A week of good eats

On Friday night I did the full degustation menu at The Grove, for around the price of a Big Day Out ticket. Whether or not that strikes you as good value or not depends probably on your feelings about live music and/or fine dining, but I offer the comparison to make the point that when it comes to budgets, sometimes you should treat restaurant visits as if they were special event, rather than just a meal. People save up and look forward to rock concerts all the time, but there's a tendency to compare a meal eaten out to the price you'd pay to eat in. You wouldn't compare a Metallica concert to the price of one of their CDs; likewise I'd suggest there's no need to begrudge paying over $100 for a meal when it constitutes a whole evening's entertainment.

More goodies in the south of the north

Shhhhhhhhhh!

Merry Christmas and happy new blogpost. My girl and I had planned to spend the post-New Year period in Northland, lolling about in hammocks without a care in the world. Instead we spent it lying awake in bed, nervously staring at her pregnant belly, willing that baby not to come until we'd finished at the bach and travelled safely out of the catchment area of the Kawakawa Maternity Unit.