Update on Daryl

And here he is in all his uncomfortable glory!

Daryl went off to the Dr this morning, in time to arrive there as soon as they opened. This may have been due to the discomfort of having his nose stuffed with dressings, or may have been related to the fact that he had not eaten since lunchtime yesterday and wanted the all clear to be able to eat!

Anyway, the Dr removed the dressings, and pronounced him ok to not have them replaced, so his nose in now unstuffed. You would think that it would now look smaller than it did yesterday, but alas no. It is still fairly big and swollen. He encouraged me to have a look up his nose with a torch, and it is fairly clear to see that all is not as it should be - one nostril is a lot more open than the other.

He is fairly uncomfortable, I think, but is pleased to be able to eat. He should get a phone call from the specialist tomorrow to arrange an appointment to see what needs to be done.

Soccer - a non contact sport?

Well, this afternoon the mens team had a pre-season game of soccer.

I have had a flurry of texts from Kyla over the last hour or so... Daryl has broken his nose - rather spectacularly if all accounts are to be believed.

Apparently (and I have yet to speak to Daryl to verify this) he was running full speed, and collided with an opposition player. Kyla's text read "His bone is gross and he is bleeding."

I have yet to see him, as he is still at Westgate and his support network of Phil Brown, Craig and Paul are working together to get all 3 of our kids to their respective destinations, and will bring Daryl and his car home.

I will add a photo (Daryl permitting) and update when I know more.

So much for soccer being a non-contact sport... and we haven't even started the season yet!

Week 51 Challenge - Slow Cooker

Instead of an ingredient this week, we were challenged to use a slow cooker for a recipe we had not made before. I took the opportunity to try a dessert idea that is in the Alison Holst slow cooker book.

I made a coffee creme caramel, and cooked it in the slow cooker with a little water in the bottom. I was hoping for a lovely smooth texture, but unfortunately the result was very disappointing. As you can see from the photo, there were lots of air bubbles in my creme caramels, which I think indicates they were overcooked. I am surprised by this as the recipe said 4 hours on slow, and they would only have been in the slow cooker for around 3.5 hours at the most.

The creme caramel tasted really nice, and so the texture was a real let down. I will try this again sometime, as I know it should work, and if I can get it right, it will be a great easy dessert.

Finally - a break!

As some of you may have noticed, we were not in Auckland for the weekend.

Ever since the Christchurch earthquake, Daryl has been ridiculously busy with work - working at least part of each weekend, and long hours during the week. The craziest he did was last Monday - working from around 7am, then joining us at Mum and Dad's for dinner, before heading back to work around 8pm. He showed up at home around 4am and packed his suitcase ready to a trip to Sydney before coming to bed at about 4:30. He then had to get up at 5:40 in order to catch a taxi to the airport at 6am. In Sydney he worked a full day before having dinner at 8:30pm Sydney time, and finally getting back to his hotel around midnight NZT. That is a lot of hours with very little sleep.

On Friday afternoon, I was at the point of thinking "we have got to get out of here and have a break". So I had a look on the internet at Kuirau Park Motor Lodge. It is a fairly basic, and reasonably priced motel in Rotorua that we have stayed at before. They had suitable rooms available for the weekend, so I tried ringing Daryl to see what he thought of escaping for the weekend. He was (as usual) difficult to get hold of. Turned out he was in a meeting, but he did respond to a text. It was still looking like it would be too hard to organise, as I was not able to actually talk to Daryl to figure out if it was worth doing.

Eventually his meeting ended, and a short phone call to the motel resulted in them saying they would leave a key out for us as we would be arriving after the office closed. A flurry of packing ensued, and bikes were loaded on the car. We joined Daryl in town for dinner, and then headed down to Rotorua, arriving at about 11pm. We found the room, and it was time for bed.

Saturday morning was beautifully fine, and the kids were keen to get going. We started by having breakfast at Lime - a lovely cafe that does great food and coffee.

From there it was off to the forest for a spot of mountain biking. We ended up doing 20km which everyone managed very well. Kyla and Daryl sped off ahead at times, and Lauren set a very good pace for Braden and I to follow. Mountain biking was followed by a swim at the motel pool, where Lauren and Kyla took turns performing belly flops into the pool. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then a wander over to the playground by the lake for a game of Lava (try to get all the way around the playground without touching the ground) before having dessert at another restaurant.

Sunday was going to be a more relaxed day. We went to a bakery and get some breakfast which we then ate at the park before hopping on our bikes for an easier ride around the lakefront. However, the path continued, and soon we were at the far end of Rotorua, not far from the forest. Daryl asked the kids if they would like to keep going and do a quick forest loop as well, and they were all keen, so off we went. Somewhere in all of this riding, the kids had decided that if we managed 30km that day, then the weekend would total 50km. So, ride we did, and by the time we got back to the lakefront for a late lunch, we had managed an impressive 33km, totaling 53km for the weekend. The kids really do have impressive stamina!

After lunch, we packed all the bikes back into and onto the car, and drove past Nongotaha to a place called Hamurana. There we went for a short walk, to see an absolutely amazing spring. The spring is 15m deep, and the flow rate is an amazing 4,500,000 L per hour! It was worth the detour to drive there and see it.

Unfortunately in the rush to get away on Friday, I neglected to pack a camera, so we have no photos to add to this.

All in all, we had a fantastic break, and really enjoyed the time together as a family, doing things we all enjoy. Missie was very pleased to see us back after a weekend on her own.

Week 50 Challenge - Tomatoes and Lemongrass

I have completed another challenge, and this time I have (unintentionally) used both ingredients!

I decided to have a look for a Thai style soup that used lemongrass, as that is something I have never tried to make before. I found a recipe for

Thai Chicken Soup with Coconut Cream and Lemongrass on the Tegel website that looked like a good one. As it happened, the soup used both Lemongrass and Tomatoes, and even though I made it with both ingredients, it wasn't until I posted about it on the Foodlover's forum that I remembered that Tomato was the other ingredient for this week!

I couldn't find fresh Kaffir Lime leaves, but

did manage to find some dried ones, and as they are removed from the soup before you eat, I figured they would work just as well.

We had the soup poured over some rice stick noodles, to try and fill the kids up.

It was a good, quick meal to make and tasty to eat, but I thought the lime was a bit overpowering, and the subtlety of the Lemongrass was a bit lost. The flavour of the ginger did not come through either. Apart from that, it was good, and I would give it a 3.5/5. I will try this again, and play around with the balance of flavours to see if I can get it so that all the different flavours are there.