Two words: Mrs. G. I think this was perhaps supposed to be a Sunday thing, but because we're in the future here in New Zealand, I didn't figure that out until the clock had struck 13.The alarm goes off at 6.58am, but it would be too cruel to subject both of us to an image of that, so we'll pretend that the actual getting-out-of-bed proceeded smoothly and without delay, and skip straight to ....

Did I ever tell you about the time my father (man of the cloth) offered to pay me £1 to chew and swallow a black peppercorn? No? Well, impoverished young kid that I was, I succumbed to temptation. I chewed, and swallowed, and then vomited quite spectacularly. All in all, entertainment worth £1, I feel. But my father refused to pay up, on the grounds that I hadn't kept it down*. It's really

I tried to write this post yesterday, but I forgot that my brother was turned loose on the computer in order to organise and conglomerate the several hundred photographs we ended up with after the trip. For reasons known only to himself, he set about deleting the photographs he didn't like. Presumably he concluded that some of them were pointless because he has not heard of autostitch, or of

I hate gym assessments, which is why I've only had three in my life and one of them was about five years ago. When I joined my current gym about six months ago, I was forced into an assessment, which in my case consisted of me telling the instructor what I'd be doing, and her programming it into the fancy Hitler-machine that logs your every blink and exhale and reports you to the authorities if

Today's total gut-busting wonderment is two-fold.Firstly, I squatted a new personal best: 35kgs for 3 sets of 7.Secondly, I chose to offset the merits of the aforementioned achievement by partaking of Chinese take-away. I don't know why, I was just into the idea of food that I haven't had to cook myself. After last weekend's rice-burning pan-blackening incident, my confidence in the kitchen has

I am a very happy woman. There's something infinitely comforting about rolling one of these thinglets around in your mouth until it dissolves in a warm chocolatey mess. The appeal of the Hershey's Kiss definitely has to do with the shape rather than the quality of the chocolate: Hersheys is a little, um, grainy. Seeing these in our local supermarket reminded me instantly of two things.

Snacking is something I do a great deal. I love crisps (chips, to Americans), and I'll go through phases of nuts or olives. Cheetos are a gift sent from the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and chocolate, well, it's never too far away. I'm currently quaffing my way through a valentine's box of finest choccies from Kircaldie & Stains, the Wellington equivalent of a very, very small and much less

Looks like a Sweet Potato, doesn't it?Not in New Zealand, my friends. In New Zealand, it is a Kumara. Kumaras were brought here by the Maori, and come in three varieties. The one you see above is a golden Kumara (I also have an orange Kumara, which is the most common sweet potato in the UK, in the cupboard). The kumara appears to be more popular in NZ than the humble white potato, which I

For the last few days I have been feeling under the weather. Is it a result of the dust that is gently swirling around the house in the wake of the unpacking marathon, combined with exhaustion? Or am I being struck down by actual illness?I am rarely ill. That's because I recognise the feeling of being under the weather, and take immediate remedial action. Witness:1 Banana1 tsp spirulina

I'm still cleaning. In a positively wonderous moment, I discovered that wiping down the walls with my trusty e-cloth makes them look like they've been repainted. Some people manage to get grime everywhere. I should be done in about a week...Today's post is about my favourite Kiwi advert, for a product called "Pineapple Lumps".These things are the nation's favourite sweet, apparently. I tried

I'm at my parents' holiday home, on 'holiday'. I'm actually working like a dawg, coding articles for my research, while Cowboy goes Kitesurfing during the day and lounges on the sofa on his return.All that my brain can really handle at this point is a list of things that I'm finding irritating at the moment, because there's nothing interesting to do.1. Dial-up internet access.2. Eating Jacob's

Things are progressing in the Great Trans-Global Move Experiment.Yesterday, Cowboy managed to make us appointments for our medicals and chest x-rays with only a minor screw-up involving me having to phone them myself. On Monday, I shall be poked, prodded and asked an astonishing number of medical questions, blood tested, urine tested, x-rayed and certified. I have to take four passport photos

In the Urban Household, a swift but quality dinner is a vital part of one's life in one of the busiest cities in the world. I have a half-hour threshhold when it comes to cooking mid-week food. And since 'convenience foods' are the anti-christ this normally results in something really basic I can shove in the oven on one baking tray and pull out half an hour later, combine with swiftly-boiled

...it's not a Swede, it's a smegging beetroot. Cowboy phoned up to tell me he was on his way home but he'd been pondering (all day, apparently; I thought he was a bit vacant when I spoke to him earlier) and he's pretty sure it's a beetroot. Nah, says I, can't be. It's a Swede: it's just really dirty, because all the vegetables come with tons of dirt on, because they were pulled out of the

So, for the last few days I've been pretty busy. It's all to do with missing a week of socialising due to travel, and foolishly telling everyone I know 'I'll see you in the week I get back'. Um, error, mistake, several double-bookings later, and some grovelling to friends who I've had to duck out on... JR was scheduled for dinner on Wendesday, and I managed to keep that appointment: we went

Last night I also made it out to dinner with JR. We went to one of our regular haunts, the lovely Mildred's in Soho.Mildred's is a wonderful place that serves vegetarian, vegan, and wheat-free delightfully cooked delicious food. And it's not expensive. Our whole bill, including drinks and service, was £26.That's a bargain where I come from.The only thing I would say to Mildred's detriment is