the self-discovery adventure of brett taylor
On a lighter note, I am really getting into my Subway sandwiches. So tasty. Here’s my current flavorite:
~ Chicken & Bacon Ranch ~
on a lightly toasted italian herbs & cheese roll
filled with melted mozzerella cheese
with lettuce, tomato, onion, gherkin, olives
topped in ranch sauce
sprinkled with salt & pepper
Mmm… so good. Can’t get enough.
My mum came down this weekend to visit both my brother Stuart and I. Saturday night we ended up at Stuart’s place drinking crates of Bushman’s Lager, and then it turned into what Stuart says was the largest party they’d ever had. Mum and I left early to go see my Uncle Steve and Aunty Rosie Ffrost, leaving Stuart and his girlfriend to enjoy the party.
My Aunty and Uncle were in town for (Rosie’s Mum) Leslie’s 70th birthday party the next day. My cousins Abby and Sam were there too — man they’ve grown and look so different! Abby is now married(?) and has had two kids, one of which was adopted out, but they were both there. My goodness, they look so much like the younger Abby I remember.
I also talked to Leslie herself, and she told me about her trip around South America, and off hand she mentioned going to Easter Island, so I asked her a bit about that… she was only there for two days, but she saw most of the island — remembering that you can probably bike around the island in less than a day.
Mum was crashing at my place, so before we went to bed, we tried to watch Napolean Dynamite, but my computer was having issues and we were both tired; Mum doubly so after a 4 hour drive from Napier.
The next day was Church, and after an ordeal missing late buses back into town, I made it back in time to go to Leslie’s 70th party. It was at the Kingsgate Hotel in Oriental Bay, which is a great venue! After eating many club sandwiches, mini-croissants and drinking glasses of orange juice, talking to the whanau, we got to hear speeches from Leslie’s children telling the attendees about Leslies life. It was really interesting — she used to be in the Lighthouse service, which involved living in and running lighthouses for 18 months at a time. Fascinating!
After the party, Stuart, Mum and myself returned to my place where we relaxed, then we fetched some supplies including popcorn, beer and food for dinner, and Mum cooked up a feast of Potato, Cauliflower and cheese sauce and Porterhouse Steak — YUMMM. Then we retired and watched Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie, drinking beers and eating microwave popcorn. Mum had bought a few fruit-and-nut chocolate bars and said you gotta try this: Put a chunk of the chocolate in your mouth, then grab a small handful of popcorn and put that in there too. I did, and it was great! The chocolate melts from the heat of the popcorn and it tastes great 😀
Monday morning I wake up and Mum and Stuart are buzzing the apartment, so I quickly get dressed and we all go to Fidel’s for breakfast. They had a FIFTEEN PERCENT SURCHARGE for a public holiday! SCREW THAT! Well, we ended up ordering and paying for the meal before we realised there was a surcharge, and the food was REALLY GOOD… and we had a good time, so that was good 🙂
After that we walked to Te Papa where Mum wanted to check out the Holbein to Hockney exhibition of pictures from the Royal Collection, which featured some pieces from Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, along with many others. I think the other Ninja Turtle was in there too 😉
After that, Mum was on her way back to the Hawkes Bay and we said our farewells. Overall it was good sharing the city with Mum, and having a real good time. Love you lots Mum!
Oh, and I scored a full copy of Duke Nukem 3D from the Gamesman for NZD$1.00… pity I can’t get it to run in any screen size bigger than 320×240 under Windows XP. I tried a few HOWTOs but they didn’t help 🙁
I haven’t been eating properly I guess. I need to make good food. I feel a little under the weather today (not to mention it’s raining real bad today), and I think my workmates have noticed that I have been having a sick day here and there the last few weeks. I guess I’m too lazy for my own good. So I need to learn how to make quick, tasty AND nutritious meals. I had the quick and tasty down pat. I hope this isn’t one of those ‘pick two out of these three options’ deals. By that I mean, if I want tasty and nutritious, does that mean it can’t be quick? Or if I want quick and nutritious, will it taste like crap? So many things in life are these ‘choice triangles’…
UPDATE: Thanks to Kodiak for suggesting this page with six steps to losing weight, it really helped me set some targets. Apparently I have to lose about 25kgs, and I should set myself up to lose that weight over the space of about 12 months. It’s a depressing number, but probably the reality of the whole situation
Mufasa and I tried Marshmellow Toasted Sandwiches – and they weren’t half bad! I suggest using a toastie machine that seals the sandwich… enjoy!
My birthday was pretty cool. Friday night I went out to dinner with Mel. We went to Stellar, a restaraunt inside Courtenay Central. We shared a wood fire pizza (Rotisserie chicken stuffed pizza with camembert, mozzarella, bacon and onions, very yummy), then went and saw Two Weeks Notice, which although it was a chick flick, was actually a pretty cool movie. We came home and Mel had stealthly left a picnic hamper at home, but because it was raining we did the picnic thing in my room – really romantic like 🙂 Afterwards, we played Risk with Chris and Mark – Chris won (Kill Blue (Chris) or 24 Countries, by the latter), but Mel had Kill Green (me) and nearly won too, on her first game!… :-/ Mel really enjoyed playing, and we’ll probably all play again on Thursday night
Saturday I slept in and then Chris and Mark gave me a present. It was Lazy Sunday 3, which is what I wanted for my birthday (cheers guys!). But even better was the card they gave me – Mark, it seemed, had spent two days making a birthday card featuring a fake letter sent to Strong Bad asking him to send me an email saying Happy Birthday – LMAO! Excellent, guys!
Later that night a few of my friends (Mark L, Jaron, Ben and Steph) came over and we played xbox for a little while, then got Hells and watched Jackass The Movie. That is one classic movie… if you’ve never seen a Jackass, and are not squeemish, you will be after the end of this movie. 😀
Anyway, the birthday was overall the best birthday I’ve ever had, and caps off the fact that this is the best era i’ve had in my life (new job, girlfriend, overall happy to be alive motif). I don’t things could get worse 😀 but we’ll see 😉
