Ohau cafe. Plus Hataitai Beach

Hi. 

1)  On my second trip back from Levin the other day, I was so upset I stopped off at a cafe/restaurant in Ohau for lunch.  To heck with my diet.   11 days down and I was giving up.  Bring on the sweet things, the meat pies, the cola drinks with sugar.  Out with diet stuff.  I want to eat!

I ordered a lamb burger (It may have been a mixture lamb/beef burger; can't remember all that well).  It arrived with chips and salad.  What is it about lamb burgers that they truly are so bland?  I'm always searching for one that has real taste to it.  This burger looked very raw but - ah-ha! - I watch "MasterChef" and "My Kitchen Rules" and all those Jamie Oliver programmes (admission:  I really just watch for gorgeous little Jamie, I never much pay sattention to the actual cooking).  On all these programmes the judges, looking at lamb dishes, always say "it's not raw-looking enough", or "it's too well-cooked", or "I want to see the blood!".    So, I knew my burger was definitely cooked.

Anyway, the second the burger arrived, I sort of came to my senses.  I was dieting, darn-it!  I left the bottom part of the bun, and only ate half of the top (the buns were hardly toasted - naughty chef).  I did eat quarter of the chips and all of the burger (so sue me....).

Ohau is just past Levin if you're travelling south..  Ohau Cafe had a nice atmosphere.   The chef (Nic Cohen) apparently has dished up dishes for Oprah and Gordon Ramsay.  The cakes, muffins, etc, really looked scrumptious.

2)  the other day, after my swim at Hataitai Beach, I went to cross the pedestrian crossing to get to my car.  I dithered slightly on the crossing because I didn't know if the approaching car was going to slow down for me.  It did, and I continued to my own car a few metres away.

But suddenly the car screeched to a stop beside me as I was burrowing in my car's boot.  The driver yelled out,  "Don't you know what a triangle means?"

He was gay?  

He drove away, still yelling something angrily at me.

I still don't know what the guy was on about.  All I can think of are the triangles that are painted on the road to warn drivers of a pedestrian crossing coming up.  Did this angry driver think because I knew he was going to stop I shouldn't have dithered but walked straight into the line of traffic?  I trust drivers in lots of situations but when I see a car barrelling toward me, I would prefer to stop and see if his plan truly is to put on the brakes.

Z Petrol Station and my Big Trip to Palmerston North (..not!)

Hi there!  Wow, what a day.  Another sitcom situation in the life of Lorraine!!

I woke up bright and early and there and then decided to have a day's outing to Palmerston North to look at the shops, have a nice drive trying out my new TomTom Satellite Navigation System.  It was going to be 27c in PN, and I spent about a half an hour trying to work out what glamorous yet cool (both for weather and fashion) outfit to be seen in.  I ended up dressing down as usual because nothing glamorous went with my hiking sandals which I have to wear because of my bad ankle and my bad heel.

The day before I'd put $20 worth of petrol in my car's tank and that was enough to get me to the Z petrol station (ex-Shell) in Levin, which because of early morning traffic took one and three quarter hours of driving. 

Anyway,  the attendant finished pumping my petrol, as I was walking into the shop, hunting for my wallet and ..... NO WALLET!   I'd left my wallet and my phone at home.  Rats.

I had to fill in a form vowing to return to the Z petrol station Levin with $71.00  by 9 30 a.m. the following morning.  "Don't forget to put your Driving Licence number on the form," said the shop guy.

I couldn't.  My licence was in my wallet, along with hundreds of loyalty cards (okay, I'm exaggerating a bit here), my credit cards, and bank cards.   Still,  I filled out the form as best I could, embarrassment flushing my cheeks.

"Look, can I post you a cheque?" I asked.

"Nope.  It has to be cash," said the shop assistant.  

"What about if I ring you with my credit card number?"

"Sorry.  Cash.  By 9.30 tomorrow  morning," he reiterated, just in case I hadn't already latched onto that.

I drove all the way back to Wellington.  It was only an hour and a half this time, grabbed a sandwich, rang Z Head Office to see if they could think of an easy way to pay("It's up to the individual petrol station," they said).  It was a one and a half-hour journey back to Levin.

Then ...  another hour and a half journey back to Wellington.  All in all, I figure, petrol for the four journeys would have come to about $75. 

I stopped at Hataitai beach for a swim.  I needed it.

I rang Z Head Office again and said what say I'd been driving to Auckland and had got as far as Hamilton (about eight hours away) and discovered I'd left my wallet at home.    Would I have had to return to Wellington and drive back to Hamilton again in a 24 hour period?

"It's up to the individual Z service station to decide,"  repeated the gentlman in the customer support office.

Stinkers....