Sweet As

After first moving here I was majorly missing my sweet treats from the US readily available in our grocery store if I needed a sugar fix (peanut butter m&ms, Reeses, Nilla wafers, cookies from the bakery). I saw some of the “biscuits” available in the grocery aisle (they call cookies "biscuits" here) and they seemed weird (Wheat biscuits), flavorless and not what I wanted. It seemed like they had less sugar than American treats and thus I was not interested :) I had Tim Tams when I came here as a teenager and knew they were good, so I started there. After a few weeks of trying the different Tim Tam flavors, I was feeling like I needed another option. We were snacking on Tim Tams one day at work and just my luck, my co-worker, Ruth said, “Have you ever had a Tim Tam Slam?” My mind was subsequently blown. I was introduced to a delicious new way to eat Tim Tams. You bite one corner off, then the opposite corner and suck your tea through the cookie, just until you get a little tea in your mouth. You then shove the entire cookie in your mouth before it turns to mush in your hands. It has the texture of a cookie dunked in milk. You might chew a couple times, then down the hatch! It is really a fun treat that makes you feel like a kid again!

Will doing a Tim Tam Slam.

Then, while at work on another day (see a theme?) we were discussing the different treats around the world and where they come from. Tim Tams are claimed by Australia, but the Kiwis like to claim The Slam. Then my co-worker, Sarah, said the one thing she craved when she was living away from NZ was Mallow Puffs. Now again, you don’t just eat them out of the box. You take the Mallow Puff and heat it up in the microwave for 10 sec (time my vary depending on your microwave J). The chocolate melts and the marshmallow puffs out of the shell and becomes very gooey. It is a bit messy, but SOO good! Here is a video of me having a Mallow Puff. I apologize for the sideways filming- it was the best I could do without Will and I needed to finish the bag before he got home out of desperation for chocolate.

So in conclusion, the Kiwis have some good treats-- you just have to ask how they eat them! Ruth says the UK has better biscuits than NZ so I look forward to trying those. Stay tuned...we are going to have a UK vs New Zealand vs USA Olympic Candy match to see who really has the best candy. What should I bring to represent the USA???

Oh, honey honey...

I know it's funny to write a post about honey, but I've always loved honey and now I live in a place known for it's honey. This is great! I am closer than I have ever been to actually thinking about buying a bee farm, or at least find a way to get a direct supply of honeycomb. A few weeks back, Will and I tried some delicious, pure honeycomb. After a long time looking for it in the stores, we finally found it! I was so excited about my purchase that when leaving the parking lot I forgot what side of the road to drive on!

Now I know why Idgie from Friend Green Tomatoes risked great pain for fresh honeycomb. I would like to be a bee charmer like her!

It is most delicious with blue cheese, pears and crackers. You don't really feel the comb as you eat it, but I really think the flavor is different from jarred honey. It is much lighter in color (as you can see) and is much sweeter, in a different way. We got to have it as a treat this afternoon while enjoying a beautiful "winter" day. Anyone who comes to visit us will be getting this treat sitting outside at a winery. Ah-May-Zing.

You may have heard of something called Manuka honey before. This is a special kind of honey that comes from two special flowers grown here called the Manuka and Kanuka. This honey has a super-charged ability to fight bacteria. Many people here keep honey on hand rather than Neosporin for a cut. Manuka honey has actually shown to be effective against MRSA in labs. Those of you who work in health care, or have family in nursing homes know how horrible that can be. I think I'll be bringing some home with me to keep on hand...I think it is just so cool that there is something in nature that can get rid of a bacteria that has morphed and become resistant to lab-created drugs. Makes me hopeful that there are cures for everything in nature, we just have to find it! 

Working Girl

I am so excited that although we have only been here about a month, I have already found a job! It is only part time (2 days per week), but it is better than nothing! It was help earn some traveling cash and make me feel like I'm a contributing member of society :) I've been unemployed for 2 months now and it has been killing me!

I will be working as a speech-language therapist (that is what they call us here) for a private clinic called t4c. They previously worked with children only, but are looking to expand into the adult market and I am just the gal to help them do that.

I'll be working with people with brain injuries and we are hoping to expand to voice, accent modification and other communication disorders that affect professional adults. This will be a fun experience that is part clinical practice and part business development at first. I am only guaranteed 3 months, at which point they will review if the practice has developed enough to keep me around.

The health care system is quite different here, so I think that will be my biggest challenge. I will have to get a good understanding of how the system currently works to get a better idea of where there are gaps in the system that would make for good business opportunities.

My bio will be up on the website soon. If you want to check out the company I'm working for here is the website: t4c

I start tomorrow, wish me luck!

Here in my car (New Zealand edition)

This past week we came one step closer to becoming full-on Aucklanders. We got the keys to a brand new (to us) 2001 Toyota Corolla Runx. A minor step down from the 2009 Corolla we had back home, but still a Toyota and still a pretty cool car. It is a hatchback, which seems to me to still have some negative connotations in the US. However, the New Zealanders have this one right, in that most people drive cars that are functional over fashionable and over-the-top.

Wait a sec…… "hey honey, the steering wheel’s on the wrong side of the car, did we just buy a mailman's car?” 

Being a proficient driver on the other side of the road is fairly easy, but it's proving difficult to become the stellar driver I am in the US. All of the quick instinct moves that make me a great city driver in the US now require more thought and precision. Tally is often asking me “did you see that car coming” or “did you look both ways before doing that turn?” And let’s not kid. I still am hitting the wipers instead of blinkers at least 1-2 times per trip. Don’t act like you’ve never…

Tally, in the driver's seat?

Most used cars are imported from Japan here, so it’s fun that all typical writing in the car (safety warning on visor, information inside the door well) is in Japanese. Because they are imported and they have a relatively lower supply and higher demand, they are a little more expensive than their US counterparts.

Cars are also a little less powerful, on average. Our engine is 1.5 liters, compared to our 2000 Camry, which was 2.2L. The car struggles a little bit with the bigger hills and I hate seeing the tachometer moving so far to get up a hill.

Gas here is about 2.10 a liter and our tank is about 30 liters. Doing the rough math, gas can be over $6 USD a gallon. So no more complaining about gas prices to us!!

Here is a picture of our car along the harbor. Come visit and we'll drive you around!

A Taste of Home

Saturday we had a fun taste of home (literally and figuratively). A friend from college had let me know that she was coming to NZ on her honeymoon by chance. I was so excited to catch up with her and to see someone from home. We took them to Brew on Quay, a nice trendy little pub on the harbor. We had a great meal (I ate fish cakes!) and good drinks. The waiter was a little odd--when Jason asked him for just a pale ale on tap, he seemed very confused and didn't know what he was asking for and couldn't make any recommendations. He then brought him a huge bottle of some unknown expensive beer--uh this is a brewery, right? You do know what "on tap" means, right? It was great seeing them and it felt a little more like home having a familiar face. It was also great talking about old times and American-themed topics, though we did talk about Rugby.

I was also excited because she brought me some peanut butter m&ms! When she told me she was bringing a "big" present for me, I thought she was bringing a pound bag. I was wrong:

We are talking 38oz of m&ms

I wanted to return the favor so I got her a Down Under treat. 

Tim Tams= delicious. I am more of a dark chocolate person, but went with the original for her.

It was so great having someone from home here! We're now accepting applications for the next group/individual to come visit!! We have a pull out couch and an air bed! It starts getting warm in Nov/Dec and stays warm until April. Everyone that comes to visit will be required to bring us some kind of treat from home! We really hope to see you soon in our new home. Even more so if you bring us white queso dip or Velveeta...

Toilet-related studies

There are some key differences about the toilets here in New Zealand that my fellow Americans need to know about. Now you may think there are more noble things to blog about, but I find that differences in things (like toilets and toilet related studies) that every human in the developed world encounters more than one time per day to be worthy of a good informational session. This way we can share toilet best practices from each corner of the globe to develop the ultimate toilet experience! There ought to be a government funded study behind this......

First off, the amount of water that greets your disposed substance is much less in NZ than in the US of A. Mind you this would seem to create less opportunity for splash back, but it doesn't! Still need to ask the toilet engineers to develop the perfect patent for that dilemma. The point with this is less ability to examine. Gross you say? Don't we all do it though? What if you had blood in your stool. I reckon you wouldn't see it in a NZ flusher and that, my friend, scares me.  Take away here, more water is better to see if your bowel is irregular. US of A 1, NZ, nil.

A plague of enormous frequency in the men's room (not sure about the ladies) is that of your last buddy's butt residue lingering on the toilet seat. I can't think of anything that's much more disgusting than that. And then your mind wanders and you think, could it possibly be my boss, who I met leaving the restroom as I was entering, that left the toilet in such an unkempt fashion?  Surely he wouldn't do that. But he could be that dirty. Anyway, moral of this one is that NZ has a quick fix for butt residue.

A handy disinfectant spray that you use with TP to wipe the residue off before you sit. Now isnt that great? I have only seen these in a NZ restroom, so for that I award NZ a point over the US of A. Ooo tie game.

US of A defeated? Think again. This next picture says it all:

A direct declaration from the President of the United States. You wouldn't want to be caught not washing your hands if the the President demands you, now do you?

Case closed, the US of A still is better in the toilet room, but much is to be learned from this study....especially once I get funding for the official research study. Until then, for gosh sakes, clean up your butt residue for the next innocent soul that has the urge.