Time Flies

Goodness me, doesn't the time fly when you're busy.

Already the third day of the holidays, only 12 days left.

Spent yesterday scrubbing the decks.  We've had such a wet winter that the algae is getting dangerous, my beloved slipped on it last week and hurt her back, so I had to take over a lot of the household chores.  I don't want that to happen again, so out with the bleach, scrubbing brush and water blaster.  Just got it finished when the blaster packed in, so it'll be back onto Trade Me looking for a replacement.

We've got a bunch of friends coming over for lunch, and my beloved (back thankfully much better) is going to give them a steamboat.  This is traditional Northern Chinese food (my darling's family originates from Shanghai), where portions of prepared meat and vegetables are cooked at the table by the diners themselves, using the steamboat, a charcoal fired stockpot.  The process extends most meals to 3-4 hours, so of course you drink a lot more wine during that time.  I like steamboat meals.  I almost always end up pissed, but so is everyone else.  The best way to eat the freshly cooked portions is by using chopsticks.  After 32 years of marriage to my Chinese dearest, I am now pretty proficient in using chopsticks (let's face it; it was either learn or starve) but many of our guests are rather elderly, and are either NZ European or Maori, and struggle a little to use the sticks, so we'll spend a lot of time in educating our friends in their use, and having a load of laughs as we do.
I spent some time yesterday in a large music shop in Wellington.  Richard [of RBB] has mentioned that these are fascinating places.  He was right.  I've never seen a bigger bunch of oddballs than the customers.  The two pictures below will show you what I mean.

Waiting in line to buy a Double Bass

Going for the casual yet understated look and trying to shoplift a kettle drum