Tis the season and all, so this year I actually managed to do some Christmas baking

Chocolate and almond biscotti

And ginger and pistachio chocolate

Yummm.

Now on to a day of eating far too much yummy food and relaxing with family. 

Should be good in spite of the rain & humidity (silly Auckland summer).

Merry merry to you all, and I hope your day is filled with cheer. 

So Christmas is nearly upon us, and we were in Auckland for the return of the semi-annual Christmas in the park with friends event (which had seen a two year hiatus due to the main organiser being knee deep in dirty nappies..).


It has been a while since I made a pinata (since our wedding cake pinata in fact) so I thought I would give a last minute Christmas pinata a go. Having previously made a santa and reindeer pinata, this year saw me attempt a Christmas tree pinata

For sure the most hastily made pinata ever. two days from whoa to go. Barely enough time for the glue to dry.

Things started well, with the smaller children learning the fine art of whacking stuff

But it soon became apparent that this pinata was made of sterner stuff.
In the end we had to pitch it like a cricket ball in order to free the lolly stash

Pinata fail.
In my haste, I hadn't paid much attention to the flour to water ratio for the glue.Turns out the glue strength more than makes up for the number of layers of newspaper mache. Good to know.

Seasons greeting to everyone, hope your festive season is off to a good start.


PS - Another noticeable absence from me in my blog posting. Turns out having a baby takes up more time than you would think. Oh, and we also went to Bali for a month (awesome tropical relaxation) and up to Far North Queensland to see the full solar eclipse (totality was an amazing, tingly, goosebump inducing, bring a tear to your eye experience - fully recomend to anyone thinking of trying to catch one)

How much?

Down at the local fresh produce supermarket, I came across the following:

3 for $2! Wow. 

My Feijoa starved friend from Melbourne asked me how many I left the store with. 

None, lucky for me I had just been on a visit to NZ and had plenty of the wonderful green fruit.

Then I saw this in the seafood section:

Not from NZ< but more expensive than crafish tail per kg.

Who are these crazy people who pay for pipies? 

It did make me miss summer and trips to the Coromandel though. 

Who are the people in your neighbourhood

Boomerang and snakeskin shoes
Another shot taken out walking near our house.

Spotted outside the supermarket

This cat's owner takes him out places, and whilst he is shopping, the cat just sits outside the store and waits (I've also spotted him outside the bottle shop, though maybe it's a she with a pink lead and all...)

Pretty cute!

Australia Day

Australia Day was fun, a totally different atmosphere to Waitangi day in NZ, very much a festival/celebratory atmosphere which was cool (though admittedly, it may well be different in different places around Sydney the downtown area had a great vibe).

We caught the ferry into town with a boat-load of people all wearing some kind of Australian accessory (worst one I saw was a 50+ year old lady in a bar in the rocks who looked as if she was just wearing an Australian towel – unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I haven’t mastered the art of the undercover photo take).

The main part of our day was spent at the Rocks at a festival of the voice. Tons of live music and plenty of people watching. Crazy weather umbrellas for sun and rain in the space of an afternoon. Cool solar powered disco bins that played crazy music and people danced around. 

Three stages and a wide diversity of Australian music. Including this guy, who had such an amazing moustache/beard combo that I think Sam was in awe.
.

Then came home and had some friends over and made a prawn pizza (we don't have a bbq, so it was the next best option). 

The following day we went for a 1k swim on Friday from Shelley beach to Manly - It's nice to live close to the beach when it gets hot.

Then it was off for some walking in Ku-ring-gai national park a pretty choice national park just up the road (we were aiming at going camping, but forgot in a city like Sydney, you would need to reserve your camping spot over a long weekend during school holiday’s at least 6 months in advance…)

We did a great 8km walk, plenty of up and down hills, lookouts with great views, some swimming, Frisbee on the beach.

Some really good rather large goannas that patrol the picnic areas (kind of like yogi bear, on the lookout for picnic baskets… of just sneaking up on and scaring picnicers…)

And even some aboriginal hand art in a cave.

Followed by the scenic route home and fush & chups at Long Reef.

Pretty good weekend all up

Gung Hei Fat Choi!

 To celebrate Chinese New Year we had a dumpling making party with friends at the weekend

 One batch of chicken and peanut and one pork and coriander. Yummmm
Some steamed, some fried, and then a few cooked using the half-fry half-steam method. 

There was a minor incident with a stove top grease fire, but what would the year of the dragon be without fireworks?

Turns out that 90 dumplings between four people is a little ambitious, but makes for good leftovers.

Happy Chinese New Year to you all (all three of you who read this blog at least).

May the year of the dragon bring good fortune and prosperity to all.