thevintageteenager

Smokin’ with my Weber.

Posted on January 29, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

In Motueka we had dinner at T.O.A.D Hall. I ordered the smoked pork burger. It was divine. So divine that I have been able to think of little else since I got back home.
In the last month I have begun to experiment on the BBQ. Specifically: cooking with smoke. I don’t really know what I am doing… I just visit Dr Google (or in this case. As it is not a medical emergency the Google Chef) and I get my tips from him.

During our 3 day juice fast I could think of little else than smoking up some delicious pulled pork … Mmm mmm.

Last night I was in the mood to BBQ. I had marinated a lamb rack the night before improvising using the herbs and spices from our kitchen cupboard (that us when I discovered that I was ‘collecting’ tarragon). Over 1 hour and a few minutes I smoked the lamb rack until it was just right. I have never in my life wanted to gnaw on bones like I did after that meal. The marinade and the smoke took a good cut of nest and turned it into something indescribable. The meat practically fell off the bones and straight into my stomach.
Tonight I gave pork shoulder a go. Google Chef advised to get one without the bone. Mine had a bone (whoops) and I took some time dissecting the meat from the bone. I was quite proud once it was done.
I made a home made meat rub, then rolled and tied my pork ready for the BBQ.
I am getting pretty good at getting the weber kettle going. I like fire. I grew up with an open fire so lighting fires is something that is second nature to me. Once the fire is good and ready, I throw on the soaked in red wine & red wine sauce manuka wood chips to get the smoking happening. Then the final ingredient is time.
Fast forward 2.5 – 3 hours and the Husband and I were sitting down to a meal of salad, melt-in-your-mouth smoked kumera and smokey pulled pork.
I suspect it will taste even better tomorrow.

Posted in Food Glorious Food., Fun (Funity), Things I Love | Tagged BBQ, experiments, Food, Inspiration, Quality, Simplicity., Smoked pork, vintage teenager, Weber | Leave a comment

Birds.

Posted on January 29, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

Today wasn’t all about me and my gastronomical delights.
This summer I have been supplying the bird life in my garden with a regular supply of fruit. Anything from bananas, mandarins, oranges, apples & pears. Anything that will stay on the spike really. (Pear and orange are the favourites of the wax eyes)

Today I sliced up an apple and put it on my brand spanking new round feeder.
Hope they like it. Will have to wait and see what the reviews say.

Posted in Flora & Fauna | Tagged Birds, Fun (Funity), New Zealand | Leave a comment

The Grammys 2014.

Posted on January 27, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

No one even mentioned Lord of the Rings yet at the Grammys 2014 the whole world was watching and they had all heard of New Zealand. There was a new Lorde on everyone’s lips.

Lorde is defining a generation and at the same time defying a generation. She had her own look, she wears adult clothes, sophisticated in their simplicity. She is reminiscent of singers from my younger days who weren’t selling sex or themselves, they were making music and selling records with the talent of their voice not their bodies. (I am thinking of Alison Moyet and Chris De Burgh – people who have stunning voices who didn’t need to twerk or have a wardrobe malfunction to be noticed).

Lorde is taking the world by storm absolutely on her terms.

Any who – it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, Lorde won two Grammys. The red carpet outfits were a scream and I took the long road home to enjoy the sunshine and to get my homage to Lorde (and her elite M.A.C pro make up team) more of an outing.

Posted in Fun (Funity), Things I Love | Tagged Grammys, Inspiration, Style | Leave a comment

Crazy Cat Lady.

Posted on January 11, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

Charlie is 9 and a half, he likes sleeping and lazing in the sun.

“I love cats. I love every kind of cat. I just want to hug all them but I can’t. I can’t hug every cat. ”

Those of you who are truly #CrazyCatLadies like me will recognise the quote above from this internet sensation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4NMoJcFd4 –

This songify clip blew my mind. It was like Debbie knew all my secret cat fears and put them into one hilarious song.

I do love cats. I have a few myself and they bring joy to me on a daily basis, along with mice, wetas (a large native NZ insect) and random lengths of foam piping. It was my birthday recently and the Husband surprised me with a voucher to have an up-close and personal meet-and-greet with Charlie the Cheetah at Wellington Zoo. Holy WOW Batman! What a thrill.

First dilemma of course was what does one wear to meet a Cheetah. Not animal print Twitter replied. wear a dress. SO i wore a brand new (to me) old vintage 1950 cotton sundress. After all if today was to be my last day on earth (death by smoochy cheetah can’t be the worst way to go??) I wanted to look my best. I threw on a faux-animal print belt so that Charlie and I would be subtly yet fabulously co-ordinated (but so that I wouldn’t be taking the OTT #toomuchanimalprint mick ) and off we went.

It was one of those rare sunny and still days in Wellington the kind that makes Cheetahs sleepy and lazy. This meant that Charlie was not interested in meeting me in the slightest. His keeper Linda tried luring him out of his nap posse int he shade with his container of treats (she rattled it just like I rattle my treat container for my fur-kids) Charlie was not in the mood. So Linda had to bring out the big guns. A whole chicken. Just like the ones we hunt down at the supermarket. Charlie saw/smelt/sensed the chicken and sat bolt upright. Looked at Linda holding said chicken, contemplated his napping spot and then slowly ambled towards Linda. Success.

I was in the meet and greet space with a woman called Anna. She had gone for the animal print ensemble so that was lucky. otherwise it would have been all three of us in animal print #awkward!

After the safety briefing we had the chance to pat Charlie, play with his tail and find out all kinds of fascinating things, like his fancy kohl-rimmed eyes aren’t just for looks alone…the black lines around his eyes stop the sun form reflecting off his fur and make tracking prey easier. His whiskers are short because he hunts during the day, his ears are rounded so that they don’t flap around when he runs and his claws are never sheathed so that he is ready to run at anytime and has a good grip. WOW – what a magnificent creature.

Then best thing about meeting Charlie was hearing him purr, just like my domestic gods at home. Ok his purr was a touch louder and more rumbly, but it was a purr all the same and it was divine. I can’t tell you how hard it was to be restrained and not give him a hug from me, for Debbie and for all the cat lovers in the world – but then I would be dead.

It was truly a magical experience. 2014 is going to be all about quality, simplicity and fun, so this visit with Charlie was all of those things rolled into an animal print-purring-fur-ball of magnificence. I was very happy indeed.

Husband and I were so inspired by this new experience and how much fun it was – (right here in Wellington) that we are going to keep our eye out for new (to us) things to do in our fair city, so that we can be #touristsathome – feel free to recommend some ideas in the comments below of something in Wellington that you have done and enjoyed.

I’m sorry, I’m thinking about cats again.

With my subtle faux-animal print belt and my vintage 50’s dress Charlie and I looked ready for any adventures that included naps and pats.

Charlie the magnificent.

Viva with her odd piece of foam piping.

Posted in Flora & Fauna, Things I Love, Vintage | Tagged Animal Print, Blessed, Cats, CrazyCatLady, Vintage | Leave a comment

NZSecretSanta 2013.

Posted on January 7, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

In 2013 I participated in a Twitter NZ event called NZ SecretSanta.

It is exactly like a ‘normal’ secret santa, (a Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they anonymously give a gift) . On the twitter version you are given the twitter handle (aka name) of someone else who is participating. You stalk their tweets and photos to find out what they are into – then you buy them a gift for Christmas and you post it to them anonymously. Fingers crossed you will then receive a gift anonymously from someone else who is participating.

Secret Santa is a brilliant way to switch the consumer-overload “me-me-me” focus of Christmas back to the real point (not just Jesus Birthday), giving without motive.

NZSecretSanta on Twitter began in 2010 and was ‘created’ by a cool kiwi dude called Sam. He talked about it on twitter and hundreds and hundreds (maybe a thousand, I really don’t know – if I can’t count it on one hand I get bored…) people signed up and it was a massive success. The next year even more people signed up (counting with both hands and toes by now for sure) and Sam must have gotten super overloaded and he asked for help to run it. In 2013 the clever and wise people at NZPost put their hand up and took over. They hired some elves from the North Pole, got Santa involved so that they had access to the Naughty and Nice list (only nice secret Santas who sent in a present received one in return.) In other words no present sent meant no present received so no one missed out. This was awesome.

For two years I had sat by on twitter watching the joy unfold each Christmas and feeling massive doses of FOMO as my twitter stream filled with the excited tweets of snooping stalkers enjoying the chance to spy on a stranger on Twitter with the sole purpose of delighting them on Christmas day. In 2013 I signed up to the webpage and registered to take part. #myfirsttime. I could not wait to be assigned my lucky victim. This was a shopping challenge that I was born to excel at.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is plausible that I might have aimed too high when I came up with THE perfect present for my tweeter. This present i had thought up in a eureka moment of stalking. It was a custom made something something – and I knew they would LOVE it. I googled. I searched New Zealand high and low online in a desperate hope that someone local could make this for me. I am a great ideas person – but have zero design ability so I need serious professional help. Plus the item in question needed to be quality all the way. I finally found an outfit that made exactly what I wanted. I ‘designed’ the item (using their helpful online tools) and was fully happy with how it looked and how practical and simple it was. (after an hour or so of working, deleting, modifying, and re-designing) Then I went to order the item. This is when the swear words happened. The company did not ship to NZ. Gutted. What a waste of time. Now I was back at square one. I took to twitter with my frustrations.

NZSecretSanta tweeted me a reply suggesting I try the NZPost online tool that takes care of the international shipping for you from places that wont ship to NZ. It gives you a local address for the item to be shipped to, then it gets the item to you. This was my Christmas Miracle.

Fortuitously I liked my design so much I had saved it – so I was able to re-order my perfect present and have it shipped to my new NZ post ‘local’ address. Now the tricky part…would it make it to NZ by the deadline?! Surely it would. I crossed my fingers and my toes. Then I waited.

I waited and waited. The company making the item got in touch to double check the address, (I took this as a good sign) then days later NZ post got in touch to say they had the item in the US of A, but time was seriously running out to get it all the way to me in NZ. I was worried. I didn’t want to ruin my tweeters Christmas or their (and my) NZSecretSanta experience. I asked Twitter for advice. Should I buy a back up present? Yes/No they said. (so I did)

I was able to track my item by this stage and I could see that it was 100% not going to arrive by the due date. I was devastated. Then a christmas elf got in touch. “I have a plan” they said…(I love an elf with a plan – i mean who doesn’t?) …would I have the parcel re-directed straight to the elves workshop…? This way it would (almost) make the deadline. I re-directed the parcel but this meant I would’t get to see the gift with thine own eyes and drink in its awesomeness in person. I was sad. Boo Hoo. Plus I couldn’t wrap it either. Darnation. The kindly elves offered to wrap it for me. I thought of how busy they were…I offered to go to their workshop and wrap it for them. It was agreed that I would do just that..

Fast forward a few days and nek minnit I was at the North Pole and fast than you can say “Jingle Bells” I caught the elevator to the secret grotto of the Christmas elves. It was a hive of activity… toys everywhere, wrapping everywhere, snow, reindeers, candles and mistletoe. I went into a little room and opened my bespoke present. It was, in a word: Perfect. I was certain my tweeter would love it. I cut some wrapping paper, not enough (I am not spatial). Damn. That was dumb. I cut more wrapping paper and wrapped that present until my hands bled. I made the most magnificent ‘Merry Christmas’ ribbon bow the world has ever seen and then I delivered said present back into the little teeny-tiny but perfectly formed hands of the overworked elves. (along with some thank-you-for-going-the-extra-mile-chocolate). I agreed not to reveal their secret North Pole location to anyone (my lips are sealed) and off I went. To wait, and to watch twitter (ok to stalk my tweeter) with baited breath.

By this time my poor tweeter was pretty convinced that they had drawn a dud secret santa and they had resolved themselves to the fact that they were not going to get a present. The NZSecretSanta website was telling them that their present had ‘not been received’. Only the elves and I knew otherwise….there were a lot of tweets from me about #buildingsuspense #nailbiting #alittlegirlwaits #notalumpofcoal

I didn’t have long to wait until their present was delivered … on Dec 22nd …and they loved it.

I just checked their feed tonight (one last stalk for the road) and their present is now their profile pic. It think that says it all.

My present arrived as I was leaving to go away on my road trip – so I tweeted that I would open it when I got back. It was an exciting moment and my present was perfect for me, it even came with a lovely letter and a Christmas card. I was very happy. (see video)

Receiving was fun, but giving was awesomer.

Nothing compared to the highs and lows of being an anonymous Santa for someone else.

Merry Christmas to all who took part and kept the spirit of Christmas alive and well on twitter with NZSecretSanta 2013.

See you in 2014 team.

Posted in Fun (Funity), Things I Love | Tagged Blessed, Christmas, Fun (Funity), Joy, NZSecretSanta | Leave a comment

Heading home.

Posted on January 5, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

This morning is the beginning of the very last day of our motorcycle adventure of a lifetime. We woke up to a stunning day after a deluge during the night. The view from our accommodation was camera worthy and I took full advantage. After a cooked breakfast of bacon & eggs I gave Molly the Jack Russell a pat & hugged our hosts goodbye and we set off for the Motueka Market.
Like the Nelson Market but smaller. The Mot Market was full of happy holidaying people and locals buying freshly picked fruit, oils, jams, clothing, fresh fish, bric-a-brac and garlic, juices and scythes. There was a very long line for the wood fired pizza. It must be a favourite. We walked around the market in our full motorcycle gears including helmets with our intercoms still in use so we were able to talk to each other even when we were at different stalls. This was fun. Also the little children thought we were quite interesting to look at, I could overhear them exclaiming to their Mum – “look at that funny looking man.” I think it was the motorcycle gears….
Getting back on the bike we took the scenic route to Nelson, (we didn’t stop) then the even more scenic route to Picton.
The road over the hills and through the sounds became more and more picturesque the deeper into the sounds we rode.
We had lots of fun on this road with a few corners in quick succession which gave me a slalom impression on the back. I loved it. We saw the highest number of touring motorcycle couples we had seen all trip and our waving became more & more elaborate with each new bike we saw.
Picton came into view all too soon and now we sit outside a cafe enjoying a view of London Quay and High Street looking out into the Sounds as we wait to board our ship for the journey home.

Posted in Adventure of a Lifetime, Fun (Funity), On two wheels | Tagged Holiday, Motorcycle, New Zealand, Travel, Travelogue | Leave a comment

Just add fun.

Posted on January 4, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

I’ve been working on a resolution for New Years but I’m running a bit behind. I try to think of something ever year that I can keep close to my heart and to my head and use as a measure, a yardstick or just some form of inspiration in general for the year ahead. This year I am struggling. Everything just seems trite. In the past I have focussed on simple things, or simple sayings like ‘Be a better friend’, ‘Do good’, ‘Smell the roses’, ‘To thine own self be true’, ‘Say yes to life’ – Last year was ‘Say no.’ because I found I had too much on my plate with running my own business and working contract work at the same time and a very wise friend once shared with me that “if you can’t do a job to your standards, then don’t do it,” (thanks Steve Gray). All I have so far this year is ‘Do more with less’ and that is not exactly inspiring. I want something that has a little more meat too it. Some depth of meaning and something that gets me going on my ‘meh’ days.

For example Prince in his song ‘Let’s go Crazy’ has this insanely fantastic line where he says “…Lets look for the purple banana before they put us in the truck – let’s go!”. Admittedly he may have been seeing purple bananas at that time in his life – I will never know – however how I interpret that line of that song is that it is saying: Don’t settle, don’t get comfortable – seek the different, seek the new. Travel that road less travelled, forge your own way. Because if there is a purple banana, you won’t find it unless you go looking for it. And importanlty do it now ‘Before they put us in the truck’ – well for me that bit is simple to interpret – Prince is saying do it now – before you die, before they come grab your empty carcass and haul your bones away. (side note – I ADORE Prince. I think he is an incredible artist and a true inspiration in Purple. Saw him in concert in 2012. Rocked my mind.)

Fast forward a sleep on this topic and a great motorcycle ride in the sun and I think I have it. Today we rode between Motueka and Picton. The road was gorgeous, the scenery ever changing and I saw some fantastic sights that will stay with me forever. The road itself have lovely slalom-like corners (they are called ‘twisties) and mesmerising views of the sounds (we took the scenic route). While on the road my thoughts were filled with memories of a friend we lost in late 2013. We spent Boxing Day to New Year’s Day with him last year and we both feel his loss everyday. We lost him suddenly and unexpectedly. Also I should explain that when I say we lost him, we didn’t simply put him down and forget where we had put him, nothing that temporary sadly. He died. Much more permanent. So I’m on the back of the bike and I’m missing my friend – but thinking about good times we shared and feeling glad to have known him and for us to have shared our lives and done all the crazy ass things we did together. But mostly I am just missing him and feeling a bit sorry for myself that my journey continues on without him in it. (Here is a motorcycling tip for the uninitiated: it is really silly to cry on a motorcycle because you can’t dry your tears or blow your nose at 100kms an hour because taking off your helmet or even simply opening your visor us problematic – so I don’t recommend it at all).

Then I begin to think about how grateful I am to have woken up this morning, to have one last day of holiday to squeeze the very last drops of rest, relaxation and adventure out of. My friend didn’t wake up one day. It was that simple, and here I am waking up for another gorgeous 24 hours of life. It occurred to me that today is a blessing and that in fact each and every day that I wake up is a blessing. I used to know this more fully. Somehow I have begin to forget it. (I tend up forget really simple truths like that). So simply put “Today is a blessing. Make the most of it.”

This year I vow to waste less time thinking about myself and more time thinking about my Self. Less time worring about crap I can’t control, change, fix and more time dreaming, living my dreams and living in and from joy!

I’m going to be less selfish more self centred. (and by self centred I mean getting to the very centre, the very core of me, of who I am, of my self) How do I want to be? What do I want to do? and what do I want to have?

Be, Do, Have?

Then answer to that question came through a conversation with Husband #2 who lives in London with his very own Husband. He is focussing his 2014 on two words: quality and simplicity. I was inspired by that idea. Add the missing element that I adore in life: Fun – and I am sold!

I want to be, do and have all of those things, experiences and ways of being. That is what I want for 2014. Easy.

Now I just need to remember.

I think a 24 carat gold banana photo will help with that.

Posted in Adventure of a Lifetime, Fun (Funity), Things I Love, Uncategorized | Tagged Blessed, Inspiration, Joy, Spirit, Travel, Travelogues | Leave a comment

Farewell Spit.

Posted on January 4, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

Today we jumped on the bike and took a ride to Takaka to visit friends who are staying at a B&B there. They had a stunning location looking out over an inlet with a wrap around deck that was lined in flaxes in full bloom. The tui were having a field day.
We sat down with our friends to a mouthwatering brunch of fresh whitebait fritters. Three words: a-may-sing.
After lunch we went for a drive to Farewell Spit to do a short 50 minute walk to the lighthouse with views out to the spit.
Next we drove to the northern most spot of the South Island with views out to sea of a seal colony and a huge hole in the rocks. We climbed the hills to a grassy spot out of the wind and ate whitebait sandwiches. i just happened to have a block of Whittakers L&P chocolate in my bag that i shared with everyone for dessert. Next stop was the Farewell Spit cafe for a cup of tea and some coffees. a bellbird treated us to a visit on the deck as we sat and watched the tide go out.
For dinner we were lucky to grab one of very few spare tables at Toad Hall. I ordered the BBQ Pork Burger and the pork was melt-in-your-mouth amazing.
What a way to end our adventure of a lifetime. Now we are snug and warm in the ‘media’ room of our accommodation watching a movie with popcorn, red wine, chocolate, crackers and cheese.
Feeling lucky.

Posted in Adventure of a Lifetime, Flora & Fauna, On two wheels | Tagged Holiday, New Zealand, South Island, Travel, Travelogues | Leave a comment

Motueka.

Posted on January 4, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

We drove through the rain to get to Motueka. Our wet weather gear was thoroughly put to the test. It passed with flying colours. Driving the Buller Gorge was exciting, the river looks like a chocolate milkshake with chocolate logs floating through it. The river was swollen with debris, swiftly flowing, angry and full of huge trees. I’m not sure where they came from but they were big and were being tossed around like toothpicks. it was quite a sight. This was a 4 hour or so ride as we broke it up with a stop at NZ’s longest swing bridge, paid the $5.00 fee and walked across. This meant that we were suspended above the chocolate milkshake that was the Buller River for quite some time. After the swing bridge you can choose to do a short bush walk which we did. I was delighted to see Bellbirds and the biggest happiest, shiniest tui I have ever seen. This was a great place to stop and break up the trip.

Our next stop was for lunch where we stopped at Murchison. I had a classic old school egg sandwich. It was a childhood flashback moment for me when I bit into the soft fresh white bread and tasted the salted eggy goodness. I was in heaven. We met another touring couple who were on a BMW. The Mrs was impressed when she saw that we too had ‘Rider Grips’ (handles that the ‘driver’ of the bike wears around their waist that the pillion can hold on to). We also heard about the magical properties of the ‘comfort seat’ that they had retro fitted to the bike for touring. Her famous quote was “He can’t bring a new bike home if it doesn’t have a comfort seat.” so naturally i am intrigued to try this seat. After 12 or so days of riding with the longest non stop ride being 5 hours where my tail bone was protesting rather loudly – i am keen to try anything with the word ‘comfort’ in it. my derrière hasn’t quite been the same since the 5 hour endurance ride. i think it broke somewhere along the Haast Pass. Thank goodness for spa pool and hot pools. I think i would do more riding if there was a guaranteed spa pool soak at the end of each ride.

We arrived at our final accommodation spot high on the hills of Motueka with captivating views of farmland, across the river and out to the town and beyond. The setting up here is divine. The gardens are full of natives and native birds. There is a grassy knoll out on a point in the yard with a garden seat where our thoughtful hosts delivered our glasses of red wine to us that we had left behind in the kitchen. Divine.

We ended the night with a soak in the spa and went to sleep listening to the call of the morepork.

Posted in Adventure of a Lifetime, Flora & Fauna, On two wheels | Tagged Holiday, New Zealand, South Island, Summer, Travel, Travelogues | Leave a comment

The Pancake Rocks of Punakaiki

Posted on January 2, 2014 by The Vintage Teenager

Tonight we dine with an incredible view encompassing a long stretch of beach at Punakaiki. We are enjoying a bottle of Roaring Meg Pinot (Mt Difficulty) and lapping up the view. Roaring Meg being the river crossing that we stopped at on the way to Cromwell in Central Otago. Nice to know that we have been there. Brings warm thoughts & good memories that we can savor with each and every sip.
At sunset we explored the beach and found an area of pancake rocks just asking to be explored!

Posted in Adventure of a Lifetime, Fun (Funity), On two wheels | Tagged Holiday, New Zealand, Travel, Travelogues | Leave a comment

thevintageteenager

Smokin’ with my Weber.

Birds.

The Grammys 2014.

Crazy Cat Lady.

NZSecretSanta 2013.

Heading home.

Just add fun.

Farewell Spit.

Motueka.

The Pancake Rocks of Punakaiki

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