The Grapes of Wrath

Over the last week, we have both been busy bees indeed. Last Saturday, C was slaving away on her assignments, and G went to ballet as usual. Then in the afternoon, G went to Glen Innes to meet the psych prof and someone from her ballet class (who also happens to be a postgraduate psychology student) for a silks class, i.e. climbing and swinging and posing on long silk ribbons hanging from the ceiling, circus style. For G, this was a completely new experience, and given her lack of any considerable upper-body strength, a challenge.

The class started with some 'gentle' warm-ups, which included doing press ups. Then the class moved on to the silks themselves, and learned how to climb them. It's similar to climbing a rope, where you have to pull yourself up with your arms, but the silks have to be arranged in a specific way around your feet, which allows you to climb, but also saves you from falling off/dying if your hands slip. Climbing the silks was hard, so it wasn't done for too long. Then there was learning some different knots for your feet which allow you to do various moves, and trying some poses, which were elegant when demonstrated by the instructor. The class finished with a gentle wind-down of push-ups, chin-ups, carrying other people across the room with bent legs and handstands. G did not fully recover until Thursday.

On Sunday, we were feeling a bit worse for wear following a night out with Linda, but this could not hold us back as we were meeting Tingting to go to One Tree Hill, another extinct volcano a few miles out of the city. First we went for brunch at Olaf's cafe in Mount Eden, where poor C had some issues with vegan options (which Tingting very determinedly resolved), but once we got our food it was tasty, if a little on the pretentious/rip-off side. We then made our way in T's car to One Tree Hill, which used to be an important Maori settlement. We arrived in the midst of a dog show, so watched the adorable dogs parade around the ring to commentary from a less-than-enthused adjudicator.

After best-in-show, we made our way to the top of the hill, where we admired the views of Auckland (you could see for miles around). There used to be an old tree at the summit, but this was cut down by Maori activists to protest injustices perpetrated by the NZ government. Strangely, there is a 'towering obelisk' at the top of the hill, a monument to a British aristocrat's admiration of the Maori people. That's right, not a monument to the Maori, but to some white colonialist's admiration of them. On the way back to the car, we saw a tiny metal plaque on the side of the hill. The plaque said it was the true monument to the Maori people who lived on the hill, and that that the chief used to live on the summit, probably where the obelisk stands now.

On Monday, G started her new job working for Inland Revenue. There is an initial training period of 9 weeks, and much to learn, but everyone seemed very friendly and helpful so G finished the week with good feelings about her new post. On Monday night, we had Mel and Kate over for dinner, and C made a delicious kumara risotto, finishing off with some vegan coconut ice cream (yum) from M&K. On Thursday, our landlord returned from Thailand. and informed us that he would no longer be keeping our current flat, so we would be moving to our other flat by the end of April. We'll believe it when it happens! G also got some good news on Thursday- the psych prof think he's secured some funding for G to be a research assistant on one of his projects which will be a study of parents of eating-disordered children. It sounds like an exciting project, so G said that she'd be interested.

On Friday, we went for dinner at Ima's, an Israeli restaurant that C found through one of her classmates, to celebrate the end of a good week, with G staring her new job and C finishing assignments. We had a small mezze to start (small=really not small) which consisted of olives, hummus, tahini, fried lemony cauliflower, aubergine, tomato, pita, and other assorted goodness. G then had fried halloumi and C had a vegan dish- we couldn't stop praising how good the food was! Unfortunately we ordered some red wine which was less than drinkable. It was an NZ wine from Hawke's Bay, which tasted nothing like wine- we could barely swallow it without gagging. We apologetically sent it back, and we chose a different one, this time it was almost acceptable, but G still couldn't finish hers. Although the wine was a disappointment, we'll definitely go back there, as the food was heavenly!