Taste of Kiwi

My regular blog readers will probably recall my earlier post about pumpkins. Mr. Munro and I purchased seeds at the Farmers’ market and gave some to my father, some to my brother-in-law and we kept the remaining ones. Our first lot of seeds didn’t germinate. The second lot grew, but they didn’t grow much bigger than bowling balls.

I don’t think my father understood how big these particular pumpkins grow. He certainly didn’t understand our enthusiasm or competitive spirit. He’s definitely changed his tune since then and gleefully rings up to skite about the rapid growth of his pumpkins.

Here are some photos of some of his pumpkins. They’re all too big for me to lift. Both photos were taken about three weeks ago, so they’ve probably grown even bigger.

Aren’t they a gorgeous color?

I’m blogging at The Romance Studio Blue today about the first erotic romance I ever read.

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Yesterday I attended a sales presentation for a retirement village. I’m a long way from retirement yet, but I thought it would be interesting to explore the local retirement village at closer quarters. I’m always ready to do something in the name of research because I never know when it will come in handy for a story. Oh, and did I mention there was a free lunch involved? That was the tipping point since I didn’t have anything better to do.

Like many people I’ve heard horror stories about the way these places work, but hubby and I often see the residents out walking and the grounds look beautiful – what we can see of them.

Let me start by saying that not all retirement villages are created equal. Some go bankrupt because of poor management while others have bad reputations. Some retirement villages include rest homes and hospitals. This one doesn’t, instead catering to those who are fairly independent. Buying into a village like this is not a monetary investment. Residents purchase a right to occupy a property. If they die or require the use of a rest home, their families receive 75% of their purchase price back. The other 25% of the purchase price gets written off over five years. If a resident leaves within five years they get a portion of this 25% back as well, worked out on a daily basis. Once a resident dies, the property passes back to village ownership and is resold.

In return for their money the resident receives security and companionship. They have a say in the running of the village via a representative council and can join in one of the thirty-three activities on offer or they can do their own thing. This particular village has a bus so those who don’t enjoy driving or can’t doesn’t need to depend on friends or family to take them out. There is 24 hour medical care available from a nurse in the case of an emergency. Family and friends are welcome to visit and use the amenities, and they also have a motel room that can be booked for visitors. The amenities include a gym, a heated swimming pool, a bowling green, a restaurant, a library and a bar. The village has an active social club that runs the bar and has happy hour several times a week.

Evidently the bar and happy hour is well attended, but the manager of the club laughingly joked they had a problem with drinking and driving. But, he commented, that was better than the problem of prostitutes some of the other villages experienced. I had to laugh at that. Erotic romance writer that I am, my mind went all sorts of places.

The village management are responsible for building insurance and maintenance, all property rates (taxes) plus water rates. Residents remain responsible for power, telephone and personal contents insurance.

I inspected several of the housing options, which range from apartments to two and three bedroom units. Most of them have beautiful gardens and decent sized outdoor areas. There are gardeners and grounds people to take care of lawns etc, but residents are welcome to do their own gardens. I ride past several of the tidy vegetable plots when I go for my daily bike ride.

I left after lunch and two glasses of red wine (that magically refilled when I wasn’t looking!) with a very favourable opinion of this style of retirement. While it’s not an investment opportunity, a village like this has much to offer a healthy and independent retiree. I’ll definitely be checking it out again once I near retirement age.

I know retirement is probably a long way off for most of you, but do you have any idea of how you would like to spend your golden years?

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Today I read a magazine article about the birth order of children and how it affects their lives. Experts believe that birth order definitely influences a child’s personality. It also has a bearing on their career choice and the way they deal with relationships.

I found the article interesting because I have a brother and a sister, both younger than me. It was fascinating comparing the first, second and last born characteristics with my family.
First born children love to succeed, they’re good leaders, are good at solving problems, and easy to work with. They can also be overbearing and insensitive, overly concerned with rules, have high stress levels and strive too hard for perfection.

I definitely like to succeed (who doesn’t?) I take charge (sometimes) and I’m good at problem solving. (yes, that’s true—I’m a facts and figure person). The stress part is true, but I constantly work to keep the stress levels down. I worry too much about order, process and rules—sometimes. Insensitive? Sometimes I can be tactless, but I don’t think I’m insensitive. My family and friends might disagree. I’m not sure.

First born children are often company directors and have valuable and enjoyable careers. In truth, I’ve never aspired to be a company director. I like being my own boss and enjoy the creative writing process even though the business drives me nuts at times.

Middle born children are independent, know how to keep a secret, are mentally tough and are good mediators. On the negative side, they can be cynical, they might feel too much on the outside, may be uncooperative and bottle up their true feelings.

Middle born children can be mysterious and keep to themselves. Yes, this is my brother. They’re willing to do things differently. Yes, again. My brother is very innovative. They see issues from both sides. This actually sounds more like me, but no one said this is a perfect science.

On the down side, they’re often stubborn and unwilling to cooperate and they keep opinions to themselves. Yes, to all of this, but I’m also stubborn when I feel the need.

Middle born children are good in mediating roles (nope, can’t see this one at all) and entrepreneurial roles (definitely! This is my brother) and they enjoy building close working relationships.

I know that some writers use this research when developing their characters and give their hero and heroine the quirks associated with their birth order. It’s definitely something to keep in mind when working on your characterization.

Source: Lifestyle Magazine June/July 2000, The New Birth Order Book: Why you are the way you are by Dr Kevin Lernan.

For those who are interested, I intend to blog about last born and only children later this week.

Are you a first born or middle child? Does any of this sound like you? Does it sound like your brothers or sisters who have these positions in your family? And for the writers out there – have you used birth order when developing your characters?

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I haven’t done the trip from Auckland to Wellington for a long time. Yep, I was excited about the prospect of a trip South. We picked up the van we had to drive to Wellington the night before. It’s a little van with vinyl seats and not much leg room. Mr. Munro complained the van didn’t like going fast. He had trouble coaxing it past 100km per hour, which is our speed limit. After little sleep (we had a phone call at 2.00am – highly uncivilized if you ask me!!) we hit the road at six-thirty.

It turned out that the van wasn’t too bad for leg space and a towel stopped the problem of sticking to the vinyl seats. The van loved going up hills, which was a bonus, but on the down side it also loved to guzzle gas. We had to stop three times to refill during the eight hour drive.

The weather was beautiful, without a cloud in the sky. The iPod worked well and we drove with the windows down and the music blaring – well as much as Mr. Munro lets the music blare. He’s a fuddy-duddy that way!

We stopped at Lake Taupo, which is the biggest lake in New Zealand, and supposedly the site of the largest volcanic reaction the world has ever seen. You’ve probably heard me mention Taupo before. I like it very much and have some wonderful memories of family holidays spent there as a teenager. I pointed out the street where my mother received a parking ticket and where we went to the movies. The lake was flat calm and the trio of mountains were visible across the water. That’s unusual so we took photos.

We drove down the Desert Road and managed to take some great shots of the mountains. The Desert Road is mostly tussock, but parts of it are very sandy. During winter this stretch of road is often closed due to snow and ice. The NZ army do a lot of their training here before troops are sent overseas. The terrain is certainly challenging, and while it’s very pretty, I wouldn’t want to be there in the middle of winter.

The rest of the drive was through farm land before we hit the coast and the sea. The pohutukawa trees seem to flower later down here. The trees were ablaze with scarlet flowers. Pohutukawa flowers always remind me of Christmas. We drove into the central city of Wellington and found our serviced apartment without any problem. It’s very central – just a brief walk away from most of the tourist spots. We can even see a sliver of the waterfront from our balcony.

I’ve done a lot of travelling, and I think a person would have to go a long way to see better scenery. New Zealand really is a pretty country, not that I’m biased or anything.

Do you enjoy road trips? When and where did you take your last road trip?

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Hubby and I have a love-hate relationship with Ava, the stern taskmaster on our new Your Shape Wii. She barks out orders and tells us when our legs or arms are out of position. I often hear hubby cursing her. Along with orders, she dispenses health tips. One of her recent tips was to remove the icing (frosting) from a piece of cake and discard. This will mean fewer calories consumed.

Now I don’t know about you, but I think the icing is the best part of a cake. It’s the bit I enjoy most of all. I savor each mouthful. The thought of lopping it off and throwing it away… It’s just plain wrong! I doubt I could bring myself to do it. I think I’d rather forego the entire piece of cake. That would be less painful for me.

My favorite cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum! There is no way I would part with either the cake or the icing.

Do you agree with Ava or do you side with me? For those of you who enjoy the odd slice of cake, which sort is your favorite?

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Happy New Year! I hope 2010 is full of happiness and lots of good books for you all.

I don’t make New Year resolutions, but on Christmas day I mentioned to my husband that we really needed to have Christmas dinner on the beach one year and also to have a white Christmas in the Northern hemisphere somewhere. We’re in the research stage and not in a hurry, but if you know of a place that will have snow on Christmas day, please let me know. We can probably do the beach dinner here in New Zealand. The possibilites are endless.

Do you make New Year resolutions? Do you know of a place that’s guaranteed to have a white Christmas?

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No, that’s not me writing, tapping away on my keyboard. That’s the noise I hear while I’m writing. Now that our trees have grown we have a lot of thrushes and blackbirds visiting our garden. At this time of the year they hunt out snails, cart them to the nearest concrete path and start thumping them to break the shells so they can dine.

I was going to take photos of all the empty shells, but Mr. Munro used the blower today and blew them away. The bird’s favorite killing ground seems to be under the clothes line. Every time I go out there during summer, I stand on the empty shells. It’s most annoying because I never remember to grab my shoes and end up standing on the sharp, snail shells.

Do you have any interesting wildlife at your place?

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This is the present hubby and I received from his mother.

And this is what it contained.

Do you think this is a hint to exercise?

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Today I visited Newmarket (an upmarket shopping area not far from the inner city) and then stopped at Sylvia Park, one of the local malls. I was peering out the window on the way there and I saw it…

An ad for a magazine. I noticed one of the headlines on the cover and had to have a copy of my own. I was seduced. The story title?

2 Weeks to a Flat, Sexy Stomach.

I tell you, a little voice inside my head screamed, “Buy me!” so like the good consumer I am, I purchased a copy of New Zealand Women’s Health. I now have all the details at my fingertips: the quick, toning moves, the no-fail rules of flat abs and 12 fat-blasting foods.

Along with the flat, sexy stomach article there are ones on making love last, a guide to a stress-free life and motivational secrets for real women to get and stay fit. I tell you…I’m set for the holiday season.

Do you purchase or read magazines? If so, do you have any favorites?

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I met two girlfriends for coffee this week and the subject of handbags came up. I’ve been thinking about doing a blog post on handbags and their contents for ages so I con…ah, persuaded them to let me photograph what they were carrying in their bags. Note – they both censored their contents a little!

This is what my friend Tessa Radley had in her handbag.

This is what my friend, Jo had in her handbag.

I’ve been carrying around my briefcase this week. It contains my alphasmart, wallet (credit cards, driver’s licence etc), house keys, flash drive, camera, Palm PDA (e-reader), small makeup bag, canvas bag (instead of using plastic bags), chewing gum, about five pens, notebook, a library book about Distance Relationships, bus ticket, iPod, tissues, sunglasses, business cards in silver case, and cell phone.

Maybe you should call me Gadget Girl.

The typical handbag of a typical woman in 1945 contained:

One or two lipsticks
A compact(the won’t close)
1 fresh handkerchief
2/3 crumpled handkerchiefs
A package of letters
The laundry bill
3 tickets from the cleaner
1 nylon stocking to be repaired
1 address book
1 pack of cigarettes
3 packs of matches
1 leather picture folder
All ration books (including expired ones)
Several cards with address of a furrier,
a wholesale place for children’s coats, a beauty parlor, a graphologist, etc.
2 scraps of paper with telephone numbers
and no names
1 hairnet
1 bottle of vitamins
3 samples of slipcovers
1 fountain pen
2 pencils
1 parcel of V-mail letters covering
several months held by a rubber band.

The typical handbag of a typical woman today:

ATM Card
Cell Phone / Blackberry
Change Purse
Checkbook
Crumpled Tissues
Hand Cream
Hair Brush
Keys
Lip Balm
Nail File
Makeup case filled to capacity
Pens
Wallet and credit cards

One bag is not enough
Our contents spill over into our totebags,
where you will find:
Agenda
Bottled Water
Paperback Book/Magazine
Newspaper
Shoes to change at work
Umbrella

I thought the differences were quite interesting.

Source: Accessory Web

Do you carry a handbag, and if so, what do you have in it? (note – if you’d like to send me a photo of your handbag contents I’ll post them next week)

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