Happy New Year

 Hi there

For Christmas Day I went to Tutaki restaurant in Lower Hutt Civic Building for lunch but, darn-it, I forgot to take my phone with me so, sorry, no photos. 

I have been to the beach quite a lot.  I went today (Sunday).

With their permission I took photos of a couple of beach-goers.

Now, would you rather be the one relaxing on the deck at Hataitai Beach?  Or the one doing yoga on the deck at Hataitai Beach?

I'd rather relax.....

HAVE A WONDERFUL  2025!!!!!!

Happy Christmas

 Hi there

It will be Christmas Eve tomorrow and that brings back memories for me.  When I worked at the Education Department Head Office way back in the early1960s, we were allowed to leave work at 3 pm on Christmas Eve.  Later that time was amended to 1 pm, with the requirement that after lunch we had to return to the office and sign out.  After the first year of the 1pm rule, I'm afraid most people shot off at noon... Hehehe.

I can still remember, as clear as day, my skipping down the southern side steps of Government Buildings, Lambton Quay, 1 pm on a Christmas Eve, dressed up in my best fashion finery to promenade through town on Christmas Eve.

NZ is about the first country in the world to see Christmas morning.  I will be almost ready for bed on Christmas night when people in the Northern Hemisphere will be just waking up for their big day.

I truly feel for people flying from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere on December 24th because they will miss out completely on Christmas Day, arriving on December 26th.  It's the opposite when I fly North;  I gain a day.

HAVE A WONDERFULLY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Edmonds Cookery book

 Hi there

When I was a child in the 1950s, the Edmonds Cookery Book was THE cookbook for kiwi women-about-the-house, along with their cleaning duties, the laundry, bed-making, accounting, nanny-ing, shopping, pet-watching, etc, etc, etc.  The men-about-the-house in those days were into lawn-mowing and ...um ... did I mention lawn-mowing?  

The Edmonds Cookery Book was printed roughly every couple of years (in a hardback form from 1955) up until .. well .. the edition I have is for 1985.  I don't know how long it went on after that.  There were older editions in a different format.

But ... my fave recipe in the book was for cheesecakes.  And here is where I reveal that New Zealand cheesecakes in those days were not what is understood today as a cheesecake.

Above:  my New Plymouth cheesecake

It was a single little pastry and jam-type cake with - wait for it - no cheese in it at all.  Surprise.

And did I like those little cheesecakes?  I adored them!  Relished them, took them to school in my lunch bag -

"Hey, Mum, can you bake some more cheesecakes tomorrow?"

"More?  You've just eaten three!"

Sadly, cheesecakes disappeared.  I can't tell you when it happened, or how, but perhaps they'd just had their day.  The 'other' newer type of cheesecake snuck into shops.  Maybe this new type of cheesecake started in New York?  Or Germany?  I don't know.  All I can remember is that one day we were eating little NZ cheesecakes and on another day we were down at the local supermarket buying big round frozen cheesecakes, ones that evolved into rather posh tucker at top-end restaurants.  They were nothing like the kiwi ones.

But never fear...

When I was in New Plymouth earlier this month, I went into a bakery and what did I find?:  those lovely little identical cheesecakes from the Edmonds Cookery Book!

Sheer happiness for me... 

The cakes didn't quite come up to the standard of my memories of them.  I guess our palates are more refined nowadays. 

175 g (6 ozs) flaky pastry

Raspberry jam

125 g (4 ozs) butter

125 g (4 ozs) sugar

2 eggs

150 g (5 ozs) flour

1 teaspoon Edmonds Baking powder

Cream butter and sugar.  Beat eggs and add alternately with sifted flour and baking powder.  Roll out pastry and line about 21 patty tins.  Put 1 teaspoon of raspberry jam in the bottom of each then a large spoonful of cake mixture on top.  Place a small twist of pastry on top.  Bake about 20 minutes at 200c (400F)

(sorry, for the recipe looking a bit skew-whiff a few times.  My eyesight is so bad I had trouble with the layout.  Should be ok now)

Oh, I believe the United States flour texture  is slightly different from ours.

Cleaning Day

 Hi there

Last week, I was cleaning the bathroom which included the toilet.  I grabbed the toilet brush by its plastic stick handle, and fiercely plunged it down into the water.

Perhaps I brushed too fiercely.  With a - snap! - the bristle head of the brush broke off completely from the stick and got jammed in the tight bend of the toilet.

I prodded that hedgehog's bristles with the stick of the brush, trying to move it.

Nothing happened.  That thing was sooooo stuck.

I figured my salad tongs would be too lightweight to pull out the bristle head.  I couldn't think of anything else.

I jittered around the house for about fifteen minutes, coming up with a dozen ways to get that brush head out from the toilet, none of them practical.  It was late at night, just past my mates' 9 pm deadline for receiving wailing phone calls.  What to do, what to do....?  There was only one answer.

I ... would have to go in.  With my hand.

Sigh.

Finally I decided on swathing my hand in a plastic bread bag.  I discovered a rubber band in my 'anything' drawer and secured the bag tightly at my elbow.

Then .... ugh, yuck...

Down into the toilet water, I plunged my hand.   Well, at least I knew the toilet was clean.  I had used enough Dettol on it thirty minutes before to kill surely any germs in the vicinity.  Hopefully.

I tugged...  And tugged.  And tugged at that bristle hedgehog.  And tugged a lot more times.

Finally .... the bristle brush-head popped out from the bend.  I breathed out slowly, evenly, happily; everything was well in the world again.

 I bought a new brush the following day.  I stood in Bed Bath and Beyond for ages pretending to bend and pull the heads of all their toilet brushes.  I settled on one with a wooden stick instead of a plastic one.

Let's hope the toilet brush never again breaks on me, ever....

**

However, I did discover, via You Tube, that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people who have had the same problem. There are whole stories on how to get that jammed bristle head out from the toilet.  Some people use a plunger, some pull the entire toilet out from the wall, some call a plumber.  Guess I was lucky.

Another New Plymouth Holiday

 Hi there

I'm just back from 6 days' holiday in New Plymouth.  I so love walking the Coastal Walkway.  It's completely concrete, and part of it is directly opposite the city.  On the walk, one comes across bicycles, skaters, walkers, dawdlers, scooters, mobile scooters, joggers, families, mothers with prams. Last week, I even came across an oldie on a walker.  She was on the track for about half-an-hour.

I stayed at the Devon Hotel, in the city, with the most fantastic nightly buffet that the locals adore. And I can swear by the fish and chips from Room Service (plus... no tipping).   And across the road is a zig-zag path that leads you - in about 5 minutes - past a stream to the Coastal Walkway.  

There is a croquet green at the bottom of the zig-zag.  I stopped to sort out my sunhat and my sunblock.

An older guy passed me.  He nodded toward the croquet green.  "  Go on, " he indicated, with a wink.  "Give croquet a go?"

"I'm too young for croquet," I said.  ...  Fibber ...

I've done the Walkway lots of times, used to walk from the Ngamotu Beach end (family beach, calm water) which is down at the Port end -  to the modern bridge end.  Couple of hours walking it all one-way, maybe.

stock photo:  Mt Taranaki can be seen through the bridge

But last week, I decided to split up my walk into two sections, to make it more leisurely.  In whichever direction I walked I had to remind myself that I had to walk the same distance back again.  But there are points along the Walkway to park a car, cross over or walk up to a bus stop, or make a detour to the city.

Another place I love to stay in is a small serviced cabin at the Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park.  The cabin has en suite, and kitchen facilities.  The cabins (and some motor home parks) are on the edge of the cliff, looking across to the magnificent view of the sea, and the holiday park is right next to the Coastal Walkway.  What I like about these cabins, is that I can tie my own elasticated clothesline between the two poles on the cabin deck and dry my wet bathing suit!

above:  Me, on the Coastal Walkway. In front of a surf rescue club. Surf water.

above:   This used to be the entrance to the aquatic centre, a place where I learnt to swim when I was ten.  There's a more impressive entrance around the corner nowadays.  The Coastal Walkway goes around the aquatic centre.

above:  thin me!  There is a silvery-metallic-type sculpture on the Coastal Walkway, near to the city.   If I go around the back of the sculpture and look at my reflection, I appear extremely thin.  Wow, wonderful.  Hey, my hair even looks thin; it was very windy and I got a sort of mohawk.

above:  Along the Coastal Walkway.  Behind the tree, you can spot a glimpse of a yellow-ish building.  This is the Clarendon Flats, St Aubyn Street, where I lived for a couple of years as a child.  If you look in front of the posh new building on the right, you can see a white fence.  I used to stop my bicycle against the fence and just sit there on my bike, gazing for ages at the sea.   I was so fascinated by it.

The above photos taken last week. If you look further back in this blog, at other New Plymouth holidays, you'll see more photos taken from the Coastal Walkway (of the actual sea views!)