Stress Sponge

Thanks to Little Green Envelope for the above.

September 1 is the 7th anniversay of New Zealand Random Acts of Kindness day!  Yes I know, we should always be trying to do little things to brighten the day of strangers… but sometimes we need a little reminder.  September 1 is that reminder!

RAK day is about doing something for absolutely no reason at all.  Something that pulls two strangers (or even friends) just a little closer together.  It doesn’t have to be a big gesture… just something small like gifting the remainder of your paid parking time to the next driver in your parking space, handing out flowers to people on the street, or buying lunch for a homeless person.

I know I’ll be doing my bit to make New Zealand have a sunshinier day!

Here’s a great RAK that one of my favourite bloggers (Shoot Tokyo) did in Japan… it’s so sweet

It was one of those Sundays today… where the weather couldn’t make up it’s mind between hail and sunshine, and where going outside seemed like just too much hard work.  After spending a few hours indulgently lazing around the house in my PJs, I finally managed to pull myself together and caught up on some housework.

Inspired by the blog (The Awkward Cauliflower) of a friend and fellow foodie, I spent a couple of hours this afternoon doing one of my favourite things… BAKING!

A couple of years ago when I visited Taiwan, I discovered these amazing egg sponge cake balls (Ji Dan Gao - 雞蛋糕) that you could get from street vendors.  They’d pour the batter into a hot cast iron mold, and a minute later they’d tip out a batch of perfectly formed delicious cake balls!  Sometimes the cakes would have a filling in the centre, maybe coconut or custard… and sometimes they’d even come molded in the shape of some cute animal.  A couple of months after my Taiwan trip I decided to have a go at making Ji Dan Gao myself, and I found that it was pretty easy with the help of a takoyaki pan.

With this memory in mind, I pulled one of my most favourite recipe books (The Best of Annabel Langbein) off the shelf, and whipped up a few batches of  “Banana Puffs” using Annabel Langbein’s awesome Banana Cake recipe.

These little morsels are so much better than just a normal banana cake.  Each one is bite sized, and each one is crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.  The perfect thing for a rainy Sunday!

 

When we first moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago, our cat Phoebe was the only cat on the street and she prowled around like she owned the place. Over the years our street’s cat population has risen, and now we’re always getting visits from strays and other family’s pets.

Here’s a few snaps of one of the latest additions to the area, that I took when I was walking to the bus.

 

In just over a month’s time, New Zealand will be hosting the rugby world cup… To be honest, I couldn’t care less about rugby. What I do absolutely love, is all the wonderful new development that has been going on in Auckland, in preparation for the RWC 2011.

An area of the Auckland waterfront that was previously an industrial no-man’s-land, has now had life breathed into it. There’re bars and restaurants, parks and a playground… AND… trams!! I’m so excited about the reintroduction of trams to Auckland’s CBD! It may only be a short loop track at the moment, but the possibilities for extending the tracks are endless

Here are few photos I took on an after work excursion around Wynyard Quarter. The full album can be found here.

 

 

Recently work has been getting a bit out of control, and has been seriously stepping on the toes of my real life. After reading a blog post by the Digital Photography School on making Time for Photography (and taking some inspiration from Shoot Tokyo), I made the effort to step away from all the work chaos, and went on a lunch time walk-about.