Cooper Ave

I will post some pictures of my new house at Hannahs Bay soon, but in the meantime here are a couple of shots from just in front of the house.

My patio and the lounge room have lake views. There is one house between me and the lake and it is currently empty, so I can walk through to the lakefront reserve. On Sunday I got a surprise to look up just as the float plane cruised by. Cool eh?

Then tonight there was the most stunning sunset. The lake was very still and the reflections were spectacular.

Change of Heart

Some things change with age. I remember when I first moved back to NZ thinking how quaint were the beds of dalhias in the streets of Rotorua. I distinctly remember telling Uncle Dennis that if I were caught growing them it would be a signal that I should be put out to pasture.

Margaret and I went to the Dalhia Show in Hamilton a couple of weekends ago and I found I was quite besotted. And guess what grows along my front fence at the new house? Lah di dah, they are quite lovely thank you.

Holy cow

Doors

Jaipur. Take Two

Uttam says the lassi in Jaipur is the best in India. It's served in
terracotta glasses, with a thick creamy layer on top that made me
think the yogurt was so alive it was still setting in the pots. Yum!

In Jaipur we went the the movies. The Rajmandir Movie Theater
is like a stage set in itself, and the Hindi movie, Guzaarish, was a delight.

Jaipur, The Pink City

In Management 101 we studied a model called the Johari Window.
Nothing to do with the Johari Bazaar in Jaipur. On a cool wet darkening
evening in November was it about as far from that textbook
abstraction as you could get.


Our Intrepid leader Uttam led us at a cracking pace along the
muddy streets through the bazaar. We trailed along behind him half dazed,
picking our way through rubbish, cow pats, potholes and puddles
and dodging the autorickshaws, motorbikes, children, goats, men wrapped in shawls,
an occasional umbrella, and the ubiquitous wandering cow (one wearing a bracelet).
Bit of a problem to negotiate all that while entranced by the
little specialty shops spilling out onto the uneven
arcades along the streets -- shoes, sweets, engine parts, oil lamps,
sacks of grains, sherberts, terracotta urns, chinese medicine, gems,
saris, marigolds, bells, statues, bangles, and myriad unidentified
objects filling the senses as we stumbled along trying to keep him
in sight.

And then a wider street, even more traffic, and looming over us
the fairy-tale facade of the Hawa Mahal.

Sweets (mithai) and sweetmakers

Milk and yoghurt are used in most Indian sweets. Milk is reduced by a long slow boiling over an open fire, the huge wok being stirred constantly. The yellow stuff in the last photo is jalebi - made with wheat flour and reduced milk and then deep fried and soaked in sugar syrup. Yum. (?) Oh, and I have included a photo of a puri-maker.