Ticking off a few tricks during the holidays indeed......

N0 43: Get a zip put into my Dr Marten boot - done and dusted, and the grumpy shoe repairer man was overcome with laughter (& I'm thinking it was the first ever time he has laughed in his WHOLE life because afterwards his face seemed to ache - how do you think I feel after a whole year of non-stop laughter?) as I leapt about his shop with the greatest of joy at FINALLY being able to put my boot on my left foot without breaking any bones because it was tooo tight about the ankle - Oh Lordy Lord!

But.... I must now suss out the $65 to do the other boot.... You wouldn't notice unless you had your very own scrutinizing shoes on but the right boot tends to not be one that you can just whip on as you run out the door - & yes, that is what I do on a daily basis - run out the door! Really? And now to teach the Taihape Ukulele Orchestra "These boots are made for Walking" - Nancy Sinatra....

N0 51: Help Kyle & Shellie restore their Teepee... Done! We harvested 12 new bamboo poles from a secret spot in Taranaki with a saber saw (I WANT ONE!), of which seems rather gentle compared to a meaty ole chainsaw... The bamboo was as thick as thieves and i've come to the conclusion that cats shit in bamboo groves to deter folk from harvesting it (the bamboo that is). On our journey home to Waitoriki with a dozen very large and long bamboo poles stropped to the roof of the van, I could smell cat shit... and it wasnt until I got home to Taihape that I discovered a whole heap of cat shit stuck on the side of my steel cap boots that I had stashed in the back of my wagon at the end of the bamboo harvest day - Raaaargh! & I innocently believed the cat shit fumes were just lingering up my nostrils!? Anyhow, the teepee was erected with the fancy new poles and the skin was heavily sprayed with "Wet and Forget".... I will post an updated pikitia of the teepee in mid May, until then here is one when it was last erected in the summer of 2007/2008:

....and N0 82: Pay for a strangers coffee.. Well, I didn't exactly do that but whilst on a coffee/op shop mihana yesterday with Mrs Wilton in Taihape, I ventured inside to order a soy flat white in a tulip cup (as you do) and the lovely front-of-house lady put a mark on my coffee card - alas it was not my coffee card but a 'Paula Bentley's' coffee card... The lovely front-of-house lady said she would then mark my actual card but I declined, which then meant that Paula Bentley's very next coffee purchase would be a free one according to her lovely coffee card! Surprised? do believe she will be.....Thankful? Best she be, because I know I would be... When passing through the lovely township of Taihape, call in to the SoulFood Cafe - you may just recieve that much-coveted free coffee......

Bengalese of the week:

 " আমার সম্পর্কে এবং কফি ডাল এবং গাজর মত হয় "

 - Me and coffee are like peas and carrots.