Orange is not a colour, it's a state of mind

Nikau is on schedule for opening Monday – wahoooo! We were invited for a special friends and family practice lunch today. We were chuffed! It was such a glorious rushing back of routine and memory. Lots of familiar faces there, both staff and customers. The cafe is still the same, there is a new bar top and toilets and till, but it was neat to see lots unchanged, right down to the My Little Pony on the coffee grinder.

I can’t explain the swell in my heart when I rounded the corner via the familiar route from home and saw people sitting inside at the tables. Felt like I was home or something.

Familiar lunchtime view

Little coffee pony

Smiling at the bar (The Mister had kedgeree & I had asparagus with this great pistachio/lemon/parsley mixture on top … no date scones today)

Sad SAD news is that there’ll be no Sunday opening. Nice lifestyle choice to balance their hard work but we’ll have to have a family conference to figure out how to deal with that! We had a brief conversation with Kelda and a few suggestions for what she could do on her Sundays – perhaps date scone or sour dough loaf baking sessions! I think that’d be great!!

The annual bill from AA for the car insurance has arrived. I almost don’t look at the premium amount each year any more, in fact I’m fairly impressed that it seems to remain the same each year, I just skim to the dreaded AA’s assessment of the car’s replacement valuation.

It’s so LOW! Way too low for the car. I phoned them once to ask why it was so low – they told me that they adjusted the valuation each year based on the make, model, age and market value for such a car. I can tell you, the value of MY example of that make, model and age of car is definitely worth more than their estimate!

So, if I were to have to replace the car I would be given money that would buy a much lesser car than mine. And I suppose that’s why the premium appears to be staying the same, the more worthless they think the car, the less risk it will get stolen or broken into so this keeps the premium ‘down’. It’s so frustrating! I wish they’d send an assessor around to see what it’s really worth. Or not if it would put my premium back up … it’s a vicious circle!

Just received some official photos from the NZ Internet Industry awards we went to 10 days ago. Not often you see professional photos of yourself at the beginning of the night before all the random blurry iPhone photos with shiny faces, flat hair and red eyes. And a nice one of us both in the mix. The other 10 were of The Mister with various famous people and trophies.

Feel very grown up and important as I have 35 CVs to review for the writing job I have advertised at the moment. I have a system to be very transparent and fair in my review and on this rainy afternoon I’m skimming them all in a huge lot to make my no, maybe and yes piles for further review and interview.

I’ve been involved in hiring before but havne’t been the point person and haven’t had such interest. And I must say it makes me want to review my own CV – I realise it’s quite wordy, which it has to be when demonstrating that you can write, but in my review so far my biggest objective is to try to get a feel for the person and their experience through the written word. Too brief and you can’t see it, too long and you can’t skim it. It’s tricky business. I know that for ultimate judgement I’ll need to meet these people but first up they have one chance to make their impression on paper. And I have to say the introductory statement by recruitment agencies does NOT help. I want to hear from the applicant, not their representative. And that introduction doesn’t constitute the cover letter I specified in the job ad, that’s a perfect way to show me their written self so omit that and it’s almost a no straight away.

Hopefully I’m not being too naiive or harsh, I guess I’ll know when I get to the end when I see how many maybes and yesses I’ve got!

Our last 2 planned activities for the Wellington on a Plate festival were today. First up was the Food Heros market in the Moore Wilson’s carpark – The Mister was keen to find the whitebait sandwiches and I was keen to find Supreme coffee.

Man the place was jam packed! There were loads of food stalls and wine tasting from Martinborough. Half the carpark and the space in between the new deli fresh building and the grocery building was wall to wall people scoffing and drinking many of the samples on offer.

The Mister found his whitebait sandwich

And I found the Supreme guys (that’s Benn).

We also did a ‘smell’ test on some coffee ‘oudors’ – similar to wine tasting some, there are specific aromas that you get when smelling and tasting single blend coffees – you’re suppose to use the little smelling jars to hone your senses – we were pretty hopeless. We got vanilla but were totally stumped by malt (so our lemon guess was wrong) and even more phased by butter (I guessed rimu, the Mister tried good old lemon again!) Gotta get us one of those kits!

Then it was off to Osteria del Toro for a long Italian Family Lunch.

Scheduled from 1.30 – 4.00 it was 2 and a half hours of eating banquet style – anti pasti, pizza, pasta,paella and dessert. Never thought lunch could take that long but I did manage to pick at bits and pieces the whole time and we felt we should leave when the restaurant was empty and they were loudly scraping the tables around and cleaning the floors after 4pm! It was a great afternoon and the food was really good so we must go back there for dinner some time.

My 5th move in the office happened yesterday as neighbouring teams are getting bigger and little old Help Centre was the easiest to move as a unit somewhere else. Back down the other end of the office to where my second spot was in the marketing area. Such a different scene down here. Although as someone remarked, the room kind of ‘glows’ orange since I arrived … yessSSS!

So, 2 more events in the Wellington on a Plate food festival attended on Thursday and Friday.

Continuing on the coffee them we went on a tour and tasting at the new Mojo ‘Coffee Central’ roastery and retail outlet on the waterfront on Thursday. One of the old wharf sheds near their Kumutoto cafe has been transformed into a roastery, offices, retail and training/showcasing space. It was pretty cool.

The cupping part of the tour was just like what we did at Supreme but I don’t know whether I’m so tainted by my loyalty or so disappointed in Mojo coffee in cafes that I thought that the taste of Mojo’s single origin beans was definitely not as nice as Supreme’s beans. At that stage in the process when beans are cupped they’re  essentially just a bean that’s been roasted … what could go wrong. However at Mojo we learnt a lot about how the shipping and transit storage of beans can have an impact on the end result so who knows, perhaps that’s something to do with it.

It was quite cool seeing the roaster working and listening to his stories about his techniques and how he’s grown up with coffee – including a story about his mum roasting coffee on their open fire and him as a little boy turning the roasting canister on a split-like device to keep the roast even.

Then it was off to Floridita’s bakery on Friday. A tiny almost windowless space in a dark alley way off Cuba Street. They used to go by the name Comtessa so we’re really familiar with their baked goods having sampled several from Moore Wilson’s. And when they say everything is handmade using only ingredients you can get yourself as a home baker from the supermarket, they’re absolutely right. We saw Emily the head baker making pastry “don’t be afraid of the pastry” was her advice and she was so swift and confident with it and her pastry cases just perfect. She also make a chocolate brownie using the same chocolate bits that you can get from the supermarket, a tray of hand cracked eggs and the final mixing was by hand, up to her elbows in chocolate! Gross.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see or sample the date cake with caramel icing that we so love and have been inspired by in our own attempts at home but we did come away with some great tips and advice and enjoyed a delicious white chocolate, macadamia and orange cookie.

The Mister and I represented Xero at the NZ Internet Industry Awards last night at Parliament, in the Banquet Hall. It was a very glamorous evening and amazingly, we won again. Very humbling especially as there were only 3 awards – Best Business Application (our award), Best Education Product or Service and a Societal Impact Award.

The Mister had to line up on stage with the 3 other nominees in our category and wait for “And the winner is …. envelope please …” then give an acceptance speech. And he gave a really great speech – someone at our table said he was “sincere yet direct”. I was so proud.

It was pretty cool being at Parliament, and I felt quite movie starrish posing on the Parliament steps!

And a close up of my frock and wrap for Mothers 🙂

And Dad, the jewels I wore were Nanna L’s gold bangle with ruby in it and the little oblong gold brooch – but I can’t remember if I got them at my 21st or when Nanna died.

First Wellington on a Plate event was a tasting at Fuel Espresso. Nice to visit the roastery again and see old faces. We slurped espresso shots of Fuel’s 2 brands and searched for ways to describe the taste off a big wrap sheet of coffee descriptors containing words like ‘acidy, musty, caramelised, nutty, sweet, winey, grassy, buttery’ – very like wine tasting. Was interesting to taste straight shots because I drink both their blends every day and both with milk. They also had the roaster going so we got to see a freshly roasted batch of beans come out into the cooling tray and smell that freshly roasted smell that wafts around town sometimes up close.

Our old friend and also long time Fuel drinker Keith joined us. It was a great evening.

Just found out today that Xero is in line for another prestigious NZ-based award so The Mister and I have been asked to put on our posh tux and frock and represent. So we’re off to the NZ Internet Industry Awards to be held at a black tie dinner at Parliament this Thursday.

However I’ve got frock nerves – I’ve gotten away with wearing my same black dress to a few awards now but have only ever been caught and published on Xero film at the last awards – the Webbys in New York. So if we win, and I am photographed again, apparently the fabloids will be out to criticise me for wearing the same frock. Yikes! I was consoling myself thinking that our shareholders might appreciate that I am not paid enough of their hard-earned investment to go out and buy a new frock every time I am called upon to attend a black tie event for Xero. Which turns out to have been quite a few over the last 3 years.

However, am laughing in the face of societal pressure, again, and will be wearing the same frock. But this time, being that it’s winter, I’ll finally get to wear this gorgeous wrap of orange felt, velvet ribbon and beads, handmade by my sister for me last year.

Which I will try to be wearing if I am photographed!