Here is some of his best advice: If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t; it’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car; it’s not food if it is called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Pringles); avoid food products with more than five ingredients; avoid foods you see advertised on television; don’t eat breakfast cereal that changes the colour of the milk; drink the spinach water; eat all the junk food you want, so long as you cook it yourself; have a glass of wine with dinner; stop eating before you are full; eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored; buy smaller plates and glasses; spend as much time enjoying the meal as you spent preparing it; eat meals.

(from today’s Irish Times)

So every year we have The Buskers Festival. It’s 2 weeks (or is it 3?) of comedy, juggling (and general circus arts) and other such things.

Anyway – this year I saw one of the most beautiful routines of contact juggling as a part of FlameOz’s routine. The guy in question is called Dimitri Ogden (aka The Fluid Druid) and you can see more at their youtube channel here.

Contact juggling is one of – if not the hardest forms of juggling you can do – and also the most elegant / beautiful. Dimitri has been doing it for a very, very long time.

So, here is a video which they’ve kindly given me permission to show – if you get the chance to see them .. do!

Well, more to come, but after 6 years with blogger – they’ve changed the way they do things (no more FTP) and so I’ve moved to WordPress. It’s a move I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It automagically (well, almost) imports all the posts (except for video’s) but not comments.. though I may try to work on that.

Anyways.. enjoy – let me know if anything does(n’t) work that well..

Maaike and her mum arrived back down from swanning around Marlborough, drinking nice wines, having fresh Paua out of the ocean and other enjoyable things for my 31st birthday on the 21st Jan (Happy Birthday me).

The next day at midday we drove down to Mt. Cook for the weekend.

We did a few short walks – but they take you to some absolutely stunning scenery. This lake (the end of the Tasman glacier) used to be ice about a hundred odd years ago or so.

Mt. Cook is however, a serious environment. It really brings out the person within. And you don’t even have to be on the side of a hill for this to happen – as is demonstrated in the emotional highs and lows of our ‘Continuo’ Game.

It was one game each to Maaike’s mum and I, and then she viciously attacked me with a very sharp knife. So sharp it was *almost* like a needle.

But yes, all in all it was a great trip – and well worth a visit if you’re in the area. Hopefully Maaike and I will get back this year for a jaunt up to the Mueller Hut and maybe a climb or two at Sebastapol Bluffs..

Drove up to Picton on Friday evening to join Maaike and her mum for a few days. Stopped off just North of Kaikoura for a wee stretch of the legs at Ohau Waterfall seal colony (not too many seals about though)

It was lovely to meet Maaike’s mum – esp in advance of our trip in April (details to follow!) – she has a great sense of humour – and puts up with endless “Mamaaaaaaaaa’s” from Maaike. So we toured about Picton – taking in a Maori fort (Pa)

They had visited some Dutch friends up in Hawkes Bay – and they imported Dutch Cheese for their restaurant – so they picked some up. It was delicious – and not even Edam ;)

Now – Maaike’s mum (Wilmy) doesn’t really like heights much. Understandable I suppose coming from a country which is mostly below sea level, and sports a mountain with the dizzing – nay oxygen needing lofty summit of 321m. I can’t wait to climb it – hopefully unaided but we’ll see ;) Anyways.. that aside, we went for a cliff walk, and while I think Wilmy was mostly terrified, she did brilliantly.

This is possibly why I managed to claw a victory against the (mini)golfing talents of the Jongerius’. Fantastico. And apparently from(the 17 previous comments) Maaike hasn’t lost at family golf since after “that holiday in Denmark“. Aaaahhhh well.. I’m not one to gloaty gloat.

That said, they did get their own back at Boules later on. Apparently they have a set at home, so it hardly counts I think you’d have to say.

Oh, and we did some wine tasting too…

Then I took the coastal train back from Picton (no pics sorry) and Steve picked me up (thanks lots and lots) and Michelle cooked a yum dinner – and all in all it was an end to an excellent weekend.