Chocolatier for the day

Three years after a fun evening of chocolate making for Wellington on a Plate in 2018, I returned to Wellington Chocolate Factory yesterday for another chocolate making session. Chocolatier for the day is a hands-on event that will appeal to any aspiring Oompa Loompa. Kitted out in a stylish hairnet (no selfies!) and apron, each station was prepared with all we needed to create three handcrafted chocolate bars.

Ready to begin

Which is your favourite?

We started with a quick explanation of how things would work then began tempering some melted chocolate by hand. (No machines this time.) We could make three bars of either milk or dark chocolate so opted for one tray of each that we would divide and share later.

The wide range of appealing ingredients meant we could experiment with our flavour combinations. I remembered from last time that less is more when it comes to piling on the ingredients, especially when it's time to wrap the bars, so tried to be a little more restrained this time. We made tasty treats including mini marshmallows and sprinkles, broken wafers with freeze dried strawberries, and biscuit crumbs with crushed pistachio nuts in milk chocolate. We experimented with more savoury combinations in dark chocolate, including freeze dried raspberry with sea salt, chili flakes with pretzels, and crispy salted caramel.

Sweet milk chocolate delights

Savoury dark chocolate flavours

While we were waiting for our chocolate creations to set in the fridge, we were treated to a real hot chocolate and a more detailed explanation of the chocolate making process.

Real hot chocolate

Then it came time to wrap our bars by hand in beautiful coloured wrappers. Believe me: it's not as easy as it looks, especially the bars with chunkier toppings like marshmallows and pretzels. We opted to chop our bars across the middle and wrap them as a mixed selection, which means we're in for a pleasant surprise of two out of six possible combinations each time we open a bar at home. Clever thinking!

Another delightful Wellington on a Plate event hosted by the lovely team at Wellington Chocolate Factory. Check out their future tours and chocolate making sessions. They're interesting, tasty and lots of fun.

Rice and Shine

Wellington on a Plate has returned to its usual August calendar, promising a month of culinary adventures for the region's foodies. We got our campaign off to a great start with Rice and Shine at Master Kong, a fusion between European style brunch and Asian yum cha.

The courses kept coming and I lost count after around 9 or 10 dishes. Breakfast cocktails were also available and there was a great vibe in the restaurant overlooking Wellington's waterfront.

The menu included bacon and egg bao buns, chicken dumplings with lemongrass sauce, karachi chicken on savoury waffle, pad thai, salmon blinis, sweet banana and bacon bao, pork croissant, bacon fried rice ... I've forgotten some of the combinations but we rolled out of the restaurant at the end of the session feeling happily full.

Master Kong yum cha brunch

Our friends agreed that Rice and Shine was a great start to this year's Welly on a Plate festival. I'm looking forward to more foodie events this month.

New Zealand Comedy Festival 2021

The New Zealand International Comedy Festival takes place in Auckland and Wellington during May each year. Well, most years. 2020 was obviously an exception. The festival kicks off with a gala evening where local and (usually) international comedians put forward four minute samplers of what's to come during their festival shows. Last year's gala evening happened later in the year and featured an almost exclusively local lineup. This year's show had a few more internationals who had either moved her shortly before the pandemic or simply decided to sit it out in relatively safety while on their travels. Either way, we're glad we can enjoy live stand-up comedy again.

We went to five stand-up shows during the festival, having decided on three of them after attending the gala show. Hands down the best show we saw was Arsebiscuits by British-Indian storyteller and comedian Sameena Zehra. Her show was a roller coaster of intelligence, hilarity, dark humour and clever wit that has left me looking out for anything else featuring this multi-talented performer. Such a treat! 

Another on-form performance was Ladi Dadi Assadi like to party by Pax Assadi, who is really hitting his comedy stride. Ben Hurley is one of our favourites but we realised during Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream that we may have been to a few too many of his shows recently as we could recognise many of his stories from the opening lines. Guy Montgomery and Nick Rado served up fun nights out - even on a school night. 

It feels great to be able to support local artists and attend live events once again.

Winetopia 2020

Winetopia came to town this weekend. More than 50 wineries offered 30 ml tastings of their products in our own takeaway Spiegelau glass. We explored some new wineries and also enjoyed listening to tales of wine and music with musician and composer Laughton Kora.

We're generally white wine fans (apart from oaked wines, chardonnay and pinot gris) and made some great additions to our yes list in 2019. This year we looked for more sauvignon blanc, sparkling wines, dry Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, Albariño and Viognier. We quickly spent our tokens, bought a few more and purchased four bottles to take home of wines that aren't too easy to find locally. A very successful evening.

Take home collection

2020 yes list highlights

• Big Sky (Martinborough) 2019 Sauvignon blanc 
• Big Sky (Martinborough) 2016 Grüner Veltliner
• Dancing Petrel (Northland) 2018 unoaked Viognier
• Dancing Petrel (Northland) 2019 Sparkles
• Dancing Petrel (Northland) 2020 Sparkling Isla Rosé
• Decibel Wines (Hawke's Bay) 2019 Viognier
• Forrest Wines (Marlborough) 2019 Albariño
• Two Rivers (Marlborough) 2020 Sauvignon blanc
  

Afternoon tea with lots of talk about baking

Wellington on a Plate moved to October this year and once again I've planned a busy itinerary for myself. The title of my first event is quite a mouthful - just like the delicious afternoon tea we were served. Everything you could ever want to know about baking, all in one afternoon was hosted by three industry veterans at Floriditas. Ruth Pretty, Julie le Clerc and Julie Clark delighted us with tales from their baking careers, baking failures and advice for those of us still practising our craft.

During the talk, we were served afternoon tea featuring menu items from each chef. 

An enticing menu

 I swapped my hot drink for a refreshing mocktail.

Seville orange and mint cordial

Food was presented in two courses: savoury and sweet. The savoury selection included a roast chicken cocktail sandwich with bacon and herb stuffing, spinach za'atar puff and an asparagus, parmesan and gruyere croissant. So very cheesy!

Savoury selection

We all know I'm really about the sweets. Our sweet treats included a little Persian love cake, a soft ginger kiss, passionfruit and white chocolate macaron and a decadent dark chocolate strawberry tart. Divine!

Sweet treats

This was a delightful afternoon with lovely company and great advice. If only we could enjoy afternoon tea like this every weekend.

Digital Nights - Van Gogh Alive

Of all the immensely talented impressionist and post-impressionist artists, Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) is probably my favourite. I'm an art admirer but not much of a visual artist myself. As a teacher whose strength was performing arts, I worried I wouldn't be able to do my students justice when it came to teaching visual art techniques. My colleagues suggested choosing an artist to study (guess who I chose?) and my class of 7-8 year olds got busy drawing and painting their bedrooms, their shoes, bowls of fruit, vases of flowers, self-portraits and some very tempestuous starry nights. Together, we unlocked the magic and beauty of impressionism by studying the work of Van Gogh.

Van Gogh's prolific collection of around 2100 art works famously sold a single piece during his lifetime, yet live on to bring pleasure 130 years later in a form he could never have imagined. Wellington is the first city to host Digital Nights - Van Gogh Alive outside, which is a bold and brave move during springtime. (Yes, it rained when we went and was very cold, but this didn't detract from the experience.)

Dozens of art works are projected onto giant shipping containers standing three-high and accompanied by an emotive score of well-known classics. Every standpoint offers a good view and standing further back makes the impressionist's brush strokes come alive.

Everyone has a favourite Van Gogh painting or three. I have been captivated by the scene depicted in Café Terrace at Night for as long as I can remember and have a canvas print of it hanging in my lounge. Phone photos can't even begin to capture the magic of seeing these masterpieces in such amplified splendour. Some zoomed in to reveal finer detail in the brush strokes. Here are a few highlights.

Café Terrace at Night - zoom view

Sunflowers

Starry Night Over the Rhône

The Starry Night

Self-portrait

Irises

So many art works, so many masterpieces and so much torment and sadness before an untimely death at age 37. Digital Nights - Van Gogh Alive is an art experience that speaks to your soul.

Winter wrap-up

Winter 2020 has pretty much come and gone. Like most of this year, it's been a novel one. Somehow the days seem long yet the months have raced by. I struggle to recall what I've been up to. I haven't ventured out much since the first round of lockdown ended in May, mostly just socialising with close friends and whānau. I appreciate having the ability (and flexibility) to work from home to protect vulnerable family members but long days online has made work seem all-encompassing, especially when much of my volunteering obligations also happens in an online environment. 

Beautiful views like this one just around the corner from my home have made winter seem less intense. I'm so lucky to have this almost on my doorstep.

A winter's day in Petone

What I'm listening to

Podcasts - lots of them. Here's a selection of non-work podcasts that I enjoy.

• This is Love from Radiotopia
  
• Conversations from ABC
  
• Eating Fried Chicken in the Shower from RNZ
• Voices, also from RNZ 
• Dolly Parton's America from WNYC

What I'm reading

Biographies and memoirs, two of my favourite genres.

• Rolling with the Punchlines by Urzila Carlson
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle
• Teacher by Gabby Stroud
• Māori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood by Witi Ihimaera 
• Working Class Man by Jimmy Barnes
• Educated by Tara Westover
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
  

What I'm baking

Bread, mostly. Sourdough and the occasional cake or treat for Good Bitches Baking.

What I'm watching

Not much, really. I'm reading more these days but am still prone to the occasional binge.

• Lucifer
• Wentworth

What I'm looking forward to

• Spring, my favourite season
• Daylight saving time. Bring on the longer, lighter evenings.
• Wellington on a Plate, postponed until October

Plum blossoms to welcome spring
and prepare us for another summer of plums

Life after lockdown

Today marks eight weeks since I arrived home from my whirlwind trip to Bangladesh. Two weeks of self-isolation in the spare room away from Mr Weka on my return morphed into a 4.5 week long country-wide lockdown. Restrictions eased into a state of limbo two weeks ago when non-essential businesses were allowed to begin trading again and people rushed out to buy the takeaways they'd been craving for the past month. Today we've entered alert level 2: not so restricted but still not quite normal.

Eight weeks of lockdown has been a surreal experience. It's something we could never have predicted would happen just a few months ago and may never experience on this scale again. People seem to be divided into two camps: those who felt overly restricted, grieving their freedom and craving contact with the outside world versus those who embraced the solace afforded by the safety of a few weeks at home.

As a pair of introverts, Mr Weka and I have actually enjoyed the quieter pace of lockdown. Our single success indicator for the lockdown period was to emerge with all four of our parents still alive. We made it - just. Sure, our businesses have both taken a huge hit, but we'd prefer to weather the storm of several months with zero income in return for the health and safety of our family, friends and wider community. I realise how privileged I am to be able to say that.

The streets are now busy again. I'm in no rush to go out and get a haircut, eat at restaurants and bars or hug crowds of people. I think it will take some time to reduce my heightened sense of caution that resulted from fleeing a developing country at the start of global pandemic. And I know we're not completely out of danger yet.

As for returning to normal, I'm intrigued by the urgency I see. It seems the same people whose wellbeing was threatened by the stresses of living at an unsustainable pace are the ones who have most yearned for a return to the routines they've always dreamed of escaping. Does the desire for familiarity outweigh the stresses of uncertainty? Perhaps. But I don't see much benefit in returning to what wasn't working before.

What would a new normal look like? Is it really possible to create the normal we want rather than settling for the normal we know? Can I keep waking up without an alarm, being super-productive while working from the safety of my home office, cooking healthy meals, baking my own bread and enjoying the luxury of a daily lunch time walk along the beach? Or must I forfeit it all in favour of peak hour commuting on public transport to open plan offices with hot desks, working through lunch breaks then collapsing in a heap at the end of a day or week, all in the name of 'normal'? I know what makes more sense to me. I guess only time will tell.

Lighting up a city

Two delights have mesmerised me since childhood: fairy lights and fireworks. Events that feature both are sure to make me smile. I got to experience some beautiful lighting displays in Bangladesh recently.

My hosts took me to the rooftop restaurant at the Dhaka Regency Hotel one evening. High above the traffic and noise of the city below is a mystical oasis of light and space. We ate pizza under the stars and overlooking the airport nearby.

The entrance would appeal to a certain target market (not us)

We had the whole rooftop garden to ourselves

Private dining

Even the rooftop pool looks enticing

17 March was a national holiday in Bangladesh to commemorate the centenary of the birth of country's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Large public events were planned throughout the city of Dhaka. They were then cancelled due to the risk of spreading COVID-19 but a delightful fireworks display from four city locations went ahead and we enjoyed it from the rooftop of my host's apartment building.

In the meantime government buildings and public spaces were decorated with miles of LED fairy lights. Ten storey buildings were draped in strings of coloured lights to represent Bangladesh's national colours (green and red). Others featured every colour of the rainbow. Imagine Christmas lights and multiply them by a hundred.

Others buildings featured changing light displays on a continuous loop. We sat opposite this ICT Tower for ten minutes, delighting in its rotating display, which was far too grandiose for my phone to capture.

Driving around a crowded city becomes a magical experience when surrounded by millions of LED lights.

The noisy streets of Dhaka

I blogged about traffic in Dhaka while travelling to Bangladesh last year. We may complain about traffic jams, commute times and the state of roads in developed countries, but Bangladesh's traffic is something else altogether.

The whole city is actually really noisy. Dhaka is one of the world's most densely populated cities and there are people everywhere. The days are a clutter of traffic from Dhaka's 8 million residents plus 5 million commuters to the city. Car horns and bicycle bells ring out constantly as cars, rickshaws, CNGs and pedestrians make tiny gains among endless traffic jams. I'm happy to not drive myself in Dhaka and instead enjoy the skill and experience of our driver, who can navigate traffic jams and potholes with ease.

This video (not mine) shows a typical but not especially busy Dhaka street.


Here are some of my photos of street scenes around Dhaka.

A typical street corner

The road outside our office

Just one street over from one of the main roads, we were held up by traffic of a different sort. This area is a large scale building development for a new subdivision. The roads feature even more bumps and potholes than usual. I have no idea where the cattle were coming from or heading to, but just one block right featured typical traffic chaos!

A woman moves cattle and a goat just one street away from the main road

And then this happened. The photo isn't clear as it was taken through the car windscreen. A truck in front of me had about 15 young men on the back. The truck clipped a vehicle that was passing on the left. The two drivers got out of their cars and started yelling at each other, along with about 10 of these guys. Everyone else was trying to drive around them (many car horns tooting!). The truck driver got back into his vehicle and took off with a few passengers missing. The guy in white and a few others managed to jump onto the moving vehicle. Others decided to walk.

Jump on or you'll miss your ride!

From 7pm, articulated tucks and large delivery vehicles arrive. They aren't allowed to drive on the roads during the day so deliver goods and supplies overnight, racing along expressways and main streets. There are no lights on rickshaws or bicycles to see them approaching or passing these huge vehicles at night. They bravely (or recklessly) weave in and out among the traffic armed with little more than a bicycle bell. Even on a quiet side street, it's not uncommon to hear car horns through the night or someone blowing a whistle at 3am.

The evening commute out of Dhaka

Each morning I enjoyed a moment of calm around 5am as the first call to prayer rang out, then it was back to constant chaos and noise. It's a world away from the peace and quiet of lockdown in New Zealand.

A whirlwind trip to Bangladesh

This is a very surreal post to write. What a week it has been.

For several weeks I've been excitedly looking forward to returning to Bangladesh for a second stint of professional volunteering. Two weeks of workshops and meetings were planned in Dhaka, then a similar week-long programme in Kathmandu, Nepal. I prepared early, updated all my travel immunisations and planned ways to minimise risk while still making the most of this incredible opportunity. My plans were guided by one principle: safety first.

And then it all changed. Covid-19 was declared a pandemic just as I was flying out of New Zealand. The risks increased exponentially while I was en route to Dhaka in a half-full plane. The country I'd left was very different to the one I returned to a week later.

The hysteria became palpable. Online shrieks ranged from "New Zealand has closed its border!" through to "you'll have to be in total isolation once you return!", "travellers should immediately put into quarantine or be arrested!" and "the government is covering up the truth!" It was then followed by some really bizarre advice from a 'surgeon': "drink water as it kills the virus. Also, the virus can't live in climates over 27°C (nope - Dhaka's average daily temperature is 30+°C) and take vitamin C and D supplements to build your immunity (in just one week!)". While drinking water and building your immunity is always a good idea, these messages are not helpful and only serve to spread misinformation. Seriously: wash your hands.

It's so hard to discern facts from among all the conjecture, unqualified social media commentary and random conspiracy theories, especially when you're relatively isolated in a developing country whose health system is not equipped to manage a pandemic (if any country's health system is).

Basically, there are (were?) four sources of truth for kiwi travellers planning a return journey. Since then, a dedicated Covid-19 site has been developed. The rest is mostly noise - including chain mail and click bait from well-meaning friends and family on Facebook. Don't @ me.

• Ministry of Health 
• SafeTravel 
• HealthLine NZ
• Your airline

But, despite how drastically circumstances changed, I actually had a really good time in Bangladesh and packed in as much activity as I could into what ended up being a flying visit: just five days in Dhaka sandwiched between two days of flying.

I tweeted much of my experience of getting home safely using the hashtag #TravellingWeka so won't repeat myself here. Instead I want to share my experiences in Dhaka and remember the good times long after the new post-Covid-19 normal emerges. One good thing about two weeks of self-isolation is that I have plenty of time to do this. 

The summer of plums

Several years ago, I noticed some beautiful spring blossoms appear above our fence. A year or two later, we noticed a tree on our property that seemed to be growing some kind of fruit. What was it? And how did it get there? Neither of us have very green thumbs. Should we have been looking after it?

It seems that Mother Nature or one of her helpers had self-seeded a #SurprisePlumTree in our front yard and it was preparing to bear fruit! We culled some lavender bushes underneath that were stifling its growth and wondered what to do with this strangely shaped tree. We were delighted when the first season yielded a few dozen dark purple plums (not sure which type). I took some advice from a keen gardener and had a go at gently pruning the tree, cutting the long branches back one third each year to finally shape it into something that might actually produce fruit - and this year we were rewarded with a bumper crop!

In mid-December, the tree looked like this. Things looked promising.

A hint of colour

Shortly after Christmas, the fruit started to colour ...

Steady progress

... and then last week the neighbourhood birds announced that the plums were ready! After a frantic day tying and re-tying netting around the branches to beat the birds at their game, recovering plums that had already fallen to the ground and rescuing slightly pecked fruit, we started collecting beautifully ripe plums. And then some more. And then even more. Yum!

Two days' pickings with more to come

It's lucky that we like summer fruit and plums as they now accompany every meal. Bags have been shared with neighbours, family and friends. Plums get added to fruit smoothies and also contribute to the compost bin. I've experimented with recipes and already baked sooooo many things with plums with more planned for next week, including:

• plum shortcake (just add an extra teaspoon of mixed spice to the fruit)
• simple summer plum cake using half plums and nectarines for the topping
• plum compote for pancakes and waffles
• mini plum clafoutis for dessert.

I'm not at the sauce, chutney, stewing or jam-making stages yet as we don't really eat these, but ask me again next week and I might change my mind. In the meantime, I'll keep searching for more yummy plum recipes.

We're enjoying our summer of plums and are thankful to whatever planted and cared for our #SurprisePlumTree until we were able to look after it ourselves.

2019 Ta Da! list

2019 has almost finished and a new year beckons tomorrow along with the promise of shiny fresh starts, hopes and possibilities. Some insist that we're also about to start a new decade and are busy recounting on social media how the last decade has played out for them. Although not technically correct (yes, it depends), I'll play along.

2019 has been an epic year for me. It sped by as I learned and did things I could never imagine this time last year. There were some bumps in the road but overall the good things outweighed the bad this year.

As someone whose To Do lists frequently get the better of me, I've made a Ta Da! list reflecting on 2019. The To Do lists can wait until tomorrow. 

Things I'm proud of

• I fought for something that really matters to me and learnt to make it a priority.
• I've always known that there's nothing more important than whānau and was reminded of this again as we banded together when it mattered most and supported each other through various health scares.
• I started to use my professional voice after keeping it quiet for so many years. This led to professional opportunities that may have previously passed me by. 
• My professional volunteering experience in Bangladesh left me tired, refreshed and overstimulated all at once as I processed what I experienced while well out of my comfort zone. I started learning to look for optimism and hope in adverse conditions and gained a new perspective on life. Giving, giving back and giving forward has led me to take on a role in a professional committee but also to know my limits.
• I said no when someone asked me to do something waaaaayyy beyond my boundaries. I felt terrible about it for ages thinking how I'd let her down, but it turned out just fine and we're still really good friends - because good friends understand and respect boundaries and limits.
• I didn't buy much this year and was more contemplative about what I already have. I'd rather do things instead of buy things with my money.
• I was a Good Bitch 17 times, baking 17 batches of sweet treats for charity recipients, nine birthday cakes and several care packages for friends and whānau.
• I completed this year's Goodreads reading challenge after some sleepless nights finally pushed me over the finish line. Yuss!

Things I've learnt

• My sense of identity is stronger than other people's perception of it. I'm especially proud of this one.
• If contracts are like sprints and permanent jobs are a marathon, then a fixed term role is a half-marathon. You can't run a marathon by sprinting like a contractor. The same goes for life in general.
• Life, misery and exhaustion is not a competition. We're all in different spaces and that's absolutely fine. I've learnt to empathise and support but not be dragged into someone else's negative space just because they're having a tough time.

Things I'm still working on

• Saying yes to people and experiences without taking on too much.
• Managing, protecting and nurturing my energy. Sometimes this involves having ridiculously early nights.
• Pacing myself. I just can't be or do everything I need or want to all the time. 
• Letting go of the shoulds. 

And so I finish the year tired but not completely exhausted, looking forward to a break but energised by the possibilities of doing things (or not) over summer. Bring on 2020!

Christmas high tea at the Intercontinental

I set myself a Christmas watershed of 1 December 5 years ago as a way of managing the annual Christmas madness. For some reason I'm feeling quite festive this year so lifted it a day early, officially declaring the Christmas season open by celebrating Christmas high tea with friends today.

The Intercontinental puts on a spectacular high tea (or high coffee). This year they have a special Christmas high tea available every day until Christmas Eve. The menu is extensive (17 items!) and drinks include the usual tea selection or coffee and either a festive mocktail or a glass of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

An excellent start

Half the fun of high tea is matching the extensive menu with the food presented to you. Sure, it was explained to us by staff but 17 items is a lot to keep your eye on. And then a bartering system began. "I'll trade your asparagus roll for my ham slider" was followed by "you can have my eggnog cheesecake if I get your cheese scone." We all passed our pumperknickel with blue cheese to one person who declared that four was enough!

Christmas high tea

So what did we eat? The savoury tier included a cheese scone, asparagus roll, cucumber sandwich, smoked salmon blink, champagne ham slider and pumpernickel with blue cheese.

Sandwiches and savoury

Things started getting sweeter. Eggnog cheese cake, strawberry tart, white chocolate choux, mini gateau, Christmas pudding panna cotta, a Christmas fruit tart and a cute little gingerbread man. I needed to pause during this tier.

Slightly sugary

The finish was very sweet. Macarons, trifle slice disguised as a Christmas pudding, a welcome palette cleansing berry fruit salad and a fun chocolate and popping candy lollipop.

A sweet finish

I didn't make it all through the menu (although my friends did!) so took home a takeaway box of four items to have for dessert tonight. What a deliciously decadent start to Christmas 2019!