Mecha Genki Bento

Moving day

2012-02-11T12:08:00.003+13:00

When one door closes, another one opens!

Out with the old...

And in with the new!

Curry rice

2012-02-10T13:19:00.001+13:00

Not sure how I've managed to not blog about this yet. Maki mono make seriously the best curry rice I've ever tasted, even in Japan.

It's only on the menu as katsu curry so I just ask for curry rice.

Last day in Japan

2012-02-10T11:16:00.001+13:00

Last day

2012-02-10T09:17:00.001+13:00

Just missed the cable car! Last work day in the old house so I decided to get the cable car to work.

Japan!

2011-12-28T22:25:00.001+13:00

On our way - playing cards while we wait to go.

Maki Mono

2011-12-21T14:06:00.001+13:00

Today and yesterday I tried Maki Mono in the BNZ foodcourt for lunch. I had yakisoba yesterday and udon today.

The noodles were dissapointing. They tasted like vinegar and didn't seemed fried. So no yaki in the yakisoba.

The udon was much better. I came with a slice of lemon which I didn't like and even though the girl said it
was kitsune udon there was no tofu. But it was very delicious.

Last day of work tomorrow, then Taupo and Japan!!

Lunch

2011-12-19T23:45:00.001+13:00

We went to Finc today for our team Christmas lunch. I had the soup which was carot and kumara I think. It was ok but had corriander as a garnish which I hate.

We got cheap tickets to Japan so are going next week. わくわく！

Gingerbread House

2011-12-15T08:27:00.001+13:00

I had to get the bus to work today because it's our work Christmas party tonight. I walked through the James Cook and saw this HUGE gingerbread house!

14 December

2011-12-14T07:11:00.001+13:00

I'm going to try to blog a pic a day.

Today's pic is Andrew's flatwhite art and my advent calender. Yum!

Early afternoon tea

2011-12-13T13:58:00.001+13:00

Haven't blogged in ages but just discovered I can from my ph!

Just went and signed the papers for selling the house - feels weird but soon we'll have something bigger and better! Also went and met with dressmaker for wedding dress last night - it's all go at the moment!

Cupcakes

2011-07-17T21:44:00.000+12:00

Ok, so I think it is pretty well established that I criticize every single thing I cook or bake.

These aren't an exception and almost ended up in the bin because they taste like dough.

But they look so cute! The photos don't do them justice even!

First day of my new job tomorrow so these are for morning tea. Fingers crossed it all goes ok!

Karaage chicken

2011-07-10T19:37:00.001+12:00

It's been forever since I last blogged! Tonight's dinner was too delicious not to blog about it.

We were going to have chicken katsu curry but we had no panko so we made karaage chicken. I bought Andrew the karaage stuff for Christmas because he was going through a deep frying stage and he never used it until now.

I don't usually have it that much because usually the chicken has skin on it or heaps of fat. This is my new favourite!

I think I'm going to have to get more organised and start bentoing/making Andrew's lunches again because this would be just as delicious cold.

Dinner was karaage chicken, curry rice and gin, lime and lemonade in my karaoke room glass.

We went to Auckland last month for my friend Sarah's 30th. Couldn't resit taking a pic of Andrew in front of the bar Andrew Andrew!

My first ever banana cake!

2011-04-23T11:06:00.005+12:00

Sarah and I went out Thursday night so I slept in for awhile yesterday morning. When I woke up Andrew had tidied the house so when he asked for a banana cake I couldn't say no!

I've never made one before and the last time I saw one was when Andrew's friend Julia made one. I didn't try any because I was above my goal weight and sticking to my points but it looked delicious so I texted her for the recipe which she emailed through. Andrew bought a new Samsung galaxy tab in Sydney last week so I used that instead of printing off the recipe. V cool!!

The recipe is:
Ingredients

½ cup milk

2 eggs

1¼ cups sugar

2 sliced bananas

1t vanilla essence

100g butter

2 cups Flour

1t baking soda

1t baking powder

½t salt

Method

(1) Place first ingredients in food processor and process until smooth.

(2) Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl.

(3) Pour the ingredients from the processor over dry ingredients and mix well.

(4) Bake at 180°C for 40-45 minutes.

(5) Leave in tin for 5-10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to fully cool.

My oven is a bit dodgy with cakes so after 45 minutes it didn't seem cooked inside but it was browning on top so I put some grease proof paper over the top and put it back in for five minutes. After five minutes it still seemed like the batter inside so I turned it up and put it on fan bake. After that five minutes was up I thought maybe it firms up on cooling or something because it still seemed really moist inside. Also by then I had too many holes from using the chopstick to check!

I made the mistake of leaving it too long on the wire rack after I iced it, so when I lifted it onto the cake stand the icing cracked a bit. The icing also sunk into the chopstick holes but I figured that will just add extra taste.

We didn't end up eating it last night, so had it for breakfast this morning! Yum!
The only thing is the cracks in the icing is more noticeable in day light :(

This shows how the chocolate dropped through - extra taste! The cake was delicious!

This was a super easy cake to make. I've been a bit scared to use my food processor - the only time I've used it was to blend spinach for chicken saag and it was such a mess to clean that I've been put off it. This was really easy though - it would've taken no time at all if I hadn't been taking the photos.

Last weekend we went to Sydney - this is Andrew's shot of us in front of the Sydney harbour bridge...

He managed to get the Opera House in though.

These birds came and joined us for lunch - one pretty much sat on my head!

First bento in forever!

2011-04-04T21:27:00.000+12:00

I decided to make a bento tonight for the first time in ages because I had some left over rice, and because I got some cherry tomatoes out of the planter box which Andrew made me, and because I saw kiwiberries at the supermarket - all good reasons to bento.

Despite that, I'm not feeling very excited by it. Hopefully I will be hungry by lunchtime tomorrow!

Rice with salmon furikake, cherry tomatoes out of my garden(!!!), cheese and homemade meatballs (on ham).

Peacherines, mandarin and kiwiberries for dessert!

Oyakodon

2011-03-31T20:54:00.001+13:00

I had a last minute brain wave this afternoon and decided oyakodon would be good for dinner. I've always just made it up as I've gone but I wanted to make it properly since this was the first time I'd made it for Andrew.

Once again, Twitter saved the day with offers of recipes from Mika and Motsukun who had this one. I went with the one from Mika who very kindly translated it for me which was great because otherwise it would have taken me ages to translate it and we probably still wouldn't have eaten yet!

I usually use my oyakodon pan but I was worried that it was too shallow to make enough for Andrew so I used a really small saucepan for me a smallish one for his one. I sort of tried to half it because (1) the recipe was for four people and (2) you needed 2 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce and I only had just under one... Next time I'll use the proper amount! It was quite watery but as I'm writing this I realised it's because while I halfed the mirin and soy sauce, I still used the normal amount of dashi!).

I was really worried that Andrew wouldn't like this since he didn't like the okonomiyaki I made a couple of weeks ago, but he said it was really good! So, if he liked the watery version he's sure to like the proper one. He did suggest I add peas to it next time though!!!???

Top left is my normal oyakodon pan (I got it out but decided was too small), then the other two I did use, with the liquid starting to simmer.

Man sized serving...

Only slightly small for me...

Bento4Japan

2011-03-22T19:29:00.000+13:00

There's not much I need to say about the Japan earthquake and tsunami as everyone as seen it on tv and in the papers. Just heart breaking.

For the Christchurch earthquake I did Run4Christchurch (well, I've made my donation but haven't run yet because of an injury) and for Japan I'm doing Bento4Japan ,which my twitter friend Mils set up.

Please check out our auctions on ebay.com - just search for "Bento4Japan". All the money from the auctions will go to the Red Cross - we aren't taking the cost of the stuff ourselves out of what we make, so please give as much as possible!

Wellington bento update

2011-02-28T22:46:00.000+13:00

Just a small update - I bought some egg moulds (a heart and a star) on the weekend from the Japanese $3 shop in Cuba Mall. They have quite a few bento things now including the same bento box I got at the Y100 shop in Umeda station in Osaka, little weener cutters so you can make octopus hot dogs and picks for bentos!

They have heaps of Japanese food now too - even ramune lollies and okonomiyaki mix.

Anyone else know anywhere good in Wellington, or even NZ, for buying bento stuff?

I will post a pic as soon as I try the egg moulds.

Twitter food party and okonomiyaki

2011-02-28T22:25:00.002+13:00

This month's twitter food party theme is cookies. I made gingerbread men the Christmas before last and I may have once made ANZAC biscuits but the gingerbread men were burnt and I'm more just guessing I made ANZAC biscuits, so, I figure I've never really made cookies before.

Except this one time... Mum and I made cookies when I was three our four (we lived in a house in New Plymouth for only a couple of months while our house was being built so I know pretty much how old I was!). We used the recipe out of this huge big hard back Sesame Street book - if anyone had it and has the recipe then let me know!!!

Anyway, initially I thought I'd make chocolate chip cookies so used this Nestle toll house cookies recipe. Then I started thinking a bit more about things and decided to make ANZAC biscuits and used this recipe. The main reason that I decided to make them was because of the Christchurch earthquake as they are a NZ biscuit.

Thank you to all my twitter and blogging friends that have asked how I am. Although felt here, the earthquake was too far away to cause any damage. I've thought during the week about if or what I'd blog about it. I can't begin to imagine what it's like for those down there and I feel like whatever I write won't really convey how I feel about it. It's made me so grateful for everything I have right now though.

If you want to read about ANZAC biscuits you can read about them here.

I started off with the cookies and got everything out.

It was pretty easy - basically just got the dry stuff in one bowl, then in the other I did the wet stuff and then you have to beat in the eggs then mix both bowls together. The use a tablespoon measuring spoon to get out balls and chuck them on a baking tray.

So now I know - cookies spread! I had to use a knife to gently push them apart...

They look ok though (please note -that is a paper towel roll, NOT toilet paper in the top left of the pic!).

I then got on to the ANZAC biscuits. First I melted the butter and golden syrup in the microwave.

Then I realised it was almost dinner time and I really needed to get a move on...

I mixed together the dry ingredients.

In my rush I managed to melt the spoon...

Then I popped them in the oven and didn't take a pic until the today of the finished product! The ANZAC biscuits look a big small because the cookies were huge, but even the ANZAC cookies are on the big side! Andrew's verdict on both were they needed to be crunchier. I guess since I chose the chewy recipes I can't take that as a bad thing.

As soon as I'd finished the cookies I got started on dinner - okonomiyaki. Yuuuum. (Andrew's verdict was "burh" (not sure how to spell that - he did eat it all however...).

I used packet mix and thankfully thanks to Kat and Shirley I realised I'd been a bit of an egg and forgotten the kanji for egg (the irony...). I used the crepe pan my sister got me for Christmas to cook them.

I cut each one in half so we could eat half each as we went. Soooo yum! I got the wrong kind of ginger but still tasted good though!!

Waiheke wedding and summer holiday

2011-02-17T21:42:00.001+13:00

It's been ages since I've blogged! Actually, I have a new group blog, so have still been blogging, just not here!.

We went away last weekend for Andrew's brother's wedding. It was on Waiheke Island so we got to have a little bit of a holiday at the same time as going to the wedding.

We went up on Wednesday and stayed in Palmerston North with Andrew's friend and his fiance, then drove up to Auckland on Thursday. We got there just in time for the hen's party which was great.

Friday we went to visit Sarah and Mitch and then went over to the island.

Saturday I had time for a run in the morning before the wedding, which was in the afternoon. The wedding was just fantastic - gorgeous view, such a sweet ceremony (I couldn't stop crying!), dancing and delicious food.

Sunday we pretty much swam all day with Andrew's family and Adam and Jo's friends, then came home on Monday. We stopped at Japan Mart at Sylvia Park so I could pick up more bento supplies!

Mt Ruapehu on the drive up.

Driving in to Auckland.

On our way from seeing Sarah and Mitch - Auckland city

Auckland from the ferry to Waiheke

Looking towards Auckland city from the wedding - totally beautiful!

Andrew and me before the ceremony

Andrew and me during dinner.

A pic of the island while we waited for the ferry back to Auckland.

Just a random shot of the cable car in Wellington

Almost finished planter box!

2011-01-25T19:52:00.001+13:00

Andrew finished my planter box last week so I put my plants in on the weekend. I didn't get quite enough soil but there was no way I was getting more because the bags were so heavy. I figured the plants sitting a bit low just means they will be protected from the wind.

Now all I have to do is stain it but I have no idea how to do that so have to wait until Andrew is back from Australia next week (hence me blogging such a boring post...).

I'm not really sure if I did the pea straw bit right, but I'm sure it'll be ok. I'm so happy with it though - it looks exactly like the one I wanted!

Planter box day two

2011-01-01T21:37:00.001+13:00

How it was all routered together

Starting to take shape!

Me putting on the waterproofing stuff

The inside

The bottom starting to take shape

Andrew pondering what else he needs to do...

Nearly finished!

My planter boxes

2010-12-29T19:04:00.001+13:00

I've wanted a garden for ages - when I first bought my house I tried planting stuff but a cat kept digging it all up. The cat seems to have since moved on, and long story I bought some plants and Andrew said he'd help me build a planter box for it. I thought I could just knock it together like my coffee table, but now I'm (very, very, very) glad he offered to help as this box is going to be awesome!

What the garden currently looks like. I want to boxes either side of the path, and then the lemon tree will go in a pot in the middle.

I sat outside on my picnic blanket and twittered and facebooked and painted my nails while he worked. I got a bit worried when the first aid kit came out but it was just because he had the router in it.

Starting to come together!

All the edges have been routered (?) so they all fit together nicely...

Like this

they'll be finished tomorrow!

Deep fried everything! and my new bbq

2010-12-27T19:06:00.002+13:00

Yesterday we went to Andrew's flat and got his deep fryer because I got him panko and karaage chicken coating stuff for Christmas. I'm hoping this may be the spur I need to get back into bentoing, although not quite sure how that will work with my plan to get back to my goal weight, so will have to see.

For lunch today he made fried prawns and gyoza. I'd already made the gyoza ages ago, and for the prawns we did what Susan did in her first book (actually the gyoza are from the book too).

Prawns about to go in

Finished product

Soooo yum!

One of the Christmas presents that Andrew got me were electric salt and pepper grinders - with lights!!! I didn't even know they existed. Very awesome - I tried to get a pic but it's a bit hard to see - you can kind of see how it looks like a bright shadow - it's much more realistic in real life.

Deep fried squid

Katsu curry!!!!

I bought a new bbq the week before last and we used it for the first time on Christmas Eve. Very exciting! My last one went all rusty so I'm going to make sure the cover stays on this one any time it isn't being used!

First sausages being cooked!

Me eating the first sausage!

Chocolate chip, blueberry and white chocolate muffins

2010-12-06T21:39:00.000+13:00

I split the muffin mix tonight and made two types - one lot of dark chocolate and dark orange chocolate, and the other with blueberry and white chocolate. Word on the street from the "hot out of the oven" test (actually the "they started breaking up as I took them out of the tray" test) is that the blueberry ones are the best.

They cooked at different times - I guess because the frozen blueberries made those ones more wet or whatever. Recipe is the same as the apple ones.

I was worried they were burning so put baking paper over the top.

Fresh out of the oven!

Agh! It fell apart so had to be eaten right away!

This one also started falling apart so I had to eat some of it.

I put them back in the oven for a few minutes in the hope that might firm them up and now have them on the bench. Am hoping they won't break up as I take them out otherwise I guess they will all need to be eaten with a spoon!

Anyone have any ideas to stop them breaking up?

In other news I bought a whole lot of plants from Kaye at Grow from Here at the top of Cuba Street yesterday - a lemon tree, tomatoes, melons, swan plant and maybe something else. Next weekend Andrew is going to help me build a planter box thing for it so will blog that because it's probably the closest to a bento I've made in ages!

Toast and muffins

2010-11-22T21:23:00.003+13:00

This weekend I went to Toast Martinborough. We've stayed in the same house for three years now which makes getting there and getting home much easier! Once again this year we saw no pluto pups :(

Vanessa made us vodka jellies for the Saturday but they didn't all survive the trip over the Rimutakas.

But we drank them anyway...

It rained so much that we had to put a tarp over our umbrellas.

At Te Kairanga

DJ outside Alana Estate

Best ever toilets!

The bracelets I got for Sarah and me.

I had today (Monday) off work because of Toast so I made apple and cinnamon muffins this afternoon. This is the recipe I used, which has been adapted from this. I only used two apples but I think there's enough (I just had a little bite of one, but it tasted fine).

Using the apple sauce halved the amount of oil I needed which is really good! I worked out that they are 10.4 Weight Watchers ProPoints - I'm guessing this rounds down to 10, but I'd count them as 11 since I sprinkled raw sugar on top.

This shows the apple sauce I used.

In the tin and the finished product!

On the subject of ProPoints, anyone else doing them? Apart from losing count on Saturday night (after the jelly shots...) and yesterday, it's been pretty successful. I'm loving fruit being points free - if anything it's great to have one less thing to count! One thing I used to do on the other points system was get to a certain number of points and think I should still be hungry. Now that so many things are different I haven't had that at all!

I'm away next weekend so hoping I can get through with the extra 49 weekly points and not go over!

Hot stuff!

2010-11-18T21:52:00.001+13:00

There was enough left overs from dinner tonight for another meal so I decided to use up the chicken and vegetables I had in the fridge and mini quiches and a hot bento for Andrew's lunch for him to heat up at work.

On the left are mini quiches with chicken, capsicum, tomato, mushroom and cranberry sauce in the bottom one. I'm not sure how successful adding the cranberry was because the ones I added it to seem to not be as set, but I've got them in the still warm oven right now to firm up. In the middle is are two kumara (sweet potato) croquettes and next to that two vegetable and potato croquettes. On the right is left overs from dinner - satay noodles and vegetables and chicken. In the sauce bottle is bbq sauce for the mini quiches and croquettes.

Fingers crossed this all survives being heated up ok!

Amazing yum muffins and kind of bento

2010-11-15T21:58:00.000+13:00

I wasn't going to blog this because I didn't think these would be that great, but they were so yum that I've decided cupcakes are so 2009 and muffins are the new cupcakes (plus they take so much less time).

Tonight I made orange chocolate chip muffins. I used this recipe but changed it slightly. I didn't add the poppy seeds and I used plain flour with two and a half teaspoons of baking powder instead of the self raising flour. The recipe is for two and a half cups of flour so I used 1 3/4 of white and 3/4 of wholemeal flour. I used probably just over half a big packet of Whittaker's orange chocolate and chopped it up and added it in too. I didn't dust with icing sugar.

Just out of the oven finished product!

This is how many the recipe made.

Not quite a bento, but this is as close as I have gotten lately - Andrew's lunch - left overs from dinner and gyoza with gyoza no tare in the little bottle (yay Y100 shop!). I put an elephant pick in his yoghurt and strawberries but then thought better and took it out...

Auckland

2010-11-08T21:14:00.000+13:00

The weekend before last Sarah, Lucinda, David and I went to Auckland for the marathon. Sarah did the half, I did the quarter, David did the half and Lucinda did the full marathon!

Obviously I was quite excited to go on a mini break (much debate about what constitutes a mini break though) and as normal I took pictures of pretty much just planes and food.

Arriving at Auckland - cloudy but warm!

Lunch at Portofino's at the Viaduct. Not dodgy like the Queen's Wharf one though.

Sarah's dinner after the marathon

My dinner after the run

Lucinda's dinner after her huge marathon effort!

View from the restaurant at dinner

Sky tower

Mt Egmont

Mum and Dad's house (very bottom right)

Wellington!!!!!!!!!

Twitter food party - pasta or noodles

2010-10-25T21:47:00.004+13:00

Yay! My first twitter food party! I just went to load on my photos and couldn't get the memory card out of the camera! BECAUSE THERE WAS NO MEMORY CARD!!!! Agh! This whole extra day off (Labour Day here today) had thrown me - I even forgot to watch Shortland Street!!!!

After sitting stressing for about five seconds I remembered I had some kind of USB thing in my cutlery drawer so I tried plugging it in and it transferred over my photos! Yay!

This is my first twitter food party. The idea is that everyone blogs about their food for the twitter food party. I will update this when everyone else blogs, but so far Deborah has made this fantastic bento.

The theme for this twitter food party was pasta or noodles so I decided to make a creamy tomato pasta. This is similar to a recipe I have made before but I've used Philadelphia cream cheese this time because the light one was heaps lower ww points than the light Tararaua one. This recipe is one I got an idea from Marisa's pasta dish.

I just sort of made this up as I went. I actually made this yesterday and used half the pot of the cream cheese but it was a little too creamy so today I used just a quarter of it but it wasn't quite creamy enough. Next time I will use a third of the pot and it should be spot on!

Ingredients:
Half an onion
One capsicum
About one large, or, one and a half normal size courgettes
Couple of hand fulls of green beans
A sachet of tomato paste (50grams)
Cream cheese - I used about 50grams (half a tub) but next time I'll use a third - about 75grams
125 grams of pasta
Two chicken breasts (mine were about 260 grams together)

Method:
I sauteed the onions in a little water and then added the chicken and cooked that. Just before I put in the chicken I put the pasta on (I think, can't really remember).

Once the chicken was cooked I added in the other vegetables

then once they were cooked I added the tomato paste and mixed that all in, and then the cream cheese. I added in a little of the water from the pasta to help it mix in.

Once the cream cheese was mixed in I turned the heat off and mixed in the cooked pasta and then it was all ready to plate up and eat!

Updated - new twitter food party posts:
Mils made a halloween bento
Shirley made this pasta dish
Rachael made tori tantanmen
Maki made tororo soba
Kathleen made pasta
Heather made pasta patties!
Debra made cake noodles
Karaimame made ramen
SonomaBento made a scary pasta bento
Kat made baked pasta
Sheri made won ton soup and bentoed the leftovers

Let me know if you have blogged for twitter food party and I haven't mentioned it yet, so I can link to it!

Kilbirnie morning out

2010-10-23T12:11:00.001+13:00

It's been ages since I've blogged so when I went shopping in Kilbirnie this morning I thought it'd be a good opportunity to get back to blogging!

So far the weekend's been great and it's only lunch time, so hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the weekend!

This morning I had a massage with Gillian of Le'Esscience, then on the way home I thought I'd stop off in Kilbirnie and try to find the Japanese shop I'd heard about.

I parked near the Silky Oak Chocolate Company shop. The only other time I've been was to the Napier one because it was a stop for Harvest Hawkes Bay so I thought I'd check it out (plus I figured I've done enough running lately to justify having some!).

So glad I did because it turned out to be baking and bento heaven! They had heaps of cookie cutters but I managed to resist buying anymore. They had some great little tiny ones that would be great for details, so might have to go back. They also had heaps of cup cake stuff and the little sugar decoration things for on top of cup cakes. When I checked the website it said they actually have a shop in Lower Hutt, so I guess I know where I might be heading at lunchtimes!

This is the chocolate I got - it's a cappuccino cup I think. V yum and it made me wish I had chocolate covered coffee beans!

Then I walked up and down the main street for ages trying to find the Japanese shop. I googled it on my phone but that wasn't much help and eventually found it after asking in a shop.

This is the alleyway you go down to get there.

This is the shop.

I first heard about it in one of my Mum's Home and Garden type magazines and I sort of expected it to be like that shop on Thorndon Quay that had heaps of old Asian furniture. It was more like a second hand shop (which it is, so I guess that makes sense for it to look like one). There was heaps of kimono, and kimono stuff and lots of plates. There was one chest of drawers that was 1920s from Gifu which was pretty cool but nothing I really felt the need to buy which was a little disappointing since I was in the mood to buy something.

Two short weeks in a row now because it's a holiday here on Monday and then next week I'm off to Auckland and don't get back until the Monday. So far the rest of the day is looking good - I'm having a facial this afternoon and then dvds with Sarah and Jo tonight. Not sure about Sunday or Monday apart from a run on Monday so far. I'll be sure to take lots of photos from Auckland to blog about next week!

Day 30- Your favourite song

2010-10-06T19:17:00.001+13:00

I don't have one favourite song. My favourite songs are:

Livin on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
I Was Born to Love You - Queen
Sekai ni hitosu dake no hana 世界に一つだけの花 - SMAP

These ones were my favourite songs at these times:

No Tomorrow - Orson - favourite song in 2005/6
Fraction too Much Friction - Tim Finn pretty much from kindy through to varsity
Forever Young - Youth Group - first equal favourite 2005/6 with No Tomorrow
Electric Blue - Icehouse - favourite song about 1988

Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned

2010-10-05T18:14:00.000+13:00

I covered this off the other day without realising I needed to wait for today! What I have learnt is I need more photos with my friends!

Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?

2010-10-04T20:13:00.000+13:00

More photos? There's already a heap of photos of me on here so I'm not adding more!

How I have changed from last year to now is my hair - I started last year with long dark hair, then went short light brown, then got longer and blonder as the year went on until I was totally blonde. Then I went really really dark and short and ended the year with my hair the same length as now but darker.

This year I've pretty much had the same cut and colour except for a bit of a mullet last month for three weeks. I got some foils three weeks ago with a colour over the top so it's fading lighter again as the colour washes out. I'm hoping it isn't going to lighten up too much though! I want to grow it a bit longer so I can go swimming over summer and not worry about the bottom curling out and looking weird.

Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge

2010-10-03T14:45:00.001+13:00

No major reason - just a couple of other girls on twitter started their own 30 days of me so I thought I might as well since I don't consistently blog. There was probably about five seconds of thought that went into it!

It hasn't been life changing or anything but it's been fun to read other people's 30 days blogging as we have been going through.

It has made me realise that I don't have enough photos of my friends and me so that's something to work on!

Totally off topic, but I'm v happy about this .

I got new shoes two weeks ago from Shoe Clinic and the guy asked if I was training for anything. I said I was going to do the 10k at the Auckland Marathon at the end of this month but was only running 15 minutes at a time at the moment (I sprained my ankle). The guy at Shoe Clinic said I wouldn't be ready for the 10k . I said I was sure I would be because I ran 9k in Osaka two months earlier. He was pretty doubtful and said not to push myself. Then I started getting a bit worried because surely he knows about running.

Monday I was up to 30 minutes running, Tuesday was RPM, but after Tuesday I didn't do any exercise because I've had a cold. Until today. When I ran for an hour!

I map my runned it (am guessing you can turn a website into a verb...) and I did 9.25ks. Yay! I knew he was wrong!!! and, I still have a cold so provided I don't get another cold at the end of the month I think it's pretty safe to say the 10k isn't going to be a problem!

Day 26- What you think about your friends

2010-10-02T18:30:00.000+13:00

Two posts today because I was out last night.

My friends are great. They are all different but I really value the friendship that I have with each of them. They've been there for me through tough times, fun times, and calls at 2am to the other side of the world.

To all my friends - THANKS!!!!

Day 25- What I would find in your bag

2010-10-02T12:33:00.001+13:00

Very Heat magazine-esque post today!

I used two bags yesterday so I'm including both of them.

The first one is my bag I take to work. It doesn't actually have a weird thing on the handle - the bit in the middle at the top usually sits down the bottom but it must have moved when I took the photo!

I really like this bag - I bought it at the Marui in Shinjuku the day before I came home from my July trip. It can fit A4 documents and has a zip, so is great for work.

Inside the bag is: (sort of from the top down) notebook for work, umbrella, my Le'Esscience relaxation spritz, visitor's pass for when I went to our Christchurch factory, two boarding passes, recipe for the chicken saag we made at cooking class the week before last, ear plugs for work, tiny piece of paper with the log on for internet at the Koru Lounge, voucher for Shoe Clinic, hand cream, not actual Berocca but like Berocca vitamin things, post it notes, lip gloss, disprin, drink bottle lid, paper wrap thing from around a McDonalds ice cream, keys for work, lots of pens, more lip gloss (I hardly ever even wear lip gloss!), Purell. I would usually also have make up (but it was in the other bag below) and my cell phones.

My other bag I took out last night. Just realised it's a bit of an international bag because the only thing in it from NZ is the chocolate wrapper!

The bag is from Osaka. I got it from a sort of bag wholesaler place in Honmachi, from the street one over to east from Shinsaibashi suji (the big long covered shopping arcade).

Inside the bag is my make up bag my Mum got me from the States, my wallet (from Benetton in Japan so maybe I can count it as two countries?), my hair brush from London, a couple of mints from Japan that fell out (I can't remember the brand but they are the ones in the little white sliding case thing, probably not the best for a handbag - now I've found them they are going in the bin!). Wrapper for Whittaker's chocolate that I got Friday night last week while in town. Here is a photo of it before it was eaten (I have a tendency to tweet random photos after a couple of drinks). When I went out I also had my cell phones and my house key, but otherwise a LOT less stuff than in the other bag!!

Wow! I got an award!

2010-09-30T21:31:00.001+13:00

"The Versatile Blogger"

My first blogger award!! Thank you so much Lori!!! Make sure you check out Lori's website and on twitter!

Her writing style is amazing and I love our late night twitter conversations when I'm home from the pub on a Friday night (well, Saturday morning...).

So, about the award...

This is just a fun way to meet other bloggers and get to know one another, by passing these fun bloggy awards to other bloggers that we like! There are some FUN rules in accepting this bloggy award.
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous.

4. Contact the bloggers you choose and let them know they won the award.

Seven things about me:

(1) I'm from New Zealand

(2) I either take ages to decide stuff (took me three and a half years to decide what colour to paint my house) or decide super fast (once I bought a car in two days and another time in three days. Both times I wasn't even looking for a car!).

(3) I love Japanese katsu curry

(4) I sleep talk

(5) I've watched and read Bridget Jones' Diary about a million times

(6) My next holiday I want to go to Hawaii or Croatia. Or New York, or Malaysia.

(7) My next overseas holiday will be Sydney for my friend Sarah's wedding!

15 blogs that DESERVE this award and your attention! (please note these are not in order of importance!)

Obviously Lori's blog! http://www.adayinmotherhood.com/a-day-in-motherhood.html All Mums have to check it out!
Lovely wee days http://lovelyweedays.blogspot.com/ - fantastic blog from New Zealand if you are into baking.
The Culinary Explorations of Mrs Cake http://culinaryexplorationsnz.blogspot.com/ another great blog about food from NZ!
Nothing Too Fancy http://ntfancy.blogspot.com/ Great cooking blog from Australia
Hapa Bento http://www.hapabento.com/ Go the bento!
Bentolicious http://www.mybentolicious.com/ More gorgeous bento from Lia!
Hawai'i's bento box cookbook, bentos and more for kids http://susanyuen.wordpress.com/ buy Susan's books! So good!
Melanie Sumner http://blog.melaniersumner.com/?p=2041 bento and lots more
Ken Tanaka http://kentanakalovesyou.blogspot.com/ Ken loves you! Help him find his parents!

Ok, so that is only nine but it's really late and I'm tired. Plus, my birthday is on the 9th of March so 9 is a good number!

Day 24- A letter to your parents

2010-09-30T20:37:00.003+13:00

I am really not good at all with deep and meaningful stuff so this is going to be very short!

Dear Mum and Dad

Thank you very much for everything you've ever done for me. I'm very sorry for all the times I've been annoying. I really appreciate all the opportunities you've given me and love you both very much.

Thank you also for buying me lunch so often on Saturdays too!

Love Nichola
XXX OOO ♥♥♥

Not the best photo but...

Day 23- Something you crave for a lot

2010-09-29T18:24:00.001+13:00

Easy!! a McDonalds soft serve ice cream cone! I don't go a week without having one!

I'm not big on ice cream in general because I don't like cream. McDonalds ice creams are a bit watery though, probably because they are 99% fat free (NZ ones, not sure about other countries). I'm not sure if you can actually call them an ice cream because according to the McDonalds ingredient list they don't contain cream.

I have a really sore throat today, so, I went to the McDonalds at the bottom of Taranaki St after my meeting in town this afternoon to get an ice cream. I figured it's kind of medicinal since it helped my throat feel better for about three minutes.

Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else

2010-09-28T20:26:00.000+13:00

Um, just me being me I guess. I can't think of anything about me that is extra special, but I guess no one is exactly the same as me.

Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy

2010-09-27T20:14:00.001+13:00

A "something"? Heaps of things make me happy so I'm not going to choose just one.

My friends also make me happy, but about a million posts in this 30 days thing have required pics of them, so you can look below. Also, bento make me happy. Again, see below since this is my bento blog and all...

Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future

2010-09-26T12:39:00.000+13:00

I hadn't seen this one before! Although this could be a useful post given I'm currently single!

So, I'd see myself with someone who:

- is nice and normal
- has a car and can drive safely (this includes not sitting in the fast lane on the motorway holding everyone up!)
- friendly, and who will get on with my friends
- can fireman lift carry me over his shoulder
- taller than me when I'm wearing heels!!!!
- not necessarily sporty, but someone who doesn't do no exercise at all
- likes traveling
- doesn't smoke

Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them

2010-09-25T15:34:00.000+12:00

When I was little I used to think it was a bit weird that my nickname was Nick!

Nectar - my sister couldn't say my name when she was little so it sounded like Nicta or something and then from that Dad started calling me Nectar.

Nic/Nicky - kind of obvious!

Nichola with the ch actually said rather than like Nicola. I've had this from a few people over the years.

Nuc - Richard who I used to work with started calling me this because he's British and said it's how I sound. Ros (who appeared in a post below) calls me it too.

Crash - at work because I keep falling over and getting hurt.

Nicholas - get this at work. Some people at work think this is my name so some others at work started calling me it to try to encourage others to be confused.

Hutch - had this from a few people over the years but mostly from my friend Alan and Martin at work in London.

Dot or Ethel (as in the two in Eastenders) - Alan used to say Amy and I reminded him of Dot and Ethel because we could talk all day about nothing.

Niko-chan/Nikobi/Nikoniko - my flatmate Kimie used to call me these. I think Niko chan is the smily face picture thing. Nikoniko is like a sound for smiling.

Hutchinich - Andy (my bf from varsity) still calls me this sometimes - I think it was my log on for the computer at varsity or work maybe?

I know I've had more but can't think of them.

Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have

2010-09-25T14:08:00.000+12:00

- Buy another house
- Buy a new car
- Get back to my ww goal weight
- Get a good time for the 10k in Auckland next month
- Go to Hawaii and Croatia

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

2010-09-23T21:03:00.000+12:00

Hmm. This 30 days thing is hard when you don't just have to stick up a photo! This is also a bit hard because I really like my life. Of course things there are I'd like, like a bigger house or more time, but in general I'm really happy with how things are at the moment so I've never really thought about wanting to have a different life.

I guess if I had to switch lives with someone though, I would go back in time and switch with some of my grandparents, great grandparents or further back.

When I lived in London I went to Northern Ireland and Scotland to see where my Mum's parents were from. It was so weird going to places knowing they had been there and I was walking in the exact same places, but so many years later. I'd love to be able to go back in time and switch lives with any of them to really see what it was like and to understand more about where my family came from.

I'd like to do the same thing with my Dad's side of the family too - what I know about them all seems so interesting and varied. My grandma's Dad was sent to NZ from Yugoslavia with his cousin when he was only 16 because his uncle could see there was going to end up being a war. I just can't imagine how hard that would be!

Not really sure if I'd want to swap for a day, but if I had to do a different job I'd want to be either a make up artist or a flight attendant.

Day 16- Another picture of yourself

2010-09-22T20:01:00.000+12:00

Me and the cupcakes I made for my 30th (the theme was "races" as in horse races - I don't usually wear feathers in my hair).

Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play

2010-09-21T20:39:00.001+12:00

I'm using my iPod Shuffle for this because it's my running iPod and I went for a run earlier so it was right next to me.

(1) Erotic - The Exponents

(2) Eye of the Tiger - Survivor

(3) Self Control (the Annual Remake Edit 2008) - Dave Sinclair (one of the best Body Step tracks ever!!!!)

(4) I Want You - Savage Garden

(5) California Gurls - Katy Perry

(6) Always Be Here (Radio Edit) - Dane Rumble

(7) Tribal Dance - Unlimited

(8) Forever Young (Youth Group)

(9) TiKToK - Ke$ha

(10) 雪が降ってきた (Yuki ga Futtekita) SMAP

Cooking class - chicken saag and samosas

2010-09-20T21:24:00.002+12:00

Tonight Sarah and I went to cooking class. It's the one by Harvey Norman on Tory St and we go probably once a month or every couple of months. Tonight we made chicken saag, which I'd never had before, and samosas.

Sorry about the photos - I took them on my phone.

One of the best things about the class is they do a lot of the prep for you, which saves heaps of time. This is before we started we everything set out. On the plates is cooked potato and mixed vegetables for the samosas.

We started off by cooking a bay leaf and mustard seeds in oil, then adding onion, ginger and garlic.

Then added tomato and cooked it a bit, then pureed spinach and cooked a bit more, and then chicken which simmered until cooked in the sauce.

While the chicken was cooking we made the samosas. We started off by cooking the vegetables with some spices. We used spring roll skins for the outside! This pic is folding over one side and putting on a glue of flour and water. Then you pull over the other side to make a cone, and put the filling in, then fold down the top and secure with more glue.

The samosas then were pan fried in a tiny bit of oil, but you can also spray with cooking spray and bake.

The finished saag. Soooooo yum. I wasn't expecting to like this but I think it is my new favourite!!

The finished samosas. Again, wasn't sure what they would be like, especially in spring roll skins, but they were sooooo good. I think these would be great as a bento filler! Like gyoza you can prepare them but not cook them, then freeze them. To cook from frozen just cook in the pan or oven like normal, on a low heat. Don't defrost or they'll go sort of sticky and doughy.

Day 14- A picture of you and your family

2010-09-20T17:41:00.000+12:00

My Dad and me

My mum and me

At my Grandma's 80th (my Dad's side of the family)

Me and my cousin Melanie

I also have a sister but apart from the one with everyone I don't have any photos of us together on my laptop

This is our dog Jessie who I am counting as part of our family. My mum sprinkled her in the park halfway up Homebush Road because it was her favourite park (down the road from their house).

Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

2010-09-19T15:14:00.001+12:00

No one has hurt me recently so this is easy! Or hard depending on how you look at it!

I figure it's not what people do to you that matters but the way you react. I guess if someone did something that hurt me then I'd have to reassess the situation - did I do something that actually allowed them to think that behaviour was appropriate/why did they think doing that was ok/is it someone who is important to me and I'd be willing to forgive them/is it someone I can "de-friend" etc.

I think there's no point dwelling on the past so it's always better to move onwards and upwards, no matter the situation. Maybe that's why I can't think of a time when someone has hurt me.

Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one

2010-09-18T09:25:00.000+12:00

How I found out about blogspot is also how I got on twitter - BENTO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got my first bento in 1995 at Mitsukoshi in Ginza (the big original one). It was Hello Kitty and I think is 250mls.

This is it, with my first bento. Not really sure if it is my first bento because I remember taking rice to school in this box and surely I must have had it with something! But it was my first bento when I started making them last year.

I started posting my bento photos on facebook, but the ladies I was getting inspiration from (see the blogs I follow for them) had blogs and I could see the benefit in actually blogging about bento rather than facebooking them. I like being able to look back and see how I've improved from that one above, and I like how you can follow other blogs in your blogger list and get ideas from them. I've also made some great bento friends this year which has extended to other food bloggers and even friends of bento bloggers.

I tried wordpress first but it was a bit harder to get started so after about two or three hours of trying, I started this blog. This has been quite a busy year at work so I haven't been able to make as many bentos as I'd like, so it started turning into a blog for me to blog about stuff in general. I haven't given up on bentoing though!

Bentoing is also how I got onto twitter because it was a great way to see the blog links that everyone was posting and pics.

Another thing I love about blogging is being able to see how people get to my blog and where they are - I've had visits from every continent except Antarctica. I've had some very weird google searches referring people too!

Where are you from and how did you find my blog?

Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends

2010-09-17T20:15:00.000+12:00

Ok, since everyone else put lots of pics for the last one, so am I!

Here's some of my favourites. I know they are all quite recent, but these are the pics I have on my laptop.

Sarah, Hayley and Me. Christmas holidays 07/08

Amy and me at work at Nova 03 or 04 - check out the fake grass!!! and picnic tables. The 15th floor view of Osaka made up for it though.

Kimie, my old flatmate in Osaka, and me

Ange and me in Beijing 2006

At Glenorchy on our way to Paradise (actual place!) day before New Years Eve 04 I think

Beer place in Umeda with Kristian, John and Salib, my friends from church, July '10

Paul, me, Craig and Chris - friends from Japan in London - July '08 - I met up with Craig in Osaka exactly two years exactly later!

Tri-nations game (against South Africa) at the Speights bar in London '08 - Hayley, me, Moun, Sam, random guy from Tauranga

Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

2010-09-16T21:07:00.001+12:00

This is a little hard because I don't listen to music dependant on how I feel, I listen to music depending on what I am doing - radio in the car and at work or my ipod when running, if I'm going to be out by myself for a bit not in the car (so like if I was going to walk into town and go shopping), on planes (or trains etc if on holiday).

The only ones I choose what to listen to are when running. Then I prefer SMAP because while they are totally cheesy, their songs have a great beat for running and Queen ("I was born to love you" and "Don't stop me now") and body step/RPM songs.

So, because I dont really listen to anything on purpose, here are ten random songs from my ipod:

Paradise City - Guns N' Roses - coz although I'd never be a bogan, I'm from the Hutt...

Spice Up Your Life - Spice Girls - I was 18 in '97...

Let's Get Loud - Jennifer Lopez -a body step song

Billy Don't Be a Hero - Paper Lace - I drove from Sydney to Thredbo with my aunty once - we listened the the Priscilla Queen of the Desert tape (it was '96) a million times on the way and back

I'm in the Mood for Dancing - The Nolans - when I lived in Osaka my friend Amy and I ALWAYS used to do this first at karaoke. I'd never even heard it before I met her!

Only I Could Die (and love you still) - The Exponents - coz they're from NZ and are great!

The World I Know - Collective Soul - my second ever concert. All the guys were handing out picks after each song. Except for one. The one who fought through the girls with bad perms to give his to me.

君色思い by SMAP - it's SMAP!!!!!

Poi E - Patea Maori Club - we lived in New Plymouth for a bit when I was little. Loved seeing that canoe on the way!

Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas - how could you not love it?

A little off topic but I love this song - it's from the final credits of my favourite J-drama "Good Luck" - Kimutaku and airplanes - what could be better?!?!

A couple of SMAP songs:

A very funny SMAP parody I just found. It only makes sense if you know SMAP though sorry! Wait until 世界に一つだけの花　at 48 seconds - they get Goro's hair tossing, Nakai's rubbish voice, Tsuyoshi's eyes and Kimutaku's wink and voice spot on! Great stuff!

Day 09- Something you're proud of in the past few days

2010-09-15T20:14:00.000+12:00

There was a thing at work that I didn't want to do, but sometimes you have to man up and do stuff you don't want to do! Am also proud of myself for not caving in and breaking my diet by eating all the yum food in the Koru Lounge both times today, and for getting up and going to the gym before going to Christchurch this morning.

Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why

2010-09-14T18:00:00.001+12:00

Ok, so considering it is September 14 (yay - 6 months to White Day!!! feel free to start thinking what you are going to get me boys!...) I don't have very long to achieve these goals by. I have a couple of work related things I want to achieve by the end of the month but considering I work in HR I don't think this is the right place to post them!

Ok, so goals for the rest of the month are:

Follow my exercise plan. I sprained my ankle a couple of weeks ago and today my physio said I can run 20 minutes at a time. So while I think I'm reasonably fit at the moment, that's from RPM so it's a bit of running to get up to 10km by the end of next month at the Auckland marathon! As long as I follow the plan I made, I should be ok though. The highlighted bits are my massages with Gillian of Le'Esscience. I totally recommend you go see her if you are in Wellington, or you can order things from her from anywhere!

Keep sticking to weight watchers - I'm a bit over my goal weight at the moment and want to get back to it so I can go crazy shopping in Auckland because I seriously have no clothes at all. I'm not doing the girly "I don't have anything to wear" thing, I mean seriously I have hardly any clothes!

Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

2010-09-13T19:45:00.001+12:00

Hmm. This one is a bit hard! I guess lots of people/things have influenced me over the years. There is no particular order to this!

Ros, who I used to work with (I don't have a scanned photo of her so you have to imagine what she looks like!) - got me going to Les Mills. This totally changed my life!

My Dad (left) and his cousin Paul (below)

Dad for calling Paul when I was in form two and trying to decide whether to do Japanese or German at college, and Paul for saying Japanese was good and he used it as a lawyer (which is what I wanted to be when I was in form two, that or a journalist).

I've stolen their work photos that I found by google image searching them so they are a bit small.

Also, my Dad has had a big influence on me for liking aviation stuff too.

My Nana, even though she died when I was 13 she was around long enough to show me that you could do stuff by yourself and didn't need to rely on other people. If things were broken she'd fix them, she used to mow her lawns in her late 70s, travelled overseas by herself (and even got suspected as a drug dealer!). She also taught me how to do hospital corners on my bed to and how to make butter.

My parents too because if they hadn't paid for my trip to Japan in 6th form my life might have turned out quite different! This is my Mum since Dad is already above! and also just in general they have had a huge influence on me because of the experiences I've had and things we did when I was younger, which have made me the person I am.

My old flatmate Lisa for telling me what industrial relations was and what classes I could take in it at varsity. Not sure what kind of degree I'd have ended up with if she hadn't!

I can't forget Japan too! Japan has had a huge influence on my life!

Day 06- Favorite super hero and why

2010-09-12T11:22:00.004+12:00

This one was a bit hard in a way because I don't really have a favourite super hero. But when I thought about it, I thought of this one right away.

Doraemon!!

He isn't a typical super hero because he's a fat robotic cat, but he is - basically his purpose is to save a kid from having his life turn out bad and he uses the stuff in his special magic pocket to do this.

There's all sorts of things in his special pocket, like an anywhere door, that he pulls out and can go anywhere. It would be very handy.

If I had to pick another super hero I'd go for MacGuyver. I don't think he even needs much of an explanation - seriously, is there anything he can't do!?!

When I lived in Japan it used to be on cable a million times a week so I developed a bit of a soft spot for him - I even used to have the theme song as my ring tone.

30 days of me

2010-09-12T10:48:00.001+12:00

It just occurred to me that it might be a good idea to explain about where the 30 days of me thing came from. Not sure who started it but it from googling it, it seems to have been around for a few months at least. Now it seems to be mostly girls in New Zealand, or with links to NZ. A few of the boys have even gotten in on the act now too!

To search on twitter use the #30daysofme hashtag. Here's a great RSS feed and list of lots of us. Thanks @Pebblesy for all the hard work on getting those together!

Scroll down to see post "day nothing" to see what I'll be blogging about.

Day 05- A picture of somewhere you've been to

2010-09-11T17:51:00.000+12:00

This is blonde me in Penang, Malaysia, last year. I looooove Penang. I've only been twice but would go every year if I could!!

Surfing the Great Wall of China.

Me to lady on street: "Can you please take a photo of me in front of the Eiffel Tower?" (thinking it might look something like this, but with more of the tower obviously, since someone else taking it will be able to see better).

Lady on street: "Sure, no problem"

Me: "Thank you very much. You just hold down this button for two seconds"

Lady: "ok" snap

Result:

Um, seriously?!

Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn't have

2010-09-11T17:14:00.000+12:00

I feel really bad about mine, but felt better when I saw Amie had the same one!

I often interrupt people. I don't mean to and I usually only realise when I'm actually doing it. I think it happens because I get all excited about stuff. This is also why I am so clumsy and always falling over when I haven't been drinking! Also, at work I know I do it because I know what the person is going to say - I've been doing the same type of job for ages so I often know where the person is heading with what they are saying, but I need to remind myself that they still want to be heard, and every situation isn't exactly the same so I need to let them talk!

Sometimes I actually bite my tongue when someone is talking so that I don't start! I'm v sorry if I've done this to you!

Day 3 - A picture of you and your friends

2010-09-09T21:35:00.000+12:00

Today's post made me realise I don't have many recent group photos. So, here is a photo of Sarah and me at Toast Martinborough last year. It was kind of windy.

Day 02- The meaning behind your blog name

2010-09-08T19:40:00.000+12:00

My blog is meant to be about my bentos, although I haven't made many lately so it's sort of an anything I want to write about blog.

MECHA means "very" in Osaka dialect. You use it when you'd say very/so in English. I used to live in Osaka so I kind of like having a reminder of that in my blog.

It used to be that if you heard someone say mecha, you'd be pretty sure they were from around Osaka. Nowadays it is kind of a cool word to use, so it's more likely that they are just a young person from anywhere in Japan.

GENKI is a bit harder to explain because it is one of those words that you can't translate directly.

You can use it:

To ask/describe how someone is. For example, when you ask someone if they are well in Japanese, "genki" is the word for "well".
If someone is a friendly/outgoing/happy/energetic type of person, you'd describe them as genki.

I think genki is one of those words that tells a lot about Japan as a country. It is used heaps in Japan whereas in New Zealand we don't have an equivalent word, or even seem to use similar words much at all.

To ask how someone is in a casual way, just ask "genki?".

BENTO are Japanese lunches in a box. The actual box the lunch is in is called a bento bako.

If you look through my blog you'll get an idea of what they look like.

You can buy bentos at lots of places in Wellington now too - they usually come in a quite flat plastic black boxes sectioned off for different things, with a clear lid so you can see what you are choosing.

So, my blog name sort of means "very happy lunches in a box" or something along those lines.

30 Days of Me - Day One

2010-09-07T21:47:00.001+12:00

Ok, so day one is a recent picture of me and 15 interesting facts.

This is one of the most recent photos I have of me. It is at Kinkaku Ji in Kyoto two months ago. I chose it because I like my hair in this pic and because over the years I have had heaps of photos in this same spot.

15 interesting things about me

1. I am addicted to McDonalds soft serve ice creams.
2. I can hold my arm out and twist my wrist without moving my elbow.
3. I can speak Japanese
4. I almost studied German instead of Japanese. My life would be pretty different if I had.
5. My middle name is Mary. It makes up for having such long first and last names.
6. I think collections are often tacky but I have a Hard Rock Cafe shot glass collection (I'm aware of the irony).
7. I had porridge for dinner tonight.
8. I've had two convertible cars and after having both for about six months, moved overseas.
9. My first car was a mini. It lasted two months.
10. I went to Malaysia for a holiday mostly just because I like Satay Village on Ghuznee Street.
11. When I was at university I worked on a make up counter.
12. It is my half birthday in two days.
13. I am quite accident prone, but never was at all until I was about 22.
14. I sometimes wake up trying to find the door out of my bedroom.
15. I once woke up in the shower.

30 Days of Me - Day nothing

2010-09-07T21:18:00.000+12:00

30 Days of Me - Day nothing

So, I've decided to give the 30 days of me blogging challenge a try. Here's what to expect over the next 30 days.

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name

Day 03- A picture of you and your friends

Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn't have

Day 05- A picture of somewhere you've been to

Day 06- Favorite super hero and why

Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why

Day 09- Something you're proud of in the past few days

Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends

Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one

Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Day 14- A picture of you and your family

Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play

Day 16- Another picture of yourself

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have

Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them

Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future

Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else

Day 23- Something you crave for a lot

Day 24- A letter to your parents

Day 25- What I would find in your bag

Day 26- What you think about your friends

Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge

Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?

Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned

Day 30- Your favorite song.

一番弁当！！！

2010-08-22T22:01:00.001+12:00

This is pretty much like last week, but it is quick and low ww points at least.

So here it is on one of my Uniqlo yukata and on my 一番tshirt from Kyoto. Top: just lettuce and the frog has balsamic vinegar in him. Middle: chicken baked then grilled at the end, with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Sitting on more lettuce. Bottom: cherry tomatoes with feta. YUUUUUUUM. おいしそうね！

Packed up for work. Top box is Cath Kidston Kids range, from my friend Yaeko. She gave it to me when I visited her in Osaka. How great is she!!! Bottom box is Care Bears which I got at Narita airport last month.

Tomorrow (Monday) is my friend Joanna's birthday. We had a Kath and Kim themed party last night. This is me on the right dressed as Kath. The wig was in a bag so I didn't realise how big it was when I bought it! It is hard to see in the pic but I also had Kath-esque earings!

Here is the cake I made. It has a layer of chocolate butter cream in the middle. There are more photos of the cake on my tweetphoto page.

Rice cooker risotto

2010-08-18T20:21:00.001+12:00

I'm doing a Massey paper in occupational health and safety at the moment - this week is the final three day block of classes and today we finished a little earlier. Because it's in town I got home really fast so had just over an hour before I went to RPM so I thought I might as well make dinner first.

I had quite a few vegetables so decided I would try making a vegetable rice risotto in my rice cooker (background to this is I used to have a Wishbone risotto almost everyday because they are quite low in weight watchers points, but they changed the recipe and now they are really high in points!! agh!! When I say I used to have one almost everyday, I mean like 9 days out of 10 so it's really thrown me and I've had to start thinking of other stuff to have for lunch. It's hard!).

Anyway, back to this post! So, I rinsed the rice (3/4 cup uncooked) then put it in the rice cooker with enough chicken stock to cover it (a bit more than you would using water the normal way). Then while that started cooking, I sauteed an onion (with a little water, no oil), then mushrooms. That went in the rice cooker with celery, courgette, broccoli and cauliflower. I just put them in as I chopped them, rather than all at once. I put in maybe a teaspoon of that mashed up garlic stuff in a tube and then garlic salt and salt and pepper. I just kept adding more stock as it got down a bit, and stirred it every now and then. I added some frozen peas and corn mix near the end because I thought it needed a more colour.

It actually burnt a little on the bottom near the end because I thought it didn't need much stirring so I'd left it. I just mixed the burnt bits in and it was fine. When I wasn't stirring the lid was on the cooker. When it looked about done I took the bowl part out of the cooker because I didn't want it to burn more. I added more stock after I took the bowl out because I was worried that when I reheat it for lunch tomorrow it will be too dry. I'm not exactly sure how much of the stock I used all up because I can't see in the container, but I am guessing maybe about 3/4 of a litre or 800mls-ish.

This was soooooo yum. Seriously. I'm wondering what is in that garlic salt because I used it on the chicken in my last post and that was delicious too.

This made a huge amount (I guess because so much stock and lots of vegetables) and it worked out at 4.5 weight watchers points! I think it would be really nice with some pine nuts through it too, but was great like this.

This is the stock I used, and the amazing garlic salt. It looks a bit watery in this photo, but this was before I reheated it and some of it evaporated out and stirred through.

Almost Friday...

2010-08-12T20:50:00.000+12:00

I haven't made a bento for ages because I don't want them to look rubbish (I understand the irony here...) but I had chicken to use so thought I might as well have it for lunch. I'm not really a salad person, however I think this is going to be quite nice. The feta is low fat! Who knew you could get low fat feta! It is only seven weight watchers points for the whole 200g block so I think I'm going to be using this a lot more.

Anyway, in my new bento box from Japan is chicken which I baked then grilled at the end. It has garlic salt, normal salt and pepper. With it is red onion, lettuce ("spring mix' from New World) and some kiwi fruit.

I went to Christchurch for work on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was on the east side both times so didn't get any pics of the mountains.

Waiting to get up in the air...

Up in the air, but still "at" the airport!

Christchurch!

Almost at the airport...

Can't wait for tomorrow - Friday drinks and sushi at Wasabi in Cuba Street. My blackberry has been sent to Auckland to be replaced (yay new phone!!) so there won't be any (much...) drunk tweeting going on tomorrow night since I only have my normal phone and I am guessing it might cost a bit on that! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I went to Japan and did a little shopping...

2010-08-01T14:12:00.002+12:00

So as promised, here is what I bought. This doesn't includes clothes, although I didn't buy much (a skirt from H&M, a tshirt from Murphys, a really cool tshirt that is like the train station sign thing for Harajuku (Jlist have towels like it), a number one tshirt (一番) and Air New Zealand gave me two tshirts (one was meant to be for my Dad but it's too small. Score for me though!); also got a bit of kitchen stuff from the hundred yen shop too.

So sort of going clockwise from the first photo - in the middle top is microwave steamer. These are AMAZING! I got it at Tokyu Hands but was a bit confused because there were heaps of different ones for different vegetables but they seemed to be the same so I asked the girl at the counter if you could do other things in them and she said yes. So I said then they are just really the same, not that you can only do edamame in the one with the edamame pic and potatoes in the one with the potato pic and she kind of laughed and said yup, that actually you could. Now that I have just written that it was much funnier at the time.

Anyway, then there are some gel ring things to keep bentos cool, then silicone heart shaped cups, nori face punchers (how heavy are they though!!), a gyoza maker (not that I need it, but it was on sale at three minute happiness for 50 yen!), picks, more silicone cups, chopstick container, picks to stick into food to make like balloon cherry tomatoes and stuff, a sandwiches, more pics, a bento (from 100 yen shop), some baran. In the middle are star cutters, sauce cups and bottles.

I got the Care Bear set at the airport at Sony Plaza when I was leaving, although now it is just Plaza (the huge one in Osaka is now a Zara store too!!!!). I couldn't resist the Very Hungry Caterpillar one!

My friend Yaeko got me this Cath Kidston Kids box for me as a gift. It also came with a book, which also has bento ideas in it (and the other normal Cath Kidston crafty stuff too). I couldn't find a Cath Kidston shop while in Japan so was so grateful to her for this (and for remembering I loved her stuff!).

I got this set at Loft. I didn't really need it but I couldn't resist all the cute writing! They're quite good shapes though - the small one fits well into the big one as a sauce or okazu container.

I got quite a few antibacterial sheets to put on top of my lunches, some picks, chopsticks, panda bread cutter. I love this play on words - "pan" is bread, and "da" is the plain form for "is/am/are" so "pan da" means "it's/I'm bread". Which it is! It cuts off the crusts and seals in the filling! Like magic! I also got some of the microwave crisper sheet things to try too - basically it cooks stuff in the microwave like it had been done under a grill. Again, Jlist have these too.

And finally, these aren't bento related but I was really into nail art when I lived in Japan so I couldn't resist buying more. I was stoked to see that graduation nails are still popular (where the colour graduates from one into another). The coolest thing was that Loft now sell these nail cocktail sets like the top left where they give you three colours and a guide on the back of what order and where to do them! Today I have on the pale pink down the bottom right.

Japan!

2010-07-19T23:10:00.001+12:00

I just spent two FANTASTIC weeks in Japan. I had the first 5 days with my friends Ange and Pat and then the rest of the time by myself. Here's a little of what I did.

Friday 2 July - Air New Zealand to Auckland, then Narita.

Row one on 6:30 a.m. Air New Zealand flight to Auckland - was already up at 3:40...

Yum! Entree on the plane to Japan.

Friday 2 - Sunday 4 July - Tokyo

Stayed at the Hotel Lone Star

Bento erasers at 45 floors up (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings)

Sunday 4 July to Wednesday 7 July - Kyoto

Stayed at the Kyoto Century Hotel

Sunday afternoon - Nara

Monday - Hiroshima

Tuesday - Kyoto

Me at Kinkaku ji (golden temple) in Kyoto. First time I went here I was 16!

Kyoto

Geisha! In Kyoto! and all their other stalkers... My old flatmate Kimie took me to this street in Gion to geiko spot - I thought we were too late this time but we saw heaps!

Wednesday 7 July - Ange and Pat off to Europe, so I'm off to Nagasaki.

Stayed at the Hotel Cuore

I'd never been there before. It was a little like Wellington. I found it personally very interesting because of all the Catholic stuff, and the other sightseeing was great, however the town wasn't so exciting. Still worth a visit though!

Nagasaki hills

Friday 9 July - Thursday 15 July - OSAKA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stayed at the Hotel Villa Fontaine

I lived in Osaka for two years (Jan 03 - Dec 04) so it was obviously where I'd spend most of my visit. I had a fantastic time catching up with everyone!

Okomomiyaki! In Osaka.

Okonomiyaki, done Hiroshima style (Hiroshimayaki). The make like a crepe, fried noodles and fried egg, then sandwich together. Was ok, but not as good as the normal way. This was in Hiroshima but I can't seem to re-order the picture!

Me and my old flatmate Kimie at Okonomiyaki.

Dontonbori in Osaka

My lovely friends from church in Japan - Kristian, John, me and Salib.

Katsu curry!! At the place Namba Walk (Namba station) where I almost always used to go for my lunch/dinner when at work. なつかしい～

The main shopping street of Osaka (Ebisu Suji). Fantastic because it's all under cover!

I went to my old work (which is now a new company in a different place...) my schedule was still on! But I didn't have any lessons...

Me pretending to take Craig's level - up CAT. Just like old times! (I mean me taking a lesson, not that I used to take his lessons...)

Country houses on the way to the Mikimoto pearl farm in Mie prefecture.

Note to self: be careful when deforesting and polishing with the scouner (on a bento box I bought).

My friend Mitsu (who used to live in NZ) took me out for dinner. I was expecting he would take me somewhere nice, but when he told the taxi drive Hotel Rihga I realised it was going to be really really nice. Such an amazing view, and kaiseki ryori!

Sashimi, one of the first courses of about a million.

Maybe course 308,330 of the meal. Top right is horse in miso. Yup, horse. Wasn't actually too bad, especially considering I'm not a big meat eater.

Me and Mitsu after the fantastic million course and horse meal. 28 floors up in Osaka!

Midosuji train line in Osaka. Leaving :( to go to Tokyo. Osaka will always be my second home!!!

Getting the shinkansen to Tokyo. I looooove the way all the train guys point both ways to show the tracks are clear.

I had my priorities in order on the shinkansen to Tokyo.

It's Mt Fuji! Really!

Tokyo - Thursday 15 July - Saturday 17 July

Same hotel as at the beginning of the trip.

Yeah, so I um, bought a few bento things. And a new suitcase for them to go in...

A real bento shop! Hokka Hokka Tei (this one is in Ginza near the lovely Air New Zealand Japan who gave me an also very lovely tshirt - pics some other time of that!).

Harajuku!

While buying even more bento stuff at the 100 yen shop in Harajuku, I noticed this. Maybe like sheet music for rappers?

Remember, toilets are NOT ashtrays. Because I do often see cigarette buts in toilets.... (maybe just in the mens'?)

I was aware of those piercing eyes as I took this photo...

Shinjuku!

My last meal in Japan (if you don't count the food at the Qantas lounge at the airport...). I went to Tsuna Hachi in Shinjuku (right near my hotel) as recommended by my Rough Guide. Soooo good! The man who cooked my food in front of me said my Japanese was good. He was nice.

Yay! Then time for the flight home! I loooooove Air NZ. When I grow up I want to be a flight attendant.

As we were taking off I finally got to see Mt Fuji! Otherwise this would have been my only trip to Japan when I hadn't seen it!

Up and away...

Yum! Dinner entree on the flight home (with dessert to the side! so tempting!!)

Almost home!

Sunday 18 July - home!

GO NEW ZEALAND!!!!!

2010-06-24T19:21:00.001+12:00

I'm not really that into football, but everyone is going a bit All Whites (the NZ team) crazy at the moment, so I figured I'd get in on the action (plus, the $2 shop in Cuba Mall had NZ flags...).

This bento has Japanese curry (from New World) and rice, a HUGE strawberry, baby carrots, beans, mushrooms and prawns. V yum!

Clean cupboards and cake pops!

2010-05-29T12:32:00.006+12:00

I've been pretty busy lately so haven't had time to bento. I'm still getting lots of hits however so wanted to at least post something even if it wasn't a bento!

So, today's post is my new tidy cupboards and cake pops. I know that tidying the cupboard isn't normally the kind of thing you'd post about on a blog but it is actually related to bento! One of the bento ladies (but I can't remember who) posted picks of re-doing her fridge so all the bento stuff was in easy pull out containers. I thought that was a great idea and once I'd done the bento stuff I thought I'd do the rest. Now I have all my baking stuff, sauces, Japanese stuff in separate containers so I can just pull them out depending on what I am making! Maybe I need to get out more...

My bento stuff in two containers

My pantry sorted into pull out containers.

Tonight I have a birthday dinner for two friends so I'm making cake pops. I got the idea from Bakerella

Not sure why the pics are so blurry, but I used canned icing because that's what the recipe said to do. I've never used it before and the idea weirded me out, but it tasted ok.

First I got three cakes from Woolworths and broke them up in a bowl.

This is the frosting I got from New World.

Then I realised the bowl wasn't big enough so mixed it into a bigger one.

But I had used too much icing so mixed in the third cake.

In the fridge. I didn't need to freeze them as long as I was expecting (maybe half an hour) but when I was dipping them I had to put them back into the freezer halfway through because they softened up too much.

Making some progress... I dipped them into a huge block of Whittaker's dark chocolate melted with about a quarter of a packet of milk chocolate buttons from Woolworths.

The pink chocolate is Wilton candy melts. Not sure why they don't call it chocolate melts? It's chocolate! Maybe an american thing? It didn't melt very well at all so I only used it on a couple.

These are the finnished ones. I bought three bags of bags in "size one" and only one (ten in a bag) in "size two". So I had to put two to a bag in the bigger size bags.

I have noticed quite a few hits from Lower Hutt on here so if you are in the Hutt and want to sell your house or buy another then go see my mum and dad! (the two at the top). This is my mum and my dad.

All the pops

The finished pops!

Five minute bento becomes one hour bentos!

2010-05-04T22:49:00.000+12:00

I just got back from Dannevirke and the Four Square down the road was still open, so I thought I might as well get some stuff and make a bento to eat on the plane tomorrow night otherwise it'd be quite late that I'd get to have dinner. Then, I figured I might as well make one for lunch tomorrow too. I figured what I was going to make was basically just assembling stuff so it'd only take five or ten minutes. Yeah, an hour later... But at least I have two bentos and am getting better at making tamagoyaki.

I also loved the idea Susan had of stamping the bun things she made, so I thought it would be a great idea to use my hanko (name stamp) to stamp the gyoza. It didn't really work, and now my fingers are all red! But, at least I know it doesnt work on gyoza, so it wasn't a wasted effort if you look at it positively!

So this bento is for my lunch tomorrow. It has half a mandarin, some kiwi fruit, cherry tomatoes, star and bear shaped rice with furikake, a gyoza and tamagoyaki with ham and nori.

This bento is for dinner which I'll eat on the plane to Christchurch. It's the same as lunch but a whole mandarin, and three gryoza. While making these I had a great idea to save taking gyoza sauce, I would just add some of the gyoza dipping sauce to the water when I cooked the gyoza. The side of the gyoza you can't see is kind of a sticky black mess, I guess from the sugar that I didn't realise was in the sauce. But again, at least I know not to try it again!

Very quick bento...

2010-04-27T23:26:00.007+12:00

Tomorrow's bento was what I planned on making for dinner tonight but when I got home from the gym I was too tired to cook so just made a sandwich and made this later on.

Even though I had to cook this bento it still took no time at all. The two left hand side boxes are diced beef with courgette, mushroom and red capsicum, stir fried in some teriyaki sauce and then I decided to throw on some of the yaki soba sauce I got at Kobe ya in Christchurch at last week. So that probably took 5 minutes tops. I didn't really want to have the same thing in two boxes but it is only 100grams of beef so I figured might as well have it all.

While that was cooking I put together the salad and then took the rice out of the freezer and put it on top of the parsley. The rice is actually still frozen - when I made my last bento I made a few extra shaped rice stars and bears and put them in freezer bags so I can just take them out as I need them rather than having to shape them all the time. The rice has furikake that Yaeko brought me from Japan on top.

On top of the stir fry (which I'll heat up at work because the boxes come out) is cut out takuan using the cutters that Sarah got me for my birthday but I hadn't used yet. Can't wait to get some more nori punches so I can make better faces, but I think the eyes are quite cute anyway.

The bottom right box has salad with some fresh pineapple on top. I had planned to have one box of just the pineapple but there wasn't enough for a whole box so I ate the big bits and put the small bits on the salad.

I'm really looking forward to my Japan trip (nine weeks this Friday!!!) because I think this bento would look better in a round box where I could maybe group the colours better - I feel like it is a whole mix of red, yellow and and green whereas in a round box I'd be able to arrange it better - so, lots of bento buying when I go!

More gyoza

2010-04-25T21:20:00.003+12:00

Although I've used character picks and baran before, this is the first time I've actually made something out of the food in my bento, so this is my first real kyaraben. But I just realised the eyes are lopsided!

Tomorrow's bento is rice in the top box (with luncheon to make the star and mouth) and fresh pineapple which I thought would be great but was too big so I had to chop it up! I might use my magic four square bento tomorrow because it will fit better in there.

The bottom box has cherry tomato, gyoza and a couple of mini hundreds and thousands biscuits.

Sorry for the boring background to the photo too - I painted the other half of the skirting boards in my bedroom and the doors (four!) today, so I had to take this photo on the couch because I was worried about getting paint on my yukata if I got it out of my wardrobe to use as a background.

I made extra gyoza (but didn't cook them) and put them on a plate in the freezer so I could freeze them before putting them in freezer bags, but I just went to put them into freezer bags and they have frozen to the plate! I've got them out on the kitchen table so hopefully they will soften up a little so I can get them off!

Gyoza!

2010-04-18T14:04:00.005+12:00

This morning I went to the duck race we sponsored at work. On the way back I was trying to work out if I'd be able to get much painting done before my Japanese lesson this afternoon and decided I wouldn't, but that I would have time to make a bento. I figured just because it's a Sunday didn't mean I couldn't make one.

I also was really keen to try making gyoza because during the week my bento cook book that Susan wrote arrived which I was very excited about, and I still had lots of stuff to try from the bag of bento goodies that Yaeko brought me over from Japan last month.

This is a pic of the race. Our duck didn't do very well. When I left he was kind of caught up near the trees and not going far. His hair is the yarn we make at work though!

Anyway, back to the bento! Today's bento is gyoza in the top left, rice with some kind mix through furikake that the only bit I can read is where it says wakame (わかめ). Then there is teriyaki prawns, another gyoza and kiwifruit which was so hard it was like eating an apple. Bottom bento is edamame, rice, potato salad and takuan. The gyoza were so yum!

This week I am off to Dannevirke tomorrow for work for the night then Christchurch on Thursday for work for the night. I've got a rental car so hopefully will be able to stop at the Japanese supermarket there. That's where I got the molds for the rice in this bento, so hopefully will be able to get some good stuff.

Playing tourist at home...

2010-04-05T20:14:00.007+12:00

Today is Easter Monday here so another day off work, so I went to the Pompeii exhibition at Te Papa with Lara and Sarah.

The idea initially was to go to the exhibition between coats of painting my house but I did one top coat and then thought a boozy lunch was a good idea because it's something we always say we will do but never do. We went to Leuven (which possibly has the best chips in Wellington) and then got gelato from cafe eis at the waterfront, then went to Te Papa where we met Lara. The exhibition was really good - if you go make sure you see the short movie they have before going around.

Just before we left Te Papa Sarah was interviewed for Morning Report (on the radio) about Australia wanting Phar Lap's skeleton back for the 150th anniversary of the Melbourne Cup. Weird.
I got the cable car down so I could drink - depsite living in Wellington most of my life I never get tired of riding it!

My work is on the other side of the harbour, to the left of the island (above the cranes).

My gelato

Sarah's gelato

VERY nice Wellington autumn day!

Te Papa is the museum on the right.

Japanese Kitchen in Hataitai (the take away place, not Ange and Pat's kitchen!)

2010-03-28T21:42:00.010+13:00

Last night I went to Ange and Pat's for the very long awaited Japanese take aways and Time Traveler's Wife dvd.

I had the teriyaki chicken bento which was only about $12, so pretty good value. I also had edamame but they didn't have salt on them, and there was no point putting salt on myself because I think Japanese salt tastes quite different, so New Zealand salt just wouldn't be the same. Anyway, the actual bento was great - it had the rice and chicken, some maki sushi, some rice with noritama furikake, tempura vegetables on salad and gyoza with some salad with what I am pretty sure was goma (sesame seed) salad dressing. Ange had chicken katsu don and Pat had ginger chicken udon. Both looked good. I have kept the boxes from mine and Pat's (Ange's was just a normal plastic container) so I can use them for my own bento!

The actual movie was ok. Not as good as the book but worth seeing, but wouldn't be my favourite (bit hard to beat Bridget Jones really).

We also did Earth Hour before the movie. The first half an hour we talked about what we'll do when we go to Japan (just three months to go!!!!!) but me and Pat only lasted half an hour before we started tweeting. Pat also taught me a new word but I don't want to lower the tone of my blog so you need to check my twitter if you want to find out what it is.

Japanese Kitchen is here.

Today I helpd Sarah, who was down from Auckland, to ice a cake for her antenatal group's first birthday party (they just moved to Auckland, so the group is down here). She made a delicious banana cake (I think she used the Edmond's cookbook one) and was going to ice it with just a simple icing sugar and water icing but I told her that she needed a butter cream or you'd be able to see where she had cut the bits and put it together to make a number one shape. We used the Magnolia Bakery buttercream icing which I always use for my cup cakes and it turned out great.

Then I went and bought two pairs of jeans, two tops and a pair of shoes in like half an hour and then ran to meet Keisuke for our language exchange. He had some tuna mayo sushi left over (he works at St Pierre's) and I was very lucky because he gave it to me because he knows it's my favourite, so that was dinner sorted!

I'm off to Christchurch on Tuesday and the plan is to finish painting the inside of my house over the Easter long weekend next weekend, so not sure if I'm going to get to make any bento for a bit.

Gaijin life dot com

2010-03-27T13:23:00.002+13:00

Something I have been meaning to do for ages is link to the short interview with me on gaijinlife.com you can read it here. Gaijinlife.com is a great site with lots of great stuff about Japan. You can also follow Yugo (whose site it is) on twitter here.