Today a load of us went out for lunch today at one of the local Indian restaruants that many of the team love (and frequent so often they could organise a table to 10).  A close friend asked me while we were waiting when did I first try Indian food.  I was rather stumped at that.

The easy answer was in my travels and in the UK, but that leaves a huge gap.  I think going way back it was never a cuisine I wasn’t away of.  I remember my mum cooking them when I was a child.  For sure they were not the authentic and relied on available curry powder, which given NZ 30 years ago was probably an oddity on the shelf then!  But eat and enjoy them we did.  Mum also had a wok so Chinese etc was on the menu as well.

Thinking back I’m so pleased that I didn’t have a restrictive food exposure when I was young, mainly due to my mum coming from another country and even today no cuisene is off the menu.  I’ll confess some of the middle european foods leave me a little cold overall (aka German, Austrian) but there are also some true gems there as well.

When talking with a friend in the UK he told me that he had just brought a games console.  My first reaction was "I hope its not a Wii".  Looking back I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to say that.  I know that horse power wise its not upto the same level as the Playstation or XBox, but it does have an inovative interface.

Well after a few more talks with him I totally changed my mind and looked into getting one.

Hi there.

Its been rather interesting cleaning up the site after your hacking job.  I’m both impressed and flattered.  I’m flattered as the site is basically just a personal blog of events here in Japan and doesn’t carry anything of significant interest, so the fact you found it means the search entries must be working!!

I’m also rather impressed on how you did it.  If you feel like sharing so I can secure the site more (as I was resonably certain it was) do drop me a line.  I work in IT so professional interest is piqued!

Also I will say thanks (provisionally) that all you have done is deface the site and not damage the content.  It is backed up, but it’s such pain to have to do that.

Cheers  David

Its been a while since I’ve written to the blog. Not much has really been happening.  The trip to Thailand was fantastic and I had a great time.  It was also one of the best weddings I think I’ve been to.  (other weddings have been great as well in case I begin to offend here).

What set this one a little apart was the size.  Due to the location not everyone could make it which was unfortunate for those who could not, but it was a good choice for them as well.  As the bride comes from the UK and the groom from Australia, Thailand was a good middle location.  As they have both spent alot of time travelling in that region it was another good choice.  And for the friends, some of use met each other for the first time in South East Asia, so for us it was also special.

I’m totally blown away about how cool this plugin is.

Piclens, or CoolIris as it is now known allows you to view enable pictures sites in cool 3D like Apples cover flow, but useful.

Whats ever cooler is that the lastest version of Menalto Gallery is fully enabled for it and that the new gallery I’ve installed.  Its adds a whole new dimension to browsing picturs online.  Seriously take a few minutes and install the plug in.

It works for IE, Firefox and Safari.

I’ve had time now to clean up the photo’s from Thailand, and I’ve also started using the new Gallery from Menalto.

the gallery is above as per normal.  For best results you should load PicLens/CoolIris for 3d browsing.

Wow, the end of August is here, and well, I’ve not been!  Left for NZ at the end of July for fathers 70th birthday, then in Hong Kong, and now just back from Thailand.  3 countries in one month, not bad.

I’ll try and post as I can.  I never quite got the email blog stuff working so couldn’t send updates on the road.  Pics are processing now and will be up soon.

Today has been all about the 70th birthday for Dad.  This time no
surprise party as the last one we pulled for him, he ended up out on in
the boat catching crayfish and snapper (like the snapper were jumping
into the boat – I know I was there trying to convice him along with my
brother that perhaps he should go home!).

It was great to be back home for it and I’m so glad that I had the time available to do it.  However

I
didn’t quite realise that my invitation was based on something else
other than being um family.  I guess over the years my mum learnt a few
tricks from my dad and I ended up helping her do the catering! By the
way, my mother is amazing a cooking for 2 to 30 people without
thinking!  But this time for 100 I suspect she pulled in some extra
help.

I only figured this out when trying to turn a huge pot of
potatoes into smashed warm potatoe salid and wondering where everyone
was when I needed help draining those puppies and trying to turn 8kilos
of potatoes into a salid!

I got in trouble with the Chicken
Salad thou.  Not totally my fault I asked people to help me schred 10
chickens into something.  Apparently however my dressing didn’t quite
cut it with mum.  Others seemed to think it was amazing.  It was so
simple.

Lemon Juice, Mint and plum sauce.  I was going for a
whole middle eastern feel to it.  Taste wish it was fantastic and there
was very little left, but I will concede visually that given the way
the chicken was it did look alittle odd. 

They tried very hard to keep it secret, but things happen and he
found out.  It would have helped if Dad wasn’t quite so determined to
be where he wants to be, rather than were we ask him to be.  Kerry and
Andrew tried really had to have him attend the Northen Region Coast
Guard meeting, but well Dad is Dad and wanted to be somewhere else.

So
then they tried to keep it quiet, but that didn’t work either.  He was
supposed to be at that meeting for the presentation of an award.  But
you know what in many ways, it was better that he did now (after
reading the minutes of the meeting) that he was officially presented
with the award at his birthday.

Many members of Coast Guard past
and present were there and his 70th birthday and as mentioned that was
best as the ones who where there are the ones he respects and they were
there as friends along with the family.  So what was it all about. 
Well the award is given very rarely and only to the most deserving of
members.

My father was given Life Time Membership to coastguard
for services rendered.  It might now sound very much, but as mentioned
this is not an award the dish out at the end of each year.  The last
one was given many years ago. 

Both my mother and father have
served in coast guard for 20 years + and have been recognised for
such.  What is now recognised is the work they and the community who
help them on the boat, have done to save lives on the eastern side of
the Hauraki Gulf. 

I have served with them as part of my life
and are so pleased to know that now all that time and effort Dad has
done is recognised.  Not that he would want it to be.  But then, thats
just him.  And I never want him to change.

Oh my speech for that occasion after all the excellant ones.  "Dessert is served".

David

Its now been about a month or more since I got my worm farm, and they are doing amazingly well and just so easy to look after.  I’m not entirely sure how they are doing with the heat at the moment, but they do live in the shade and while the mold seems to be growing like crazy the worms still seem to be keeping on top of everything.  The only biological stuff I put into the Waste system is onion skins and chillie bits.  I am fairly sure that if I froze them to break down the cell stucture and then added them it would be fine.

Actually from observation when the worms first arrived I had alot of food scraps so froze them so as not overload the little guys.  When I did add the frozen stuff it went within a week. I guess the freezing and breaking of the cell structure made it easy for them to consume.

I totally love that all my kitchen waste is now not going into the system, and the wormery is so discreet and easy to use.  It really looks good as well, so why aren’t more people using it! 

If just a third of the people who lived in cities used a worm farm to digest there kitchen waste the savings would be amazing!.  Local councils could encourage this by giving discounts to those who do have wormeries!  Then again, now do you check that.  I can see worm farm investigators on the horizon!

go figure our crazy world now.

My worm from is from Can-o-worms, or can of worms and was purchased here in Tokyo.