One of the things I love about Wellington

is that (in the central city at least) there's relatively little socio-economic divide across the suburbs. I like how you can't really tell how well-off somebody is based on where they live. It seems like something you can do relatively easily in places like Auckland.

Last night I realised that this is one of the few places in the world where I could be at a friend's party in a student flat, ten metres across the road from the Prime Minister's official residence.

Hah!

Just found an amusing fridge magnet in my kitchen:

"B READY

To be prepared for Y2K, make sure you have 3 days supply of the following items stored in your home:

Canned, non-perishable food
Water (3 litres per person per day)
BBQ or something to cook on
Personal medication
Torch, batteries
Matches, lighter
Radio, batteries
Toilet paper, plastic bags, bucket

B WISE
Y2K Readiness Commission
Emergency Management and Civil Defence"

I was seven at the time. In a couple of weeks it will be ten years since Y2K, wow!

Exam Eve.

It is the eve of my first exam - economics. In my panic I remembered this poor, neglected blog. Perhaps I will use it to complain about each exam as it ends.

I would much rather write about things that I enjoy, however. Unfortunately these tend to be less often exams, and more often the things I do to avoid preparing for them. Today, as with many other days, my procrastination has been food. Mum just taught me how to make the most glorious snack, and I feel obliged to share.

When Mum lived in Rome, she had Turkish neighbours. Apparently she used to go over and have afternoon tea with them after work. Today she came home from the supermarket with an eggplant and told me that she was going to feed it to me. Now, I have always been skeptical of eggplant (any vegetable that seems "meaty" makes me suspicious for some reason), but the prospect of Turkish food excites me.

The dish we made is very simple, and very very yummy. It is essentially just fried eggplant, salted, with a yoghurt and garlic dip. Seems a lot fancier than the effort it takes.



We began by washing the eggplant, and cutting it in to slices (about 1cm thick). We then sprinkled them with salt, and left them to sit on a plate for about an hour (apparently the salt sucks the bitterness out, or something).

After an hour we rinsed the slices under a cold tap, and then left them to sit on a paper towel so all the water was absorbed. The slices were then fried in a hot pan in a little bit of olive oil, until they were nicely browned on both sides.



When all the slices were fried, we sprinkled them with a tiny bit of salt and left them on a plate to cool.

I tried one before we'd put any dressing on them but it's a bit weird. Mum advised that they need a good slathering of yoghurt. We used about a cup of our "home made" (ie: Easiyo Yoghurt Maker) Greek yoghurt, mixed with a clove of crushed garlic. I'm sure that any Greek yoghurt will work, though.

We just left everything on a plate and various family members popped past and spooned the dressing on to them, eating it as finger food. I'm sure I'll be making this as a snack in the future - om nom nom!

New blog

After a discussion with a teacher today, I have decided to have a shot at blogging. Ideally - and I think this is what she was getting at - I'll say some insightful things and then some other people will come and get angry about them, and then we'll all learn.

I think the idea is that this helps in my preparation for scholarship exams. More likely I'll use it to avoid study, or something, but oh well.

I hope that it's relatively enjoyable to read, and that some good debates can be had. I rather enjoy the art of writing so if there's anything you want me to write about (I can't think why, but it could happen!), feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Happy reading!