From Fritz, with love

I’ve told you about Fritz before. She’s my second mother basically. My great mate emailed me the other day and mentioned that Fritz brought her home a take-away coffee from her favourite cafe. And what was written on the lid of the styrofoam cup? My name: Kim. Clearly, Fritz has not read my post on identity theft

In the post last week was a letter addressed to me and, when I opened it up, there was a wonderful handmade New Year’s greeting from Fritz (who’s real name is Rita – since you’ll see it in the photo below). She decorated the black paper with a heart and star, a gold figure (I think it’s an angel) and wrote her greeting in silver and gold pen.

I had to do a double-check myself though. I initially thought the flag was the New Zealand flag. I’m still getting used to the difference between the Kiwi and Oz flag. They are quite similar but the New Zealand flag has four red stars with white borders, representing the Southern Cross.

Whilst the Australian flag has five white stars arranged to represent the Southern Cross. Four of these stars have seven points and the small one has five points. The large white star beneath the Union Flag is the Commonwealth Star – a seven-pointed star symbolising the Federation of Australia, which came into existence on January 1, 1901.

There is a variant for both flags and I quite like them with the red background.

I’m sure I sound very knowledgeable about flags but a quick search of Wikipedia confirmed what I thought were the major differences. Fritz doesn’t believe we’ll remain in New Zealand. She’s said many times that she thinks we’ll give up the ghost and return to Sydney.

So I’m not sure if she is being cunning by sticking the Oz flag on her greeting card or whether she thinks the Oz and NZ flag are one and the same. After all, there is a recurrent joke in Australia about how NZ is or should be the seventh State of Australia.

For my American readers who might want to know a bit more about Oz: there are five States on the mainland being New South Wales; Victoria; Queensland; South Australia and Western Australia. And there is one island State – Tasmania. There are two mainland territories: the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory. Both are self-governing whilst the States are administered by the Federal Government. There is also the Jervis Bay Territory but this is counted as part of the ACT.

As far as I remember from my school days, the external territories are Australian Antarctic Territory, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Coral Sea Islands. There might be more; must look this up. I must also find out more about New Zealand and its dependencies. I know that a small island in the South Pacific, Niue, is an NZ dependency, as well as the Cook Islands and Tokelau.

From Fritz, with love.

 

One year

One year ago, May 5 2010, I left Australia, where I’d lived all my life, bound for my new home (and the birthplace of my entire family) – New Zealand. Specifically, the South Island and a town called Oxford. No doubt you’re wondering: why the hell Oxford? Good question. It wasn’t a well-thought out plan; I’ll admit that. Hubby and I tend to do things by intuition, whatever feels right.

We decided to leave Australia for a number of reasons but mainly because we feel Oz will be the canary in the coalmine when it comes to climate change. We wanted to move somewhere that had higher rainfall and a tradition of living off the land. After looking at over 40 places around Christchurch (including the Cashmere Hills area, which I love) and sussing out areas like Rangiora, Ohoka, Lincoln, Tai Tapu and Cust – we decided that the last property we visited (in Oxford) was the one. Well, hubby decided that; I preferred a place in Amberley or would have liked to settle in Cust – but I did agree that the Oxford property had more potential to get us into the position of living sustainably.

So…what do I think after one year of living in New Zealand and are we doing the sustainable thing? One year? WTF?! Firstly, I do prefer NZ to Australia for a number of reasons: cooler climate; four distinct seasons; smaller scale and population; more space; the Kiwi spirit (which isn’t that different from the Oz spirit really). So I wouldn’t rush to move back to Oz. But what do I think of Oxford? (Note: my comments below are confined to my South Island experience).

Really, it’s only now that I’m starting to think Oxford isn’t all that bad. I haven’t liked it up to now really. Without a doubt, there are some weird, whacky people here. We’ve met several who have buried food in the hills surrounding Oxford – because they believe society will collapse and they’ll be ready to defend themselves and their food. Ah, should this indeed be the future scenario, then maybe they’re not that paranoid.

I’ve been told by many people that 10 years ago or so, Oxford was the place where the hippies came; and the single mums on the benefit (as the dole is called here); the dropouts and the drifters; not to mention the alternative or intentional communities. You can still find these sorts here but mostly Oxfordians tell me that once Jo Seager moved to Oxford in 2006, things started to blossom. Tourists began dropping into Seagers and the Sunday Farmers’ Markets. There’s talk that Oxford will start to expand, not only because of Oxford being more on the map now, but also people fleeing earthquake-stricken Christchurch are looking for new places to live. Last week, we met a Christchurch couple in a local shop who were scouting Oxford as a possibility.

I’ve said this in previous posts – rural New Zealanders (well, those around here anyway) are not always welcoming of “foreigners” and some have frankly been downright mean-spirited. Because you are trying to fit in, your true personality doesn’t always show through. You suppress what you’d really like to say in the hope of building relationships. So we’ve perhaps put up with more than we should have here, rather than smacking a few people in the chops or telling them to go take a flying leap.

Many people around here have never left New Zealand but consider the South Island to be “God’s Country”. Not really going to argue with this as the South Island is visually gorgeous but hey, so are parts of Oz. But this attitude is prevalent here – people who have never travelled or who have minimal education are extremely opinionated and not all that open to having a discussion on things. It’s their way or the highway. I’ve encountered people too who think they are seriously hard workers but, in reality, would not last two nanoseconds in any organisation I’ve worked in. But we are now starting to meet some really lovely people and I’m doing voluntary work in the community, which is getting me out and about.

As far as our dream of living sustainably goes – we’re getting there slowly but surely. We now have a pretty decent vege patch, although not the final version of it. We have a rooster and chooks (I’ll do a post soon), so we now have eggs. A farmer supplies us with milk and has given us a goat, cows and sheep (in return for allowing his animals to graze with us). I make our bread and whip up batches of jam, quince jelly and chutneys. We are now looking into how to generate our own power. So it’s really taken a year just to get used to things and find our way.

For my NZ readers, I will say one thing. I can’t help myself.  STOP comparing yourself to Oz and stop whingeing about how Aussie salaries are better. Yeah, that’s true but the cost of living there is also higher so any salary increase is swallowed up fast. And Oz has 22 million people; NZ 4.4 million. So you really can’t compete at the same level. What New Zealand should focus on is how it can compete on the world stage in its own right. There’s plenty of talent and ingenuity here to do that. There’s even a Kiwi-phrase for this – the Number 8 wire mentality, meaning if there’s a problem to be solved, Kiwi ingenuity will find a way to solve it.

NZ might have to go through the transition that Oz did back in the 1990s – give more power to business. The legal protection that employees have here, IMHO, can lead to a lazy attitude. On April 1 2011, amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000 came into effect and allow employers the option of employing new employees on a 90 day trial period. Unions are up in arms about this (the power of the Unions here surprises me; very Australia circa 1970s).

I went through this shakeup in the 1990s in Oz. Don’t remember the exact time but, suddenly, employees were faced with a three month probationary period. If you were a slacko or useless, you were invited to look for another job. If you were pretty darn good, you were permanently employed. Personally, I think this contributed to making Australia the country it is now – it meant that you had to knuckle down and do your job very well. You had to work hard because if you didn’t, you were booted out and someone else took your job. It meant you had to be a cut above your competitor employees. It encouraged innovation, creativity and a very competitive employee marketplace.

I think New Zealand needs a dose of this to wake up some employees from the stupor they appear to be in. I’ve dealt with quite a few people in my consulting business who, frankly, need a swift quick up the (insert word). They need to return calls fast (not days later); answer emails; be more helpful and proactive; go above and beyond what is asked of them or what their job description may say.

But for every slacker I’ve met; I’ve also met some amazingly friendly and professional Kiwis. So I’m not sure if what I’m observing and commenting on is rural NZ per se or I’ve had the misfortune to meet up with a select few who don’t know how to be professional or cooperative.

Whilst living in Oz, I used to come to NZ regularly to speak at conferences and do some consulting work – but that was always in Wellington or Auckland. So maybe it’s a South Island thing?

Hey, I guess it’s all a part of figuring out how things work and how rural New Zealanders think. An English friend said to me recently that rural New Zealanders are only thinking about how to rip off the “foreigner, the outsider”. I think there’s an element of truth in this but I also think that there are many rural people who don’t for one moment think this way.

We did think of moving out of Oxford to maybe Cust or even going to the North Island but have decided to stay here and do our thing. Stay tuned to see what I think one year from now

Frost on a cold Oxford morning. But the days can be beautiful and full of sunshine.

 

To you, with love

Whilst in Sydney, I went with my business colleagues to Caffe Quattro Passi in Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst. This is a small, quirky little cafe I’d recommend. The food is good – I had a chicken salad filled with yummy pieces of chargrilled chicken with a wonderful salad dressing.

What really intrigued me though was how the menu was presented. It looks like an old book and, when you open it up, there is a personal inscription like you see on the inside cover of a book that is given as a gift to someone. The messages were all very personal, lovey dovey. The menu was masquerading as pages in the book. Clever little idea.

A bit on the small side but quirky: Caffe Quattro Passi

Using old book spines, they popped their menu inside.

Seems to me the inscriptions were especially written for the Cafe but you never know.

Aww....

 

Milk wars

While in Oz, there was a lot of talk and newspaper space given over to the heated debate about the Coles/Woolworths milk price war. Since I seem to have collected a number of American readers, Coles and Woolworths are two supermarkets in Australia – basically, the only two (well, there is also Aldi and Franklins but they are much smaller). Dairy farmers are slinging accusations at Coles and Woolies, calling them bullies.

So the story is: the two supermarkets decided to cut the price of home-brand milk by up to one-third, making milk cheaper than bottled water. Milk prices were slashed to AU $1.00 a litre. Of course, shoppers are smiling but this sort of ridiculous discounting war (basically a loss leader for the supermarkets) is not sustainable. Dairy farmers are being squeezed by the supermarket giants as they seek to impose their pricing on suppliers. Ultimately, Coles and Woolies will pass the cost of heavy discounting onto Mum and Dad customer. No more smiles.

What’s going to happen when dairy farmers have to close up shop? In Western Australia, for example, the number of dairy farmers has fallen over the past 12 years from 419 to 165. So when milk producers are defeated, what will Oz do – import milk from China? And we know how that might turn out. Australian dairy farmers are now talking about taking illegal action – boycotting milk supplies.

In fact, milk seems to be just the beginning. Coles has a campaign called “Down, Down” and are heavily discounting staple items like bread, breakfast cereals, dairy products, health and beauty products. Basically, the prices of the most popular items. This is forcing Woolies to match the Coles price. I trust that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is looking into the potential misuse of market power on dairy pricing practices.

Now, I’m not going to say that Coles and Woolies caused us to move from Oz to New Zealand. But I will say that I was becoming concerned with the lack of variety when it came to shopping for fruit and veges and other staple items. When I was growing up, I used to go with my mum to the local fruit and vege shop; then on to the butcher’s; followed by the cake shop; the newsagent and so on. All individual, speciality shops. But then came the big supermarkets, which offered all you needed under the one large roof. I was also becoming concerned about the antibiotics that are allowed in meat in Australia.

At least here in Oxford, I can go to the local butcher shop. In Rangiora, I can go to a shop called Bin Inn (NZ-owned), which is basically a bulk wholefood and speciality market. Here I can pick up spices, organic foods, international foods. I don’t have to purchase my stuff at New World or Countdown supermarkets. There are still small speciality shops in rural NZ like the shop I buy ribbons from in Rangiora. I just hope that NZ won’t head down the monopolistic food road that Australia has hurtled down.

UPDATE: my great mate in the Caribbean pointed me to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s about a gutsy move Fosters is making against Coles and Woolies, who are selling beer at AU$28 a carton, well below cost (normally selling for around $38.00). The two supermarkets control 50% of Australia’s liquor distribution. In the middle of the night, literally, Fosters stopped the delivery of tens of thousands of cartons of VB, Carlton Draught and Pure Blonde to Coles’ First Choice and Woolworths’ Dan Murphy’s chains. This is a plucky supplier taking on the giants. Gloves are off. I’ll be watching this space!

 

Museum station

I decided to catch a train to Sydney’s International airport for my flight back to New Zealand. Couldn’t be bothered trying to get a taxi at 3.30pm on a Friday afternoon. Alas, I wasn’t returning home on Emirates, my favourite airline but Air New Zealand (my third favourite, with Etihad being my second fav). Compared to Emirates, who served up a chicken korma dish for the flight across the Tasman, Air NZ’s suspicious looking lamb casserole was a tad disappointing. Not to mention my entertainment system wasn’t working. In fact, all three in the row I was sitting in weren’t working. I know this because there were only about 10 people on the flight to Christchurch, so I had the whole row to myself. Guess people aren’t thinking of Christchurch as a tourist destination right now.

Anyway. The point of my post is to tell you about Museum Station. When I lived in Oz, I spent a heck of a lot of time on trains – around 5 hours per day to be exact, due to living about 2 hours north of Sydney. So I know every train station in and around Sydney. I like the old world look of some of the City Circle stations. There are six train stations along the City Circle: Central, Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, St. James and Museum. It’s the latter two stations I really like. Forget Central – dead boring. Town Hall and Wynyard aren’t exciting either. Circular Quay at least has the spectacular view of Sydney Harbour. St. James and Museum are underground stations and look like something straight out of the 1920s.

Museum has a yellow cream tiling with maroon trimming theme going on. I always feel like I’m in the London Underground when I’m at this station waiting for a train. I took some photos to show you. One of the photos is a large advertisement for Arnott’s biscuits. I’ve never quite forgiven the Yanks for acquiring Arnotts in the 1990s. I remember the hoo-hah at the time. Arnotts was founded in Newcastle, Australia way back in the 1860s and the parrot logo is an Australian icon. I grew up with Iced Vo Vos, Scotch Fingers, Vita Weats, Tim Tams, Mint Slices and my all-time favourite, Wagon Wheels. So I was pretty pissed off when the Yanks swooped and took over Arnotts (as a subsidiary of Campbell Soup).

My mother declared the Yanks would fiddle around with the recipes and vowed never to buy Arnotts again (and I don’t think she ever did). I gave up eating Arnott’s biscuits too and changed to Griffin’s – what I didn’t know at the time was that Griffin‘s is a New Zealand biscuit company. I became somewhat obsessed with their Milk Arrowroot and Wheaten biscuits, along with Gingernuts (which usually required a visit to the dentist after eating one of them – they were soooooooo hard).

So seeing the ad for Arnott’s brought back a flood of memories about the biscuits I grew up with. I don’t know if the recipes for Arnott’s biscuits were “Americanised” or fiddled with but I’ve heard they were.

Lovely Art Deco feel to Museum Station: yellow cream tiling with maroon trim. I'm sure it was very stylish in the 1920s.

Arnott's biscuits: an Aussie icon.

 

Pies and macaroons

I was telling you yesterday about my quick trip to Sydney. I was running workshops and visiting the client offices – so very little time to myself. But, of course, Thursday night is late-night shopping in Sydney, so I checked out the new shopping centres. Halfway through this, I needed a coffee break and, since it was around 7.00pm, I thought I’d have some dinner too.

I selected a cafe in Westfield Sydney. I don’t normally dine in shopping centres but Coco Noir looked inviting. Mainly this was due to the macaroons proudly on display in the cafe’s sweets and desserts section. I’m a sucker for macaroons. I ordered a curry pie with salad and was very pleased with myself for ordering only one macaroon – pistachio flavour. Along with a cafe latte, I settled down in a comfy chair and watched the shoppers go by.

I have to say that all the coffees I had in Sydney didn’t compare as favourably to the ones I had in Wellington recently. In fact, I had breakfast one morning at Bambini Trust cafe and the coffee was lukewarm (the eggs benedict though was fantastic). I know it’s no scientific investigation but I declare the coffee in Wellington and the baristas to be the winner of my “compare Sydney to Wellington” experiment.

Curry pie with salad and pistachio macaroon.

Soft lighting, comfy chairs - a relaxing atmosphere.

Good coffee but not as great as I had in Wellington.

 

One big shopping mall

I made a lightning visit to Sydney last week to do some KM consulting. I arrived late Tuesday evening and flew out 6.00pm Friday evening. The trip started off well – I caught an Emirates flight out of Christchurch. This is my favourite airline and they didn’t disappoint. It was a huge plane because it was flying onto Bangkok, then Dubai, once it offloaded hitchhikers like me in Sydney. I like Emirates’ entertainment system, so I watched (for like the fourth time I think) that hot tomali, Leonardo DiCaprio, in Inception. This is such a clever film: every time I watch it, there’s another layer to the story.

I stayed at Park8 boutique hotel in Sydney. Very central. But the first night was, well, awful. I had a room that was a miniature cat box with a frosted window that looked out onto….not sure, because you couldn’t open the window. I suspect there was a brick wall of an adjoining building behind it. The room was dark and depressing. And…the aircon wasn’t working. So I spent the night in a lather because Sydney was steamy. Around 28-30 ° (82.4-86F). Next morning, I chucked a hissy fit and was upgraded to a huge room with aircon. Heaven.

Sydney was very much the same as I remember it but oh so different. Different because the CBD now seems to me to be one giant Westfield shopping mall. When I left Sydney in May 2010, Centrepoint was being refurbished as was Skygarden, where I used to work. The last few months of getting to work were torture. Loud drilling, workmen everywhere, loose paving in the Pitt St Mall area. Shoppers and city workers had to put up with this for the sake of the AU $860 million Westfield Sydney redevelopment. Was it worth it?

After spending close to a year with five or so horses, a few cows and around 2000 people in Oxford (and I rarely see anyone) – it was a shock to suddenly be in such a busy, humming city. I soon settled in though because I was determined to check out all the new shops in Westfield Sydney (as it’s called), Mid City centre and where the old Skygarden and Imperial Arcade used to be. I admit to getting confused by all this – I think that the Westfield group has turned the Pitt St Mall area into three luxury shopping centres.

The Brands have arrived there – Armani Exchange, Christian Louboutin, Dianne von Furstenberg, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo. Brands ad nauseam. All the shopping centres I checked out were luxurious and the prices of items suitably expensive – but Sydney, what has happened to you?

Gone is the quaintness, the slightly 1940s look, the cute little shops that I remember in Imperial Arcade. Replaced by sparkly, luxury, high-end shops that frankly all look the same. Shoppers glide along on glistening tiled walkways, looking slightly punch drunk as they flit from one shop to another burdened by all the shopping bags they’re carrying. Sydney: are you trying to vie with New York? Become the Paris of the Pacific?

I don’t know. As much as I love shopping (less now that I realise there is more to life!), a part of me was sad to see Sydney’s Pitt St area so shiny and new. I was discussing this via email with my dear Aussie friend, Therese, and she made a great observation about Westfield Sydney:

“I can’t decide either. Great shops but the decor is too drab/modernistic. They had a great opportunity to replicate some of the wonderful HK / Singapore shopping centres“.

And you know what? She’s right. She put her finger on the very thing that was nagging at me.  So after three days of mugginess and with my visual and auditory senses maxed out – I was glad to return home to New Zealand. I now think of NZ as home. This was going to be the test for me – would I want to return to Australia after going back or would I be happy to come back to NZ?

I am glad to be in rural NZ. The nights are dark and quiet. Life is slow with no stress.

You're a hot tomali Leo!

Just after checking into the hotel, I had a bite to eat at Bambini Trust cafe - Elizabeth St. You can sit out on the pavement and watch life go by.

The War Memorial in Hyde Park. I do like a stroll around Hyde Park.

Love the Australian White Ibis birds that just saunter around Hyde Park. They are quite bold.

OMG! Zara is opening up at Westfield Sydney.

Looking down Pitt Street Mall.

One of the entrances to Westfield Sydney.

Mid City shopping centre in Sydney's CBD.

Strade Arcade: at least this still looks the same.

Westfield Sydney.

Walking along Pitt St Mall.

 

What I miss

Karma says: get over it.

I think because it was Australia Day yesterday, I’m missing Oz a bit and am a bit maudlin. Hubby and I even asked ourselves the other day: did we make the right decision moving to New Zealand? On the whole, we’d answer Yes to that question, despite what I said in yesterday’s post. About a month or so ago, we did consider giving it all up and moving to Portugal, into my mother-in-law’s apartment in the south. But then we looked around and thought nah. Here in rural NZ, there is land and the quiet life. There is space. In Southern Portugal, people live in tiny cat-box apartments, on top of each other. I know; I’ve lived in my mother-in-law’s apartment.

What we’ve experienced over the last nine months or so is not representative of New Zealand as a whole. New Zealanders are innovative, friendly, smart, lively people (although my advice to New Zealanders would be – stop asking yourselves how to catch-up with Australia. That’s the wrong question. You can never catch-up with a country that has around 22 million people and a wealth of natural resources. The question should be: how do we take our best skills, our innovative capacity and compete on the international stage? How do we design New Zealand? I think the world would be falling over itself to learn more about New Zealand if it only knew the smarts the people of this country have).

Now: what is it that I miss about Australia, in particular Sydney, which is where I lived for decades, since the beginning of time really. We’ll, here’s  my list:

• my Aussie friends, particularly my BFF. Mind you, she’s swanning around the world these days, so even if I was in Oz, I wouldn’t see her. At this very moment, I think she’s on a plane back to the Caribbean – tough life.

• Mecca Cosmetica: despite vowing to live more frugally and live off all the make-up and skin care I’ve collected since the Earth was formed, I do occasionally miss a good old browse through Mecca Cosmetica in Sydney. But wait: praise the cosmetic Gods because Mecca Cosmetica has arrived in New Zealand. Yes folks! And only 45 minutes away from me – in Christchurch at Ballantynes (which is Christchurch’s answer to David Jones).

• and speaking of David Jones: I miss the Food Hall there. To be honest, I haven’t checked out whether Ballantynes has a food hall but, even if it did, I doubt it could rival DJs.

• Darrell Lea chocolate and Haighs chocolate. The nutty milk choc of Darrell Lea and the milk choc peppermint frogs of Haighs. Mind you, I do like NZ’s Whittaker’s chocolate and Sweet Ltd at the Arts Centre in Christchurch. Whenever I visited NZ as a kid with my dad, I had to get some Whittaker’s – usually the peanut slab. I must say that the white chocolate macadamia is fantastic too. Haven’t found a good chocolate shop in Christchurch yet although She Chocolat has been recommended. I’ll be in Wellington in early March and plan to visit Butler’s Chocolate Cafe and I’m hoping to get the time to do the Wild About Wellington Chocolate Tour.

• Sydney Harbour foreshore with the gleaming white sails of the Opera House and the Sydney ferries cruising by on a bright blue, sun shiny day.

• The diversity of flora and fauna. I really miss the kookaburra carry-on that used to wake me up every morning. Here I’m woken up by a chorus of magpies and the chirp of little fantails. At dusk, you hear bell birds. But I do miss the wildlife: kangaroos, wallabies, koalas. And I miss the colourful birds I used to feed on my balcony in Oz, lorikeets mainly.

• the variety of eating establishments. In Sydney, you could decide “I feel like Moroccan food tonight” and whip out to a restaurant. It’s a bit more difficult here in the South Island to do that because the diversity of food just isn’t here. Maybe in Auckland it is. And I know I can get a good Indian feast in Wellington or go to a quirky cafe (I do like Wellington’s quirkiness). Christchurch people apparently refer to Rangiora (about 25 mins away from Oxford) as Rangoon. I have no idea why but I’d sure like to find a Burmese/Myanmar restaurant there. Lord knows what Christchurch people call Oxford.

• I miss the leafy suburbs of Sydney’s North Shore where I was brought up (Pymble) and the local shopping centre (St.Ives Village). Mind you, I can just drive into Christchurch and visit Fendalton or Merivale to get a taste of leafiness or visit Merivale Mall for a spot of upmarket shopping.

• I miss the Australian sense of humour and “she’ll be right mate” attitude. I still don’t think I have a handle on the NZ sense of humour but it’s not as “in your face” as the Aussie. It’s more reserved. The Pike River mine tragedy on the West Coast showed me that New Zealanders can rally that “she’ll be right” attitude. In the face of losing 29 lives, West Coasters vowed to survive the disaster and band together as a community during a difficult time.

• I miss the stunning beaches of Australia. This is laughable because I’m not a beach person at all. I think I went maybe 5 times to a beach in Oz. I haven’t checked out the beaches here yet but someone told me that some have black sand and are nowhere near as magnificent. Mind you, photos I’ve seen of the Bay of Plenty look pretty decent to me. Guess I need to go and investigate some beaches. There is one near us apparently – at Woodend – and the photo I found of it reveals a beach that’s not half bad.

What I really need to do is GET OUT MORE. We plan to travel around NZ in 2011, complete with pooch. First up, will be a trip to the West Coast because everyone tells us this is a must to go and see.

 

Diary 1955

In the last installment, we left off with the ship, the M.V.Oceania, pitching and rolling on the high seas a day or two out of Adelaide. So to continue the 1955 Diary:

Monday May 30, 1955 – Arrived Fremantle at 10am, a few hours late. Didn’t take the tour by bus to Perth. Went per taxi there and back (that would be like my grandmother!) and the driver showed us everything there was to see. Had lunch at the Adelphi Hotel – very nice. Afterwards, sauntered around the town and made a few purchases. A delightful city. (Frankly, I can’t imagine what Perth would have been like in 1955). Ship sailed at 1.20am for Djakarta (having learnt Indonesian at school, I can tell you that Jakarta used to be spelt Djakarta, after the Japanese name of the city - Djakarta Toku-Betsu Shi – but not sure when that change happened. But I think it was the 1970s). Not the dreadful types to see the ship off.

Tuesday May 31, 1955 - Did I say the sea was rough in the Bight? It was as nothing to what it is up the West Coast of Australia. The ship has an awful roll and during the night, everything loose in the cabin was tossed about and the result was broken glass, flowers, studs (presumably cufflinks or studs for shirts), letters, money, in fact everything off the dressing table. Morning tea was brought in on a tray with wet napkins, two cups no saucers. However, the whole tray went for a skate and the jug of milk finished up on the floor. Steward came in and mopped the floor.

Wednesday June 1, 1955 – Thank goodness we are running out of the rough weather and we should be more or less on an even keel by this afternoon. It is very hot and they have filled the swimming pool. Dad (my grandmother often referred to my grandfather as “Dad”, weird but I think it was common in those days) and a few of his pals have arranged to go for early morning swims. Had a picture show tonight – an Italian film. I think they are going to begin the games contest tomorrow.

Thursday June 2, 1955 – The steward arrived with tea this morning all in white. He told me that they change into their summer clothing as from today. Has been a very hot day. A lovely evening was had by all. Everybody stayed in the cool lounge until after midnight. The second steward came and took charge and there were special dances all evening. Jolly Millars etc (not sure what this refers to). The orchestra played until well after midnight.

Friday June 3, 1955 – Still unbearably hot today and my feet are giving me trouble. Lots of the passengers affected the same way. However, kept comfortable in the lounge. Had a picture show tonight. A lovely Italian scenic and the other picture Ma and Pa Kettle (it was the 1950s!). Had a good sleep through this one.

Saturday June 4, 1955 – Arrived at Djakarta this morning. Berthed at 9.20am. Mr Sheppard couldn’t meet us (a business associate of my grandfather) as he was in Singapore but sent two delightful Indonesians to the ship with a car to take us places. Unfortunately, the heat was terrific and we were required to stand in a queue and go into a little shed one by one and be searched (who would have thought this level of security was around in 1955!). They took such a long time about it that most of the passengers decided to go back to the ship. So as the ship was sailing at 1.30pm, we took the two lads back to the ship and we sat in the cool lounge and had a few drinks. I think they enjoyed this very much and they were very interesting. Sailed at 2pm for Colombo. Had racing during the evening (not sure what this was).

 

ANZAC biscuits

This is kind of an obvious biscuit for an Australian with Kiwi heritage to bake. But I’ve never baked ANZAC biscuits before and recently bought some in a cake shop and thought, well, I could do better. Yeah, I know – unreal from someone who hasn’t seen the inside of a kitchen in years.

Since I have overseas readers, I’ll explain the ANZAC business. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand is April 25. This is the day when Australians and New Zealanders remember and honour those who fought at Gallipoli in WWI. In fact, attending a dawn service at Gallipoli in Turkey is an increasingly popular thing to do. According to what I was told by my grandmother, ANZAC biscuits became known as such because their ingredients don’t spoil and the biscuits could be sent to the troops.

Frankly, making ANZAC biscuits is idiot proof. I’ve now baked several batches – my last batch was pretty near perfect: chewy and a lovely golden colour.

ANZAC biscuits fresh out of the oven.

So here is a recipe for the biscuits from my grandmother’s handwritten notes. You should get around 25 or 30 biscuits.

125 g butter

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup coconut

1 cup plain flour

1 cup sugar

Melt butter and golden syrup together. Dissolve the bicarb in the boiling water (this is strangely satisfying because of the fizzing that goes on). Mix all dry ingredients together. Pour the bicarb into the dry ingredients, then the melted butter and golden syrup. Mix well.

Roll mixture into small balls and place 5 cm apart on a baking tray (the biscuits spread out as they are baking). Whack into a slow oven and bake for around 20 minutes. I baked at 150C and started watching the biscuits at 10 minutes. Nothing worse than burnt ANZAC biscuits. You want them to be a lovely golden colour. I took mine out at 15 minutes. Cool on the tray for a few minutes, then place them on a wire cooling rack.