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Wandering past the planter this morning on the way to get a cup of coffee I noticed something slightly green out of the corner of my eye. Had a closer look, and voilà!Some tiny plants had poked their heads up overnight. Well, I assume it was overnight, and they’ve had a few boxes sitting on top of them for the last few days so they’ve not been in plain sight, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t there yesterday.

13 out of 40 showing signs of life. A bit surprising really, as it’s been really, really, really cold here for the last few days, including two days with snow falling outside the window for a while (yes, I did finally get to see snow this year, even if it didn’t settle), and we still didn’t turn the heating on. Thought they might have sulked and refused to come out and play.

One of the things we’re most looking forward to when we finally move home and get ourselves sorted out is a big vegetable garden. Of course we could be putting out of our minds all the hard work of creating then maintaining the garden, but the thought of being able to grab nice fresh veges keeps us positive.

So far we’ve decided we want to grow at least the following veges:

• Aubergines
• Beans. But never broad beans. Yuck!
• Beetroot
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Capsicums
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celeriac
• Celery
• Chicory
• Chillies (of course!)
• Corn
• Courgette
• Cucumber
• Garlic
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leeks
• Lettuce of various types
• Onions of various types
• Pak Choi
• Parsnip
• Peas
• Potato
• Pumpkin
• Radish
• Red Onions
• Rocket
• Shallots
• Spinach
• Spring Onions
• Squash
• Sweet Potato
• Tomatillos
• Tomatoes
• Turnips
• Watermelon

There’s no doubt a few that we’ve forgotten too.

A spreadsheet has been created to keep track of when to plant things, how long they take to grow etc. Now we just have to work out how much space all of that is going to take up! I suspect it’ll be quite a bit. And some of it might require a bit of help from a greenhouse etc, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find space for one of them too.

If we overdo it and end up with too much produce, I’m sure our friends and families will be happy to take some off our hands… They might have to pay us back by doing some weeding though.

Next list is plants for the herb garden, but I suspect that will be easy. Absolutely all of them, unless they won’t cope with the weather…

Just when you thought you were going to escape the constant chilli updates for a year, I decided to plant some after all. Well, I was convinced to, really, but it would have been a strange year without them.

I’m really not convinced we’ve got the sunlight needed since we moved, but I guess it’s worth giving them a go and see what happens. And there’ll be plenty of plants to give away to others so they can give me their updates too. Not that I’ll be able to tell them what they are actually growing. Most of this year’s seeds are from mixed seed packs, so it all could be a bit of an adventure. But they can be fun.

So, check back for the stunning commentary on this year’s crop. I’m sure you’re all waiting with baited breath!

We took the plunge and joined the new gaming generation by purchasing a Wii.

I enjoyed playing when staying at Meg and Michael’s and decided it would be a fun thing to have. It arrived yesterday so I managed to get a few games in before having to entertain visitors. And I am sure I don’t have to mirror real life by dancing all over the place when playing things like tennis and golf,  but it does seem a lot more fun, and I guess it could be more prone to injuries (who’d of thought an electronic game could do that)! Mike is constantly reminding me to put the remote strap around my wrist as he is worried about it flying through the TV.

I’m convinced it will give me hours of fun and entertainment – now I just have to not get addicted!

For those of you that don’t know, I (Bec) fought my fear on Thursday night and walked on fire – twice! You might be asking why would you do something so crazy?! It was through work and was for charity and 11 of us managed to join in. All in all there were 90 people taking the plunge.

Firstly before you can walk you have to attend a two hour training session called ‘Learn or Burn’. Basically you learn that being able to fire-walk is based on physics – like the hot potato effect. You also learn to manage or take away your fear. About 1/2 an hour before the start of the walk you are taken out to watch the fire being lit – which I must say after being trained was not as scary as it would’ve been without training – but you still think F***! Then back inside for the last part of the training to practice. You walk on the carpet. (I know you’re all thinking this isn’t quite the same thing!)

The walk itself – it was bloody fantastic. You can feel the texture of what you are walking on and I guess to try and describe it it feels like warm underfloor heating. And Mike tells me I was taking big confident strides storming along. Everyone in the group is so hyped up – imagine a bunch of Americans at a political rally. The first time was so great that me and a few workmates managed to do it again.

Its a great adrenalin rush and a real buzz (on Friday I was so drained). If you ever get the opportunity to do it, I’d say take it! The next stage is apparently to walk on the shards of 1,000 broken wine bottles – not sure about that one as there ain’t no physics in that!

It now seems I have a bit of a personal tradition when I go to the States. Dump a pair of boots!

This pair were nowhere near as good as the last pair, but it’s still sad to see them go. But they were really getting past being comfortable. So they stayed Stateside with all the nappies.

For a bit of a break, as we didn’t go anywhere for Christmas last year, we took a quick visit to the States to visit Meg and Michael. We, with the help of Michael and his folks, managed to keep it a complete surprise for Megan. And I think she was surprised! She says pleasantly, so we’ll happily take her word on that.

The full story and pics are here, as I wanted to keep this front page loadable in a reasonable time for when you all check back for more news, but here’s a quick summary…

First stop was Tucson, Arizona, where we arrived late at night to falling snow, only to wake up to a much brighter day in the morning. Tucson saw us dining out for lunch in nice weather, visiting the desert museum – where we saw lots of animals and catic, taking a ‘hike’ in a canon (what kiwi’s would call a walk), drinking margarita’s in the sun, taking pics of lots of cati, and pretty much just plain relaxing.

Then off to Cowboy country – Houston, Texas, to hang out at Megan and Michael’s. Houston saw us doing lots of shopping, visits to the supermarket (lame you might say – but they have such different things to look at), Bec and Michael eating lots of Coldstone, playing Wii, and more mooching around.

As we didn’t go anywhere for Christmas this year, and it had been a while since our last trip, we thought a weekend away somewhere would be a good thing to help us recharge a bit. As we’d always wanted to go to Barcelona, and as there were another couple that wanted to go too, we went.

I thought we’d have a great time when we got off the plane only to be given free train tickets into the centre of town. Not something you’re likely to get in London any time soon, and a great way to make you feel welcomed and wanted!

We checked into our hotel in central Born, called the Chic and Basic. Not like any other hotel I have stayed in before, they really had made an effort with the square box. A really old building mixed with modern design, the rooms had there own light system that gave you about 15 different colour sequences, and the shower was in the middle of the room. A really different but great place to stay.

The first night saw some fantastic food at a tapas bar/restaurant – Cal Pep – one of the best in the city, apparently. And judging by the queues of people waiting for a spot at the bar as we pushed through to our pre-booked table (there was only about 6 small proper tables up the back) that must have cost someone their first-born child, or favourite shoes, to book for us, but we thank them deeply from the bottom of our stomachs!

We took in some local scenery and managed to pack a lot of walking and site seeing in on the Saturday. We visited the Sagrada Familia, and La Pedrera, Parc Guel, Casa Batllo, all designed by Gaudi, and of course we walked along Las Ramblas (the main most famous street in the city).

Then we wandered back for a bit of champers, a rest and then off again for more fine wine and food. Sunday we spent walking along the beach until we had to head back to the airport. (Again, free train tickets.)

One of the other best parts of the trip was the weather. Sunny, warm. Says it all really! Walking around in t-shirts in Jan made it feel more like being in NZ than in Europe.

Fantastic city to wander around though. Nice and compact, with a good Metro service for when the feet get a bit sore. We’d go back again, and probably will.

This time we’re not going to eat them!

You can tell we’re getting really, really boring, as opposed to the slightly boring we were before! But in our defence, it’s still pretty dark, cold and blech outside lately, and there’s nothing quite like the feeling of a challenge completed. And with the amount of blue bits that all looked vaguely the same in this one, it was a little bit of a challenge.

We did break from tradition though and didn’t do the edge bits first. It was much easier to do the middle, then the rest. A tip, in case you end up here in winter and it gets pulled out again.

Now we just have to decide if we’re boring enough to do another one soon!

Well thanks to Rach we received an extra big bird to have for Christmas dinner…… yep, for just the 2 of us she was a big one, weighing in at 7.9kg (well probably 7kg by the time you take the giblets etc out)! We wondered if she was going to fit on our oven trays – but thankfully we found one that she managed to full up! (by the way I can’t believe I am sitting here writing about a bloody turkey).

Thankfully Jamie Oliver was on tv the night before, so we picked up a few good cooking tips, for not only stuffing but learning different ways to test to see if the bird is cooked right through. Now onto the prep, a bit of sage and lemon zest butter under the skin and some stuffing (our best yet), into the neck and a little inside the bird (enough so it can still breathe apparently – even though it’s dead…). Now into the pipping hot oven for about 3 hours.

And here she is………… all crispy! And let it stand while the vege roasts away. We also managed to make some of our best gravy yet too.

And here she is the completed meal for just the 2 of us….. (a lot of food there and yes there is a lot left over). We were ashamed of how much of Mrs bird had to be thrown away – even after we’d filled up the fridge with bits of it – there was just no way we could’ve used all of it! We’ll already be eating turkey sandwiches for breakie, lunch and tea for the next week……

All in all the best Christmas meal we have cooked together…. now we just have to try and repeat it sometime and share it with others.