A new venture..

I so needed a break so very badly.

Blogging is not all it's cracked up to be I tell ya.

A lot has changed in my life since I last wrote but then again, some things probably never will.

One new thing for me is this wee ditty:

"What's the Story morning Glory?"

A thinly disguised excuse for me to read more.

Please feel free to have a look and don't be shy about commenting, especially if I've just gone and bagged one of your favourite books.

Literary debates are one of my many weaknesses...

wtf?

The Grays Beaked Whale baby beached itself last week and was shot to put it out of its misery. A lot of people are angry because it stayed at our bay for a month swimming and trying to play/interact with people. There were a lot of chances to help it when it was still healthy and strong but the conservation department did nothing.

Two days ago I was walking on another local beach and came upon the dead body of another Grays Beaked whale, 3 metres long so about the same size as the juvenile who swam at Stanmore Bay for 4 weeks, another baby in other words.

We were walking around the rocks and the tide was going out and it had obviously just been washed up with the receding high tide. Blood was still pouring from its mouth and it hadn't been dead long at all as there was no smell. It was covered in scrapes from the rocks and was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

The curious thing is that this article from Napier, also on New Zealands North Island's East Coast, reports another strange Beaked whale tale. The one in Napier looks almost twice as big as the ones we've had here but is still curious that they are turning up on our beaches when they are known to be a deep sea creature.

One incident is sad, but three is too coincidental for there to be no explanation. Is something driving the whales out of the deep, scaring them and separating the groups? One US researcher believes it is a human cause and raises interesting questions about sonar on naval boats.

Whatever the cause it surely demands more investigation because 3 beachings of rare deep sea whales is not normal.

Whale watching.

So I think I mentioned that there was a baby whale swimming around my local beach a couple of weeks ago and I didn't get a chance to see it. Now I hear it's been back all week and I still haven't seen it despite being there twice in the last couple of days.

I have such bad luck with whale and dolphin spotting, unless I pay for a sightseeing boat trip which proved very fruitful in the tune of about 100 dolphins last year.

But I digress.

So, the plan is to launch our mate's wee boat tomorrow, or borrow another friends' kayak, and go intensively searching for the wee fella. In the meantime, here is what I'll be looking for tomorrow:



It's quite young apparently and they think it has been separated from its mother and should still be suckling. I hope I see it.

And if you look really closely you can just make out my house on the hill in the background.

Getting the skinny on..

I was surfing blogdom last week and came across a site that really rocked me sideways and I've realised that it's been on my mind ever since.

It was a teenage girl and her blog was dedicated to her quest to lose 20 pounds and her methods to achieve this goal. 20 pounds doesn't sound like a whole lot to me (we use the unarchaic metric system here so that makes it, .. wait a sec, online conversion site loading.... about 9 kilos), especially given the drastic measures she was using to achieve her goal.

Basically, it was a pro-anorexia site and while she wasn't advocating that everybody out there go out and consume 35 calories or less a day as she was managing (I kid you not); she was simply writing a diary of her good days and bad days (who knew vodka had that many calories? - she has sworn off alcohol now too as well as food).

I must say that she had a plan of only starving herself until she reached her goal, it wasn't on the cards for the rest of her life but still..

And there was a part of me that hugely admired her incredible willpower. She resisted home baking one day (mammoth effort there) and stuck to her water and chewing gum and weak broth like a trooper.

But the bigger part of me wanted so badly to grab her by the shoulders and tell her about the risks of what she is doing, the effects on the body, and mostly the fact that she has put her body into starvation mode and as soon as she starts eating normally again her body is going to hoard any spare calorie it can just in case there is a repeat no-eating episode and therefore undo all this risky weightloss and negate all her hard work.

I really don't get why people don't understand that simple fact. There are so many failed dieters out there that can attest to the truth of the matter.

Anyway, the most disturbing thing of all was a couple of the commentors. It would seem there is a whole network of them on blogger and they support each other to do weekend fasts or 4 day fasts when they feel they really need a good boost to their non-foodie ways. And the comments are so normal (if you ignore the subject matter that is):

"Hey, ... , I'm planning a fast this weekend and it will be only water. Come and join me and we can slim together!" [smiley face, smiley face]

I have two daughters and I am always trying to teach them about good nutrition, eating in moderation and basically staying healthy. They eat very well and neither one is overweight or even close to it. These attitudes scare me and I hope I've set a good enough basis in my kids to know what is healthy and unhealthy.

I say this because the girl mentioned that she is always careful to be seen holding food or nibbling on food when certain nosey relatives are about. Quite clever really, for a skeleton.

Jebus, or Horus, whichever you prefer, what's going on?

5 hour Oven Usage!

Yep, I had my oven running for 5 hours straight yesterday. Couldn't quite believe it myself when I turned it off at 9pm and realised it had cooked and baked solidly since 4pm.

I blame this lady and her Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl Quick Bread recipe.

Well, I actually didn't have chocolate syrup or butter milk but my version, re-titled Maple Cinnamon Quick Bread came out beautifully and I am a true convert to her indulgent site.

After that I made chicken cauliflower cheese bake for the girls, chilli tofu and feta vege bake for me, pastry bites for the girls and an apple and peach crumble lattice-top pastry pie for dessert.

Tonight it is a wholemeal and cracked wheat loaf of bread and probably some anzac cookies if all of the Maple bread is gone before tomorrow.

That was all.

I did not know this.

Me and the hubby were talking the other day and the topic of the UN and the USA came up in the same sentence and the husband commented how the US accuses the UN of being ineffectual but in reality is the main reason for this state of play because they refuse to pay their UN fees and have done so for years effectively blocking UN productivity.

I was surprised and shocked. And then I was surprised at my first reaction. I mean d'uh!

The US has a known history of pulling this kind of stuff, whether it be to under-developed nations or big multi-national corporations, and the UN is just another pesky organisation that doesn't serve the american interest on the world-wide stage.

[btw, when I say the american interest I mean mostly the people in government who make these decisions and not your normal american who I think would be also kinda disgusted with these affairs.]

I did some googling and it all makes interesting reading but probably the most clear and concise article I found is this one, written last April. Have a read and then you too can be shocked and surprised, just like me.

The UN does work and can work very well if given half the chance, perhaps this is one more screaming wrong that Obama can try to right. That man must have an awfully big list.

A few Ramblings.

Normal has once more been achieved here at Casa Leo and the two Little Misses are safely back to school for the whole week this time unike last week where the Kiwi way is to ease our kids back to school slowly with just a couple of days at a time.

I love school.

More specifically, I love it when my children go to school and stay there for the whole day. Bliss.

I love my daughters too of course but please remember that I have just had them at home for the past 7 weeks in a row and school is definitely more loved today.

And man, it is expensive to get them back to school these days. I only have two and I felt the pinch this year, god knows how you guys out there are coping who were brave enough to procreate more than me.

$85 for stationary! And that was after we recycled everything still in good working order from last year. Two pairs of new summer shoes. One new bag, one new lunchbox, two new drink bottles. One new school t-shirt and one new pair of school shorts. Bugger that school donation and those school fees, we are now tapped out until the next payday - the school will have to wait.

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The husband was moaning the other day about how he gets so much grief from the New Zealand Customs officers every time he returns to the country after another business trip. He has been to Australia twice in the last fortnight with another trip due this week, and apparently he gets the third degree every time. 'Why are you having so many one day trips to Australia?' is the most common question but then they flip through his passport and peruse his other visas and it would seem that the flying trips to Asian cities are of a bit of concern also.

I can understand a bit of paranoia from Customs on this issue but surely when you travel business class and wear suits and can hand out business cards for a legitimate company and carry no luggage except a laptop, then maybe, just maybe he really is a well travelled businessman.

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We just had a long weekend here due to Waitangi Day on friday which is where New Zealanders all hit the beach in an unconscious celebration of our country. Politicians and other VIP's mostly converge on Waitangi which is a tiny place up north where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between the local Maori Chiefs and the English representatives thus officialy making us part of the Commonwealth.

I say unconsciously celebrate because it really has been a non-event for so long now (unless you are up at Waitangi), and this always saddens me because we need to make more of an effort to celebrate such a cool place. It's getting better though, I was almost tempted to drive down to Auckland for a free homegrown music concert in the park but ending up painting the fence and then staying up to 5am drinking bourbon and playing X-Box instead, so I have some homework for next year to celebrate properly.

But the weekend was glorious weather-wise, we unofficially hit 35-40'c up here and basically melted the weekend away. And apparently there was a rare Beaked whale frolicking at our local beach all weekend and we only found out last night so missed it. I went looking today but to no avail although our friends were lucky enough to be out on the water in their boat yesterday and got to within one metre of it. I am so jealous.

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I am shite at removing stains from clothes, especially dried tomato sauce ones. It took me all weekend to clean the new school t-shirt after Little Miss 10 spilt tomato sauce all over the front of it last week. I also found stains on Little Miss 12's school shirt which I still haven't removed so I'm arguing they've been there a while and are well practised at being stubborn.

I am however rather good at attacking whites with a bottle of bleach. Thank god I'm not a complete failure or the husband would complain more than he already does about my slack housework abilities.

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I am also shite at giving up wine for the month which I had thought I would do. Not sure if I will now. Silly idea anyway.