Month: April 2007

Today was a great one. The weather was lovely for the most part and we shared the day having a BBQ with whanau and friends. Thanks everyone for coming all the way to Maungy for the day. It was greatly appreciated given that time has been precious and we have been concentrating on spending most of it with our parents. Although not the easiest time to have D&Ms it was great just to be able to relax and laugh with everyone around us. I know that we will miss that a lot in the UK. Dad did an excellent job of cooking up the sausages and very garlicky burgers (yum yum) and delicious salads were provided by my cousin and another friend from Auckland. Thanks guys! To top it off a delicious chocolate coated banana cake from another mate from Auckland. Great job! Awesome day.

Well today I learnt how to roast pumpkin seeds. None of the recipes warned me about that fact that they explode! Watch out for flying pumpkin seeds.

Friday was my official last day at work and I am now unemployed. In NZ to say our last goodbyes for a while to family on this side of the world. Having a lovely time. Weather has been very warm and quite surprised that today was perfect. Not long to go now until we fly out to the UK. Still so much to do and so little time. Anyone want to buy a car?

Saw a fantastic sign today going past a local church in the area. They are well known for their captivating signs and today was no exception. First a bit of background. The church is situated on the corner of Marion and Norton Street in Leichhardt. This is a very high traffic area and right next to a set of lights and crossings. It has a very high pedestrian density. Anyway, the sign says “Pedestrians beware, Jesus died on the cross”. Love it!!! Funny yet profoundly thought provoking, a real conversation starter!

Well Earth Hour in Sydney came and went. We went down to Pyrmont to watch the lights go out over Sydney. The Harbour Bridge was eerily dark and the city was significantly darker but by any means we were not able to see any more stars than normal. It was encouraging to see a large number of big businesses had switched off their advertising on top of the buildings. Shame on Samsung being the only one (within the area that we could see) for not turning out their lights! The next day in the paper it would appear that the participation from the public and corporate world was impressive. Hopefully this event will catch on throughout Australia and hopefully other countries. For the 1 hour with lights out this saved green house emissions equal to 48,000 cars off the road for a year! Woo hoo. How simple it is to make small changes that create a exponential difference. We had made the decision to participate in turning our lights off for 2 hours seeing as we used our car to get to a viewing area! It was rather fun doing everything by candle light!

Side note: during our lights out time we did manage to see a stunning comet with blazing tail and all burning up as it came through the Sydney skyline. Fantastic!