We scored three artichokes for $1.50 in the sale bin at the supermarket yesterday which is a saving of $4.50 PER ARTICHOKE apparently.

I love artichokes but I’d never actually cooked and eaten them whole like this before, usually I’d have artichoke hearts with an antipasto platter or on a pizza. Brend reached back into his mind grapes to remember how they ate artichokes in Spain. People would turn up to parties with bags full of them and they’d steam them and eat them with nothing else!

We steamed ours for about 20 minutes until they went dark green, then dipped the edible parts of the leaves and the hearts in a butter, garlic, lemon thyme, and basil sauce. So good.

Make sure you get rid of all the fluffy stuff in the middle (the choke) before you eat the heart, it gets caught in your throat big time. No fun.

1. Metropolis Cafe (Hamilton)



2. Coffee



3. Monterey (Newtown, Wellington)



4. Pies



5. Cambodian Seafood



6. Gin



7. Scones



8. Lasagne



9. Breakfast all the time

It was Brendan’s one request that while visiting Mum in Ngaruawahia we see the Hamilton Gardens. I hadn’t been for years but remembered them being quite spectacular and well themed.

The weather was awful but we were only in Hams for two days so we braved the rain with my friend Kezz to take a look. The rain really packed in by the end of our visit so we left soaked and hungry. Worth it.

On Saturday I took my very first trip on the Overlander, the train that runs from Wellington to Auckland. Mum is in Hamilton so our journey wasn’t quite as far as Auckland, but still a good 10 hours.

Thankfully I’d had a bit of train practice in Asia. In Asia we bought cheap tickets and ended up with a) seats with no leg room, b) hard sleepers, which are planks of wood with thin covers and bed bugs, or c) plastic chairs. There was none of that in the Overlander. Lots of leg room, some bigger couches in a lounge at the back of the coach and clean enough toilets. Though in typical train fashion the door to the toilet was extremely awkward to get through I’m not sure that anyone much bigger than me would have been able to manage it.

Our carriage did come with the requisite “conspiracy theorists” though. Grow From Here on twitter was kind enough to explain to me how odd people are assigned on public transport: “they are allocated by the travel people – sometimes you get screaming kid instead- or paper rustling snarler”. Pleased to say I only had to deal with a guy explaining to me how an Egyptian prince and a Jewish Princess were married way back to broke a deal between feuding families (etc etc on and off for 10 hours). Cool story bro.

But thankfully no screaming children.

Waiting for 7am to check in // My favourite stretch of highway with views to Kapiti // You can see the South Island in good weather, that faint shape in the distance // Ohakune for a pie and coffee break (shit coffee good pie) // Art in Ohakune // Crossing one of the tall viaducts // The windows were annoyingly reflective // What NZ does well – farms

I’ve been temping again for the past month (with another month on my contract) in order to get some dollars ready for xmas and new years and all the fun things that happen without me when I’m not getting much money in. And as always the reality of being cooped up in a cubicle sent my brains into over drive and all I wanted to do was make all the things, and photograph all the things, and write all the things.

But I can’t do it all so I just made a few of the things:

Ampersand necklaces in Quicksand, Baskerville, and Futura fonts

Creep

Bunting in pink white and blue

Black bone bead necklace

Faux 3 finger rings
There’s only one finger hole and the bar sits above your digits, way more comfortable and allows heaps more movement than a true 3 finger ring.

Futura ampersand brooch

Heart rings and mini heart brooches

More things soon

I’ve got a few more new designs that need to be photographed and listed so look out for another update in a week or two. Expect bows and anchors and bone beads in more colours and ceramic hearts.

Xmas Shipping

Unfortunately my super dooper laser machine friend is moving cities in a couple of weeks so the laser cutter will be out of action for a while. I can still get things made but there will be a 2-3 week turn around instead of a week (max) turn around. This means custom xmas orders for pretty much everywhere need to be in by mid November! Not long! How is xmas so soon!?
You have a bit longer for jewellery in stock. Those orders don’t need to be in till the end of November if you need them to arrive by xmas.

Ozzies have till the around the 20th of November for custom orders and till December 9th for jewels in stock.

Kiwis have till the start of December for custom orders and till the 19th of December for everything else.

If you’re buying gifts I can send them direct to the recipient with a note! And even if you’re buying for yourself your jewels will be packaged with tissue and ribbon and love.

Poor Vang Vieng has a fairly bad reputation thanks to more than a few Scheiß tourists. Maybe that’s not fair, but that’s my opinion regarding people that travel to another country in order to drink “happy shakes” in bars that play endless reruns of Friends; and get drunk while floating down an invariably swollen fast moving or shallow and rocky river.

With that in mind I was reluctant to even go to Vang Vieng, but the boys were not going to miss the chance to tube down a dirty river for a few hours. We agreed to not stop at any of the bars along the river therefore getting to float along it by ourselves while all the other tourists started drinking before they’d even gotten wet.

At one point during our stay it didn’t look like the river tubing was going to happen. We got hit with a spell of rainy weather and were warned the river would be freezing the day after a big rain. Thankfully we extended our stay by a day and the beautiful morning weather convinced me to forget the freezing water warnings and get in on the action. It turns out the river wasn’t cold at all. The rain that pelted us for half of our float was though.

It wasn’t a problem though, we enjoyed the float and stopped only twice to have a quick nip of something to warm us a little. And we scoffed at the tourists we saw boating back to town instead of tubing. At least they were smart enough not too float down the river for a couple of hours while smashed off their faces.

Vang Vieng is actually quite pretty if you can get past the fact it’s a tourist wasteland. We met some really nice Laotians and learnt a bit about Lao property laws and world economics from the man who was looking after our hostel. And I ended up eating my words against river tubing, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

The rains continued on our drive from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng//Engrish//Half gin half tonic//We used the riverside pool at a fancy hotel for $2. Worth it.//The limestone cliffs, orange bridge, stairs, and clear blue swimming hole that surround Tham Jang Cave//America’s gift to Vang Vieng, an abandoned airstrip from the Vietnam War

Aren’t the limestone peaks a beautiful backdrop to this backpacker ghetto!
See all the Vang Vieng photos on Flickr

The New Zealand International Film Festival is over for another year, and with it goes my latest excuse for skiving off.

Incendies / Loved

13 Assassins / Really Liked

The Tree of Life / Hated

Submarine / Liked

Hobo with a Shotgun / Liked

The Guard / Loved

Another Earth / Really Liked

Melancholia / Really Loved (a lot)

Terri / Liked

The Future / Liked

Attenberg / Liked

But there’s no such thing as climate change right?

Inevitable question post travel: What was your favourite part?
Another inevitable question: Where was your favourite place?

Does saying that I want to pack all my friends up and move them to Luang Prabang answer that question? I loved Luang Prabang so so much, with all its French architecture and baguettes, the cheap comfy cafes and bars, the lack of supermarkets and 7/11s. Actually, the lack of supermarkets is one thing that would get to me if I were to live in Luang Prabang. I LOVE SUPERMARKETS. I think it’s something to do with the fact they’re full of food. I could probably overcome that with the help of warm mornings to explore the fresh food market though.

Luang Prabang is where I first touched an elephant! They’re huge (but still smaller than African Elephants, those must be HUGE) and tough. I recommend wearing long pants if you’re going to ride them without a seat because their skin and hair is rough as fuck and will scratch up your thighs. We rode around in a chair through the forest, over creeks, and up and down steep paths. And then we rode on the elephant’s back to the river and took it for a swim. The mahouts were egging the elephants on to throw us in the water, and you can see right there how elegantly I handled that. I thought I might drown…till I realised I could touch the bottom.

While we were in Luang Prabang we took an hour long tuk tuk ride with a couple of other tourists to the Kuang Si waterfall. Stunning turquoise water, a bunch of swimming holes, and you can even climb to the top of the fall if you’re that way inclined (we were, it was steep). And at the entrance there’s a bear sanctuary! Look at the cute bear climbing into his little pool! AWWW.

Our first experience with mangosteen / A bamboo bridge which is built new every year and taken down during the rainy season / The streets after a huge lightning storm which took out the power / Giraffes of Beer Lao / French architecture / Cosy forest hideouts

Archways made out of trees / Temple kitties / Riverside dining / Mosaiced temples / Village Women Union

See all the Luang Prabang photos on Flickr