Pineapple Upside Down Cake

This was one of my 52 goals for the year. Why? I'm not 100% sure. It was something that I've always wanted to make that never ever made. But now I have.

They're pretty it's true, but I don't think I will make it again. It's not my cup of tea, not this one anyway. Maybe a strawberry upside down cake might be more my bag.

Here is a link to the recipe I used.

Day 13: A picture of your favourite band or artist

Historically....

More recently....

"Grow old with me, the best is yet to be."

Day 12 - You current relationship, if single discuss how single life is.

Have you met this spunk before?

That's my hunny. He's complete awesomesauce. Here are the reasons why;

• He makes up songs to sing to me.
• He gives the best cuddles.
• He always offers me some of whatever he's eating.
• He's an amazing dadda.
• He hates Rugby Union as much as me.
• He waves at me from the garage while he's working on his cars.
• He's the most thoughtful person I know.
• He opens tight jars for me.
• He laughs at my jokes.
• He makes the best homemade burgers ever.
• He loves mowing the lawns (which is great cuz I hate it).
• He appreciates me.

And for lots of other reasons, he is my rock. Love you hunny xox

Day 11: Your favourite memory

“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”

Day 10 - A photo of your favourite place to eat...

As much as I love food, and trust me I do, I don't really have a favourite place to eat.

I've been racking my brain trying to think of somewhere, but I can't. For example, if I was to ask Mr. Man I would get the reply of KFC within seconds, but me, I don't really have a favourite, let alone a photo of it.

I can talk a bit about my favourite thing to eat though? Will that cover day 10?

I. Love. Seafood. Whether it's coming from NZ or having a father that was an avid fisherman I don't know but if it's on the menu, it's in my mouth. Prawns, scallops, mussels, fish...even the odd oyster (just not raw please). YUM! I'm not terribly good at cooking it myself unfortunately - Booo! Hissss! But I'm pretty apt at ordering so not to fret.

And how gorgeous is this photo btw? Wow. Mmmm pipi.

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Day Nine - Last Purchase?

I couldn't resist this when I saw it last night. If there's one thing I love more than a good concert it's concert merchandise!

Amazing concert too. The old fulla's still got it!

Day 8 - Your dream wedding

I've already had my dream wedding. Marrying my best friend. <3 The only thing I'd change is having my dad there to see it. x

Day 7 - An animal you'd like to keep as a pet.

A tiger. Beautiful.

I know it's a different big cat but this video of Christian the Lion always gets me too. I'd like to think that my tiger would be like this little guy, and not like that one that ate his owner...

Day 5: Different from the rest

Day 5: What makes you different from everybody else?

I've just recently joined Papakura Toastmasters to build my public speaking capability and finesse. The first speech we're having to give is called the 'icebreaker speech' and it's all about yourself.

Here is a rough draft on what I'll be presenting on Tuesday night. I think it shows what makes me different from everybody else. It's been rejigged a bit since I typed it up - parts cut and changed but this is the basic gist of it. God knows the version I present on Tuesday night will differ anyhow.

Enjoy x

It would seem from the brief for this ‘icebreaker’ speech, that this has gotta be easy - right? Hop up here and just wax lyrical about yourself. It’ll be like chatting to old friends. But as I began gathering ideas about myself I began to feel a wee bit guilty...a little ashamed. Who wants to hear about me?
And it is for this reason that I bring to you, my icebreaker speech as a somewhat of a 12 step programme admission.

Follow toast masters (and guests), My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m a nerd.
I love all things nerdy - video games, computers, the internet, social media, books - you name it, I love it!
Video games have always been a passion of mine. I vividly remember being a toddler watching other members of my family playing the Atari (the gaming console of the era) - pitfall, grand prix and pac man among some of my favourite games. Over the years I have graduated  from the Atari through may hours spent playing a variety of game on Amiga 500s, sega master systems, gamecubes, playstations and everything in between and now even as an adult I am an avid gamer. Though I’ve played many games across many platforms my heart will always lie with the mighty Nintendo and it’s signature character Mario.
I read! I read and I read. I read blogs, I read magazines and I even read wikipedia. But mostly I read novels. I often joke that we’ll need to buy a new house because all of my books won’t fit in our current one. Unfortunately, this isn’t such a joke anymore. I really have that many. Enter: Kindle for iPad. Brilliant - thousands of novels jam packed into one little device. There’s just one problem - being interrupted by email and facebook alerts while you’re reading. Bummer.
In recent times with the boom of social media I’ve began to write a blog. I’ve been writing it for about 2 years now and I can’t remember what life was like without it. Think of a blog as an online accumulation of articles (called posts) that I write. I mostly write about my family and myself, I share photos and recipes or tutorials for crafts. As with anything on the next it’s addictive and incredibly time consuming. Not unlike facebook, which I also love. I don’t go very long without updating my status update and checkig out what everyone else has been up to. I couldn’t possibly miss old Aunt Glenys’ uploaded photo album of her latest trip could I?

Which brings me to my next admission - ladies and gentlemen, My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m snap happy.

Around the end of 2010 my husband thought it would be a good idea to buy a very expensive DSLR camera - “I’ll use it heaps” he said, “Having it will make me want to use it and learn.” And you guessed it, he did nothing with it. Which was quite lucky for me, because left unattended I began tinkering...and I’ve never stopped. I’ll take photos of anything, my daughters block creations, a lovely nature shot, my dog, your dog and my daughter..so many of my daughter, in the numbers of around 500-1000 images a month. I’ve been slowly improving, becoming familiar with many of the settings and being able to manipulate things like light, focus and shutter speed.
Last year I joined the Manukau Photographic Society and that’s helped improved my images. I now boast 2 honours and 10 or so highly commended comments on my shots. It’s really hard being critiqued, especially on something so subjective because well...usually I’m the boss.

Which brings me to my next admission - toast masters (and guests), My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m bossy.

I always have been!from playing schools with my nana when I was a kid (I was the teacher of course) to now commanding the almighty vessel which is my household I have always been bossy. It does lend itself well to my chosen career of teaching. I’ve been teaching for 8 years now  - anywhere from Year 3 - 8, just don’t give me those New Entrants, they’re much more bossy than I am. For half of my teaching career I’ve been in middle management meaning I don’t just get to boss children around but teachers too!
Being married and having my beautiful daughter Leah has allowed me to be bossy at home too. My husband Damien and I were lucky enough to have our beautiful daughter in 2011 and she just lights up our life. She’s pretty bossy too... I wonder where she gets that from? I’m sure you’ll hear about them a whole lot more in speeches to come, along with our fur babies.

Which brings me to yet another admission - ladies and gentlemen, My name is Kate Clarke, and I’m an animal lover.

Over the years I’ve owned many pets - cats, too many to count, 2 guinea pigs name Romeo and Julian (Julian because he was a boy and I didn’t want to give him a complex), a rabbit, countless goldfish and even 3 mexican walking fish or axylotls (picture miniature eels with legs). Currently though we only have 2 fur babies residing at our house - Shakespeare, my 12 year old geriatric, prozac enhanced cat who’s been with me through thick and thin and our adorable, if not slightly stupid adolescent rottweiler Jake who loves stealing socks and undies and following Leah around in a love sick puppy fashion. I’ll tell you something for free, You can’t get a better family dog than a rottie.

So I hope these confessions have given you a brief insight inside my nerdy, photographed, bossy animal loving world.

And that brings me to my last admission - toast masters (and guests), My name is Kate Clarke, and my ice breaker is DONE!

Day 6: A song to match your mood

Don't worry! I haven't missed Day 5 off altogether, just skipped it for tonight, will be coming up I promise. No time tonight!

But def time for a song!

Day 4: Favourite photograph of your best friend

Day 4: You favourite photograph of your best friend.

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I have a few best friends. I don't have many 'friends' but the ones I have are here because they've stuck around and they actually make an effort.

My favourite favourites are Rachael, Nicola and Damien (of course!). Here are my fave photos of them.

I'm in the process of cleaning out my house currently (another of my 52 goals in 52 weeks). In this process I found a box a stuff I kept from when I was at high school - yearbooks, notes between friends, diaries and photos. In that I found a bunch of photos that I'd had taken with my friends in the sorts of booths you see at arcades. Basically it's, take photos, choose favourite, put in frame and embellishments, print. I love that I have these. I scanned them all, put them on facebook and had a huge laugh with the tagged people that were in them. This one of me and Rach is my fave. It shows how long we've been mates for and that we haven't really changed that much! Hah!

Nicola has been my friend FOREVER. We met each other when I moved from Clendon to Hill Park when I was 9 and was the only person who talked to me on my first day in a new school. For those 18 years that we've known each other I don't think we've ever had any major fights. We sometimes haven't seen each other for months on end but every time we get together it seems like no time has gone by. It's an effortless friend ship and for that Nicola, I thank you :).
Nicola LOVES Leah. She thinks she's adorable (don't we all) and it the best thing ever. I tell her she shouldn't say this until she's put up with screaming, stubborn Leah... but she doesn't believe it. There are lots of pics of Nicola and Leah like that that Nicky takes on her phone, this is my favourite.

And lastly, how could I forget my bestest friend. The one who knows me through and through and who I couldn't possibly live a day without. This photo was taken up north one year. I love us in it, I love how happy we are, I love how skinny we were(!!!) and I love how in love we look. LOVE.

Silent Sunday

Day 16: Can

Day 3: Your perfect date

Day 3: Your idea of the perfect date

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I'm am in all ways a homebody. I pretty much always have been. I have a few years around my later teens where clubbing was the big scene for a while but other than that, I've just enjoyed being home with the company of people that mean the most to me.

It is for this reason that my perfect date would be at home, so it most definitely wouldn't be a first date, that would be a bit weird - you have to meet on neutral territory for the first date, right? So at home, lots of good conversation, perhaps a movie on the TV at home (a scary one of course so I could feign being scared and get a cuddle, lol), or even a duel at Mario Kart or Mortal Kombat... now that would have to be a pretty awesome dude.

I always thought it would be good to have a date cook for me at home. Mr. Man cooks for me now and again but I was never cooked for on a date - always taken to a restaurant. I think that would be rather romantic.

I also always imagined that I'd end up with someone who lived far away from where I did... not sure why? But having married someone who has lived in the same place as me all his life didn't lend itself well to my third perfect date - being shown around an unknown city or showing someone around mine. Showing all my favourite places, and making some new ones together. That'd be lovely.

I really struggled with this topic. What would your perfect date be?

30 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 2

Day 2: Your favourite movie

I've written about this before... I can back link right? Pft, I make up the rules around here, of course I can back link - BOOM!

Pulp Fiction FTW!

And just like that, yet another daily blog post in the 30 day blogging challenge is complete.

30 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 1

In the hopes of blogging on a more consistent basis (which FYI is one of my 52 goals in 52 weeks) I plan to do another 30 day blogging challenge, perhaps more than one (another goal). I was pleasantly surprised by so many examples on the net that it was difficult to choose just one!

The first I have chosen to do has some really interesting but easy to blog about topics (videos/photos etc) so I thought I'd ease myself into it with this one. Here we go!

 Day 1: Your favourite Song.

I haven't reviewed my favourite song in a while, this has just always been my favourite song. I love Green day and this song, being entitled '86' is my birth year...gotta love that.

This is what the song means....according to the internet.

Apple and Banana Bread

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of this before my greedy guts husband gobbled it all up. Must be a testimony to how scrummy it is huh?

Apple and Banana Bread
125g Butter, chopped, at room temp
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1t baking soda
1/2 cup mashed banana
2 small green apples, peeled, cored, chopped
1/4 cup milk
Butter or spread to serve

1. Preheat the oven to moderate, 180 degrees celcius. Lightly grease a 10 bu 20cm loaf pan. Line base and sides with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Sift flour and soda together. Fold banana, three-quarters of apple and milk and flour mixtue into the creamed mixture until combimned.

4. Pour into pan, sprinkle with remaining apple. Bake for 55-60 mins, until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turining onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve sliced, spread with butter.

GOOP!

If you're looking for a great place for goop/gak recipes you should visit this website. I'm sure I'll be visiting there again.

We made the goop for Leah, and mumma had a blast playing with it, but as per usual, pretty Miss Leah wasn't that interested in getting messy.

I fully recommend making some goop for yourself your children to play with. It's really easy - 3 ingredients - and it's really cool. Fun for little ones like my girl to get messy with (she plays with it at daycare... maybe we need some other children around to get us into it) and it's a cool science conversation to have with your older children (solid of liquid).