glory day

A story of lamb

This year my brother (the chef) decided xmas dinner would be lamb cooked over a spit.  So he swapped some whitebait for some fresh Southern lamb from our family farm, and had my BiL build a firepit:

His research showed that bits of lamb generally fall into the fire during the cooking process, and this was not something he was prepared to accept (he is quite exacting).  So he came up with the great idea of wrapping the meat in chicken wire before cooking:

which I thought was fairly genius.  Then the lamb was slowly rotated over the fire pit for four hours:

(here my dad points sternly and managerially, David labours under the weight and my BiL is bemused). 

After 4 hours we took it off the spit, cut off all the wires and carried out a taste test:

As ChefBrother said: "I don't know if it's cooked, or cooked to perfection".  Delicious.

~~~~~

In unrelated news I had another tooth removed on Wednesday.  While dental extractions pretty much hold all the physical and emotional weight of stubbing my toe, the recovery on this one is a bitch.  Chocolate Sustagen FTW!

Just one of those days

NOT LOVING:

The PMS that kept me away from the op-shop today GRR.

LOVING:

This photo of David's parents garden:

They live on the edge of a National Park and the scenary is really quite spectacular.

MENDING:

~ boots ~ belt ~ frock ~ socks ~ bag ~ picture ~ watch.  It's been just one of those days.

Words are, like ... jumbley things

HAVE DONE:

Went to stay with David's grandparents last weekend (she is still recovering from surgery) to bestow more casseroles.   And watch rugby THANK YOU All Blacks.

Last night we watched the Harry Potter movie with De and J at Gold Class Bondi Junction.  I do enjoy watching a kid's movie amid wine and chocolate sundaes!

SEWING:

So far I have sewn six different versions of this frock:

Now I am working on lurid knit skirts, as apparently you can never have enough.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:

~ seeing De when she gets home from work (she's off to the states tomorrow); steak for dinner.  Hairdressers on Friday.

RANDOM PHOTO:

De and I collaborated on a surprise! blanket for a dear friend who - in a fit of what I assume was brain-fever - ran a marathon.  As neither De nor I could successfully run to the corner we felt this feat was deserving of a blanket:

A random gift of silk

Yesterday one of De's colleagues received a silk scarf as a gift from a client.  He was about to throw it out but she valiantly saved it for me.  It's quite over the top and a bit frightening:

but it's large, it's 100% silk and I'm sure I'll be able to do something with it.

My de-cluttering project is not off to a fantastic start.  So far this week, in addition to the afore-mentioned silk scarf, I have acquired two shirts, a book, a belt and a carving set.

De-cluttering: Iz doin it rong.

Low so low! High so high!

Six weeks ago we decided we couldn't afford to spend xmas in NZ (shakes fist at stupid economy) even though we'd spent last xmas in Australia, and it was clearly my turn to spend xmas with my family in NZ.  And I was very sad.  I love my in-laws and I enjoy spending xmas with them, but I have to say I prefer to spend xmas with my family.

Last night (while suffering from the worst head cold I've ever had) I wondered about having David's parents and grandparents come here for xmas dinner.  Today I idly worked on a potential menu; tonight he called them and they were thrilled to be invited here.  And I'm thrilled they want to come here.

This xmas, for the first time in about 15 years, I'll be spending the entire festive season sleeping in my own bed.  Because [until relatively recently] I've always been the single one, and because I have no children I've always had to travel to other people's houses for xmas, and I've always gotten the air mattress/sofa/broken bed to sleep on.  I mean, not to sound bitter, and obviously you have to compromise, but being told that you have to sleep on the window-seat because there's only one of you - and you broke up with your partner of five years a month earlier - is not one of my cherished family xmas memories.

The dinner in itself won't be a problem, I don't think - we did a very similar thing for Troy's birthday dinner (although this time we will have different meats).  I'll have to buy a few new (or probably op) dishes, and there will be some cleaning/organising/borrowing issues.  Also I will have to get the table down from the attic, which may be a problem as I assembled it in the attic.

Soon I shall assemble the tree and arrange the reindeer.  Here is how they looked last year:

and I imagine that's how they'll look again this year.  Reindeer aren't much for change.

By Thursday, we mean, of course, Tuesday

So I thought I'd put off the parcel re-re-delivery until Thursday, then my door-bell rang this afternoon with someone re-re-delivering the parcel.  And rather than dwell on the fact that I was just about to leave home (ie, if he'd come five minutes later I'd've missed him) I'll thank the universe I was home to receive the parcel.

It was a present from my sister, and look how gorgeous:

Made by my sister in 100% NZ wool, and so warm and cuddly.  Such a very special present.

Morsels from my day

This is a conversation which we allegedly* had last night

Me: I AM GOING TO SLEEP DOWNSTAIRS BECAUSE I AM BEING BITTEN BY FOXES.

David: Do you mean mosquitos?

Me: FOXES!!  FOXES!!

*I don't know, I wasn't awake, and sometimes I suspect David of embellishing.

~~~~~

Here is the frock I made yesterday:

The flash is making the colours look wrong, and the angle is not right, but it's quite cute in person.

Today we went to Mickeys for lunch with David's parents, which was fun, and tonight I'm having dinner at the Amazon Steakhouse with De and Ke.  Awesomasaurus.

But what shall I do this year?

David's parents are in NZ right now, and met up with with some of my family earlier this week.  They were expecting to meet my parents for lunch, and were probably quite overwhelmed when my sister, my niece and my brother and his partner turned up as well.  David's family = quiet; my family = NOT.

I'm sure they all had a nice time; I'm just a bit concerned I couldn't be there to monitor the amount of embarassing stories being told.

~~~~~

I'm coasting down to my birthday (41 is not as exciting as 40, alas), and I realised I have only about four working outfits.  The problem is with summer: I have virtually no summer clothes that can be worn out in public and I'm not yet ready to start making my own patterns.  I have a week or so to scramble something together.

Speaking of birthdays, last year I had an afternoon tea:

and drank champagne from a teapot:

 

Very civilised, and so much fun.