Happy New Year!

2008 was a good year overall. Some of the things that have happened, good, bad and indifferent include:

- Major operation on jaw to remove possibly cancerous (but thankfully not) lump the size of a golf ball.
- Diagnosis of infertility requiring IVF.
- Miracle natural conception- no IVF required after all!
- Welcoming 2 new nephews to our extended family.
- Various trips around NZ including Lake Tekapo, Mt Cook, Auckland, Dunedin and a road trip in the North Island.
- Moving out of the house we had been sharing with multiple flatmates since 2006 and into a flat by ourselves.
- Gradual change in diet to include more wholefoods, vegetarian meals and organic produce.
- Multiple engagements/weddings/births.
- Sold our dear wee 1983 Toyota and bought a more modern 1998 Ford.
- Watched my first real live international rugby game.
- Fed 80 people for a weekend.
- Went to the casino for the first time.
- Turned a quarter of a century.

Oh and so many more things! I could be here all day.

On the weekend we took a trip to Timaru to meet up with Gavyn and Christine who were staying in Dunedin. We thought Timaru was a good place to meet since its between Christchurch and Dunedin, and none of us have spent any time there really, apart from passing through. We had a nice relaxing weekend. Explored Caroline Bay, went to Geraldine, and lazed around our swanky motel unit.

Our 2 babies having a chat: (11wks and 20wks)

Shark washed up at Caroline Bay - scary!

how to make a sick girl happy

Big mug of tea, stack of DVD's and a pain au chocolat. "What??" I hear you say - "pain au chocolate's hardly a health food for restoring a cold-riddled body back to perfect health". Well, upon hearing I am on deaths door *cough*, a kind friend just dropped it off for me and let me tell you it is making me feel better already. YUM!

Vegan apple muffins

I have a friend who can't eat eggs or dairy so essentially for the purposes of baking, she is a vegan. I've been experimenting with a few recipes that she can eat in the last few months, with varying degrees of success. Here are the muffins I made yesterday (see Vanessa - you should've come over after all! - I have saved some in the freezer for you though). They have been pronouced as "normal tasting" by two independent reviewers.
I'm calling this recipe my own because although its loosely based on one I found on the internet, I've modified it so much that it I'm going to claim it. (Makes about 18 smallish muffins)

2 cups wholewheat flour
1 cup white flour
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2tsp cinnamon
2 cups grated apple

Mix the above ingredients together in a large bowl

In a separate bowl mix:

1/2 cup oil (could use sunflower, olive, canola)
1/2 cup honey (because she is not actually strictly vegan, I use honey. To make them properly vegan use maple syrup)
a large splash of vanilla
a large splash of apple cider vinegar
1 cup soy milk or rice milk (could replace with normal milk, or yog for the non-vegan, or apple juice/puree if allergic to soy)

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
Put into greased muffin tins and cook at about 180 degrees celcius for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Mueller Hut Tramp

So after whinging in the car the whole way to the Mt Cook village about how hard it was gonna be, I actually made it up the 1000 vertical metres to the Mueller Hut without too many complaints! On Saturday morning we drove up to the Mt Cook village with Hamish and Ness, and set off up the hill to the Mueller Hut. Its 1000ish metres vertical climb but only 3 or 4kms in horizontal distance so you can imagine how steep it was! We had lots of stops to admire the view which was fantastic every step of the way. When we got to the hut we dumped our packs and rock-hopped the extra half hour or so up to Mt Olivier. Sitting in the sun on the top of the mountain while looking at Mt Cook and the Glaciers was absolutely magic. Other highlights were watching the sunset on Mt Cook, and looking out the window when waking up in the middle of night to see a sky full of stars.
Heres some photos:

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. Heres some snaps from our hols. Yep I know I'm getting lazy in my posts, less words and more pics etc but lets be honest, you really just come here to look at the pictures don't you?

Weekend in Wellington

Some pics from our trip to wellington for Gordons retirement dinner after being at SU for 27 years! We also caught up with Kathryn, Wilf and Maggie Robinson.

Dunedin and drugs

This week has gone by in a bit of a blur thanks to the pain medication Ive been taking. I don't know whats worse, the groggy gross feeling from the drugs or the pain itself. Anyway its all over now, seems to be healing up nicely and Im certainly not missing the ole wizzies!
Im still sporting a nice bruise which Phil feels he has to explain whenever we're in public ("I didn't do it!")


In other happenings, last weekend we went to Dunedin, Phil to a stag do, and me to see the girls. A great weekend was had by all I believe. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera to dinner so I don't have a good pic of me and the girls all together but theres a nice one Christine's facebook!

I gotta stop putting Anna on a pedestal...

Jase and Mais

Maisie Mitchell. Doncha love those cheeks?? shes so cute!

Dunedin in all her glory.

Muttons

Switzerland

First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling wee sister who celebrated her 17th birthday on Saturday. Hi Gracie!
Today we arrived in Munich after spending 3 nights in Lauterbrunnen. We went through no fewer than 4 countries today! Internet was expensive and rare in Switzerland, hence the silence on the blog.
We absolutly loved Switzerland. The small town where we stayed was very quaint, and in a valley surrounded by impossibly high snow covered mountains. It was straight out of the book "Heidi", wooden farmhouses, and farm animals with bells round their necks etc. The weather was a shock, coming from the sunbathing in the south of France. It was very alpine and even snowed one morning!
The first afternoon we were there we took a train to the town of Speiz where Darren (a friend from the old dunedin days) met us and took us to his place for a catch up. It was lovely meeting his wife Lizzi and baby Ana (4 wks old), I really enjoyed `talking babies´ with Lizzi and having a nice long cuddle with Ana. Ive been missing baby cuddles! Darren and Lizzi live in a farmhouse with amazing views over a lake, and they have animal (including wooley pigs) and grow stuff. We loved thier community lifestyle.
We spent the rest of our time exploring, visiting waterfalls and eating traditional Swiss food, which seemed to be very fatty and a little to heavy on the stomach for my liking, but the chocolate - thats another story..divine!

Recent happenings in pictorial form

These first five pics are from homegroup camp at Hanmer, this is Phil and I after hoofing it up conical hill.

Formal dinner. Phil was the one who pushed the self timer button and didn't plan it very well (hidden behind Laura)

The homegroup baby (AKA Maggie Robinson) asleep after an exhausting "walk". Do these things
come in adult sizes??

Hamish holding a child. Such a rare sight it had to be captured. Note the worried look on Maggies face!

Jenn, Ness, Laura, Kathryn up Conical Hill

Looking back towards Lyttelton

The Dewars

We went to Diamond Harbour on the ferry when Phils parents came down from wellington. This is at the Godley Heads Cafe. Check out the flowers Phil grew outta his head!!

Queens Birthday Weekend

Phil with the gorgeous Maisie Mitchell

Me, the Bro and Nearly-Sister-in-Law

Stormy St Clair

this is how much of a geek ive become....ive got some photos from the weekend and I can't decide whether to put them on ringo, flickr, facebook, bebo or my blog. yes, this is what ive been reduced to folks. I seriously need another hobby (and preferably one that doesn't include hairdressers - ask me if you don't know my sorry story).

As you can see, the blog won out!

Happy birthday the queen - to celebrate we went down to dunners to catch up with all our 'couple friends' including my bro Frank who's just moved down there to be closer to his darling Emily. It was a good weekend overall. Was cool to see how much Re and Jase's wee girl Maisie had grown.. and her amazing talent for covering stuff in snot and spit. You didn't hear it from me but babies are so gross!!

More road trip photies

Pretending to be a farmer on the Weirs farm, with my baby lambie. Im in love!!

(once again these photos aren't in proper order!!)
At the Weir house
The Chasm

Can't you READ???
Can't have a road trip without coffee..
Mirror Lake
Milford Sound
Still Milford Sound.. (or fiord as it should be called...i learnt that on the boat trip)
Lunch at Milford

Labour weekend road trip

I havn't figured out how to put photos on here in order, or how to post more than 5 at once, so sorry if this is a little jumbled - this isn't the actual order we went places...the captions are below the photos.
Lake Pukaki
Church of the Good Shepherd, Tekapo
The classic Cromwell photo
Some idiots in a chinese hut