All things Domestic, Large and small.

Life can be interesting and mundane at the same time. 

For example, a failing dishwasher is quite mundane.  Ours has been dying a slow death for the past year.  We have just recently decided to ask our lease holder to fix it up.  No worries, just a lot of scheduling and communication.  A detail, but it keeps you busy.

Next the gas fireplace has a tendency to blow out.  This would be even more mundane in the US where the fireplace is purely ornamental.  But in NZ that sucker is life giving heat for the whole house.  It warms up alright, but then it will try to idle, but instead it blows out.  So you have to go hit the restart button when ever you feel cold rather than having it maintain a reasonable temp.  Also a scheduling detail.

On the more interesting front, I have had to do a lot of financial manipulation and legal processing.  Painful, delicate, and stressful.  But I think the bank is finally satisfied.  We still have issues to resolve, but we have solved at least 2/3rds of our financial debts.  Of course this was necessary to support child support legal obligations and that's the lawyer part.  Having shunted all resources to only paying child support can only pay part of it.  The reality is my income has not increased in 8 years and has dramatically reduced in the last year.  Time to re-calculate.

But on the upside, the kids are coming to visit in June with my mother.  This was one of the main goals for me in this move was not only to visit, but be able to bring them here to see it.  We've had far more visitors than I've expected which has been wonderful.  I really hope that Chandler and Sabrina love the experience.  I am pretty sure they will.

While we are heading in to winter here, most days are still pretty nice.  In the last week we've had more rain, but no chills.  It is, if anything, a bit muggy.  New Zealand was designed to be damp.  Every plant seems to double as a sponge.  Green covers everything in the shape of moss, lichen, algae, and things in between.  A few trees shed their leaves, but you would hardly notice.  Green is still everywhere you look and flower continue to bloom.  Days are noticably short now.  It is near dark when I walk home from the train.  But the walk is no less beautiful.

We'll see the kids in June and then we'll see Poppop and Aunt Mo in July.  Don wants to stay through the first week in August to be here for Gabe's birthday.  Along about July the Winter Festivals start with fireworks and fairs.  I almost feel like putting up Christmas lights.  So lots of things to do.  Hopefully all goes smoothly for me and for you!

 

Alyssa's Bakery

I think I will dedicate this blog to my bakery.  You see, ever since I moved to Wellington, I have developed an affection for cappuccino.  While there are perhaps 8 places for me to buy coffee in a 1 block radius from my office, there is only one true bakery.  There are many places to buy pies, scones, buns, and pastries, but only one “we bake in the stove in the back” bakery.

 

While the name of the place is Alyssa’s Bakery, the shop gal that manages the counter is named, Tam.  The owner is a very tall bald man.  I am relatively sure his name is not Alyssa.  The shop is on the south side of Courtney Place.

 

Tam greets me every morning with a loud, “Good Morning, Curtis! Coffee?” I often do not get a chance to even agree before she’s at the machine making my cappuccino with extra chocolate and two sugars.  Tam chatters on about random events.  We talk about the last episode of Battlestar Galactica, or parliament, the weather, or the exchange rate.  I have been going to the same shop for a year and while I’m sure that her friendliness is all part of her customer service ethic, I appreciate it none the less.  It makes me feel like I live just down the street.  I feel a bit more contented knowing that I have a real bakery and not a Kwik-E-mart—that I can joke with the shop girl and look forward to an apple pie.

 

The shop offers cakes and scones.  They have about 6 kinds of pastry.   Custard twists, biscuits, and sandwiches fill the glass counters.  Finally, there are the pies.  Oh the pies! Mince, steak, mushroom, chicken, veggie, and my favourite—bacon egg pie.  All created in the back kitchen.  I find these all delicious, but each of them is still somewhat strange to a Nebraska boy.  Yet something is familiar about the bakery.  I know it is more than the food—more than the service that keeps me coming back.  Maybe it does remind me of dusty old Nebraska some how or maybe it reminds me of how I want home to be. 

Billboard in Wellington

I had to get a picture of this... I'm not exactly sure what this ad is trying to say.  But if it's suggesting the gal in the ad is using the product in that location... Colour me, Intrigued.