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Monday, April 28, 2014

Here comes the Sun

I was thinking yesterday while it was pouring down.
And you know how the rain just seems like it won't give up?
Making you feel like a constipated egg bound hen?
Well that's what I felt like yesterday, not that I  turned into a hen, but the day was so grey and the wind and the rain, just didn't let up.
I kept thinking of those first year students getting back to their Health Si papers, away from the sunny North Island, where the sun always comes out.
Believe me friends, I was born up in the sunny Hastings, where practically it never rains, and is so mild and when Dunedin has weather like this, you do miss the North Island sunshine!

So I spent most of my day online, which of course is great if you are a foodie and love Jamie Olivers food tube, (Anyone up  for homemade pasta with beef Ragu?) but being on the net also has some disadvantages because it can be a great time waster.  (Please note IT CAN BE!)
So what's on the cards for me this week?
Well it's Polytechnic holidays at the moment, so I've been enjoying just being at home, and this week I have some friends coming down from Christchurch, who are coming to stay with me.
So that's going to be great.
You're probably wondering, what they will be doing here.

We will  catch up with other friends,  visit town, go for walks, go to beaches, and hang around home.
I have some ideas, in my head, and we might even play some Dutch Blitz which is one awesome card game.
I have a plan, to have our own high tea, so I might make use of my cake books and use my friends beautiful vintage muffin papers.

There are some awesome kitcheny things out there, as my friend Lydia said, when we went out to Port Chambers on Sunday  and we visited all the shops and nearly in all of them I was drawn to nic-nacky kitchen things , she said  "trust you to be looking at kitchen things.'' I was like a great big ugly moth drawn to the lanten light just outside our house in the dark., "I must have that scraper,"

It can't be helped when you were introduced to kitchen shops at the age of nine years old and your favourite  shop who so  kindly supplied me with all my knives for my course thanks to Southern hospitality, check out their awesome web page here. (And yes I did pay for them, just incase you might have thought otherwise.)
 http://www.southernhospitality.co.nz.
I have my eye on their pasta maker at the moment, thanks to Jamie Oliver and his pasta making.

Now onto cat news.
Yes, I know, click onto www.trademe.co.nz if you don't want to read this next bit.
I will hopefully get a picture of Tiggi up soon, he is doing really well, and enjoying being by the fire.
I took  photo of him the other day wrapped up in Matts blanket that he sent over from India when he was over there on a mission trip, Tiggi loved it Matt.

Right so I hope that you have a great hot drink there.. ready have one big loud sip, I want to hear it from here.
So I was thinking this morning,  about cats, and why is it that dogs have all the fun?
If you think about it, why do they  get allowed to go to beaches, parks, and building sights, and be able to get trained by MAF  to smell out drugs at airports, and police dogs, why can't we get police cats?  I mean, many a time I have read in my cat books that cats have scared away burglars who have broken into houses.
 It's not fair on the cat population.
So I did a bit of research into this.
And found this amazing story that happened...
Take care
Chloe

"Cats might have a reputation for being a little more standoffish than man's best friend, but extraordinary cat heroes, it seems are all around.
Just this week, a 13-year-old reported that her black cat saved her life.

Maria Gillon has ventricular tachycardia, the Daily Mail tells us. It causes her horrible chest pain that makes it impossible for her to move or talk during attacks. Nighttime is the worst, and Gillon and her family believe that their house cat, Perla, often saves the day.
The cat usually sleeps with Gillon. If the teen has an attack in the middle of the night, Perla will run to her mother's room and bite her toes until she wakes up and calls an ambulance.
Earlier this year, a just-adopted cat saved its new owners just a few hours after joining the family, the Huffington Post reports.

Amy Jung, who had just adopted their new orange-and-white cat, Pudding, suffered from a diabetic seizure in the middle of the night the very day they adopted the kitty.
Pudding noticed, it seems, and leapt onto Jung's chest to try and wake her up. He nudged just enough to bring Jung back to consciousness for a moment, and that's when she was able to call out for her son, Ethan, to come and help her.
The calls weren't loud enough, so Pudding kept working: He ran into Ethan's room and pawed at his feet until he woke up to call an ambulance.
Amy Jung believes she wouldn't have made it through the night without their new cat, the article says. Doctors agreed and registered Pudding as a therapy animal--now, he even knows to paw at Amy's feet when her blood sugar is low.

An even stranger incident of feline heroism: In 2006, a cat named Tommy apparently dialed 911 to save his owner, who had fallen out of a wheelchair, MSNBC.com reports.
When police walked into the apartment to answer the 911 call in Columbus, Ohio, they saw an orange-and-tan striped cat sitting next to the telephone on the floor in the living room.
The cat's owner, Gary Rosheisen, was not near the phone at all. He had fallen out of his wheelchair near the bed, and he couldn't get up because of osteoporosis pain and side effects from mini strokes.
Rosheisen said he tried to train the cat to click a speed-dial button 911 just in case something like this happened. Clearly, it did." 
-Sourced from
http://news.yahoo.com/animal-heroes-three-amazing-cats-saved-owners-lives-171800840.html

So there you have it my friends, even though they are small, and some people think they they can't be bothered with cats and that they are mean furry bird catching machines , (the Garreth Morgan type.)
They do have a reason to live.
Ok you can drink your coffee now, that's all I want to say.
Chloe




Sunday, April 27, 2014

long time definatly no see

Hello there my friends.
Wow it's been a really long time since I have started my blog, after a few rusty starts.
I'm really sorry about that.
Things have been whizzing around nicely.
I've been a law receptionist, for 18 months, then changed tack a bit and completed my 2nd National certificate in Employment skills.
It was a time when the course was running out of funds and the government agency cut all the funding so instead of doing it in 24 weeks, I had to go for a big push to do it all in 12 weeks, which I did, and I  came out on top of the class..
I am still loving being at home, and have turned 26 this year.
Both brothers have left home, leaving me behind.
I still live in Dunedin, with my Tonkinese cat, who is turning the grand age of 19 this year.
I have changed churches, so am now going to Dunedin City Baptist church.
I am loving it, there.
And just today, my very good friend Lydia, ( whom I'm hoping to get a photo on this blog.) suggested to get up and going.
Moving churches was a big thing for me, because I was raised in my old church since the age of 3, so to change at  age 26 was a big leap of faith for me.
They have some nice students there, and are great bunch of people.
So now with this blog up and running, after several years of not being in use, so I'm sorry if my stories are boring and bit rusty.
So fast forward majorly to this year.
After doing my course, I found that cooking is finally my thing, so I have been at Otago Polytechnic doing level 3 cookery, and hopefully next year, put on my Nigella Lawson hat and do their Bachelor of Culinary art.  (Look out Gordon I say!) and when I'm doing that I hope I will  put up some photos of some things that we create.
Studying under a great lecturer (Chef Julie)  who is teaching me and a class of 20 others how to cook.
I might even enclose some stories from the kitchen, the only thing that so far has gone wrong, was when my chefs knife went through my big toe.
Others have deeper scars, so I'm thankful it didn't need to be cut off.
I've been in the kitchen from the age of 9 and so I made up my mind to finally do what I want to do.
I will enclose some photos, and hopefully some videos of things that I have found on the net, to help you in the kitchen.
Anyone can cook.
Right I think that's all for now.
Take care
Chloe