I don't think the tongs provided are big enough for the job

Sightseeing at the fish market--

It's like going to the aquarium except you get to eat it if you want to.

Auckland's regional personalities

Central city:  A place to work, not live.  Except for the immigrants who will put up with renting an apartment.

The south side--  Counties Manukau:  These are the low-socioeconomic, high-crime areas.  Large minority populations.

The east side--Mount Eden, Remuera:  Old money.  Proper.  British influences.

The north side-- Devonport, North Shore City:  Posh, expensive, and newly-built.

The west side--Waitakere, Henderson:  Hippies and bogans.

Bike safety

This bike sat un-locked and un-stolen for 48 hours downtown recently. 

I know it's not a very nice bike.  But it's un-stolen!   On a very busy street!  Over two nights!

Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. What.

In the toy department.  At Smith & Caughey on Queen Street.  In amongst the hand puppets and other sweet fluffy toys.

The manufacturer calls these "a wonderful collection of beautiful and colourful gollies." (Fifteen pages' worth?  Seriously?) I had to look the term up.  Just what I feared. 

I expected better, New Zealand.  Fail.  Rethink.

Spring cleaning

It was a dreary rainy day today.  We took it as an opportunity to give our apartment a proper cleaning.  The biggest difference came from having the professionals over to shampoo the carpets.  After nine months or so of toddler detritus, the rugs really needed some stain removal.  I learned, after seeing the enormous amount of dry debris they extracted and the gallons of grimy water that it took, that the brushless canister vac that came with our place really doesn't cut it. 

We organised our papers and the closets, did heaps of laundry, and bleached every available surface in the bathrooms.  Amiri's favorite part was helping with the windows.

We are happy about our new bathrobes...

but it is past our bedtime and we are unable to be happy about ANYTHING else.

But I'm slightly OK about this orange.

Ramadan mubarak!

It's been a long day already so just a short post today.  Wishing all a happy day and month.

The little tiny baby monkey and the co-co-die-lo

In keeping with his top animals to feature in our round-the-couch make-believe chasing game, Amiri was recently given some Just Because presents.  The monkey has magnets in its feet and can cling to his shirt.  He holds it sweetly in his arms, and he tells me several times a day, 'Mama, I love my monkey.'

The crocodile SNAPS! at Arram's feet.  Behind Amiri, by the way, is Arram's Time Out chair.  We have recently begun to implement one minute of sanctions for serious infractions.  Last night:  biting Mama.

The best part is I don't have to do any diapers today

Today we mark the event of my making my way around the sun one more time.  An eventful year it's been, too... what with having made my way halfway around the Earth, besides.  It's very odd now that I have an early-spring birthday.  Thanks for the good wishes, everyone.

As for me, I had a nice day being pampered, and got to have a NAP, which any mom-of-two-toddlers will tell you is her fondest desire.  It rained most of the day but then it stopped and there was a beautiful rainbow.  Then the two oldest males in the house ventured out to harvest a pretty cake.

About that cake...  Three layers, with custard and strawberry jelly in between.  Whipped cream frosting and lovely fruits on top.  Just before cutting it, Amiri told me, "Mama, I'm so excited about your birthday!  Your cake is beautiful."  We all ate too much sugar.

It was also a big day for Arram, who officially transitioned from Baby to Little Boy today.   (I'm not sure where we came up with that, that Arram Will be a Little Boy on Mama's Birthday, but it's sure been a much-discussed crowd favorite around here.)

Amiri told anyone who would listen that it was Mama's Birthday, she is 43 today.  Thanks, Amiri, for adding ten fifteen eighteen years to my age.  That's totally believable, right?

By popular demand...

Enjoy the interactions of our little guys as they eat a snack of toast on their new kid-sized table and chairs.

I'm NOT crazy

Last summer, I got sunburned even through my SPF 30 sunscreen.  I know I'm a burny-prone person, but still, I was surprised.  I was lamenting the upcoming summer and my apparently melanin-free skin to my coworkers today.  They gave me some valuable information.

The sun in NZ actually IS stronger than it is in the States! 

The intensity of the sun is measured in the UV index.  The UV index ranges from 0 (night-time) to 20 (laser sun).   Florida beaches have a UV index of about 10-12.  Summertime in northern New Zealand regularly reaches 14-15, even if the temperature is much lower than Daytona.

This happens for three reasons:  the ozone hole is nearby, the Earth's axis and orbit mean that the southern hemisphere is physically nearer the sun during the summer, and (ironically) there is less air pollution here to impede the sun's rays.

With this information, I'll be investing in SPF 45 this year.

Literacy

Arram loves it when we read him picture books.  He stands in front of us with armloads of books, begging for a story.   His favorite is 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?' and he excitedly joins in with 'Burr! Burr!' which, of course, is Arram-ese for Bear.

But yesterday we discovered that we aren't the only ones who can read to Arram.  Watch our big boy teaching his brother.

And so let the feasting begin

I had a couple of wonderful meals to celebrate my return to chemosensation.

Last week, we found a food court in one of the towers near our house.  It's described on one website as having 'all the ambiance of eating in a carpark', but it consistently gets five-out-of-five-stars reviews for the quality of the food.   It's a collection of twenty-plus Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian and other Asian stalls hawking steam buns, claypot cookery, any number of ugly-to-look-at, scrumptious-to-taste seafood, and everywhere you turn it's rendang this and goreng that.  It's been named the Best Food Court in Auckland.  Why oh why did it take us so long to find this place?

Anyway.  Look at this insanity I picked up at the Sushi Buffet stall upstairs.  $10 for 12 pieces, plus miso soup, condiments, and that crazy-good pink ginger.  You'll see that I am a wimp about the raw fish, but look... they deep-fried a Philadelphia roll.  Seriously, that's about as good as it gets in my book.  And when I saw that they made a nigirisushi out of a prawn twister, well, that's what sold me.

And then later I made a lunch of tapas.  Oh yeah.  On the left we have albonaya beef (I'm sure I've spelled that wrong):  it's a spicy stew of niblets of organic beef in a tomato-based sauce with cumin and saffron.  I mixed the cilantro and lemon zest throughout for an even more complex treat.  On the right are fresh local cockles, steamed open and dressed with a little garlic butter and herbs.  They're chewy little briny bites of happiness.

Nose-blind

Last week, I wrote about our boys getting sick.  They recovered nicely, but as tends to happen, I picked up their germs myself and came down with a nasty sinus infection.  I've now recovered as well with the help of some antibiotics.  I had an interesting experience during my illness, though... temporary anosmia.

Many times I've had trouble smelling things while sick, but this was the first time that I lost my sense of smell completely.  I tested very strong smells like bleach and acetone (as well as Arram's epic diapers, of course), but they didn't register, not even a little.   It was like living inside a deep-frozen wasteland where nothing smells of anything.  Additionally, it was very interesting for me to experience firsthand the old saying that taste is actually mostly smell:  because I lost my sense of smell 100%, I also lost my sense of taste by about 90%. 

I could tell in a very vague way that something was sweet vs. bitter, but I couldn't differentiate, say, mint from watermelon.  I did a taste test on some leftovers:  aside from the texture, I perceived savoury peanut noodles, beef with rice, and vegetable stir-fry as identical (identically bland, that is).  It was so odd. 

The novelty quickly wore off, though, and after several days I was feeling bored with food and craving flavor... any flavor.  I found crunchy textures, such as celery, much more amusing than I had previously, but still.   It's kind of sad when celery is your best option for comfort food.  I guess it was a decent diet aid, since I had no incentive to eat chocolate or any other junk.  I worried, what if it never comes back?  It was rather terrifying to consider a lifetime without chocolate.

Then the next day I realised that I caught a tiny hint of garlic in my dinner--it was incredibly subtle, but it was there.  The day after that, there was a hint of coffee flavor in my coffee.  And after that, I was able to correctly diagnose Arram's need for a diaper change by smell alone (although I really hadn't missed that aroma, lemme tell ya).   Now I'm back to normal, more or less, and grateful for our tasty world.

Our beautiful boys

Well, he DID hear a doctor say they recommend a one-cup serving per day...

Oh, that Arram!  He looooves his mischief.  Yesterday he reached up and grabbed an empty cup off the counter, and threw it down onto the tile floor where it shattered into a billion pieces.  I spent a lively 20 minutes barricading the children out of the kitchen and then sweeping-vacuuming-mopping up the tiny shards.

Here is Arram's contribution to the household's excitement today.

He stole it away from someone who was drinking from it.

The really sad thing in all this was that he picked up a tiny sliver of glass in the bottom of his foot.  I don't think it really hurt, but he sure did holler as we were taking it out and applying a band-aid.

Awwwww.  Poor little guy.

But he's OK.

Arram, how do you say 'milk'?

It was a big day here as Arram walked up to me and politely asked for a diaper change, instead of just hollering.  Hooray for communication.




(Note for those fluent in infant-signing:  Yes, I know that that is not the traditional diaper-change sign.  Amiri invented that sign all by himself when he was Arram's age, and we've continued it.)

Traditional carvings

Woodworking is a common art form here, especially in traditional Maori styles that incorporate the spirals of fern heads, and stylized human forms.  Here are a couple of examples that I see every day.

Rangitoto Island

Rangitoto Island is an icon of Auckland City.  It's a perfect, cylindrical cone out in the gulf, just a 30-minute ferry ride away from the city.   It's a dormant volcano, and about four years ago we hiked to the top of it and peered into the crater.


It's one of the youngest land masses in New Zealand.   Rangitoto's birth was high drama.  700 years ago, Auckland was already a decently large city.  People also lived on the big island at the mouth of the harbour, Motu Tapu.  One day, smoke began to billow out of the ocean, and continued for years.  The eruptions piled up and piled up, until it created an island so big that it crawled up Motu Tapu's shore.  Imagine the shock the inhabitants must have felt!



BTW, the boys are feeling much better.


  

We cover our mouths when we cough

This weekend, both of our little boys were sick and miserable.   Malaise, coughing, low fevers, and all manner of drippiness.  They were both so unhappy, the poor little things.  Cuddling with Mama made it better-- Amiri wanted to be on my lap constantly, and Arram clung to me with his arms and legs like a newborn monkey with his head on my shoulder.  Basically, I was a human hot water bottle for two days.

Toward Sunday evening, they seemed to feel better and perk up a bit, stopping their moaning and even playing together a little.  We got them some fresh fruit juice from the place down the street and they loved it.

Then they got their appetites back and had a lovely dinner of toast and bananas.  Arram signed for milk.  Hopes are high for two healthy little boys tomorrow.

We were walking and we saw a fire truck parked on the street!

The jam slice

Another Kiwi dessert.  It's a thick layer of jam between two layers of dense shortbread-style cake, with a nice strawberry-flavored frosting.  It's kind of like a home-made pop tart, isn't it?  And that's EXACTLY what it tastes like.  Only better.

Funny, I was just writing about 'dichotomous emotional responses' today at work

Here's how Amiri looks at the playground.

Complete joy.

And here's how Arram looks at the playground.

No, I REFUSE to have fun on this slide.

The seesaw burns.  We hates it.

He also hated the swing, hated being held by Mama while SHE sat on the swing, and flat-out refused to even consider the merry-go-round.  

Well, in his defense, it IS hard to have a good time when a giant frog is trying to eat you.

Amiri pulled a 'Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul' moment on me

Amiri and I were cuddled up for our nightly bedtime story/talking.  He likes to talk about how he's a big boy, and Arram is a little boy.  I told him, well, son, you used to be a little boy, do you remember that? 

Yeah.  I was short then.
     Very short.  You were very little.  You wore diapers.
Because I was little.  And I sat in a stroller!
     Yes, you couldn't walk.
What happened before then?
     You were a little baby.  You didn't have any hair.
What happened before then?
     You were brand new, just born.  Tiny and crying, and drinking milk.
What happened before then?
     You were in Mama's tummy.  Before you were born.
Before that? 
     You weren't made yet.
Was I in Mama's head?  (laughing)
     No, you weren't in Mama's head.
(he thought about it for a minute...)
Was I in Mama's heart?
     Yes, Amiri, you were in Mama's heart.

    

Auckland solves our problems

We have very few problems.  And those that we do encounter have a way of getting solved for us.

For instance, we had to walk over a kilometer to get a good burger.  I know!  It took like eight minutes!  Aaaarghhh!!

And then Auckland solved that for us.  Look what opened across the street yesterday.  They're spectacular.  No more journeying for burgers... we don't even have to put on a jacket to run out for these!

And then there was the problem of crossing Hobson Street between our house and school.  We'd have to watch for cars, wait for them to go past, and then bump the stroller down the curb on one side and bump it back up the curb on the other side.  Whew!  The stress, I tell ya...

And Auckland solved that for us too.  Some construction crews turned up last month, and look what we've got now.

Notice the stripey crossing and the round orange signs.  They make cars stop and wait for us.  And also notice the ramped curbs.  I can navigate the stroller across Hobson now with just one hand.

Hey, Auckland?  I have another problem.  I don't have a million dollars and it's quite inconvenient...

New Zealand's Sequoia

In the Northland grow the Kauri forests, largely unchanged since the Jurassic.  Great big conifers with succulent leaves.  Heights of 50 meters, trunks nearly 10 meters in diameter.  2,000 years old.  Pine cones that look like they would huuuuurt...

Since each tree has such a huge volume of wood, they were in great demand for shipbuilding during the whaling days.  Now kauri pine is used for high-quality furniture and fancy decking.  Here, want to buy a slab of kauri?

But I don't want to have to come back inside

It's so sad when playtime is over.

Here are your cute kid pictures for the day

Amiri swings high!

Arram looks pensive.

Ready for a career in standup

Amiri sat down next to me and leaned in close to confide a problem.  "Mama," he said, "I don't like my lion any more."  He meant that lion, his much-loved lion, the one whose fur is matted from numerous trips through the washer as a result of all the dragging-around-and-loving.  I asked Amiri why, concerned about his change of heart.  He said, "Lion tried to bite me."  I started asking questions about lionbites so I could get some idea about the imaginary world he lives in... and then he started to laugh, and yelled, 'Joke!  Amiri told Mama a joke!"

There's still love there.

People must love this logo!

Businesses that put this sticker on their products get something like 20% more sales. 

I thought it was AWESOME when I saw this tattooed on a guy's shoulder as I was walking home from the train.

These cobblestones are too bumpy for walking!

L&P

I've mentioned L&P before here, but some things bear repeating.  L for lemon (flavour), and P for Paeroa (the town with the artesian well where the naturally carbonated mineral water comes from).   (Paeroa isn't far from us, just over on the Coromandel peninsula.)  Its label asserts that, similar to some other products that are ubiquitous locally but unavailable overseas, L&P is 'World famous in New Zealand'.

We got a bottle of the kiwiana soft drink today.  Amiri drank nearly the whole thing, and now tells us, "I like L&P." 

Hokey Pokey

     5 tablespoons white sugar

     2 tablespoons golden syrup

Slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  When it foams, reduce the heat and simmer for four minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in:

     1 teaspoon of baking soda.

Then pour it all at once into a greased flat pan and let it cool.  Break it into bits-- nibble the big ones and mix the small ones into vanilla ice cream.

Recipe notes for Americans:


It must be golden syrup, not some ersatz substitute like light corn syrup.  You must go to an English specialty store to find this.  (Or, know someone in New Zealand who can send you some.)


You may be tempted to throw in a handful of salted peanuts.  Do not do this.  And do not call hokey pokey 'brittle'.  


Hokey pokey is the unofficial national ice cream flavour.   And yes, it's pretty amazing.  (Even so, I still think Mackinac Island Fudge is better, but that's our little secret.  I won't tell if you won't.)

This smile means...

'Never mind the giant eel, I see my friend coming!'

Holly joined him shortly thereafter.

How's the weather down there?

It's now officially winter.  Even so, the weather has been quite mild and pleasant.  Today was the first day that I could see my breath when I left for work.  We've all bought new coats, but I've really been warm enough with just a sweatshirt or sweater.  Kiwis tell me that there is generally about a week of really cold weather, but that's about it.

I've easily transitioned to the metric system for volume/weight/distance, but it's a little harder for me to convert temperatures to Celsius--I don't seem to have the same reference values internalised.  So I've started thinking about it this way:

5 degrees = coat weather (and about as cold as it ever gets here)
15 degrees = sweater weather
25 degrees = t-shirt weather
35 degrees = beach weather

With extra peri-peri

Amiri and I had an outing.  We held hands and walked all the way up Queen Street.  Near the library, we stopped to play by some statues.

Then we went to Nando's, the chicken place.  I had a coupon.  We were order #14 and Amiri got to carry the Fourteen Chicken to our table to wait for them to bring us our food.

Nando's serves Portuguese-style chicken:  cooked over an open flame and slathered in peri-peri sauce, orange and peppery.  I got the hot peri-peri, and Amiri got the mild.  He ate SO MUCH CHICKEN.

But we only heard a few vuvuzuelas

So we live above a bar, right? Above ten or twelve bars, to be accurate. (It’s not as shady as it sounds—these are Viaduct Harbour bars, after all, not biker bars on skid row—and instances of shenanigans out on the street below are few and far between.) They are all sports bars. Regardless of how they brand themselves the rest of the year, right now during the World Cup they bring in TVs if they have to, and they are sports bars.

Because the matches are played in South Africa, they’re on during the dead of night here. No matter, say the fans, of course we’ll go to the bar to watch soccer from 1-4 AM. And there are a lot of fans. We have been awakened nearly every night by the jubilation below. (Last night was especially noisy, as New Zealand tied with first-place Italy.) It turns out that we’re in a perfect position to do some informal census-taking regarding the relative densities of nationalities in Auckland, as estimated by the volume of the intermittent roars that accompany every exciting play. The apparent Brazilian and Mexican populations are larger than I anticipated.

So good at holding on

Matariki

Maori New Year comes in early to mid-June, when the constellation of Matariki first starts to become visible on the pre-dawn horizon.  Meaning 'little eyes' or 'God's eyes', Matariki is believed to predict the crops for the year to come.  It's traditionally celebrated for three days after the first sighting, with feasts and celebrations of the people's connection with the land.  There is a month-long festival in Auckland. 

We know Matariki as the Pleiades. 

On safari

We used a day of our copious annual leave to play hooky on Wednesday.  We dropped the kids off at daycare (oh. yeah.  School, I mean school, PRE-SCHOOL) and then we got on a boat for a safari.  The catamaran was staffed by marine biologists, and our fees went toward paying for the education of future marine biologists who are doing their training while crewing the boat.  We got a little safety demonstration and then off we motored.  We went through Waitemata Harbor, north past Rangitoto, and admired the green water and the view of the city.

Then east across the Hauraki Gulf, north of Waiheke Island to within view of the Coromandel, and then north to near Great Barrier Island.  We could see the Little Barrier Island, a bird sanctuary.

The tropical current from the open north Pacific pours into this region.  This means warm blue water.  Which means plankton.  Which means fish.  Which means birds.

And which also means dolphins!  We came into a pod of about 100 of them.  The captain slowed the boat down and they surrounded us.

They would surface every few seconds and seemed to actually enjoy looking up at us and pacing the boat.

Eventually, 10 or 12 of them ended up chasing along behind the boat, playing in the chop.  I was within six feet of wild dolphins!


It got late, and cold (remember, it's late fall here!), and it was time to turn around.  We saw more birds, like the shearwater and the Australasian gannet, and a few smaller pods of dolphin who dashed past us.  And then way off in the distance, at approximately here, we spotted a whale.  He made a big plume of spray every time he took a breath.

What a really incredible day.

Upon arriving home from school