A bit naughty

Family busy tonight, so what to do? First pizza at the just-opened Birkenhead Sal's Pizza. Yum!

A photo posted by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Dec 1, 2016 at 8:00pm PST

I’ve mentioned Sal’s Pizza, a New Zealand chain of “New York Style” pizzerias, in several blog posts because they’re a favourite. This week, they opened a new location in Birkenhead, a few minutes away from our house. So tonight Nigel and went there for the first time (photo above).

Friday nights are normally takeaway night with the family, but because this is a busy time of year, we haven’t seen them that much. We thought we’d have Sal’s tonight, anyway, and when we found out yesterday that the others couldn’t make it tonight, Nigel and I decided to go to Sal’s and eat in.

We had our usual sausage pizza, which was wonderful, as always. We’ve tried their pepperoni and found it a bit too spicy for our liking, and while we like their cheese pizza, the sausage is currently our favourite. There are a couple others we haven’t tried—yet.

Sal’s is unique among pizza shops in New Zealand in that they sell pizza by the slice (I’ve only ever found one other shop, and not part of a chain, that does that). That means that we can try the other pizzas without committing to a whole one. They also sell sinful deep fried mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, and several flavours of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, in both individual serving and pint sized cups.

The pizzeria itself was very nice inside and out. It was made out of shipping containers, as Nigel tried to tell me during the construction (though at first I didn’t think it was). It was attractive inside, too.

We went there early (before 5pm), and we sat at the only open booth. Next to us were three very loud teenage girls. It was amazing how quiet the place was after they left. There was a good flow of customers, many just picking up pizzas, some, like us, eating in.

We left with two pieces leftover, but it probably should have been three: I may, quite possibly, have had one too many. In my defence, I haven’t had Sal’s in ages, and I really do love it—and good pizza generally (if I had to pick my last meal, it would be pizza).

We (wisely) decided against buying any Ben & Jerry’s and headed home, only to find the object in the photo below: An empty bread bag, torn open in two places, and all the bread missing. It had been a new loaf I’d just bought this afternoon.

I saw the bag lying on the living room floor, and while I knew what it was, at first I couldn’t process it. Even when I glanced over at the kitchen bench and realised the brand new loaf of bread was missing, I still couldn’t quite believe or accept what I was seeing: In all these years, the dogs have never pinched a loaf of bread, or any other food, off the bench.

We checked and Jake had a very full tummy, and Sunny’s was nearly as full, too, so much so that we decided against giving them their dinner, even though they still asked for it—somewhat half-heartedly, it seemed to me, as if it really is possible for them to feel too full to eat anything else, something for which there’d been no previous evidence (because we don’t overfeed them).

So, bread incident aside, tonight was a good night: We got to have our favourite pizza for dinner, I came home with a somewhat too-full tummy, which was a bit naughty. Then we found that the dogs had been even naughtier and were in a similar situation to me—though we didn’t steal our dinner.

We’ll go back to Sal’s, of course, but next time I won't leave the bread too close to the edge of the kitchen bench. Don’t want make it too easy for the dogs to be a bit naughty.

So, we got home & found the dogs stole and ate the loaf of bread I bought this afternoon. They have NEVER done that before tonight. No dinner for them tonight!! 😧💩

A photo posted by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Dec 1, 2016 at 8:37pm PST

My birthday x2

Yesterday was my birthday and so was today, as is my customary practice. What's the point of dealing with the problems of having been born in one hemisphere and living in the other if every once in awhile I don’t use that to my advantage?

Interestingly, I often run across people who assume I mean a Northern v. Southern Hemisphere thing, but I don’t: I mean Western v. Eastern. I was born in the USA’s Central timezone and now live in the first timezone the other side of the International Dateline. Put another way, I was born in one day, and I now live a day earlier. Yes, that often confuses me, too.

So, yesterday was my “first” birthday—the date of my birth. Nigel gave me a Kindle Paperwhite. He gave me my first Kindle for my birthday back in 2012, though it seems longer. I loved my original Kindle, but there was a problem: It was really only usable in bright light. That low-contrast screen had become a problem, and meant I could only use it in the daytime (and then, only in bright daylight) or with a lamp, neither of which were always convenient. So, I didn't use it very much.

The Paperwhite has a much higher-contrast screen—more like a real book, actually—and a built in light. This makes it much better for me. I have a lot of books waiting to be read (most of them were free), and now I may actually be able to do so.

Nigel recognised there were issues with my Kindle, and fixed them for me. Have I mentioned recently that I have the best husband in the world?

That evening we went for dinner at Sal’s Pizza in Takapuna (photo above). We got a half-pepperoni/half cheese pizza and some mozzarella sticks. Yummy as always. Pizza—specifically, American-style pizza—is one of my mostest favouritest foods, and I think part of the reason is the warm familiarity of it: I grew up eating it. Sal’s does “New York style pizza”, and it’s quite authentic. We’ve been there a couple times with American expat friends when they’re visiting from Wellington. Sal’s also stocks Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which recently entered the New Zealand market.

A downside to yesterday was that I couldn’t enjoy a birthday wine—I was too full of pizza, and too thirsty for water once I got home. I had a very small glass to celebrate, but that was it.

Yesterday was also a very productive blogging day, mostly because I decided to just do stuff I enjoyed. Today I recorded a new AmeriNZ Podcast episode, but otherwise had a more normal day, though I still kept a leisurely pace and relaxed day.

And that’s the end of my 48-hour birthday extravaganza for this year. A normal weekend lies ahead, and a normal week after that (the full new schedule finally resumes on TV One on Monday, including the Midday news).

It was a good birthday this year. In fact, they pretty much always have been.

The obligatory birthday selfie.

Unfamiliar is familiar

When I arrived in New Zealand two decades ago, there were plenty of things to get used to, including lots of products and brand names I’d never heard of. Over the years, a lot of familiar American brands have entered the NZ market, sometimes locally-owned/licensed. Today I heard about an unfamiliar brand that, it turns out, is very familiar to me.

Nigel had a meeting in West Auckland this morning and he rang me while he was on his way. “What’s Texas Chicken?” he asked. I’d never heard of it, so, of course, I turned to the Internet.

It turns out that Texas Chicken is the brand name for Church’s Chicken outside the Americas. I presume that’s because the chain was begun in Texas in 1952, and also to avoid people in non-Christian countries assuming it had something to with Christianity (there was a controversy about that in Malaysia in 2015).

Their first New Zealand outlet opened at Westfield Mall in Manukau back in July of last year, and they now have a freestanding location in Henderson, where Nigel saw it. The company plans on having 20 locations in New Zealand within 10 years.

I liked Church’s Chicken when I lived in the USA, but it was my second favourite to Chicago chain Brown’s Chicken, which I loved (and their deep friend mushrooms were awesome). However, there were a lot more Church’s locations, and all over the place. I ranked Kentucky Fried Chicken, as KFC was then called, third, and Popeye’s not at all (I don’t like hot and spicy foods).

KFC reminded me of church dinners—the chicken, the coleslaw, the mashed potato and gravy, even the dinner roll—were all like what I’d had at church dinners. That made it familiar, and pleasant enough in that sense, but I prefer my fried chicken to be crunchy, not soggy. So, I much preferred Brown’s or Church’s to KFC.

KFC has been in New Zealand sine 1971, and now operates around a hundred units. The re-design of KFC stores in New Zealand was later adopted as the template used around the world. KFC is a unit of New Zealand’s leading fast-food company, Restaurant Brands, which also owns the New Zealand rights to Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and Carls Jr. They also own the New Zealand rights to Taco Bell, which, like Pizza Hut and KFC is a brand owned by the USA’s Yum Brands, and the company hinted last year that they may begin opening Taco Bell units.

If those weren’t enough American brands, we also have McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s Hamburgers, Subway, and Domino’s.

Beyond that, we also have chains from other countries: Oporto, an Australian-founded chain of Portuguese-style chicken places, and Nando’s, an international chain that originated in South Africa, with a Mozambican/Portuguese theme (the chain is particularly popular in the UK, apparently), and Esquires Coffee, which was founded in Vancouver, but is operated in Australia and New Zealand by Retail Food Group. There’s also The Coffee Club, an Australian chain of coffee cafés, which opened its first NZ franchise in Wellington in 2005—its first outside Australia. Pita Pit, which was founded in Canada in 1995, is also in New Zealand.

There are homegrown New Zealand chains, too, of course: Hell Pizza, Burger Fuel, Mexicali Fresh, Sal’s Pizza, and Columbus Coffee are all New Zealand-born chains, some of which are expanding overseas.

Columbus Coffee began in Auckland’s CBD in 1994, and has since grown throughout the country. More than just a coffee house, they’re actually full cafés, offering really nice cabinet and freshly made food, plus muffins and cakes and other treats. And, of course, they serve good coffee. They operate the cafés in many (all?) Mitre 10 Mega stores, a New Zealand-owned chain of hardware and home centres. They are by far my favourite of the chain coffee places, though independent neighbourhood cafes often have outstanding coffee (one near our house does).

Burger Fuel is a New Zealand gourmet burger chain that’s expanding internationally. The first location opened in Ponsonby Road in Auckland in 1995, and their second opened in Takapuna in 1998; one of those two was the first we went to, though I can’t remember which it was.

Hell Pizza was founded in Wellington in 1996, and is now also global. Over the years, its edgy marketing campaigns have gotten it into trouble, some of which I’ve blogged about.

Mexicali Fresh is owned by Mariposa Restaurant Holdings, a NZ company that last year bought New Zealand’s Burger Wisconsin chain, which was the first gourmet burger chain in the country.

I’ve written about Sal’s Pizza, and they remain a favourite. They are the only authentic American-style pizzas I’ve had in New Zealand, however, it really is “New York style”, while I’m used to (and prefer) Chicago style, which has a crispier crust (thick crust/stuffed/pan pizzas are another thing altogether, and not a personal favourite).

I’m sure I’m forgetting something or other, but I’m not necessarily a chain-food person, anyway, and often prefer independent cafés, restaurants, and pub cafés. Still, I do like them from time to time, and I’m looking forward to trying Texas Chicken at some point. But, like Carl’s Jr., I may end up waiting until there’s a closer location.

Family gathering

Last night we attended the wedding of our niece, and it was a really good night. Nigel was the MC, there was pizza, karaoke, and lots of laughs. Turns out, it was the perfect way to celebrate our own anniversary.

I don’t talk about our extended family members without their permission, but even without doing so I can say that our niece was lovely, the groom was handsome, and the evening was really nice. The ceremony was simple, “non-traditional” (though I’m not sure that term really means anything any more…), and secular. Just the way I like them!

It was emotional (in a good way), as such things are, and, quite possibly, I may have had something in my eye a time or two. There were tasteful remembrances of our niece’s dad, Nigel’s older brother, who died many years ago, and it was is if he was there, too. That added a special dimension, I thought.

Nigel’s family is large, loud and fun, but there were plenty more there who were all those things. All of which meant a very fun night. The first food served after the ceremony was small, hors d’ouevre and tappas kinds of things, then later in the evening pizzas from Sal’s New York Style Pizza were delivered (they have a location a few doors away from the venue). I was in heaven at the point, and even I—a pizza fanatic—had enough. In fact, I may even have had more than enough, but I couldn’t comment on that. On the plus side, it certainly helped me make sure I didn’t have “more than enough” wine…

The speeches were good—sometimes funny, sometimes touching. A surprise was that the newlyweds recognised a friend’s birthday that night—and our wedding anniversary! It was a lovely surprise, and very touching. Is it any wonder I love this family I've married into?

So, an evening spent with our large extended family, good food, and lots of good and warm feelings made for an outstanding night—and a lovely way for Nigel and I to celebrate our own wedding anniversary. Not sure we could have had a better night.

So, in honour of our niece’s wedding, and our own anniversary, let me raise a metaphorical glass and offer a toast: Here’s to love! It’s the only thing in life that truly matters.

Christmas video: ‘Come Together’

The video above, “Come Together”, is a Christmas video for Swedish multinational clothing retailer, H&M. It was directed by Wes Anderson, and stars Adrien Brody. It’s certainly elaborate! And yet, my reaction was restrained.

The video plays on the theme of Christmas bringing people together, in this case telling a fantasy-like tale of people stuck on a train when they expected to be at their destination for Christmas. It’s nice enough, I think, though of course it’s all about generating warm fuzzies for the company, as most commercials are, at least in part. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, necessarily, but we should be honest about what these sorts of videos are all about. On the plus side, it’s not a crass hard sell of their products!

H&M recently opened their first store in New Zealand, and I haven’t been to it, mostly because I never go to the mall where it’s located. As far as I can remember, I’ve never been to any of their stores in any other country, either. There was great excitement about it opening in Auckland, with long queues of eager customers waiting to get in. I don’t personally understand that, though I was recently similarly excited and eager for the opening of a local Sal’s Pizza. I think that other retailers might excite me like that, too—I’m just that into clothes shopping, to put it mildly.

When the NZ store opened, it was met with protesters, too, primarily over the company’s poor record on the treatment of textile workers. The protests made the evening news, but the New Zealand Herald barely mentioned it in their otherwise breathless-with-excitement live blogging of the opening. Fairfax’s Stuff, meanwhile, did a better job of reporting on the protests, but Radio New Zealand (which now prefers to be called “RNZ”) published a report specifically on the protests, without all the breathless, fawning hype, including reporting that a protest organiser said that “[mall] security and H&M staff formed a wall and redirected foot traffic away from the protesters so customers would not see them.”

All of which raises the question of ethics: Is it okay to be so excited about the opening of a store when there is so much need in society? Is it ethical to patronise a store when the retailer continues to be dogged about allegations of bad labour practices? Those are questions people have to answer for themselves, and I personally don’t judge people for whichever choice they make—after all, I have an iPhone, and I have no idea who makes the clothes I buy or under what conditions they were manufactured. It’s fair for people to raise ethical questions, but I don’t think it’s fair to judge people for the choices they make, especially when it’s so hard to find verifiable facts. We all make choices, and most of us do the best we can.

My bigger concern was the fawning media coverage of the opening of a multinational company's store. We can understand the NZ Herald doing it—the chain will probably buy print ads in their paper. Fairfax may see some advertising, too, but without a daily paper in Auckland, it won’t benefit as much, if at all. RNZ, on the other hand, is a public broadcaster without advertising—or the need to fawn over them.

And that’s probably part of the reason the H&M video left me feeling a bit flat. I’m aware of the controversies around the company’s labour practices and other issues, and I’m aware that this is a foreign company when there are so many struggling New Zealand and Australian retailers. Most of all, though, it’s that clothes shopping is something I both loathe and dread doing. Even my reaction to a Christmas video can be complicated, and I’m keenly aware of how silly that is.

I thought the video was nice enough, but I would be curious to know what other people think.

Incomplete adaptation

Found these at Countdown. They’re incredibly close to what my mother used to make, though hers were smaller and sometimes, um, somewhat over-baked. Incredibly, I can easily limit myself to one—or none—per day, though no idea how that happened. Let’s just say, when I was a kid I could get rid of quite a few of the cookies my mother made. 😉

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Dec 19, 2017 at 1:22am PST

The Instagram photo above was about a find, some food, junk food, really, and not important. And yet, it’s actually about something else: How even after all these years I still find ways of recapturing what I don’t have in New Zealand. This is a useful thing and, I think, a good thing.

In this case, it was about cookies that are very much like what my mother used to make. I’ve said similar things about the chilli from Wendy’s. Apart from that, I’ve sometimes described some cafe’s pizza as being “the most like American pizza I’ve had”, until Sal’s came along, serving New York-style pizza.

I’ve also written several times about trying to find subsitutes for things I couldn’t get in New Zealand. Recently, I also wrote about some of the problems associated with trying to adapt my American recipies. Sometimes, this is the only solution because there is no store-bought product that is similar enough to whatever I had in America.

But, of course, it’s not all about food. For example, there’s also language, another topic I’ve written about several times, including just last Friday as part of this year’s Ask Arthur series. Language can actually be the hardest thing of all.

I was reminded of this yesterday when I was writing about coming up with organising solutions for our kitchen drawers. The specific context was that about the same time I was actually working on the project there also just happened to be several Kiwis writing “draws” on Facebook posts when they meant “drawers”. This is because in the New Zealand accent, the two words are homophones—words that sound alike but that have different meanings, and often different spelling (“bare” and “bear” are more good examples).

I’ve run into this same thing for as long as I’ve been in New Zealand. The most common is when Kiwis write “sort” when they mean “sought”. Again, they sound alike in the Kiwi accent.

The version of HGTV in New Zealand is running a commercial for House Hunters International in which a perky young American woman says she was searching for overseas job opportunities “and New Zealand popped up on the list”. Later in the ad she says, “although the accent will take some getting used to”. It’s the homophones that can make it hard even for me, not because I can’t tell what they mean (context usually tells you that), but because it hints at how vowels and stresses can be very different from other English speakers. Every once in awhile even I get caught out—and it’s usually kind of funny when I do.

Taken together, what all this means is that even after 22 years in New Zealand, I’m not totally assimilated, and that means my adaptation to New Zealand is incomplete. I tend to think this will always be true in some way, no matter how long I live here, and I bet I’m not the only English-speaker this is true for.

This probably doesn’t matter—it doesn’t affect the quality of my life, and it doesn’t cause any problems. But it’s something that most people would never even think about when beginning an expartiate journey, and that IS important because it implies that at least in small ways, being an expat never ends.

But, I’ve only been here 22 years so far. Ask me about it in 2039.

Birthday eve

Today is my "birthday eve", so a selfie was needed on the last day I'm this age. I'm wearing one of the non-baseball baseball caps I bought recently. Better than most, but it reminds me why I don't wear them... #sunsafe #birthdayeve #auckland #aucklandnorthshore

A photo posted by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jan 19, 2017 at 3:22pm PST

Today is my “birthday eve”, the day before my birthday. So, I decided to take a selfie, as one does, to commemorate the last day I’m at this age. Because, well, I could.

I’d gone outside to sweep up some leaves that had fallen on the deck (damn olive trees…), and realised that my previous such selfie was taken under similar circumstances—exactly a month ago. This time, I was wearing a baseball-style cap, something I don’t do because I don’t like how I look in them. I bought this cap the same time as the other hat I photographed myself in (along with several other caps) with the idea I should just make myself get used to them because any hat is better than no hat. And, for what it’s worth, I was outside for maybe 15 minutes, since the deck is mostly clean.

At the time I was doing all this, it was 24 at our house (75.2F), and quite possibly not the high of the day. But it was warm enough after such a cool, even cold, summer.

I mentioned that in my latest AmeriNZ Podcast, which I recorded right after I shared the above photo on Instagram. After that, I carried on with my Friday chores, before later editing the podcast and posting it.

This evening we had Sal’s Pizza with our niece and her fiancé, since they have other plans for dinner tomorrow. So, I get both pizza and a BBQ for my birthday, so I definitely win.

And if my Birthday Eve is this good, the actual day is bound to be even better!

Labour Day: Out and about

Today was Labour Day in New Zealand. Stores were having sales of various kinds, and this afternoon we joined the masses so we could pick up a couple things for the house, plus a few groceries. We were successful.

We didn’t go out shopping, apart from this afternoon, but last night we went and had dinner with our friends, originally from the USA, who were up from Wellington, where they live. We went to Sal’s Pizza, which is a NY-style pizzeria chain (mostly in Auckland at the moment). It was a great evening. I also got an accent recharge and, as an added bonus, for a change Nigel was the minority in a group of Americans.

The photo above is one I shot while we were out and about today, as I waited in the car for Nigel to run a quick errand. The photo doesn’t mean anything—I just liked all the various grids and angles and that everything still shiny and new.

They’re the rolling cage-like bins that stores put cardboard into, but these were outside a medium-to-large vacant store, and there was no one around, despite it being a public holiday with a lot of cars on the nearby roads as people (like us…) went from shop to shop.

Back at home, I looked at the photo, cropped it slightly, and then—and I’m not quite sure why—I decided to upload a higher-resolution version to my Flicr account, something I haven’t done in over three years. This meant downloading the new uploader app (the old one didn’t work), and it was a bit of a mission to get things working just right. I think I’ll start using Flicr again for photos I share publicly—I mean, why not? You’re welcome to have a look at my “Flicr Photostream” if you want.

And that, basically, was my Labour Day Weekend this year.