Tea Break - Tuesday 4

Welcome once again to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

The longest living cat on record, Creme puff,  lived to be 38 years old and was given coffee at breakfast all his life.  Breakfast for him was bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee.

The previous owner of the record was Grandpa Rex Allen who\ lived to be 34 years old on the same diet.

Coffee reduces chances of Alzheimers, Parkinsons.  

Tea without adding milk can "tan" your bladder making for many problems  Milk binds the tanic acid making it safe to drink.

Homemade food increases an animal's life span too.  Let's talk about it, okay?

1. Coffee increases a bee's memory and does the same for you.      Bees love caffeinated coffee  flowers.  What do you love about coffee or tea?

I love two cups of tea first thing in the morning with my breakfast and I'm quite fussy about it so like to make it myself. It sets me up for the day.

2. If you opened a tea or coffee shop in your neighborhood what would it be named?  How would you decorate it? Would pastry or cake be served?

I'd have to call it 'Tea Break'. I have no idea how I'd decorate so would have to give my daughters almost free range, but it would have to be cosy and comfortable. And definitely cake...and pastries. And biscuits (U.S. cookies) and scones with cream and jam, (U.S. biscuits).

3. Beethoven required 60 beans per cup of coffee.  How particular are you about your coffee or tea?

I'm quite particular about my tea. I like Dilmah, preferably English Breakfast. If I'm away I'm happy with whatever the hostess gives me but it's always good to get back home to my preferred tipple.

4.Italian clergy in1600s  declared coffee the devil's brew and forbid it.

Pope Clement the VIII wanted to taste it, loved it and blessed it ... today, new research shows black coffee is drunk mainly by psychopaths... 

Sweden banned coffee in 1746 as dangerous and Islam banned it for causing free thinking!

How do you take your coffee you free thinking, radical and what's your favorite brand of devil's brew?

I love my Dilmah tea, none of this free thinking radical stuff for me, mainly because it triggers migraines, unfortunately!

Have a good week, 

blessings,

Diana

A day out in Devonport

We're home again and adjusting to the cooler southern weather.

We stopped over again in Auckland for a few days with Sofi and Aaron and attended church with them on Sunday. I wanted to show you the altar table, dressed by one of the Pacific Island congregations. I thought it was so pretty I had to photograph it.

On Monday we spent the day over in Devonport - drove 40 minutes to get there and didn't leave the city. We small town people aren't used to those sort of distances in the urban area :)

Devonport is a nice little village with a lot of well kept colonial style houses and I suspect, a lot of money. I tried to take some pics of the houses with their delicate iron latticework and white picket fences but the car was travelling just a little too fast.

 

After some op shopping, where some of us found stuff to buy and others decided they couldn't fit anything else in their bags we found a nice wee cafe for lunch... 

...and then decided to go and explore the Naval Museum.

Below is a model of HMNZS Otago which my brother served on and went to Mururoa Atoll with when the New Zealand and Australian governments sent ships to protest the testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific in the mid 1970s. The man in the photo is our then Prime Minister Norman Kirk who died in office a few years later.

And this is the medal awarded to all personnel taking part. The New Zealand Special Service Medal (Nuclear Testing). My brother didn't apply for his medal but his twin sister decided it belonged in the family and applied on his behalf - and received it!

Then it was time for coffee, or tea in my case, and a chat then we went outside to play :)

Captain and crew, Bob and Aaron.

Admiring the Auckland CBD across the harbour and rainbow spotting. We guessed it had been raining where we'd come from so a good day to get away for a while.

Aaron and I 'played' chess. Well Aaron did and I pretended to. I've only ever played on the computer and that was years ago so he finished me off in about three moves, mainly because the only moves I could remember were the pawns and then I went blank 😂

Then it was time to head home and pack our bags for the trip home the next day.

And guess who was waiting to board with us? Mary Poppins! was my initial thought but then - no, it's one of the Marx brothers!

I'll do my best to catch up with some blog reading over the next few days. Have a good week. 

Diana

Time to head home

Our bags are almost packed ready for the off tomorrow. The time has gone quickly and although we haven't done much in the way of tourist stuff it's been lovely catching up with everyone one way or another.

More pics of our activities.

We had a drive out to see if we could see the whales another day and this time everyone saw them breaching while looking through the binoculars but all I saw was a tail :) Just my luck. We stopped at this cafe for a bite to eat and a drink on the way home. Lots of ibis hanging around - the Aussies call them bin chooks.

A day at the mall getting a few essentials we older citizens had need of. We girls decided to have a bit of pampering so went and had our eyebrows waxed and left Bob to wander for a half hour.

Another day we went for a walk around Queen's Gardens and had our pic taken under this enormous Banyan fig tree.

And visited the Orchid House. Not a lot flowering but still lovely to see.

I  packed up four of these cute wee koalas and sent them off to all the great grandkids.

Yesterday friends picked us up and took us up to Eungella National Park for lunch. A two hour drive. We stopped at a viewing platform over a creek and were lucky enough to see several platypus and some turtles. One of the turtles had a baby on its back and they were lying in the sun getting warm. They were too far away to get a decent photo though. And a large goanna ran across the road in front of the car as we were leaving.

This Giant Golden Orb-weaving spider was on a wall nearby while we were eating lunch. It was big.

And a hand for size context. The hand belongs to a big six foot man.

So we have had a good holiday just enjoying people's company. This time tomorrow we'll just about be in Auckland.

So until next time, blessings,

Diana

A social week.

We've been in Mackay just over a week and it has been quite a social time. We've caught up with relatives and friends over morning and afternoon teas, a birthday dinner, a meal out one evening and tonight we have a barbecue to go to. We went out to see if we could spot some whales one day but they weren't really  cooperating. Saw some big splashes from the tails but they weren't breaching. Well not while I had the binoculars anyway :)

I'll just post some pictures with a short description if they need it.

I was trying to get a pic of the plovers, there were five in all, but they weren't having any of it either. Sisters  front lawn.

Sis with her son and daughter in law.

Trying to spot whales. Both my sisters and Bob just out of the shot.

The shipping harbour...

...and the marina in Mackay. There's a lot of money tied up here.

Sisters sharing a laugh, that's me on the right.

Another morning out, I liked the way they presented the sandwiches.

Morning tea at a friend's house. We knew them in New Zealand and he is a rally car driver. 

He took both Bob and I for a spin in one of his cars, very exhilarating. And noisy :)

A short clip of our ride.

And last night we had another couple of family members arrive for a few days. So it will be nice getting to know them. They're from further south and we'd never met them until now.

And until next time,

enjoy your week,

blessings

Diana

A quick round up.

Last Saturday we flew out of Dunedin to Auckland on the first leg of our trip to see the family in Australia. Our youngest grand daughter and her husband took us to the airport and sat and had a coffee with us while we waited. It was a nice time.

 Aaron and Sofi met us in Auckland and we had a nice relaxed evening catching up on the news. On Sunday we all attended the church Aaron is pastoring. The congregation is small but welcoming and consists mostly of pacific islanders. Below is a picture of a tapa cloth on the wall. Tapa cloth is highly valued in the pacific communities and traditionally represented a woman's wealth. It is made from beaten bark.

After church we went out to Maraetai Beach for the afternoon. It was a really pleasant day and we enjoyed being able to sit there in the sun and watch everyone enjoying themselves, swimming no less. 

We had hot chips for a snack with a hot cuppa. 

And just as we thought we were going home Sofi thought it would be nice to show us Sylvia Park Mall, which is the largest one in the country. So we strolled around there for an hour or so and some of us spent money and some of us didn't :) It was a long day.

On Monday we did a trip down to Cambridge to visit our grandson who has a 'retro and collectibles' shop there. AMPERSAND is what he calls it. It wasn't open but he took us in to have a look...

...after which we all went for lunch and then strolled down to the local museum for a browse.

Below is a mosaic on the footpath. 

Cambridge is the main horse racing stud area of New Zealand. This is one of the horses, 'Mainbrace', very famous in its day.

Next day was a rest day :) it had been very busy then on Wednesday we flew to Aussie. Below is Bob coming out of the chair lift from the plane at our final destination - Mackay.

I'll leave you there until next time. 

Have a lovely week,

Keep well and enjoy yourselves,

Diana

Looking back on the week

 We had a day in town this week mainly because I had to take my phone in to be looked at. It's been going very slow and even telling me I had no internet connection when I was sitting in my own house. Anyway I'm hoping it's fixed now but to be honest I'm not sure. And the young fellow in the shop was not very forthcoming. I found out more when Bob went into another shop, we're with different companies, and I may change over when I have to update my phone one day.

Still it was good to have a wander and buy one or two things we need to take away on holiday with us. After we'd finished we went to our favourite cafe for lunch. Arrived just before the rush, by the time we left it was full. 

 We catch the bus in these days, it saves trying to get a park somewhere, the parking buildings are often already full. And it's amazing what you see from the bus, being higher up, that you miss when sitting in the car.

I've been in the shop as well but it has been very slow lately. I think in part because of the weather, it's been very cold and miserable, but also because of the economy. People are not buying a lot of books these days, we do great sales in greeting cards though :) But today it was a little different, I had two authors ring and enquire how their books were going. Quite exciting having a little chat to them.

I mentioned how cold it's been, again, and the picture above is what we woke to this morning. Thick fog which turned into freezing rain about midday. A lot of flights were delayed today, the airport is a few kilometres further down the plain than us. I just hope it doesn't happen on Saturday when we're due to fly out. Youngest grand daughter is taking us to the airport.

And a montage of my great grands with the quilts my sister made them and sent over from Aussie. Amazingly they all arrived on the same day and there were some excited little people ripping open parcels. She personalized them to what the three older kids are into and made up a lovely colorful one for the toddler.

And just because I can.

I was using a public rest room when I spotted these unusual tiles on the walls. I found them quite fascinating. Some of the chemical elements on the periodic table. I would have taken more photos but people were starting to look at me funny :)

Top left S 16 - sulfur.

Bottom right Sc 21 - scandium.

And that's it from me. 

Next time I post I'll be in Auckland or Mackay. See you then. 

Diana

Cool nights and sunny days.

The nights have been cold, sometimes dropping to -5C or below and it usually means we have lovely sunny, if chilly, days. But it's usually lunch time before the sun is coming  through our sitting room windows and we can turn the heat pump off.

It hasn't stopped the jonquils from putting on a beautiful, cheery display along the front of the house though.

The afternoons are fairly warm(ish) up to 12C sometimes and one afternoon last week I went out to a very enjoyable Aglow meeting. The board had gone to the trouble of creating some small vignettes around the room relating to the theme of the afternoon.

We finished off with afternoon tea before we headed home again. It was cooling down again by then.

 You'll have to forgive me for going on about the weather. I don't like the cold. Daughter in law Sofi, says down south everyone talks about the weather - in Auckland everyone talks about the traffic. I'm down south 😄

But in just over a week we're heading to Auckland, where I won't talk about the traffic because I won't be driving in it, and then we're heading to Mackay in north Queensland. Looking forward to some warmer weather in both places.

I'll leave you there.

Keep well and keep warm.

Until next time, 

Diana

Sandwich time

 

Sandwich Time

Welcome once again to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Sandwiches are a lunch time favorite.  

In the 1930s two favorite sandwiches were ham, pickles and mustard and tuna with rice, capers, pepper and paprika.  I think it probably needed mayo!

Sandwiches can be a  simple peanut butter and jelly or a classy Monte Cristo.

1. What is your favorite sandwich and how do you make it?

I'm not a very exciting sandwich maker and we tend to only have them in the summer. I like a tomato, lettuce, ham and cheese usually on white bread but not always. A little mayo on the lettuce as well. Otherwise lettuce and marmite or cheese and marmite. Marmite is a yeast based breakfast spread not to be confused with vegemite which is more common in Australia. Toasted sandwiches are always good too but not with lettuce.

 

2.  What is the best bread for making toast?  How about for making sandwiches?

We like Couplands Super thick toast bread for sandwiches and toast. It stays lovely and fresh longer than other bread we've found.

3.  If you go out to eat for lunch are you more likely to stay with a safe choice or be more adventurous?

No I'm not a very adventurous sandwich eater when out. Usually I look for an egg 

sandwich made with chopped chives and some mayo. I don't keep eggs at home as we don't eat them very often so enjoy a plain old egg sandwich if I'm out for lunch.

4. Dagwood, hoagie, submarine, Po boy, grinder. Whatever they are called where you are, do you like them and if so what do you want on it?

Pardon? I'm guessing, but don't know, that these are either filled rolls or similar to a subway. On the odd occasion when we go to Subway we tend to still go for the salad ingredients with cold meat but have occasionally become quite daring and tried some of the other ingredients. Usually in a toasted grain bread.

Have a good week.

blessings,

Diana