As I sit here having my traditional first cappuccino of the day, I'm thinking I should write something about this beverage that brings so much pleasure to me day in and day out.

I start my morning off with a cappuccino made with coffee from hummingbird coffee (an absolutely wonderful drop). As an aside, I buy their house blend, which is called Italian Espresso, and I just found out last weekend that about a 1/3 of this blend is made up of Ethiopian Harrar beans - which apparently is the best coffee bean in the world! No wonder it's so nice! I also make it in my Bialetti stove-top espresso maker (Moka Express) which gives me a sense of satisfaction as well :). Then it's just a matter of heating a half cup of milk in the microwave for about 1 minute 10s, plunging the milk about 10x in a coffee plunger and 'wa la' you've got a vundabar cappuccino to guzzle. Speaking about cappus, I've just finished my 1st, time for a top up.

Had the Circuit Overseer's visit this past week. It was a really nice week but was at the same time sad 'cos Sandy Pannell's mum is dying of leukemia. She has already gone on a morphine pump, so she hasn't got long to go. I also had my first meetup with a guy who has asked for a Bible study. He is a maori guy called Nuka and I'm looking forward to going through the Require brochure with him.
Miho is also going up to Auckland today to pick up our Chihuahua puppy (a.k.a. Chocolat). So they'll be pictures to come and also lots of laughs.

This past weekend was vundabar. On Friday night we had dinner at a friend's house and had some culinary delights from the sea. This friend + family are keen fishermen. Check this out for an awesome spread:

• Appertiser - smoked trout & cream cheese on crackers, steamed mussels.
• Main - cooked crayfish, battered blue cod, some South African curry (hot, hot, hot) + rice, a meat dish of sorts, nice salad, and wine to wash it all down.
• Desert - pavlova, chocolate mousse (this was a killer), ice cream, and fruit salad.

It still makes the mouth water when I think of it now. Ahhh sweet memories.
Then on Sunday we had some Japanese friends over and had nabe. Apparently it means pot and it implies you cook it in (you guessed it) a pot in the middle of the table with your friends & family gathered round. It was fun, though we had sheep's heart in one of the dishes & it was edible but 'really' chewy?! Tough hearted beasts :)

Today I spent most of the day trying to find an ISP in New Zealand that will give me a sub-$100 high speed ADSL connection including a static IP address. Is it too much to ask? Well apparently so. Oh to be back in Japan where you pay about $50 a month for a flat-rate ADSL connection at 50Mbps! For those who are newbies to ADSL technology, most NZ ADSL connections are around 256Kbps! Oh well, such is life. We also spent some time finishing off a customer's website (http://www.minamiweddings.co.nz) and doing 'stuff'. Something else that was a highlight today - TheVirtual Ltd (and me, well as a founding member :) launched the New Zealand Zope User Group. Check it out at http://nzzug.org! Feel free to register and participate :)

The folks were down from Auckland last week and we went to Hanmer Springs last Friday for a day trip. We stopped at the Springs Deli Cafe for one of their famous arty coffees. I like to think of myself as 'a bit' of a coffee connoisseur and I thought their coffee was 'average' but the presentation was grand (as you can see).
Also, I went out and bought Nesian Mystik's CD last Saturday and had a good old laugh at their taking off of Samoans (I can laugh cos I'm half). The group is really talented, and it illustrates what islanders can achieve when they put aside their petty differences and combine their talents (much like the Pacific Island rugby team).

Yes, it's sayonara time, unfortunately. Today we went to Asahikawa & had the best ramen I have ever had in my life. It was called 'chashu shouyu ramen' & is basically slowly cooked pork in soy sauce soup. I tell you the pork was sooo tender it melted in your mouth (mmmmmm). We also went to Asahikawa Zoo which was interesting, especially the collection of animals from Hokkaido.

Its been a fun trip, & has been interesting seeing the way others in the world do things differently. It does make this world an interesting place to live.