Eggshell Green

High tea at the Hippopotamus

Coktails and tea

When a friend from Auckland came down to visit me, I thought it was a great excuse to splash out and treat myself to a high tea at the Hippopotamus. Not only was it a high tea, at the Hippopotamus, it was a cocktail high tea – ooh la la.

I can’t say I’ve had cocktails with tea at the same sitting before – it was rather odd. Tea tends to make me thirsty so I appreciated the thirst quenching effect of icy cold alcohol. At the same time, having sweet treats with sweet drinks was a little too much. A third-world problem – OK, moving on.

Pros

• The treats were beautiful.
• There were macarons.
• There were lots of new yummy things.
• I felt posh.
• I got tiddly.

Cons

• Wanted more savouries.
• The cucumber sandwich: boring with dry bread.
• The purple mousse thing that looks like brains in a glass tasted and smelt like parmesan (and you all know what some people think parmesan smells like). I like parmesan, but this didn’t taste quite right.
• Overall, too sugary for my liking.
• Where are the cupcakes? (Alright, I’ll let this slide as it was a French restaurant.)

Because the dentist needs more money

Tags: review, tea party, Wellington

Another freak storm

It wasn’t a snow storm this time, but today Wellington had what the media has called a hail storm of a decade.

Icy pearls

I certainly hadn’t seen such big hail stones before. One moment it was the usual small balls of ice, the next I heard what sounded like stones being thrown at our window. I looked outside and the deck was covered in hail the size of chickpeas. Impressive. (Apparently they were marble-sized in the city.)

Ooh, I'll have some thank you

Abby wanted to go outside, but yeah, nah. I scooped some up and took it inside for her to play with though.

This weather isn’t doing any good to our seedlings. I noticed some of our seeds had germinated and then this happens.

Tough time for our seedlings

There’s also a trough next to the pot in the picture, but I purposefully didn’t include it – why? Because our dear little dog decided to take a dump on it because he was too wussy to venture out onto the lawn. Little SOB (and that’s literal too, ba-boom!)

Tags: hail, weather, Wellington

Abby Update at 15 Months

Abby quite enjoys blobbing on the rug at the moment. She’ll just lie there and watch telly which is nice when I just need a quiet break for things like blogging! Though I hope I’m not encouraging couch-potatoness. Don’t get me wrong, she still zips around the house all “Eee” and “OOh” and climbing and creating all sorts of havoc.

Just chilling and watching some tv

The other day she managed to get her head stuck through the deck rails – in fact she was more off than on the deck and that scared the bejesus out of me. I couldn’t get her unstuck and back onto the deck, so ran around the other side and pulled her out from the high end. I’ve been saying we need to trellis our deck because I know her head still fits through the gaps. Might have to be a little project in the next couple of weeks.

Loving the slide

I try and take her to the park every few days. It’s nice for her to explore and use up some energy without being told off all the time! We really do need to make our house more child-proof, especially as she’s an expert climber now, and getting tall enough to reach things she couldn’t before.

Elbows on the table? How about legs?

Abby’s getting so good at feeding herself. She can manage almost her whole bowl of food or pottle of yoghurt by herself without making much mess. Quite often she doesn’t want us feeding her because she wants to do it herself. That’s fine by me!

Her favourite way to drink her milk or have a snack is sitting on her Abby Cadabby chair at the coffee table. God forbid if anyone else is sitting in her chair when she wants it! You will be pushed away.

Tags: baby, parenting, Wellington

Playtime with Abs

It’s great watching Abby play on the slide all by herself. She’s a bit shy when other kids are about but when she’s by herself she goes for it. The baby playground in Kilbirnie is perfect because it’s quite safe (so big pregnant ladies don’t need to do much but supervise) and just the right size for a toddler.

She’s also a pro at riding her rocking horse now – complete with hat and a “Yeeha” at the end.

Unfortunately any time is play time and Abby still won’t stay in one place to get her nappy changed. Today she took off while I was trying to clean up a sticky poo, and then sat her dirty butt down on the rug. I picked her up to reveal a nice brown butt-shaped patch with some chunks, which Fez promptly ate – EWWWWW!

Tags: baby, play, Wellington

Share and share alike

There’s been a bit of flack about the new bus lanes in Wellington city. They’ve cost lots of money, ripped up a popular pedestrian mall, and cars are still allowed to share most of the new road after all that.

However when it comes down to the risk to pedestrians (three have been struck while crossing the new lanes), why can’t people just use common sense? If you cross a road, you look both ways. You cross at the crossing. You don’t weave in and out of buses to save a couple of minutes or a few metres of walking. The number of people who just casually walk out in front of buses and traffic in general is disturbing (as well as damn annoying and frightening when you’re driving).

Having said that, I also think bus drivers need to share the road better as well. Having been a public transport user for years, there’s a lot to complain about. Despite the slow speed limit in the city, in my experience, bus drivers do speed, and often. They go through yellow and even red lights, often accelerating to do so. They don’t give way at pedestrian crossings. Of course I’m not saying all bus drivers do these, but certainly some do.

I can’t really comment if these new bus lanes have improved public transport and congestion as I have not had to use them, but as it stands, the mall is now a normal road. It should be treated as such, and buses and pedestrians need to act responsibly as they should on all roads everywhere.

And to all drivers everywhere: don’t be a dick and block pedestrian crossings – that does not help anyone and makes you look like a stupid driver (and I may take a photo and share it with the world).

Go Wellington - isn't it ironic that I can't go?

Tags: buses, public transport, Wellington

Mr Tit Award

Ok, I really need another award to give out to general things that just plain piss me off. But I guess today’s recipient of the Mr Tit Award was ridiculously stupid.

I went out for a long 3 hour walk today with my cousin and our babies. It was brilliantly sunny and I think I managed to get a bit of sun (or wind) burn in the process.

On our way I started commenting on how Wellington drivers seem to be worse than Auckland ones. They seem to be in more of a hurry, don’t want to let buses merge back into traffic at a stop, and don’t give way to pedestrians.

Well, we had a lovely long walk, but it was all ruined by this one stupid lady in her stupid looking car who decided to stop across a zebra crossing. So two mums with their two strollers had to weave between cars to get across. I cursed out loud at her hoping she’d hear, but that was pointless because she was also talking on her cellphone (hand-held) while driving!! Excuse my language, but what a stupid bitch. Breaking the law and oblivious to pedestrians around her – she should not be on our roads.

Do you think this is something I could/should call *555 for..? I think I might next time.

Tags: driving, Wellington

Restaurant Review: Zico

Well, well, well.

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

Tags: restaurant, review, Wellington

Project 365: Week 8

My week in photos as part of Project 365:

Thursday 19 February 2009

Work is bugging me – in paticular, a dumbass senior manager is making dumbass decisions, again. We have nicknamed her Pony because she clomps around as if everything is a matter of life and death (because she’s *so* busy). Now that I think about it, the nick name Dumb Ass is even more suitable. This is her.

Throw oats at it.

Friday 20 February 2009

Torrential rain this morning. The puddles of water are impressive!

At least I don't have to water the garden.

Saturday 21 February 2009

We take a nosy at this year’s Cuba Street Carnival parade. There was even a giant cupcake that zoomed around but I only have my phone camera and it’s too poos to take quick photos.

A performer on stilts.

Sunday 22 February 2009

So much wind today! My washing is in danger of taking off over the fence.

At least they'll dry quickly

Monday 23 February 2009

I get a package from my sister in law – it’s sprinkles! I love how she has addressed it to the Dixon Cupcake Company – hehe.

My own cupcake company would be sweet

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Mmm Awesome Foursome icecream.

I scream for ice cream

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Dinner at Arashi tonight. The hubby has to go back to work at 7:00 so it’s a short and sweet catch up with Ms Constantine and her Boy.

Japanese paintings at Arashi

Tags: project 365, Wellington