Yesterday, our first day in California, we went down to Stanford and Palo Alto in the afternoon. I’m afraid it was all quite repellent. Stanford is not an attractive campus to my mind, it gives off a distinct ‘we own you’ feeling and it was probably the first time I’d ever been to a university […]
Born-again Rachman
Yesterday was my busiest day in a while, and just before I staggered off to bed I saw a newpaper headline about ‘Sheriff Fatman’ by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. The song (which I like) immediately got stuck in my head and unfortunately it is not the type of music that lulls you to sleep. […]
Island in the sun
In Hilo. It was a very long journey from the Doyenne’s house to our current abode, with some panic and disruption along the way, particularly when we arrived at the airport to find that we needed to show proof of outbound travel not from the US, but from countries contiguous to the US, so our […]
Three stars
Last night we had our dinner at Hiakai, the new hottest thing in Wellington. This is a high-end restaurant that uses Maori/ Pasifika ingredients and has created a great deal of buzz including an article in the New York Times and this interesting piece about the challenges of sourcing native produce in NZ. It’s located […]
Curly hair
Last night we decided to stroll down to town for dinner. While the net strolling was downhill, a lot of it was very steeply upwards, to the top of the hill where the cable car (funicular, to be more accurate, I think) ends. Then there was a way downwards between tall hedges. At the foot […]
Uptown
Dinner was an immense success. I baked the side of salmon after marinating for a bit under a paste of minced garlic, mustard, lemon and tarragon, and it turned out flavourful and tender. With it I cooked one of my usual things, courgettes on high heat with sliced chilli and garlic, then tossed with mint […]
Into the hive
In the morning we went to the farmer’s market which was very good indeed, the best we’ve seen in this country by far. It had a very rural air to it, being held in the A&P ground with a fiddle player but the produce was very good and our haul included delicacies such as pine […]
Sweet noodles
For lunch we went down to the main road in Picton where we had been told there was a noodle bar that made surprisingly good noodles. I had a tom yum with noodles, which was decent, though much too sweet. The Gentleman Friend had a pad thai which was surprisingly good though also too sweet. […]
Fires over Nelson
We arrived in Nelson this afternoon after a really excellent lunch, the best restaurant meal I’ve had in New Zealand. We’ve rented a small house, and it feels very strange indeed to have a house, with two levels and multiple rooms, all of which are accessible. A preview of a more settled future perhaps? Then, […]
Road to Ostend
A sleepless night but a less ill one. I felt strong enough in the morning that I accommpanied the Gentleman Friend on a 5km walk to Ostend, the nearest town, there to buy some groceries. It was a plesaant walk past fields and vieyards and hills and bays and marshes. Along the way we saw, […]