Charlie

We've been waiting (at least some of us have) eagerly for the right dog to come along, and beating the bushes a bit, considering different kinds of puppies, dogs...and this week, along came Charlie, who is actually a girl, and who will actually look quite different when her hair grows in a bit...she is a bearded collie (remember the Shaggy Dog?) who has had a hard last few months when her family broke up and the mother and child went back to England and she was left with father, who travelled, and so she was given back to her breeder, who gave her to a woman who didn't have time for her and she chased the ducks and got all muddy and swam in the pond...so she's clipped short of all the mats, and back to the breeder, who is a local woman who clearly loves her dogs. Charlie is about a year old, and loves attention and chasing Pukekos...she needs to learn not to get on the furniture, and some basic obedience, but she is smart and likes to play, and Joseph and Emily are planning on teaching her some tricks...she is not at our house yet, as we have to get the fence bolstered a bit (it's only 4 feet high in some places, and she can jump that) and we're planning to go to the beach the weekend after this. When we get home, she'll come home too, and the family will be complete again...at least that's my perspective. Manford may have something different to say--

back to work!
Carrie

Apologies

Well, I've been meaning to write about apologies, anyway, but first I must apologize for not writing for so long. The weeks are flying by, and I think of things in the wrong places, and not when I'm sitting down to write. Classes are over, and next week my last academic obligation for the year will be done (two days of oral exams for the poor graduate students)--then you'd think I was scott free, but it's not really summer off for academics here, especially in clinical--there's lots to do with planning for next year and finally having some concentrated time for research. But it should be very flexible, perhaps permitting a bit of shopping around the margins, and some days off for exploring beaches and other places (Manford is not keen on caves, but there are some famous caves near here with glowworms, and maybe I can persuade someone--my cousin Suzy is coming in February--to play tourist with me. There's also Rotorua only an hour away, with steaming mud baths and hot rivers).

Anyway, apologies. They take their apologies seriously here. If you are not going to be in a meeting, you send your apologies, and they say them at the beginning of the meeting ("John and Sue send their apologies") and then they ask if there are any more apologies. I am always sorely tempted to speak up at this point; I must have something to apologize for--but I have kept my mouth shut. They also use apologies in the usual sense--if you do something wrong, you are expected to make an apology, and they seem to use it in the justice system as well. I was talking with someone whose field is "restorative justice" and I will be interested ("keen") to know more about that. When Manford had an early driving glitch and almost hit a cyclist, and the police pulled him over, they had him apologize to the cyclist, and let the cyclist decide whether to give him a ticket (he didn't). A little apology goes a long way...

Emily is starting to say "no" like a Kiwi. I can't quite spell how it sounds, but there's almost an "r" in there somewhere. We're getting ready for Christmas, but around here it involves barbequing things. Your outdoor grill (and the event that surrounds it) is called a "barby"--or "barbie"--I'm not sure how to spell it, and am still confused when someone suggests that we must have a barby for Christmas. I think we have enough Barbies, and we should move on to some more anatomically correct plaything. Emily wants something called a Mooshabelly. I think it is kind of the opposite of a Barbie.

Joseph seems to be doing quite well. His final exams start today; they are exams over the whole year's work, but he seems quite unfazed by it. Perhaps too unfazed...we'll see. I think they got a grade at the end of the first half of the year, but we haven't seen a grade card since we got here, and have only his vague report that he's doing ok...the grading system in high school is "NAME"--N is something bad, like "not acceptable"; A is Acceptable; M is merit; E is Excellent. At the university they have our regular ABCDEF (I'm a bit fuzzy about that E category), but the percentages are quite different: 85-100 is an A+, for instance; 75% is A-; 50% is a C. So we make the questions harder? I'm still figuring it out. In my honours class, I gave quite a lot of A's--I think more than half the class--

Anyway, Joseph is going to Auckland next week to represent his school for chess--it sounds like they have all kind of sports that they play against this rival school, and chess is included...and he might get to go next year on a five-day adventure on a tall ship (http://www.spiritofadventure.org.nz/) with the enrichment programme of his school. It looks great to us--hope it happens. I think they have to get enough interested and schedule a time.

We had Thanksgiving last week, on our Friday, which was your Thursday, and had two American expatriots (one who works with me, one from Friends Meeting), two Kiwis (the husband and child of one American) and a Chinese student (who is living with the Friend). The student kindly took the picture of us here. I forgot to get the turkey in the picture before it was carved. It was a good turkey (Emily said it was the best turkey ever), big by NZ standards (5 kilos), but rather tiny by ours, and expensive (I think I paid about $60 for it, frozen). Not quite organic/free range, but no hormones/antibiotics, anyway. Unfortunately I got the stomach flu that night, and have been barely eating since, but made turkey soup yesterday and it went down ok.

Our tree-trimming party is next weekend, so we got a tree (artificial, sorry...but summer is not really the time to have a real tree in your house. I hear they are even more inclined to drop needles) and got the lights on it yesterday. Trying to translate traditions and recipes. There is no corn syrup in the stores (a major ingredient in gingerbread houses), but there is treacle, and apparently that is molasses, and worked fine for the dough. We may do mulled wine, but sangria really seems more appropriate, so we will try that, too. And I think the cider will be cold.

Stay warm! I hear it snowed in Topeka!

Carrie

See Manford . . . .

See Manford. See Emily. See them walking into her school yard. It is raining. Does Manford have an umbrella? Yes! Is he using it to keep his head dry? No! Is he using it to keep Emily's head dry? No! What is he doing with the umbrella, then? Look. He is holding it over the creation Emily made for show and share. It is made of cardboard with sand glued on, and styrofoam pellets adhering to one another in many vertical columns of two pellets that were attached by making each a little wet and pressing them together (a fun activity - you can do more and make a star, e.g.). Is the umbrella being held too low? Yes! It keeps the creation dry but also keeps Emily from seeing where she is going. Does daddy tell her where to go? You bet! Do they make it to the shelter of the classroom overhang? Yes! Bye daddy. Bye Emily. Now daddy is home. What is he doing? Reading. Read, daddy, read! What is he reading? He is reading a cookbook, looking for things the children will eat. (Did the children eat most of the yummy strawberries daddy brought home two days ago? Yes! Did daddy and mom get to eat any? Yes! about two.) What looks good in the cookbook? Is it called 4 ingredients? Yes! Can daddy give an example recipe? Yes! 500 g premium organic mince; 3 free range eggs, lightlly beaten; 3/4 cup of organic breadcrumbs; 4-5 tbs. tomato paste - reserve an extra tablespoon. Prehead oven to 180C. Mix all ingredients together and place in a lined rectangular baking dish. Spread reserved tomato paste on top of meatloaf. Bake for 50 minutes until lightly browned on top. Serve hot with vegetables, salad or mash potato. This is also great to freeze. Optional: for an added zing add 1 tsp of curry powder. To get your 5 vegetable quota for the day add shredded carrot, sweet potato, diced mushrooms, and peas and corn to the mix before baking. Is daddy done? Yes! What will he do now? Listen to some Bach on the relatively new Philips mini-stereo that sits on the kitchen counter. Does Carrie listen to it too? Yes! To the news in the morning. It will also play music through an i-pod or clone. Does time fly? Yes! (sometimes). Gotta go. Thanks for reading this. Oh, yes!

Four in a row . . .

Around 7:30 this am it was 9 outside (hmmm, convert that to F using 9/5 C + 32 = a little below 50, and at 9 it is around 14 - aka a little below 60 Farenheit, I believe). The sun's rays are very intense here so I have a farmer's tan. Re the topic in the title, in some parts of town you may see a single house on a piece of property and may see nearby two, three, or more rarely four, houses in a row, one behind the other, sharing the same driveway. Interesting. There is also a difference in house prices between here and Auckland, with many there going for a million dollars or more. On a more mundane level I am fighting with my pretty new lawnmower - crank it, no start, crank, no, crank no, wait a while crank and sometimes start. It will eventually start so I have not smashed it yet or even cussed at it though the latter has almost happened. Otherwise things seem to work. You can e-mail me at manford_barber@hotmail.com if you have ideas about how to get the mower to start: it has a petrol briggs and straton motor. In fact you can e-mail me about anything you want to, since Google makes it hard to reply to the blog using its system. Hope all is well with those who read this. Respectfully, Manford

Creeping Rocksnot...

No, its not a reflection of my mood. I don't think...I just like the sound of it. There is this algae, which has a formal name of Didysomething, but which is called "rocksnot" by the poetically minded; it has unfortunately invaded creeks in the South Island, and has recently been in the papers when dead Didywhatever was found in some rivers up here in the North Island. Dead Rocksnot is spread by fisherman, and particularly those who are fishing during whitebait season, another appetizing water-product that looks kind of like worms and is a delicacy when made into fritters. We haven't tried it yet...

I keep meaning to write about the phone book. Business names. In the US, those cute clever names are confined mostly to hairdressers. But I was looking up midwives (most maternity care here is delivered by midwives) and found "Babies 'n' Bellies," "Babies-R-Us," "New Additions," "The Midwife Shoppe," and "Mums and Tums." Then there's RatTray's Catering. I'm not sure there was really a second "t," but there seemed to be. There was something else, but I forget right now...Friday afternoon.

We are missing you all, but enjoying the advent of spring. Manford came over for lunch today and we walked around the pond (hence the rocksnot association. We didn't see any rocksnot, just garden variety algae), and enjoyed the sun. Tomorrow if the weather holds, we will go to Raglan, about an hour west of here, where there is the longest left-hand break in the world (that means something to surfers) and see if we can get Joseph inspired to do something besides video games. I think he could be a life guard, don't you?

Emily had her first cricket lesson yesterday. She was afraid she would be the only girl, but she wasn't, and she had a good time. We will try to get pictures in the next week or two.

I am keeping an eye out for a turkey for Thanksgiving. They had a few frozen turkeys in the grocery store for the first time, advertised for Christmas; they cost like $60 for a smallis one. We are planning to invite one of my American colleagues and her family (Kia, aka Elmo), but will probably have it on Sunday the 25 because she and I will both be at a conference all day Friday and Saturday. Even Joseph seems to have a hankering for turkey.

Time to go home!

Carrie

Colors

The predominant color is green - leaves, grasses, plants - of many shades and hues - a truly green landscape. Flowers and flowering trees everywhere - red, purple, mauve, lavender, pink, orange, yellow, white, off white - with many variations and some combinations. Truly lovely. We only shot off some sparkling fireworks yesterday for Guy Fawks day - a British tradition to have fireworks on that unsuccessful guy's day. We hope you are having a good month and that the holiday season will be a good one. Manford

Unique or unusual from Manford

Sign on a city bus - This bus will kneel on request. (the driver will lower the curbside for easier exit and entry if requested). A restored antique Humpbomile at a nearby garage. The ground carpeted with little daisies and petals blown off of flowering tgrees. Fred Phelps picture on page one of the world section of the New Zealand Herald under the headline "Anti-gay church fined $ 14m for funeral protest" An elderly man in drought ridden Australia attacked and killled by a younger neighbor for watering his lawn. There's more, but enough for now. Emily had a great time at the local Boo at the Zoo bash on Haloween. She wore frameless glasses from which I, with much scraping and muttering, had removed the incredibly glued in lenses on these $2.00 spawns of the devil. Used them to make a ghost we hung in a tree by the driveway. Total of about 14 trick-or-treaters - not quite up to Potwin's many. We bought a bread maker. The first loaf was great. So Manford decides to make another, only larger. Oh, my at least it didn't stick to the pan but what a bulbous, distorted, in places underdone (Carrie threw it out), in places overdone, lumpy thing was created. So back to a smaller loaf, and it was ok. Must try more liquid next time I decide to go bigger, says Carrie. It so shall be. Some rain last night. Anyone drink Durif, a type of grape, wine. We had a yummy bottle from Rutherglen Estates in Australia, a 2004. Lots of good wines so far, and not expensive. Have just bought a cookbook entitled 4 ingredients - which is what most of the recipies require. Sound pretty good, actually, so far. Will try some and see. We send our best wishes for happiness and good health to all who read this. Manford