Food... Food... Glorious Christmas Food...

I think it's generally acknowledged that we over-eat on Christmas day...
And the next day wish we hadn't... Sort of... Coz it was all so yummy.

This year was no exception... I made Christmas Fruit Mince
earlier in the year and it has been marinating away.
I spooned it into little pastry cases and topped them
with soft Buffalo cheese... Delicious.

 

I had bought fresh strawberries which I managed to keep
 in a cool place till Christmas Day. 
I made chocolate dipping sauce... To die for!

Here is the recipe...

DECADENT & FATTENING BUT YUMMY!!!

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

I have made this recipe for the last 30 years. You won’t buy one as good. Put all in a pan and boil for 2 minutes:

2 tab cocoa

½ cup dark brown or palm sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup water

knob of butter

Use hot or keep in air tight container in fridge and use cold. Will go thicker when cold. Delicious over ice cream or berries

 

And Christmas cake which I have already given you the recipe for.
We nibbled and indulged all day.
In the evening we had 'dinner'.
Beautiful cold ham off the bone... New potatoes, it's the only time of the  year I eat potatoes...
They were little and waxy and delicious...
 Fresh peas with mint... And a salad.
I cooked extra potatoes and peas for a cold potato salad the next day...
But there weren't any left!

We finished out dinner with this fruit salad...
Fresh nectarines and kiwi fruit with diced goat feta cheese.
It was a lovely combination.

Chocolates... Of course...

 

And a beautiful 'Saints' 2003 Gisborne 'noble semillon'.
I didn't get on the scales for a few days after all that!

Merry Christmas

 From me to You... 
All my family, friends and blog readers...
Wherever  you are...
And however  you celebrate this Christmas season...

 
From where I am spending Christmas this year...
Parked with my friend Keith in The Flying Tortoise...

 
At Tokerau Beach in the Far North of New Zealand...
This is one of my favourite freedom parking spots.

It's a wilderness place at the moment...
This will change in a few days.

After Christmas Day...
People will arrive for the holidays.
Sun... Swimming... Fishing.

 And ever changing sunsets.

 So have a happy day whatever you are doing.

The Twelve Days of Christmas...

 

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 I was idly thinking about Christmas...
As one does when there is nothing better to do.
I, probably like many, thought the 12 days 
ended on Christmas Day...
But not so.
Here are five things I discovered...

1. The 'Tweve Days' don't end on Christmas Day -  They begin on it...
 According to the 'Holy Trinity Catholic church'
the Twelve Days begin on Christmas Day and end on January 5th, 
marking the time of 'merry making' until the Epiphany. 
The singer's true love is generously extending his or her gift-giving
for nearly two weeks after Christmas Day.

2. It's 'four colly birds', not 'four calling birds'.
'Colly' is an obsolete synonym for 'grimy or sooty like a chimney sweep -
and the song's 'colly birds' are actually blackbirds. 
It is unclear why anyone's true love would actually give them four
blackbirds, but the song's idea of a charming gift does skew
towards the ornithological (swans, geese, hens etc).

3. 'Five golden rings' may actually refer to five pheasants.
The songs seemingly bizarre switch from four birds to five
pieces of jewellery, and back to six birds actually makes perfect
sense. The 'five golden rings' are likely 
 reference to ring-necked pheasants.

4. The total number of gifts given in
'The Twelve Days of Christmas' is 364.
Multiply each gift by the number of times 
it occurs in a full round of the song
and you'll see that the gifts recipient would have to rent a storage unit
(and possibly a lake) to contain the bounty, 
including 42 swans-a-swimming
22 pipers-piping and 40 maids-a-milking!

5. In 2012, your true love would have to spend $107,300 (USA)
 to buy all 364 presents.
PNC Wealth Management has calculated the cost of the gifts every year
since 1984, in an annual report called the 'Christmas Price Index'.
In 1984 the same gift assortment woud have cost $61,300.
Those determinedly mobile swans are the most expensive at $1,000 each!

 And then... According to some there is...

 

And just for New Zealander's there is...




 




This is according to Toby Manhire who writes the article
'The Internaut' in The New Zealand Listener
I'm sure you will love or hate the inferences here!

More Bedfords... Spare Parts... And Lance Cryer

Look at this little beauty... A 1950 Bedford K.
It wasn't for sale... It belongs to someone in Sydney.
When I looked inside... Definitely a work in progress...
But great possibilities... With creative ideas...
And lots of money... to get it on the road.

 I found it when I went to Lance Cryer's Bedford Parts workshop.
It's certainly the place to go...
When you need anything to do with Bedford parts
for any age vehicle... He is sure to have it...


Amongst his lifetime collection of  everything imaginable...


Parts and tools...


Screws... Bolts... Washers...


Bearings...


And Lance,  in his office with 'Snow' a beautiful Sammoyd...
Where he keeps tabs on everything...
From payments... to parts... to vehicles coming and going.


I paid a visit because I needed repairs...
To my front 'blinker' lights and park lights.
I parked here... In front of the workshop where another Bedford
was recieving some TLC.

And amongst the various 'spare' parts

And this tow truck...

The 'blinkers' needed the lens replacing... They were very old...42 years old in fact!
And one was leaking rust from underneath.
This is Wayne Cryer...
He found that the new lights didn't fit the curve of the bus...
They were too big...
So it was back to spare parts for those as well.

I had to take my bike off the front as one of the park lights
had a broken wire which was behind the radiator grill.


The lights came off...


It's always fascinating to see what is behind...


In this case... Rust... Which was treated


And the little park light also needed a new bulb.


Various lens to choose from... All old...
But any one would do the job.

 
And here's the finshed job... All done with 'spare parts'...
All back together again... And I'm on my way.

My New Awning... In Time For Summer!

This is my new awning.
It's silver grey... The same as the roof colour
so blends in very well. I didn't want a bright feature colour...
Or a stripe that gives varying filtered light underneath it.


The projection is 1700mm. The canvas is 100% UV.
It is pulled out with a long light-weight pole with a hook on the end...
It's very easy to do. Springs hold it in place.
There are no poles to the ground, no guy ropes... Nothing at all.
If it's very windy and a big gust lifts it up...
The spring causes it to shut itself.
Rain water runs into the housing across the front,
which has a drain hole at each end.
The one on the near end has a hose fitting on it...
I can attach a hose and fill my fresh water tank...
Easy Peasy!

This is where I had it made.
'Shademaker'... in Mount Maunganui.
Their service and workmanship was excellent.
It has a five year warranty.
Their prices are very comparable with other places
that produce a similar quality product.
The whole thing from 'Go to Whoa' was done in  six hours.
I highly recommend them if you are needing a custom made awning.

First the measurements and working out where the mechanics of
the awning were going to fit on my bus...
Which is not an easy shape with curved sides and roof and radio aerials
and the door and drop down table...

But it was all measured and sorted out and here the runner is on the roof.
The awning edge fits into this...

Here the 'arms' attached, one by the door...
The other one further along the side past the big windows.
Very unobtrusive and neat.
Underneath the arm there is a runner that the arm slides up and down.

The bracket on the top that the awning housing fits into...

Here... Measuring the arm for height...
It has to clear the opening door, be high enough to walk under,
and low enough to create shade where it needs to be.

This is the arm, a strengthening bracket being put on...
And here you can see the runner that the arm slides up and down on.


Putting the awning on...
The edge of the canvas slides along the rail on the roof.


It's on... and the arm attachments being tightened up.
It's all very ingenious and simple.


Here the awning is out and the height and levels are being checked.


Here you can see a bolt. This serves two purposes...
It stops the arm going any higher up the housing...
When the awning is closed the hook pictured below goes over the bolt so
it is secured when driving.
The screw underneath also has two purposes...
When the awning is out, it is tightened to keep it in place...
When the awning is closed it is tightened to stop it rattling while driving.

The safety hook.
It's all a great design.
I'm very happy.