Especially on a Saturday or Sunday morning, if you happen to glance upwards at just the right moment, you are certain to see at least one hot air balloon floating over Hamilton - sometimes the sky really is filled with them. We have seen a couple of spectacular ones - the most amazing shapes - cartoon characters, light bulbs and so on! This weekend is the hot air balloon extravaganza - entitled 'New Zealand's premier ballooning festival' - the advertisement in our 'What's on in Hamilton' reads; A visual spectacle as over 30 magnificent hot air balloons from New Zealand and overseas take to the skies for five days of fun and competition. Amazing new special-shaped balloons and mass ascensions at sunrise entertain and delight spectators of all ages'.
With the special 'Earth Hour' about to happen worldwide, Hamilton has tried to raise awareness for the big 'switch off' on Saturday with a hot air balloon, shaped like a light bulb and with the words 60 EARTH HOUR printed on it - we haven't actually seen this balloon in the sky, but then maybe we just haven't looked skywards at the right time!
There is a pretty good morning show on TV which has a presenter with a very dry, very amusing sense of humour - he says what he thinks and often has to defend his position after irate viewers send e-mails chewing him out! I'm sure you would know that I just love him! The other morning he was once again in the dog box for making a comment to the effect that the Australians are right when they say that New Zealanders are just a bunch of hobbits who don't know how to dress! There were all sorts of people defending the locals and some saying that we have to just accept that we can't please all the people all the time and that since Australia is our nearest neighbour and 'just over the ditch' we should just ignore such negative comments - this presenter said he strongly agreed that indeed New Zealanders really don't know how to dress, but would concede that perhaps the 'hobbits' bit was a bit nasty!
The fact of the matter is that in New Zealand, what you wear, what you drive, where you live and so on REALLY doesn't mean anything to anyone - the kids here don't care about stuff like which cel phone make they have (if they even have one) and labels are just not an issue for most of them - there is a lot of billabong around the beaches where the surfers hang out, but in town that's not the case. We see folks every time we go out, that make us look twice - we still can't believe that they think they look alright to be seen in public - I kid you not, like we always felt when we were on holiday beside the sea and nobody knows you, you could slop into the shop in shorts and barefoot with uncombed hair, and nobody cares - it's like that here in town, all the time! Sure, the guys who are doing business are generally pretty well turned out and the ladies who man the make-up counters at pharmacies and department stores are powdered and painted, but for the average guy and his wife, whatever....
In spite of thinking that we would probably never be so totally slack, it's really very liberating to be able to go wherever you like, looking however you happen to be looking at the time and nobody gives you a second glance!
All of you who know anything about Jo know that he is a 'cheesecake fanatic' - and some of you know that I have experimented many times with trying to find the perfect cheesecake recipe that will get the elusive 'Jo stamp of approval' - secretly, all I want to be able to bake, is a cheesecake that he reckons is BETTER than the one served up at Spur - I mean really people, how hard can it be to improve on some mass produced koek?
Needless to say, since I don't have the means at my disposal right at the moment, to bake cheesecakes, I am off the hook for a while.
There is a chain of Cheesecake SHOPS here - whole shops dedicated to cheesecake (every flavour you can possibly imagine judging by the ad boards on the pavement outside these shops) but we have not ventured into one yet - for a number of reasons, the biggest one being that we could easily become habitual cheesecake chompers and the waistlines are already needing some reduction with all the lovely new things that have had to be sampled - so anyway, I was hoping to make a splash with an excursion to one of these shops one of these days and find that I have been pipped at the post as it were in that Jo got an e-mail from one of the colleagues at work saying that today (Friday) is Cheesecake Tuesday! at 10am - the mail says something like 'duh! it's not Tuesday, it's Friday, but it nevertheless is Cheesecake Tuesday today!'
Maybe it will be so good that we will have to call in at one of the aforementioned shops in the very near future so that I can also sample this apparently ledgendary cheesecake! Here's hoping!
So every time you are in a Spur, order a cheesecake and think of us! (with cream not icecream!)
Dis al!
No comments:
Post a Comment