Kong vs World

Last year, my new year's resolution was to read more, and to keep me honest, I started keeping a list of the books I've read.  Almost managed to average a book a week, but just a few short of 52!

1. The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt 2. Dreams of Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor (Book 3 of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series) 3. Five Children and It, Edith Nesbit* 4. The Phoenix and the Carpet, Edith Nesbit* 5. The Story of the Amulet, Edith Nesbit* 6. Night of a Thousand Stars, Deanna Raybourne 7. Brookland, Emily Barton 8. The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer (this is the best book I read last year, recommending to everyone) 9. Maddam, Margaret Atwood 10. The Daylight Gates, Jeanette Winterson 11. Tribute, Nora Roberts 12. The Casino, Margaret Bonham 13.Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser 14. The Position, Meg Wolitzer 15. Madam, Will You Talk, Mary Stewart 16. The Iron King, Maurice Druon 17. The Strangled Queen, Maurice Druon 18. Rivers of London, Ben Aaranovitch 19. Moon Over Soho, Ben Aaranovitch 20. The Poisoned Crown, Maurice Druon 21. Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Sherri S Tepper* 22. A Tangled Web, L M Montgomery* 23. The Villa, Nora Roberts* 24. The Narrow Road to the Far North, Richard Flannagan 25. How to be a Woman, Caitlin Moran 26. A Handmade Life, Molly Wiezenberg 27.The Uncoupling, Meg Wolitzer 28. The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters 29. Best of Jane Grigson, Jane Grigson 30. A Fair Fight, Anna Freeman 31. The Boston Girl, Anita Diamant 32. The Petticoat Men, Barbara Ewing 33. The Supper of the Lamb, Robert Farrar Capon 34. Frederica, Georgette Heyer* 35.A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki 36. City of Jasmine, Deanna Raybourne 37. Dark Witch, Nora Roberts 38. Delancy, Molly Weizenberg 39. The Unknown Ajax, Georgette Heyer* 40. Gin Glorious Gin, Olivia Williams 41. Sprig Muslin, Georgette Heyer* 42. The Taste of Tomorrow, John Schonwald 43. Baker Towers, Jennifer Haigh 44. Doreen, Barbara Noble 45. The Ten Year Nap, Meg Wolitzer 46. Dark Places, Gillian Flynn 47. The Royal Succession, Maurice Druon 48. The Penny Heart, Martine Bailey 49. The Wife, Meg Wolitzer

An asterix (*) indicates a re-read. I'm surprised that this year I didn't re-read any Austen. I usually work my way through a couple of those each year. My major author discovery was Meg Wolitzer. The Interestings was by far the best book I read last year, and I've been working my way through her backlist as they appear in the library. I would say if you like Donna Tartt, Jeffery Eugenides or Jonathan Franzen, you'd enjoy her writing. Start with The Interestings.

I didn't include any of the cookbooks I read over the year, since while I might read some cover to cover, others might only have a couple of interesting recipes in them, or I might give up on them if the writing is too preachy. These below are  the ones that I found most interesting this year. (I mostly borrow cookbooks from the library, and these are the ones I'd think about buying).

1. Honey and Co: Food from the Middle East, Itamar Srulovih and Sarit Packer. I want to eat everything in this book. 2. Short and Sweet: The Best of Home Baking, Dan Lepard 3.Salt, Sugar, Smoke: How to Preserve Fruit, Vegetables, Meat and Fish, Diana Henry

4. River Cottage Veg Everyday! Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall. I am obsessed with the Cambodian Wedding Day Dip - why is it specifically Cambodian? I really can't figure it out. 5. Kitchen, Nigella Lawson. I actually bought an ex-library copy of this - which some naughty borrower had ripped pages out of! Grrr. 6. My Kitchen Year, Ruth Reichl. I actually don't want to cook out of this necessarily, but the writing is great, and the book is just a beautiful object.

I'll be honest, I've had a bit of a block thinking about what to write about my time in London. It was amazing to be there, to get on the bus and ride past the sights that I know from books and movies. It was great to be able to go to all the museums and galleries, and nerd it up to my heart's content, and definitely the thought of having access to all the theatre that you might ever want is pretty exciting. But it was also incredibly crowded, a city in which you can never be alone, difficult to navigate (at least to the newbie with only google maps to guide her), and expensive. And dirty. Whenever I blew my nose all this black gunk came out. Gross. So anyway, I'm conflicted. I had a good time, but would I go back? I actually don't know. But let's now focus on what I did. My activities in London can largely be categorised thus: 1. Museums and Galleries 2. Catching up with friends 3. Riding public transport (and subsequent lostness) 4. Shopping 5. The Lion King. Let's address these in order. First, museums and galleries. I went to the British Museum, the Tate Modern, the V&A, and the Natural History Museum. Of these, the V&A was my favourite. Loved the fashion history display, and the exhibition on theatre and costume. The building was also beautiful in itself, and it was a great day to sit by the courtyard pool and soak it all in.

I also did enjoy the British Museum, although I felt a little like there was a lot of righteousness of Empire going on - especially in the Parthenon marbles display.

However, the inner geek did prevail, and there was inner squeeing at seeing so many of the treasures I studied at uni just there - close enough to touch (although one doesn't of course). Catching up with friends - it is a factor of my age, but several of my friends, and a good number of Wil's friends live in London, so my stay was pretty social. I did a catch up night with some of the girls from my first professional job - my walking bus buddies, as we used to work on the same floor at work, and all walk home together. London's about as far away from Molesworth Street as you can get for a reunion. It was awesome. Public transport and I in London only sort of got along. I actually very much enjoyed riding the double decker busses, sitting up the top and feeling very pleased whenever I got to sit in the very front seat with the best view. I saw lots of the sights from my seat on the bus - Westminster, St Paul's, Trafalgar Square...

Somehow though, although I could get to wherever I needed to go on the bus, when it came time to go home, I would be on the underground. Whenever I rode the underground, I would somehow always come out the wrong exit, and end up walking in the wrong direction for about a block before realising that google maps was supposed to be round the other way. I'm sure that people who actually know which direction North is don't have this problem. Shopping in London is kind of overwhelming - so many shops! So much choice! I spent an afternoon wandering round Carnaby St and Oxford St, including a visit to Liberty - a fancy pants department store in a Tudor style building. Beautiful.

These were in a shop on Carnaby St. I would not be brave enough to wear any of them, but I love that they exist. I focused mainly on getting work clothes and basics. I think my favourite purchase was a pink tank top from Selfridges, which may have been the least expensive thing in the whole store at 4 pounds! It got worn quite a bit on the rest of trip due to the heat. It won't get worn again until summer in New Zealand. Finally, on my last full day in London, I went to a matinee of the Lion King, which was so great. I loved it so much I cried with joy. The costumes were amazing, the singing excellent, and I just love the story. It was pretty much my favourite movie as a teenager (that and Labyrinth), and I have wanted to see the stage show basically since it came out. I would totally go again - and I would pay for one of the seats where the elephants process past next time!

Over these days we attended the first of the two weddings which had brought us to Europe. This wedding was held over in Dunbar, east of Edinburgh. We spent most of Friday trying to get there, while also trying to sort out issues with Wil's kilt hire. So, we really only stopped for about half an hour for lunch in Aberfoyle, where, randomly, there was an owl display.

The wedding was held at Broxmouth Park, a big, Pride and Predjudicy house, with large grounds. We were staying in the Head Gardeners' cottage, while other family/guests stayed in the Gatehouse. It was that sort of place. Someone over the weekend observed that they'd always thought that when people in Austen talked about taking a stroll round the garden for exercise, it was a pretty lame version of exercise. Well, if your garden is as big as the garden at Broxmouth, maybe that makes it more of a walk.

The wedding went really well, with a beautiful bride, many men in kilts, a cake made of cheese, Scottish country dancing, and a hog roast at the end of the night.

We had booked the Early Birds Three Island Tour, which meant that bright and early we were walking down intooo Oban to catch the ferry. It was a perfect day - the sea as flat as a pancake, with a promise of sunshine.

Because of the distances and the fact that the roads on Mull are one lane (makes for interesting passing etiquette), the Mull part of the tour is basically just driving from one end of Mull to the other on a bus. There is some beautiful scenery though - difficult to take pictures of from the bus!

When we arrived at Fionnphort, from whence we would sail out to Staffa, the day had started to deliver on its promise of sunshine. It seemed a world away from the Lochs and Highlands we'd been driving through the days before.

There's Iona in the background - you might be able to see the Abbey. I switched a bit between cameras, so the bulk of the photos of Staffa and Iona are on the actual camera, where they will probably stay until we get back to NZ. However, I did take a few on my phone too.

Fingal's Cave on Staffa

Staffa view There is also a puffin colony on Staffa, and Wil and I spent most of our time on the Island sitting quietly and watching the puffins fly in and out of their nests in the cliffs. They are so cute! When the rest of the boatload of tourists came over, we shoved off, as for some reason most tourists don't seem to understand that being noisy means no puffins... We ate first lunch on Staffa, sitting on the softest grass imaginable, before getting back in the boat to sail to Iona.

Iona has a very interesting history from a history of Christianity POV, so Wil was pretty happy prowling through the Abbey. I preferred the scenery, and think Iona would actually be a pretty nice spot for a summer holiday.

We had booked dinner in Oban at Ee-Usk, a seafood restaurant down on the pier. Ahead of the dinner though, I couldn't resist stopping at the little green shack that we'd spotted the day before where they were selling local oysters, shucked, for 95p each!

Nom. Oban is definitely an excellent place to eat seafood. The restaurant was hopping, and I was glad we had booked. Wil started with scallops, which were so enormous - about four times the size that you'd get in a restaurant in Wellington. However, I felt like I won on mains with my seafood platter.

A mostly photo post, I think, because we did quite a lot this day, and covered a lot of ground. We decided to get an early start, beginning at Culloden battlefield, and were the very first people through the gates. Even though we got a little lost (thanks roundabouts!), it wasn't open when we got there, so there was time to take this nice photo of Wil with our rental car. We had ordered a Ford Focus and were given a Mercedes!

Wil and the Merc I think Culloden is quite well put together site - good museum experience giving the overview of the history (and it seemed pretty balanced), and I liked the automatic audio tour, which just started whenever you go to a point of interest. We soon realised though that you could also just enter the site for free, without going into the museum bit (but of course you wouldn't get the audio tour), as we bumped into lots of locals taking their dogs out for a run.

After Culloden, we drove down to Clava Cairns, a bronze age burial site, about 4000 years old. It was pretty neat - and quite a contrast from the previous site. Lots of documentation and evidence around Culloden, versus speculation and mystery around the Cairns - who were they for? How were they used?

As we drove away from Clava Cairns, we saw a teenager sort of running around the road kind of randomly. As we drove closer and past him, we realised that he was basically being mobbed by midges, which he was trying to drive away by flicking his hoodie around him - in a totally futile way. It was both hilarious and horrifying. We drove down Loch Ness, stopping to take a look at the Loch and see if we spot a monster. Somehow we managed to bypass anywhere decent for lunch, and ended up stopping at Fort Augustus, which seems to be a place that is somehow more popular than it deserves. It was kind of cool to see the locks on the canal being opened to let the boats through though.

The drive took us through some spectacular scenery, with neat views of Ben Nevis, random monuments and castles. Occasionally we would think, this looks like New Zealand, and then we would turn a corner and think, nope, definitely not New Zealand.

Loch Ness

Fort Augustus

Light falling on Castle Stalker (best name for a castle ever, by the way) We got to Oban about 4 and checked into our B&B, before wandering down into town to book a tour to Mull and Staffa for the next day. Then, into a local pub for some snacks and drinks. Deep fried, the flavour of Scotland! This plate includes deep fried haggis.

Slightly out of order, as the photos from day 2 (Stirling Castle, Doune Castle and Aberdeen) are stuck on the camera, rather than take on my phone (and thus require a computer to sort out). Also, I am finding that I really miss my lappy this trip! The iPad is good... but it does do some fricking random things, like not let you chose photos from anywhere but the photos folder - thus rendering dropbox less useful. Bad functionality Apple! Not what I would expect. It also lost my post, when i switched between apps to transfer photos from Dropbox to Photos. Frustrating - however, enough complaints about technology! On to the holiday! We woke up in Aberdeen ay Mike and Ruth's and over coffee discused what to do that morning - castle at Stonehaven, stick around Aberdeen, or go to the beach? The Haar, a thick sea fog, had rolled in overnight. So, we decided to go to the beach. We drove up to Newburgh, about half an hour out of Aberdeen, and walked over a golf course to the sandy dunes.

Scotch thistle, in the wild! (or, on a golf course)

The moody dunes - the Haar creates a very strange sort of atmosphere, mysterious. There is a seal in the water there.

In fact, there were lots of seals, a whole colony basking on the far shore, with dozens in the water, swimming up the estuary, and then floating back out to sea. So graceful in the water, so awkward out of it. The seals in the estuary watched us as we walked up the beach, with the occasionally more curious one swimming a little closer to get a better view. And then suddenly, with a tumbling, resounding, communal splash, almost all the seals on the far shore rolled into the water and began to swim out to sea. It seemed totally random, but when we walked back to the car later, we noticed that the tide had turned. They must have been able to tell, and taken it as a cue to go fishing. We sat on the beach for a while, watching the seals float along, and helping Lars, Mike and Ruth's wee son, dig a hole that he could bury his feet (in shoes and socks) into. After a long and lazy lunch at a nearby cafe, we dropped Mike and Ruth and Lars back to Aberdeen and packed up the car for the drive up to Inverness, via Dufftown, around which there are lots of whisky distilleries. It was a little later than we had expected to set off, so thought our chances actually getting to a distillery were a bit slim, but we arrived at Glenfiddich at 4.30 and managed to get onto the last tour of the day. Of the 60 odd people gathered in the theatre to watch the cheesy promo video at the start, only Wil and I had paid the slightly higher price to do the tour with additional tastings at the end. So, we basically had a private tour!

Our guide was a young American, studying at St Andrews, who did the guiding as a summer job. He was very nice, but we were disappointed a little not be be guided by a lovely Scottish accent.

The tour was pretty interesting - the volumes going into the production process are pretty incredible (as you might expect from a big name like Glenfiddich) and the smells in the different warehouses was just... intoxicating! (not really, but incredibly heady). We got to see the big barrel where the 18 year old reserve is blended. And then there was the tasting.

We actually tried four whiskies - the one missing in this photos is the 21 year old reserve. Our guide tried very hard to get us to say what flavours we could taste in the different whiskies. My response - it tastes like... whiskey? I could taste that there was a difference between then, but in no way could I say "bananas" or "spices" or any of the other rubbish that clearly is not in whisky as a flavour coming out. Don't worry, we didn't drink and drive - I took the wheel afterwards and was careful not to drink too much more than a sip off each. Our guide also told us to add a few drops of water to our whisky to "wake it up". This advice was later disputed and derided by Duncan the Grocer (and avowed Jacobite) from Barra, who we met in a pub in Oban (more on this later). Afterwards, we drove to Inverness, checked into the b&b and wandered over to the pub for dinner. As we walked back to the B&B, I looked up at Inverness castle, and saw that there were rabbits all over the lawn! Cute.

I’m starting the trip journal from our first full day in Scotland - the Sunday. The trip over from NZ was pretty uneventful. Just long - so long. We are so far away from the UK! The feeling of distance was not helped by a 2 hour delay in Shanghai, where we just sat on the tarmack, waiting for the plane to take us to London. Wil and I thought we would get to London in time to make our connection to Edinburgh, even with the delay, and it all turned out ok, even if I did run through Heathrow Airport in my socks to get to the plane after being held up in customs and searched.

I made a new house for my ukulele! 

Inspired by a friend who made a bag for her ukulele, I decided that I could do it too. I've been on the lookout for a soft bag for my first ukulele - Duke the Uke.  Duke was my first uke and, since I lost the bag he came in during some move or other, he's been living out in the open, getting all dusty. I didn't want any of the bags that you can easily get - boring, black bags, perfectly serviceable but very dull. I wanted a pretty bag. I even looked for a pretty bag in the Ukulele store in Amsterdam when I was there, but was not particularly inspired by anything I saw. So, I made my own!

I used a cotton print for the outside, which I picked up on special for about $3 a metre. I bought a metre, but still have about 40cm left. For the inside (lining), I got some red, quilted batting - about $5 a metre. I also used iron-on interfacing (not too stiff) to give the cotton a bit more solidness. 

Here's how I made it. Let me point out that I have pretty basic sewing skills, and usually the only sewing I do is taking up the hems of trousers (damn being short!). And, I did do sewing at school when I was 13, and mum used to do lots of sewing. So if I can do it, you can too! 

I was basically aiming to sew a vaguely ukulele shaped box - so top and bottom, and a long strip to go round the side, to form the depth of the box. That's a terrible description. Oh well. 

I made a pattern by tracing around my ukulele, with about a 1cm border and then cut out the form. Then, I folded the shape I'd made in half lengthways, and trimmed it to make it more symmetrical.

Next, I cut out my fabric pieces, adding a fairly generous seam allowance to the cut out pieces. There was a bit of a delay between cutting out the pattern and cutting the fabric, since I discovered that somewhere along the line I'd lost my fabric scissors.. and had no pins, or needles, or even a measuring tape. That makes it the second time in my life that I've lost my sewing kit. One trip to Spotlight later... 

With sewing kit no. three, I cut out two uke shaped pieces from each fabric. I ironed the fusible interfacing onto the cotton, and pinned the patterned cotton to the batting. For the side, I cut a couple of strips that were 10cm wide (depth of the ukulele at its deepest poing, plus a few cm for seam allowance etc. For each piece of the box, I zigzaged the edges together. It would have been ideal to use an overlocker to do that, but I didn't have access to one. 

Next, I pinned the "bottom" of the box to the side strip, right sides together, and sewed all the way around, using a straight stitch. I ended up with this: 

See how there's excess fabric on the right "side" there - that's because I didn't really know how long a piece I would need. I just trimmed most of the excess and then sewed the side closed, so that I basically had an open box. At this point I was pretty please to see that the ukulele did actually fit, as I had been worried that I hadn't left enough seam allowance. 

Next, I pinned the top to the sides (right sides together) and sewed most of the way around, leaving a gap for the zipper to go in. 

Next, fitting the zipper. I had a 40cm dress zip, with plastic teeth - don't use metal because you might scratch your ukulele. You want one that's long enough that you make an opening that lets you get at the uke easily.

Next, pin in the zip, and sew it in. I can't give instructions about putting the zip in really, as it was a major pain in my butt, and I am pretty sure I did it wrong! It went in eventually, but there was much cursing, and all the fabric seemed to be on the wrong side of the machine all the time - there is probably a much better way to do it. Find one using google...

Much cursing, and one broken needle later (sorry Barb), the zip was in. 

There's still a little hand sewing to do to finish off - I need to tack down the zip inside the case, so that it doesn't start munching on other parts of the bag, and I have to figure out how to attach a handle, and maybe a pocket for my tuner. But that's basically it. 

Things I would do for a second bag:

cut the lining slightly smaller than the outside fabric

factor in a pocket into the earlier design process

use a heaver needle (maybe a denim needle) given the number of layers of fabric you are sewing 

figure out an easier way to put in a zip

pay more attention to which piece I wanted as the top or bottom - I didn't and the   print on the top is kind of upside down (doesn't really matter, but slightly annoying).

Well, it's taken a while, but I think I've finally recovered from our Kapiti Island trip. Kapiti is an island off the coast of Paraparaumu, about 45 minutes out of Wellington. It's a nature reserve, where DOC runs a bunch of native birds breeding programmes. I had never been, even though I've seen it in the distance driving up and down the Coast road innumerable times. However, friends organised a trip (it's so much easier when someone else does it!) and we finally managed to get out there.

When we left Wellington, it was a bright and beautiful day - but the clouds built up as we drove further north. In the end, it was overcast the whole time we were on Kapiti, but it didn't rain, so kind of perfect weather in a way. 

The boat we came in on - a 15 minute ride got us from Paraparaumu to the Island. 

Once on Kapiti (our bags having been checked for any rats or stoats we might have been carrying before we got on the boat), we wandered up to the whare and had a quick briefing. The DoC ranger told us a bit of the history of Kapiti, what sort of birds we might see, and what the two tracks were like. The choice of tracks was either the "trig track", described as a "bit of an action man track, some pulling yourself up using tree branches", vrs the Wilkinson track - a zigzaging, longer track, which went all the way to the top of the Island. You can guess which one I decided to do. Our DoC ranger was also a mayoral candidate for the Kapiti region. Kind of cool to have a ranger as a mayor perhaps? 

There were about 23 in the group, and after the briefing, there was a bit of splitting up, with about half deciding to head up the Wilkinson track, while some of the others took a guided tour, and others decided to do something completely different. Those of us heading up the Wilkinson track headed off, with Wil leading the pack. I trailed behind, somewhere towards the back. It was actually pretty good being in a big group - lots of different people to talk to, and lots of different fitness abilities, so I didn't feel like I was dragging everyone back with my slow walking uphill. 

At the first stop, I discovered that I'd managed to put my drink bottle into my backpack without properly putting the lid back on, and all the water had somehow spilled out, flooding the bag. In fact, I took all the stuff out of the bag, and tipped it upside down, and about a litre of water poured out. Comedy gold. Luckily all my food was in plastic bags, and the backpack itself was pretty watertight, so I didn't have to keep climbing with a sodden weight on my back! 

Seeing this little guy made up for the lack of water though - the first of many wekas. Somewhat fuzzy in this picture, but very cute in person! 

We also saw a little black robin! Didn't manage to get a picture, as it flew away too quickly. 

We climbed higher, up the misty mountain

As we neared the top, the group had spread out, and there was about 20 minutes where I was walking on my own, thinking I wouldn't be able to make it. I met one of our group, who had made it to the top and was headed back down to have lunch with his girlfriend, and he gave me a few words of encouragement which boosted me to the summit. 

At the top, there was Wil, with our thermos of coffee. He was pleased to see me, as I had the lunch! Because we were in the clouds, we couldn't really see anything - except the side of the mountain, sort of tumbling down through the cloud... Another naughty weka was hanging around hoping for lunch crumbs. My unsuspecting Aussie workmate had a cookie snatched from his fingers, as he foolishly lowered his hand momentarily! 

After an excellent lunch of bacon and egg pie, carrot sticks and anzac biscuits, it was time to head back down. Down - so much easier and faster than up! I could actually keep up with Wil on the way down! At least for a while. 

Back at the spot where we had met the first weka, we met this kaka. He was pretty cheeky - one of the group pulled out a muesli bar for a snack, and ended up with a kaka on his shoulder... 

Lovely Lou was quite keen to have a kaka buddy, but her decoy rustling of a bit of paper in her pocket was disregarded. Clearly, this kaka could tell the difference between receipt rustling and food wrapping - clever kaka!

Down the mountain, and back on the flats, I went with Wil and a couple of the others for a bit of a Takahe hunt. 

Found some! According to the DoC signage, Takahe are not just big, fat Pukekos! You can see why they are endangered though - big, fat, bright blue flightless birds... nice and easy to hunt.

Speaking of big and fat - check out this Kereru! So fricking lazy - I got within about a metre, and he did not move. In fact, he did not move from that spot for, oh, I guess, an hour? We went for a walk on the beach, and he was still there when we came back. 

Here's the beach. Windswept and wild

And finally, proof that I was actually there, and not just ripping off someone else's expedition. 

One final post about Brisbane. On the last day in Brisbane, before heading to the airport, we visited the Brisbane city museum, located in the recently renovated Brisbane town hall. 

Interesting fact - when the clocktower was being built, they ran out of money for a really fancy top, so one of the plumbers was given ten pounds and sent off to find something - the ball on top was made of leftover bits from a scrap metal place, including parts of a toilet. We were told this by the dude who takes you up in the clocktower lift. It may or may not be true, and my recollection of it may or may not be accurate. 

The best thing about visiting the museum was the exhibition on Expo '88 - the world expo held in Brisbane. Check out this awesomeness!

Giant Platypus mascot!

Futuristic 80s outfits! Check out the cape on the male costume

Design for parade costume

More awesome parade costumes

  Wall of neon - video from the night parade

Expo 88 was clearly a watershed moment for Brisbane. And everything was so cutting edge 80s - very cool exhibition. 

There were also a couple of other exhibitions on the history of the Brisbane river, and also one of panoramic photos of Brisbane as it was building over time. I particularly like this bylaw from the river exhibition

Food in Brisbane - on the whole a pretty good experience. We were fed at the conference A LOT. I think I may have had my weight in mini pies... I guess it's one of the ways to make sure people a conference leave with a good impression. Anyway, conferencing aside, a girl's got to eat, and it might as well be something tasty.  

First up, lunch at the Point Bistro on South Bank, following the boat tour. 

My lunch - prawns with hand cut chips, salsa and home made chilli sauce. I didn't realise that these were going to be deep fried when I ordered them - a delicious surprise. The salsa was particularly good. 

N's wagu cheeseburger and fries. 

In the evening, there was the first conference event, followed by a reception. I was supposed to go out for dinner with my colleagues, but the early start caught up with me, and I toddled back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Anyway, by the time all the plates of finger food had gone past, I think I'd probably had plenty to eat. I think the most inventive thing served was the chilled squares of watermelon, topped with a sort of caramelised cheese (I thought feta, N thought halloumi). 

In the morning, I dragged N across to a cafe that I'd read about in a blog, the Gunshop Cafe in the West End (about 10 minutes away from the conference venue). It was great - cute cafe, pretty popular and busy on a Wednesday morning before 9am, with a really inventive menu. I would totally go back there. 

I had an omlette with duck, shitake mushrooms, Japanese mayo, ponzu sauce and panko crumbs. It was delicious, if somewhat full-on for a breakfast dish, but someone has to try these things. I couldn't quite finish it. 

N's chorizo with fried egg and new potatoes. Very generous servings - so much chorizo! And it was obviously some good butcher made sausage, not a mass produced chorizo-like thing. 

While this breakfast was excellent, we soon discovered that it was overkill, as the conference was awash with food - both morning and afternoon tea were super generous, and the lunch buffet was rather more interesting than your usual conference buffet. We also had the conference dinner that night, which was also held at the conference centre. 

I learnt my lesson from the first full day of conference, and just had a yogurt for breakfast the next day. For dinner, we went to Maru, a Korean restaurant on Elizabeth St, which again I'd read about in a bunch of blogs (thanks internet for all the good food recommendations). For me, it was first go at Korean BBQ - and afterwards, I really wished there was a decent Korean BBQ place in Wellington (I've only been to Taste of Korea for Kareoke... I'm not sure anyone ever eats there). It's so much fun to grill your food at the table! Wil would really have liked it too. I also liked that there was a little button on your table to call the waitstaff over whenever you needed them, so they didn't  hover, or ignore you. Genius! 

I didn't really eat anything else that was particularly exciting for the rest of the trip - although we did find this shop that made GIGANTOR rocky road. 

One other place that I'd read about on the blogs which sounded pretty good, Gramercy, ended up being a bit of a bust for lunch. I thought it would be a proper cafe, but instead, it was a wee hole in the wall with about 6 tables in the hallway of a mall, and while it might have served good food and coffee, we just couldn't get a table. We ended up in a food court instead.

Oh, and I also have to pop up this picture from the bar just behind the hotel, which offered the "Breast" pizzas in Brisbane (we didn't eat there, so can't comment). 

I went to Brisbane this week for the ANSOG (Australia and New Zealand School of Government) conference, which was really excellent - I've picked up lots of good ideas to take back to work and try to inflict upon my team! However, this blog is not about work - it's about travel, food, and fun. You know, stuff that makes me seem like I have a life and am a cool person to hang out with or something. So, no more about work! Onto the rest!

Having caught the red-eye over from Wellington to make it in time for the first session of the conference, we had time to kill until we could be let into our hotel rooms. So my workmate and I went on a tour-cruise of the Brisbane river. 

The River Tour boat - a lovely way to spend a couple of hours on the river. Especially nice to be able to have a bit of a cool breeze over the hottest part of the day. The tour was good too - nice way to get a bit familiar with the city, and to find out about some of the history. Brisbane started as a penal colony, and there were some good stories about life in the penal colony, such as how convicts used to be punished by being sent to work the windmill - the mechanism which was supposed to have powered the windmill didn't work, so they used convict power instead.

Paddleboat at Eagle Pier - where all the fanciest restaurants are. We couldn't afford to eat here. As a side note, eating out in Australia did seem to be a bit expensive - but maybe it's just being a tourist in the CBD, and not knowing where to go for cheap and choice foods. 

The old Customs House. Pretty! Overall Brisbane was quite a pretty city - once you got used to the colour of the river. 

Massive old wool sheds along the river - note the rows of apartments in front of them. All the wool sheds have now also been converted into apartments. The apartments in the front, our tour guide told us, have a going price of about $4m. That's a lot of money to live that close to the flood plain... This area was previously all industrial, with rail and stock yards where the apartments are now. 

Prawn trawler. Apparently there are still fish in the river - even though it's such an icky brown colour. There was quite a lot of dredging of the river since colonial settlement of the area right up to 1997, which is part of the reason for the colour. We were told about the prevalence of bullsharks in the river - part of the reason that swimming in the river's not really a good idea (the other reason being it's too polluted).  

An enormous pink mansion - built in the 80s, possibly after someone read Pride and Predjudice... Apparently it has always been pink. The amount of wealth lining the river was pretty incredible. 

The Story Bridge - built during the depression era to stimulate Brisbane's economy. Named after a civil servant. It was an ongoing thing in the tour commentary, this naming things after civil servants. I wonder what I can convince someone to name after me? 

Kangaroo Point Cliffs - originally the site of a quarry. Good rock climbing here apparently. Also close to a hospital. 

I've been doing some quite fun Wellington stuff recently, like last week I went to a fundraising concert by the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. They were off to Edinburgh to play the festival (and if you're in Edinburgh, you should go see them!), so raising money for things like shelter and food while they're there. Anyway, it was one of the most fun concerts I've ever been to! They sold out the Town Hall, and there was a great, buzzy atmosphere. You should check out some of their videos. Like this one, of a cover of The Smiths Charming Man. There was also an awesome cover of Justin Timberlake's Cry Me A River. Ukuleles make me happy. 

My friend Sarah came up to stay last weekend, and we went for a lovely walk along the South Coast. That walk always makes me a little more in love with this city. There was an incredibly clear view across the Cook Strait to the mountains in the South Island. Perfect day - so perfect that as we walked we spotted no less than three photographers with fairly professional looking gear perched atop of various rock formations looking for that perfect shot of the South Island. 

It's also film festival time here in Wellington. Yay! Wil and I went to see a film called Hannah Arendt last weekend. It was excellent - well worth watching. A German-Jewish Philosopher, Arendt was sent by the New Yorker to Jerusalem to cover the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. The trial inspired her theory about the Banality of Evil - that the worst, most evil deeds can be done by the most boring, insignificant people, by "just doing their jobs" or following orders without questioning what it is they are actually doing. The articles were published to a fair amount of controversy, and while the film doesn't really give the other side a fair hearing (basically, those who are on the other side are portrayed as irrational and emotional), the movie does give a really interesting look into this story. Wil and I were most likely the youngest people in the theatre for the session.

It's taken a very long time to get round to blogging the last bit of my trip - I've actually been back home now for 3 weeks or so, so I'll try to wrap up. However, I also feel lazy, and not very motivated to do any real writing, so this will be a bit of a pictures blog. Which, given that I didn't take that many pics in Amsterdam because I was busy riding a bike and trying not to kill myself while I did so, means that this might be a little rubbish. However, we will proceed. 

My last full day in Europe was in Amsterdam, and I spent it hanging out with the lovely Sophie. In the morning, we hopped on the bikes and rode over towards the old part of town, heading for the Noordermarkt, an organic farmers market, with a few shop browsing stops along the way. We lunched on apple pie at a shop that was just called "shop" in Dutch (Winkel), which was incredibly popular. The place was heaving, and everyone had pie - I didn't see anyone having anything else. The difference was whether they had ice cream, cream or yoghurt.

After lunch, we went to a ukulele store that I'd read about on the internets, and I bought  a strap for my ukulele. Very pretty. The store was run by such a pair of hippies. Not hipsters, proper hippies. They make the straps themselves. 

  Check it out! A Canal!

The Westerkirk (West Church) where my friends got engaged (up in the tower - romantic!)

The Anne Frank House - check out that line. I didn't visit this time round, because I was pretty much over lines by this point of the trip. Plus, Soph & Chris are getting married next year, so fingers crossed I'll be back! 

Decorations on a house in what used to be the Jewish part of town. 

Another canal - this time with house boats

After all that shopping and touristing, we were pretty pooped, so we went home and had a nap... Yeah, so it may not have been making the most of the day, but actually the nap was amazing. It's the nicest thing to be able to hang out with friends who aren't offended when you fall asleep on them. 

That evening, we headed out to dinner at Mamouche, a Moroccan restaurant (I figured, given earlier conversations in Amsterdam, that we'd better check for ourselves if Moroccans were "wrong"). It was stunning! Started with a delicious cocktail, with prosecco and rose liquor:

I started with a Brik a l'ouef - a brik pastry parcel, filled with tuna, capers, and a quail's egg (YUM), followed by the lamb special (which I got talked into over the lamb tagine) - rolled lamb stuffed with pistachios and other goodies, with baby veges and parsnip crisps. Very, very delicious. 

Lovely service, delicious food, and a very nice atmosphere. The only niggle came at the end of the night, when the payment machine wasn't working, so Chris had to go on a mission to find a cash machine. Otherwise, what a great end to a holiday characterised by great food.