We had the traditional Christmas songs and Christmas songs with a twist like the New Zealand version of the "12 Days of Christmas".
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Carols By The Sea
Tonight we followed 20,000 other Kapiti residents and spent an evening singing Christmas Carols by the sea.
We had the traditional Christmas songs and Christmas songs with a twist like the New Zealand version of the "12 Days of Christmas".
We had the traditional Christmas songs and Christmas songs with a twist like the New Zealand version of the "12 Days of Christmas".
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Sunday, 9 November 2008
My summer creation
Summer is just around the corner and the day is getting longer as we speak. This calls for summer food.
Last week Vera made her Thai dumplings called "Thoong Tong" for one of her clients and I had the good fortune to sample some before it went away.
Not to be left behind, I did my own summer creation, the sambals.
This one is the Malaysian Sambal Belachan.
And this is the Indonesian variety I learnt while living in Indonesia some years back. It is Sambal Terasi Tomat which simply means Shrimp paste and tomato sambal.
Before I left Indonesia, I bought a book of 40 different Indonesian sambal from across the archipelago. One day will complete the culinary tour of the archipelago with my mouth watering chilli. For now am waiting for the summer chilli picking season to start, which should be around the corner. My chilli plant has just come out of hibernation and soon will be full of red spicy chilli.
Last week Vera made her Thai dumplings called "Thoong Tong" for one of her clients and I had the good fortune to sample some before it went away.
Not to be left behind, I did my own summer creation, the sambals.
This one is the Malaysian Sambal Belachan.
And this is the Indonesian variety I learnt while living in Indonesia some years back. It is Sambal Terasi Tomat which simply means Shrimp paste and tomato sambal.
Before I left Indonesia, I bought a book of 40 different Indonesian sambal from across the archipelago. One day will complete the culinary tour of the archipelago with my mouth watering chilli. For now am waiting for the summer chilli picking season to start, which should be around the corner. My chilli plant has just come out of hibernation and soon will be full of red spicy chilli.
Durian
After more than 3 years, we finally got to eat the King of Fruits - the Durian. It brought back so many memories although this was a frozen one.
Can't wait to get back to Malaysia to have the fresh one.
Can't wait to get back to Malaysia to have the fresh one.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Guy Fawkes day or rather night
The Gunpowder Conspiracy of 1605, or the Powder Treason or Gunpowder Plot, as it was known at the time, was a failed assassination attempt by a group of provincial English Catholics against King James I of England and VI of Scotland. The plot intended to kill the king, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single attack by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on 5 November 1605. The conspirators had also planned to abduct the royal children, not present in Parliament, and incite a popular revolt in the Midlands.
Now this historic event is celebrated primarily in the UK and in some of its former colonies including New Zealand. As this is not a widely known event outside the English world, I am assuming many residents here who come from the non English speaking world wouldn't have a clue why we are celebrating the foiled attempt of this bloke who tried to blow up Parliament some 400 years ago!
However, what is easily associated to this day, and quite visible as well, is the sale of fireworks. In New Zealand, the sale of fireworks is bannned in general but you get a window of 3 days (formerly 10 days) to sell them. During this 3 days, shops go frantic selling fireworks with signs posted at every corner of the street, motorway, up on trees, tied to bicycles and this was good - a man in swimming trunks holding a placard near the beach on a cold night! It was windy and snowing in the South. I wonder how much he got paid - or how much profit there was in it for him.
Now this historic event is celebrated primarily in the UK and in some of its former colonies including New Zealand. As this is not a widely known event outside the English world, I am assuming many residents here who come from the non English speaking world wouldn't have a clue why we are celebrating the foiled attempt of this bloke who tried to blow up Parliament some 400 years ago!
However, what is easily associated to this day, and quite visible as well, is the sale of fireworks. In New Zealand, the sale of fireworks is bannned in general but you get a window of 3 days (formerly 10 days) to sell them. During this 3 days, shops go frantic selling fireworks with signs posted at every corner of the street, motorway, up on trees, tied to bicycles and this was good - a man in swimming trunks holding a placard near the beach on a cold night! It was windy and snowing in the South. I wonder how much he got paid - or how much profit there was in it for him.
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Diwali
It's Diwali around the corner but there is little festivities unlike back home. We went out for lunch at the Fisherman's table to mark the festival of lights while the temperature outside was single digit.
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Art Splash 2008
Last Thursday schools around Wellington took part in the 2008 World of Wearable Arts festival - Art Splash! A total of 20 schools took part in choir and wearable art made from various craft material.
Ashwini represented her school, Paraparaumu Beach School, in the choir. She was the smallest in the whole group and looking at the size of the entire group, it is unlikely that you may be able to spot her.
Ashwini represented her school, Paraparaumu Beach School, in the choir. She was the smallest in the whole group and looking at the size of the entire group, it is unlikely that you may be able to spot her.
Saturday, 16 August 2008
Up close and personal with a Hector Dolphin
As part of my job, I regularly visit some of the work that is being carried out by my colleagues around the country. This time, I had the opportunity to visit the Akaroa in Canterbury. This is a beautiful part of Canterbury about 40 minutes drive out of Christchurch.
To get there, you will have to drive a rather winding road up Port Hills and down to the other side to a fantastic, jaw dropping sceneray of the volcanic water ways. The day I was there, the weather turned out to be absolutely georgeous! Blue skies and the sun fully turned on.
We took a boat trip down to the existing marine reserve and the proposed marine reserve right out to sea. All the way, you could see the sea teeming with marine life.
I saw a few blue penguins happily swimming in the sea, one seal taking a leisurely evening swim and playing in the water, a few on the rocks - sun bathing and a number of the endangered Hector Dolphins. There are only about 700 of them left in the wild and the shores of New Zealand are the only place where you can spot them. As you would have guessed, spotting these dolphins is a million dollar industry.
The dolphins were rather small in size. About a metre in length and were very friendly as they were swimming about the boat not bothered about the cameras or the attention. During summer, you could actually swim with them. And depending on the weather, you could literally see hundreds!
But for this trip, I had to settle for four!
To get there, you will have to drive a rather winding road up Port Hills and down to the other side to a fantastic, jaw dropping sceneray of the volcanic water ways. The day I was there, the weather turned out to be absolutely georgeous! Blue skies and the sun fully turned on.
We took a boat trip down to the existing marine reserve and the proposed marine reserve right out to sea. All the way, you could see the sea teeming with marine life.
I saw a few blue penguins happily swimming in the sea, one seal taking a leisurely evening swim and playing in the water, a few on the rocks - sun bathing and a number of the endangered Hector Dolphins. There are only about 700 of them left in the wild and the shores of New Zealand are the only place where you can spot them. As you would have guessed, spotting these dolphins is a million dollar industry.
The dolphins were rather small in size. About a metre in length and were very friendly as they were swimming about the boat not bothered about the cameras or the attention. During summer, you could actually swim with them. And depending on the weather, you could literally see hundreds!
But for this trip, I had to settle for four!
Sunday, 20 July 2008
What a sight!
It was raining on and off today and Jazz did not get to go out or do much of anything at all. So all she could do was sleep on her favourite couch wher she does not only have a view of what's happening outside but also a nice soft leather "bed".
Sushi with a twist
Vera experimented sushi today with a Malaysian twist to it. She added "sambal ikan bilis" (anchovies chilli paste) to it. Added that with wasabe and wallah! Perfect remedy for blocked nose!
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Chillivaganza
We went chilli picking last weekend and had a ball of a time picking all sorts of chilli. There were about 12 different varieties of chilli from the real huge, humongous ones to the small miniature "chilli padi" variety.
From the variety also, you will find the variance from the real mild ones to the fiery variety. There were ones that even our kids who don't take chilli can consume without any problems and there were ones that even the chilli king himself have trouble eating!
Here are some of the variety we picked. Note the varying sizes!
The ones on the left are known as "fire crackers" and these are mind blowingly HOT although they don't look potent enough! The bowl at the bottom of the photo was picked from our own garden. The small variety in that bowl is the Malaysian "chilli padi" variety, locally (as in New Zealand) known as "super chillies". The single long one on that bowl is known as "banana chilli", not that hot as us chilli eating folks would call reasonably hot. The bowl on the right contains two variety. This one clearly shows the two variety.
The giant ones are known as "Carazon Chilli" and the slightly smaller than the giant ones are "Mexican Chillies". The carazon ones are just red and juicy but not hot at all. The mexican variety are medium hot.
Now, just to show how big this chilli is, I took a photo with a teaspoon next to it for perspective. And I didn't even pick the largest that I could find.
All this went into a wok this evening and out came a deliciously tantalizing super extra hot sambal ikan bilis (also known as anchovies chilli paste).
And onto the plate as a condiment to the Malaysian unofficial national dish, "Nasi Lemak". Of course this has a Kiwi twist to it, cashew nuts and cherry tomatoes picked from our garden.
From the variety also, you will find the variance from the real mild ones to the fiery variety. There were ones that even our kids who don't take chilli can consume without any problems and there were ones that even the chilli king himself have trouble eating!
Here are some of the variety we picked. Note the varying sizes!
The ones on the left are known as "fire crackers" and these are mind blowingly HOT although they don't look potent enough! The bowl at the bottom of the photo was picked from our own garden. The small variety in that bowl is the Malaysian "chilli padi" variety, locally (as in New Zealand) known as "super chillies". The single long one on that bowl is known as "banana chilli", not that hot as us chilli eating folks would call reasonably hot. The bowl on the right contains two variety. This one clearly shows the two variety.
The giant ones are known as "Carazon Chilli" and the slightly smaller than the giant ones are "Mexican Chillies". The carazon ones are just red and juicy but not hot at all. The mexican variety are medium hot.
Now, just to show how big this chilli is, I took a photo with a teaspoon next to it for perspective. And I didn't even pick the largest that I could find.
All this went into a wok this evening and out came a deliciously tantalizing super extra hot sambal ikan bilis (also known as anchovies chilli paste).
And onto the plate as a condiment to the Malaysian unofficial national dish, "Nasi Lemak". Of course this has a Kiwi twist to it, cashew nuts and cherry tomatoes picked from our garden.
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Car Wash Anyone?
I just couldn't resist taking photos of this car wash in Wellington. For $399 a year you get your car hand washed for as many times as you wished, or $15 per hand job as this banner says.
What is more appealing is that each Friday, you get ladies clad in skimpy two piece bikinis washing your car while you get to sit in the car. The fine print below the ad sums it all up. "Keep your hands on the wheels at all time".
What is more appealing is that each Friday, you get ladies clad in skimpy two piece bikinis washing your car while you get to sit in the car. The fine print below the ad sums it all up. "Keep your hands on the wheels at all time".
A lot can happen in a day!
As the title of this blog says, we had quite a bit of action today.
In the wee hours of the morning in Auckland, a restaurant opposite a cemetery blew up sending glass and furniture across the street.
Early this morning, we heard on the news that a man drove his car into the library in Karori, in the literal sense!
Then there was this motorcyclist who rode off a cliff just out of Wellington.
Then as we were leaving the house for another action, a helicopter and a glide plane crashed mid air just 500 to 600 meters from our home.
After navigating through what we Wellingtonians will call horrendous traffic, we reached the action we were waiting to see. The second largest cruise ship, Queen Victoria, at the Wellington harbour. It was quite a sight, almost bigger then the Westpac Stadium it was anchoring next to. The Interislander ferry almost looked like matchbox replica.
Here Vera and Ashwini posing in front of the cruise liner.
I know its too small to see if this is the real one so, here is a close shot of the ship.
This is quite a day for New Zealand as headlines here don't usually have that many casualties in one day!
In the wee hours of the morning in Auckland, a restaurant opposite a cemetery blew up sending glass and furniture across the street.
Early this morning, we heard on the news that a man drove his car into the library in Karori, in the literal sense!
Then there was this motorcyclist who rode off a cliff just out of Wellington.
Then as we were leaving the house for another action, a helicopter and a glide plane crashed mid air just 500 to 600 meters from our home.
After navigating through what we Wellingtonians will call horrendous traffic, we reached the action we were waiting to see. The second largest cruise ship, Queen Victoria, at the Wellington harbour. It was quite a sight, almost bigger then the Westpac Stadium it was anchoring next to. The Interislander ferry almost looked like matchbox replica.
Here Vera and Ashwini posing in front of the cruise liner.
I know its too small to see if this is the real one so, here is a close shot of the ship.
This is quite a day for New Zealand as headlines here don't usually have that many casualties in one day!
Monday, 11 February 2008
Gong Xi Fa Chai Kiwi Style
Chinese New Year here is not a holiday but it is celebrated as a festival alright. HSBC sponsored a Chinese New Year Parade complete with lion dances.
We are finding it more difficult as each year passes to have a "traditional" new year's eve dinner with the family. It is getting further and further away from the Asian fare.
But what is Chinese New Year without Ang Pows?
We are finding it more difficult as each year passes to have a "traditional" new year's eve dinner with the family. It is getting further and further away from the Asian fare.
But what is Chinese New Year without Ang Pows?
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
What a scorcher!
It is totally unimaginable!
This evening at 7.14pm the temperature here at Paraparaumu was 39.7 deg Celsius. It is now 8pm, the temperature has dropped slightly to 39.2 but the sun is still bright and does look like it is planning to set at least for another 2 hours!
Despite the heat the humidity is only 47%!
What a summer we have this year!
This evening at 7.14pm the temperature here at Paraparaumu was 39.7 deg Celsius. It is now 8pm, the temperature has dropped slightly to 39.2 but the sun is still bright and does look like it is planning to set at least for another 2 hours!
Despite the heat the humidity is only 47%!
What a summer we have this year!
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Our annual holiday
As I was looking back at my posts I see that as time goes by, my posts have been further and further apart. The first post almost 3 years ago was almost daily and now, the last post was 4 months ago! There certainly are enough things to write about and share but I guess one tend to get a little lazy over time.
It was time again for our annual holiday. What an adventure this turned out to be! We always wanted to go somewhere we have never been to but when we visited Ohope last year, we really liked the place that we booked it this year as well. Since it was our second time to the same campsite, we decided to spend time doing stuff we did not get a chance to do on our initial trip.
First up, we booked on a fishing trip out to sea. Like 4 four brave fishers (that is the politically correct word to use for more commonly used term: fisherman), we went with our fishing rods, bait and all. Half way out to sea, Ashwini got sea sick, next was Anil and that left us with only two trusted fishers. In 30m of water we were looking for Snapper and the elusive Tuna which every other boat seem to say they were catching. Being beginners all we managed to hook was Mackerels, Tarakihis and a baby Shark! We thought catching the fish was the hard part but soon realised cleaning the damn thing was worse. I smelled like fish for the next 3 days.
Here's the fruit of our labour on the barbie!
Optiki had its annual Rodeo while we were there and we took the opportunity to see some real "cowboy" stuff that we normally don't get to see back in the city. It was fun, exhilarating and HOT! It was scorching hot as there not a single cloud in the sky. Quite an experience, I must say!
Also nearby is New Zealand's largest mud slide. We were told that the mud was imported from Rotorua, as if that would make it appealing. Just looking at the elevation of the fall and the speed made my blood run cold.
Then my sense of adventure kicked in and decided to join the brave kids! Ended up with bruises and cuts all over but survived. I thought even better than the slide was the "Super Shower" to clean yourself off the mud. A gigantic shower with cold water gushing from the roof at high speed to cleanse you! Man that felt good!
We still had quite a bit of time left on our hands and the weather was on our side. So we decided on venturing into some horse riding - inspired by the rodeo earlier. At the end of the 1 hour ride, my bottom felt like it had been hit by a bull! I wonder how cowboys ride on horses all day!
Still taking on the good weather, from land back to sea. Vera and I decided to kayak with dolphins at Whale Island which is about half an hour off shore from Whakatane. Again being green with these stuff, I capsized into freezing water almost immediately after I started paddling. That was refreshing but then found my balance and had a fantastic time kayaking around the island. Did not see any dolphins but was still amazing being able to paddle the 1 metre waves and going into caves.
We also took the kids out kayaking but not to Whale Island. We went to the Ohiwa harbour where the water is waist deep, just in case son decides to follow the father's footsteps in checking the water temperature.
Need to take kayak lessons when we return to Wellington.
Last event of the holiday was taking a look at the Annual Sand Sculpture Competition. It is amazing just looking at some of the sculptures being built and the stuff these pros use.
Sand castles took on a whole new meaning with this one. It was a city in the making complete with clock tower, bridges and moats!
One was trying to replicate a crayfish (also known as lobster) which was huge but not quite as stunning.
Then there was the imaginative Hedgehog, which we thought was quite interesting. They used pointy grass for the hedge effect on the body.
These must be Australians as they were trying to recreate the Sydney Opera House using sand.
This one was my favourite!
Then there are the watchers and the beachgoers who found the water more interesting than the sand.
Also during this holiday, Anil discovered his hidden talent!
Ashwini couldn't for the life of her understand why golf cannot be played like hockey!
What would camping be if not meeting up with old friends and making new ones!
It was time to return home now. I decided to take the East Coast route back home. My trusted GPS suggested that I drive to Napier via Taupo. Yours truly decided to switch the GPS off and follow instincts. Was heading east when I saw a sign suggested a shorter route. Decided to take it and ended up driving over 50km on unsealed farm roads. Scared the hell out of some cattle and sheep. Not sure about the shorter distance but the time taken was about 3 hours longer!
Luckily my Pajero was silver or it would have ended up a different colour. The trailer I was towing at the back had a dark blue cover. When we came out of the dirt track, it was a pale blue and was on the verge of turning grey!
It was time again for our annual holiday. What an adventure this turned out to be! We always wanted to go somewhere we have never been to but when we visited Ohope last year, we really liked the place that we booked it this year as well. Since it was our second time to the same campsite, we decided to spend time doing stuff we did not get a chance to do on our initial trip.
First up, we booked on a fishing trip out to sea. Like 4 four brave fishers (that is the politically correct word to use for more commonly used term: fisherman), we went with our fishing rods, bait and all. Half way out to sea, Ashwini got sea sick, next was Anil and that left us with only two trusted fishers. In 30m of water we were looking for Snapper and the elusive Tuna which every other boat seem to say they were catching. Being beginners all we managed to hook was Mackerels, Tarakihis and a baby Shark! We thought catching the fish was the hard part but soon realised cleaning the damn thing was worse. I smelled like fish for the next 3 days.
Here's the fruit of our labour on the barbie!
Optiki had its annual Rodeo while we were there and we took the opportunity to see some real "cowboy" stuff that we normally don't get to see back in the city. It was fun, exhilarating and HOT! It was scorching hot as there not a single cloud in the sky. Quite an experience, I must say!
Also nearby is New Zealand's largest mud slide. We were told that the mud was imported from Rotorua, as if that would make it appealing. Just looking at the elevation of the fall and the speed made my blood run cold.
Then my sense of adventure kicked in and decided to join the brave kids! Ended up with bruises and cuts all over but survived. I thought even better than the slide was the "Super Shower" to clean yourself off the mud. A gigantic shower with cold water gushing from the roof at high speed to cleanse you! Man that felt good!
We still had quite a bit of time left on our hands and the weather was on our side. So we decided on venturing into some horse riding - inspired by the rodeo earlier. At the end of the 1 hour ride, my bottom felt like it had been hit by a bull! I wonder how cowboys ride on horses all day!
Still taking on the good weather, from land back to sea. Vera and I decided to kayak with dolphins at Whale Island which is about half an hour off shore from Whakatane. Again being green with these stuff, I capsized into freezing water almost immediately after I started paddling. That was refreshing but then found my balance and had a fantastic time kayaking around the island. Did not see any dolphins but was still amazing being able to paddle the 1 metre waves and going into caves.
We also took the kids out kayaking but not to Whale Island. We went to the Ohiwa harbour where the water is waist deep, just in case son decides to follow the father's footsteps in checking the water temperature.
Need to take kayak lessons when we return to Wellington.
Last event of the holiday was taking a look at the Annual Sand Sculpture Competition. It is amazing just looking at some of the sculptures being built and the stuff these pros use.
Sand castles took on a whole new meaning with this one. It was a city in the making complete with clock tower, bridges and moats!
One was trying to replicate a crayfish (also known as lobster) which was huge but not quite as stunning.
Then there was the imaginative Hedgehog, which we thought was quite interesting. They used pointy grass for the hedge effect on the body.
These must be Australians as they were trying to recreate the Sydney Opera House using sand.
This one was my favourite!
Then there are the watchers and the beachgoers who found the water more interesting than the sand.
Also during this holiday, Anil discovered his hidden talent!
Ashwini couldn't for the life of her understand why golf cannot be played like hockey!
What would camping be if not meeting up with old friends and making new ones!
It was time to return home now. I decided to take the East Coast route back home. My trusted GPS suggested that I drive to Napier via Taupo. Yours truly decided to switch the GPS off and follow instincts. Was heading east when I saw a sign suggested a shorter route. Decided to take it and ended up driving over 50km on unsealed farm roads. Scared the hell out of some cattle and sheep. Not sure about the shorter distance but the time taken was about 3 hours longer!
Luckily my Pajero was silver or it would have ended up a different colour. The trailer I was towing at the back had a dark blue cover. When we came out of the dirt track, it was a pale blue and was on the verge of turning grey!
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