Arty day

Seiji started work today at the New Zealand stock exchange; two things should make him very happy.

1. They had work drinks to welcome him, so they obviously like a tipple now and then.

2. There are two showers available so he can easily go running at lunch times. He is going through a mad running phase at the moment and is due to do a 60k Ultra Marathon in two weeks!

Because I was on my own today with Rai and Luka, we had to do a few activities and outings to keep us all sane (except poor Luka, who became a bit insane about 7pm from lack of sleep).



First, Rai and I donned our Masterchef hats and cooked up some pikelets served with mixed berry coulis and cream. I think I have picked up a few things from watching so many cooking shows recently (Masterchef and Jamie Oliver's Food Escapes being current favourites), because I self-critiqued my coulis and found it to be "sour, dull-coloured and under-strained", though it still tasted pretty good overall. My inner chef is starting to emerge! I also realised how great it is to have a bottle of cream in the house (we have some leftover from Christmas, otherwise it is something we never have). I think I may start to follow my grandmother's lead - she always has bacon and cream in the fridge. It seems these two ingredients are enough to inspire or add to dozens of dishes.

After our Masterclass, we visited Riverstone in Upper Hutt to pick up a cute "Welcome" sign (see above) I bought off Trade Me. I have never been to Riverstone, a newish suburb, and had brief fantasies of buying a huge house there with a big garden. However, the suburban neurosis would soon get to me, and  I love Korokoro, so we won't be moving there quite yet.

Later, Rai was inspired by the Welcome sign to make a fake cake tea party - his own styling.

Since we were in Upper Hutt, I decided to go to the Expressions Art Gallery, which my friend Penny had told me about. It was surprisingly good. There was an excellent exhibition by John McLean which Rai and I enjoyed a lot, especially since we had the whole gallery to ourselves. McLean has done a series called "The Farmer" - reminiscent of Nigel Brown, quite familiar. Not something I'd want to buy (nor could afford to!), but glorious to see the whole series of huge paintings hung together.

I do have a couple more NY resolutions already - buy some more art and purchase a good digital camera. Anyone have opinions about Canon's 450D? Also, what do you think of Rai's latest art piece?