Sunday, August 26, 2007

EIGHTY THREE YEARS IN NEW ZEALAND

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~edent/reminisc.pdf Reminiscence if Frederic Clerment Utting - a great read of Auckland 1863- 1946

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Tea and tiny cakes

The Press Thursday, 16 August 2007
Embrace your inner empress, says Kate Fraser, and join the tea-party revival.
If pink is the new black and cupcakes are the new muffins, afternoon tea is the new drinks party.
The last time tiered cake stands, embellished teapots and sugar tongs were regularly used household items, most women's lifestyles were bound by a formality that extended even to all-women occasions such as afternoon tea.
Invitations to these stately occasions were taken seriously, and it was understood guests would wear hats and gloves and carry a good handbag.
The timing of the tea party was informative.
Invited for 3.30pm meant a genteel spread with delicate sandwiches, bread sliced so thinly you could see through it (and only plain butter, never jam), gems and a sponge cake.
The teapot was silver if the tea came from Ceylon or India, and china if China tea was offered.
If asked for 4pm, afternoon tea would be wheeled in on a trolley rattling with matching bone-china cups, sauces and plates, and a polished selection of scone knives, butter knives and cake forks for the dainty scones, savouries, fairy cakes and cream pastries.
Then there was 4.30pm or even a 5pm high tea with hot toast, hot scones, pikelets and homemade jam, sandwiches, fairy cakes and a slice.
It was more about filling the hungry gap between noonday dinner and supper, but whatever the time, the rules were the same: tea poured at the table by the hostess, milk offered before sugar, and plates please – no picking up a savoury and stuffing all into the mouth.
I don't know what has driven the tea-party revival but I suspect it may be the realisation that a drunken night on the town "with the girls" is sad, mad and bad.
Afternoon tea followed by a glass or two of bubbly reeks of style.
As an entertaining occasion it is still
a novelty, but it is catching on.
Maureen Falloon, who started her business The China Cabinet in March, says it began when she and a friend who put on afternoon teas for each other – "with special food, and lovely china and linen, like the ones we remembered our mothers having" – considered the commercial potential.
Falloon had collected good china for many years and knew she had enough to hire it out.
Another friend, Angela Mullen, owner of Brigitte's in Merivale, Christchurch, suggested they combine forces and hold a Vintage High Tea in the cafe.
Falloon provided the table linen, flowers, china, cutlery, teapots, strainers, sugar bowl – the whole paraphernalia that goes with proper tea parties.
Brigitte's staff prepared the sandwiches, savouries, scones and sweet cakes.
The invitations were for Vintage High Tea at 4pm. Sparkling wine was served as well as tea.
Other events have followed.
A baby shower, a 21st, a wedding and a family get-together have all had their tables dressed vintage-style with The China Cabinet's stock of vintage linen, china, champagne saucers and table accessories.
"I do everything but the food," she says.
"I leave that to the caterers I work with."
One of her most popular items is a special-delivery afternoon or morning tea.
She arrives with cups, saucers, plates and the food on a silver tray – "Tea for two mostly, but for greater numbers if required.
"Older people enjoy a tea party because it brings back lovely memories, and younger ones enjoy it because of its vintage connections. I enjoy them because I love to see pretty china being used again."
The China Cabinet: 027 461 9333, or visit www.thechinacabinet.co.nz
Margaret Rose fairy cakes
A modern version of a fairy cake, or cupcake, popular when Princess Margaret was a child.
INGREDIENTS
125g soft butter 200g caster sugar2 eggs 125ml of full-fat milk12 tsp rose waterZest of half an orange150g self-raising flour12 tsp baking powder pinch of salt.
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180deg (fanbake).
Use a food processor to beat soft butter and caster sugar to a cream.
Add 1 egg and process until blended – don't whizz for more than 15 seconds or the mixture will curdle.
Repeat with second egg.
With the machine running, slowly add full-fat milk.
Add rose water (available in specialist food stores – 1 tsp almond essence can be substituted but the flavour will be different).
Zest half an orange (or grate the skin) and add, whizzing briefly to combine.
Now combine self-raising flour with baking powder and salt.
Remove the cover of the processor and sieve the mixture over the butter/egg mixture.
Use the pulse button to blend in the flour, taking care not to over-mix.
Put paper cases in a muffin tray for stability, or put one case inside another.
Three-quarter fill cases with the mixture and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cakes are golden and springy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
When cold, ice and decorate.
Icing
INGREDIENTS
120g soft unsalted butter240g icing sugar1 drop of cochineal2-3 tsp squeezed orange juice.
METHOD
Beat butter and icing sugar in the food processor until fluffy.
Keep the machine running and add cochineal and squeezed orange juice.
Whizz briefly until the icing is a pale pink.
If rose water is not used, keep the icing colour cream.

Sunday, August 05, 2007





and Round


Round and Round


Oakura Beach Winter 2007


Farmers shops lift drivers

Farmers shops lift drivers Remember going into Farmers and there was a nice friendly lift man would take you up to all the floors...I am sure James Smiths had them too. The Maple Furniture shop had a rickety old lift that u could see it going up and I was so scared of it. I think the Maple was in Manners st?... The James Smiths Xmas parades at the Basin Reserve and all the free iceblocks.. Also does anyone recall Cadbury small chocolate bars wrapped up in silver paper with a wrapper on and were a bite size or were to me as a 4 yr old & the chocolate was so yummy. back in the early 60s.???
Remember the Ag Hall dances in Dunedin, along with, Town Hall dances, T'Town & Teen Time dances. Oh yea, & the dances at the YMCA. Can't remember the name of the group that was at the YMCA but the lead singer was Clive Blackie. Any other Dunedin folk here with memories you want to share?
cool u recall the Warldoff too and my Gran used to take me there in the hols for a treat. Always quite a dark place but then most Cafes were back those days.. Also do u ever recall back in the early 80s girls wearing ties with their clothes and i used to wear some to work and thought so cool. Then sparkly belts came out like silver and gold thin ones in the 80s too
Lido Movie theatre I jsut remembered the old movie theatre in Newtown called the LIdo and only went there once. Also the old Vogue movie theatre in Brooklyn now called the Penthouse and when I was little it had closed and that place used to fasinate me as to what it would be like inside as always looked so old..There used to be this Milkbar next door and they sold the most delicious choc dipped icecreams
there was one on Plimmers steps and the Wellington basketball team was sponsered by them for a while but the name escapes me at the mo,and i think you mean the Ascot (used to be called Our theatre ) in newtown because the Lido was on the corner of Bond st opposite the Majestic
SCHOOLING KHANDALLAH 1948-1955 swimming cold water from hills above park,cows and sheep driven up the road going to the works,fishing in the out let from the works bottom of gorge rotten row of ships waiting to go to the breakers,driving through GLENSIDE as there was no motorway north,catching unit to Wgnt for manual trading,Traffic officer on point duty James SMITH corner,Luna park along from J.S, Trams.Yes those were the days trolleys down hills around KHANDALLAH
We lived near Gear Meat co. in Petone and when it was a southerly we had to shut all the windows because of the smell from the meat works. On killing days the sea around the outlet would be bright red and there would be millions of sea gulls. All that's gone now - I think people today would be complaining about the smell!!! We just accepted it as part of life.
Top of the Farmers in Auckland was a great area for kids with cars to drive around in and the best morning tea. It was a real dept store, they have taken a dive of late, don't know the meaning of customer service either! 246 was good too for morning tea and Smith & Caugheys. Fish n Chips, 1 shilling a piece and a two bobs worth of chips.
remember the policeman on the corner of J S ,speaking of corners ,1964 i stood on the Duke Of Edinborough corner on top of the telephone box with all the others and waived up at the Beatles on the ST George Hotel Balcony,and i seem to remember riding on the last ever Tram going up Hopper st wgton,Royal Oak ,Vance Vivian`s,royal tiger ,cricketers arms ,wakefield ,imperial,carlton ,barrets,masonic,just to name a few of the old wellington pubs boy what pub crawls we had
Rock and Roll Jamborees at the Wellington town hall,Balls at the Majestic caberet you could watch after the movies,Dances at REO GRANDabove the S/Station KILBIRNE,Flying Boats at Evans Bay Dry Dock,Painted Slip EVANS BAY westen bank A/park,
Adam Bruce Milk Bar Wills Street Meeting partners after college 4.00pm train up the coast back 2 carrages for girls only. 5 shillings for tram pass per mth
When "coffee shops" were in in thing in Palmerston Nth in the mid 60's. I wasn't allowed to go in. Because "young ladies" didn't frequent such places. I used to sneak in sometmes especially if Mr Lee Grant was singing
Hey My husband recalls Santas Grotto on top Farmers Auck. too and & the coffee shop and he was treated something for being a good boy lol.. The big Santa on side of building outside and a finger pointing. Funny little man in the lift,short and rosy face.
Ohhh coffee bars in Dunedin. I was at the Zodiac Coffee Lounge most days after school as The Inbetweens practiced downstairs & they were friends of mine. Tony & Paul's Mum worked in the Zodiac too. I also used to go to The Little Hutt on a Friday night to meet up with mates & have a Hot Chocolate & cheese rolls.*Drooling now.* Cheese rolls are another thing most Nth. Islanders know nothing about.Protein Cream milkshakes were the best.
Born in the 40's I remember the night cart vividly! We'd hear the horse stop outside our gate, and put our head under the blankets, because we believed if you saw the night cart man you would end in a sudden and terrible way. We used to be able to get a penny bag of specked fruit from the fruit & veg shop, and a penny bag of broken biscuits from the grocery/dairy. Sixpence paid for the bus into town, the pictures, (at the 'fleapit'), an ice cream and some jaffas at half time, and the bus home. The jaffas were dropped at a very quiet and enthralling part of the movie, and they would roll all the way down the wooden floors to the front. So many memories
How about the winter shows NEWTOWN Horses pulling the milk cart Traffic Officers on motor bikes Swimming pool round bay with sand bottom by Port Nic boat harbour JS corner you met your mates, there was always a gent half a sleep selLing Watch Tower
was a state ward from the age of 7. Because of that I had quite a strange up bringing. In some ways over protected. About 24 primary school. I was lucky I only went to one high school. And had a very nice foster mother for my high schooling years. But she had very old fashioned ideas. Boys could run round without a shirt in the back yard but had to put it on for meals. The backs of womens knees were ugly and should be covered at all times lol. This was early 60's.One of her teenage boys had a nernia in the groin and it wasn't talked about because you didn't mention the word groin
At 17 &1/2 went down to Dunedin to live and find an old foster mother, which I did. Found a job at Cadburys and with my first pay bought myself a pr.of knee high boots. I wore them once then went o and took them to show them to my ex foster mother.( She was an English Woman}. She looked at them and said in a horrified voice "They look like German jack boots". On the way home I threw them in a rubbish binI've never bought boots since
Match box cars Remember the match box cars in packets and cannot recall their brand names now...I had a box of them even tho a girl my dad used to get them for me.. I too recall the Winter show buildings in Newtown and the fairs there and dolls on sticks. The smell of hotdogs and candy floss. Photographers taking your picts at the show and in the streets.
Used to catch overnight railcar down to Wgtn. from AK to check out great bands at Ali Babas - esp Quincy Conserve, Tom Thumb. Venues in Auckland mid-late '60s. 'Platterack' in Durham Lane, 'Hauraki 1480 Village' around the corner - Later 'Grannies'(?), 'Galaxie' in Customs St, 'Monaco' up in Federal St. Bands that were around at the time LaDeDa's,Underdogs, Challenge,Jigsaw,Rebels,Dallas4,LeFrame, - Saw The Who & Small Faces at the AK Town Hall January '69.
SHOPS C.SMITH,LAMP HOUSE,D.I.C MAPLE,TINGEYS PAINT,McKENZIES chain store,BLUNDER AN BROWN,SMITH AND SMITH,GEAR MEAT,DON FRANIS
Adams Bruce clean & Archibald ,A & T Burt,Courteny Hardware,Te Aro Seeds,Zenith Seeds,Huppert Industries,Spincraft,Stewart Hardware,Couchmans Cycles,cinema supplies,Duthies,whitcombe & caldwell,hill & jackson,turner & evans,ferguson & osbourne,j j niven ,odlins,nash`s,universal furs,whitehead & pears,morrison & gilbert,Mecca Cafe,bing Harris,Machells ,hutchison and wilson
Can anyone recall this neat Cafe called Clowns in the 1980s era down off one of those sts say like customhouse Quay??? It had like a basement area u could go down in and had a large clown on a swing and I loved it there. Hubbie dont believe me that it had this clown as he visited with me after they had taken it down and it prob a diff cafe now..
remember those little plastic submarines ou used to get in the Weet-Bix ? The ones you put baking powder in and they would dive, well I just found one amongst my hoarded treasures, new in wrapper :-
going to the pictures for 6d on a Saturday afternoon with my cousins, knitting with a cotton reel and 4 nails in the top, finger knitting, helping my dad with the silver paper pictures, getting a comic every week, going to the dairy every morning to get mums bread - one and a half loaves on Monday, one loaf Tue-Thur and 3 loaves on Friday.
The dairy used to put the bread aside nd I would go in every day and ask for Mrs Chalk's bread, same with the magazines - put aside at the book shop. Before sliced bread came in the bread would be unwrapped and handled by the shop keeper and then by me, put in the basket on my bike and taken home. Then the shop keeper started putting a piece of paper around the middle of the loaf. We never worried about unwrapped bread being unhygenic - didn't get sick either.
I was born at the start of the war and can remember the yank marines taking my cousin out on dates! Was a country raised girl and spent holidays with my city cousins...the only time I got to the movies was then..trams and their special smell... trains,all steam and hating the engine as it pulled into our country station...the '47 polio epidemic..the diptheria vaccination...butcher shops that smelled great,sawdust on the floor...cake shops that had real decent cakes,not what passes for cakes today. In the 50's I remember Evening in Paris perfume...loved it.also Pagan, Black rose,White magnolia,...

Do you remember

Do you remember Plunket, hula hoops, school cadets, the strap (ow I got that!) school milk, stiff petticoats, bodgies and widgies, rock and rollers, behind the bike sheds, winkle pickers, the flicks, old jalopies, the Bisto Kids, tapioca pudding, Lanes emulsion, junket, Sunday roasts, maltexo, Portia faces life, The Chicks, Lee Grant, milkbars
one shilling to go to the movies..included 6d admission,3d for an ice cream at interval and 3d bus ride home. I remember the furor over the screenings of the movie Ulysses..no mixed audiences and so my parents went on different nights. However my fondest memories are of playing outside in all weathers, making our own fun, doors never locked and often left with the keys in them.
iceblocks use to be called t t 2s and i remember collecting drink bottles taking to the dairy to get money then buying lollies.remember going to the dairy on a saturday night to get the 8oclock newspaper..the shaggy haircut
Lanes emulsion - yes well - mum used to come to the school every day at lunch time to give me my dose - I think it tasted quite nice - but don't know if it did any good. Didn't like syrup of figs as much but maltexo (malt) was yummy.
warm milk at school( out of small bottles that sat outside until 1st break) served with a codliver oil capsule. the dental clinics with all sorts of cottonwool painted happy bugs as an enticement to come back happily next time!
Yuk, the milk!!!!! hated it, loved Lanes's emulsion, Maltexo, codliver oil caps, vitamin C ... ooooh we were bonny girls!!! Lol. Mum used to put 'setting lotion' on our hair and told us we'd get curly hair! Never happened - she lied!!!!!!!
four pack of chewing gum in four different colours, Fisher's savoloys in Dunedin were the best, pink & nearly melted in the mouth,American chewing gum had a taste all of it's own & I still love Ice Cream Soda & can't get it in the Nth Island.Have it brought up from down south when someone visits there.Ice Cream Soda spiders are yum.[For Nth Island folks, a Spider is what you would call an ice cream soda, but Ice Cream Soda is an actual flavour down south.]
My memories of the 60's Hayley Mills, Elvis and James Bond movies... Playdate magazines, Coke when it first came out in big glass bottles, white boots, trannies, portable record players, bell-bottoms, paisley shirts and pants, US sailors in the streets of Chch
I think it was the USS America came into ......Wellington Harbour and the Evening Post has headlines - 'Dial a Sailor'!!!! to offer hospitality to the boys! The streets of Wellington were awash with American guys ... Lol, Lol ... they were SO polite. What fun we had!!!!!! Would have been lateish 60s I think.
Cafe bet Victoria and Harris st and think it was as above.. I recall as a child going there with my Dad & having the most delicious toasted cheese and onion sandwiches and it had brambles and a ramp.
Lanes Emulsion OMG I recall it well and had t have it every morn before school in the winter to build strong bones.. I loved the spiders that James Smiths milk bar used to make & go there as a treat sometimes after college for one.. There was a neat little Cafe up Cable car Lane that made the most delicious pancakes with cream anyone know the name of that little place.
It was the Casa Fontana ......if my memory is correct! Don't recall the one in Cable Car Lane ... The Beachcomber round Oriental Bay, Carmen's (I think you're a wee bit young to remember that one!! Lol) Left Bank in Willis Street, Suzies - gone are the days ..
Yes that is it and my Dad remarried there in the 60s when I was only 5. Had the wedding reception there and I loved it there. Kinda dark and romantic. No dont recall Carmens and do recall the Beachcomber and do u recall Uncl Alberts attic in Cuba st as my older cous used to go there..
think I recall Uncle Alberts' Attic ......was it on the right if going from James Smiths - sort of nearer the top end of Cuba St? And Ali Babas on the left???
having a chat with some friends a few ...weeks ago here in Levin and several of us are Wellingtonians and we were talking of the people we'd known and the places there were in Wgton years ago. It was interesting what we remembered. Buddy, do you remember the Chez Lily in Dixon Steet and The Mondmarie (or was it Montmarie) on the corner of Roxburgh and Majoribanks St down Courtenay Place? and The Attic - the Nick Smith Trio used to play there!

Unc Alberts Attic
No it was on the left going up Cuba st and looked from the outside a grotty old place and u went up stairs..Dont recall Ali Babas. I might of been abit yound for that. Does anyone recall in Manners st the Rock shop which sold all sorts of stones and things for making jewellery and a garden shop across the road called the Zenith I think?... Woolworths used to sell orange cordials and snow freeze icecreams and Mackenzies had a diff tasting ice cream. That was my treat when been to town and on the way home. The Warldoff Cafe in Willis st down from the Murder house I recall well. They had yummy food. I dont recall Quincy Conserve.. Wasnt there a big Caberat in Willisst called The Magestic but I heard of folk going there for dances but i be too young. Suzies Cafe in Willis st was nice food. I sound like a real cafe or coffee bar kid in those day huh..
Does anyone recall the YFC rallies in the old town hall in Welly once a month. Was my highlight of the month those days and good musical groups and across from there were afew Cafes too that folk would go to after. I cant recall their names now?.... Dont know if they still have those rallies and goood place for young people to be off the streets and ran by Ian Grant. All christian based.
loved going to YFC rallys - they were great. Does anyone remember Sante bars - dark chocolate - also those little bars of toffee stuff covered in chocolate - can't remember what they were called - you could get them frozen as well and they were so chewy.
lived in kelburn up by the Cable Car ,which i used to ride on every sunday afternoon ,even driven it .Sadie,Chalkiej...i loved going to YFC rallies ,we probably know one another from old , my parents used to have billets from out of town, my cousin is married to one of the members of the band that used to play at all the rallies, having seen Ian Grant on tv you would not think he was the same person as he has lost a lot of stutter,