Christmas Cake time

I had the sudden urge to finally make my Christmas cake however the 1kg+ of fruit has to be soaked in alcohol (it’s what I do). The  first recipe I found only allowed for 2 tablespoons of brandy; “Sod that” I thought and consulted the holy grail of cooking with alcohol, My Irish Cooking cookbook.  Gotta love the Irish; they prescribe brandy by the cupful.  Bless ‘em

The Hawke’s Bay 4×4 Club and Canteen

The Hawke’s Bay 4×4 Club took members of Canteen for a spin today…smiles all round

Is the IRD feeling unloved?

I received this in the post the other day and it lay on the table gathering dust but then over a couple of glasses of wine last night we had a really good laugh about it with friends. Many questions arose, does the IRD need a friend? Do they think we need more friends? What is a Community Relationships Advisor? Why do they call us ‘the customer’? (the ‘.govt.nz’ at the end of the email address tells us the IRD works for us.) Do they really think that people will dob in their colleagues? and last but not least we answered the questions that were bugging the IRD. There were many, many answers (some unprintable)  but it was unanimously decided that the answer to all the questions was… “The IRD’”.

The could take some sage advice from the late Michael Jackson “I’m looking at the man in the mirror.”

Earthquake off Vanuatu

Crikey another big Shake-up for the Pacific.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/2944170/Two-earthquakes-off-Vanuatu

While it’s great that we know when a wave might hit NZ it’s also equally important to know when one might hit islands closer to the epicentre.  Perth Now reports that a tsunami, if there is one, should hit Vanuatu within an hour of the quake http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,26181623-5005521,00.html

That was about 15 mins ago…

My weather obsession

Apologies for my obsession with the weather however livelihoods depend on it; and not just mine.  Hawke’s Bay is a primary production town and at the moment grapes (your wine!) are shooting, stonefruit has set, and the apples have just finished blossoming.  When I hear helicopters and wind machines at two o’clock in the morning (and 3 and 4 and 5…) I am glad that growers have the tools to save their income, and that of Hawke’s Bay.  This morning’s frost was not a bad one and I am hoping many will have coped.  The snow is very low on the foothills of the ranges and more is set to come.

Growers are resilient folks  and while they spend alot of time planning for the future, watching market trends and wishing they had a crystal ball they live very much in the moment, protecting their crops (your food and wine) from the here and now.

Here’s a snap shot of what’s to come. for more info go to www.metvuw.com

The power of Kiwiblog

I had let my blog lie dormant since the last election and the visits toodled around in the low double digits on a daily basis – mainly people looking into the No Asset Procedure Law and the Credit Crisis Explained (are these two linked? )

However I sent Kiwiblog a link to my blog showing pciture of the snow on the Napier Taupos and WAAALAAA, 1500 hits in a day

Cheers!

Tree + Car = ….

We had spent most of the night helping people on the Napier Taupos and were driving home.  Unfortunately due to all the rain a LARGE Redwood had fallen across the road …

Everyone OK This why people in the who live in the country drive 4×4’s

Pictures of Napier Taupo Road Chaos

Yep we were there in the beginning and got ourselves out. We could see it turning to custard so forewarned the 4×4 clubs.  Hubby and friends then went back in and spent till 12.30 at night ferrying vehicles and people and then they spent the next day helping out too.  We had all three of our 4×4’s in the midst of it all at one time or another.

No tax cuts; that’s good

I will looking with interest at the comments surrounding Bill English’s announcement that tax cuts are deferred.  Handing out money in the form of tax cuts, in the current economic climate, would be as wrong as not giving tax cuts when the economy was good.  Both actions, giving tax cuts in a recession and not giving tax cuts in the good times, have the effect of strangling the economy and suffocating productivity.

My 2c worth.

How to peeve people off….

Just received this email from a trusted source.

Hi folks, we’ve just found out about NZ Post’s “PO Box Direct List” – which they’ve told us they are selling for direct marketing purposes. When we asked them, they said it was a case of PO Boxholders opting out, rather than them asking you if you want to receive all the junk mail … So if you have a PO Box number, you might want to email this guy Geoff.Pearce@nzpost.co.nz or someone like him, and tell him, no thanks!