Cheese Scones

I learnt cooking (home economics) in school. I have an O Level in it. Back then it was more than just cooking. We had to understand nutritional needs, and this had to be considered when planning a meal.

The one thing I don't seem to be good at is muffins. They just fail.

Scones, well I need to learn to not mix the dough so much and have it hold together.

Today I did a small batch of cheese scones. They worked, were tasty and got eaten very quickly.

Thank you

I got asked to do a small presentation about parkrun to a community organisation. A small casual Saturday morning chat for 30 mins.

They wanted to understand parkrun and the community feeling of how anyone and everyone is included.

Especially with a focus on mental well-being. 

It was a fun 30 mins and generated some great questions.

They gave me a small gift as a thank you, totally unexpected.

However, what made it even more special is the lady that organized it, via someone else, took 5 mins to ask the other person about me.

And what did she discover...

1 - I don't like coffee

2 - I have a sweet tooth

So, my little thank you gift was not a voucher for a local Cafe to get a coffee, but a box of homemade brownies and biscuits.

Taking the time to find out one or two small things is all anyone wants and it makes a huge difference. 

Pub Choir

 A group of people, getting together to sing. 

A group of people getting together who have never sung before, not even sure if everyone can sing, although I am guessing that if you have chosen to purchase a ticket and show up then you must, at least, have a marginal amount of interest in singing? Maybe, maybe not!

A group of people getting together, who have never sung together before, don't know the song that has been chosen and now are going to learn it, in 90 minutes, to be able to sing a somewhat shaky 3-part harmony.

Welcome to Pub Choir

Yes, 1000 people got together, with a choir leader and we got taught 3 different parts of a song and then we sang it as a group, 90 mins later. We all got taught our parts whilst in the theatre, we all laughed, we all cried and we all had a fun time.

It was interesting, it was fun and it was a great night out.

If you ever get the chance to go along to one of these events, then go.

So, what happens I hear you say......

You turn up and stand where you like in the theatre, although you sort of don't either. At the start you decide if you are high, medium or low and then a little shuffling takes place as people move within the theatre to be with more like-minded people, of singing range.

Then the leader, Astrid, teaches you all the parts, and you sing it back, and you sing it again, and possibly one more time, following the power point slides on the big screen. And then you finally start at the beginning (a very good place to start!) and you sing it all the way through. And just for good measure, you sing it all the way through again and then you go home. 2 hours later, elated that 1000 people all managed to sing the song, at the same time, with a 3-part harmony and it was recorded on a shaky phone camera.

It was totally crazy and totally fun

More walking and art

 The airport of Rarotonga is on the edge of the island. If you know when the big plane from New Zealand is landing, (and if it is coming in the right direction) you can stand on the road that runs along the end of the runway and watch it come over the water and then land over the top of your head. Obviously, it is noisy as ever and very windy when this happens.

This trip, I didn't get to do that, but I did take one of my morning walks along the road and view the water and the artwork on the wall at the end of the runway.

The main road with the end of the runway on the right

The end of the runway and the beautiful artwork

Coming in the right direction you can watch the plane approach

9am was the wrong time for any flights but the right time to miss the heat and still admire that amazing beach view.

Accommodation

 One thing I pride myself on is being able to find good accommodation when travelling and great seats at concerts/theatre shows etc

This trip proved to be no different

The villa we stayed in was just perfect, enough space inside, plenty of sitting area and cooking facilities and a lovely large, covered deck area outside.

The bathroom, well that was another story, it was definitely great. The main bathroom had a sink and a toilet and a bath/shower, just that the bath/shower was a little way from the main room....

Like outside, through a large door leading from the bathroom.

All perfectly enclosed and private area, even with a small roof over the bathtub itself, but if it is raining you get wet getting to the tub!

It was peaceful and a lovely place to stand and shower out in nature, but you definitely had to wait for the bathroom to be free to use the toilet, otherwise they got a full shot of you naked in the shower!

Sunshine and Burgers

 An afternoon walk along the beach was called for, so a gentle stroll was enjoyed

Yes, the water was cold on my toes. Not sure I will be going in there to swim any time on this trip!

It was still relaxing and carefree to spend an hour strolling along the beach.

Whilst currency in Raro is in NZ dollars and all food is imported, mainly from New Zealand or Australia, it can still be a little more expensive to eat out. However, there are very good, relaxed rules about bringing in food to Raro, so most people get self-catering accommodation and then bring some frozen meat with them. We did that and brought some beef mince, steak and chicken mince with us. We made the decision to eat in every other night and frequent a restaurant on the in-between nights.

One of the popular ones is Villi's Burgers.

Fresh juicy, full of flavour and so much better than anything I have ever had in NZ!

We visited here 2 years ago, and all of this restaurant area is new, in fact, I discovered that this new part only opened last week. It is definitely an improvement.

Definitely a favourite place to visit

Coffee trip

 I may have mentioned before that I do not like coffee!

Not the smell or taste at all. Ex hubby knew to even kiss me in the morning before he drank his coffee and not after!

However, there is a great little cafe on the island of Raro (there are several cafes, it is not a barren land that only has 1) and we visited it when here last time, so it was only fitting to return again as they do good ice chocolates, that I do like.

What was even stranger, was that my phone automatically logged into their Wi-Fi: Not unusual I hear you say, however, it is a new phone, so technology informed my new phone that I had logged in once before and it already had the password stored in the memory!

Only problem is that it is halfway round the island compared to where the accommodation is located, so won't be visiting too often.

Walking

 Rarotonga is the largest of the 15 Cook Islands in the South Pacific, even though it is a small island. A 32km round the island road is the only way to get anywhere. Add in that the speed limit is only 50km/hr and majority of locals drive mopeds, then you can see that island time kicks in very quickly and no one is in a rush to get anywhere. Rental cars make up at least 75% of the traffic on the road and yes, you have to go as slow as the mopeds!

There is a bus that goes in each direction every hour, but seeing as you are on island time, there is no rush.

Obviously, I was not prepared to give up my walking whilst here and seeing as the main road around the island is all flat, then apart from the heat, it is easy to go for a quick 5km stroll. It would take you over 3 hours to actually walk all the way round the island, and maybe I will come back in the cooler months and give that a go one time.

So, on the first morning, I got up and took myself off for a little walk and just a moment of peace in the surrounding environment.

Who can resist a view like this through the trees.

Sun, Sea and Sand

 I have arrived in Rarotonga, and it is warm enough to make me very happy but not hot enough to be tropical.

The island is actually behind NZ on the date line, so whilst we left NZ on Sat 1 Aug, we arrived in Raro on Fri 31 July. This has caused my phone to start getting confused with when and where to allocate pictures I have taken, as it has already gone through 1 Aug and then suddenly, I am getting it to do it again. It got very confused lol 😀 Therefore, there are several posts going to happen all on the same day because technically, they kind of happened on the same day somewhere in the world!

After finding the accommodation, a quick walk to see the beach was definitely needed.

It was just as I remember it from 2 years ago and I am so glad I have come back. I can feel the stress leaving my body just in the first evening.

Winter Sun Trip

 At the start of the year, I got the idea to go and find some sunshine and warmth in the middle of winter. A weeklong trip was secured to Rarotonga, Cook Island.

Today I left NZ to go in search of the sunshine.

Despite the cold weather in NZ, the morning bloomed amazingly and was a spectacular scene at the airport whilst waiting for the flight

Just a quick 3.5-hour flight and then hopefully the sun will be shining, and I can relax for a week.

Crisp Morning Walk

 Today's Sunday walk was at a reserve near the zoo. A place that I had not been to walk before. I have been to the zoo but not the surrounding area. Like yesterday that started icy and extremely fresh, we had the same today and it made for a spectacular scenery.

I truly appreciate the nature of the world and even after 50+ years on this world, I am still in awe of the spectacular natural beauty that we have to appreciate.

Winter is well and truly here, although the blue sky and sunshine make for the day to be lovely, once the sun warms it up, but sadly, once it goes down about 5pm it is cold again. I know we only have about another month of this before suddenly it will be heading towards spring and winter will be passed.

I actually have an overseas trip coming up in 3 weeks' time to the sunshine paradise of Rarotonga, Cook Islands, only for a week, but enough that it will get me through the cold and boast my stores of sunshine to get me through the winter and spring ahead. Sunshine is definitely my enthusiasm boast and keeps my body running.

parkrun Road Trip

 As we have 75 parkrun locations in New Zealand currently, then travelling to do a different course is always a fun thing to do, especially when you do it with friends.

Yes, we currently have 75 locations, and it is still growing. I know of about 12 others that are in the 'potential' file, it is awesome to see something so simple and easy get developed and made available to so many.

I was just going to do a local one today but got talked into joining a group driving about 90 mins away. By the end of the day, I am so glad that I did, I had a great day out with friends, lots of laughing and a great time. Plus, the fun of standing in the freezing cold 2c early morning waiting for the sun to rise high enough to warm us up.

The course had a gentle undulating to it, which was a bugger as you were climbing a gentle incline for the whole of the last 1km which is hard when you have pushed yourself. It made for a great 5km time and I felt great afterwards.

Breakfast at the local cafe was interesting, from the deconstructed French Toast to the glasses used for the drinks.

My young friend thought my 'tiki' glass was cool and interesting, but then so did I too. And the sophistication of adding sugar to the rim of my Fruit Breeze, which was just fruit syrup and sparkling water was a cool touch (if a little sticky)

My deconstructed breakfast made eating it an adventure as the flavours were not blended, you added them together as you ate them.

The green is pistachio, not wasabi! Someone at the table did have a moment of horror when they thought I was putting hot stuff on my toast!

Another craze of parkrun, if you want to get into it, is to complete challenges. Yes, we are crazy people who will chase event numbers, letters of the alphabet and other aspects of completing a parkrun on a specific date, or at a location with the name starting with a letter that we need.

One such challenge is the 'match challenge' this involves attending an event whose event number matches your event number. So, if you are completing your 87 event and the parkrun is holding their 87th event, then you have a match. I have been looking into this challenge for a few weeks now and with the limited number of locations we have in NZ and the travel that would be involved I always presumed that this one would happen either by sheer coincidence or maybe in a year to two when I could get all the stars aligned.

As mentioned, I was not planning on this roadie and had planned to go somewhere else, so it was only as they were doing the event briefing at the start in the freezing cold and mentioned the event number that I quickly checked to confirm that I was indeed completing my event of the same number 😀

One Match Challenge ticked off 👌

Now to focus on working towards other challenges, although the event today did tick several aspects of several challenges but still got work to do to achieve others, plus the joy of travel to attend a location with the requirement I need. parkrun is free they say, until you start looking at challenges and then it becomes expensive to travel around the country/world chasing challenges 😎

Winter Walking with Fog

 The Sunday walk today was to a small lake just north of the city. We have so much countryside, that agriculture lakes are all over the place and also, several trusts or donated pieces of land have been developed into reserves for the public.

This one, known locally as Lake D (yes there are ones close by called Lake B and Lake C) is about 3.1km round and has a great gravel path to follow. It is easy to wander round or run if you are inclined to do so!

Today, a typical winter morning, blue skies, cloud and fog. Cold enough that you still need a jacket and layers but beautiful enough to be breath takingly spectacular.

My friend was determined to get out her camping chair and use it, even if it was just for the last 5 minutes before we left! (it was new)

She looked like the queen sat there, viewing the lake and the world going by.

Walk finished, all accounted for and off to breakfast at a local cafe.