The most wonderful experience in Annie’s recent memory is The Toy Library. If Annie were to imagine heaven, it would probably resemble the toy library. It was a rainy Saturday morning – chilly and gloomy, with no hints that it would be a morning to live in Annie’s imagination as one of the pinnacles of …
Hokey pokey is a flavor found all around New Zealand. The most famous is the Cadbury Crunchie chocolate bar, which has a porous light “honeycomb” candy centre. In addition to the flavor being found in lollies, it is quite popular in ice cream! The first one we tried didn’t have enough hokey pokey bits, but …
The first week of work, I noticed that many of the patients were named Mast. At first I thought it was the same patient who kept coming in – other doctors were seeing Mast, but he kept popping into my schedule too. Maybe he was a sick child, or had a nervous mother who kept …
At the Orana Wildlife Preserve Annie finally got to try a lolly cake. She thought that it was more like a cookie than a cake. She was generous enough to let daddy take some big bites, and he thought it tasted like cotton candy morsels in a block of cookie dough surrounded by coconut. Annie …
The next day, the family got going even earlier, because they were going to the town of Lyttleton. It was a long way away. Everyone was excited. Today they would finally get to ride the gondola! Singing the songs from the Frozen soundtrack, they headed off down the road, in the opposite direction from the …
Annie continues to have adventures on her weekends in New Zealand. This past weekend, she had another adventure going towards the mountains, and another adventure going towards the big city, Christchurch. Saturday was a chilly day, and the family packed into the car with coats and warm hats. They started driving, and it took only …
In addition to having a sick minimalist electronica DJ, the Lyttleton Coffee Co. bakes a mean pie! We had a kumara, lentil & pumkin seed pie. A lot of places here reheat items from a display case, which makes me think they will be too dry or stale – not so here! The crust was …
Annie has decided to be a vegetarian. Previously, she was a vegetarian based on taste preferences. She has never, since she was a baby, eaten meat willingly – save 3 occasions. One was when she was at a restaurant with Mommy and Daddy (maybe a year ago) and they ordered a very fancy salad that …
Cora has abandoned the idea of crawling. It is too hard, and the payoff is not worth the effort. She spent a week or so really trying, but found she was getting nowhere. Initially she was optimistic and really tried hard, but the more time she spent on her tummy, not moving, the less she …
After 2 long plane trips, the four Van Siclens found ourselves jet-lagged in a new land, with only tea, coffee, Whittaker’s chocolate, edam cheese and Vogel’s Soy & Linseed Bread in the pantry. I was given the task of driving the borrowed Audi on the left side of the road to get some grub. It …
