Christmas

This is the business card of Tony Fox. Tony picked up my borrowed car after i put diesel in it. usually putting diesel in a car is ok, but this one was petrol so it wasnt. Mosgiel towing and mechanical is in mosgiel. its about 10-15 ks from dunedin over a very steep hill called 3 mile hill. 3 mile hill may be 3 miles or may be 33 miles depending on whether you are going down it or up it. luckily the place im housesitting is already halfway up the hill so i only had to cycle the other 16.5 miles on the way to pick up the car yesterday (after he drained the fuel). Once on top of 3mile hill its a freewheel all the way down to mosgiel nearly - you only have to worry about the wobbles and 90 degree turns. Tony helpfully puts directions on the back of his card so you can find out where he is



After 2 days in my pocket the card looked like this

so whilst freewheeling into mosgiel i was steering/breaking/avoiding speed wobbles with one hand and trying to hold the 2 pieces of map together between my forefinger and thumb in the other. holding it steady so my bleary eyes could focus. just focus. Oh yes you also have to dodge bumblebees here. they are monstrous. nearly got knocked off my bike the other day after i collided with one.

Naturally enough the inevitable happened and the smallest piece got whipped out from between my thumb and forfinger in the breeze, passed my earhole (i ducked instictively as for a bumblebee). unluckily the smallest piece happened to be the one with the with most of the map on it. ahh life. I never found that piece of card again. Tony gave me a new one when i eventually found him but i had to vandalise it for the blog. Anyway, if you do need directions to Tony's you can just ask me.

Santa has been good to me this year. Its quite amazing that he manages to find me every year. usually its only the creditors who have a talent for that sort of thing, but old Santi's spot on every time, and hes never demanding late payment fees or interest.

I got this rather excellent 'Scottish Women's Rural Institutes Cookery Book'.

I can only presume the Scottish rural women got caught up in immigration (maybe trying to smuggle in some shortbread under the petticoats - security is very tight in NZ), but I very much look forward to them arriving and cooking me some of these wonderful and hearty meals. Thanks Gma!

Also got some punchy and lovely botiques from mom. they will happy up the room.

Now these are excellent, but the frame she sent them in is a tad confusing at first. Its a good frame because it has its own hook to hang it on the wall, but it rather obscures the art in it.


I think the idea is that you put the art in and hang it up. then you leave it till you forget whats in there, or you have people over for dinner. Then you take out the art, remark how its rather good, and maybe even better than you remembered it, that its really a pity you dont see it permenantly, but maybe some of the impact would be lost that way after all, put it back in the frame and hang it up again.

Gels and Dave got me these!!

These are the best slippers I have ever had, they come over my ankles and everything. theyre wool lined. And look at the tread on those bad boys. you could probably even wear them OUTside! but im not going to, no way - not going to ruin the best pair of slippers ever invented.

This is the lorikeet im looking after. Its got extremely bright feathers. It also has red eyes. thats how I know its satan.

Im not sure what satan is doing in dunedin, apart from giving me tinitus and occassional bloodletting on my hands. Sometimes I have to tip satans bowl of water over satans head so that he cools down a bit. he does hate that. I guess its no surprise really.

For christmas lunch I sat in shorts outside in the sun and had pizza and liquid salad.

I know its not traditional but it was good, if a little burned (still getting to grips with an oven that actually works). I thought of you all, and toasted absent family and friends. Then i realised that, indeed, it was i who was the absent family/friend and so I toasted even more heartily. and I would have gone on toasting but i'd already used most of the wine for cooking earlier in the week.

And i finished with some traditional swedish saffron buns. Agnes and I decided to bake saffron buns and eat them together (so to speak - on skype) as a small christmas celebration. Due to a mix up with quantities and so forth (would never have happened with the scottish rural institute women) I managed to add 10 times the amount of sugar. So my saffron buns are more like saffron lollipops. Agnes did comment that I had done an excellent job moulding the shapes though, which made me feel somewhat better. I keep them in the freezer, and usually have 2 a day to keep away the shakes after cycling up that hill.



Merry Kiwistmas everyone. miss you all, and thank you so much for all the help support presents, sympathy etc etc. etc. Look forward to when we can all sit around again and share some laughs, some memories and some good times.