Saturday 23 February 2008

Fuel is important

"And we talked to some of the lads from the Post Office last night and they said we could trust Mr Lipwig’s word ‘cos he’s as straight as a corkscrew.”
“A corkscrew?” said Bent, shocked.
“Yeah, we asked about that, too,” said Shady. “And they said he acts curly but that’s okay ‘cos he damn well gets the corks out!”
- Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Apparently fuel is very important for planes…in case those of us on the plane this morning hadn’t figured that out yet the captain was kind enough to point it out as we waited for the refuelling to finish. Ah, I love plane trips.

What’s the point of desperately trying to cut down your luggage to 20kg when the real cut off is 23kg before they charge you (and I swear mine was 23.7kg and I was all ready to pay…when your boss is going to reimburse you then it really doesn’t matter at all…but she was like, nah, it’s fine you’re just on the cut off).

For the first time (and don’t laugh ‘cause I thought it was exciting) I got to have someone waiting at the other end with a sign with my name on it. Ah, the small amusements in life! Plus I was the second person off the plane…usually I’m like the last. But, as Murphy’s law goes, first off, last to get luggage.

Actually, I almost didn’t get my luggage at all when some guy walked off with my bag. I just happened to glance in the general direction of the exit as this guy walked past holding a red Honda bag filled to the brim just like mine. I dashed after him feeling like a right twerp to discover it was mine. He felt pretty silly and it was even funnier when his bag appeared on the carousel as it wasn’t nearly as faded as mine as well as no where near as full as mine. That’s the second time recently I’ve seen someone with the same bag as me…and I thought that basically no one else really had them.

Monday 18 February 2008

Attack of the Peanut Butter

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
- Dumbledore from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

I am addicted to peanut butter...well, nut butters but obviously peanut butter is the cheapest. An addiction to the creamy, gooey, nutty stuff is serious stuff...once you realise that it goes with ANYTHING, then you're in trouble.

This is a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie (recipe here although I changed the crust quite a bit and I've never seen this agave nectar in New Zealand so I used molasses...another serious, but not quite so, addiction). It's good. Very good. So good that you won't stop at one piece. We snuck pieces out of the fridge for a midnight snack. Don't feel ashamed...someone has to eat it after all.

Thursday 14 February 2008

Through rain, hail or shine

"I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread."
- Bilbo Baggins from The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

It's raining today. Everyone walks differently when it's raining, like they are carrying the world on their shoulders. We wrap up warm whilst still wearing jandals wishing for that warm summer weather to return (but cursing the heat when it's with us...we don't know what we want but we can't win...it's just easier to blame and curse the weather).