A LITTLE THIS AND A LITTLE THAT...

I recently spent an afternoon down in our cute little yard and just had to get some pictures. Even on the warmest days it's so pleasant under the shade tree. We actually have a lawn, and the garden edging it is full of camillia bushes. It's really a very pretty little place, just down at the bottom of the steps up to our apartment. The tree reaches clear up to our dormer window.

This was a very beautiful sunrise we caught early one morning out of our dining room window...

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..and a beautiful sunset from the opposite window another night.

Okay, a little bit from around Takapuna. This is our little Korean vegetable stand across from the office. We're only there about three days a week getting fresh stuff.



This pretty little park is about a block from the office, right downtown.




After a week's hiatus, we just had to be out exploring again. This time it was a pretty peninsula called Shakespear Park, and we spent about four hours wandering around it, but not until after Dad participated in the rescue of some guy's car. He had backed his boat trailer into the water to float his boat onto it, only to find his car sunk into the wet sand clear up to the axle.

Dad's favorite thing is these rocky beaches, but this one was especially interesting because he found a couple caves! Look at the way the cliffs had been twisted at some point in time.

The hills and sheep have to be my favorite part of the walks we take.

We even found this guy wandering around near the sheep!

Even after a couple months, my ears are still so sensitive to the different English here. These are more little ditties I’ve heard:

Flash: maybe snazzy would be a good substitute, “He has a flash car!” or "Those big flash houses above the beach."
Prezzy card: gift card
Sunnies: sun glasses
Yum: the same as yummy, only shorter: “Lollies are yum!”
Kindy: kindergarten
Uni: university. They go “to Uni”, not to "the university." They also go “to hospital”, not to "the hospital."
Diary: calendar. “Mark this date in your diaries.”
Ut: an SUV (I guess utility?)
Crims: criminals
Hire: as in, to rent: You can hire a car at the airport, or hire a video to watch.
Says: not “sez”, but say-s

Panel beater: how about body shop repair?

Figgas: figures, as in numbers

Shed-ule: schedule

Flatted: having to do with where you live - "They were flatted across the street from the store."

Telephonist: a sign in an a hospiital elevator said if you pushed the red button it would ring the hospital telephonist.

Ring, of course is call. You always ring someone, not call them.

Chihs: Cheers - like, goodbye.

I saw a poster of three teenish looking girls, all wearing the same polo with a logo on it, one holding a tray of cookies, one a rolling pin, and the other a mixing bowl. The sign said, “Guide Biscuits, fresh from the oven all during March.” Hmm, Guide Biscuits. Somehow that just doesn't tickle the tastebuds like Girl Scout Cookies!

A family in our ward is moving to a different house this weekend and they were setting up men to help with the move. The bishop asked if they were ready for the Saturday morning shift. I thought maybe there were a couple teams assigned to help them at different times. Not so. A move is a shift. They were shifting, not moving. Kind of like the people who ask where you stay, not where you live. Sounds a little transient.

We were at an activity where they passed around a bowl of candy. There were Cadbury eggs, and I thought, “Yum!” Not what you’re thinking - they weren’t Cadbury Creme eggs. They were chocolate covered marshmallow eggs, the eternal New Zealand marshmallow. Quite a disappointment!

One of our Village retired ladies has a passion fruit vine growing on her fence. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before. She brought us a bag the other day and said to wait until they started looking wrinkly. They’re dark purple and about the size of an egg. When you try to cut into them, the skin is like leather covering Styrofoam. But when you get inside, it’s full of tiny little black seeds in a real slimy jelly-kind-of stuff, and it’s all pulled away from the sides, which do look like Styrofoam. You just scoop out the jelly and seeds and eat it all. So good! And very tropical tasting.

We're due for a pretty big storm this weekend, so aside from helping with the "shift" I think our weekend will be at home reading and baking bread. Sounds good to me! Our week has been pretty much of a hassle, so reading and baking bread is about all the adventure I'm willing to take on for this time.