I was given a flight as a birthday present last year - the son of good friends who's training to be a pilot was going to take me up in a little Cherokee for a swish around the region.

Couldn't have been less enthusiastic if I tried! Flying is something I don't enjoy - I hate international airports, all the tension of cross border controls, and then the actual act of taking off in the plane and entering a domain that we're not designed to be in. For me it is purely a means to an end - something you do to get to the other side of the world as time efficently as you can, and not something I undertake with any sense of enjoyment.

And Simon who was to be our pilot is someone I've known since birth, and I had to concede to myself that I was still trapped in a bit of a time warp whereby I really hadn't got my head around the notion that Simon could possibly be old enough to do something as serious as fly a plane. With passengers.

So I managed to delay for a number of months, while at the same time owning up to my absurd timidness, which meant that I had nowhere to hide when I finally got nailed to a time and date, and the weather on that particular daty decided to play ball.

So fly we did - and it was a truly fantastic experience, not only seeing Simon in such a different role, in which he was so capable and comfortable, but also for the first time in my life I can say that I actually enjoyed the whole experience of taking off and landing - on grass!I thought a small plane would be more scary, but in fact it was less intimidating, and just a thoroughly spectacular experience.

I am not however converted to being enough of a plane buff to be tempted to go over to the Mount to watch the weekends activities at Classic Flyers, but we know lots of people who did.

Our weekend was taken up with catering jobs so we were otherwise occupied, and we commented last nite that we hadn't even got to see any of the old planes fly overhead out this way.

 However Shellie who is a wonderful photographer did go, and has taken a series of great photos of the show and send me this link to them, which she's happy for me to share with those interested in some arresting images of all types of flying machines.

Finally! They've formally announced the team Courteney is racing for in the States this year - Team Optum - a renamed ( becos of new sponsers), Colavita, previously one of the top teams.

Our girl flies out in just over a week, provided the Americans see fit to give her a visa for the extended stay.

All very exciting!

She and her father are out doing 4 hours for him, and 5 and a half hours for her, on the bike this am, and I'm just about to head out the door for my own personal bit of exercise - somewhat more muted then the rest of my family, but I'm still pleased enough with me, that I'm wanting to get out there and do something!

We had a large catering job yesterday and another one tonite, so exercise is happening early in the morning, to give us time to get our heads around what we have to do for the rest of the day. As you do!

Professional cycling has become Courteneys life, and her calender year revolves around the major Tours. On Boxing Day she flew down to Nelson for the Tour de Vineyards, and from there she headed on to Christchurch for the Elite National Road race.

A sports photographer, Richard Spooner,  has just sent her a CD of some of the photos he took of both events in which she featured, and I've copied a few  for those interested here.

Occasionally photos show up on my screen saver of Courteney when she started out cycling as a 13/14 year old, and her subsequent physical developement over the intervening years, is something I marvel over - so lean and fit these days! Mind you  - there has been hours and hours, and literally hours of training over that time. No magic wand has been waved!

(Aptly named Tour de Vineyards)

Thats Courteney on the left of the photo...

And a side on view, showing the recently sponsered bike, and her jersey showing her main financial  sponser, Craig and Co.

On the podium, 2nd 2012

And on the road during the race.

Amidst the sense of disbelieve that the captain of this liner in Italy is generating in his efforts to defend his indefensible behaviour, I thought this cartoon, sent to me by a Master Mariner friend kind of says it all!

I am currently sitting writing the addresses on my second box of envelopes for those people who still want to recieve the newsletter by conventional mail. It takes me about two and a half hours to do a box, and is something I'm well used to doing. However, this time round there has been a constant refrain playing in my head requiring me to keep correcting my posture and sit up straight.

Normally I  slowly sink downwards into a chair, the longer I'm seated - and a writing session like the envelopes involve, usually means I end up almost leaning over the desk by the time I'm finished.

Not good, not good at all. And now thanks to some work that the wonderful Ali has done on my spine, and with my breathing, I'm finding keeping things straight to be much easier.

Ali has been in our lives for ever - she tells a story which I don't remember and don't believe for a minute, that after trialling out as a waitress in the restaurant 18 years or so ago, I suggested that she might be better suited to babysit our babies. I'm sure I didn't, but she insists I did! Any way, our association goes back a long way, and while we may not get to see her that much becos shes been domiciled in the UK for too long, we do get to catch up when she comes home to see her parents.

And so it was last year, when a casual comment from me about Ricks accident, got her to offer to check how he was. Rick had hit the road after flying over a car, and while the only bones broken remarkably were ribs, there was massive internal bruising from the force of the impact, and things tend to end up more than a little out of line after a collision like that.

What she did with him and what she said was fascinating, and she highlighted foot isses that he'd had for years that were affecting his running and told him what to do to correct it. In short she was amazing.

So when Courteney got an injury late last year, with a prognosis that seemed to vary depending on which medical person you spoke too, it made sense to go back to Ali and just check in for her opinion.

She gave us so much more than just an opinion. Her time and efforts with Courteney over the period of her holiday back here have been nothing short of awe inspiring, and I've tried on a number of occasions to find the right words to express our gratitude. But they never seem to adequately cover the sort of appreciation that we have for her knowledge and her willingness to share and to help.

My health has been a bit of a bug bear over the last couple of years, and I've been working fairly hard to shed weight and get fitter, both of which I figure are actions that will help me age in a more healthy fashion. A big part of that process has also revolved around very literally learning how to breath correctly, becos I've never been a good breather, and was misdiagnosed as an asymatic in my late 20s which only worsened matters becos of the dependency that the medication leaves you with. I don't like medication, if I can at all possibly avoid it.

Its been a long slow, tortuous process to correct things, and I am not there yet. But again with some help from Ali on postureand breathing techniques, I've discovered I'm moving ahead again, and for someone who has battled as much as I have with this, that is kind of exciting.

I think what stuns me the most, is that sometimes the correction in itself is so small, but it can have such majorly postive ramifications, and some people go thru their lives putting up with something that they wouldn't need too, if they just got to see the right practitioner.  And shouldn't we all be taking that approach to our health? Rather than waiting for symptons to get to the point where they cause the kind of discomfort that you can't ignore anymore and are forced to go to the Drs surgery, shouldn't we perhaps be being more proactive, and getting ourselves serviced on a regular basis just as we do with our cars?

Its an analogy that makes sense to me, especially when you look at the toll that atheletes put on their bodies - the extreme training they go thru.

Ah, its all so very interesting.

And to Ali, who is currently probably sleeping somewhere between here and Bristol - travel safely, and thankyou. We all think you're amazing, and we are so glad that we have you in our lives, even if you didn't like waitressing!

My husband came home today, and I have both my daughters heading home tomorrow , one from Christchurch and one from National Park, and tomorrow night I'll cook dinner and we'll all sit round the table and talk about stuff, and I will relax and know how lucky I am to have my family close. I love them more than I can ever say - and am so very lucky to have them all happy and healthy. Not something I will ever take for granted, becos I know only too well that I never should.

Tonite I headed over to the restaurant even though I wasn't working, just to catch up with some friends who were in for dinner, who I hadn't seen  since before Christmas, becos there was something I needed to talk to them about, but as I sat down  I mentioned I was keen to be home to watch a TV programme that I've immediately become addicted too - Zen on UKTV. Its brilliant. And I'm someone who hates TV in general.

I'm a huge fan of the Donna Leon books that are based on Commisario Brunetti in Venice - a  revealing series of stories that peel back the layers of corruption and mysogyny that define Italian life, or did,  under the previous administration, and this series has some of the similar overtones, but set in Rome rather than Venice.

It rather helps that the lead actor has all of the charisma of a George Clooney, (ie he's gorgeous!) and not only that, but its set in Rome with all that wonderful architecture as the backdrop, and then the writing assumes that  the viewers want to be challenged, so its stimulating and superb, and puts to shame most of the other crap thats shown on TV.

Becos we're going to Italy later this year, I'm gradually starting to up my level of absorption of Italian stuff, and since its 8 years since our last trip there  I'm greedily soaking up any detail about the place that I can get my hands on. I'm currently reading a Charles Dickens book, which is a travelogue of a trip he made to Italy back in 1844. He landed in Genoa which isn't too  far away from where we will be based, although being 170 years on from his trip, I expect things will be a little different from what he describes!

  But the history of places helps define what they become, and his ability to describe detail is quite extraordinary. So I'm enjoying, becos it is certainly quite a different perspective to the food and wine books that I have a tendency to turn too to give me a feel for a region.

I am beyond excited! Courteney has just ( literally only moments ago!) got 2nd in the Road race at Elite Nationals. I'm waiting for Rick to ring me back - he's videoing the medal ceremony at the moment I think,. I've been sitting at my desk for the last three and a half hours doing bookwork and flicking back to the live feed of the race, with the occasional phone update from Rick. Its been a nerve racking afternoon! The dogs have been wondering what the occasional yelp from the desk has been all about!

Very cool!! She's worked incredibly hard for this, and had to battle an injury  that looked like it could potentially restrict her from racing, so even though a couple of the most senior names in NZ womens racing weren't in the lineup today, I think she'll be pretty chuffed with how she went.

I know her mother and father are!!

Online article,   on the race.

And a photo of Courteney on the podium - she was the last of the 3 of them to open her bottle of bubbly. I thought I'd taught her all about such necessities of life, but obviously not wll enough!

And another photo.... after the race...

My dentist plays Andre Rieu DVDs when I'm in the chair, and I've never quite had the heart to tell Kevin that I find Andre just  too nice for my somewhat prickly sensibilities. 

However, that said, even I had to concede he was rather lovely with this tiny 3 year old, who can play the violin with a skill well beyond his years, and who has an onstage presence that is going to take him a long, long way. Those eyes...!!

This is appropos of nothing really, but some of the following photos of warning signs came thru in an email from a gentleman who's delightful sense of humour causes me many a chuckle at my desk...

These somewhat took my fancy...

I really do need to go for a walk, becos have a group coming in early tonite and need to be back in time to feel organised...

But before I brace myself to do battle with the wind, I've been trying to sort thru my inbox and get rid of stuff that I don't actually need, and that process has exposed a couple of gems that have been sitting there undisturbed for some time. Needed to share this link to 3 short videos of Men in the Kitchen, becos watching it again for the umpteenth time still managed to make me snort.

Gail sent me this ages ago, and I haven't been able to bring myself to delete it...

For your information, if you haven't already recieved this email from sources at the  meeting. I think we all want to do something concrete to help:

Good morning all

A number of us from Coastguard attended a meeting last night (held at the Mount Surf club) in response to an email targeting specific organisations.

The main purpose of the meeting was to inform the wider community of what is required by all parties (public, response team etc) to clean up this disaster.  Designated areas are along the beach and will be clearly sign posted asking for volunteers (if in doubt go to the Mount or Omanu Surf Clubs

1)     All people entering and leaving the beach NEED to go through the designated areas not walk through the sand dunes.

2)     Volunteers NEED to go to these designated areas.

3)     Volunteers NEED to bring a pair of Gumboots

4)     You will be then given a pair of White overalls, gloves and slipper covers to go over your gumboots a bucket and a shovel.

You will then be split into groups of 30 people, be given a brief outline of what is required of you as well as a Health & Safety brief.   There will be 2 people assigned to your group, 1 being a member of the public and the other being a member of the armed forces, they will be your first point of call for any queries.

You will then systematically work the beach for a period of time, after this time you will then proceed back to the area that you ENTERED the beach to walk through a decontamination area, take off overalls, gloves and slipper/booties (these are then thrown away.

One of the reasons for this decontamination is the oil goes hard like tar and this is now being found OFF the beach, in the town, on people properties and thou the best intentions have been had by the members of the public who have entered the beach to clean it up, careful consideration has not been given to clothes, boots etc before leaving the beach.

Volunteers are required for the long haul and you will not be turned away, so if you are interested in helping please register www.boprc.govt.nz/oilspillvolunteers or register on 0800 645 774

Thanks

The raffle has been drawn. Our lawyer came out and did the honours over a glass of pinot and general chat, and drew the name John and Glenis Cronin, out of the box.

A huge thankyou to everyone who bought tickets - the response was truly wonderful, and we are truly grateful.

The progress of the team during the Tour will be able to be followed on the Tour of Southland website. We hope they have an amazing experience!!

The Motu Challenge which our family competed in yesterday,  is a classic example of a multisport event in this country that attracts a wide range of people, from top athletes thru to the weekend adventurers who enjoy getting out and doing something different.

Our daughters started competing in this race when they were still at college, forming a team with a couple of other classmates, and I well remember my initial sense of shock when I saw the mountainous hill that the then, very young Courteney was going to have to ride up, not to mention  my horror at the descents on the other side. The kayak leg which Hannah does is a 27k paddle along a constantly changing and always challenging river. It is a hell of a long way. Trust me!!

It was perhaps my first real initiation into the fact that my daughters were comprised of a rather different physical and mental makeup to what I may have believed possible growing up, and were going to follow a very different path to what I had known, whether I liked it or not.  I was really left with  no choice but to stop carping at whether it was realistic for them to be able to achieve at that level and simply get in behind in support. They were going to go out and give it a shot, regardless of what I thought of the sensibleness of the undertaking.

Their father always had total faith in them, and told them regularly to go hard, resulting in a  number of rather terse conversations with me about whether or not they  should be so encouraged, and I am the first to admit, that I have been subsequently proven to be profoundly wrong. I didn't know, and I didn't understand, becos something like that was well outside my sphere of reference up until then.

Now it is an event that I feel very priviledged to be a part of, albeit very much in a support role. We live thru all the disapointments and challenges and some of the wonderful achievements that arise each year, when things do, or don't, necessarily go according to plan, and its become an important date in the years calender.

Pretty much every year since those college days, they've gone back, and what started intially as just a challenge to get thru to the finish, has become, just as so much else does in my family's life, an ongoing competition to be the very best they can. Somewhere along the way, Rick  was given permission ( by his daughters!) to become an active part of the team, and a contemporary of Courteneys did the mountain bike leg. As a mixed team of 2 males and 2 females, they started to finish first mixed team home, and once they'd tasted that success there was no stopping them. So each year they go back determined to better last years times, and the pressure felt by each team member to keep up in their segment is quite considerable.

We are now called Team Somerset - naming rights being a given, since we are the major sponsers in every sense of that word, and chauffeurs and cleaner uppers...

The race starts in Opotiki at 7am, with the mountain bikers heading out on a course that takes them thru some vertiginious terrain, and we don't see them again until they emerge deep in the Motu, 2hours or so later. The hand over to the runner occurs at that point, and they then disappear into a forest and cover a similarly challenging course, which for Rick takes about an hour ten minutes,  back to the same transition point. The transponder and bib is then given to the road cyclist, who rides all the way back to the Motu River up and down considerably mountainous roads, and hands over to the kayaker who then completes a trifecta of disciplines - a paddle of 27kms down the ever changing river, a quick bikeride back into the edges of Opotiki, and then a 3k run sprint to the finish line.

Each individual stage is a challenge well beyond the kind of physical endurance that I can even begin to imagine for myself, becos I'm just not designed that way, and as good as our guys are, you periodically have to stop and contemplate the extraordinary level of athletetism of especially Richard and Elaina Usscher, who are consistently the winners of both the Male and the Female Categories, and who do the entire race by themselves, finishing up with the top teams, in fact,  bettering them.

Its mindboggling really.

Within the Motu Challenge itself, there is now another race called the 160, where cyclists can do the mountain bike leg, and then switch to a road bike and ride all the way back to Opotiki.  It means the numbers staying in the house we use as our launching pad have swelled over the years, as cyclist friends who don't fancy the run or kayak leg, get to participate also, and that means the logistics get that bit more complicated for Rick to plan out, as he endeavours to make sure that the right bits of equipment are at the right transition places.

The amount of gear required is ridiculous really. And includes special drinks and food for the atheletes, layers of warm gear, and wet weather gear ( why does it always rain at the Motu?!), and the added pressure of having it all sorted in time. When your team is moving thru at the top of the field that doesn't leave much time for dilly dallying.

So its a big day for all of us, even those officially only in support capacity like me, but very cool for all that, and extra nice when  the team both individually, and collectively do as well as they did yesterday. Finishing 3rd across the line, and not only first mixed team home, but actually first team overall. Our two daughters names now appear on the list of record times - one for top kayak time for a female team member, and one for top road bike time for a female team member. Ricks hoping they will instigate a Masters category so he can get his name in there somewhere too!

This year we had a new mountain bike rider in Team Somerset, and Simon was apparently feeling some considerable pressure to keep up the proud tradition, so he didn't just go out and nail the ride leg, he arrived back in a blistering time, completely covered in mud, and earned himself a permanant spot in the squad if he wants to come back!  Not that we're competitive or anything!

My husband proved conclusively that all injuries from the accident last year have been totally overcome as he ran his heart out, and then both Courteney and Andrew kept the team in top position all the way to the finish line. Andrew stepped into do Hannahs kayak leg, when she decided that her training hadn't been able to be substantial enough in the lead up to the race, which was very generous of him, given that he had been planning on doing the entire race himself. We approved heartily of his sense of priorties!

Great stuff!!

Good friends of ours have got into the habit of being part of the support team each year, and they follow in their campervan, helping with the gear logistics, and being a wonderful presence to have around the place. We've got used to being spoilt, and it will be a shock for my daughters one year when they don't get to have a wonderful hot shower on tap at the end of the race.

And now, for the pictorial record of the day:

7am in Opotiki. The mountainbikers lined up for the start. We won't see them again for over 2 hours as we head in by car to meet them in the middle of the Motu, a long way from the nearest petrol station or diary...

Waiting for the mountain bikers to appear. There have been very few years when we've got up to the Motu and it hasn't been wet. At least this year the rain wasn't blowing in at a horizontal degree I guess but its still grey and muddy and generally uninspiring at that point.

Simon home with the top 5 riders  to our intial surprise becos we hadn't heard the team number called out at the 15k mark, but that was becos he was covered in mud. Courteneys changing over the transponder to Rick, and Simon is looking somewhat shell shocked. He gave it his all!

The lineup of bikes ready for the changeover from mountain to road ride. Some very serious investments amongst some of that gear...

Courteney has warmed up on the rollers to the consternation of those watching who've never seen them before and is waiting for her father to appear at the end of the run leg. We know exactly when he'll show becos Rick is such a consistent athelete  and unless something very untoward occurs we knew pretty much to the minute when to expect him.

Hannah in her support role this year, attaches the transponder to Courteney, and Rick has a similar kind of shellshocked expression to Simon. They give it their all out there...

One of the pleasant side effects of my childrens sporting endeavours is that I get to see parts of the countryside that I wouldn't ordinarily do so. Here we're on part of the road bike course waiting for Courteney to come past, with Rick deciding he needs something to eat. Sultana cake. Edmonds recipe - a family tradition!

Courteney rode virtually the whole road course with Richard Usscher, pacing it out with him up Traffords Hill, until his heavier body weight meant he got away from her on the downhill. Next year  we've told her we're going to give her some lead pellets at the top of the hill to even up the balance!! Light body weight is great going up, but a distinct disadvantage on the downside. He was a total gentleman to her - and showed his real class both as a person and as an athelete.I was hugely impressed.

We're talking serious hills here people!

Andrew on the river during the first few kilometres - a long, long way to paddle.

 Give your camera to someone so they can check the photos taken so far, and they take a photo of you! I'll remember that next time! We're waiting at the end of the kayak leg for Andrew to appear.

Having just been accidently dropped in the river by the official tasked with helping him out of the boat, Andrew is helped by his mother Kate, and instructed by Rick on where to head to get on the bike. His leg is not over yet!

Now it has! 3rd across the finish line - and in his determination to beat another runner, he didn't bother changing into running shoes after the bike leg, and ran the 3k or so in socks, as you do!

They are awesome - individually and collectively!

Until next year!!

We are all about to head out the door, on our way to Ohope where we stay overnite in a friends house, and leave before dawn to be in Opotiki at the start of the Motu Challenge.

The family team has a slightly different lineup this year, with Rick reclaiming the run leg, that Andrew stepped in last year to fulfill after Ricks accident, and Andrew is instead doing Hannahs kayak stage, becos the combination of a heavy study load and an ongoing cold has meant she hasn't got the training in that she wanted too, and she's decided to not push it. Courteney does the road bike stage, and Simon Binnie is doing the mountain bike - so we're in for a fast performing team. Not that 'we' are competitive of course....

My contribution centers more around food - and I've made sultana cakes and bolognese sauce, under instruction,  and this morning I got a crumble made, that I'll assemble once we get to Sallys. Rolled oats for porridge and fresh bread for sandwiches during the day, and we should just about be covered.I hope!

A few other people will be with us - Kate, Andrews mother, has come in support, and Richard and Lucas are doing the 160km mountain/road bike race - so the amount of gear that has to be collated and collected and seperated is huge, and I just keep totally out of the way. Making sure we have the right equipment at the right changeover point requires a lot of logistical planning, and other friends will also be there, helping us schelp stuff around.

We had a cookschool on this morning which has only just finished, becos it was an especially sympatico group who were quite content to sit around the table discussing en masse the general state of affairs out there, amidst much laughter and general camaraderie. A perfect example of what makes me feel so good about the classes.

And today we learned that shao hsing wine has wheat extract in it! We had so carefully modified all the recipes to take into account Christines celiac requirements and were very literally patting ourselves on the back at how thorough we are these days, becos of what we've learnt working with her thru the years, to discover part way thru that rice wine has wheat extract in it. Didn't know that - wouldn't even have considered it actually! - but do now!

Ah well! Fortunetely in the restaurant kitchen there's always room to fall back on plan B, and Christine didn't have to go without a chicken main, she just missed the flavours off it having been poached in the master stock and when she makes it at home we suggested she use mirin, which is a Japanese version of rice wine, and doesn't have any wheat in it. Its what we'll use next time.

I guess it would be boring if you could claim to know everything...

Dogs are in the kennel, staff are sorted, and we're about to leave. Looking forward to a long leisurely walk along Ohope beach to hopefully clear my head in a couple of hours time.  Its been a full on, intense few days, and it will be nice to get the opportunity to blow away a few cobwebs I must say.

Back to work for tomorrow nite, becos fortunetly we're full. The All Blacks are rather considerately playing on Sunday this week, which means our Saturday nite, is at its normal desirable busy level.

That makes me much happier! Even if it does mean that we're going to have to come back to work...

Well thats a pain! I've just wandered over to the restaurant to make myself a needed cup of coffee, and Craig, who's doing his prep in the morning so he can play soccer this afternoon, tells me that he has some bad news. A 10 that we had booked for tonite have just rung and cancelled - they are extremely good corporate customers who were entertaining overseas guests.

I can't help but wonder if the cancellation has something to do with the All Black / French game tonite, and maybe they've found some way of tactfullly marrying their entertaining responsibilities with watching the rugby. Hmmm...

Needless to say, we have very few other bookings tonite, and what ones we do have are in early, so it's not going to count as much of a nite, which is a complete contrast to what I expect from a Saturday nite. But since you can't fight it, we may as well come home and watch the game ourselves I suppose!!

We drove up to Auckland on Thursday to go to Hannahs graduation ceremony, and spent the rest of a very pleasant day with both her and Andrew. Downtown Auckland is alive and vibrant, and had a wonderfully cosmopolitan feel, which, even for someone who's not especially focused on the rugby like me, feels impressive and fun.

We had an early dinner at Al Browns new place, 'The Depot' which was packed to the gills, with people having to wait outside for tables. A very clever eatery, thats been designed to be casual, but with the emphasis put on good food and excellant waiting staff, and where all the little design points, like mismatched second hand cutlery in a used tin can on the tables, sound contrived, but actually work.

It's fun and clever. Noisy, boisterous and very, very busy. I listened to one lady complaining vociferiously about the fact that she was having to wait for a table,and how that really didn't suit her - standing in a restaurant teeming with people, and with obviously no free tables, and the restaurant manager just kept repeating what he had already told her a number of times, that he would come and get her as soon as a table come free, but she was not placated.

So the fact that they are cheap and cheerful and don't take bookings obviously doesn't suit everyone! I had read about the fact there were queues most nites, so we made a point of arriving early, before 6pm, which suited us becos we had to drive back to Tauranga, and even then, there were only a couple of tables free. So I can imagine that if you go in peak dining hours between 7/8.30pm then a wait will be inevitable. And I hate waiting, but I don't think I consider myself to be quite as important as that particular lady obviously views herself.

We did alot of wandering around the downtown area - checking out the new Wynyard Quarter, and the Cloud on the Princes Wharf. Even went into the Rugby Ball to see the show, and was hugely impressed at the way NZ was portrayed. Again - clever, witty and visually quite spectacular.

We then chanced upon the World Press Photography Exhibition and went in to look at those photos, and emerged some time later with the grins that had been in evidence all day, firmly removed from our faces. Powerful viewing, and a useful reminder that sometimes the things that we get ourselves agitated about are really rather insignificant in the scope of the trauma that some people confront each day.

But the day was really about our girl.

The Convocation ceremony was for the Science faculty and is a fascinating combination of pomp and somewhat archaic notions I felt with a very long procession of graduates going up to shake the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellors hand, be congratulated, and given their degree ( which is printed on goatskin parchment, and has an expected life of at least 500 years. Possibly a titch longer than most people would need, I'm guessing!). But the huge smiles on just about every single one of those faces as they shook the hand proffered to them, was positively a joy to watch, and made the time go by very quickly.

The ethnic mix of those faces has changed dramatically from when I was capped about 25 years ago - Anglo-Saxen ones were definitley in the minority - and I was intrigued and delighted to see the number of Muslim women who were identifiable by their  head scarfs, taking their place to collect both Batchelor and Post Graduate conferment. Reassuring to think that there are parts of the Muslim world that are not scared of educating their womenfolk, by contrast to what we read about in newspapers most days.

Hannah wore her gown for the rest of the day, in the completely nonchalant manner, that I've come to expect from that daughter. I, by contrast took mine off straight away after my ceremony, not wanting to draw attention to myself. Pathetic but true! She attracted a number of lovely congratulatory comments from passerbys in the street and waiting staff and other diners in the restaurants, all of which added an extra warm note to the celebratory feeling of the day.

It really was all rather special, and a joy to share with them both!

Doug sent me this. It pasted a great big smile on my face as I worked my way thru the various company returns that I had to file with the Companies Office. As you do!

I just wish I had that level of energy first thing in the morning...

My throat is still feeling a bit sore this morning, after a delightful evening of chat and laughter and general enjoyment down at Mills Reef for the 'Tarnished Frocks and Divas' show.
I'd never been to the show before - always had the best of intentions of booking to go, intentions that were intensified each year when I heard so many rave comments from people who'd been. And once again this year, I hadn't quite got round to getting of my chuff to organise tickets, so I'd heard it was on, castigated myself for my tardiness, and made a vow to be better organised next year.

It was therefore, with considerable enthusiasm that I greeted a phone call from Linda Preston last week inviting me to join a table she was putting together of local hospitality women. Feeling only the slightest ( and very temporary!) twinge of guilt I jettisoned my work committments and husband, and headed down to Mills Reef, for what turned out to be a truly spectacular evening.

The show is stunning. A creative tour de force of truly epic proportions, that was simply a joy to behold. So many amazingly talented and creative people.

And thanks to Mills Reef's generosity we got to go upstairs to the restaurant after the show, and have desserts ( they have a new pastry chef in the kitchen, and the range to choose from was great), and wine, and more chat - and believe me when hospo types get together, there aren't too many stones in the local community that are left undisturbed.  Good catch up time with people who's company I really enjoy, and by the very late hour that I got dropped back home, Somerset was closed and Rick was ensconsed on the couch having just watched the Samoan rugby game.

I don't think he'd missed me too much!

Great news! A text came thru from Errol Newlands last nite saying that Waikato had managed to win the contract  to provide a world class velodrome. A determined group of special people have toiled incredibly hard to have this asset end up in the Waikato, in the face of concentrated opposition from vocal ratepayers, who objected to spending $3.18 a year from their rates on this facility.

Sport is good for the local community. No, I'll rephrase that, sport is vital for a local community, and I defy any proud Kiwi not to watch this video, without a tear coming to their eye.

The trustees were accused of elitism in wanting to install a velodrome that will attract the best in the world. They were accused of wanting to spend ratepayer money on something that would only benefit a few, and people like Sonja and Rob Waddell, Sarah Elmer and Susan Devoy, tried to explain to people who've never got off their chuffs to do anything, why they truly believed that a top facility would be an asset to the area, and to the community as a whole.

But they were pitching to people locked into their own perception, who couldn't and wouldn't understand what was being said becos they didn't want too.

We have followed the endeavours over the last few months with interest, and a looming fear that Waikato was going to miss out becos there just didn't seem to be enough  conviction  at the civic level to push thru the proposal. Too many people were concerned with their re-election prospects.

So Errols text was fantastic news, and a surprise but a very welcome one. We had convinced ourselves that the naysayers were going to carry the day and I am utterly delighted that they won't.

Becos I truly believe that this will be a fantastic facility for the whole community. Not only will it be able to be used by everyone, and cycling is a sport with a significantly growing following out there, but it will attract all manner of events, and influx of people who will spend money in the local community. Money that will trickle down and benefit widely.

And yes we have a daughter who is an elite cyclist, and thru her connections we know a number of the people involved in this proposal, but Courteney doesn't do track riding, shes a roadie, so our hope that the velodrome would come to Waikato was based on the firm belief that it would be a fantastic ongoing asset for the area, not becos our daughter stood to benefit from it.

Did I not read in The Herald this morning the figures that Paymark are showing from the previous  weekend and the opening of the RWC, where the spend in Auckland in hospitality is up dramatically on the same time last year, becos of the massive influx of people, and areas like Tauranga, and the Hawkes Bay and Palmerston, that have no RWC activity, are down. Its not exactly a surprise, and maybe what some of these retired ratepayers need to understand is that communities need vibrant businesses that are providing employment, and for that to happen businesses need customers.

If we lock everything down and say we don't want any change, we don't want to spend money on any improvements, then the area will stullify over time and go backwards.

On a commercial level it makes sense. But on so many other levels it also makes sense. I didn't grow up in a sporting household. Physical exercise was never prioritised, and I look back on various periods in my life, that I now know would not have been so black if I'd understood the simple need to put on a pair of walking shoes, and take myself out for a walk.

Marrying a man who is an amazing athelete, and watching 2 daughters grow up and just naturally follow their fathers physical aspirations, and seeing the impact that that lifestyle has had on the type of women our daughters are becoming, has made me long since, reassess quite dramatically, a whole host of my  own values.

Sport or physical exercise at any point on the spectrum  is good for you. That is a simple indisputable fact. And you don't have to achieve to the extraordinary levels of a Susan Devoy or Sarah Elmer for that to be true. If all of us aspired to move our bodies on a more regular basis, at whatever level we felt comfortable, then there would be considerably less health issues out there.

And to have a facility that can encourage the young amongst us to aspire to be the very best they can be on the world stage, how can anyone say seriously, that they wouldn't want to support that? And especially when the actual cost to them is less than one cup of coffee a year?

I find it morbidly fascinating that people would bring so much angst to bear on something that is going to impact on them so little. OK, they may not intend ever darkening the velodrome with their presence and they may have absolutly no interest in standing on a country road somewhere out the back of Morrinsville, and watching a peloton of world class riders battle it out on the hills. No one is asking them too. But their assumption that becos they don't think it should happen, then they have the right to deprive everyone else, is one that I struggle with, I must say. But I guess that is the joy of the democratic process...for better or for worse.

I think I'll watch the video again - its feel good factor is totally appropriate for the here and now!

Flash mobs are all the rage - and Ricks just pointed me in the direction of this one, which is quite appropriate for our family.' I want to ride my bicycle'.

The skill and control of those young riders is just extraordinary....

And just to show that such a stunning performance could not possibly be a random event, this video shows the amount of preparation that went into the production.

According to the comments, this is a 'happening', not a flash mob becos its scripted and rehearsed. Whatever. What I love about them, is the looks of sheer pleasure that you see flash over spectators faces, as the realisation sinks in that they've had the good luck to be in the right place at the right time.

These extracts from coffee advertisements in the 50s are a useful reminder of why I'm quite adamant about the fact that I am most definitely a feminist, and will always be one, even though I often get told that theres no need to claim that label in todays world.

Hmmm...!

Home alone. Husband and Courteney left home at 7am this morning for a 5 hour bike ride as you do, so its just me, the dogs, Sunday papers, and the sun on my back.

Not so bad really!

Never bother too much with the Sport segment of the papers, but have just read the Richard Boock column in the Sunday Star Times, and was affected strongly enough by how he opined to get up and head for my computor to write this.

Our women sporting champions get pitifully begrudging recognition in the sporting media, usually in a segment tucked somewhere after the voluminous coverage of the rugby and rugby league.

Does it piss me off? Yes exceedingly. And I really liked Mr Boocks angle that the infintisimal amout of coverage accorded such high achieving atheletes like Valerie Adams, and Lisa Carrington in the last couple of weeks is becos most of the male sports writers are governed more 'by what hangs between their legs than what's contained between their ears.'

I've always blamed the scarcity of media coverage of womens sporting achievements in general on the power of the advertising dollar . Big business funds sport these days, and big business makes the rules, and the money goes where the percieved returns are most likely to be. Only a few short decades ago, women were considered too frail to be 'allowed' to run the marathon distance, let alone be feted for their sporting greatness.

We have come such along way since, but still the prevailing attitude amongst the sports writers -male almost exclusively- tends to be patronising at best, completely sexist at worst.

Or, as Mr Boock puts it succinctly: 'the biggest irony? That, when asked to explain this glaring oversight, most of our media blokes, bluntly claim that people aren't sufficiently interested in women's sport. Heavens. I wonder why that might be? Surely not because it's treated like a second class citizen? Surely not because it's still governed by a sexist old boys club. particularly in the media? On, no, of course not. Perish the thought.'

Courteney has a recording on her iphone of a withering speech that Dame Susan Devoy gave on this subject a couple of weeks ago. Its brillant. I asked Dame Susan if a I could download it and use it on a blog on the website, and she was more than happy for me to do so, so when I've figured out how to do that exactly I'll install it. As one who has lived thru the full gamit of sexist putdowns, she has a unique  perspective.

I like to think times are a changing...

And now I'll go and make myself a coffee and head back to the rest of the papers. I've had my little rant for the day, and I've still got time to make the Pineapple Upside Down Cake that caught my eye on the internet this morning, and which I decided I'd make for when my atheletes get back, even though it might be too high GI for the younger one...( As I have to remind her ever so gently sometimes, its not just about you Courteney!)

 Cooked cake. Very moreish too!!

The Road Cycling website has just contacted Courteney asking for her thoughts on how her international racing year has gone. For those interested, a link to the article...

Rhonda has just sent this link thru to Rick and I have to show you .... a video of a downhill urban bike race in Chili, which is totally, utterly crazy.

Makes my family seem almost sane in their sporting exploits by comparison....

I wondered what Hannah was watching this morning on her computor and joined her in time to catch the spectacular approach to Whiritoa beach that had been our introduction to her ARC race this year.

This link is to the video of the race, and if you need any proof that these multisporters are a breed apart then this movie kind of underscores the fact.

( Ignore all references to Chinese explorers in the C15th, thats just the sort of random, nonsensical backstories that they imbue these events with! For reasons I don't pretend to fathom!)

There is an 8 hr, 12 hr and 24 hour race within the ARC Adventure umbrella. Hannahs team did the 24hour.

To watch the movie, click on the 2011 ARC Adventure Race window...

The Kitchenaid is currently whipping up a buttercream, ( I love the way the Kitchenaid whips butter - it gets it so light and white). I've made orange cupcakes for Courteneys birthday cake, and will ice them shortly and smoother them with the range of lollies that madam sent thru in an email a couple of weeks ago.

Birthday cakes seem to be an important rite to our daughters, and they invariably take the shape of a cake liberally coated with icing and a shower of lollies.

The flavour of the underlying cake may vary in request from year to year, but the basic principle remains unchanged, and has been happening since they were quite young and I decided I didn't want to try and impress anyone else anymore, with my prowess in duplicating the shapes and detail of the cakes in the Australian Womens Weekly Childrens Birthday Cake book, that seemed to be all the rage, when my girls were toddlers.

I just literally didn't have the spare hours in my day to create the shapes and contortions with icing, so I effectively cheated and started making cakes in simple round or square shapes, and then liberally icing them with a profusion of lollies. My daughters and husband who all have spectacularly sweet teeth, have always been heartwarming in their appreciation, so the lollie cake has become a biannual occurence.

I'd thought we'd missed this year with Courteney, becos her birthday is back in March, and with her being in the States and all, we thought this particular birthday would be left behind. We reckoned without Courteney! She mentioned in a very specific email a couple of weeks back that it might be a nice idea to bring 'the' cake up to Auckland when we picked her up at the airport so that we could go on to Hannahs and share it with them.

Point taken!

I've made the cake as cupcakes this year, becos as it happens we're going to be catching up with Hannah and Andrew at a race they're competing in, so figured that cupcakes would be easier to eat then one we had to cut into. Alan and his children may be there too, so it just felt easier. And with Courteney being the cupcake queen in the family, it also felt appropriate as a homecoming. The truth is that the cake is merely there as a conduit and excuse to pig out on a range of lollies, but thats OK.

She's just been skyping me from LA airport where she has 6 hours to fill in before she boards the flight to Auckland. Shes got there via a couple of flights from Houston, so has done well on her own, and I relaxed a little to know that she just has to board one last flight to be home.

All good. We will get up about 5am, to run the dogs and hit the road in time to be at the airport, and from there we'll head out to where the race is.Niether of us can wait!!

We have a bottle of Bollinger to share with the staff at the end of service tonite, but won't be drinking too much with the driving needed early tomorrow am. Sonja from Negociants dropt us in the bottle to celebrate the 25years - I've been working with her for a fair chunk of that time, and she's a pretty special lady in our world, so that was a thoughtful and appreciated gesture. And one no doubt that we will all enjoy!

And voila! - the completed cake. Not quite sure how we're going to transport it too Auckland, becos suspect that the plate is too wide to fit into a polybin. Don't you hate it when practical realities have to outweigh the look?!

Much against my preferred instincts, I had to get out of bed at 5am yesterday in order to be over in the Waikato for the start of the Maungatautari multisport race that Hannah and Andrew were competing in.

My lack of enthusiasm had nothing to do with supporting them, and everything to do with the fact that it had rained persistently all nite, and that meant we were going to be cold and wet waiting for them to finish the various stages. And I don't do cold and wet with any sense of grace!

We were lucky. The weather held, except for one downpour while they were still on the mountain, but the gumboots stayed in the boot, and we were well fortified by the portable coffee trailor that followed the support crews around the various transition areas. You used to turn up to these very isolated communities craving coffee and with no corner cafe to pop into, so the portable ones are a development that I've noted with considerable pleasure!

Thanks to our daughters' proclivity to engage in the sporting endeavours that they do, we have got to see a reasonable amount of the Waikato countryside over the years,  from quite a different vantage point to the one you would ordinarily be exposed too in driving through on the main highways, and after many early morning drives over the Kaimais, its become an outing that is now both familiar, and enjoyable - most of the time.

I'd taken a pile of magazines and my diary, becos the waiting for the atheletes to appear from the various stages can be quite lengthy, and that gave me a   chance to read thru Metros latest comments on the top 50 restaurants in Auckland, without too many caustic asides to Rick. Comments that were brought up later when we sat down with a Herald writer at Somerset to have a chat after their meal last nite. She and her husband are very familiar with the Auckland restaurant scene, so I found their comments to be quite intriguing, but I digress...

Andrew was first home - had an amazing race, and Hannah was 4th female I think - and they both positively glowed at the end of the race, even though everything was covered in copious quanitites of mud!

Hidden behind that heavy mist is the top of Maungatautari, which they scramble up and then down, before getting back on their bikes to ride down to Karapiro and their kayaks...

Andrew was first of the mountain

Hannah changing into cycling shoes...

And heading for the finish line...

The Liberty Classic is done and dusted - Courteney finished a very respectable 13th, with her fellow Kiwi Team mate Kate in 12th place.

This link is to a series of photos of the race, and if I've done it right the one you'll see first is of the finish, which was a bunch sprint, and on the middle to left hand side of the photo, the rider in yellow is Courteney.

Not bad, not bad at all!! Her father got up at some ungodly hour of the morning on Monday to see the results come thru, and came back to bed, truly elated.

She was in a makeshift team for this race, so she and Kate were up against some pretty formidably organised team opposition and to still be there at the finish is a huge tribute to them both, and shows a gutsy race.

An article on the race in Road Cycling NZ...

Fortunetely we can relax now - until the next race

Since my photography class on Tuesday, I've been taking lots of photos at different times of the day to try and get my head around the concept of white balance. Gone are the days when I'd simply turn on the camera and point and shoot. Now theres a number of buttons to think about in advance of taking the actual shot, and my life has got a whole lot more complicated as a result.

But in a good way! I'm enjoying the sense of more control I now have over the light that ends up in the photo, even if I do quite regularly confuse myself over what button I should be pushing,  and while I'm conscious that I'm far from understanding it all, at least I feel as if I'm on a very interesting journey that is opening me up to more insights every week.

Couldn't recommend these classes that Jo Miller takes down at the Historic Village strongly enough. I'm currently doing the second series, and will go back for the third, and then probably do some of the other specialist subjects that she offers, just becos I'm loving learning stuff!  Its a hugely comprehensive look at the process of taking a photograph, and for someone like me, who's always wanted to be a better photographer that I am, and who has always had an SLR camera, but lacked the knowledge to use it to the full scope of its capabilities, the classes have been a series of revelations.

The guys in the restaurant kitchen don't like it when I appear with the camera, but I think I'll do it more often just so they maybe get used to having it around and react a little less defensively, becos I'd like to build up a body of shots taken in there.  Took a whole series of shots last nite, becos was trying to see the impact of the different type of lights - halogen, and fluorescent - and how you can then balance the adjustments, but I only took them  of objects not people, so no-one got twitchy.

I had time to concentrate on photography becos unlike at the start of the week, we had a hideously quiet nite last nite, and I wasn't needed for any front line duties.  Suspect its a combination of a long weekend looming, and the first really crispy cold nite, that kept people at home, but whatever the cause, I didn't like it one little bit.

Being that quiet is just demoralising, even though I know perfectly well that I shouldn't focus on one nite in isolation, and even though I know that we will be busy on Sunday, becos it is a long weekend, and that will lift the weekly total back up to average. Sometimes you have to just roll with the punches...but I'm not especially good at that. I just get anxious.

The evening was rescued however by the fact I got to play around with the photos I'd taken on the computor, which means I'm going to be super organised with my homework for next week, and then settled into watch a Leonard Cohen DVD that Bridgette had lent us. That was an infinitely more enriching experience than trolling thru the drudge that the powers that be at the  TV networks seem to think passes as appropriate peaktime viewing.

And so I went to bed feeling markedly more chilled out than I ordinarily would after a quiet nite. An approach to remember for the next slow service at the restaurant, becos I don't doubt we'll get more over the winter. Thats just the way it is. Unfortunetly!

And becos today is feeling equally bleak and miserable weatherwise, I think I'll take myself off into the kitchen and make some peanut cookies. Rick loves them, and becos his level of training is starting to amp up again, it makes me feel useful to have some home baking around the place...he needs stuff to eat when he gets home, becos he exerts a huge level of energy.

These are a Doris Greenspan recipe and her book on baking is one I refer to often.

Courteney has been in America since early March, and is there for another month. All the racing she has been doing to date is building up to the Liberty Classic,  the premier female  race in the American cycling calendar which takes place in Philidalpehia.

She's on her way there from Texas at the moment, and we're trying not to be too nervous in anticipation. Its a huge starting pelaton - 130 names. Thats a big bunch of cyclists.... and our girl will be right there in the middle of it, loving every minute!

Just to give you an idea of the kind of atmosphere that she will be experiencing, have a look at this short video.

Maybe it will explain why Rick is beside himself! I've just been corrected! He's not beside himself he tells me, but excited with anticipation...Hmmm...

This article on a New Zealand cycling website can't help but have sexist overtones in discussing the race, and I'm trying really hard not to get grumpy about it  but the casualness of the comments definitely pisses me off. What is it about the powers that be in cycling, that they can't see that what the women do is every bit as serious as what the men do, and they are not there simply to 'warm up the audience for the male race to follow', but are in fact serious atheles in a category all of their own!

Humph!

Courteneys just sent us thru some photos of the 4 day Criterium tour which they competed in at St Louis. The final stage resulted in some drama and a broken wheel, with her running across the line to finish. She was part of a breakaway so even though she ran across the line she still finished 6th. Apparently you're allowed to finish on foot as long as you're wheeling your bike.

She was obviously determined to finish!!

In her words:

Courteney Lowe

Had an awesome day of triathlon/mountain biking today. Started as a criterium.. swam the whole way through it, jumped a curb to avoid a crash, got a puncture, broke a spoke and then ran across the finish line. Congrats to Kate Chilcott for finishing second in a Tibco sandwhich.

And some photos and commentary which I've downloaded from  this flickr site.

Multi sporters are a different breed. I'm not quite sure how to describe it exactly, but over the years I've observed quite a cultural difference between the atmosphere at most cycling or triathelete events, and what happens at multisport ones.

Somehow the multisport stuff just tends to take place in a more chilled out manner, which is kind of perverse when you consider the degree of athleticness that these guys require, to do what it is that they do, but my general suspicion was further confirmed over the weekend when Rick and I and Andrews mother Kate, acted as support for crew for Hannah and Andrew, who were down to compete in the individual race.

They both did incredibly well - Hannah had the fastest kayak time, and was third women home; Andrew was second male - and once again impressed me mightily with their ability.

Hannah did her first individual Kaimai Classic when she was a seventh former, so that would be 5 years ago now. She'd already been in teams prior to that, and I was her support crew for her first solo try, and remember being completely blown away at what my teenage daughter was capable of achieving.
For someone as non-atheltic as I am, watching my child run offroad, mountain bike, kayak, and then get on a road bike, and finish with a run up behind the Minden, was completely boggling.

I could no more imagine undertaking something of that magnitude then I could of flying to the moon - so my respect is boundless, and doesn't seem to dilute regardless of who often we rock up to these events.

We left them this morning when we headed over to the Mount, packing up their car to head back to Auckland. Between them they had 2 kayaks, 2 mountain bikes, 2 road bikes, running shoes and countless other bits of kit, all jammed into one car. Most of it wet and muddy! ( I bake for the occasion but I don't offer to do the washing!).

And they love it!

Kate Chilcott is the friend that Courteney has travelled to the States with. They are very literally, eating, sleeping and racing together, and in that intense environment, managing to our very great delight to stay friends.

They've both just finished a Tour in Missouri, which was comprised of 4 criterions, and in the last one today, Kate finished 2nd. A major achievement at that level. Courteney was up there at the finish, but a crash just in front of her, meant she had to finish the race in a somewhat unorthodox fashion  - but she got there safely!

We went to a funeral in Whakatane today. Driving down the weather conditions were atrocious, and there were a couple of points where I wondered if we should give up and turn around and come home. But we perservered, getting there just in time, and as is always the case at times like that, I'm really glad we made the effort.

Roy had been a special person in our business lives over the last few years. Someone who took an active interest in all sorts of aspects of the business and who had acted as a mentor for us both. He had the type of brain that constantly challenged you, and he offered all sorts of interesting thoughts and tangents, from a different perspective to ours. Something we came to appreciate enormously.

I rang him regularly to sound him out on his take on various issues, and I will miss having that contact and that perspective going forward.

But I am very glad that we both went there to say goodbye today.

Roy was someone who never stood on ceremony or pretense. He had a tendency to call things precisely as he saw them, and expected the same in response. So it was with a laugh of recognition that I read the following poem in the service notes we were given at the funeral. I don't think the following words are actually his, but they capture his take on the day  completely accurately:

Thoughts for Today.

Regretfully becos of my lack of religious belief, I am not able to derive any succour from the thought that death means people have gone onto another life with their lord.  My personal take on the matter is somewhat more prosaic and for those reasons I often struggle in funerals where there is much talk of god calling the deceased 'home'.

I don't tend to see matters in quite that light, and I liked very much that at the funeral today, nothing was modified to suit audience sensibilities. Roy was talked about as he was,  and the fact he is no longer here was something that caused us all grief, but it wasn't couched in any euphemistic terms.

Just as Roy would have said himself if he'd been able - its the way it is , get on with it!

And so we will - but not without the occasional backward glance towards a man, who overcame so much, to achieve an extraordinary amount and who had one of the sharpest brains that I've had the pleasure of encountering.

Rest in peace, Mr Wilson.

Just been skyped by Courteney who's about to go to bed after a big day in which she had a fantastic result in the first stage ( of 4) of the Joe Martin Tour.

Ricks out on his bike currently and will be gutted that he missed her, cos he's been spinning of the walls ever since he picked up the results on the computor earlier. She was 6th over all in the Time Trial, and top U25, so will be wearing that jersey tomorrow.

Big day tomorrow - and theres going to be alot of nervous tension emanating from this household... Something tells me I'd better get used to it!

And Day 2 results now up... as I type this, Day 3 stage is underway. Ricks got up early to go out for a ride with Hannah and Andrew who are down for the weekend. I think he's decided he'd rather be out doing stuff, then sitting around waiting for the results to be posted.

No doubt we will hear how she's gone in due course!

Couple of photos that he found on his musing thru the various linked websites;

- on the podium to get her U25 jersey, the tshirt she's holding is an extra!

-sprint finish at the end of stage 2 - Courteney is on the far left of the photo....

6pm. Day 3 comments just in...

Monday, 9 May, final results now in. We went for a walk this morning around the Daisy Hardwick, the last time I circumnavigated that on foot, our children accompanied us on little plastic bikes, so its been awhile. Headed over to Slowfish to have breakfast apres, and Rick broke one of our golden house rules by going online on the phone, to get the results of the 4th stage of the Tour. We're not allowed to use mobile phones, any of us, when we're at the table, normally, but he figured these were exceptional circumstances.

This last stage was a  Criterion which is Courteneys least favourite style of road race, but one in which she did extremely well, finishing 4th, and regaining 6th place in GC, as well as retaining her top U25 placing.

Rick positively beamed for the rest of breakfast, and kept going back online to analysis another bit of information, to help give him a better picture of how the race would have unfolded. Courteney will be driving back to Dallas now, so we won't get to talk to her until tomorrow probably, but her father will have looked at all the photos by then and will be able to tell her aspects of the race that she won't have known! His detailed knowledge of race tactics really is quite amazing.

More photos:

-Courteney at the start of Stage 4 wearing the U25 leaders jersey.

-during the race.

At least now I can breathe a sigh of relief that its all over and shes safe. Like it when that happens!

I hate to confess that I've run away from the restaurant to come home to do some knitting. Bought myself a pattern and some wool today, and sat down just before I headed over to the restaurant earlier, to see if I could remember how to cast on, given its probably 20 years since I've done any knitting. The last thing I knitted was a boldly coloured cardy for Hannah when she was in pre school I think, so it's been awhile. It just felt so instinctively natural to pick up the needles and the yarn - obviously a process well ingrained on my brain neurons, but I guess in knitting a jersey you repeat the action a serious number of times so there is ample opportunity to imprint.

 Its something I've been tempted to get back into for awhile, not sure why, maybe just becos there is a sensation of more time in the day now, and when I spyed a shop with some spectacular yarns in it on Grey St, I decided that the time had come. Picked out a pattern for a big, snug jersey, which I'll probably get finished just in time for summer, but thats OK - theres always next winter.

Been an inspiring kind of day really, cos my photography course started back, the second level which is all about lighting, and that is what I kind of figure photography itself is all about, so got all enthusiastic about that, and decided on my walk later, that I would use the glorious tree foliage at this time of year - all those different hues of colour- as my subject matter for the homework pertaining to hard and soft light. Something to ponder over the next few days...

The restaurant is very quiet tonite, and since I'll almost for sure be working next Sunday being Mothers Day, then I figured that I didn't need to feel too guilty by not being a presence tonite. Have worked most of the day at my desk, so it isn't like its all been about photography and knitting!

Did some more experimenting yesterday - the day was so utterly miserable weatherwise, that I just headed for the kitchen and pottered quite happily. Think I've nailed the seasame and lime dressing that I've been working on for awhile. Used a recipe out of Martha Stewart as the starting point, but they used grapefruit as their base citrus, and we now have all these wonderful limes, courtesy of Jill, so I headed in that direction, and added a shot of fish sauce too, to round out the honey. We had that with thinly sliced red cabbage and grated carrot for lunch - big bowls full each, and was surprisingly tasty and satisfying. Surprising in the sense that you don't expect raw vegetables to satiate you, but they can and do.

There was however room later in the afternoon for some pancakes that I'd spied in the latest Australian Gourmet, that looked interesting. Atayef mishi bi jowez oh foostah halabee, to be precise. Lebanese pancakes stuffed with nuts. A yeasted mix that once fried ended up with a texture not unlike a blini, except these were only cooked on one side, and folded over the filling. A lime sugar syrup poured over the top. They used orange-blossom water, but I had limes on hand, so used that juice and zest, and they really were sublime.

And Rick spent most of this morning bottling some interesting little pepper/chilis that a grower dropt into us. They're not chili hot, but they have a bit more kick than a capsicum. He's bottled them for now, and then we'll come back and use them in an antipasto context I suspect at some stage. Over the Moon were talking about some of their goats cheese curds, and I can imagine that being used as a stuffing in these with something else...hmmm...

Some tamarind salmon to try tomorrow - proving conclusively I guess, that we owe no allegience to any one food culture, but instead pick like magpies right across the world at anything that appeals. It makes for a wide range of flavours, but also sometimes the realisation that the world is in fact a very small place. Food ideas travel with people, with modern immigrants just as much as in bygone centuries, and while countries can be geographically a long way apart, if there has been trade and custom between them over the ages, then quite often there are strong similarites in some of their food, even if the names are quite different.  And I find that all quite fascinating, which is part of the reason I especially love the food books that trace the history of single food products like salt, or coffee, cod or oranges.

And its why I am quite sure I'll never know it all.

Got home from my class this afternoon to Rick and Courteney chatting via Skype on the computor. She told us to go on the Sports Hub to see a photo of Hannah in the race she'd won at the weekend - the SuperDune multsport race. We'd told Courteney yesterday, that Hannah had won the race, and she'd obviously checked it out, and got to see the posting before we did. Hannah won the Womens and Andrew won the Men. We hadn't been able to go up and support becos we had a cookshool on, but they're coming down in a couple of weeks to compete at the local Kaimai Classic, and that date was marked very firmly on the calendar, so I didn't book anything work related.

Rick had been planning on being in a team too - with a couple of other males, who are rather serious athletes, but he's had to pull out becos he slipped in the wet last week, and wrenched his knee. Nothing too serious, but enough to warrant rest, and rest means you can't train enough to race competitively...

He has given me another date in September - he and his daughter are planning on doing the Legend Marathon in Auckland, so I hope no one wants to get married on that day!

And now back to my casting on....

With the style of restaurant that Somerset is, we get to deal with a wide range of people in our daily business life, and in general the vast majority of people who come thru the door, have done so, intent on enjoying themselves, so we are ahead of the ball before we even begin to do what it is that we do.

( Needless to say, there are exceptions to that - those people who for quirks of their own, are in fact determined not to enjoy themselves, but those sorts I concern myself with increasingly less, becos you're on a hiding to nowhere, if you seek to please them, and I've sort of lost the need to expend too much energy on those kind of people. I'm just not masochistic enough.)

One  of the most affirming parts of the business for me, personally, is the people stuff -  the associations, and links, and memories, that I have with all sorts of people from over a long time frame. Some of it is fleeting superficial pleasantries, and some of it is much more absorbing exchanges.

But all of it is interesting - and I genuinely find it fascinating observing people up close. Its something that I've always enjoyed, something that is natural and genuine for me. I really do like people - therefore I operate from a premise of genuine intent not one of artiface.

On those evenings when my world isn't a happy place to inhabit, I struggle at the restaurant becos I find it hard to put on a  pretence with people. I prefer my interactions to come from a genuine place, not one that is forced, but sometimes needs must, and I have to push myself, but I am always conscious on those occasions, that interactions can feel forced and not real, and those are usually the nites that I retreat as early as I can.

I do however have to remind myself not to get too precious, and to remember the message that I am always trying to get across to people at the restaurant,  is very simple in intent - enjoy!. The way I get that message across has changed over the years, as I've lightened and ceased to take myself or what I do as seriously as maybe once I did.  And  I have become very aware that the way that I package my message, will have a huge resonance on how people respond to it, so for all those reasons, while we may seem to be relaxed about what we do, we are in fact monitioring the impact constantly, and taking nothing for granted.

As part of the front of house training that we give, is the warning that working in a restaurant is akin to being on stage. You are being watched all the time so you are on show, and it is important that you think about how you are coming across, what message you are inparting by your manner, and what you say. And it can take some time for new staff to feel at  ease in the role they are required to play, and sometimes I need to take one of them aside and analysis an exchange that may have just played out with a customer and suggest alternative ways that they could have interpreted the situation.

And sometimes that dialogue is going on in my own head, as I chastise myself for not handling a situation as well as maybe I could, or should have!

People are fascinating - I've learnt an awful lot from observing over the years - and the truism contained in this short video, struck me as totally and utterly appropriate.  And the lady who sent it to me, is a classic example of the sunny side of human nature - one of the loveliest people I know. A very positive example for the rest of us.

( And now - back to watching videos of THE wedding...weren't Catharine and her sister utterly gorgeous, and didn't they leave the aristocracy for dead?  If I heard that word 'commoner' uttered in portentous BBC tones one more time, I swear I was going to scream! But no mind - I want to see if I can see more of the gowns worn to the evening party....

I came home from the restaurant about 9pm last nite, with a glass of pinot ( Michelle Richardson's actually!) in hand, keen to continue with my clearing out of all the office memoribililia that I've accumulated thru the years.

Boxes of stuff have been stored away for years, and I decided that now I'd finished all the old diary and newsletter reading, I should also go thru all that stuff to see what I unearthed.

(25 years of diaries)

( 25 years of stuff)

A slightly unsettling thing to do, as all sorts of memories got stirred to the surface, but I decided in the end, that the vast majority of the paperwork was now redundant and it is OK to let it go, and throw it away. Which I've subsequently done.

Kept any old copies of menus that I had stashed, and all the annual accounts, becos I find some of the figures in those truly fascinating, but I suppose thats becos I'm an accountant and I can't help myself.

There are a few other gems - letters from people who have since died, who mattered to us, and wrote lengthy, erudite and witty epistles, have been saved - along with various newspaper cuttings.

But the odd letter of complaint, which are stamped firmly on my consciousness becos we don't tend to get too many of them, and all the cards and other complimentary notes, have been added to the pile to throw out.

There comes a time, I've decided when its OK to let go. So much of that stuff relates to a time that it is hard for us to imagine now, becos  we, and the business have evolved well past it.

Then this morning I decided I'd tackle the higgelty piggelty pile of photo albums, which are literally coming apart at the seams, with the intention of extracting a few significant photos and jettisioning the rest.

But I couldn't.

I may have taken lots of photos of my daughters growing up - but I couldn't now throw any away. They speak to me much too strongly, of  something that we'll never have again, and which is infinitely precious.

So all those pictorial memories remain. I may at some stage redo the albums becos they desperately need an update, but for now they're safely stored away again.

Hannah sat next to me, flicking thru some of the old ones of my family, and exclaiming over photos of her aunt and uncle at the age she is now. Not something you can casually discard I decided.

So I now effectively have no excuses left not to sit down and start writing this much mentioned book. I've done the research, pontificated at length and now have to put pen to paper ( becos I suspect I'll be more inclined to do that, at least initially, rather than sit at a keyboard).

And the other good thing about having finished finally plowing thru all those diaries, is that I'll have some free time to catch up on my magazine reading. I get a range of magazines automatically every week, and usually have them read before I pick up the next weekly batch. But theres only so much reading time in the day, and that has been pretty exclusively used up on the diaries over the last few months, so I have a large pile of magazines, awaiting some attention.

Rick and I are heading out shortly to deliver some food, and have a drink with an old staff member who's parents we know well, who's just got married. ( Just seen photos of Jane when she was a whole heap younger and working for us!) . They're having larger celebrations tomorrow, but today there's a small dinner party to acknowledge the legal bit, and we've got some stuff to take to the appartment, and a glass of champagne to be drunk, before we head back to service at Somerset.

So tomorrow maybe?!

Oh the excitement!!

Rick and I have just got up and are contemplating a leisurely breakfast over the Sunday papers, before we head to the table to 'do' the hard copy newsletter, and get it all folded and in the envelopes and stamped, so it can be mailed tomorrow.

But! In checking in on the website for the race that Courteney has in Alabama today ( a 14 hour drive from where she's living in Texas), he's just discovered that the Criterion race shes in today with 60 other riders is being streamed live here, so he will be glued to the computor as from about 11.15am our time.

Just cleared the emails and one from Courteney saying that Alabama is just like in the movies, with little on wooden houses and people in rocking chairs on their decks, and dogs everywhere! She said theres some top riders there, including Cath Cheatley, so it promises to be an interesting race.

Crits aren't Courteneys forte, she prefers the distance road races, preferably with a nasty steep hill somewhere in the mix, but shes getting more and more experience at Crit riding, so by default is getting better, and I have no doubt that her father, will be telling the computor screen what she should be doing!

Something to make you smile, I hope!

Today has been glorious - the sun has shone all day, and I've spent a pleasant number of hours doing the addresses on the envelopes for the hard copy version of the latest newsletter which is ready to be posted, together with getting a marinade ready for a pork dish I'm trialing.

While doing all of that I listened to an eclectic range of CDS that I unearthed from a dusty cupboard which haven't been played in awhile, and generally felt that all was pretty OK in my world.

Am just about to have a shower and head over to the restaurant for tonites service which is going to be busy, and watching this video that Chris has sent me, has meant that I'll do so with a big smile on my face.

Perfect for today!

I am just waiting for Rick who's flicked over to the supermarket to get the Sunday papers to return, and will spend the next couple of hours happily ensconsed reading the papers.

We've done a cookschool today, and the people were very happy to sit on at the table and chat, so we're a little later heading back to the house. Tonite is a Sunday and we are both backup at the restaurant if the numbers get beyond what the rostered staff could effectively cope with, so not planning on doing much else during the free time I have left beyond the papers, and maybe 45 mins on the spinner. As you do...

But did want to share this that come thru from good friends as I sat here clearing my inbox. Is it just my wishful thinking or does this very witty list capture that delightful sense of humour that is quite unique to New Zealand.

You know you're from Christchurch when:

• Geonet / ChristchurchQuakeMap is your homepage
• The rest of the country offers you a place to stay
• "Munted" and "buggered" are official technical terms
• You go 'pfffff' when Wellington has a 4.5 earthquake that's 40km deep
• You see a nice park in another city and think it would make a good evacuation point
• You sleep in one suburb, shower in another and collect water from yet another
• When you drive on the right side of the road and no one thinks it's wrong
• You are happy two Policemen came for a visit
• When your bike becomes your best friend
• You think it's fine for a soldier to be stationed at the end of your street
• You see armoured vehicles driving down the road
• It's normal to greet people with "do you need a shower?"
• A bucket of sh*t is no longer that old car you drive
• Every house is a crack house
• Instead of rushing to the clothes line to get clothes in when it rains, you put dirty washing on the line in the hope that it will rain enough to clean them
• Going to Wellington to escape earthquakes makes sense
• Your doctor recommends having a few stiff drinks before bed to help you sleep
• You know how to start and refuel a generator
• You have tied the pantry, liquor cabinet and all the cupboard doors closed and it's not to keep kids out
• You prefer to sit under the table instead of at it
• You think electronics that have "shock proof" should say to which earthquake magnitude
• You know and actually understand the terms and conditions of your House and Contents insurance policies
• You can see irony in claims about houses made of "permanent materials"
• Your en-suite has a vege garden, dog kennel and grass
• Your teenagers are only too happy to sleep in the same room as their parents
• You stop using the term "built like a brick sh*t house"
• Dressing up to "head into town" means putting on a hi-viz vest, hard hat and boots
• Discussing toilet habits with total strangers is an everyday norm
• Wee boys don't get excited when they see (another) digger or a dozer - but all the adults in the street cheer wildly
• Voluntarily staying in Timaru for five days seems like a good idea
• You know what that extra gear lever on your 4X4 is for
• Metservice includes a graph for dust
• You have dust mask tan lines
• You can use the term "liquefaction" in everyday casual conversation, even your 3-year old can
• When a massive group of students appears in your street, you feel overwhelmed with gratitude  instead calling the Police. What's more, the students leave the street in better condition than when they arrived
• The answer to where anything is ... it's on the floor
• You smile at strangers and greet people like you're one big family

I will get over my daughters I promise! Am conscious that this week has been a procession of blogs regarding their sporting prowess, and I promise that the chest thumbing will come to an end, but before I do that I thought I'd link to this rather delightful blog written by an American lady who was in the same Tour as Courteney in the weekend just gone. Scroll down thru the various articles until you get to the one headed Womans Tour.

Gives a witty depiction of riding in a road race, and is rather lovely. Especially when it talks about what an awesome race Courteney had!

But I'll stop now. Promise!

Hannah has just sent me thru this link to photos from the Arc race at the weekend in which her team got 2nd.

Have I mentioned that I think she's bloody amazing!!

PS That link won't work, so after many emails backwards and forwards from Chris I can now download the photos direct onto this page...

They are in no particular order, but give a feeling for the sort of race that The Arc is...

I think it is perfectly reasonable for someone like me, to ask "why would you?", but as the photo at the prizegiving below attests - they do it becos they love it!!

I was 'encouraged' out of bed much earlier than is my norm this morning, so that we could get up to Whangamata to see Hannah and her team at the start of the 24 hour Arc Multisport Race.

Not being an enthusiastic early morning riser, I was somewhat reluctant, but didn't really have any choice but to overcome that!

As it was, we got there too late to see the 24hrers go of in their kayaks, so had to drive back to Whiritoa Beach to watch them come in. Hannah did a spectacular tip out as her kayak negotiated the waves coming in, but was all smiles as she got readied for the mountain bike stage. We saw them at the end of that leg, and left as they headed off into the bush again for a trek that was going to take anything from 6 to 10 hours, depending on how their orienteering skills went.

( I was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone, and do my photography homework while I was there, which this week was landscape photography and took some beautiful images of Whiritoa Beach which I've never been too before - only too discover on coming home and reading my course notes, that I haven't framed the photos with the kind of detail required for good landscape shots, which is a cuss.. but this shot was fortuitously taken becos didn't realise at the time of taking it that it was Hannah in the back of the kayak riding the wave, and she is about to be unceremoniously tipped out, and gets absolutely drenched, but emerges with a big smile on her face!)

We deposited the bacon and egg pie and the passionfruit cakes that I'd made with the couple who were their support crew for the full 24 hours and beat a retreat.

By that stage I was on the prowl for coffee - my day doesn't usually start very well, if I don't get a coffee sometime shortly after waking up...and we'd spied a bakery down a road we don't normally go ( one of the advantages of the sports that our daughters do is that being in support means we end up going to places we wouldn't ordinarily, and that can always prove to be interesting in all sorts of ways!), and we headed back there. No coffee, but some great looking bread, and we bought a sampling just to try, becos good bread is something that we regretfully encounter all too seldom.

We had the croissants back at the house and I would have to say they are the best I've had since the little village bakery in the Dordogne where Wendy and I used to go every morning to pick up the morning pastries for the cookschool household. With the raspberry jam that Rick made in the cookschool yesterday it was a rather perfect combination and I was able to move on from the fact that my day had started so early...

Have just made another 50 of those little passionfruit cakes for the fundraising at the concert at Holy Trinity tomorrow nite. Ricks made chocolate ones, and we'll ice them all before going over to work tonite, but I may need a wee siesta first!

I had to miss my photography class today. Courteney was flying out to the States and there was never really, any serious discussion about me not being there to farewell her at Auckland airport, even if that meant I missed one of my classes. Which was kind of typical of my daughters approach to most things over the past few weeks, where she's operated in this little bubble of self preoccupation as she's readied herself to embark on this big adventure.

If I hadn't gone, it would have been a black mark held against me, forever really, becos in the world according to Courteney, there was simply no way I wouldn't be there. And even though I have a reasonably well developed sense of ego myself, it would be fair to say, that I couldn't have agreed more. My photography class could wait, whereas seeing my daughter fly out was something that I just had to be there for, and I'm really glad that I made the trip. As did Rick and Hannah.

She's heading to Texas for the next 4 months with Kate Chilcott, a long term friend and fellow elite cyclist, both of whom are going to be living and racing together in the same semi professional team. A huge experience for them both.

We bumped into a male contempory of theirs while at the international airport, and Louis said he's flying out to France tom for 7 months racing with a team there. The opportunities available to this generation of atheletes is simply fantasic, and seeing the way the young people embrace those chances is very cool to watch.

I just feel enormously proud.

She is an extremely lucky kid. A close friend paid for her airfares, and then Craig Investment Partners have stepped up as her official sponsers - an offer of financial support that has made this trip possible. Courteney takes it all in her stride, but Rick and I who are perhaps more aware of the financial realities involved just feel humbled and grateful for the support.

Those 2 gorgeous young women rocked up to the checkin counter at Qantas, with a seriously overweight quota of check in baggage between them, becos even though they didn't have to take bikes, they did need to take race wheels, and training wheels, seats, and cranks and various other cycling aperatus. Not to mention clothing to last 4 months, which when you're 19 has to cover a serious range of options.. I had warned Courteney in advance to be ready to pay for excess luggage, becos this wasn't Air NZ and she wasn't travelling as part of a national team, so there'd be no allowances made, and,  I was totally wrong.

The male behind the counter was utterly accomodating and couldn't have done enough for the 2 of them, and didn't charge them a bloody cent.  And I just hope that that continues to be their experience as they hit LA airport in about 4 hours and find their way to the right terminal and on to the flight to Dallas. I just hope that their charm and naiviety and gorgeousness keeps the momentum going forward.

And I hope that they have a fantastic time.

I probably should be starting another blog category, specifically to deal with my daughters sporting prowess, becos I think this one seems to revolve pretty much around their undertakings, which was not my original intention.

It is however a reasonable facisimile of what happens in our life outside of the restaurant, so I guess in that sense its a fair representation.

Courteney arrived home last nite after a week away racing with the NZ team in the Womens Tour of New Zealand. We were out for dinner, and it didn't feel appropriate to interrupt proceedings to pick her up from the airport at 8pm, so we got Matt too instead, and had to wait until this am to catch up with her news. Titbits have come out all morning and we went out for lunch at Alimento, and learnt more.

Rick is borderline obsessive about this cycling lark. He will read this at some stage and take me to task for using those words, but it is a fair description of how passionate he is about cycling, and nothing short of a kilometre by kilometre description from Courteney over how each stage panned out, satisfies him.

We've pretty much accomplished that, and he is now at peace knowing that his daughter gave her all for the team, and their top rider Cath Cheatley, which was the role she was there to preform. Chasing down all the break aways, and working to keep the NZ riders out front. Its not for Courteneys personal glory at this stage - the complications of team and pelaton riding, are something  that takes awhile to comprehend, a myriad layers of detail, but Rick loves it all, and just adores seeing his daughter out there doing so well.

We got to watch the first 2 stages, and slowly got familiar with the team surrounding the women riders. I figured that if we'd stayed till the end of the Tour, in Wgtn 3 days later, Rick would have become a fully ensconsed team member. And that would have been his idea of heaven...

They had 3 major road stages as part of the Tour - riding thru Wairarapa and Manawatu countryside. We may have been in Martinborough, but the only wine visual I got was of the fruit on the vines nearing harvest. It was all about the cycling - no time for anything else...

Theres alot of waiting, waiting , waiting beside the road  in cycle Tours. God help me but he wants to do this in France next year! I can think of a number of other ways I could more gainfully use my precious time in France....

Gordon McCauley - a now retired, but once very serious road cyclist was the team coach, and here he's talking tactics before the start of the 2nd stage - Masterton to Palmerson. Courteney is no 52.

Courteneys personal coach just checking that he approves of whats been said!

The pelaton approaches...

Heading up the Pahiatua saddle on the way over to Palmerston - Cath has broken away in the front...

Team debrief post stage 2, plus Rick...

One of my major gripes in life is the lack of media attention that female sport gets compared to male, so it gave me a marked degree of appreciation to observe the resources that Bike NZ were spending on this female team. They travelled with a manager, a coach, a masseur and a mechanic - someone who stripped down each bike at the end of each stage, cleaned and reassembled them, just like in this shot.

No wonder Courteney expects her father to run around after her ....

Hannah and Andrew are home for the weekend, and as if by pavlovian instinct I've been cooking. My daughters come home, therefore I cook! I just do...

Took the batter for the carrot cake over to the restaurant kitchen where Rick is finishing of the prep for a small wedding catering job we have this afternoon, becos we only have one oven in this house and the chicken is not going to be cooked in time to manage both it and the cake in the same oven. So rather handy having access to ovens next door!

While I wait for the chicken to be ready, I was catching up on some internet reading and found this article below which I thought was an especially articulate description of one of the most fundamental aspects of farming.

We have a worm farm here where we feed most of the house and restaurants scraps and are rewarded which substantial  worm castings, that we then dig out and move around the fruit trees. It is a simple circular process that gives me a totally disproportionate sense of satisfaction.

I used to think that worms were quite revolting creatures, but I have done a complete about face, and now dig thru them quite nonchalantly, respecting them for the amazing efficent way they break down food scraps and create a wonderful hummus we can use to feed the garden.

I think as a society we have developed a degree of distaste about bodily waste, be it our own or that from animals, that is quite out of kilter to reality.

So I found these words below to be quite fascinating.

Gene Logsdon and Friends

Interview with Gene Logsdon

In Around The Web on February 4, 2011 at 3:02 pm

From MAKENNA GOODMAN
Alternet

Holy Shit: The Secret Behind Creating Truly Sustainable Food

MG: When I moved to a farm in rural Vermont, I knew life would be a far cry from the New York literary world from whence I came. I knew even though plaid shirts, work boots, and waxed canvas coats cover the fashion magazines these days-life on a real farm has nothing to do with image or status. I do have to say, however, when I meet my old city friends on the streets of Brooklyn to hock eggs or pumpkins, I have been known to brag. Not about how amazing farm life is, or how well I can pitch hay, but rather, how familiar I am with shit these days. And how in awe I am of poop. I tell my friends about where my chickens leave their dollops, and how that’s actually money in the bank.

Shit rules my life-or at least it should, if I were a good farmer. Don’t be grossed out. If you’re into food, you’ve got to embrace manure. The bowel movement after all (human and animal), is the foundation upon which the sustainable food movement stands. Where do you think rich, delicious soil comes from? The healthiest soil is made not from synthetic fertilizers, but from the backsides of livestock. Indeed, manure is the golden nugget upon which sustainable food’s economy was founded. There is no movement without the movement. And who better to discuss either movement than Gene Logsdon, longtime farmer and author of the book Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind. I talked with Logsdon about the real scoop on poop, society’s misconceptions of manure, and the future of farming.

Makenna Goodman: You’ve been farming for about 30 years. How important is manure to agriculture in your estimation?

Gene Logsdon: It would probably be more accurate to say that I have been pitching barn manure for something like 65 years and spreading a lot of bullshit the other 13 years, too. On a scale of one to ten, with ten at the top, I’d give manure an eleven. Manure just doesn’t fit on a scale of values. It encompasses the whole environment as inextricably as water and air. Trying to measure its worth suggests that we can take it or leave it. Manure is with us always whether we give it a value or not. The fact that it is a beneficial material is our salvation. If we and other animals started to excrete radioactive dust, then we’d have a problem. Manure is holy.

MG: What are the most prevalent misconceptions that society holds about manure?

GL: I have to answer that first by addressing a broader question: what are the most prevalent misconceptions that society holds about the whole natural process of life? One main misconception is that science and technology can deliver us complete safety, that is, a zero risk environment. This notion is driven by the insurance companies who dream of a world where people pay dearly for accident insurance but never have accidents. The misconception comes when humans decide that science and technology can make that happen without the personal, individual, ongoing involvement of every one of us. Examples abound of the impossibility of this kind of push button safety system. Science and technology have been hard at work delivering a ladder that will be safe even for total idiots to use. The rules and regulations governing ladders cover over a thousand pages. But every day people kill or maim themselves with ladders.

Danger lurks at all times. That is an inescapable fact of life. No matter how fail-safe we want someone else to keep our environment, our safety requires the use of our own intelligence and responsibility first and last. The more we try to make others responsible for our well-being, as for example, by supporting a monolithic pill-pushing industry, the sicker we seem to get.

Focusing on manure specifically, the misconception is not so much that bodily waste can cause disease, which can be true if people are totally stupid about it, but that society at present doesn’t understand how comparatively easy it is to avoid that danger. The chances of getting sick from contact with barn manure or properly handled human manure are negligible in the first place, but the point is that the hygienic harm associated with manure is easily avoided by individual involvement, intelligence, common sense, and proper management. People don’t want to accept that responsibility. They want to flush it and forget it. Just letting manure age for a year practically guarantees that it has no pathogens in it if it ever did. But of course there might always be that one chance in a billion when it still does. You take far more risk than that just eating in a restaurant, where, health inspectors have told me, they sometimes find more E. coli bacteria on the tabletops than on the toilet seats.

MG: What makes manure such an incredible fertilizer?

GL: First I want to be clear that by manure I mean not only the feces and urine itself, but the bedding or absorbent material mixed with it. The bedding, most commonly straw with animal manure or sawdust in human dry toilets, is nearly as important as the excrement since it reduces odor, soaks up the urine and adds bulk to the feces so that the material is easier to handle and preserves the plant nutrients better until the material is applied to farmland or garden.

Manure so defined can supply all the nutrients including trace elements that plants need to grow healthfully in most soils and situations, plus adding organic matter to become humus in the soil. It accomplishes soil enrichment safely. No commercial chemical fertilizer adds organic matter to the soil like manure does. For the farm that has its own livestock and chickens, manure is free for the loading and hauling. As purchased fertilizers become more and more pricey, this benefit alone makes manure incredibly valuable. It can keep a farm truly sustainable and a farmer less susceptible to outside forces seeking to take his money and his land away from him.

MG: Has our culture always been fearful of using manure as a soil enhancement or is this something more recent?

GL: Europeans settling America brought with them a respect for the value of manure and the management practices necessary to enhance that value. (In Switzerland, even in more recent times, farmers carefully aged their barn manure, along with their own manure, in big compost piles out in front of their barns where everyone could see it. The bigger and more neatly square or rectangular were the stacks, the richer and more successful the farmer was thought to be, sort of the way, in our culture, we leave the Porsche parked conspicuously in the driveway.) But in America, early farmers were under the delusion that the soil here was infinitely rich and did not need any kind of fertilizer. When that became obviously and painfully wrong, efforts were made to return to the careful stewardship of manure practiced in Europe and Asia. But at almost the same time, purchased chemical fertilizers became commonly available. Given the choice, and lacking the modern machines that make manure handling much easier, few farmers, beset with all kinds of tedious labor, opted for labor-intensive manure management. A leading farm magazine just a few decades ago ran an article declaring that manure was not worth the hauling. Some years later, the magazine contritely printed a retraction.

Only in an urban society removed completely from rural life did an irrational fear of barn manure develop. This kind of fear was and is part of our society’s paranoia about dirt and germs. In the countryside, the fear was about avoiding the labor of handling manure, and then, when the number of livestock on a farm started increasing dramatically without any advancement in good manure management, a fear of odor and flies.

MG: What role has technology and advances in industrialism played in the demise of our soil health?

GL: We can use technology well or use it badly. It is human nature making bad decisions about technology that is the problem. The question to ask is what role has greed and false economic assumptions played in influencing technology to work against soil health. Nor is industrialism of itself a negative force. Urban agriculture, now on the rise, is an industrial trend if it is anything. In a proper economy, industrialism can trend toward decentralized, more truly profitable farms and factories and away from bigger, cumbersome, consolidated farms and factories. The increase in the number and diversity of local farmers’ markets and farm fairs and the small manufacturers supplying the tools and equipment are very much an industrial process.

Technology can be used to promote good soil practices. Manure is now a more attractive alternative to chemical fertilizers than it used to be because we have tools like skid loaders to handle the stuff. A hoe in the hands of a man overtaken by greed will result in bad technology. A bulldozer in the hands of a man sensitive to improving the environment will result in good technology.

In my opinion, the real engine driving the decline in soil health is an economic system based on too much borrowed money and manipulated money interest. When I sell a bushel of potatoes for, say, four dollars, the money I receive is what I call real money. It actually represents something of real value. But if I put that four dollars in the bank, and the bank tries to increase it along with other real money, with hedge funding and derivatives and all that financial rattlesnake oil that tries to make pieces of paper reproduce themselves, the economy cannot help but collapse eventually. This kind of unreal money eventually affects good farming practices negatively. Farmers, deep in debt or barely able to stay in the black, feel forced to keep up “cash flow” by doing what seemingly brings in the most money here and now, even when they know that long term, the land is going to suffer and the number of landless people increase. An ear of corn grows at its own sweet pace, not by manipulated interest rates. Trying to make farming dance to an economy blind to the common good is what brings about the demise of soil health.

MG: What is the most important dilemma that modern farmers face when it comes to small-scale farming?

GL: Small scale farming as an American business can be saved as soon as government stops subsidizing quantity instead of quality and our schools start teaching the danger of excessive money borrowing. This assumes that economists can define what is excessive and government can agree on a definition of quality–both of which I exceedingly doubt can happen. It would be better just to stop subsidies altogether and for small businesspeople to listen to their own minds, not public opinion. Stay away from borrowed money to begin with. To resist borrowing as much as possible, to shun government “help” unless it really is help for the common good, sounds impossible but there are many quiet, shy, stubborn, fiercely determined people out there who are doing just that.

The real dilemma is that few people want to make the sacrifices that come when one renounces fat salaries and keeping up with the Joneses. They feel forced by society to acquire, as quickly as possible, everything for themselves and their children that society deems proper for the well-regulated life. They have not been taught, as many of us oldsters were taught, that one can forego much of what is considered necessary in modern lifestyles and be quite happy-especially if we love our little farms and the life it engenders. Why can’t more people see that? That is the dilemma.

MG: Are you an organic farmer and what does that term mean to you?

GL: Now that the government and some organic farm leaders have co-opted the power to define organic in ways that allow very large farms and food delivery systems to call themselves “organic,” the term has become much less meaningful to me. Part of my definition of “organic” is that the farm should be comparatively small and sell primarily to local markets. If the operation is large and national or international, I don’t think it is necessarily bad, in fact it might be just as good as what the small operation offers. But it just isn’t organic to me.

My early reasons for championing organic farming were economic, not environmental. For me it was a way to farm without high overhead. I am uneasy now with the way “organic” has become sort of like an institutional religion where, if one does not follow sometimes-arbitrary rules absolutely and purely, one is headed for environmental hell. Why not just tell one’s customers exactly how you produce your food including when, if ever, you use non-organic materials. Then let the customer decide. This can work effectively on a small scale where a farmer is selling his or her own personal food to his own regular customers. As soon as the larger company is selling food from many sources, that kind of verification is not trustworthy to me no matter how many rules and regulations are supposed to be in effect.

MG: Do you see young people effecting change in current farming practices that is revolutionary or exciting?

GL: Oh yes. My favorite example is pasture farming, sometimes called grass farming or graze farming. The idea and ideal here is to produce meat, dairy products, eggs-all animal products-by allowing the animals to graze freely. The animals do most of the work themselves, harvesting the pasture by eating it and spreading their manure for fertilizers. Graze farming eliminates the high cost and destructive results of annual cultivation of grains.

Pasture farming is gaining adherents and momentum all over because it makes economic sense as well as environmental sense. A notable scientific development aiding and abetting the trend is the work of Wes Jackson and his staff at his Land Institute in Kansas. These revolutionaries are developing perennial grains-grains that will come up year after year without annual cultivation, like grass. Wes recently gave me a sample of flour from his improved perennial wheatgrass plantings. We made pancakes with it and they were very tasty. When pasture farmers have perennial grain grasses to plant with their clovers, there will be no reason at all to grow annual grains for animal feed.

Another exciting development is urban farming. If you have driven through Detroit in the last decade or so, you know how many parts of it look about like Dresden after World War II. Now city leaders are talking about transforming several hundred acres of abandoned buildings and rundown ghetto land into a farm. There are problems with this idea-perhaps it will never happen-but it is historically significant that urban people are even suggesting it. They are suggesting it because all over, gardening and market gardening and even animal agriculture are coming increasingly into all cities. Some suburbs are even getting rid of regulations that forbid chickens in backyards. Hooray. When the day finally comes when urban farmers figure out how to use human manure for fertilizer, then you will see the new age rising.
~~

Rick and I are just pausing before we head out to take the food round for Marees wedding. Maree is an old staff member - she worked with us back in the early 90's, and then headed overseas.

Shes now back and happily ensconsced with the most gorgeous little baby girl, and a Chilian partner with whom she is formalising her relationship this afternoon. It will be a pleasure to drop of some food and have a catchup chat with family members we haven't seen in a while..

But as we wait, we've been exchanging texts with Matt who's currently standing on the finish line of the elite race of The Rev 2011 over in Hamilton.

Matt and Jamie did the fun race this morning, and Jamie came back to work, while Matt stayed on to watch Courteney finish the 120k race. Becos there were only 6 women in the elite race, they went off with the elite men, which has made for a faster race.

We've just been nervously exchanging texts with Matt, cos it didn't sound initially like she was in the top bunch of women, so we were starting to ponder the chances of a puncture, and not allowing ourselves to contemplate anything more troubling - but as usual the announcer got his facts confused and it sounds as if she was second in the sprint finish. Emma Crum first by a substantial margin, and then a chasing bunch.

The video on the Rev website  currently, as I write this, is of last years race, so we're going to have to patiently wait for them to load this years, but at least we know the girl is home and safe and has done exceedingly well.

And how does her father feel about the fact that its another male waiting for her at the finish line and not him this time? Reasonably nonchalant I have to say, if the tone of his texts are anything to go by. He's just proud of his girl!!

OK!  So I know this is soppy, and maybe its just the nice mellow mood, that the cookschool we've just done has put me in,  but somehow it encapsulates sweetly my sentiments on the need to be able to be happy with your here and now, and not be constantly straining to be something that you aren't.

In the same vein, we deal with the public all the time, and the vast majority of people are an uplifting experience, but there is always that small percentage that represent a challenge, and being able to see something positive in them can be quite a stretch.

 So this little  tale depicts a state of serenity that I wish I could claim for myself all the time...

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4333 (20090813) __________

Something to make you smile.... ( I hope!)

Incidently where this was filmed is not far from where we'll be doing our cookschools in 2012. Must go and check a map...

 A heads up on the fact that Courteney is riding a tandem with Brian Kelly in the Classic Hits radio station ( 95fm), tomorrow - Friday 11th - at 7am. The riding will be stationary, presumabley on a spinner, the way I ride my bike!

As part of BikeAwareness month Koops Cycles have lent the Breakfast show a tandem, and Brian has been interviewing a number of people, and its Courteneys turn tomorrow, becos Koops is a major sponser of hers, and Phil asked her too.

We only listen to the radio in the car, so am going to have to find something to tune into...

Have just been reading the latest newsletter from Koops Cycle - the cycle shop that my husband and daughters have such high regard for - and Phil had done a link to Courteneys latest blog on Elite Nationals, becos Koops and a lot of the members of the Tauranga Cycling Club have been fantastic sponsers of Courteney, during her cycling career so far.

/The Lowe down with Courteney 

  Courteney Lowe has had some great results recently in Pro Womens cycling events. Here is a quick update: On Boxing Day Courteney headed down to Nelson to compete in the Tour De Femme. The Tour De Femme is a five stage tour completed over three days, including an 11km hill climb up Takaka, a 48km circuit race, a 70km hilly road race, a 19km time trial all finished off with an 80km road race. The field was pretty big for a women's race with 50 riders starting and it was a good warm up before nationals as there is not a lot of racing around NZ at that time of the year. Overall Courteney finished 2nd to Jaimie Neilson, 1st in the under-23 and 2nd in King (Queen) of the Mountains. This is a great result from Courteney showing her ability against some of the best riders in New Zealand!

Her next event was the elite nationals. The race was 8 laps and 123km, Courteney felt really good when it came to climbing but not so good on the descents (due to the crash she had the week before). At the end of the race there were three girls off the front of the pack, which despite Courteney's best efforts, she was unable to catch. She still finished a very respectable 9th in a very talented field. The team at Koops Cycles are proud to sponsor Courteney and wish her good luck in here upcoming races and congratulations for some amazing results. For the full updates and complete rundown on these two races and more visit Courteney's web site at www.courteney-lowe.blogspot.com

I'd been meaning to go on and read the blog myself, becos was aware of many background sighs as she was writing it on the couch, here behind me, a week or so ago, but hadn't got round to it.

Shes nearly as verbose as her mother!

Up early this morning, to get the newsletter done and dusted. We've been away for a few days, and I was very conscious that we needed to get the hard copy version of the letter out in the mail, and as always, a sense of relief is pallible when thats all sorted and away.

We flew back in yesterday from a few hectic days down in the South Island - a trip that orginated from an invite to a friends birthday party, which we had initially put in the too hard file. Rick and I are well used to missing friends significant occasions becos of the time worn excuse that we have to work. But Mark had decided to have this party on a Tuesday nite, and the more we thought about it, the more we figured that that was something we could actually do, and if we were going too, then maybe we should take a couple of extra days and do a little tiki touring around to see places we'd read about. So we flew out Sunday, and came back yesterday, Thursday, missing only 3 nites at the restaurant.

(Hearing that Mark had placed one of the largest orders for Bollinger for a private party in the Southern Hemisphere, helped strengthen the decision making process somewhat, I have to say.)

The party was sensational - an extraodinary event. Catered by Simon Gault with a team of 12 chefs from the various restaurants in the Nourish Group who'd all been flown in specially to provide the culinary flair, and then the back up grunt provided by Continental Catering who did all the front service, overseen by the maitr d' from Euro,  and in addition were the poor bastards who had to clean everything up. All set up under marquees in the middle of a high country station, literally miles from anywhere. A logistical nightmare, with the added complication of torrential rain on the day.

They were simply amazing...

We had decided to hire a campervan for the period, becos we liked the idea of being independant, and figured that if we had a campervan parked up close to the festivities then we would be able to discretely retreat at a point that suited us. It also allowed us to cover a fair amount of territory, having a look at some of the places on my 'to do' list.

Becos holidays don't come around for us very often, I tend to equate them with the notion of a treat, and therefore don't usually think further than a very good hotel, but the more we thought about this trip, the more the idea of mobile accomodation made sense, so Rick organised a campervan, with my only provisions being a loo and shower on board, so I could be independant. My daughers were intrigued at the notion of their mother in a campervan - it caused much hilarity, becos they assumed I would get a bit sniffy about it all.

They were wrong! I have to say we were both pleasantly surprised by the experience. We got a small vehicle cos had a fair amount of road miles that we wanted to cover, and didn't want that travel to be too arduous, and that meant that the 'wet room', ie shower and loo and hand basin, was a somewhat confined space! But we had fun, and I'm now looking at campervans in a whole new light. Although I have to confess our bed at home felt wonderfully spacious last nite....

Headed down to Moeraki, on the first day, expressly to have dinner at Fleurs Place, a quite unique fish restaurant in the middle of a small commercial fishing village. As soon as you mention Moeraki everyone assumes you wanted to see the boulders, but no, our focus was most definitly on food! 

( Cooking magazines put a more glorified spin on the restaurant and its location. The reality was somewhat sobering, becos its unkempt and rough, and that doesn't seem to matter. What you see is what you get, and take it or leave it, basically!)

( And theres nothing romantically quaint about the port - its a working one. Real commercial fisherman operate out of here, so nothing is titivated for the tourist market.)

Nothing elegant or refined about this area or restaurant - and in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday nite it was full, although the waitress told us it was a quieter nite, normally they'd turn all the tables, and that evening they only double sold some.

We also called into the Dunsandel Store on the way down just south of Christchurch on SH 1, and bought a copy of their cookbook that Darina had told me about. Wondered how she'd heard of it, and all became apparent on reading through it to see that the head chef there is an alumni of Ballymaloe. We knew about The Store becos we've dealt with Annabel Graham for years who is one of the owners and who also has Camla Farm, which supplies us with our apple juice. Simply the best in NZ. Tried their  cider at the store when we stopped for lunch, and was  very taken with it, so that will now come on Somersets menu to replace the Australian one we've used for too long.

Riverstone Kitchen which is north of Oamaru is an amazing setup on a large diary farm. Its huge, with fantastic looking vegetable gardens and a chook run, extending away from the carparking area. The kitchen appeared to have a diverse range of skills - breakfast, lunch, dinner menus, with beautiful looking cakes appearing on the counter as we sat having a superb breakfast, and a pantry corner with their preserves and icecreams. I had toast this morning with some of their quince jam I bought ( looking for inspiration becos we appear to be in for a large crop of quinces this year!), and it was wonderful. The icecream we bought and devoured in the camper were pretty impressive also.

We also had breakfast on another day at Jo Seagars cafe in Oxford. An immaculately presented set up that appears to be enormously successful - out in the middle of the Canterbury Plains, not even on a main highway.  No wonder advertising people go on about 'brand', becos it is certainly the strength of her name that seems to be pulling people in the door, and created the expansion that they have going on - a kitchen shop now set up as a seperate entity nextdoor to the cafe, and 2 stories of accomodation round the corner, all looking like a photo spread out of Martha Stewart magazine. Absolutely pristine, and a complete contrast to the ramshackleness of Fleurs Place. Curious...

And lunch at Pegasus Bay Winery in the Waipara wine area was a standout. I don't know who the chef was in the kitchen but the antipasto platter that Rick and I shared, would have to rate as one of the best I've ever eaten. That was another very serious kitchen, with lunch served in spacious gardens - a chance  for us to kick back and discuss our take on all the previous days activites. Needless to say, there was lots to cover!

So been a busy wee time - and hugely stimulating. My abiding impression of the Canterbury region was of vast expanses of fields with massive irrigation units everywhere.( And lots of lamas! What was that about? I thought dairy was the new agricultural industry down there.) No wonder they've got water issues, everywhere we looked water was being sprayed thru the air.  Driving back from Rotorua airport to home, it was quite a contrast to see everything ringed off by large shelter belts, and looking conspicuously greener.

Really nice to get away, but never a hardship to come home, I have to say!

I know I've mentioned previously that I'm not religious - but oh!, this is simply irresistible!!

The link has just been sent to me by  a very special friend who we haven't seen in ages, and who is now about to be on the recieving end of a barrage of emailed questions from me about how he's been and what he's up too...

Terry added in his email, the following comment:

Thought you might find this cute. A group of talented kids filmed this at Pakari beach in a howling gale. Half the sheeps herd didn't make the final cut because they had a artistic melt down, Dodge the dog ran away with the shepherds crook Thomas the third king refused to follow directions and the star of the east got heyperthermia. Happy New Year !

Which, having watched the video just made the whole thing seem even more gorgeous!

Just read this in an article in the Listener, on Happiness, and I've decided I'd quite like to adopt it as my motto...not that I'm especially a motto kind of person... but just rather warmed to its perspective.

I quote Armando Fuentes Aguirre:

Drink without getting drunk

Love without suffering jealousy

Eat without overindulging

Never argue

And once in a while, with great discretion, misbehave

I read alot, simply becos its something I enjoy to do. Reading extends my horizons, gives me stuff to chew over mentally, and that is a process I have always done, since as long as I can remember.

I find I can gain so much from other peoples perspectives - there are so many who have more knowledge or experience or expertise than I can ever hope to have, so reading their opinions helps to extend my own.

Every so often I read something, that gives me a startle of awareness, and the passage I'm about to quote verbatim below is one such example. I was flicking thru a trade Drinksbiz magazine, which I usually attack fairly superficially becos its geared more to the spirit market, which we have very little to do with. There are however occasionally some pertinent articles on wine, and it was one such interview with a gentleman who's written a couple of books about the Burgundy appellation that I was reading, when I happened on this series of thoughts, that made me sit up and reread.

The gentleman in question is Remington Norman and he is explaining what motivated him to also write a book called 'Sense and Semblance: An Anatomy of Superficiality in Modern Society"

The conversations around the various tables that I have found myself at over the last little while, have all at some point touched on this very subject, so I found reading this gentlemans analysis of where he thinks Western Society is wrong headed, quite fascinating.

In no small part becos it dovetails precisely with my own feelings on the subject...

The trend to superficiality in much of western society has long been apparent and it is this the book seeks to address. Symptoms are the shift from individuals and communities taking responsibility for their affairs to an aggressive individualism at the expense of society and a general acceptance of mediocrity as excellence. Presentation and triviality increasingly dominate private lives and public thought; people are obsessed with vacuous, largely talentless celebrity, lives dominated by concerns about 'lifestyle' and 'feel good'. Public policy is influenced, if not determined, to its detriment, by populist acclaim reflecting concerns at the shallowest levels of popular culture. All this is corroding societies, driven by inadequate education and an overwhelming concern with 'image' at the expense of 'reality'.

There is nothing that pisses me of more than a phone call at home that I bestir myself to answer only to discover that it is a telemarketer talking in barely intelligible english. My  rejection  of the call and subseqent  hanging up is always brutely quick, I don't hang around trying to be polite, and I  always feel nothing but peeved at  the imposition on my downtime, in my private space.

I have a really good spam filter on the computor but I usually have to steel myself once a week or so to scroll briefly thru the entire file, just to make sure that something I need hasn't got trapped there.

So unwanted and unsolicited contact is something I resent enormously, and is one reason I thought the information below that Chris has sent me, made fascinating reading.  The more we can so to discourage these people the better I figure!

-Mail Tracker Programmes -- very interesting and a must read......

The man that sent this information is a computer tech.  He spends a lot of time clearing the junk off computers for people and listens to complaints about speed.  All forwards are not bad, just some.  Be sure you read the very last paragraph. _________________________________________

He wrote:

By now, I suspect everyone is familiar

with snopes.com and/or  truthorfiction.com  for determining whether information received via email is just that:  true/false or fact/fiction. Both are excellent sites. 

Advice from snopes.com   VERY IMPORTANT!!

1) Any time you see an email that says "forward this on to '10' (or however

many) of your friends", "sign this petition", or "you'll get bad luck" or "you'll get good luck" or "you'll see something funny on your screen after you send it" or whatever --- it almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other spammers.  Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you're not ashamed of God/Jesus --- that is email tracking, and they are playing on our conscience.  These people don't care how they get your email addresses - just as long as they get them.  Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease "how would you feel if that was your child" --- email tracking.  Ignore them and don't participate! 

2) Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards  All it was, and all any of this type of email is, is a way to get names and 'cookie' tracking information for telemarketers and spammers -- to validate active email accounts for their own profitable purposes. 

You can do your Friends and Family members a GREAT favour by sending this information to them.  You will be providing a service to your friends.  And you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam emails in the future! 

 Do yourself a favour and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listing regardless how inviting they might sound! Or make you feel guilty if you don't! It's all about getting email addresses and nothing more. 

You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT! 

Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached!  Plus, we are helping the spammers get rich!  Let's not make it easy for them! 

ALSO:  Email petitions are NOT acceptable to Parliament or any other organization - I.e. Social security, etc.  To be acceptable, petitions must have a "signed signature" and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the email trackers. 

See below

Tips for Handling Telemarketers 

 Three Little Words That Work!

 (1)The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...' 

 Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.. 

 Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

 These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.. 

 (2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? 

 This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. 

 This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home. 

 What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call, and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer! 

 (3) Junk Mail Help:

When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. 

 When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. 

 Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 44 cents postage, 'IF' and when they receive them back. 

 It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes. 

 One of Andy Rooney 's (60 minutes) ideas. 

Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!

 If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.

 You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 44 cents.

 The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! 

 Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!

 If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore. 

 THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS

I must buy this book. Everything I read about it, this included, makes it sound like a fascinating description of an extraordinary life.

Not totally sure why I feel that way, but I do...

The race is over, and I can start breathing normally again. The girl is safe...

Didn't have the race she wanted but sometimes that happens. She'd been battling a cold all week, and you don't start in a field of that calibre, feeling under par, and not expect to be made to pay.

However, she's loved the whole experience, said the atmosphere over there and the support for the cyclists has just been amazing,  and she's got to mix up close and personal with the people who are living her dream. ie, racing professionally.

We are very grateful to Bike NZ for making the decision to send her at a tender young age, to an event that will have just served to whett her appetite for more...

Courteney is second from the right in the photo of the NZ Womens team below, taken just prior to the start of the race:

 We have tried! Oh , how we have tried to figure a way that we can watch the Elite Womens Road race tom live, but it isn't going to happen. I'm told that if I had an iphone or an ipad it would be easier, so thats something to remember when we next replace our mobile, but it is not going to be much use for our immediate needs!

We were supposed to be in Melbourne for the race - had cashed up lots of Amex points, in order to go and be there, but Rick is not allowed to fly so soon after a collasped lung, and so we instead stay at a distance,  wondering how its all going for her. Rick is positively jittery with nerves - he's driving me batty!

This link  is to a website that posts rather witty live commentary of the race, and  that is going to be about as close to the action as we are going to get I think.

Oh well - needs must!

Am just about to head out for a quick walk around the neighbourhood to clear my head, before I get in the car and drive back over to Waikato Hospital where my husband has been domiciled since Saturdays accident. Getting to know that road quite well!

 He rang this morning to say its looking like he might be able to get out tomorrow, but they were waiting for the results of the xray taken today to make a final call.

He is an exceptionally lucky man. The injuries he sustained ( a car turned into a driveway directly in front of him, 10ms from the finish line of a Time Trial in Te Aroha), after what was apparently a spectacular somersault thru the air over the bonnet of the car, were remarkably light under the circumstances. Hannah had a lecturer who was killed earlier this year, when a car did basically the same thing. That isn't going to make the recovery any less painful - broken ribs hurt like hell apparently - but we are been very thankful for small mercies. No brain injuries, no spinal and no neck...

Fortunetly Courteney was still out on the road so didn't see the accident ( she needs me to explain that becos it was a Time Trial she was behind her father becos the faster riders go off last. In other words he wasn't in front of her becos he was beating her -its not like they're competitive or anything my family!) But she had to deal with all the aftermath and the ambulance trip. Sobering and scary - but it hasn't stopped her or her sister going out on their bikes since. And it won't stop Rick either once he's mended. A fact I am resigned too - although I thought it was reasonable to suggest that if the insurance does pay out on the bike then maybe we should buy a ring for me instead. Somehow I don't fancy my chances...

Pete brought him over 'North and South', 'Walking' and 'Womens Weekly' to the hospital yesterday, with the very tongue in cheek suggestion that maybe it is time for a change in interests. Somehow I don't think so. Riding a bike has real danger potential, but so does traveling in a car, and that doesn't stop us getting in one most days, and this won't stop Rick.

Its been a long few days, but the people we work with at the restaurant have been magnificent and have stepped up to the plate. Rick and I like to think we're irreplaceable, but I have to say that at times like this, it is in fact distinctly reassurring to know that business can continue to tick on without interruption.

I've had to reschedule a couple of cookschools becos we are personally needed for those, but beyond that Somerset remains open.

And I'm doing things that I don't normally have too, which I'll whinge a bit about, but thats OK. John is here now sweeping out the carpark and making sure I'm not loosing the plot, and it matters more than I can say, to know that people care and want to make sure that everything is alright.

 Rick won't be doing the Auckland marathon at the end of October, and possibly some of the other events in the lead up to the Ironman. In fact the Ironman itself is now in doubt, becos he won't want to do that unless he's totally fit. However,  if thats the worst outcome from all of this, then we've been let off remarkably lightly. Something we're very grateful for.

So, enjoy every day - none of us know what is on the horizon, what can literally hit us out of the blue, when its least expected.

 And watch out for the cyclists on the road, huh?!

Richard has just sent me this photo of the bike - everything except for the rear wheel is munted, cracked  and broken off.

Being not terribly experienced in the art of international travel, we were somewhat taken aback on our last big overseas trip when we flew from Paris to Cork on Air Lingus, and were expected to pay cash up front on board for any drinks we may have wanted. Not something we'd ever previously encountered.

But we had heard some horror stories from the people who joined us on the French cookschools, who'd flown somewhere in Europe on Ryan Air, and had discovered that the cheap airfares weren't quite as advertised.So for all those reasons I found  this video  which Gail has just sent me, absolutely hiliarious.

Could possibly be the Irish accents that does if for me...

Drove up to Auckland yesterday to watch Courteney race in the Auckland K1000, and the photo above is of the sprint finish between her and Melissa Holt - with the rest of the field some distance back.

Courteney won! - which is seriously cool, becos Melissa is a considerably older, more experienced rider, and in beating her, Courteney is proving to herself that she has more than made the step up from junior cycling last year to the elite level.

Her father said she could do it ( thats him in the back of the photo in the middle, having exhorted her to nail it as they sailed past) -  he's pretty accurately predicted each stage of her progress, and is suitably elated with what she achieved yesterday.

I am delighted for my daughter, becos I see the level of sheer hard work and committment that goes into her training, and it was with respect to that, that I simmered at the finish line, listening to the man on the microphone, pay only the most minimal, patronising attention to the womens race, while feeling the need to constantly update us on the progress of the male  A grade race. Like that was the only one that mattered.

I suspect he was beginning to wonder why the woman with the camera was glaring at him....

To them, I think it was. Chavinism is alive and well within sporting ranks in NZ, and the fact that the winning woman only gets a quarter of the payout of the successful man, just about prettty much sums it up for me.  Nothing but tokenism.

 I wonder where these people were when Sarah Ulmer was racing?

But I am not going to let those twats detract from what was a great performance. I know how hard she's working, and to see her get those results is a buzz for everyone around her.

And  then  to cap of an exciting weekend,  we've just heard today that Maddie Brunton, Courteneys closest rival and friend all thru junior cycling, who is now specialising in triathalons, has just won in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she's about to compete in the NZ team for the Worlds. Very cool!

Because of course girls can do anything!

Matt, one of our kitchen team has just come over to house with a container of strawberry plants that his mother promised me. Kim had split her plants and ended up with a number surplus, and offered them to me.

Delighted to be the recipient of such healthy looking plants and will take them down to one of the raised gardens later today to plant them out.

She has however, given me a whole heap more than I needed, and has suggested that if I know anyone who would like some, then to pass them on, and being me, I will most definitely mention it to likely candidates in the restaurant tonite.

And it did occur to me that if anyone reading this in the next couple of days would like some, then flick me an email,  and I'll save some for you- but I don't suspect they'll be around for long...

The local Kaimai Classic multisport race was on last weekend, and for the first time in a number of years, none of our family was in attendance. Hannah had been planning on doing the whole thing herself, and we were support crew, but a twisted ankle in a race the previous week, put paid to that idea.

Resting her body is not a notion that Hannah is especially good at, but even she knew it would be folly to try to do that much too soon.

While she was home though, she showed us this video made of the Motu Challenge from 2009  ( click on Motu to view), that again, the family have raced for a number of years. For the last couple of years, they, with Ash Hough doing the mountain bike leg, have been the first mixed team home.

So good in fact that they came in just behind Richard Usscher, who you see a lot of in the video becos he's the top individual male.

Our team seem very practised at going about their business and staying just under the radar - but I liked in this video that Hannah got interviewed as she ran up from the kayak, about to hop on the bike for the last leg of the race.

You don't see Rick or Courteney in the video, but they had done the run and the inital road bike legs respectively, and it was with very real pleasure that a team with  2 females in it, crossed the line ahead of a team of all male college boys, who were none too pleased at the finish line at being beaten by ' girls'.

Love it when that happens!

!

Hannah crossing the finish line in 7 hours, 27 minutes and 36 secs... 3rd overall in fact, not that you would know from the commentary on the video..

I think they're all frigging awesome!!!!

As I pontificated about at length last year, we had a litter of puppies a year ago to the day - one of the more stressful, but ultimately satisfying experiences that we've been thru. And definitely one that qualifies for the 'glad I did it, but don't think I'd want to go thru it again' adage.

Of the many positives to come out of it though, was the relationship that we have struck up with the owners of the father dog - a family who are even more Weimaraner obsessed than we are. And to celebrate the one year old birthday of the puppies Karen sent me thru a photo last nite of their 4 - all of whom are related to our 2.

Going from left to right of the photo you have, uncle, brother, aunt and dad - and how they got 4 Wei's to sit still for the camera for the time it would have taken to compose that shot, god knows!

Aren't they gorgeous!

Our daughter is currently racing in the 3 day Te A Tour, and this has just been written about her on the website after the first day racing...

  The women’s race provided the excitement for the spectators at the finish, with an almost full peloton charging towards the finish line. Courteney Lowe showed why she is one of the most promising female cyclists in the country with a strong surge down the middle of the road to claim stage one line honours. Along with claiming the sprint ace and QOM jerseys she will also wear the yellow jersey into stage two.

I'm going over to watch tomorrow, and will take some photos.

Proud? Who, us?!  As Rick has just said 'thats cool!', which is somewhat of an understatement, but which is typical of my husband.

The Te A Tour was one of the first races Courteney ever did, as an U15, and she's gone back every year over the last 6 years. Now shes racing as an Open Woman, and showing the kind of class that her father has predicted every step of the way that she had.

He's nailed it every time - and like her, when she suceeds greets the news with a calm, relaxed sense of pleasure.

As he has just said - it is all very cool!

Courteney heading to the line up for the Time Trial, with the Zipp wheel her uncle funded and a tri wheel borrowed from an incredibly generous Richard. As you get towards the back of the Time trial lineups, and into the more serious riders, the equipment they wheel out, gets more and more serious. Thanks to some very generous people in her life, this is now a very serious time trial bike....

Even me, who doesn't know very much about the technicalities of these things, think that it looks pretty spunky!

I am truly shattered. We were up before 3am this am in order to head down to Taumaranui to support Hannah and Andrew in the Kararau Krusher - a multi sport event.

A long day was had by all - but once again my offspring never cease to amaze me with the quite alien ( to me!) levels of energy and grit that they exhibit. And once again I marvel at how my childrens sporting endeavours get us out to parts of the country that we wouldn't ordinarily go too. Shot down the Western Access route quite quickly, becos so little traffic on the road at that time of the morning.

We came back via Te Kuiti and Te Awamutu becos Gail had told us about a new cafe, foodstore and cookschool that had opened up and we thought it'd be a good opportunity to have a look, but too late coming thru. Courteneys doing the Te A Tour in a few weeks though, so we'll be looking for somewhere for coffee then...

I've retreated from the restaurant tonite cos I'm beat- went over for the first hour but felt quite surplus to requirements and since we have a cookschool in the morning, I will be heading to bed soon. I need some catch up snooze. The restaurant is fully staffed, and all is proceeding smoothly. I won't be at the restaurant for the next 2 Saturday nites becos we have weddings on, so always reassuring to know they can cope without me. Makes life much easier!

Some photos of our girls day...

The start....

Pep talk from her father - he can't help himself...

The start - in the main road at 8am...

With multi sport - transition happens in different places and since the athletes are going from road bikes to run to kayak to mountain bike, there is a fair amount of equipment that needs to be in the right place at the right time. Rick is reading Hannahs instructions at this point about what she needs at each transistion. Our daughter has an exceedingly  dry sense of humour which sneaks thru - her assessment of the time it was going to take to do the mountain bike leg - 'Ages'.

Zoe, part of the family and the support team heading to the kayak transition with Rick and bags of stuff...

At the end of the run leg...

And about to paddle 20 odd kms on the river - as you do!

Courteney is currently in Wellington, racing in the 5 day international Womens Tour of New Zealand. To our enormous pride, she was picked to replace Alison Shanks who pulled out of the National Team, and she is currently living, eating and racing with some of her cycling heros ( all the rest, older women who race professionally overseas) - and no doubt absorbing huge amounts of information and advice along the way... Not to mention just the sheer experience of cycling at that level.

She's doing fantastically well so far, and we hold our breaths day by day, becos things in cycling can change radically from one day to the next, but just wanted to share with you this photo of the NZ team riding at the front of the pelaton at the start of the Day 2 Road race. We haven't seen her in the NZ kit yet cos she didn't get it until she arrived in Wgtn.

Thats our girl on the far right of the photo:

( I'm crying! Shit!)

The NZCT New Zealand National Team pose for a photo at the head of the peloton.

I'm just heating up the oven to cook a tomato tart for lunch. Each trip down to the vegetable patch at the moment is yielding copious quantites of tomatoes, and I'm having to come up with inventive ways of using them. Not, I might add, that I'm adverse to having them very simply with just a sprinkling of salt and splosh of balsamic on good bread. But we've had that for lunch repeatedly over the last few days - so trying to be a little more original today.

Oven's on to get good and hot, becos with our cream cheese pastry it needs to go into a really hot preheated oven otherwise the butter tends to melt and run out before the glutens get a chance to set - and runny butter means ovens that need cleaning, and that is one job I'll make a determined effort to avoid!

Going up the Mount this morning I decided that I should write about Bev May, Courteneys cycling coach, becos she is an extraordinary woman - one of those special people who underpin sport in all codes right across NZ, but never for financial gain or personal selfaggrandisement. They do it simply for the love of the sport.  Courteney has just raced in the Bev May tour - a 2 day womens event that the Morrinsville cycling club put on to honour Bev, who has been a stalwart of NZ cycling since the 50s.

When she first started racing in 1958, she needed a special license to be able to race against the men - with no other women cycling back then, if she didn't race the men, she wouldn't have had any races. Her exploits are legendary within cycling circles, and her scrapbooks  of newspaper cuttings that Courteney brought home last year to go thru, reveal a time in NZ history when cycling was  huge.

In 1988 a serious accident put paid to her racing career, but she has continued to be heavily involved in the sport - especially with coaching young up and coming riders. No less a cyclist than Julian Deans was coached by her in his junior years.

She has been Courteneys coach for a number of years now - and Rick has sat comfortably in the background, watching the relationship between the two of them develope and thrive.

She's totally old school - you get good by doing the miles! She brooks no dissent, and gives out few compliments, and has been absolutely brilliant for our daughter, who requires much more cossetting in general from her father.

The Bev May Tour has been an annual event since 1990, and one of Courteneys mentors, Sally Fraser won that first Tour, and comes back every year to compete.

The list of previous Tour winners reads like a who's who of top NZ female cyclists - Sally Fraser, Sarah Ulmer, Melissa Holt,  Marina Duvjnak.

Courteney had a great tour over the weekend - and for once I watched Bev show some emotion as she came over to hug her. Rick even got a hug after prize giving - and was told that she thought Courteney could go all the way.

 Two very emotional parents drove back to Tauranga, feeling enormously proud to their daughter, and full of gratitude to the special woman who has so absolutely been the right person in the right place for Courteney...

Father and daughter discussing tactics before the road race on Day 2...

Courteney taking out the first QOM - the spotted jersey she's wearing shows that shes the current Queen of the Mountain - something she retained on Day 2.

Sonya Waddell, the eventual overall winner in yellow jersey, discribed Courteney in her acceptance speech as her little nemesis, and someone to watch becos she had the makings of a future champion.

Criterion Stage - officials including Bev stand by the sprint finish as the cyclists do the circuit.

Hannah, whos a good cyclist in her own right - but also manages to fit in kayaking, and running and multi sport and...- came to watch her sister in the criterion, and was heard to mutter that she might do the Tour next year..

She took out the sprints...

And at the end, the normally, quite matter of fact Bev, gave her not one but 2 hugs - which I missed becos I was so shocked I didn't think to have the camera ready, and then proceeded to launch into advice on the major Tour of Wellington that Courteney leaves for tomorrow.

According to Bev's principles - its self indulgent to feel sorry for yourself when things go wrong - you're allowed 10 mins after a race but after that you are required to snap out of it; and likewise, we're not allowed to get too celebratory when things go well.

It's all good, but whats next on the agenda...!!!

And thats why I now take a camera and capture some of these moments, becos time is swinging by so fast, and its hard to believe how far we've journeyed with these 2. I have a photo of Courteney in her first ever cycling race, which I'll unearth one day - and the contrast between that lacking in confidence, plump, shy, preteen, and this streamlined mean machine that we have now is simply huge.

Takes my breath away really.....and it really doesn't matter where it all leads too - people who know what they're talking about,  are starting to predict big things for Courteney - but I figure that at this stage that doesn't really matter, becos what has been achieved so far is simply amazing, and so to my mind, what comes next is all pure bonus.

We've had a really good nite in the restaurant, and I've flicked back over to the house feeling nice and mellow, to watch the finish of the Elite National Road Cycling Championships. Tonite was the male race, and its always good to watch it with Rick who explains the finer points of the tactics to me.

But my nice benevolent mood got disturbed when they showed the presentation ceremonies at the end. The first was for the top 3 place getters, naturally enough, and then they had another presentation for the top 3 U23 males, which is also fair enough.

So what I now need someone to explain to me, is why they had an U23 presentation for the male race but not for the female race?

HUH?

I mentioned in the electronic version of the newsletter which went out last nite ( the hard copy one takes a little longer to get out there - I'll be doing the envelopes for it,  for the rest of today, and Simpson Print will print off the letter now they're back at work, and then we'll fold them all and get them in the envelopes and stamps on and out in the mail , hopefully by the end of the week. A considerably more laborious process - but I have people who are adamant that they prefer to recieve a letter that isn't a bill in their letter box, and while they continue to feel so strongly about it, I will continue to send it to them...), that Courteney was racing at Elite Nationals in Christchurch.

So as promised, here is a link to the results. 7th in a field that classy, for her first stepup to the major league, was an awesome achievement, and her father was beside himself with delight when he rang.

Courteney herself, was a little more circumscript, but she obviously got a real buzz out of the experience - huge numbers of spectators, massive police escort - the full deal really.

Series of photos on the site for those who are intererested - this link shows her in the middle  of the peleton in Waikato/Bay of Plenty  colours - black and red.

Thought it was interesting on the TV news last nite that they quoted the ( is it?) Danish import,  Linda Villumsen, as having been a previous winner of the Tour de France. Most people I speak too, have absolutely no idea that there is a female Tour.

The male version has become very well known, but the female one gets no coverage at all here in NZ.

Hmmm....

(Courteneys 2nd from the front in this shot)

( Talking to me apparently, after its all over with a clearly elated father)

It is a glorious day - sunny and still. We went up the Mount this morning, and came home to breakfast at the out side table, far from the maddening crowds at the Mount. There doesn't appear to be any visual sign of the holiday crowds diminishing over there yet - and will probably be another couple of weeks before our chances improve in terms of getting a carpark a little closer. At the moment you have to park so far away, that you feel like you've done your exercise before you actually get to the base of the Mount, so I mumble a bit, but on a day like today, it isn't really a hardship, to amble along the boardwalk...

Put up the sun umbrellas at the back of the restaurant, becos it will be a magical day to sit out in the sun - not that we expect to be that busy for lunch. Most of the tourists are over at the Mount. We do however have lunch time regulars that we see every week, and they will no doubt be in some time this week.

Most of our suppliers are back on deck - some large wine deliveries happening today, now I can reorder, which is a relief, becos Simpson Print are on holiday and if I run out of any wines I can't get the list reprinted just yet. And I always feel a bit twitchy when I can't front with something thats on the menu.

We didn't have any white fish over the weekend becos the fishermen had decided to have a holiday - and explained it to people accordingly. Likewise, we don't get our next delivery of Clevedon Buffalo yoghurt and ricotta until tom, so the couple of dishes that feature them have had to be slightly rejigged in the interim. Its not too much of a hardship, and my approach to it is far more relaxed than it used to be.

Business' are actually allowed to take holidays, and if that means a bit of a reshuffle for us for a time, then so be it. Most customers that we get at the moment are also on holiday, and we're finding them pleasantly receptive to that reality.

Rick headed over to mow the lawns on the far side of the restaurant before the lunch crowds arrived, and I tried to get some photos of the dogs outside so I could show an up to date one of Benson, our pup.

We took him over to see his father and brother on Monday, having been told pre Christmas, that his brother, Gus was now larger than his father Daz. We remember Daz as a strikingly large dog, and Benson didn't seem anywhere near that size to us, so we were curious to see how he measured up. We're reasonably dog-centric, but Karen and Mark are even more so than us. They have 4 dogs all up, 5 on the day we called in, becos they were babysitting a pup.

Gorgeous, just gorgeous!

Benson and Gus have turned out to be 2 peas in a pod. Identical size and head shape - and we all swore that they knew each other, and were gratifyingly affectionate. They're both stand higher than Daz, but haven't yet filled out as much as he is. At 10 months old, I guess they still have a bit of development to go.

He is a beautiful dog - one of the most even tempered we've ever had, which I'd put down to no seperation anxiety. He's been with us and his mother all his life, and pretty much believes that life revolves totally around him, and he's fabulous and thats all there is to it. A complete boofhead!

Having the litter of puppies in 2009 was certainly an interesting experience, and pretty much took over our lives for a couple of months there. I don't think it is something we'd rush to repeat - Kazza is going to be fixed up this month, so her next season doesn't cause us too much grief, with a fully developed male around the place.

But there is no doubt that there will always be room in our lives for dogs - we just seem to be geared that way, and watching all those Wei's the other day underscored for me that that is no bad thing.

( On day 2 of life - tiny and precious)

(And 10 months on - a beeootiful pooch!)

I'm not especially a fan of New Years Resolutions, but Chris sent me thru this little annotation at the weekend, and I decided it wouldn't be too bad a philosophy to attempt to adhere too over the coming year...

Christmas Day on the beach! God we live in a beautiful place!

I'm just about to head over to the restaurant for dinner service, but have been sitting at my desk answering some emails, and catching up on some  reading, and that led me to this website, which is one I check in on daily.

Its American, and as such is very American-centric - but it has some fascinating links, especially relating to politics.  I'm a big magazine reader, and one that I ponce on with particular glee when it arrives, is Vanity Fair. I just love the ecletic mix of indepth articles, on a wide range of subjects. And often, as with the Copenhagen business at the moment - I'm not even bothering to plow thru the  ridiculously repetitive newspaper articles on the subject, preferring to wait,  until it crops up in a later edition of Vanity Fair, becos that will explain the myriad aspects to me, in one  well written, hit. And that is how I prefer to get my information.

Tina Brown was the editor who revived Vanity Fair - back in the 80's I believe, and this website is of her making, and shows her touch in many ways. It can be a bit of a time waster...

But need to go over to the restaurant, becos busy tonite, and a constant stream of people wanting vouchers and other bits and pieces, as  time runs out before Christmas. 

I'm having a baking kind of day, which is sitting very comfortably with me. Ricks searching for inspiration in some cookbooks for some menu changes, and we've had a discussion about various aspects of that, and I've left him to it, and headed into the kitchen to turn the fruit thats been macerating all week, into 2 large cakes.

The first will come out of the oven at about 5.30pm so that is going to mean that I'll have to flick back over to the house during service at about 9.30pm to remove the second one from the oven, but that is one of the advantages of living so close these days. It isn't a hardship to do so - I just have to remember!

My daughters have requested the full monty when it comes to Christmas baking. They want Christmas cake with the 'proper' icing - by which they mean almond and royal icing - christmas mince pies and christmas pudding. My mother would be delighted. An emigree from Ireland, Betty never budged all her life, from the conviction that Christmas dinner involved the traditions, even if she had transplanted herself from a cold Northern hemisphere winter to a more moderate climate. Christmas was Christmas - and no variations would be brooked.

So the fact that her granddaughters hold true to that tradition, even though she has now been gone for over a decade would give her immense satisfaction, I am quite sure!

I acquiesce, and do as instructed, in no small part becos I too love the cakes, pudding and mince pies, and becos it does remind me somewhat intensely of my mother. She and I have just had a wee private conflap as I lined the tins with baking paper - a chore that always takes me straight back to her kitchen in Palmer Cres.

We were estranged when she up and died suddenly of a heart attack - family and business had not been a happy mix for us - and part of the needed healing process has been to be able to reach back to some of the nice memories. Christmas cake, Christmas pudding and Christmas mince pies are very much part of that list.

I use her mince recipe - I think the original book it came out of was one of those Women Institute type recipe books, printed back in the fifties. The pudding recipe I've used for years, is slightly different to hers but only in minor things like the fact I use brioche crumbs rather than conventional bread crumbs. I have the brioche dough rising at the moment - and will eat the surplus  brioche toasted with the exquisite loganberry jam that Rick bought back from Somerfields when he went to get our first strawberries of the season from them yesterday. The pudding is a Roux brothers recipe, from their book on patissiere, which is a classic we refer to alot.

The cake recipe comes from Pat Foster at Jamele - she gave it to me last year when I commented on how delicious the fruitcake was that they always have in the salon in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

All week I've had a large mound of raisins, sultanas and currants macerating in red wine and Pedro Ximenez sherry - stirring it occasionally and watching the fruit gradually plump up.
And now after  a half hour of creaming butter and very dark sugar, and combining it all with eggs and flour and spices, the house is filling with that beguiling smell of Christmas baking, that I do so love.

Ironic really. Becos in the Christmas cookschool series which we are currently about halfway through, we very deliberately stay away from anything to do with dried fruits, becos experience in both the restaurant and with wedding catering has taught us that a significant percentage of people don't like fruitcake or its related culinary cousins. Most wedding cakes we encounter in todays world are chocolate or banana or carrot cake. That is just the way things are.

So I confess that I share, what I am quite sure would have been my mothers satisfaction that the next generation of females in this family also want proper Christmas baking in their lives. It'll be my pleasure to pass on the recipes, if and when they ask for them. In the meantime I'll enjoy the process of cooking them for all of us.

Back at my desk, after a very pleasant week away. Just been over at the restaurant sorting and restocking wine, and working out ordering lists. We're heading up to Auckland later this afternoon, to take Hannah and her boyfriend out for dinner - she turned 20 while we were away - and its the first time we haven't been around to celebrate with her, so figure that late is better than never.

 The birthday cake is made, it just needs to be iced, and I'll have to buy some more lollies for the icing, becos we opened a couple of the bags last nite and... they kind of got miraculously emptied, as we watched the machinations of Henry V111 and Cromwell on TV.

The trip back on Saturday was lengthy - left Kina Beach at about 6am, and pulled into the house here, sometime after 9.30pm - but everything is so slick with getting vehicles on and off the Picton ferry, and the roads coming up the North Island were refreshingly quiet, so we made good time.

A very big week for Courteney, who won 2 golds at Nationals, in both the Time Trial and the Road Race - a spectacular way to finish her junior cycling career. She's been selected to represent the central North Island in the Oceania Games in Invercargill in November, and will be racing with the Open Elite Women from now on, which will be a big step up, so quite a way to go out on.

 Checking back thru the records in the event book, there aren't many double golds ( although women weren't included in National racing until 1981, whereas it started for males in 1935 - but don't get me started  on the distinctly paternalistic attitudes that emanante from certain quarters in Bike NZ. I'd go on far too much!) 

More important than that nonsense is the fact that the girl did good, fantastically good, and the people that matter in these things, know what she achieved, and she has been surrounded by a wealth of positive and supportive feedback. Her father is beyond chuffed - he puts a huge amount into these races with Courteney - his support and technical knowledge is massive, and watching the 2 of them with their heads together pre-race, discussing tactics, always makes me smile. He carts bikes and wheels and the myriad bits and pieces that bikes require, around. And he does it all with a great big smile on his face becos he loves it.

Me? I'm just surplus baggage really - along for the ride, but keeping discreetly in the background, becos the whole endeavour is well out of my league, and if I make too much noise, I distract from the main event.  I make the sandwiches for race day, organise the various restaurants that we ate at, and take photos, but beyond that pretty much do as I'm told, which may seem surprising to some!

But the week was all about Courteney, as we were sometimes, somewhat benignly reminded, so I didn't get to see any wineries, beyond Kina Beach where we were staying, or venture too much further from the immediate area we were staying in. But that was  OK, becos we were in a beautiful cottage, that Pam and David from Kina Beach Winery had moved onto the site, and lovingly restored. An old school house - with the absolute perfect day couch for reading, while looking out over the vines. I managed 3 books - as you do! And went for big long walks along the beach on the non race days.

Kina Beach Winery is a classic example of the sort of wineries that I am proud to have on our wine list, where the focus is on the terroir and on hand crafting. The amount of work involved is hard for someone like me to comprehend - all the shoots were starting to emerge while we were there, and they were being hand pruned to keep growth in check. As I looked out over all the rows of vines, I marvelled at the repetitiveness of a job like that, while bearing in mind that its only one of the many aspects of vineyard management.

I did however finally get to visualise the difference between the Nelson and the Marlborough wine districts, having now driven thru both - albeit a very quick flick thru the Marlborough one. For years I've laboured under the misconception that they were pretty much in the same geographic area - but I discovered that not to be the case at all, and now have images firmly established in my minds eye of how different they are.

That alone makes the trip worthwhile for me - seeing in situ, where wines are made, adds a large amount to the perspective I have of the various wineries that we deal with. And the more I know, the better, I figure.

 Which is all useful incentive to get away more often to these wine growing areas - a suitable New Years resolution
perhaps... The staff at Somerset continued on in our absence seamlessly - remindingly us both that we're not quite as indispensible, as we can sometimes be guilty of thinking we are. But we're lucky - they're good people. Jamie even mowed the lawns around the house in our absence which has earned him serious brownie points.

We were staying in an area just eastward from the Upper Moutere Highway - a small peninsular surrounded by sea with 3 vineyards on it. I expected to see lots of grapevines, and was taken aback by how many olive trees have also gone in, alongside the cherry and apple orchards. Its a beautiful region.

The restaurants in and around the region were a real mix - Hopgoods in Nelson was easily the most outstanding. Unfortunelty we had to rush our meal there, becos Rick  was due at a Managers meeting, but it had an air of casual confidence and extremely good food that we really enjoyed.

One of the places closest to where we were staying was Jesters House - a totally unique and personable set up. We had our daily caffeine fix there, and were completely taken with the ambience. I don't do eels, but watching a family with 3 gorgeous little boys, line up for their eel food, so they could go and feed the eels in the adjacent stream, was a really nice way of filling in a lazy hour or so. And I was literally stunned by their composting loo. I am the sort of person who comes over all precious with portaloos, but who was able to laugh at the description the owners had written on the toilet wall of how to use the loo. Somehow it all just felt perfectly normal and natural, and an eminently sensible thing to do.

We started a worm farm here at Somerset earlier this year, and I had to initially work thru a feeling of revulsion at the mass of worms, but have moved well beyond that stage, and now regard them  as extraordinary creatures. I suspect that that is maybe enough progress for this year though - I'm not sure that I, or Tauranga, is quite ready for the concept of a composting loo - although really when you think about it, it's a septic tank, which we have, brought up a little more close and open. Hmmm...

And the other great lunch venue had just reopened for the summer season - the Mapua Boatshed cafe, situated literally on the beach.The owner told us he opens for 6 months of the year, becos there are things in life more important than money. I'm not totally sure our bank manager would concur, but I respect the sentiment! Casual and  gorgeous. The Camping ground that you drive thru to access the cafe is apparently a Naturalist one in February and March, which would add a whole new perspective to watching a tennis game as you drove past I suspect. Courteney thought it was a truly disgusting concept - she's very prim, our daughter - and needed to be reasurred that she wasn't likely to be confronted with any naked bodies on the way out!

Met some Austrians at David and Pams, when we popped in for a drink, who have just bought a house in the Kina Beach peninsular, and who run a cookschool back in Austria. Showed us pictures of the set up, which is in converted stables -listening to what they do and why was all interesting gist.

One thing about the hospitality trade, is that you never really get away from it - restaurants and eating out, food and wine, are everywhere.  Even in a week that was 'all about Courteney", we got to see and take on board, all sorts of interesting little pointers about our industry and how other people do things, that will impact in some way on what we do here. And I figure that that is very healthy.

But that is not forgetting of course, that the trip was really all about this!

She truly is amazing...

My computor, which is the business computor, is on my desk, ( naturally enough!),  which is in the hallway by our bedroom door. Our house only has 3 bedrooms, and even though both our daughters have left home this year, they reacted with complete indignation at the thought that I would claim one of their bedrooms for a proper sized office.

Apparently leaving home is not really leaving home...

So I continue in a small cramped space and dream of the time when I will have the luxery of a large desk, and room to spread out. It will happen...

Becos of the accessibility of the computor it is not unusual for me to come home to find one of my daughters at my computor, and I have got used to muttering  when I go to use something and find it altered or adapted to suit their needs. You get that!

Courteney made a unilateral decision this week to change my screen saver, which Chris French had installed yonks ago - a series of  photos of lovely dogs - which was always pleasant to have in the background. I didn't realise that you can create a screen saver from your photos, which is what Courteney has done - and being photo mad, I have lots on the computor.

So now out of the corner of my eye I get to catch all sorts of idiosyncratic photos of family and business, that are completely random. And I'm discovering that I really like it.

Photos are moments captured in our lives, and they often give pause in the nicest possible way - and rather than now having to consciously sit down and go thru them - I'm getting this random imagery at all times of the day.

Hmmm..... Sometimes kids have their uses!

The family did it again! The Motu Challenge yesterday, was run in bleak, cold, blustery conditions and the team performed magnificantly. They even went as far as improving on last years time, which given the conditions, was an extraordinary  achievement.

First home was a team of all males - top male atheletes, in their specialities who were sponsered to attend the race.

Second home was Richard Usscher - a consummate professional multisport athlete.

Third home was Hannah Lowe, Varsity student and parttime athlete, in a team with her father, her sister and Ash Hough. Not professional, but bloody awesome athletes.

Proud? Who, me?!!!

Did I mention it was wet, bleak and absolutely freezing...

Rick, waiting for Ash to appear at the end of the mountain bike stage - trying to keep warm

Courteney who road almost the entire road leg behind Richard Usscher, who just happens to be one of NZ's top multisporters, and a male to boot...

The river was flowing fast, and looked evil...

But that didn't bother Hannah - she paddled 27kms, hopped out with a smile on her face, and run up the hill to her bike with her father, changing gear as they ran...

Leaving Ash and Courteney to bring up the rear with the kayak...

And they finished 6 mins earlier than they had last year...

And they're all bloody awesome!

We are at the tail end of a Saturday nite - all mains are out and most tables are on coffee, so I've beaten a retreat to the house becos I've become redundant. Its been an early nite, cos the All Blacks are playing in Australia, and those that have been brave enough to come out, have ensured that they've done so early enough to be home before kick off. You get that!

One of the tables in tonite includes a lady younger than me, who has always shown a strong interest  over the years in my aquamarine ring - so much so that when I see her now, I just automatically take the ring of and hand it over. Tonite her husband took lots of photos becos he's planning on getting one made for her - and I told him to go to David Stride, who made this ring for me years ago, and who went out of his way to find a stone and a setting that I loved.

There is a story behind it all though....

When Rick and I got engaged we couldn't afford a proper engagement ring, we bought a secondhand one ( antique sounds better!) and borrowed the money from my parents to do so as I recall. We'd just bought a house, and there was nothing spare.

We exchanged wedding rings when we got married, but I was never particularly enamoured of the mass produced plain gold band, that was all we could afford at the time. And when I got pregnant I had to take the ring off becos my fingers swelled in girth, and somehow I just never got round to putting it back on.

Apparently that used to cause confusion for people I have subsequently been told - becos I didn't change my surname when we got married, and apparently becos I didn't wear any rings, people assumed that we weren't married. You get that!

Customers of ours owned an antique shop in Cambridge and once we were over there, and I spotted a gorgeous big square cut blue stone ring, which I fell in love with, and had to have. As you do. We bought it - a blue quartz stone and I wore it constantly on my dress ring finger..

Back at about the same time I used to do some teaching for Otumoetai College - taking some of the cooking students for an introduction to working front of house in a restaurant. I never felt that I was an especially good teacher, and was always very conscious that some of those guys weren't remotely interested in what I had to say - so it is always with considerable surprise that I occasionally bump into some of those ex students, who are now very grown up and with children and everything, who tell me that I helped fire up a passion for hospitality. Thats a nice feeling.

For one young girl though - the biggest influence I had was all to do with my ring. Apparently she coveted it back then, and when she started coming to the restaurant years later with her husband, she would always pounce and ask to try it on. I didn't realise till quite a few visits later that she had been one of my ex students - she looked different out of uniform and a few years older.

By the time we got to chat about all this though the ring was different. I used to clean the old one by boiling it in a mixture of water and Handy Andy - I wore it all the time and it got really dirty. And that worked perfectly for years, until one day, shortly after my mothers funeral when I was feeling washed out and exhausted I put it on the stove, and lay down on the bed for a rest, but fell asleep and awoke some time later to a very unpleasant acrid smell and the immediate realisation of how stupid I'd been.

The ring, predictably was ruined. With the saucepan boiled dry  the ring had cracked thru the middle. I cried.

Thought I'd claim insurance only to discover that if you damage your ring when you're cleaning it, then its non insurable. Go figure!

So for a couple of years I wore no rings and didn't really think much of it, until one day David and his wife, Carol were in the restaurant and somehow it all came up in conversation, and David told me that he'd look out for the perfect acquamarine stone for me and make me the perfect ring. I didn't have the heart to tell him that we couldn't really afford the extravagance of a step up to a custom made acquamarine stone, and really thought no more of it until one day he rang to say he had a couple of stones for us to look at.

I went into his workshop, convinced that I was going to say 'that's lovely David but not quite what I was looking for' - but then he brought out a couple of stones. One was easy to dismiss, but the second was exquisite, and somehow I just knew that I  had to have it, and I don't really know why cos I'm not really a 'bling' person, but I just knew that I needed that stone.

What finally clinched the decision was my father telling me to go for it, becos one of his regrets was that he had never bought Betty the square cut emerald of her dreams, becos they never could quite justify the cost. And he wished they'd stepped over that obstacle and done it, purely for the hell of it, becos now he'd never be able too, since Betty was gone.

We couldn't justify the cost either, but my sweet husband was relaxed about it, on the condition that I wore it on my wedding finger, something I was happy to agree too - so we maxed out the credit cards and bought it, and its a decison I've never regreted.

And the thought that David may get another commission becos someone likes this ring, somewhat obsessively, is rather a cool thought. I hope she's as happy with hers, as I've been with mine!

All of which has nothing to do with restaurants, but kind of proves that over the years you can meander down some interesting byways in your dealings with people, and all of which I figure, adds to the rich tapestry of what we do.

I have pretty much given up on eating apples over the last few years. Almost invariably they would be disapointingly floury textured when I bit in. Nothing like the ones I remember we used to get from an apple farm in Carterton, when I was growing up. After too many disappointments, I just kind of stop going there.

I'd sort of put the difference down to the distortion of memories, and figured maybe they weren't really that stunning back then, it was just the way I chose to remember them that way.

But then our vege supplier dropt us in some yesterday to try, that not only were a thing of beauty to behold, but when we bit in, were juicy and firm, and  simply scrummy. Hallelujah!

Just like I remembered...

I'm going to be eating a few apples over the next little while!

Been a big kind of day. We drove down to Turangi with our last 2 puppies in order to rendevous with people who were driving up from Paraparumu and Palmerston North to take them home. I felt like we were engaged in some kind of illicit transaction as handfuls of cash were handed over for canine merchandise, and things fetched out of the boot of the car...

We'd got there early so we could run and feed them, prior to the continuation of their journey in new cars with new people, going to new homes. And even though I knew that the time was right for them to embark on this next stage, I have to confess that the heartstrings were definitly plucked at the sight of those little faces with quizzical looks being whisked away...

But all 6 puppies have gone to homes of Weimaraner lovers - people who adore the breed as much as we do, and who were  delighted with the puppies - and what has been a pretty intense 8 weeks in our lives, has come to a happy conclusion, for which I am very grateful. There was a week or so there, where we still had 2 to sell, and we were beginning to wonder what exactly Plan B was, if we didn't get takers before they turned 8 weeks old. As much as we love dogs, we didn't think it was necessarily a very wise idea to keep 3 siblings - the need for dominance would have made life a bit tricky, not to mention just the sheer physical output required to keep 5 dogs happy.

So we're very happy with the outcome - we now have 3 dogs, which will become 2 in the near future, cos the older girl isn't going to be with us for too much longer, and that is a number we feel comfortable coping with.

The little boy that we've kept is currently having a cuddle on Courteneys knee - enjoying his first evening in the house. The 2 older dogs have eyed him warily as he tried to snuggle up on their beanbags - the mother dog will allow it, but the older dog is most indignant, and he's gradually getting the message that that is no go territory.

Rick is adamant he's going back out to the kennel to sleep tonite - an opinion his daughter is debating  somewhat vigorously with him, but I get the feeling she's on a hiding to nowhere.

We came home via lunch in Taupo at a new Deli that an long term customer of ours, Joan McBeath, has opened, Salute in Horomatangi St, which was just delightful. Deli/ cafe - with a small selection of Italian wines, and Bollinger, by the exquisite glass full; a range of cheeses including the marvellous Clevedon Buffalo line that I'm currently raving about to anyone who will stand still long enough to listen; and a lineup of lovely provisions - all presented in a simple, elegant space with opera music playing, and the most gorgeous hand basin in the bathroom that I have ever seen. We will go back...

Came home and took our little man for his first run down below with the 2 older dogs - his first excursion out into the wide open space, all of which he took to with total aplomb.

Its going to feel very strange getting up tomorrow morning to only one little body, urgently bursting to get out of the kennel - not the tumble of puppies that we've been used too, but am sure he, and we, will adjust pretty quickly. In fact the little tyke is currently showing no signs whatsoever of missing his siblings...

The puppies are growing up rapidly, and we are  into a nice sort of routine that isn't quite as fraught as the first few weeks. I  now understand why people looked at us sideways, when we mentioned casually that we were thinking of having a litter. They knew that it would be an involved process, but we were blissfully ignorant of quite what was involved. Ah well! Its been a step learning curve, but one I'm glad we embarked on becos we've learnt alot in the process, and now have 7 bonny wee puppies, that really are a pure delight. We've advertised them on Trademe, and have had a heartening level of interest, becos that was the other issue that was looming on the horizen, what were we going to do if we didn't sell them all? We hadn't quite got round to devising a Plan B.

I'm also incredibly glad that we at least had the foresight to do the mating at a time that ensured delivery over a quieter period at the restaurant, becos it doesn't bear thinking about, how we would have jiggled it all if it had happened right in the middle of our catering season. This way we're getting time to enjoy them. Its quite easy to loose a half hour or so after feeding them, when they play and curl up on our laps, and we watch fascinated, as the personalities increasingly start to emerge. Its probably the first time in my life( and no doubt the last!), that I've wished that my lap had a wider circumference than it does, so I could fit more on, when they clamber up, intent on snuggling in. There is no doubt that they are going to be very people adjusted when they go to new homes in a few short weeks.

They are cute beyond any words that I can adequately use to describe!

I've come over to the house just now to feed them, while I wait for the last few tables to finish their coffees and depart. I've changed into my 'puppy' clothes and therefore don't want to head back over till the restaurant is empty. Its going to be a bit of a mission organising the tables for tom nite - we're heavily booked,  and the table configuration is causing some angst. Sometimes you need to wait to see what it looks like when you move the tables into position, before you know whether its going to work, and we can't do that until the customers have gone.

Table positioning is a jigsaw puzzle that requires alterations virtually every nite becos of the size of the bookings , and is one reason I'm often bemused at the demands that some people make when they make bookings, in terms of where they want to be seated. But then we also quite regularly get people who demand a 'quiet' table. Something that requires me to pause always before I respond, and mention to them that we are a restaurant, and are open to other people, and can't therefore guarantee in advance what the noise levels are going to be. But if you want to eat out on a Saturday nite which is almost invaribly the busiest nite in the week, then theres a reasonably high probability that there is going to be an elevated hum in the restaurant... Different people generate different noise levels. Sometimes a table of 8 for example, can be relatively quiet, with conversation centered around one person speaking at a time - and sometimes it can reach crescendo levels when all 8 are vying for center stage at the same time.

The moral as always is, you can't please all the people all the time, I guess!

We've had an exceptionally quiet week to date, which I blame on the chillingly,  frosty weather thats descended, and yet we're turning away tables for tom nite, a Saturday nite. Hate it when that happens! But does mean we're keen to fit as many tables in where we can, so as  to try and up the weekly total to something vaguely more respectable. And when good customers ring wanting a table I hate having to say no - and will contort myself as far as I can to fit them in.

- Just been over to the restaurant, and delighted to see that Nicki and Holly had the tables pretty much sorted. We needed to fit in another 2, but I think we've done pretty well. No doubt when Rhonda turns up tom afternoon, she'll decide to adjust one or two, becos she's the master at fitting in tables, and we all defer to her. I just say yes to good customers,  when they ring wanting a table, and then leave Rhonda to figure where we're going to fit them in. But it always seems to work becos we get the odd late cancellation, or people are amenable about waiting in the bar until a tables available.

Some aren't though. Some people can't bring themselves to alter their plans by half an hour -and just point blank refuse to be flexible. Which is fine. We simply can't fit them in then when we're full - theres only so many tables and so many chairs to go round. So if they don't want to come a bit later when a table will have come free, they go somewhere else, and thats just the way it is.

The puppies are here, and have quite successfully turned Rick and I into gooey eyed bores!. They are simply the most beautifully adorable things I've ever seen. Kazza is proving to be a spectacular mother - the power of the maternal instinct is truly humbling to watch - and our dining room has been transformed into this tableau of the most exquisite domestic bliss. We sit and watch entranced as the puppies, who still have their eyes tightly closed, and can't walk, wiggle their way towards their mother, grissle and groan, and scream their indignation when they can't find a conveniently positiioned teat; flop over each other, collapse in exhausted piles after  energetic suckling; and then murmur their contentment. Its all just too gorgeous. Having to leave them to go to work is proving to be a major bugger!

Hannah and Courteney are heading home today, and we're under no illusions that its not to see us! Hannah had to go back to Auckland last Sunday before they made their dramatic entrance into the world, and has been demanding photos during the week so she can be introduced. Courteney didn't have to go back till Tues, so she had a chance to make her acquaintance, and is keen to catch up.

We ended up needing a caesarian section to ensure live puppies, which will make me forever guilty about the facetious comments I made in an earlier blog about the tedium of waiting for nature to take its course. The staff at Bethlehem Vet care were truly wonderful, and our appreciation for the way they answered the call and came in on a Sunday nite, is most definitly heartfelt. After what had been a torrid few hours watching my beloved dog really suffer, it was with immense relief that we let the professionals take over. Like it when people know what they're doing!

We thought there were 6 girls and 1 boy - which suited Rick cos he's keen to keep a boy and only having one meant he wasn't going to have to make a decision. But I heard a loud exclamation this morning and when I went to investigate was shown 2 male puppies laid out side by side. . Not quite sure how we missed that - but there you go!

Did I mention that we think they are uttterly gorgeous?!!

My siblings and I, all had to do Speech and Drama when we were growing up. Something I never showed any real aptitude for, being the type of personality who is too rooted in my present to ever be able to indulge in the flights of imagination necessary for good acting. I have however developed a voice which carries, sometimes inauspiciously so,  especially when I'm discussing something at the restaurant, that I don't necessarily mean for other tables to hear. Sotte voce is not a concept I ever grasped especially well.

Our speech teacher, Mrs Northcote Bade was a special delight - a grandmother figure for me, when I was otherwise deprived of one. My mother never really understood that in those last few years, she was paying more for me to go and sit in Mrs Northcote Bades gorgeous antique filled den( she lived in a Chapman Taylor house ), and discuss my woes and anxieties, more than I was learning to modulate my voice and diction.
That den was lined floor to ceiling with wood and glass bookcases - it is buried deep in my pysche as a place of emotional nourishment, and is a look that I tried to describe to the designers when we were working on the bar for the alterations at the restaurant, some years back. ( And something I thought we'd achieved very successfully, until shortly after we reopened, post alterations, when one of our old customers walked in, looked around, and told me with a distinct twinkle in his eyes, that it reminded him of an upmarket bordello!) Our shelves here are filled with wine , whereas Mrs Northcote Bades were old books, but walking into it often evokes her for me, regardless of Mr Eriksons opinion!

I was thinking about her this afternoon as I sat patting our heavily pregnant dog, and remembering a poem I did at some stage in my short career: 'Waiting, waiting ,waiting for the party to begin, waiting, waiting, waiting for the laughter and the din...'
It always had special resonance that poem, becos it evoked that childhood despair brought on by how painfully slowly time could pass when you're waiting for something special to occur. Something I haven't felt in a long time, becos these days I have the reverse problem, where life is so busy, that the days  flit by, rapaciously quickly, and I'm often left staggered by how far thru the year we are already.

So I haven't felt that sense of time dragging slowly in a long while - and yet here we are now, as we  wait for our dog to retreat to a quiet corner and have her babies. Her tummy is a round drum, and shes getting aggressive and territorial with the other dog, who's always up until now been queen bee - and we wait, and we wait, and we wait some more..Aware that we are not running this process - it will happen when she is ready, and we just hope to be around to capture the marvel of the creation of new life. I thought today at one point, that it was iminent, but she has gone of the boil, and decided she isn't ready as yet, so we wait, and we wait...

Caesars are beginning to make sense! None of this being at the mercy of nature - in, out and sorted. Much more business like! I jest!!!!! Honest... But it is novel, being so not in control...and just having to go along with the process.

We've just had a huge weekend, and its had absolutely nothing to do with the Jazz Festival that has filled Tauranga and the Mount with happy people. Rick and I didn't get to see any of the music, becos we were heading over the Kaimais before 7am each morning with our youngest daughter and  all the paraphenalia that comes with road cycling for her to compete in the 3 day Te Awamutu Tour - a junior tour that attracts riders from all over NZ.
Hannah came on Saturday but decided to run up Mt Pirongia, when she discovered it on the map, before coming on to see her sister finish the first stage, as you do!

Courteney had an awesome weekend and to her huge credit, won the U19s - and proved in the process that she has enormous reserves of determination and strength. Cycling is her life, and when you see your children have this kind of success, you can't help but feel very real satisfaction that she is so good at what she loves. Life tends to be  alot less complicated when that happens.
( And having observed her up close over the weekend, her mother is now reassured that she has that extra level of grit and determination - the fire in her belly as someone said yesterday, to have what it takes to go for what she wants.) Pretty cool really...

Saturday am - heading to her rollers to start warming up, cool, calm and collected..

Team talk - her father who gets everything organised for her, helps, advises and supports; discussing tactics...

..

Start of the race...

.

Rick keeping virgil at the comp point on the circuit. They're going to all appear round the corner at the bottom of the hill any moment, and we want Courteney to be at the front when they hit the line at the top of the hill...

Thats our girl!!

Final stage - Time Trial on Monday, warming up on one bike, with her specially kitted out timetrial bike waiting for her. Time trials have been Courteneys weak link in Tours for the last few years, but thanks to the generosity of keen cyclists from the Tauranga Club, who've supported her in inumerable ways, shes got over that bete noir, and went out there as Tour Leader, and determined not to loose precious seconds.

So for now, she is the top U19 female road cyclist in NZ. That will change becos there are others who will tilt at the crown and claim it back on occasion - but she proved to herself at the weekend that she could do it. Her coach and her father believed she had the ability - and now she does too. And that is pretty cool to see!

I tried to send this link in the newsletter that I sent out electronically today, but something didn't transpute and it didn't work. I think its too cute not to pass on, so, for those who love dogs and need them in their lives, stop and have a wee smile...

I have just had a wee afternoon siesta - the dogs and I, becos I seemed to be wilting a bit. Both my daughters came home yesterday, Courteney to stay for the weekend. Shes picking up her time trial bike at the moment,( having also dropt in her computor to Chris who is our guru for all computor problems!),  which an incredibly generous friend has rebuilt for her, and kitted out with the latest equipment. We feel very priviledged to have the enthusiasm and generosity of the people in our lives that we do.

 Hannah flicked home for a pit stop, and to drop of the mountain bike that she'd sold on Trade Me - she'd organised with the lady who'd bought it to pick it up from us - as you do. On the way down she'd picked up her new mountain bike from Errol at Velo Sport - a very generous supporter of both our daughters - plus the double kayak that she needed for the Arc Race, which she is currently competing in as I write this.

We'd been texted thru a provisions list, that included somewhat escoteric things like marine flares, and as we pointed out to Hannah, we aren't really the kind of people to have that sort of stuff hanging around in our cupboards. Food yes - and we came to the party with bacon and egg pie and pasta bake, and muesli bars and..., and got the flares from a friend who, by virtue of owning a boat, does possess such stuff.
Her car was jammed packed with the stuff you need for races like this - bikes and bags and headlights, and as Rick examined her new mountain bike, she showed me the heart rate moniter that one of her professors had given her to wear for the 24 hours of the race, when he discovered that she was doing it, becos he thought it would reveal some interesting data.I'm more interesting in her finishing in one piece!

The Arc is a 24 hour adventure race that you do in teams of 4, and this is her first experience  and her first launch into the unknown. And it is unknown, becos they don't tell the competitors until they all rock up at the starting point at 8am today in Pauanui where they were heading first.Hannah said they all got a 'random' text during the week, saying the first leg involved a sea kayak out to a 'submarine'.  From there they have to use a combination of physical prowess and mental toughness and orienteering skills to work their way thru the various disciplines. Rick showed me the video of last years race ( click on Arc 2008 down below on the screen that comes up, and it should run), and I decided I needed a wee lie down!

We think we might drive up tom am, armed with some hot choc in a flask, and something sweet and comforting to eat, as you do, to hopefully  see them emerge from the bush, safe and sound - probably about 7.30/8am if all goes according to plan.
 How she fits it all in, god knows. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Ah well - I'll go and do some baking, which is  the kind of useful contribution that I can make!

Both our daughters left home this week - Hannah returning to Auckland for her second year of study, and Courteney going to Waikato where she will study and train. She is happily ensconced in Bryant Hall I'm happy to now report, having left behind a slightly apprehensive little girl on Wed. The subsequent texts indicate that she found her feet pretty quickly!

We opened the restaurant in 86, a few short months after getting married, and it was our stated intention back then not to have children until we were debt free. Fortunetly  nature intervened, becos if we'd have waited for that miraculous state of affairs to have come about, then we would have missed out on the last, pretty amazing 20 years. Hannah was born in 89, and Courteney in 91 - and in a funny kind of way, even though the balancing act back then between family and a business with tight financial constraints was pretty fraught, I think the children have helped the longevity of the business. If we hadn't had kids we would possibly have been too intense with the restaurant and burnt out, whereas the girls have given our life a significant otherness, which has created its share of stresses and strains at times, but which over all we feel significantly blessed to have had. They are inordinately special to us both.

In the early days Rick and I were it. We had staff but simply couldn't afford to pay for too many hours, so we ( and my parents who were our business partners back then), did the bulk of the work, as you do. And where we were, our daughters came too - Hannah became adept at entertaining herself as her father prepped, all day. I've told before the story of chocolate bread and butter puddings, individually made, that ended up tasting of garlic to our mystification, until we remembered our daughter had been sitting on the bench, tantilising close to a pile of peeled garlic cloves...

When Courteney came along we made the call to stop lunches at the restaurant ( we used to do 5 a week), a decision made easy by the fact they weren't busy back in the early 90's, and our trials with day childcare had made me miserable. We wanted to be home with the girls and were aware that we were incredibly lucky to be in the position where we could make the call to do that.

For years we had Wendy, who with her daughter Freya would come and look after the girls - feed them, bath them and put them to bed, while we came into work in the evening. There had been others but Wendy  was our longest and most wonderful and when she left we decided we just didn't have the stomach to go thru the whole process of trying to find the perfect person again, so instead we built a tiny room to the rear of the restaurant with bunks in it, and from then on our daughters came with us in the evening. Usually they'd pop next door to see their grandparents, then eventually head for bed out the back, and at the end of the nite we would pick them up and carry them to the car, and from the car to their beds at home, until such a time as they got too big to lift and then we would have to wake them. I used to fret ( does a mothers guilt ever end?!), that we were setting them up for a lifetime of stirring at midniteish, but since then we've bought my parents property next door to the restaurant, and for the last 5 years the girls have spent the evenings in this house not needing to be disturbed at nite,  and they haven't shown any signs of sleep issues. Getting them to bed in the first place is really the only problem...

Long term customers quite regularly reminisce about how they remember the days when the girls used to be parked up at a table in the corner, doing their homework, or heading for the toilets in their pyjamas with a toothbrush in hand. I used to wonder whether customers who didn't know us would react negatively to the unprofesssionalism of 2 little bodies around the place, but I used to assuage that twitch, with the knowledge that it simply felt so right for us to have the girls there, that if it was a problem for others, then they were going to have to deal with it.

The restaurant has been an ever present part of the girls lifes growing up - the economic reality that it represents never goes away. We have pretty much taken for granted that they would work in it with us, becos we like the notion of them coming to grips with the idea that returns are generated becos of effort expended.

And while our business reality has meant that for us as a family we haven't been able to buy into the Kiwi tradition of 3 weeks at the bach over summer, it has allowed us to have 2 holidays ( working ones admittedly, but still...!), in Europe, to Italy and to France, and the memories built around those trips are pretty special. So I don't think my daughters can argue too much neglect!

We have become a tight foursome over the years, but a significant other in our family is Zoe, who's acted as a mentor and friend to the girls as they hit their teenage years, and who has a permanent place as part of the extended whanau. Shes stoked to think that there might actually be a spare bed to nab next time shes in town, rather than having to bunk down on whatever surface looked the softest as she's done in the past...

And now of course, at the restaurant, our staffing levels are considerably higher than they used to be, which frees Rick and I up alot more to work on the business rather than those fabled 20 hour days in the early years, day after day, when we used to do everything. Now we have awesome staff who have taken a huge amount of that stuff away from us, giving  us a broader perspective, and more time of course, to follow our daughters activities. Cookschool schedules are plotted carefully after first checking everyones diaries; wedding bookings are only taken if they don't clash with major tours. That is just the way it is, and we've got to a place where we feel pretty comfortable about it.

I think my daughters have been lucky to grow up in what has inadvertently become a kind of  extended whanau of staff and customers who've become friends over the years. They have lots of people around them who take a vital interest in what they're doing and who look out for them, and as a result Somerset is about our daughters as much as it is about Rick and I.

They leave home as two fit, happy together young women, who believe that the world is their oyster, and to say that I am in awe would be somewhat of an understatement!

We had a cookschool today - we're now well into the current series, and we're enjoying the food and the people. And the wine, Mt Difficulty Target Gully Riesling. One of my life's missions is to try to convince people that rieslings are great food wines, so I slip one into a cookschool series occasionally, and have been delighted by the positive responses from people so far with this one.

The dogs and I have had a siesta this afternoon - the weather has been so wet and muggy that there wasn't much incentive to do anything else. I'm itching to get in and start cleaning the house, but my daughters' paraphenalia is currently spread over every available horizontal surface as they organise themselves to leave in the next few days. So am trying to exercise a little restraint, and wait until they're gone, and we can then have a thorough cleanup. Will be very satisfying, becos its somewhat overdue!

In amongst the other stuff, we've spent the last 2 weeks trying to get our youngest dog pregnant - something that I had thought going into the exercise was going to be reasonably prefunctorily and straight forward. But I was wrong- very wrong!
Our breeder had put us onto the owners of a dog who live over in Rotorua - a delightful family, just as passionate about Weimaraners as we are. Was very cool to pull up at their gate to the view of 3 dogs rushing over to inspect us.
In trying to find a day when Kazza was prepared to entertain the notion of allowing the male near her, we ended up tooing and froing from Rotorua a number of times. Karen even brought the dog over to us a couple of times. In the end we had success- but lord, what a process! I thought nature would have jigged things to be a little more straightforward, but after talking to a vet contact, I realise that I was just ignorant going into the exercise.

Our pooch is very subdued, which we are hoping is a sign that she is pregnant - and I don't think I'll be able to wait the 5 weeks that the books tell us it takes for them to show, and I think we'll be taking advantage of modern medicine and popping down the road for a scan sometime soon.

All interesting!

Kazza and Rick waiting somewhat apprehensively for the male dog to be introduced. We needn't have worried, as I mused to Campbell, our vet,  one of the things I learnt from the exercise was that the bitch controls the whole process. If she isn't interested there is no way the dog is going to get near - she lets him know in no uncertain terms. I was very proud of how staunch my girl was, and had to periodically remind myself, that her being sniffy wasn't the purpose of the exercise!

Daz very keen to get up close and personal!

Their second mating - when Karen brought Daz over to us. This holding them together stage took 50 mins the second time - we'd been told 20 mins was the norm, but no-one was tempted to rush them - we just drunk cups of tea and waited! As you do!

So we are seriously hoping that all the effort was not for nought, and our somewhat subdued pooch  has successfully concieved!

I have spent a reasonable amount of today flicking back thru old photographs - both on the computor and in a box under my desk.
Digital photography constantly amazes me with both its immediacy in terms of the gratification of being able to see the photo straight away,  and the degree of control I have to play around with the photos, once I've downloaded them onto the computor.  Have just followed my daughters  out of the house as they went to get their bikes to go on a club ride, and made them stand still for a minute so I could get a photo of them, for something I need. Came inside, downloaded those photos, and then played around with the lighting in the one I wanted to use, to lighten up the shadows created on their faces from their helmets. And just like that - in minutes, I have the photo I need. Pretty cool really.

For both our major overseas trips I bought a digital camera - the first was a small one with a fixed lens, that was perfect for my needs at the time, but  which had me soon chaffing at the lack of a zoom lens. So before the trip to France I got a serious upgrade to a Canon, that I love, and which I've never resented lugging around, even though its a reasonably weighty piece of equipment.
Photos to me, are a record of times and people - and I love the memories that they can bring back, and the sense of immediacy that they create. I'm not arty in my eye and the way I look at things, so Picassa gives me as much technical support as I need at this stage. Instead I look on the photos that I take, as a record, a memento of life lived and the people that have coloured it.
My camera has possibilites far beyond my capabilities though and I am in the process of trying to understand more about the whole process, so as to broaden my horizons a titch. To that end I subscribe to a daily email from a Digital photography school, that quite regularly has some interesting information and links, and I'm seriously considering going and doing a workshop with Andy Belcher out in Maketu. He's a friend of a friend, and the person responsible for the photos of Hannah kayaking, that grace Waimarino Kayaks van, and the BOP Tourism billboards around town. And  which always make me smile when I see them, becos they're such stunning photos of my daughter!

Hopefully once we get the catering season out of the way - there will be time for an indulgent Saturday learning all sorts of new stuff with him.

In going thru the photos today I found this one of me, that Mark took in France, when we were at the Auberge doing Phillipes cookschool. Being someone who has never seen a photo of myself that I've liked, I thought this somewhat perfectly fitted the bill....

I am currently writing the electronic letter for December,  which I'll send out shortly, something I seldom do in one hit. Normally I need a couple of drafts and a bit of time in between, just to ponder what I've written. At one of my 'inbetween stages', I watched this video that a friend sent me of his son Shane  - who once upon a time worked for us - and who now  runs a trout guiding operation in Taupo. I think he prefers it to cooking...and I have to say it looks pretty magical to me!

The below was sent to me by a friend, and elicited a chuckle , becos in these overtly politically correct days when we try to please everyone and end up pleasing no-one, I often ponder the simplicity of a benign dictatorship...

 
  CHRISTMAS PARTY
 
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 1st November 2008
 RE: Christmas Party
 I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23rd, starting at noon in the private function room at the Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks! We'll have a small band playing traditional carols...please feel free to sing along. And don't be surprised if the MD shows up dressed as Santa Claus! A Christmas tree will be lit at 1.00 p.m. Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift should be over £10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone's pockets. This gathering is only for employees! The MD will make a special announcement at the Party.
 Merry Christmas to you and your Family.
 Pauline
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 2nd November 2008
 RE: Holiday Party
 In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now on we're calling it our 'Holiday Party'. The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians. There will be no Christmas tree or Christmas carols sung. We will have other types of music for your enjoyment.
 Happy now?
 Happy Holidays to you and your family.
 Pauline.
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM; Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 6th November 2008
 RE: Holiday Party
 Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table...you didn't sign your name. I'm happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads, "AA Only", you wouldn't be anonymous anymore!!!! How am I supposed to handle this? Somebody? Forget about the gift exchange, no gift exchange allowed now since the Union Officials feel that £10.00 is too much money and Management believe £10.00 is a little cheap. NO GIFT EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.
 Pauline.
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 
 
 
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 7th November 2008
 RE: Holiday Party
 What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20th begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees' beliefs, perhaps the Grill House can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party - or else package everything up for you to take home in a little foil doggy bag. Will that work? Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to the toilets, Gays are allowed to sit with each other, Lesbians do not have to sit with gay men, each will have their own table. Yes, there will be flower arrangements for the gay men's table too. To the person asking permission to cross dress - no cross dressing allowed. We will have booster seats for short people. Low fat food will be available for those on a diet. We cannot control the salt used in the food we suggest those people with high blood pressure taste the food first. There will be fresh fruits as dessert for Diabetics; the restaurant cannot supply "No Sugar" desserts. Sorry! Did I miss anything?!?! ?!?!?!
 Pauline.
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All F****** Employees
 DATE: 8 November 2008
 RE: The F******* Holiday Party.
 Vegetarian pricks I've had it with you people !!! We're going to keep this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the "grill of death", as you so quaintly put it, you'll get your f****** salad bar, including organic tomatoes, But you know tomatoes have feelings too, They scream when you slice them. I've heard them scream. I'm hearing the scream right NOW!!
 I hope you all have a rotten holiday, drink drive and die.
 The Bitch from HELL!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM: John, Acting Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 9th November 2008
 RE: Pauline Lewis and Holiday Party
 I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Pauline a speedy recovery, and I'll continue to forward your cards to her. In the meantime, the Management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and instead, give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd December off with full pay.
 John

A friend who has a very established, and quite stunning rose garden dropt me in a bunch of 'Just Joey" last week - huge blooms with a perfume that filled the restaurant. They attracted a massive amount of comment, and I now want to go and find a plant.

The roses in our own garden which I inherited from my mother are in full bloom at the moment, and as little as I know about gardening, I have to say they are a source of great pleasure to me. One day we'll have lots more around ( and maybe a gardener as well...!

When we bought the house property from my father 4 years ago, this climbing rose had gone over the trellis accross the roof and was coming down the other side of the house. It gets watched very closely by me now and isn't allowed such unfettered growth.

The Garden and Art Festival is happening in and around town this week - and those people really know what they're doing, whereas I'm just happy to have inherited a few blooms that are capable of giving me such pleasure this time of year. One day, when we have the budget and the time, we will set Terry loose on designing a serious garden for us, but for now these roses keep me quite content. For now!

Labour weekend, and its been a busy one which is nice. Closed today as usual on a Monday, and Rick and I went over to the Mount as we normally do, only to find it occupied by most of the rest of NZ who were all keen to get in a bit of exercise before they head off back home  this afternoon after the long weekend. I get a bit precious about people who dawdle and block paths, but really I should get over myself, and remember that lots of people around, means lots of money being spent, which is good for all of us....

Courteneys been down at Road Cycling Nationals in Wanganui, for the last few days. Her father went down for the Time Trial on Thurs but had to head back that nite, becos we had a large outcatering wedding on Saturday together with the normal restaurant stuff, so he needed to be back, and missed her road race.

She got a silver in the Time Trial which for her was major, becos Time trials have always been her bete noir in Tours - her least favourite aspect. But all the training paid off magically, together with the disk wheel that one of the guys in the local club very generously offered her to use  - meaning that she went out totally fired up. Seriously cool - and we are seriously proud of her. Her father got a silver in the Nationals once, when he was a teenager, but he gave up riding when he started his apprenticeship. The world has changed dramatically since then, and I get the feeling with Courteney that work and study is going to take second place to cycling...

Warmed up and ready to go!

The start - At Time Trials they go off in 30sec intervals and ride by themselves. Sheer, hard grit the whole way...

The sweet part!

Proud? Who us?!!

Let me take you for a pictorial explanation of yesterday, when my family and Ash Hough competed in the Motu Challenge - a gruelling multi sport event that encompasses a 70km mountain bike leg; a 17km off road run; a 52 road bike leg; 27km river kayak, followed by 10km ride, and 3km run to the finish.

Our daughters have done the event before in college teams, but this year was different becos they'd teamed up with Ash Hough who's a world class mountain biker, and their father, who's not a bad runner - so the stakes were raised, and they were on a mission to be the first mixed team home.

The event is staged out of Opotiki, which is on NZ's East Cape and is very much quiet, hinterland countryside - picturesque and rural.  Although there wasn't much time to admire the scenery as we rushed around the various transistion points trying to keep ahead of the team who were flying...

Ash reading his bike for the first leg - 6.30am in the morning...

Now my daughters have their own cars, there has to be enough trophy stickers to go round all vehicles...

Team talk before Ash goes to position himself at the start

The easy bit, before they hit the mountainous terrain and go for it. These guys are mad bastards!

The team runner looking deceptively relaxed...having just warmed up and waiting for Ash to appear

Ash heading for home...

I accused Courteney of being a 'girl' at this point - Ash just back from 2 hours on the mountain bike, good naturedly concentrated on pumping up her tyres, before he focused on his next stage, which was going to be to do the road bike let for his school team. ( And for which he broke the record!)

Warming up - she'd agonised about wearing her TT helmet , worried that she'd look too poncy, but in amongst some of the gear we saw down there, she didn't look poncy at all. ( Hannah is standing alongside in strategic position incase Courteney and the rollers part company...)

 A shot intended to show how sporting events set up in the middle of nowhere - fill the space for a few short hours with a lot of noise and action and then disappear.

I got the distinct feeling the cows weren't relishing being by the finish line, and were rather looking forward to us all disappearing...

Rick finishing his section - not bad for an old fella. Went out 2nd and came home 2nd...

Courteney totally focused on the task at hand

Hannahs sitting in her kayak on the river edge knowing that Courteney is near cos I've just yelled that information at her, and had stunned faces look back at me cos I've referred to females ( 'shes' on 'her' way) and up until that point its just been males thru that transition, and not too many at that either...

As I said, its a beautiful part of NZ, but 27kms felt like an awfully long, long way on the river

She's amazing!

Hannahs bike, ready for her finishing on the river - a photo of some significance, becos Courteney suddenly and very graciously agreed to let her brand new and horrendously expensive wheels get put onto Hannahs bike for the last 10km bike ride. Up until then, she had been resolute in her determination that no-one but she was going to ride on the Reynolds, ever! But at that stage they knew they were winning the mixed teams, and they weren't too sure how far the next team was behind, but she knew that getting on the bike with those wheels would give Hannah a huge filip, and after 2 hours on the river, every little bit could help . So....

Complaining becos the computor isn't working becos of the change in wheels. There's no pleasing some people!

I was crying!!

Results...

And a needed glass of sustenance from friends who travel very well equipped, before Rick and I headed back to Tauranga, and dinner service at the restaurant. As you do!

Rick and Courteney are over in the Waikato doing a club race at Morrinsville - Rick racing with some elite male riders, and I know he won't be able to help himself but attempt to keep up, or kill himself in the process - so I'm hoping that the rest of the kitchen staff are able to carry him tonite, becos he won't have too much energy left over I suspect. Courteney is racing against top riders in her age group aussi, and will be interesting to see how she is positioned, with Nationals not too far away. Her very spunky new wheels got put on the bike yesterday and I'm sure they'll create a huge pyschological boost to make her go faster...

Hannah did her kayaking training on the river early this morning, and then came home to collect me, and we headed over to the Mount - her to run, and me to walk, and ponder the imponderables that take up space in my brain! Brunch at Slowfish apres and a companianable chat with friends who, by happy chance ended up at the next table. Since I've got home I've been baking ginger crunch and sultana cake under instruction,  for her to take back to Auckland, tomorrow.  What would I do without the Edmonds cookbook?!

In the meantime the restaurant has been taken over by a determined band of floral artists who are weaving their particular brand of magic, and I can't wait to see the final product. Gregor and Anna arrived prior to me leaving for the Mount, and when I returned I was somewhat taken aback to see their numbers had swelled considerably - and there was a positive hive of people making stuff.  Gregor is a world reknown expert in floral art, and he's currently in NZ doing a series of seminars that Anna has organised, through her company Silver Bubbles. Tonight they come to the restaurant for their final dinner - but prior to that they will have totally transformed the area around their table. Talk about working for your supper!!

I am not especially visually creative- so I have nothing but the upmost respect for those who have those sorts of skills.  Both Gregor and Anna have been a delight to work with, and I have felt totally relaxed about standing back and letting them get on with it. Did take down a few trays of coffee, when I got back from the Mount, but beyond that have stayed out of the way. They've been warned that if they touch my precious curtains they die! - but anything else is fair game. When I flicked over just before for some flour, I noticed there was a contraption suspended from the ceiling, and all sorts of other things under construction, so I await the final result with considerable interest and anticipation.

Rhonda, our restaurant manager, has been on holiday this week, and her absence has meant I've had to step up to the plate for lots of stuff that I normally no longer have to worry about, becos its all things she takes care of now. Been a shock to my system, but nor has it done me any harm. We've carried extra staff over winter becos we employed new people back in March when it looked like we were going to be opening another business. I wanted strong staff at Somerset, so that when I got tied up in the new business, the extension wouldn't be too noticecable. It takes at least 3 months to get waiting staff trained beyond the commie stage, so we felt we needed to start back then. The new business didn't eventuate, and so I've used the opportunity of having excess staff, to pull back a bit from the coal face myself. Going over once service is actually underway, and retreating once my presence is no longer required - which sometimes has been after only an hour and a half or so. Theres always lots of other stuff I can do at my desk, so time is never wasted. Rhonda has very ablely stepped into that gap, and runs the restaurant and manages the staff with a warm manner, that Rick and I value enormously. She cares about people, and has actively encouraged a postive dynamic between the kitchen and front of house, which regretfully is not the norm in this industry.  I think shes superb, and I love the way shes always looking at ways to improve and to learn.

 We both went up to a seminar on training staff at Taste some weeks back, and she took up the idea of giving the front staff product tests from time to time. Our menu is large and theres a huge amount of background information that you need to have to cover all the potential questions that customers might possibly throw at you. That kind of detail can't be assimilated instantly ( which is why I always get antsy when I read snarky comments from some restaurant reviewers about staff knowledge. Staff have to be trained. It takes time. They don't arrive at your door fully formed and knowledgable - its a process. Good restaurants will have layers of staff out front just as they do in the kitchen, and they're not all equal. But restaurant reviewers don't seem inclined to allow latitude for nuance like that.) Rhondas done one product test - and the differing answers were very revealing, as to the amount of knowledge the staff have. I'm hopeless. If I know something, I automatically assume its obvious and therefore everyone else will know it too - and taking time out to impart that knowledge is not something that I'm especially good at. So these tests are a very targeted way of seeing what staff do and don't know, and we will  work on more training geared around that.

Its all good stuff.

Not having Rhonda there, has meant I have had to be there at the start of the nite and thru to the end -and I've even had to carry some food around the restaurant on occasion! All of which has served the useful purpose of reminding me that I actually thoroughly enjoy being a waitress. I really do enjoy people, I love the interplay with those we know really well, and then sometimes like lunch on Thurs with a table of 3 who I didn't know at all, but who were lovely, and who, when I was clearing away their dessert plates commented on the fact we present our brulees in the Parisian style, and I explained that it was an idea that we picked up at Phillipes restaurant in the Dordogne last year, and that segued into a discussion about Paris restaurants and hotels, and a really good exchange of information. Call me shallow - but I love that what I do can give people pleasure, and in return create a sense of satisfaction for me. Life can be horrendously complicated, and when you have a simple interchange with people who are on the same wave length, is can just feel so easy and simple. And nice as a result!

Which is why I read this blog written in America with a degree of morbid fascination, becos it is alien to what I do and why I do it.  Waiting tables in the States must be considered to have periously low social status, and if you read thru some of his archives where he talks about nightmare customers, you can't help but wonder why you would bother going to work if that was the crap you had to deal with every nite. We get our occasional difficult personality, who stretches our realms of understanding a titch, but it isn't frequent.  Coincidently I'm reading a book on Paris restaurants written by an American who has lived in the city for over 20 years, and one of the most important points he makes at the start of the book is that, to eat well in Paris you need to know how to behave. Restaurants are an entrenched culture in France,  and both customers and staff respect each other and work together to ensure a mutually beneficial experience. Where is comes unstuck is when tourists don't understand the rules of engagement, and try to bend a French waiter to do things like they are ' back home'.  French waiters don't like being told what to do. Actually, most of us who have any level of skill don't appreciate being patronised, and the old adage about the customer always being right is complete humbug. Sometimes I watch people who create scenes and demand stuff with real curiosity becos I wonder what it is about them that makes them unable to let us get on with what it is that we do with a reasonable level of competency.

But then it would be boring if we were all the same?!

Sultana cake to check.. and Courteneys just rung to say she won ! - which is seriously cool! Must have been those wheels.

Time to check the sultana cake...

......

My camera doesn't really do justice to the atmosphere created - it looks quite extraordinary!

Tuesday is both the start of the restaurant week, and my bookwork day. We don't do lunches on Tuesday - its a day to get organised for the week to come, which involves for me,  clearing and responding to the answerphone; removing all the opened wine from the preceding week - the red comes over to the house to go into my beautiful french oak barrell that I've written a previous blog about, and which gets converted to red wine wine vinegar.

 The white that doesn't get used by the kitchen is poured down the sink - sacriligeous I know, but preferable to serving a customer oxidised wine.

I then plant myself at my desk and work thru all that needs to be down to get uptodate - wages, wine stocks and reordering, pay bills, deal with enquiries and quotes, and try and clear my inbox. It never stays cleared for long, but at least it gives me a temporary feeling of satisfaction.

Whereas my husband avoids the desk or sitting still like the plague, and instead 'does' stuff. Today he got stuck on the roof after cleaning out the gutters, when he realise he wasn't going to be able to reach the ladder - so he had to call for help...

He assures me there is a great view up there!

I need occasional forays over to the restaurant for restorative cups of espresso - and Rick and I had one this morning sitting out the back in the sun, trying to decide how the courtyard will look once the building alterations get underway, hopefully next year. Becos we'll be excavating down  underground for the cellar - I can't quite picture at this stage how it will look from our existing courtyard, but I'm sure all will be revealed in due course.

We went up to Auckland yesterday - ostensibly to pick Courteney up from the airport. She was flying in from Australia, having spent the last 2 weeks over there racing, and becos she wasn't due until 6pm, we made the most of the day by visiting a few suppliers and having a lovely lunch at  The Grove Restaurant. Beautiful food, in that stylised presentation that makes a plate look more like arranged jewels than morsels of food. Fussier and 'cleverer' food than what we do, and nice to experience and analyse. We always find it interesting. And was almost reassured by the table of advertising types seated next to us, who were indulging in a liquid and protracted lunch, and very much putting the lie to the current hyperbole in the press about business in general being in hunker down mode. Someone had obviously forgotten to point that out to these guys!

We called into Schott Commercial to find some new coffee cups for the restaurant. I love good china and glassware, and I also like ringing in the changes with how we present food. Certain trends sweep thru the food world, and I try to stay away from those that are too generally embraced becos it all ends up with much of a muchness. Watch out for glass plates - they're the up and coming trend at the moment.. I was there to find coffee cups and something to serve our licorice icecream in, and ended up being sidetracked by a dinnerset that we both really liked, and thought would make a change for the restaurant. Being me, its good  china ( ie. not cheap!), so rather than blissfully waving my arms around and ordering it, I decided to be a little more sedate, and come back home and calculate quantities, and get a quote before we make the final call. It has to be brought in specially from overseas, so is not a decision to be  made lightly, but the subsequent discussion over lunch would indicate that its a step we'd both like to take.  Part of the alterations we're doing next year will include the installation of a kitchen table, and I've been quietly acquiring some truly exquisite plates and service gear for that table, in full recognitiion of the fact that we want it to be very special, but they're in too small quantities ( partly becos of the price) to be used in the restaurant for general service.

Found some coffee cups which will mean I'll be able to retire the clunky ones we currently have, to catering stock. I bought them in a fit of pique a few years back, after getting a stream of complaints about my then existing cups being too small. An interesting aspect of human nature is that people tend to equate value to quantity, which in the instance of coffee especially is quite wrong. If you espress coffee to make a bigger quantity you will make a bitter inferior tasting cup. Or if you add extra milk to pump up the volume, you will dilute the coffee flavour - both of which seem to me to be contrary to the notion of a good cup of coffee. I'd far rather have a lesser amount of appropriately espressed liquid. But alot of people don't agree with me. On a similar vein was the fascinating fact that my then cups were tall, with a small diametre, so people felt they were too small. When I finally gave in, and bought some conventional flat white cups thru our coffee supplier ( the kind of thick lipped ones that are everywhere) the complaints disappeared. These cups were short and squat and had a much wide circumference and people obviously felt they were getting better 'value'. Visually the new cups looked bigger, but in actual fact they were only about 15-20mls bigger ( I checked, out of curiosity!), proving how deceiving  measuring something by eye can be.

However the thick, clunky china has been depressing me, and when I laid it out for a catering job on Sunday, I decided that it was definitely time to be proactive, and get something for the restaurant that was a finer china but which would still look like a reasonable size cup. I think I found that yesterday, and it will be interesting to see how they are recieved once they arrive. Ironically I suspect most people won't even notice, becos the difference is in the quality of the china rather than the shape. Ah well! At least I'll be happy!

We've also found some steel cups to serve the licorice icecream in. For years we've been using some lovely red china goblets - but, as sometimes happens when I go to reorder something, they were no longer being brought into the country, so I've been on the prowl for some time for something that would be appropriate. I remember eating at Longchamps - the fining dining restaurant at the long gone Regent in Auckland, and being served icecream in exquisite silver containers with lids. That is what I'd have like - but I'm settling instead for stainless. We're hoping to be able to keep the bowls in the fridge so they're cold when the icecream is plated in them - making them better from a service point of view. They're a little different - so I'm a little ambivalent at this stage as to how they will work, but we'll see once they arrive..

Resotech was next on the list. A fantastic company for patissiere requirements - whether the fact its owned by a frenchman has any significance with that fact I'm not sure, but its where we get a number of our baking needs. They also have a range of great equipment - I know it sounds odd, but I was drooling ( figuratively, not literally, you understand!), over some truly beautiful saucepans. There's something about the shape of some saucepans that are just especially voluptuous and sexy, and just make you want to use them.  The added advantage of these particular ones was that they also work for induction tops, something we've been pondering getting becos of the control it gives us  over certain pastry preparations.  Discussing them with the owner opened up the possibility of maybe using them in the stand alone  benches that we're looking at for the new cookschool kitchen, where they would give us the mobility that we need.   And becos our conventional steel pans won't work on them, I'd have to buy a whole lot of new saucepans.... Damn!

Also came back with 2 new sets of scales - very precise scales which we need. I like buying really good equipment, and I like the fact it makes what we do so much easier.  Now I'll be able to measure out exactly 183gm of icing sugar, rather than taking a stab in the general direction. The more baking I do, the more I've come to appreciate that approximations don't work. You need to be exact.

Then Country Road to check out their plates, and we got some frosted bowls for the sorbets ( sounds crass, but aren't!), and some red bowls for the Union Square style chips that we're now serving on the lunch menu. I pay retail price there, but its worth it sometimes, just when you're looking for something that will give a flash of something a bit different. The candle holders that I use on the tables for the tealights, are actually from Country Road, and are tumbler glasses not candleholders. But I liked them becos the glass is opaque, and I find the flicking light of a candle at a table hurts my eyes, if its not filtered in any way, which is why I like these. The opaqueness of the glass creates an attractive glow, rather than a bright light.

And from there to the airport to pick up our daughter, who emerged looking fit and gorgeous! Nice to have her home.

And now that I've finished for today, I have enough time left in the afternoon to indulge in another Tuesday ritual - a quick flick thru the pile of magazines that Courteney picked up for me in town today. As much as I use the internet for research, in increasing amounts, I haven't noticed a corresponding decline in the sense of pleasure I get from nestling down to peruse a pile of crisp new mags!!

Actually our wedding anniversary isn't until the 8 Feb, but with various things happening prior to that, we decided to escape up to Auckland for a couple of days of relaxing and eating out and enjoying each others company.

Our daughters were somewhat nonplussed that we didn't appear to require their presence, but once they'd adjusted to the odd notion that their parents were going to go away without them, they got on with what they were going to be doing anyway.

Booked into The French Cafe for our celebration dinner, and had a stunning menu degustation. When we get to finally do our alterations at Somerset, one of the things we are keen to introduce, is the concept of a kitchen table, and we will do a degustation style menu for that table - so interesting to see how these guys presented the food, and kept it flowing. I think there were 11 courses all up - but they are small ' amuse bouche'- tastes that tempt the mouth rather than overwhelm.Combined with some French champagne, white burgundy and then muscat de beames de venise for dessert - we departed replete and very happy! Friends of  ours were there, also dining that nite, so we got to share coffee and a chat at the end of an evening - and then a taxi back to our respective hotels. Its a small world, which in large part makes it a nice world!

We'd eaten the nite before on  friends recommendations at a Thai restaurant, Khao, which is in O'Connell St, off Vulcan Lane. It was, I discovered, after we found it, actually in the building that use to house the late, great Le Brie, which was one of my first seminal eating out experiences when I was in Auckland as a university student back in the late 70s. ( Not sure who paid, or who I went with - but do recall the French bistro style food and the bustly, fantastic atmosphere!).Khao was lovely - a worthy replacement, the food had a freshness to it,  which was delightful.  Much more interesting than most Thai restaurants I've eaten in to date. We will most certainly return.

We'd preceded that by a cocktail at the Bellini Bar at the Hilton, as you do, and reminded ourselves that we intend being in Venice for our 25th anniversary, which is rolling around rather quickly. I wonder if our daughters will handle being left behind for that one too!!

And then today we had a late breakfast at Gala - a cafe that Maggie Mowbray recommended to us some time ago, and which we keep returning too, becos the cooking is so interesting and sophisticated for cafe food. Intelligent and quality focused - I think its absolutely delightful. Its round the back in Mt Eden, just before you get to Sabato, in a developement that rather interestingly appears to be about moulding commercial and  residential  with state of the art design. All rather impressive.

We stayed at Elliot St Hotel - in part cos we'd gone looking for the food retail developements they've done there, last time we were in Auckland, becos I'd read about them, and was curious to see whether they'd managed to capture the European feel for small specialised retailers  that they were obviously hoping to achieve. And in discovering that we also noted that there was a hotel, which reminded us of the boutique one we'd stayed in in Bordeaux, so decided to give that a go this time.

Nice to have a bit of old Auckland architecture thats been cherished and restored, and the hotel felt small and comfortable, and just right.  Being on the corner of Wellesley and Elliot St its also nice and close to Symonds St, where our daughter will be based this year - and I'm sure we'll need to pop up occasionally. As you do!

Enjoy the big city buzz of Auckland, but am never sorry when we hit that southern motorway on our way home either. Looks like we're in for a reasonably busy nite tonite at the restaurant, so had better get myself organised, cos have some cookschool queries to follow up, before guests start arriving for evening service.

As I sit at my desk emailing thru changes to the wine list, and ordering a tea delivery from Tea Total, and filling in the wage schedule to fax thru to the bank, and debating whether I should zap over to the supermarket now to pick up some castor sugar so I can get onto the cherries in red wine syrup- or whether I should wait to see if Gilmours deliver the other 9 5kg bags that they forgot to drop of yesterday ( Rick ordered 10 bags - they delivered 1! - love it when stuff like that happens this time of year!);  but, as I contemplate all of that, I've re read a card that arrived yesterday from the Distillerie Deinlein, and the words have given me pause in all the rush, to consider what this should really all be about. I'm sure they won't mind if I borrow them and share  with you:

Christmas Gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

(Oren Arnold - 1900-1980)

And so, from us to you - our heartfelt compliments of the season, and the hope that you get to have a special Christmas!

(The huge pohutakawa in our gully which has decided to flower this year - something it does only occasionally, and which I've decided to interprete as a positive omen for the year to come!)

Put on some high heels and went out for dinner with my husband tonite to Astrolabe. Had been planning on taking our daughters also, but they both declined becos of study committments, and since exams are looming, and I've been less than impressed with the amount of study they've been doing to date, I decided not to call foul, but to leave them in peace and to head out as just the two of us. We had a lovely evening as we always do at Astrolabe - food and service were absolutely superb - am amazing place that somehow manages to be different things to different people ( restaurant/bar/cafe) , but always done with a degree of panache, that means we leave feeling warm and replete. I read with some disbelieve the review that was written in the Sunday Star  Times by Geraldine Johns a couple of weeks back  about Astrolabe, and  once again shook my head in incredulousness that the editorial  people on that newspaper, can honestly believe that its valid to employ someone with no industry credibility to write in 'shock, horror' tones about food businesses, when she writes complete and utter vapid crap. Her method appears to be to sound clever and snotty, and her reviews always belie a complete lack of understanding about the restaurant business, and a totally over the top sense of significance of her own importance,  and regret that she has to share restaurant space with the general public, who usually seem to cause her an inordinate amount of angst, and for which she always manages to somehow blame the restaurant itself. Her reviews are almost always trite, overwritten examples of hyperbole and drama, behind which I suspect is the desire to shock and titillate and provoke reaction.  She sneers at people, and I don't see that as valid or productive. It certainly isn't what I would call 'criticism'. I would prefer logical, calm analysis - but have long since given up expecting that from the likes of Ms Johns. The Astrolabe review especially provoked me, becos it was written about a business that we know well, and it started off absolutely hammering them. If you hadn't known the restaurant you would have stopped reading, assuming that it was a bad experience, but she actually goes on and  recoups towards the end of the column, begrudgingly giving them credit for knowing how to produce good food, and provide reasonable service - but her compliments are given with such ill grace, that a number of people I've spoken too about the review missed them altogether, and assumed that Astolabe had been annihilated .That pissed me off mightily, becos its completely undeserving. But you get that, especially from people who sneer. And as businesses in the food industry we have no come back from unfair comments in the media - beyond just getting on with what it is that we do, day after day - and not letting that kind of crap carry a disproportionate amount of weight. I like very much that the guys at Astrolabe have the class to do that.

Mondays are nice days for Rick and I, cos they're the one day of the week that the restaurant is closed. We used to do the occasional cookschool on a Monday, but have stopped now, as we've learnt to value that having at least one day clear of work responsibilites is really important for us on all sorts of levels. We get Sundays off too occasionally, but not this time of year, when we're heavily involved in the Christmas cookschool series, which is always the biggest of the year, and as such involves most Sundays in November. We're well into that series, and with things underway, relax into a nice routine  about the classes, that we both enjoy. I never fail to come back over to the house after a class with a warm glow of satisfaction, that is generated in large part from people articulating how much they've enjoyed the experience. In each class we still get a mix of people who've been coming for ages, and those who're arriving for the first time and are unsure of what to expect. I like it very much when those people leave raving, and promising to return. Makes the effort that we put into each class all worthwhile.

My brother called in last week and I showed him the plans for the building extensions that will one day give us a custom built cookschool kitchen. For the last few months we 've been bogged down in all the requirements of off street carparking that the increase in the building size is going to require, and as a result its been a while since I've looked at the plans. Explaining them to Alan was a useful reminder of why it is that we want to borrow yet more money and take this step, becos the cookschools have become such a big part of the business, and we both love the idea of the flexibilitly that the new kitchen will give us. So need to keep channelling energy towards that goal, since its valid in terms of the growth of the business.

We've been doing a lot of discussion since we got back to work, about business growth and what we see as our next step,  and have a number of ideas that we now want to bounce of people whos opinion we value.  One of our daughters leaves home next year, and the balances in our life will change as a result. Even though Hannah is very independant as she is now, the pyshological impact of knowing that your children are  moving into the next stage of their life journey, means that you get to contemplate where you are at, and what it is that you want to achieve. I confess that for the first couple of weeks after we got back from France, I did sucumb to a morbid sense of ' I don't want to do this anymore; lets sell up and run away' type mentality, that gradually diminished, until I've reached  a sense of remembering how much I enjoy what it is that we do. Conscious however, that there is more that we do want to do, and as our day to day focus moves away from  our children, room is created for other things, and those opportunities are what are being tossed around by us both at the moment. For the first 17 years in this business we worked incredibily hard just to keep our heads above the water level, and over the last four years, things have changed at an increasing pace, as we've been able to add to the core business. That is a process of growth that I expect to see accentuated over the next few years, and we have the energy and enthusiasm to focus. All cool!

Had an exceptionally lazy morning at home, becos it was wet and windy - no rushing over to the Mount to do any exercise. Headed into town for lunch at the Med as is our habit on Mondays - the Med is simply the best cafe we have in Tauranga. Jo is a consumate professional who delivers a consistent product day after day and has attracted a formidable cartel of regulars who go there every day, and sometimes more than once a day. She has created what I always envisaged as the quintessential cafe culture, where people feel wanted and appreciated, and are served  fantastic coffees. The tables are ridiculously close together and it just doesn't seem to matter becos we're all so used to it, and go there for a whole host of other reasons. It proves to me that these places where a fortune is spent on the setup and look, don't seem to grasp that the fundamental in hospo, is making the paying public feel good enough about what they experience to want to come back, again and again. Look gets forgotten very quickly, but how people are treated and the qualitly of what they are served does not. That rather than how flash somewhere looks  determines whether or not customers are going to come back and make a place viable.

On our way out of town we remembered the picture gallery thats been down on the Strand as part of the Arts Festival, and spent an hour or so working our way along all the extraodinary photographs of the planet. A depiction intended to remind us of the precariousness of the state of our environment, and that sentiment was very profoundly conveyed via the  photos. A fantastic exhibition which if you haven't seen yet, you really should make the effort to go and have a look at. The sheer size of the photos seems to accentuate their impact - quite amazing. Shows nature in all her glory, but there are also some very thought provoking photos of the impact that man has had on nature, and similarly the impact that nature can wreck on manmade constructions . Very sobering.

By chance we'd had a lengthy conversation with someone we knew at the Med today, who'd been in Mexico last Christmas, and who had heard about our plans to head there next year. Debbie raved about the place and the people and in doing so, helped fire up my enthusiasm for the project  after a period of been focused on France for obvious reasons. I believe we need another 2 people for the trip to become viable for the travel agents organising it -mailto:annie@cwtravel.co.nz, and I'll now put some energy into trying to convince people we know to come with us. Looking at these photos today, simply reinforced for me how big the world is and how much out there there is to see, and how we should seize every opportunity we get ,becos none of us know whats round the corner for us.

I've been working on a Notebook  for everyone who came with us to France - a compilation of recipes, notes and photos, which they're have as a momento. We've been bumping into those people, as we've been out and about over the last couple of weeks, and its been wonderfully gratifying to listen to them speak so positively of the time they spent with us. We worked pretty hard for those 2 weeks of cookschools - always hyper conscious of wanting people to have a good time, and acutely aware, that no matter how well organised we may be, if the customers themselves don't want to get on, then nothing we may do or say is going to impact. We were lucky. The people who came were great - and made a real effort to have a good time, in doing so making what we had to do so much easier. Its been a huge experience, which, as I expected, is going to be a fond that we will be drawing on for years to come. It all adds to what we do becos we look at things from a new perspective, and that is a really useful exercise.

The rest of my family are sitting watching the Tour of Southland on the TV - study has obviously finished for the night!- and I think I'll retreat to bed with a book, cos I don't share their enthusiasm for watching a pelaton. I  don't understand all the  attacking and counterattacking that goes on in the way they do - and it all just gets a tinsy bit repetitive, but to give voice to that opinion in the present company would result in complete incomprehension!

We have 2 daughters - one, who will be 18 in Oct and one who turned 16 in March. They are about as different as 2 females born reasonably close together, and both from the same gene pool can be.

Hannah, the eldest, takes after her father in many ways. This is her last year at school and we have no doubt that next year she'll be leaving home, even though she doesn't have a direct focus on what she wants to do. It seems almost too hard for Rick and I to grasp that after 18 years of being a tightknit family, one of our babies is getting ready to fly the coop. Ready, able and frighteningly competent, actually. Frightening, becos her level of focus and committment is something that I never had at her age and I am in awe of the goals that she sets herself and achieves. Having said that she is also a classic teenager with the messiest room I have ever seen in my life, and a wearying tendency to respond to parental enquiries with monosylabillic answers. Being of a more garrulous nature myself, I find some of those grunts distinctly testing!

Sport is Hannahs great passion - and she has exposed herself to a wide range, making us wonder at times whether she should be narrowing her options down and focusing on one or two - but as is her wont, she has countered all our arguments with a perfect logic, that we haven't been able to fault, and carried on with it all. Kayaking is her love - and she does flat water as well as  white. She cycles  - both road and mountain - and runs.  She has steadily built up this base of fitness , and is planning on doing the Coast to Coast as an individual next year. My kneejerk reaction is that its too much, but in this, as in so much I am quite wrong, and I've learnt to stand back and keep my comments to myself, becos she has proven time and again, that if you believe something to be achieveable and you work hard enough to make it happen, then it will. What you don't need are doubting Thomas's around, whose perception of what can be done is totally coloured by what they can achieve themselves. Hannah has a father who is incredibly fit, and who has actively encouraged his daughters to go out and do stuff - and as a result they don't put limits on themselves. Its been a salutory lesson for me to observe.

This weekend she had the school ball. Rhonda who works with us at the restaurant came over to the house and did the makeup for Hannah and some of her friends and they all left, looking stunning. When did our baby become so grown up? And when did our sporty, practical daughter turn into this feminine apparition? There was a definite lump in my throat as I headed over to the restaurant that nite.

We sat up and waited for her to  come home, as you do. Partly becos we naturally wanted to hear how it had gone, ( which is where those monosyllabilic answers can be so frustrating!) but also becos I had a pasta bake ready for her to eat before she went to bed, becos the next morning she was competing in the Kaimai Classic - a multi sport event. ( At least the need to get up early the next morning, cancelled out the need for any discussions on whether or not she was allowed to go to after ball events. She had other priorities, so it never arose as an issue.)

This is the second year shes done the Kaimai classic as an individual, and it was watching her compete last year, when it occurred to me that I was out of my league, and that what I thought my daughters were capable off, and what they were actually proving themselves to be able to do, was vastly different, and it was therefore time, that I shut up, and got out of the way. Theres a cross country run, followed by a mountain bike, then kayak down the river, road bike around Te Puna, and final road run up Wairoa Road and Crawford Road. She completed it in 4:32 - an improvement of 10 mins on her time last year.

The car loaded up with all the necessary bits of apparatus, and equipment needed!! We left at the crack of dawn to get the kayak down to the river and the bikes unloaded and her warmed up before the start of the race at 8am.

Suffice to say I think she is amazing!!  And as I contemplate the rain falling outside as I write this, I'm trying to find a little bit of that internal grit in me, to motivate myself out the door to go and do some exercise. It doesn't come as naturally to me as it does my daughters - but I'm fully aware that that excuse doubles as a copout that I should be ashamed of!

By virtue of the fact that my life is pretty busy - I don't get to spend much time, cruising the internet reading other peoples blogs, but the ones that I have got connected too, have convinced me, that the internet is an extraordinary tool for the sharing of information, in a direct and honest fashion, without being beholden to the editorial drift of a publication, or the requirements of any advertisers. On the internet, what you get is direct from  a massive range of people, and while some of it is pure unadulterated drivel, there is also a lot that is pertinent and relevant, and which can be fascinating.

I am not at all sure where this blog is going to take me - but writing is something that I really enjoy, and I hope thru the blog to be able to discuss some of what I discover in my day to day life.

I own a restaurant with my husband - and have done so for nearly 21 years. During that time, we've battled massive financial pressures, brought up 2 daughters, amd kept growing and learning. I love what we do. I love the people contact, the learning process with food and wine, and all the opportunities that come our way.

Lots of people entertain romantic notions about owning a restaurant business - thinking that it would be a glamorous thing to do. Certain aspects of it may be, but most of it is repetitive  and monotonous, just like any other occupation. The toilets have to be cleaned, the bookwork has to be done, and the potatoes peeled. And that is something that doesn't vary week in, or week out.  Everything has to be in place for when the first customers walk thru the door. Thats just the way it is.

We are alot bigger in every sense than when we opened in 1986 - we are now a 65 seater, as opposed to 45 back then, and in addition to the restaurant, we also have an outcatering wing, plus we do a significant number of cookschools during the year. Most of which are at the restaurant, but some of which have been overseas. One of the huge advantages of being a long established business is that  we have some absolutley formidably loyal customers, who we've known for years. We have people coming in for dinner with their new husbands ( or wifes) who I remember as young toddlers - and that sense of continuity gives me immense satisfaction. I really like the sense of digging our roots deep in the local community and developing this profound sense of belonging.

Owning a restaurant is not all glamour - there are lots of down sides that happen along, and what I'm hoping to do with this blog, is too discuss all aspects of that restaurant life ( without being specific about customers, becos that wouldn't be appropriate!),  as various things occur, and I feel a need to share. It won't be sent out - it will just be here on the restaurant website, for those people who chose to click in periodically. ( And if they want to pick up on anything I've mentioned, I'm contactable on anne@somersetcottage.co.nz).

We will just see what happens, and where it takes us!