Who's Got the Giant Buns

Neil and I will be coming up to Auckland for the weekend October 14 to 17 - so you guys better keep a day free to catch up (you know who you are...).
Been having a few morning/afternoon teas at the MED this week. Sad to see Melissa leave, and Sheetal's last day is tomorrow (another morning tea - yay!). Gotta love the morning teas. In other fattening news, does anyone else take advantage of New World's gigantuous chelsea buns?? For only $1.50 you get a plate-sized chelsea bun with lots of raisins, cinnamon and icing - spread the word :) And that's another thing - we've become New World shoppers ever since moving to Wellington. Hardly a Foodtown or Woolworths in sight, but we did find a Pak 'n Save which happens to be near our new house. Can't wait - only 4 more weeks...

Chilly Willies

If I was a guy, I'd have shrinkage... it's been damn cold here in NZ this last few days hasn't it? Last week I was breathing a sigh of relief as I thought Spring had finally arrived. Then we got that cold snap. People warned me about the Wellington southerlies - "what-ever" I thought, "wind is wind"... So out came the hot drinks and biccies again - I'm having one right now. Chocolate chippie cookies and coffee... mmm. I deserve these cookies, after doing that mountainous load of dishes. Flat-dishes eh... 2-day old steak left-overs still sitting in the plate (puddles of "jus" or more like blood thrown in for free), forks stuck to plates, the food containers that you don't want to open to clean out, and so forth.
Anyway, only 36 more sleeps until we get to move into our new house - whoopie!

No more open homes...

.. cause we've bought a house!! YAY!

The auction was tonight and we really didn't expect to come home as home-owners but whoopie! We are sooo happy.

Well here are some pictures of our soon-to-be abode (unfortunately these are the only ones available now because the listing has been taken down). Notice the wooden floors, high ceilings, deck, french doors, and don't forget the sunshine! Plus it has a large back yard.
We get the place on 28 October and hopefully we can resume normalcy. You can only live out of boxes for so long and 5 months seems to be a good limit. I am so stoked - what a high - *breathe*.

New Bed and Avocado Trees

We got a new bed - yay!
We already have a bed in storage but that's in Lower Hutt and we needed a new bed anyway because the springs were beginning to do funny things to me. After much trouble we no longer have to sleep on the floor (and I don't have to be careful about shattering my tailbone when I plonk myself down). Ahhh, a wonderful slab of heaven I reckon. And we got free pillows, and free delivery. And to think that other companies lost out on our business because they were too cheap to add in that little touch of sweetness for the customer (what's a couple of cheap pillows anyway, and delivery should be free I say). Let that be a lesson to you! Praise the delivery men for hiking the bits down the steps to the house and then up the stairs into our room. Oh by the way, we haven't bought a house yet. We're currently staying at yet another "temporary" location until we do find something we're willing to give our freedom to - bye bye luxuries then eh... *sob*.
But I do hope this arrangement doesn't drag on too long because I miss having everything I need with me - that and my avocado tree needs a home! I grew it from seed in a shot glass, and 7 months later it's almost fruiting - BHAHAHAaA - excuse me while I get back on my chair. Just needs a little nurturing and a graft from another tree, that's all.
It does grow fast anyway - the first picture was taken on 22 July, the second 15 August and the third on 3 September. I have another sprouting in a shot glass and that'll need re-potting and planting soon too.
Ooh, Shorty Street is on so better go!

Consumers Beware #1: KFC Nuggets

Spending endless hours driving around and attending open homes on Sundays has more drawbacks than just paying $40 and only getting 26 litres of petrol. You get hungry - and that usually means fast food... and today I succombed to the lure of the new KFC chicken nuggets. Mainly because I had been wondering for so long as to why they didn't do them - and I have a thing for being a chicken-nugget critic.
Ok, so we all know that chicken nuggets in general are going to include the processed bits of the chicken that they can't give a label to if they wanted to sell it as meat. However, when you claim something is 100% chicken breast then one would expect it to be 100% chicken breast. So then why are these new chicken nuggets at KFC so spongey and soft? If you want to break it down, it may be fair to say that they are constituted by the following: 50% chicken, 40% spongey white matter (perhaps the coagulated run-offs of the chicken meat...?) and 10% air. Might be a good recipe for a type of chicken souffle dish but where's this 100% chicken breast they're talking about? Maybe they were meaning that the portion of meat that is actually there is 100% chicken breast (which can explain the absence of the grey-brown stuff that can usually be found distributed in many other nuggets - beats the segments of arterial tubing that you find in sausages though)? Maybe seeing as most businesses like to aim for 110% that 100% means something slightly different today? Who knows. It still tasted good, I admit, and I can confidently say that was due to good ol' flavour enhancer 621 - what a life-saver. High ratings for the taste, low ratings for the respectively low level of chicken breast. Maybe wash it down with some beer, like Timmeh Tater here, and move on.