the ground as a result of earthquakes

There you go - don't say I never teach you anything.

The Batch Cafe is still very busy - 44 hours this week and my first paycheck in NZ$ Yey! We get paid weekly or fortnightly over here as opposed to monthly so that's a big difference to the UK. I served the mayor on Monday - as I was informed by my colleague after I'd served him. Our place has it's fair share of local celebs by all accounts - the NZ Prime Minister officially opened our building a month ago as we're situated directly underneath the offices of a BIG company called WHK and apparently he popped in to the cafe. Once again I went in to work on Thursday and after an hour or so a few people poured in with cameras. It seems that Venture Southland is filming and wanted to feature the city's newest cafe so we had to do a few takes of me serving customers and people were taking more and more pics of things. Apparently I'm very easy to photograph! Lol. That's not to say the pics are any good judging by the one in the Southland Times the other week when I looked really mardy! The highlight of the filming for my colleagues was when Venture Southland said "we can't see you, can we get you to stand on a crate?" and I had to stand on a milk crate...I know I'm short but come on! It was very entertaining as my height has been a hindrance in my current job as I can't actually reach the bar which we stick the dockets on for the chef. In the 1st week I kept leaning on my one elbow and jumping up to reach it...until I got a nasty bruise on my arm from doing it! Now I just leave it on the top and they pick it up from there.

We moved into our new temporary home on Tuesday. It's great to be in the centre of Invers and means my alarm is now set for half an hour later than when we were in Riverton! We had a few glitches in the 1st 2 days: the OH's first coffee had 2 salts in it instead of 2 sugars (oops!) and on the 1st day we got lost on the way to work and on the 2nd day we got lost on the way home from work. Invercargill is just a series of looooong streets crossed by other looooong streets so you always eventually get to where you are going but a wrong turn can throw you off for a little bit. On Tues we had our 1st Indian meal in months which was lovely then on Friday we had a takeaway from a local chippy / Chinese. The OH had the BIGGEST Chinese meal I have ever seen, it barely fit onto the plate! Absolutely ginormous.

I haven't mentioned yet about the fire siren in Riverton. Before I got out to NZ the OH was awoken in the middle of the night one evening by a very very loud siren. He hadn't been pre-warned about this so he didn't have a clue what it was about and wondered if it was a tsunami alert. He turned on the news but there was nothing mentioned on there so he text one of the boys he works with to find out what was going on. It turns out it's the fire warning. If there's a fire in Riverton that the fire service are called out to they set off this fire siren which wakes the entire village. The reason is because the Fire Service there is voluntary so they set off the alarm to wake up the voluntary firemen and the siren continues to go off until they get enough fire fighters at the station to put out the blaze. The OH wondered why they don't just page them and apparently they do that as well but they need to get as many firemen to the station as quickly as possible and that's the best way of achieving that objective. Quite clever really!

There's still no snow here in Invercargill and ski season was supposed to start last week. The Southlanders can't remember the last time when ski season had to be put on hold in so many ski centres. We headed up to Queenstown for WinterFest yesterday with my friend Kate from work and we stayed at her parent's holiday home. What can I say about Queenstown...? WOW! It is simply amazing. The 2 hour car journey on the way had some completely amazing views - driving towards mountains on clear roads and we went up around Queenstown Lake District which was simply stunning. I took some pics and will put them up on FB but it felt like I just couldn't capture the sheer brilliance of the place. Kate's holiday home has a balcony which looks directly onto the lake and a HUGE mountain ski range, it's amazing. There was no snow at all in Queenstown and one of the ski resorts has had to invest in some very expensive snow making machines so that they could open the slopes. The lack of snow and the recent Chilean volcanic eruption resulted in loads of people cancelling their trip to Queenstown which is unfortunate for the town. Saying that it was still extremely busy! We didn't end up going to WinterFest at all! We went for some lunch in the new Hilton complex and then moved on into Queenstown for a night on the tiles. Then this morning we headed to Kate's family friends who made us breakfast rolls and then headed off into Arrowtown to take a look around. It's a very quaint little town that's decked out to look all western, it was very gorgeous and the small boutique-type shops had some amazing things for the home. After Arrowtown we headed to a place called Millbrook Resort for some lunch and a coffee before we headed back into Invercargill. This resort is built on a golf course and has houses on the edge of it that you can buy or rent for a good few dollars!! It has a spa, gym, restaurant and cafe set in some gorgeous grounds and it was really nice.

I can't believe I have been here for a month already - it's gone so quickly and I am missing everyone back home today. There's only so many times you can explain what a 'cwtch' is before you need one. Have a lovely Sunday everyone, much love.