WHAT'S NEWs

(Last updated 13/10/03) Click here to go to WHAT'S NEWs Part I - 2000-2002 archived

Gotta new mota

Got a new work car the other day - Toyota Avensis - touted as being one of the safest cars in european tests it has 9 air bags - NASA could have used it for their mars rover landing, it'd probably bounce as much, I've been joking about floating out to sea if I crashed into a river. Anyway, it's pretty flash compared to the old one - CD controls on the steering wheel, a nice trip computer, outside temperature on the dash and very stylie looking. They were designed in France so the indicators are on the wrong side and funnily enough there is a demister on the rear side window but only on the drivers side (must have been forgotten when they made them right hand drive.)

From the grave I see angry conversation (Cryptic crosswords)

I've taken to doing the cryptic crosswords in the Woman's day lately.
Basically it's a good way to pass the time when I'm away from home and eating meals in a restaurant by myself.
Anyway I usually get them out, bar a few obscure Ozzie references which they haven't filtered out for the NZ edition.
Sara-Jayne at work has become an avid fan of them as well so we often compare notes later in the week.
I buy the Woman's day every monday but I don't know if it's an advantage for Clare or not because she doesn't get to read it when I first buy it, I won't let her!

Clare's CARIBbean cruise

Clare's old 3-door '83 familia was getting to be a pain with the baby seat in the back.
It was really getting on, and although it was affectionately known as the silver bullet it was far from flash.
So we decided to move up to something a bit more modern and safer.
We looked around a bit with some kind help from Phil and settled on a 1996 Toyota Carib 4WD 1800 EFI.
The decision was basically made on safety, the reliability of Toyota and the
convenience of a station wagon with prams etc. (oh and it goes without saying, price of course).

Yes, we bought a "FAMILY" car.

and under the hood

Wild Foods 8/3/2003 - What's eating Gilbert Grub

While Clare and Oscar were visiting the Grandparents in Perth I took the opportunity to go to the Wild Foods Festival. I had been doing some work in Westport so just moseyed on down the coast to Hokitika where I met up with Jaz, Phil and Scotty. I had pre-organised the tickets and tent sites at the local primary school which made everything fairly stressless.

Having tried huhu grubs a previous year, I left the task to the others to complete. This year they had live ones straight out of wooden logs which they were chopping into with axes. There was a fair crowd wanting them and the grub hunting was a slow task so it took quite a long time to get the three grubs for the boys. An even longer time was spent contemplating the dish and pausing for photos. Eventually the deed was done although apparently your meant to bite the head off first otherwise they try eating you - which they did - Phil got his tongue nipped!

The boys (not me though!) also tried Mountain Oysters. Scotty thought his tasted a bit nasty and looked down at it to find blood coming from it, obviously not cooked properly - uueeghh! I don't know what larry the lamb thought of all this!

The crowds there were fantastic - tons of groups dressed up in matching outfits so they could find each other easily in the throngs and just for a bit of fun. Yes, there was lots to look at alright.

I was very pleased I had my hat and SPF 30 sun screen - it was a roaster of a day.

That night we went to the Southern Hotel and witnessed the Crusaders being slaughtered by the Blues. It was just bad luck really. The Pub seemed to be half full of very loud Aucklanders while the other half were Crusaders fans who were doing a very good job of pretending they weren't really interested in the rugby. One jaffa came up to me and started trying to rub my face in it by saying "Whadda ya thing of the Rugby then Eh? 'Spose your a Canterbury lad are ya!", I just told him we were "just consoling them for losing the America's cup" - this made him squint and try to whistle backwards, it was a bit below the belt.

One of the guys who was in our loose circle of acquaintances was a true legend. Jamie aged 18 was a chatting up machine - he knew no fear of rejection and was confident and easy with his approach. By the end of the night we were sending him on reconnaissance missions all around the bar. It was a matter of briefly describing the girl, turning him in their general direction and shouting "Go!" as we launched him into the social field of play.

We went down to the beach for a look and it was a truly awesome sight to behold - there were no less than 60 bonfires (stats from the press) on the beach and it looked eeriely like a war scene with the smoke ramping up in the gentle breeze and the hoards of people wandering around aimlessly.