Xmas and NYE

Our Christmas was very peaceful and quiet. Lunch at Gary and Bruce's with Adrian and Errol, Leith, and a lovely surprise that Murray E came too. I'd made a nut roast (surprisingly yummy), a mushroom and kumara Wellington (very nice, but I'd leave the black beans out next time) and mushroom and onion gravy (surprisingly yummy too). Of course, the carnivores were catered for by Gary and Adrian with roast lamb and ham. 

Kirsty was in Canberra with friends and couldn't talk for long when she called because her honorary nieces needed her for present opening before breakfast ... Tim and Dana and the boys were in Bulgaria - the boys had travelled a few days before Xmas from Scotland by train, overnighted in a friend's B&B hotel in Kensington, got the train out to Luton early in the morning, and flown to Sofia where Tim collected them and drove them down to Petrich. I checked the temperature there - 5 deg C.

 I have a regular reader of the blog (you know who you are, Deb) with whom I have been in email contact for the last couple of years or so, and we finally arranged to meet up. She and her husband Steve and two friends came for lunch on 30 Dec. The friends are keen to buy a narrowboat and we were part of the research project. It was lovely to meet them all and, in spite of them all having degrees and therefore being ineligible to join the Zero Degrees Club, (one had 5!!! and the others, I am sure had more than one each) there was much that we had in common, not least a love of narrowboating, NZ baches, and motorhoming.

Lunch was delicious, if I do say so myself. I made beetroot and carrot salad, raw vegetable pilaf (Nadia Lim), a green salad and the piece de resistance: a mushroom, caramelised onion and brie Wellington (also Nadia Lim). The others brought yummy nibbly things for afters - all in all, just a fabulous lunch.

 It had been a spur of the moment decision to come up to Taranaki for New Year's Eve. Judy T had rung a couple of days previously to see how we were and said they were having a NYE party. I said I thought we'd like to come, and she sounded delighted that we were keen. 

So we had intended to leave home after the delicious lunch, but as we were all enjoying the conversations and the guests didn't leave till about 5.30-ish, we decided we would complete the packing and then sleep overnight in the motorhome and head away early.

I also had to set the oven to do a self-clean because some of the brie and onion caramelising had escaped the confines of the pastry and then oozed off the baking paper and tray on to the bottom of the oven ... (Note of advice: if you are ever replacing your oven, buy a self cleaning one - it is an absolute boon! Set it going on the clean process, then later when it has cooled, wipe out the ash that is all that remains of the burnt stuff. Brilliant.)

By 5.30am we were off - we had intended to be away by about 5, but not getting out of bed when the alarm went off at 4.50 sort of scuppered that, then last minute checks and collecting bits we realised we had forgotten, drinking most of the cup of tea and decanting the rest into the travel mug (doesn't taste as good as from a china mug, dammit). Still and all, it was a very early start. There was very little traffic and our intention had been to avoid sharing the road with impatient drivers during a busy holiday period.

It was a quick trip and we had breakfast in New Plymouth - Intermittent Fasting where we only eat during an 8 hour window meant we didn't need food sooner. And we were keen to go to Esquires in the Valley at Waiwhakaiho - we have been there a couple of times before and they have a lovely avocado dish that David enjoys.

Because we knew we would need all our energy for the NYE party, we decided to have a nana nap in Bell Block, down by the entrance to the walkway where we had parked for our bike ride in December with Jim and Judy. It wasn't particularly quiet but I know we both slept for a couple of hours, because I woke to the sound of an animated conversation taking place in a car next door, and previously I had been sort of aware of the sounds of cars coming and going.

The party was starting early - Judy knows her audience and knew that most of us would not last till midnight (it wasn't just me) - so when we arrived most of the setting up was done, and we just had to change from travelling/snoozing gear into more party-ish clothes. David had opted for two of his more colourful shirts for the evening: the first his lime green floral, and when the weather cooled off, he changed into his long sleeved multi-coloured floral shirt. Very dashing!

The party was a lot of fun, with a number of people we had met before and some new ones. And surprise surprise, I lasted until about 11.30pm. And not a drop of alcohol was consumed by me (and hasn't been for some time now) - the chardonnay producers of NZ, particularly Church Road, are in shock and will probably never recover from the economic hit this has caused ... However Lindauer is doing quite well from us - we are drinking sparkling grape juice instead and very yummy it is too!