Wassup wit Deep Tissue Massage?

Today my wife and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. According to the Customary gifts we should have given each other Bronze...nice!

Instead we dropped the kids off at Grandma and Poppa's and took off up North to Paihia (N.Z). While the kids went to Chipmunks (see here) and then to Pizza Hut (see here) we wound up at a Spa for some pampering that my wife booked.

"I can't remember if I ordered the Deep Tissue Massage or the Swedish Massage for you"

A Swedish Massage ranges from light to firm but in no way approaches the intensity of a Deep Tissue Massage.

As I found out a Deep Tissue Massage is aimed at the deeper tissue structures of the muscle and fascia, also called connective tissue. Apparently it shouldn't hurt and you should feel free to speak up if it gets uncomfortable.

Wish the masseuse had told me that. I took the stoic - squeeze backs the tears and bear it approach.

As I heard her finger joints clicking and popping with the pressure she applied I wondered if I would be permanently crippled or feel like the Six Million Dollar Man afterwards. I was hoping for the latter.

After the pummeling, I sat out on a couch and was advised to drink plenty of water to flush out the toxins released by such a vigorous beating. This I did and felt like the 5th little piggie.

Afterwards we had a 3 Course lunch at Pure Taste, which you can read about in my wife's upcoming Blog

My turn to choose next year! Happy Anniversary Merepyiar - I love you lots and lots.

Wassup wit travelling gnomes?

The travelling gnome prank is a method of returning a garden gnome "to the wild". It involves stealing a gnome, taking it on a trip, and photographing it at famous landmarks with the photos being returned to the owner. There are many clubs and organizations dedicated to the prank; the best-known of these is the Garden Gnome Liberation Front.

Thanks for that insightful introduction Wikipedia.

This does sound like fun and I would love to do it but several obstacles seem to arise:

1. Returning a gnome to the wild involves stealing, and I've read somewhere about that practice being frowned upon.


2. The only other person with gnomes that I know of is my parents.


3. Travel usually involves lots of $$$


4. Gnomes would just be too heavy in your luggage.

Well funnily enough an opportunity arose for me to fly to San Francisco for very little money recently, and by very little I mean none. A friend suggested that I take a toy to photograph at 'famous' places.

This sounded almost as good as The aforementioned travelling gnome prank so I asked my daughter to pick a toy for me to take. She rushed off to her toy bins and selected her 'rainbow bunny'. I examined her choice:

1. Light weight
2. Cute looking
3. Flexible for those difficult shots
4. ...something about rainbows and San Francisco...

I know what I said, I'll take the Kiwi!

So here's a few of Kiwi's travels...

Kiwi checking out our sweet suite

Kiwi checking out the Golden Gate bridge - check out the surf

Kiwi posing around Coit tower

Kiwi sampling some fine Ghirardelli Chocolate

Kiwi atop the Crookedest Street - Lombard St.

Kiwi admiring depression era murals

Kiwi checking out the price tag - $2375.00 US

Kiwi running off the excess on the 'toddler treadmill'

Kiwi picks his favourite smelly

Yeah right Kiwi

Now you're dreaming

After a hard days travelling - he deserves it :)

Wassup wit Subs?

• Not the filled roll type sandwich.


• Not the unfortunate backwash caused by gulping from a bottle of drink to soon after having a mouth full of food.


• Not those annoying loud speakers people put in their cars to alert us to the fact they have annoying loud speakers in their cars.

I am in fact refering to the coolest Battleships game peice ever...the Submarine. I mean who doesn't like the dead calm inside a submarine when the ships above are 'Pinging' them, trying to locate the stealthy shadow that lurks beneath armed with ship destroying torpedos.

'Dive Dive Dive' - so many cool stuff to do with submarines.

I recently got to experience a tour on a submarine - namely the USS Pampanito located at Fishermans Wharf in San Francisco (click Here for the online tour. You can download the Audio tour and listen while viewing the photos)

USS Pampanito

And they picked up another 75 POW's floating in the ocean

Inside the hub of the Sub - hey there's N.Z

'Don't lie on the bunks!...oops

After paying $11 US I wandered onto the USS Pampanito and turned on the supplied MP3 Audio Tour. It turns out I was the only person exploring the Sub which was really cool. Former Sailors were narrating the tour and even though I was only one man aboard a big submarine I was getting a feeling how it must have been for 80 men to be aboard. And that was before they picked up another 75 POW's from a Japanese ship they had torpedoed.

I don't think I would have enjoyed the real thing, but I very much enjoyed the tour and of course - Submarine movies.

Wassup wit Samsonite?

Movies that you can quote over and over again are just plain good fun in my book. There are many of these movies and probably the best known one of these is Napoleon Dynamite. But in my opinion it pales in comparison to the classic that is the 1994 movie - Dumb and Dumber.

Recently I was priveledged enough to be in San Fransisco and came across this little shop.

I know...funny eh?

For those among you who still have no idea what I'm on about my merciful side will let you in on the little joke. Although unless you've been there and frequently quoted the scene it will be a little lost on you.

Below are a few more of my favourite lines from this classic peice of 20th Century entertainment:

• Man you are one pathetic loser. No offense.


• Our pets heads are falling off!


• Foot long...who's got the foot long?


• Big gulps, huh.


• Little old lady? Little old lady?!


• Er..if that guy over there is Sea Bass?? Ah..err.

Ahh true comic genious. All the scenes come flowing back.

Disclaimer: Although I thoroughly enjoy reliving the scenes over and over again I would hasten to add that the movie is not without a little dodginess. Therefore you may have to settle for my reminiscing of the clean parts :)

Mock...Yeah...ing...Yeah...Bird...Yeah...Yeah...Yeah! (Pretty Bird)

Wassup wit eating out?

Last night our family went out to a family restaurant, namely Cobb @ Co. We've been there a few times and its average to good, but last night :(

I only want to mention one word, 'SPECIALS'

Now to me that usually means that the restuarant is giving some sought of bargain / bonus for choosing this menu item. And to me it usually speaks of a reduction in price. Am I right or am I right?!

Last nights special was Slow roasted minted lamb shanks covered with a rich gravy over mash accompanied with seasonal vegetables. That sounded good to me. Having made up my mind so readily I was free to quickly exert my dominance over the easy peasy Japanesey Lemon sqeezey (as my daughter repeatedly says - what are they teaching kids in schools these days?)...puzzles. What not even a sharp pencil - tut tut tut.

When the 'Trainee' waitress finally came around to take our orders I asked if the 'Special' was two lamb shanks for the price of one (as the price was the same as the listed menu item for a single lamb shank), whereupon she told me that it was only for one. She must be mistaken, surely, afterall she is a Trainee. I then asked her what made it 'special'? She informed me that it was more just the fact that they were advertising it that made it special.

Really, well your 'Special' is not very special afterall. Someone just ordered too many lambshanks and you're trying to get them sold - LAME.

Remaining calm, I quickly browsed the menu once again and hastily chose the BBQ Spare Ribs...mmmmm...they were gooooood!

We are either really rich or really silly. Our family all dined out again the next day. This time it was B.K for lunch. The kids played on the weird little playground, Jackie ordered and I people watched, by people I mean the kids.


We got our lunch and sat down. I hailed the kids (Star Trek influence there) and we fell to the board making short work of the food before us (Stephen Lawhead influence there). Just a few things were missing...

1. Serviettes - none to be found anywhere.
2. Straws - not a necessity but it makes drinking slightly more amusing
3. Sauce - or Ketchup as it's known in BK land

Now I could have probably attained all these items if I would have stood in,line and waited another 10 minutes to be served but then who wants to wait when it's supposed to be fast food.

If I sound ungrateful, i'm not. I'm very thankful to be able to eat out and I enjoy doing so. It's just that we treat it as a 'Special' occasion and the misleading or simply lack of service detracts from the 'Specialness' if you like.

So here's my top 5 hints when eating out:

1. Don't take the kids (harsh - yes, but also very true)
2. Make money no object - expect to pay about 1/2 of what you pay on the weekly groceries (if not more)
3. Order something you couldn't have made at home - so even if it's bad, you still couldn't have had it at home, so that's good.
4. Never order the Terrine - one word, 'Jellymeat'
5. Wear adjustable clothing - nothing spoils a great meal out like a constricted lower body. Men - loose jeans/trousers with a belt. Ladies - elastic anything.

Wassup wit Chipmunks?

I recently had the pleasure of celebrating my son's 3rd birthday. He wanted a Chipmunks Birthday, so he and 9 of his mates (and us adults) had heaps of fun going mad at this fine establishment.

Rules:

1. You can scream as loud as you want!



2. You can eat/drink whatever you want.



3. Feel free to go crazy.



4. Be thankful for the day, your mates and the prezzies.

After watching the kids do hilarious stunts like sliding head first and upside down on the big slide and getting hot, puffed and sweaty running around like mad things we broke for lunch and birthday celebrations.

Chipmunks served us up wholesome nutritious pack of cherrio sausages, mini hotdogs, chips (frys), lollies and sugary fruit drinks. Fuel for the tank I say!

The kids prayed, ate the lollies, drank the drink, opened the presents, thanked everone and bailed to play. This left the two dads amongst the crew to eat the aforementioned wholesome food packs...mmm. It was while doing so that I found buried deep within such a pack a great treasure...namely the SUPERFRY!

Oh yeah! You know this is the mac-daddy of all fries!

I so reckon it beats this fellas attempt that got him some recognition in the Frightening Fast Food group (you could Google it, but its lame)

I ate the monster fry and rounded up the troops who were getting pretty worn out by this stage.

Thanks Chipmunks for a great Birthday and my extraordinary experience with a truely amazing fry amongst fries. I mean if it were in Old Testament times it would be the Saul of all fries, nay the Goliath or a Nephilim amongst its ordinary fry mates.

Yes, truely awesome.

Wassup wit Flannelgraph?

I have very vague recollections of Flannelgraph at Sunday school - to be honest I think I bunked most classes. So to refresh my memory I went to a very reputable site, A.K.A Wikipedia.

Flannelgraph (sometimes called a flannel board) is a storytelling system that uses a board covered with flannel , usually resting on an easel. The flannel board is usually painted to depict a background scene appropriate to the story being told. Paper cutouts of characters and objects in the story are then placed on the board, and moved around, as the story unfolds. These cutouts are backed, either with flannel, or with some other substance that adheres lightly to the flannel background, such as coarse sandpaper.

Now my Mum is not slow to catch on to the latest fad, and being multi-talented can turn her hands to most things. So when she gestured excitedly to her latest creation I was more than a little intrigued.

Voila!! The latest fad, A.K.A The next big thing! (according to a very special 5 year old anyway) - Homemade Flannelgraph!

Thats me pointing to...me!

That's my little girl pointing to her favourite - a birdie!

My best mate (see here) is definately not slow to pick up on the latest fad either. Check out Flannelgraph 2009 styles!

So whether you have fond memories of Bible Stories being 'blinged up' with Flannel or you just like to wear the stuff, let's celebrate together the multi-useful medium that is Flannel!

I don't think so Tim.