It’s a butter Christmas miracle

We had Christmas dinner with Di and Malcolm from pétanque. Our contribution included the steamed Christmas pudding I won at the pétanque club Christmas party raffle.

A traditional steamed Christmas pudding for those who might not have experienced it is a whole lot like a fruitcake, only without the bright colored candied fruit. And maybe even richer and more heavily soaked with brandy. It’s something I adore, but I recognize that most people in America and even in countries that still pledge allegiance to the King find it a bit much.

You serve a pudding with brandy sauce, which is nothing but butter and sugar and brandy. You want the makings of a glycemic crisis? I got you covered.

Back to our story… it’s Christmas Day and we realize that we don’t have enough butter. And we really thought we would have a hard time finding a place open to get some because they take their holidays seriously here. So we set off in the direction of more crowded parts of the city, turning out of our neighborhood and heading toward shops and taller buildings.

We tried two petrol stations… open but no butter. We drove past many shuttered windows and finally found a small market (known as a dairy here) open, just opposite the hospital. Two kinds of butter!! Dinner is saved.

The nice Indian lady behind the counter said it was in fact a busy day at the shop… everybody buys flowers for Christmas hospital visits.

Buoyed by a happy feeling of God bless us, every one, I decided to drive by the much closer dairy which I positively KNEW wouldn’t be open. Oops, they were there, we didn’t even need to leave the area. So our drive was much longer than it needed to be, but we did meet a nice lady.

And the pudding was staggeringly heavy and confrontingly spicy, especially after Di’s melt-in-your-mouth salmon. The brandy sauce melted slowly into the pudding. For me, it was a perfect ending for Christmas gluttony season.

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Franklin Road 2023

Just a couple of shots from this year’s Christmas lights on Franklin Road. We’ve been there before, and again and actually last year too.

This year the (volunteer) organizers were in the news railing against the influx of vendors selling light-up balloons and twirling ropes and stuff.

It worked, and the atmosphere seemed much more relaxed than last time, less like a state fair midway. There were carolers and even a brass band, and we saw several householders in their yards enjoying the sight of all the people admiring the decorations.

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They tore down the fairy castle and put up a garden center

We haven’t walked by Scarlett and Rose’s fairy castle much this year because last January’s floods damaged the trail we use to get there. But the trail is passable now, even though it’s still technically closed.

The big tree stump and fairy castle are gone, with only a few little figurines remaining. And the little plantings they sell for ice cream money have taken center stage.

We’ve never seen these girls but it seems like they must be growing up!

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Sunrise, sunset

We pause to reflect on the recent summer solstice. It may be the beginning of summer, but the days start getting shorter as of now, meaning all the glorious morning beach swims will soon be memories.

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A.I. Caramba!

For today’s swim, Tony brought his (not a swimmer) wife Amber, who took a walk and met us on the beach after.

She took this picture and posted it to our WhatsApp group:

Just a few minutes later our resident tech guy Aaron posted the image below… his own creativity and a little AI.

Pretty amazing! If only he’d taken the time to put some hair back on my head.

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An uninvited guest

(Not a great picture but definitely an “only in NZ” moment)

Yesterday I got to share the pétanque court with a pukeko who wanted to check out the jack, which is the little wooden ball you use as a target. He must have decided it wasn’t tasty, so he wandered off.

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Bye Bye Colonels

When we first moved to Brattleboro, or maybe even before, I was cruising through the Wal-Mart and found these pajama pants with the school team embroidered. I was impressed to find anything “local” at Wal-Mart so I bought them.

They’ve served me well for a dozen years, but are now falling apart and so it’s time to say goodbye. And besides, the school is probably going to change its mascot anyway. There’s been some debate about whether he’s a Confederate colonel or not, but either way he’s too militaristic for the town’s sensibilities today.

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Driveway drinks

We had our annual neighborhood drinks this weekend, low-key this year but a fun chance to catch up with everybody. Last year we were forced indoors by the weather so it was nice to have a sunny day.

The kids are growing fast, especially young Luna, who is right at the top of the growth chart.

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Pohutukawa trees

Are in full bloom and seem especially bright and beautiful this year. The one above we planted from seed during our first summer here. It’s lived in a series of pots till now.

And of course all those bits of flower have to go somewhere…

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Another One Bites The Dust

Two Birkenhead shops closing soon: the jewellery store that got robbed twice this year, and the little clothing boutique pictured above.

Neither was a great place in my view, although we had gotten a couple of repairs at the jewelers, but it’s still sad to see any business close down.

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A Christmas Carol, with Christmas carols

We saw the North Shore Male Choir put on a fine performance based on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol the other week at St George Church in Takapuna.

We’d never run into this group, but apparently they put on quite a few shows each year since forever, including a Christmas program.

That’s Jacob Marley handing out chocolate coins to the members of the audience at the end. It was a fun show, with I’d say more than half the audience made up of friends and family of the choir.

We got there with about 10 minutes to spare, but the church was already full, so we had to make our way to seats right at the front and next to the pianist. Who had her left arm in a sling! Later in the show she got a big round of applause both for her virtuosity and her “show must go on” attitude. The choirmaster was so impressed that he had her repeat her big feature number, an arrangement of Carol of the Bells.

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Private Screening

Last Christmas we bought ourselves some gift certificates for our local theatre, because they were offering a great discount. But we haven’t been to the movies much this year. So we still had a few dollars left and decided to just go.

We picked Jack Mimoun and the Secrets of Val Verde, a holdover from the recent French film festival. One review described it as “Indiana Jones meets Monty Python”. In fact, it wasn’t as sophisticated or subversive as Monty Python, so maybe “Indiana Jones meets Mr. Bean”?

Anyway, the movie was good for a laugh. But the best part was having the whole room to ourselves… it felt very luxurious!

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Back to the Tron

First, read this.

Four years (and a pandemic) later, the same conference happened in the same place. And so presented me with a prime chance to see how things are the same, and how they are different.

Last time, I was pretty snobby about Hamilton. I felt differently this time. The downtown seemed clean and spacious somehow. And although there are plenty of empty storefronts, there was also a lot of public art to catch my eye. A lot of the murals are recent… maybe an infusion of COVID relief arts funding?

The little plaza (actually a glorified vacant lot) where Riff-Raff stood is under construction, part of what looks like a pretty big project. But fear not, Transylvania fans, for Richard O’Brien now holds stiletto-heeled sway over the entrance to the Waikato Museum. It’s a spot where I would expect either a WWI memorial or an overly earnest pile of cubes and half-spirals.

I walked briskly along the river again, and the rowers are still there.

But I didn’t run around the lake, because even an hour of walking now leads to fluid leaking out of my knee joint. Time for my first ever surgery, methinks.

Last time, the big Christmas tree was just going up, but this time I got to see its full LED glory.

Last time, I gave a short talk and then manned the company booth. This year I led a 2-day workshop, manned the HL7 booth in my role as Chair, and then gave another talk yesterday. Movin’ on up…

Sadly, we didn’t get to go back to Hobbiton for the dinner. But supposedly next year…

All in all, a good trip. But I’m glad to be home in the hot tub.

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