super generic girl

the awesomely average life of a girl like all others

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cupcake mania

 

In the beginning of this month, I decided to start referring to it as Awegust rather than August. Because this has to be the most awesome month of the year. These photos are some of the evidence. Lots of homemade sugary treats, birthdays, a half-marathon (and plans for another one)… and to make it all even more awesome, running the risk of completely blowing up the awesomeness scale, I’m writing this post from Portugal, where I arrived yesterday for a much overdue catch up with family, friends…and summer!

So yeah, July and all the months before that, sorry but Awegust is kicking your butts. September, whatcha gonna do about it?

 

 


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A mini-guide to Rotorua

The champagne pool

Rotorua is mostly known for its boiling mud and sulphur smell (to which, by the way, you get used to quite quickly). A short 2 1/2 hour drive away from Auckland, it is the number one day trip to do if you are a tourist in New Zealand and don’t have much time to see anything else on the North Island (either because you’re headed straight to the South Island, like many do, or because you don’t have that much time in the country at all). Also known as the geothermal capital of New Zealand, Rotorua has the advantage of being jam-packed with things to see and do. There are buses running from Auckland to Rotorua or you can also choose to fly there from Auckland.

Lady Knox Geyser

A visit to Wai-o-Tapu is well worth the time and money. You’ll get geothermal activity in all its glory, with boiling mud, amazing coloured lakes and a series of hot pools like the world-famous Champagne pool (top photo). It is also where you’ll be able to watch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt daily. Staff at Wai-o-Tapu creates the eruption by dropping some sort of soap into the geyser but that is just to assure that it erupts when they want. Otherwise, it erupts on its own anyway, it’s just harder to create a touristic show around it.

One of the lakes at Wai-o-Tapu

Te Puia is one of the several places in Rotorua where you can go for a “Maori cultural experience”. You’ll be taken into a traditional Maori Marae (meeting house) and will attend a traditional Maori ceremony. Te Puia has, however, many more attractions. It’s got its own geysers as well, which was an added bonus since we visited just a couple of hours after getting all “geysered out” at Wai-o-Tapu.

Maori performance at Te Puia

It’s also got a reconstitution of a traditional Maori village and a carving school full of amazing traditional carvings made by the apprentices. But the coolest thing about Te Puia was, without a doubt, the kiwi house. It was such a surprise because we didn’t realise it was part of it all so it was extra exciting to finally see a kiwi (even if it wasn’t in the wild, where they are oh so very rare to spot!).

Maori village at Te Puia

Once you’re done with boiling mud and geysers, you should try Zorbing. I know, I know… why would you want to roll down a big hill inside a giant inflatable ball? Well, why wouldn’t you? It’s awesome! I suggest you pack your swimwear and choose the zorb ball with water for extra fun (if you choose the one without water, you will be tied inside the zorb rather than just roll around inside it). It’s a short activity – probably won’t last you more than 45 minutes from signing the document saying it’s your fault if you die inside the zorb to rolling down the hill and putting your clothes back on and heading out. It’s worth it, though! There are now apparently a few other places in the world where you can zorb but this is the original one and Rotorua is where it was invented.

Zorbing

And if the zorbing is a little too much adventure for your taste or you feel like you need a rest, the Polynesian Spa is the place to go next. It’s not terribly expensive and you can even enjoy some really pretty views while you’re soaking in the hot pools. It’s apparently ranked in the top 10 spas in the world, accoridng to Conde Nast Traveler.

A view from the hot pools at the Polynesian Spa

Once you’re done with all these activities, do go for a wander around town because there is a lot of pretty stuff to see without having to be charged an entrance fee – and yes, that includes free boiling mud as well, of course.

Rotorua Museum

For more information on the four attractions mentioned, visit the following links:

Park in Rotorua


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Getting my kiwi education – Billy T James

Last night, in another chapter of my education on all things kiwi, I headed along to a special screening of Billy T – Te Movie (nope, not a typo), a documentary about the life of Maori entertainer Billy T James.

Despite having died a whole two decades ago, his name has popped up countless times over my three and a bit years in New Zealand – so I knew he was a kind of a big deal. But didn’t know much more than that.

I knew this movie was going to be important when the email about the screening first arrived and C. immediately told me we had to get tickets for it. When we arrived at the cinema last night, there were men in shorts, gumboots, fake moustaches and yellow towels around their necks (just like Billy T’s iconic image).

I’m sure I missed a few of the jokes because of the fact I did not live in New Zealand at the time – at one stage he walked in a certain way towards the camera while saying something about bags and everyone cracked up laughing. C. later explained to me that he was mocking an ad for bags that was on TV at the time.

The impression I got was that he is mostly famous for his comedy, for being able to make fun of society like no one else was ever allowed to (he was, for example, a Maori making fun of Maori people).

For any foreigner trying to learn about New Zealand culture, Billy T is as important as anything else, really. I’m lucky in the sense that I’m pretty sure I’m more familiar with NZ culture and history than the average person that has been here for as long as I am. That’s because I have a proud kiwi as a boyfriend and proud kiwis as friends and they have long ago referred me to things like Footrot Flats (and, through it, the entire lyrics to Slice of Heaven), Fred Dagg, Smash Palace, Poi e (before it exploded again when the movie Boy came out a couple of years ago) or taught me that the only correct thing to say when someone says “not many” is “if any!“.

So, last night, when Billy T was on screen saying that he was “half Scottish and half Maori”, I knew that what he was going to say next was that it was a problem because half of him wanted to get pissed and the other half didn’t want to pay for it. And I also knew everyone would laugh and no one would really take offense. And that’s pretty cool, New Zealand.

As for the documentary itself, it was pretty well done, I thought. It focused on Billy T James, the entertainer, more than on William James Te Wehi Taitoko, the man outside the stage, but it showed enough of both to suggest that Billy/William didn’t really know how to live with each other inside that one body… which is probably why his life ended up being quite short.

I can’t seem to be able to embed the video but you can watch the trailer for Billy T: Te Movie here. The NZ On Screen website has, in fact, a long list of Billy T James material if you feel like being entertained.


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Notes on running my first half marathon

I used to be one of those people that say stuff like “running? Only if it’s to catch the bus” and stuff like that. I remember the PE classes in high school and how, once every three months, the teacher would ask us all to run a mile (if I’m not mistaken, that used to be 12 laps of the soccer field in our school) so he could track how fast we could go (and by fast, I mean slow in my case, of course). Once every three months, when that week came along and I knew I was going to have to run that mile, I’d try and come up with excuses why I couldn’t attend that class. I’d go all whiny kid on the teacher and say stuff like “but my throat is sore” or “my stomach hurts” to try and get him to let me off but he never did. I hated every second of it.

That has changed. Yesterday, me and my running partner finally reached the goal we had been working towards in the past few months, as we cross the finish line at the Taupo Half Marathon. No matter what, I’m not the whiny girl trying to get out of having to run a mile for PE class anymore.

I know there are lots and lots of people in the world who can do it. There also lots of people who run full marathons and even some who enjoy running ultra marathons. Still, I’m pretty stoked about our achievement, as it proved to me that you can really accomplish the stuff you want to achieve, if you just bother to get your bum off the couch. Last year, I couldn’t run more than two or three kilometres without struggling with my breathing and just walking home instead. A year on, I’m seriously considering aiming for a full marathon.

Anyway, this particular half marathon was pretty hard work, by anyone’s standards. No matter how much you enjoy running or how good you are at it, no one can convince me they enjoy running with strong ice cold winds, rain and even hail hitting them in the face like rocks. We picked the Taupo Half Marathon as our goal because we thought it would be more scenic than the Auckland one (which happens in October) and, plus, it would be a good excuse for a roadtrip to one of my favourite parts of the country. With a couple of months to worry about it, I signed up without putting much thought into the fact that I was signing up for a half marathon in one of the coldest areas of the island (it’s where we go skiing, for goodness’ sake!) and in the coldest month of the year. Bad move.

There are some key lessons I take from this whole craziness. I guess the main one is that you can run a half marathon even if you have had lung problems or if you were a wimpy kind who thought running was for losers who couldn’t play proper sports (I grew out of that, don’t hit me). You can also run a half marathon if, only a few months before, you thought running 5km was a pretty long run (and this is why I’m not so scared of the idea of running a full marathon anymore).

One of the best decisions I made throughout the whole training process was head to the Shoe Clinic and get myself a pair of proper running shoes. I’d gone to my doctor before that about a persistent pain in my right knee after each run and he explained that the only thing that would fix it would be a pair of shoes that was adequate to my feet. The guys at the Shoe Clinic did a great job of explaining everything and showed me how I put my feet down on the ground when I run and why I need a certain type of running shoe. As soon as I put my new running shoes on, I knew we’d be great friends (even if spending that much money in one pair of shoes totally goes against my religion).

The worst decision I made throughout the whole process was to pick a training schedule and forgetting about it about, hmm, two hours later. My training ended up being frequent but very irregular. I used all the excuses I could think of and only really got into training seriously about three to four weeks before race day.

I’ve also realised that the runners who told me running was as much about mental strength as it was about physical exercise were spot on. It is as much about keeping your body going as it is about getting your brain to agree to let it keep going. I spent the entire length of the half marathon in a sort of internal monologue arguing with my weaker side that wanted me to slow down, walk, take breaks and even give up.

Having a good playlist really helped too. I spent a good few hours putting that playlist together and even tested it in some runs prior to the half marathon. Having the right songs for the different stages of the run was a huge help (call me lame but you try slowing down when Florence is yelling at your ears to “run fast for your father, run fast for you mother…”).

What helped the most, though, was having my own private support crew there. C. and his parents were near the 4km mark ready to grab my jacket off me and hand me some jelly beans and I then ran past them again at the 17km mark where they had water and Powerade in hand. We had previously arranged for me to meet up with them later in a car park nearby, because we thought it would be way too busy for them to be able to park and wait for me at the finish line. About 15 or 16km into the run, though, I realised having them at the finish line would be a way of ensuring my weaker side wouldn’t win that internal monologue. So I ran past them at 17km and asked them to be there at the end, not realising they had already decided to do so anyway. I can’t tell you how much it helped me, being able to break the run down by the stages when I’d be seeing them.

The final lesson is that this half marathon wasn’t really the end goal or the point of all this training. Not even 24 hours later, me and S. were already searching for what other running events we could do next. So far, we’ve decided to sign up for an off-road run in September (15km) and another half-marathon in November (this time in usually sunny Kerikeri). I doubt the weather will ever be *that* crappy and now we can finally say “21.1km? Been there, done that!”. Virtual high five, S.!


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berries and white chocolate chip ice cream recipe

what’s one to do when one’s out of ice cream and gets a craving for this cold treat? well, one stops referring to oneself as “one” and “oneself”… and then makes ice cream from scratch.

I used the always faithful Edmonds cookbook (a kiwi classic) for the basic ice cream recipe. The result is the mixture you see below and, for that, you will need to get a few bowls dirty. Here’s how:

beat four egg whites until stiff peaks form. gradually add 1/4 of a cup of caster sugar to the egg whites, one tablespoon at a time, beating until the sugar dissolves before adding the next tablespoon.

in a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and another 1/4 of a cup of caster sugar until thick and pale. add one teaspoon of vanilla.

fold yolk mixture into egg white mixture.

in another bowl, beat 300ml of cream until thick. then fold the cream into the egg mixture.

That’s your basic ice cream done. If you pour that into a container and freeze it, you will have vanilla ice cream. Or frozen boredom, whatever you want to call it. So pick your favourite ingredients to add to it and make it more interesting. For this first attempt, I picked berries and white chocolate. I had a bag of frozen berries in the freezer so used those to make about 1 1/2 cups of berry pulp.

I didn’t have any chocolate chips, only chocolate buttons, so patiently broke them into little chips (because that’s how committed I am to ice cream).

Give the mixture a good stir to ensure the white chocolate chips are all over it and don’t just concentrate in one place. Pour the mixture into a container (or individual serving bowls) suitable for freezing.

Freeze for about three hours or until firm.

Eat it as if ice cream is going out of fashion.


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I know what I did last summer* – Great Barrier Island edition

A mini-guide to Great Barrier Island

A much-needed backup of my laptop led to me spending a good hour browsing through photos, including the folder of photos taken on Great Barrier Island in October last year. It is such an amazing place to visit and you would be surprised at how few NZers actually go there (especially considering it’s only about 100km out of Auckland – a mere 30min flight away). But maybe the fact it doesn’t get many visitors is actually part of the reason the island is so beautiful.

Travelling to Great Barrier really does feel like travelling back in time to what New Zealand must have used to be. I know it sounds cheesy but it is true that time seems to slow down on the Barrier and things are done in a much simpler way. There are no paved roads and no electricity on the island. Each house as its own power generator and don’t expect to find any street lights or traffic lights anywhere (take a torch with you!).

There are amazing pristine white sand beaches like I have not seen anywhere else in New Zealand and a network of great bush walks for keen hikers. Snorkeling and diving are supposed to be amazing here but I didn’t do any of those so can’t talk about them. It is also supposed to be a popular place for birdwatchers, for the many beautiful species that choose to call the island home. If you’re into mountain biking, there are a few good tracks. If golf is your passion (I won’t question it but I do find it a lil’ bit dull), there’s a nine hole golf course as well.

Population numbers are very low on Great Barrier (something like a little over 800 people covering 285 square kilometres). It’s not unusual to drive for ages without seeing anyone else and it is also not unusual to realise that pretty much everyone you’ve established any sort of contact with while on the island knows each other.

But there’s more to Great Barrier than just the stunning landscapes. Artists have found in the island their perfect refuge and many run small galleries where they exhibit and sell their creations. We bought a couple of unique handmade charms off an artist on the island, just as we were on our way to the airfield to return back to Auckland. That’s when we realised the galleries deserve a closer look (a reason to go back).

We only had three days on the island and I was a bit worried we’d be rushing around to see all the sites we had planned on seeing. However, as we arrived there, the relaxed, no-frills lifestyle kind of rubbed onto us and we found ourselves taking our time and not really stressing about getting through our list of places to see. We sat around for ages admiring landscapes and enjoyed the privilege of walking along deserted beaches.

Three days were enough to give us a taste of Great Barrier Island but they were also enough to make us realise we definitely need to return. And you should go there too.

How to get there:

You can either fly or take a ferry from Auckland to Great Barrier Island. If you’re flying, you can choose to fly with Fly My Sky (the company we used) or Great Barrier Airlines. The trip takes about half an hour.

If you’re choosing to take the ferry (which can either take 2 1/2 or 4 1/2 hours, depending on whether it is a car ferry or a passenger ferry), both SeaLink and Fullers operate from Auckland.

Where to stay:

There are many accommodation options on Great Barrier and most of them look very nice. Truth is, you’re never too far from an amazing beach on the island so, wherever you choose to stay, it’ll probably be amazing. We stayed in Tryphena, at the south end of the island, not very far from the airfield.

Getting around the island:

The roads on Great Barrier are not paved so my advice is that you do not take your own car to the island (which you can do with the car ferry). Hiring a car on the island is not very expensive and you’ll be thankful you are driving a rental car when you hit the really rough parts of the roads.

Food:

There are some good restaurants on Great Barrier, if memory serves me right. We had a delicious dinner at an Irish pub in Tryphena. I can’t remember the name but I’m pretty sure there aren’t two Irish pubs there so that should be enough information to get you there.

However, snacks can be expensive! Great Barrier Island’s groceries arrive weekly from supermarkets in Auckland and, therefore, stock is limited and prices are higher than you will find in other areas of New Zealand. If you’re going for just 3 or 4 days, like we did, I suggest you pack some snack bars or biscuits, in case you get hungry and don’t feel like paying 3 or 4 times as much for them.

Money:

There are no banks or ATMs on Great Barrier so take cash with you!

Not to miss:

The SS Wairarapa shipwreck site, on the north of the island, is well worth a visit.

Don’t forget to visit the Kaitoke hot springs, which are a short bush walk away from the road.

Windy Canyon is well worth the walk to (especially for the stunning panoramic views you get of the whole island). But they’re not joking about the name – don’t leave that jacket in the car!

—

* Winter has really settled in here in the land of the long white cloud (and we’ve been having some seriously cold weather). The next best thing after warm coats, hot cups of coffee and comfortable knitwear is to remind myself of how much I enjoyed the past summer. It is also a good reminder of the good times to look forward to when the next summer comes around. Oh yes it is!
 
This is the fourth post in the series.The first one was about Rarotonga, the second was about White Island and the third one was about New Zealand’s South Island.


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happy weekend!

It’s amazing how, not thaaaaaat many years ago (shut up!), I was battling with my parents over what time I was allowed to come home from being out with friends in the evening. Back then, conquering the right to an extra 20 or 30 minutes felt like a victory in a major battle. I subconsciously believed I would forever cherish the fruits of those battles.

Ten years later, my ideal friday night – especially now in winter – includes good food, a cat curled up next to me and a pile of magazines or a book. And that’s not even in preparation for a big weekend of hard partying, nope! My plans for the weekend include – you guessed it! – cakes and books and coffee and tea and biscuits and magazines and crap tv and early nights*. If I knew I was about to turn into such a nana so early on in life, I wouldn’t have made such a big deal over those 20 or 30 minutes ten years ago.

Yay! Weekend!

 

*and a fair bit of running in preparation for the half-marathon so, please, weather gods, be kind!


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It’s the (not so) little things

Around lunchtime on 29 November 2009, I typed my final word on the document that I had had open for the previous 29 days, added a “the end” for dramatic effect and grabbed my phone to call C. It was sunday and he was out on a bush walk with some friends.

It was a gorgeous day outside, as it had been in the few days prior to that. I had massive bags under my eyes and was in serious need of some vitamin D so I remember feeling really bummed out I couldn’t join them for the walk. “I DID IT! IT’S FINISHED!” I said, as soon as he said ‘hello’. Instead of his usual patronising “hmm okay, honey” (usually said while he quickly tries to remember what the heck I’m talking about), he said “All done? Wow! That’s awesome!” and proceeded to tell the person walking next to him that I had just finished my first NaNoWriMo challenge and, with that, my first 50,000 word novel.

The reason for his genuine satisfaction with my achievement (which, on a universal scale, is pretty minuscule, I do realise) was because he had seen how hard each of those days had been, working full-time in a writing job, only to get home and write another 1667 words on top of that, when my brain was begging for a break. I printed out my “winner’s certificate” and felt genuinely proud of myself.

Was it because I had written the next New York Times Bestseller? Of course not, I’m no Snooki! I had over 50,000 words of complete rubbish (so bad I haven’t dared to open the document pretty much since that exact same day, for fear of dissolving into a pool of embarrassment).

So no, it had nothing to do with the kind of work I had slaved over. It was just about the fact that I had set myself to do it… and I had done it. Bonus: I had managed to stick to my self-imposed rules: 1) do not take any time off work because of it and 2) do not cancel any pre-scheduled social engagements because of it.

In the great scheme of things, doing the thing you love the most every single day for 30 days shouldn’t be hard. But like most things in life, turn it into an obligation, give it a deadline, and it enters the “tedious chore” danger zone. That was what I was afraid to happen. It didn’t.

Anyway, I started thinking about this after watching this short TED talk by Matt Cutts about how small sustainable steps make you achieve your goals in a much easier way. It all sounds pretty obvious until you start thinking about how you usually have big ideas (I want to write a novel! I want to run a marathon!) and then get completely overwhelmed by the scale of those ideas and toss them aside in favour of something a little easier.

In a way, I think that’s the same logic behind my decision to enter one running event per month this year (I’ve entered five so far, having missed the June one due to a cold and the July one due to not wanting to give organisers $50 for the only run that fits into my schedule… but I’ll catch up). The point is, this goal is not to run a marathon (CALM DOWN!) but to slowly progress towards something of the sorts.

(The fact that I’m going to be running my first ever half-marathon in 3 weeks time and still have no idea how I’m going to live to blog about it is a subject for an entirely different blog post.)

Last January, I also set myself the “mini-goal” of running 100km during that calendar month. It turned out to be fairly easy to reach, with summer days being a big help and getting through the month tracking the numbers and seeing them increase was actually quite exciting, like I was in a race against myself… and winning!

Thirty days seems like short enough for me to stick to something in case I don’t like it and it also seems like long enough for me to do something I like very often without getting sick of it. Plus, it means I’m making each day matter, somehow. Well, most days.

***

image credit goes to my friend & running buddy S. and you can sort of see me with my dorky knee brace during our very first running event, on Waiheke Island, back in January.


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5 things that have annoyed me lately and 6 things that make it all better

I’ll quit my bitchin’ in just a minute but, for the next few lines, let me use this blog to let out what has been annoying me, okay? Okay, cool.

  • Moody’s pretending that they have any kind of credibility (see here for context, for example)
  • Online stores that don’t ship internationally, totally missing the point of the www
  • Online stores that charge you a kidney to ship something internationally while others will send you cheaper, heavier items for free, from further away (I love you Asos, marry me!)
  • People who get in trouble for doing illegal stuff, admit to knowing they were doing it illegally on purpose and still act all cocky about it and threaten to sue because they were put in jail instead of  a hotel. True story.
  • My hand mixer committed suicide this weekend halfway through mixing flour into the dough for a chocolate cake. I’m currently “hand mixer-less” which is a really bad state to be in.
On the other hand, there are some pretty cool things in life and, contrary to what it may look like early on a Monday morning, I’m not a giant cloud of no.
  • I have a stack of cheap as chips vintage film cameras in working order at home and can’t wait to load them up with some film and start snapping away.
  • I’ve also got a pile of cool old magazines from work (yay for their spring cleaning in winter), full of pretty pictures to look at.
  • Warm milk and a couple of squares of Whittaker’s creamy milk chocolate thrown in it. Heaven.
  • My kitty who sleeps lying on her side like humans (and snoring!) and is the cutest thing ever.
  • Being able to go to the gym at 11pm
  • Good music to help me get through deadline.

Right, final Russian lesson tonight (for the current course) so better finish my homework before heading there. до свидания!