i heart auckland

  

 

This is not a Merry Christmas.

a sunday afternoon date date x

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon together on a slightly rambling drive out to Plimmerton. While we were there I discovered that I love Plimmerton and we both love pizza. I especially love pizza at The Big Salami corner pizzeria. It says it serves " the best pizza in the world!' and I have to agree. Even the garlic bread was a bit special, all cruchy on the outside and deliciously buttery on the inside.
It was amazing.

The Big Meat pizza and garlic bread.

strange exotic strangeness

earlier in the year a good friend of mine went on holiday to Bali and came back with two little parcels of coffee for me. one was organic coffee and the other had a few spices mixed in. after only a very little while i came to the conclusion that Balinese coffee is rather strange. it sort of doesn't quite mix together with water and the fine grounds form a thick mud in the bottom of your cup, if your not vigilant this can be accidentally consumed too. Even more strangely... I became very fond of it's unusual flavor. I was just brewing local Peoples coffee in the plunger (and i love Peoples coffee because it is super delicious) but i still felt a bit sad and missed my strange spicy coffee.

a rainy sunday morning in the beginning of summer

this morning we enjoyed breakfast together. milky coffee and thick warm waffles covered in dark cheeries, whipped cream and maple syrup.

on a Sunday morning

i am not meant for mornings.

but fresh coffee and french toast with golden syrup... makes it a little easier.

sharing

i would like to share one of my favorite short stories with you. i love short stories. and this one... i've read over and over again. the story is mournful, lonely, and an illustration of overwhelming sadness. and i find it moving, hopeful and beautiful.

This Is How Good the Coffee  by Denise Sammons

It's a grey day, raining and cold, yet I'm sitting, under shelter, outside. Happy. I am loving the  feeling of the clambering stopping. Then a tram full of American tourists pulls up outside the cafe and empties its cargo onto the footpath. A woman dressed in pink is telling another - who looks like a baseball on legs, all round and striped - about her problem. 'Oh,' her friend says, 'there's a product on the market for that.'

     I sit in the noise and feel a kindness, a warmth, maybe even some kind of love for these loud people. This is how good the coffee is.

     I am thinking of the French doors at home and how they will be leaking now (don't tell the real estate agent). Or do tell the real estate agent and maybe our house will never sell. Yes. I am imagining the soft plop, plop of the drops on the inside of the glass. I know you are at home with the open-mouthed boxes that are waiting to swallow our life together. You will be sitting with the cats, reassuring the ones you are taking and saying goodbye to the ones staying with me. In this moment I can almost see how it could all work out for the best. This is how good the coffee is.

     Sparrows ring the table where I am sitting. They skid towards my plate, aiming for the muffin, but then they get frightened and slide back to the edge of the table. They have no staying power. Their claws have no traction. Up close their bland commonness is transformed into beauty. The striking marking on their wings making a pleasing contrast to the soft, downy bodies. I want to hold one in my hand so some of that softness could seep into me, into my heart. I know that's impossible. I think of her. I do not smile. No coffee is that good.

from This Is How Good the Coffee Is by Denise Sammons. i found it a book given to me by my Nana. One hundred New Zealand short short stories, edited by Stephen Stratford, 2000.

coffee with love

i love coffee. and found things make me happy.

I'll love you dear. I'll love you till China and Africa meet.
And the river jumps over the mountain.
And the salmon sings in the street.
I'll love you till the ocean is folded and hung up to dry.
And the seven stars go squawking.
Like geese about the sky.


i found this in TopSupermarket on Willis street.
the text is sweet and amusing. i am in love.

my sewing homework

sometimes i'm not very good... so here are some little things that need mending. with any luck this will at least stop me sleeping in til the afternoon as often as i would like to.

i'd love to wake up by 8.30am at the very latest. no matter what day of the week it is. except for very occasional Sunday sleep-ins. if i'm sitting in front of my university work, i'll get started. and begin limiting my coffee drinking, from several, to five cups a day. with less sugar. one teaspoon in one cup per day. i will make an effort to stop eating like a boy... then i can have one sweet treat a day.

that's my sewing. all mended and neatly folded x