When I worked at the supermarket, this little little old lady would come to my checkout almost every week and ask me if I was from ‘Ch-eyna’, then tell me she was from Scotland. No sorry, I’m not from China, just like the last time you asked (of course I was polite and didn’t actually say all that). I should’ve stopped her half way and tell her that I can predict what she’s going to say next.

Today I was at the post shop and an old lady was fidgeting with the stuff on the shelves, commenting how expensive everything was, and knocking stuff off as well as dropping her letter on the floor. She started cooing over Abby, and told me what lovely skin “you people” have. I told her that Abby’s dad was Kiwi, so she’s whiter than me, lol.

I’m not sure if it’s the same everywhere, but old people seem to be invincible to traffic around here. They literally walk out in front of cars and everyone just stops for them like magic. I saw three old folk doing this along the little stretch of shops on Bay Road in Kilbirnie. I guess you can’t let out that road rage like you would with other people – I would feel very bad for making an old lady cry. Or they might hit my car with their walking stick/frame.

Senior citizens can get away with so much. I guess it’s the reward for putting up with so much crap in their lifetimes.

You know the grumpy-old-man-sitting-in-the-rocking-chair type? Abby’s (step)Grandad’s a bit like that. I won’t repeat the things he’s said (political correctness – what’s that?) but let’s just say, lucky he’s old. He’s not really grumpy, but will voice his opinion, even ringing up the local MP, and good on him for it. Maybe we should all be like that – when we’re old.

Let me end with a quote from Dumb and Dumber – I guess they’re right – old people: though slow and dangerous behind the wheel, can still serve a purpose.

Unfortunately, my only experience at Zico last week was nothing to rave about.

We were a large group of ten, out for a birthday dinner on St Patrick’s Day, and the waiters were new or just clueless, so perhaps those factors have to be taken into account for the less than satisfactory service.

First off, getting the waiters to take our orders was more trouble than it should have been. We told one of them we were ready to order and he disappeared without saying if he’d be back to take them. Luckily there was another that we caught the attention of, but her order-taking skills could have done with some polishing.

Ms Constantine inquired about the salmon carbonara to ensure she could get it without bacon. Her carbonara didn’t just come without bacon, it came without carbonara sauce and was delivered as a pomodoro pasta – if you work in an Italian restaurant you’d know straight away that there was something wrong with that. The waitress however didn’t seem to know the difference and was confident that the dish was correct.

The three boys ordered the “real deal” lasagne which is “served with green beans and potatoes” as the menu stated. This turned out to be a vegetarian dish made with green beans and potatoes. Far from the meaty tomato-based lasagne that you would expect as the “real deal”. Until we realised that there was no meat in the lasagne, there was much confusion over where the green beans and potatoes were because the menu implied they would be on the side and not in place of the meat.

As for my meal, I ordered the duo of lamb and steak, medium please. It arrived mostly rare and some bits were barely sealed… at that point I just couldn’t be bothered with making more fuss so just ate what I could. The bits that were cooked to my liking did taste good though.

And at least I had a good glass of red wine.

'Medium' does not mean one half done and the other half raw

We went to the Matterhorn a couple weeks ago with the hubby’s brother and his then-pregnant wife (who had her baby the day after me). The brother-in-law heard good things so we were keen to give it a go.

The meals were tasty, but boy they were the smallest dishes I’ve ever been served!

On top of that, the sister-in-law wanted to be cautious with her steak so asked for it to be well done. It took them three goes before they got it right. It came out medium first two times, and she had to wait an extra half hour or so after our meals were served before the poor lady could eat! How hard is it to cook a steak well-done!?

I got the ‘monk fish with spanner crab’. Ok, when you list something as spanner crab, I expect some pure spanner crab like a claw, or at least a hunk of meat. But no. Where was the crab? I could only assume it was mixed in among the processed sausagey thing that surrounded my two tiny pieces of monk fish. Disappointed with the description. I wish restaurants would describe their meals more accurately.

Matterhorn meal - feed a child for $36...

Definitely a place where you need an entrée, main and dessert, to feel satisfied – and poor. We opted for supermarket dessert on the way home instead.

• Not having a functioning oven is an inconvenience. You can’t bake anything, including cupcakes!
• ArtPop popcorn is the most disgusting microwave popcorn I’ve ever had. It smells like cheese and literally made me feel a little sick just from the smell. Ick.
• I’ve really missed sushi. Even homemade involves a little more effort in heating up the prawns and surimi etc before I can be sure they’re safe.
• It’s still not a good idea to use umbrellas in Wellington. You think you’d be alright when there’s just a light breeze about, but then out of nowhere there’s a big gust and you risk breaking your umbrella or looking like a dorky out-of-towner who should’ve just stuck to a rain jacket.
• A baby’s descent into your pelvis is measured in fifths, as the average adult hand is roughly the width of a baby’s head. My current descent is 2/5, meaning the proportion of the baby’s head above my pelvis is equal to the width of two fingers, and 3/5 of its head is already buried inside. She’s preparing for delivery!
• I love cinnamon donuts.
• If you want monster pastries, the bakery in Hataitai Village can help with that. Look at the giant donut and apple croissant we got!

Big cinnamon donut - what value!

Big apple croissant which was much fun eating with all the icing sugar and flakiness going everywhere

I tried to swat it but didn’t know where it had gone so I had a bit of a search. Lo and behold, there was a swarm of them all over the window! EEK! Gross. So I sprayed the bathroom and fled the scene, but not before taking a photo.

It’s been a while, but do you recall the hooha from PETA about President Obama swatting that fly? PETA still thinks Obama needs to be more caring about flies. If we could send a swarm of cluster flies to PETA and see if they like having them around. They’re persistent things that will come back after sitting on dog poos unless you exterminate them.

According to the post Obama and the fly on the PETA Files (not such a great name as it sounds like some disturbed individuals obsessed with other little beings),  if you use a bug catcher you can be a bigger person (figuratively, as well as literally)! Yes, you read right. If you need to be a bigger person literally, just use a bug catcher!

I don’t need to get bigger literally as eating and being pregnant is doing that already. But thanks for the tip.

17 flies just in the corner

There was nothing about this café located in the Porirua MegaCentre that made me enjoy my first, and definitely my only, visit.

All the doors were left open and you could see the cold wintery breeze pushing dustballs across the icy floors. It was uncomfortable despite being a few feet from the fire place.

The food was just bad. It wasn’t even average.

The girls had pancakes with banana, bacon and a choice of maple syrup or “orange syrup”. I chose the orange syrup because it sounded interesting but what come on the plate looked and tasted like watery orange juice…

The pancakes weren’t even home made – WHAT!? Looked like they were layered with cheap bacon and banana and microwaved till the banana was a chewy grey. Tasteless. It didn’t help that we only got a wee amount of fresh cream and syrup. Ms Constantine asked for more maple syrup for the both of us and we both agreed the maple syrup was watered down and tasted a bit off.

The boys had a cooked breakfast – you know, the typical bacon, eggs, sausage, hashbrown, tomato and toast. How hard can that be? Just as hard as pancakes it turns out.

The “toast” was not toasted – WHAT!?  It was just a thick slice of plain cold bread. The poached eggs were overdone – eww! The half tomato was hard and uncooked. The bacon was again the cheap type, and looked like it was just heated rather than grilled. The “lemon hollandaise” as it says on the menu was nowhere to be seen.

The best thing apparently was the hashbrown, which Café Pica claimed was their own. Not even! It was one of those preshaped triangular things that you buy frozen in bulk. Thankfully it wasn’t home made as it might have tasted as bad as everything else.

If you can make a better breakfast at home on a Sunday morning, then something is  seriously wrong with the café. Pancakes and cooked breakfasts are not fancy pants food!

Not going back, ever.

(I just looked online and saw all the reviews for Café Pica on MenuMania were just as bad – so I added another one.)

• Attempt to roller blade down the suburban Wellington streets. Build your confidence up to try the streets of Mt Victoria (yeah, right!)
• Attempt to use an umbrella on Bowen Street on a windy day.
• Attempt to ride a bus standing up without holding on to anything the whole way.
• Get semi-warm KFC on Kent Terrace and see if they give you half-filled fries in your meal too.
• Go up to the “Excuse me…” guy in front of the TAB and impersonate him – let me watch.
• Try and legitimitely buy Codral from the Lambton Quay chemist from the woman with caked-on makeup. Good luck.
• Watch the Juggling Guy on Courtenay place play with his balls – oh, behave. He juggles tennis balls in his 90s-David-Bain sweater.
• Dare yourself to check if Blanket Man is abiding the law by wearing gruts.

I’ve been to HK BBQ several times now, mainly for a quick cheap dinner or lunch.

They also do bubble tea. Heard of bubble tea? If not, it’s flavoured tea (hot or cold) that has optional “bubbles” added to it for about an extra $1. The bubbles are either balls of black tapioca, coconut pieces or small pieces of jelly pudding. I’ve only tried it with tapioca, which look kind of like big frog’s eggs at the bottom of your glass. I get it for the fun factor.

Bubble tea with "bubbles" in the straw

The service is usually efficient, although this last time we went I think they forgot about our order. We had a couple waitresses come by and check our ticket with some confusion. The food took aaaages, but the bubble tea was enough to keep me going till then – the tapioca can be quite filling!

Their barbecue meats are delish. The triple meat dish is a good way to try three types at the same time.  Crispy roast pork is always good!

The hubby’s favourite dish is the Shanghai noodles, which are delicious.

I quite like the clay pot Chilli Chicken Wings but it varies from medium spicy to almost-too-spicy-to-eat, without any guarantees. The wings are chopped up and bones make it a bit fiddly to eat without using all your fingers.

This time I tried the sweet and sour fish pieces. These were quite good, though a bit bland when alternating with the Shanghai noodles. I found them particularly tasty the next day for lunch, with just rice.

That’s another thing – the servings here are generous. The two of us usually settle for two dishes with rice, which is plenty. Sometimes there’s enough for lunch the next day too.

It’s not a glamorous place. I’ve noticed the disposable chopsticks have been replaced by reusable ones now. The tables could be less sticky though.

Hong Kong BBQ is great for good old-fashioned Chinese food and bubble tea, if that’s what you’re after.

Behind one of the doors of the ladies’ toilets was this cute drawing.

If a horse with wings is a pegasus, then I’m calling this a pegaraffe :)

Pegaraffe

The driveway to the hotel is notorious for cars and pedestrians getting in each other’s ways. Quite simply if all drivers knew and obeyed the New Zealand Road Code then there wouldn’t be any confusion.

In the section Sharing the Road with Pedestrians, it states:

“When you are entering or leaving a driveway that crosses a footpath, you must give way to people using the footpath.”

And when learning to drive you are taught to look before you reverse – something the van driver didn’t do as he would have seen there were pedestrians behind him.

It makes me so angry because your safety depends on all drivers knowing the road rules, but many times I’ve been proven that this isn’t so. In fact many drivers don’t and it’s a huge worry for pedestrians and other drivers alike, including cyclists.

If you want a refresher check out the online New Zealand Road Code.

Wellington Road on a nice day - weather-wise and traffic-wise