The package I'm referring to was sent from my parents and family back home in Baton Rouge. Due to a small scheduling dilemma it was actually sent to Winnie's and that is where I opened. My co-workers at Winnie's get a real kick out of my American southerner culture. They enjoy my accent so much that most of the time I thicken it into a bad John Wayne impression just for their enjoyment. I brought a can of Slap Ya Mama cajun seasoning to work and left it there. My co-workers are fascinated with the fact that I really do put it on everything I eat. When I arrived at work and I picked my package up and brought it to the changing room with no intentions of opening it until later on when I returned home. But apparently my boss and co-workers had been speculating all day as to what was in it and asked me to open it in front of everybody.
I think the expression "like a kid at Christmas" is quite overused, but when the first thing I saw as I ripped cardboard away from tape was the familiar brown leather of an AMERICAN football, I really was as happy as a small child at Christmas. I've been looking for a football here since I arrived and they just do not sell them here. The only thing you can buy is a rugby ball which has no laces and is not meant to be thrown with one hand. I was even more estatic to pull the ball out and see that it had LSU and the eye of the tiger printed on it. I've just returned home from work and inflated my ball and I can't wait to go toss it around. I dug a little bit deeper and pulled out a can of Tony Chachere's that was stuffed inside a New Orleans themed koozie. I listened with a sly grin as each kitchen member tried to pronounce the famous cajun seasoning unsuccessfully. My gift opening turned into a small teaching session as I pulled out three t-shirts. The first was a black saints t-shirt with "Who Dat Nation" printed on the front. The second was bright green t-shirt with "Try a King Cake" printed on the front and "There's a little Jesus in every one" directly below that. The third was a baby blue Dirty Coast t-shirt illustrating lots of people at a festival using flags to mark their positions. This shirt was inspired by Jazz fest. I proceeded to try to explain "Who Dat", King cake, and american music festivals and eventually gave up. If you're not familiar with Dirty Coast, you should check there website out http://www.dirtycoast.com/home.php. I love their t-shirts and have at least a dozen of them at home.
I then proceeded to go through the stack of photos with my kitchen friends which of course led to more explaining. It was great fun and I really can't thank my family enough for all the stuff they have sent over.
It appears as though we are finally enjoying a proper summer here in Queenstown. Monday was the first full day that I have spent in New Zealand where I did not put on some piece of long sleeved clothing. I spent the entire day in shorts and t-shirt and then slept in boxers and a t-shirt that night. The high was 82 and the low was 58. This was a far cry from the first week in January when were getting fresh snow on the mountain and cold, gray, rainy days (on January 8th, the high was 48 and the low was 43 and half an inch of precip fell). Needless to say, I was pretty damn miserable during this strange weather pattern. Of course now that it has gotten warm, my friends, co-workers and roomates are complaing about the heat, and I'm as happy as a pig in shit. Being hot has never bothered me. If being hot did bother you while living in Texas and Louisiana, then you better be prepared to spend most of your year being bothered. I actually enjoy the heat.
With this new heatwave, my next mission in Queenstown will be to find somewhere to go swimming. Unfortunately the water that immediately surrounds Queenstown is way to cold to swim in for any significant length of time. But I've heard rumors of some good lakes and cliffs to jump off of in the surrounding areas and I fully plan to scout out these places on my next days off.
Well, my dear friends, this is two posts in two consecutive days. Dare I say that I'm on a streak? No, I won't go that far. But I will say it feels really good to be writing again. I plan to start discussing the Winnie's menu with you soon. Ciao.
Short Circuits
- New Zealand television is quirky. We don't have Sky TV, the national cable provider, so we get about 4 channels. Oddly enough, we get these same four channels twice. During the day, these channels broadcast the worst of the of worst of American tv shows: Rachel Ray, Tyra Banks, Ellen Degeneres. I used to turn the TV on while eating to have back ground noise, but I would rather listen to fingernails scratch a chalkboard while I eat than to hear the mindless cackling of Rachel Ray. Then at night, the New Zealand public channels will randomly broadcast uncensored R rated movies during prime time hours. A few weeks ago I was feeling under the weather and stayed home all day and all night. Naturally I watched some TV. During the day, I couldn't even find something that was monotonous enough to just fall asleep to. The programming was so awful I had to just turn it off. Then that night, at 7 oclock for all of the nation to see, they broadcast AMERICAN PSYCHO uncensored! Now, don't get me wrong, this is one of my all time favorite films, so i was tickled to see it on. But American Psycho on network TV? Think about if they showed that on NBC right after 30 Rock. Like I said, quirky.
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