Those exotic foods in the 1960's

Hi there

Way back in the early 1960's we, in New Zealand, were learning about exotic foods.  I remember going into a bakery wth my mother.  She pointed to a cabinet  -

"Two of those bread rolls, please."

The assistant said, "They're not bread rolls.  They're croissants"

Mum and I, we both sniggered.  Someone was having us on, yes?  Silly pretentious shop assistant making up strange names for things. Talk about a rose by any other name still being a rose?  To us at the time, and I think probably to all of NZ, bread rolls were bread rolls, didn't matter what shape they were.

Also, in the 60's, yoghurt suddenly appeared on the shelves.   It was advertised as "an acquired taste".  With snobby noses in the air, we muttered to each other about this acquired taste, and how wonderful yoghurt was once you got over the first face-screwing-up awful mouthful.

And then, The French Bread Shop started up in town, beside James Smith's Department Store.  My mum raced breathlessly home, French loaf under her arm with instructions (from watching a demonstration) on the correct way to cut it and eat it.

Yep,  we were so trendy in the sixties with all our new high-end foods.   Aotearoa was such a gourmet paradise.

Chinese New Year

Hi there

It's Chinese New Year.  The Year of the Rat.  There are lots of celebrations around the counry.  Over the last few years I've shown you photographs of a BNZ Bank's decorated ATM machine celebrating the occasion. This time the bank hasn't decorated the actual ATM machine, but their window beside it-

I hate my photo being taken

Hi there

The younger generation love taking selfies.  And good on them!  But I loathe having my photo taken.  I'm the one in group photos hiding at the back.  I can honestly say I've never had a good photo taken of me in my life.

I remember the Lucille Ball tv episode where she was after a passport photo. She went to photographer after photographer, after photographer.   She had all her walls lined with photos, and still couldn't find a good one.  That's me-me-me!!

I do have one Calendar Girl picture.  Not because you'd confuse me with Marilyn, but rather more like those older Calendar Girl women who posed naked but with strategically placed items in front of them.  And it's still an awful picture.  Nice bears, though ...

I am wearing a sarong.

Cilla McQueen, New Zealand Poet

Hi there

Years ago, I read a poem in the New Zealand School Journal by the NZ poet, Cilla McQueen.  It's one of my favourites:

LEARNING TO READ -

I remember the look
of the unreadable page

the difficult jumble

& then the page
became transparent

& then the page
ceased to exist

at last I was riding this bicycle all by myself.

***

...and isn't that a lovely poem about a child learning to read?

above:  Cilla McQueen

The School Journal gave me another little gem, this time by NZ poet Sam Hunt, where he referred to a train tunnel as "as long as next term".  Now, isn't that an image?

Swimming Wellington

Hi there

All through the Christmas/New Year period I've been swimming at Worser Bay.  I really enjoyed going to that beach.  It was like I had gone somewhere else on holiday.  What's that saying? - something about Viva la Difference?

But yesterday I did go back to Hataitai Beach.  Into the water, swam half a dozen or so lengths, had a bit of a frolic, swallowed a mouthful of sea water when an unexpected wave hit me.. 

I got home and took a bit-of-a-late look at the LAWA (Land, Air, Water, Atmosphere) website.   Oops, the site advised caution when swimming at practically every beach in the Wellington area. 

For days they had been giving me the all clear ("Suitable for Swimming" had replaced "Not Suitable for Swimming" - curses on that broken sewage pipe at Oriental Bay).  But now old people, and the young were being advised not to swim? 

I wonder how bad swallowing a mouthful of contaminated sea water truly is for a body?