Flights of Fancy

In my world of budget travel, where as much as I'd like to refuse to fly Easyjet on principle for losing my bag, the reality is that I will keep going back for more substandard service and distant airports*, the goodwill seems to have become a thing of the past. My much beloved sight, www.skyscanner.net, which has served me well over the last 10 months and will forever be on my favourites for as long as I am in this part of the world, has recently been dangling pineapple lumps in front of my face and yanking them away!! In between Claire purchasing her flight to Venice, and lappy (laptop) going from her hands to mine, the flights went up in price!!! Yesterday, my £17 return birthday flight to Stockholm was no longer when I went online to buy them. That's two in a row!! To be fair, paying NZ$60 for a four hour flight is not too bad considering it costs NZ$99 to fly from Auckland to Wellington, a one hour flight that leaves you still in the same country. It's Pandora's box, once you catch your first 1p flight, there is no going back!! I don't know the meaning of personal screens, free meals, and three hour check-ins any longer!!

*On a positive note, I was talking to a British Airways Steward who said that despite the fact that Ryanair's planes have tin-can persona's, they are perfectly safe and even though he gets flights at discounted rates on BA he still occasionally flies Ryanair because the reality is, you can't go wrong with a 1p flight!!

Post Pancake Day

The pancake frenzy was a complete triumph, and my pancake compartment was restocked to last a whole year. Thea's first pancake looked like a squashed brain, so I took over pancake production duty and mastered the art of perfectly round, thin pancakes. The flipping was a bit of a lost art as I didn't get any air, which I attribute to a heavy pan, lack of wrist strength, and the galley kitchen, but I believe that the "singed fingertip flipping" technique words just as good. To be honest, the savoury pancakes were really just an act of reprieve, and after one we were straight to the good stuff; Green & Blacks ice cream, maple syrup, chocolate spread...we had sugar and lemon on call in case we felt like a break from the heavy stuff but to be honest, that never happened!! We also discovered our pancake styles; I'm a flat out, Thea is a folder, Ollie a packager. It could possibly be some sort of personality test I'm sure.

If I could impart one piece of wisdom acquired from Pancake Day it is this :

Green bananas will not ripen if you zap them in the microwave!

Pancake Day

Also known as Shrove Tuesday, 47 days before Easter Sunday, it is the last day before Lent on which all the creams and fats have to be used up. It is with this glorious vindication from canned tomatoes and pasta that I will be skipping home for a bit of a pancake palaver after work today!! Thea and I have visions of robust savoury cheese and ham filled pancakes followed by a more exotically sweet French influence of nutella, bananas, and ice cream on a delicate crepe (divine daughter of the pancake). It is strange that this exceptional day is not celebrated in NZ, or at least not that I can remember. Perhaps it is because at home I failed to take advantage of all the small bubbles of hoopla waiting to be burst, whereas since being away I am up and armed at even the slightest whiff of a celebratory event. It is a widely known event over here with the Great Spitalfields Pancake Race (the prize is of course a frying pan) the Chelsea Pensioners pancake toss, supermarkets pushing lemon juice in squeezy bottles, pancakes being served at work, and entire pages taken up by articles on the cultural variations of the pancake, top tips for pancake tossing, and topping variations. If you don't have pancakes today you will be kicking yourself for an entire year!! There is no other day where you can have pancakes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or all three plus snacks in between, with completely guilt free, unadulterated pleasure!!

Sweeping the Lavender

It has been one week since moving into the Sweeping Lavender*; what a transformation there has been from caravan to retro chic!! Thanks to the fact that I live with two natives, the house has been kitted out with a yucca and jasmine, TV and digi box (which I connected myself) and various containers to hide, retain freshness, and keep out mice. With throws from the Caribbean, chenille cushions, and truffle oil in the cupboards, the living area has become a chateau. Beyond the stubborn door lies a multitude of decorating sins which can only be forgiven by a spirit of gratefulness that comes with a transient existence. Deciding to cooperate rather than fight it, we have endowed our smurf blue bathroom with all mannerisms of that violent colour, and I have learned to live with my ultimate fear in colour schemes, in my supposed oasis of peace, PEACH!! Oh the floral lavender prints and pansy borders that become tolerable when the 5 thread count, super thin duvet set is free.

Regardless of all these faux pars, there is nothing like dumping your clothes on the floor and knowing that you won't have to cram it all into a pack for a length of time long enough to potentially know exactly which minute past eight to catch the little green man for a perfect journey to the train station. After ten months of being on the road, in the air, on a camel, it is divine to be able to tumble into my own place after work (and that doesn't mean just going upstairs) inviting people over for a meal, and doing banal jobs such as vacuuming, grocery shopping, and changing light bulbs. Life is certainly in the little details.

*Apparently, Bob Geldof and Princess Fergie used to live on Lavender Sweep.

Patriotism Reborn

It seems that once you leave home, loyalty to your country inches up several notches. I've since become an employer of the NZ tourism industry, unbeknown to them, certainly enticing throngs of people to make that epic journey to the pacific, and have for the first time celebrated Waitangi day with more than the excitement of day off. On top of partaking in the mass Circle Line celebration, we had a post Waitangi Day day dinner, and as a couch member, I was lucky enough to host this event in my room : ) Seeing as Mish stole my kumara idea, yes Mish, the world shall know, and the trifle would not have enough time to set, I set about creating nostalgic immitations.This involved de-chocolating a bunch of crunchie bars to mix into vanilla ice cream, and, I'm ashamed to say it, making a PACKET MIX sponge cake, and getting down and dirty with a bottle of chocolate sauce and coconut to recreate the lammington. Also on the menu was roaast lamb, sweet potato, garlic bread, potato salad, and a bottle of the old Oyster Bay. All in all, it was a beautiful night of NZ tunes, wishing we were at Groove in the Park, and getting excited about the snow fall expected overnight. (It was actually still snowing as I went to work today!!)

POLISHING MY NAVIGATION SKILLS
As you may or may not know, my navigational skills are of the sort that would make Captain Cook turn in his grave at the thought of how I used to get lost coming home from Mission bay even with road signs when he navigated the world probably by using the finger in the wind test. (yes I know Nadya, another one to add to the list: ) So it has been quite a feat that I have been able to make it to all my temping assignments, and on time!! (I was late once but only as I couldn't fit on the train!!) Whilst most of my time has been spent at EMI Records getting paid to catch up on emails, search for flats, and answer calls, I worked at a property auction yesterday, which was interesting as I had never been to one before. The residual moments of my day: getting a fright EVERY time the auctioneer wacked the hammer down and trying not to show it as I was sitting on the stage right next to the auctioneer; having flashbacks of 7th form English exams as I wrote bids down as fast as humanly possible, with the thought that I had the ability to completely stuff up the auction if I wrote down the wrong figures and the auctioneer forgot where he was up to; running out of bidding numbers whilst trying to register the que of highly strung bidders (how they made this mistake is beyond me; obviously there was going to be hundreds of people!!)

The last image is my niece Sienna who is definitely gunning for the ride side : )