Damn weekends

I reckon that, until I'm retired, this is the last time I'm going to have the luxury of disliking weekends intensely. Here's why:

1. At the weekend, no recruiters are working on my behalf, no businesses are working on job descriptions. Things stop.
2. At the weekend, the shops are full of people
3. And so are the roads
4. For some reason, I'm still in the habit of doing less at the weekend than I did in the week, with the result that my weekends are practically catatonic

This Friday we took a mini road trip to Hamilton, taking the opportunity of a friend's birthday to get out of Auckland for a night. The town being one week away from freshers' week, there was an air of expectant hope in the bars and restaurants, the calm before next week's storm I think. Dinner was great, the comedically bad waiter actually serving as a sort of entertainment in itself, and the pizzas mercifully free of jam, fruit and so on, something I'm grateful for every time it happens here.

Yesterday, I built our new barbeque, how butch is that? Tools and everything. I'm pleased to say it went up just within the alloted one hour's construction time, and although it was a bit rainy last night so we didn't use it (it hasn't got a hood, yet), I think it's reasonably sound. I'm going to christen it tonight with a couple of lamb leg steaks that have been nestling in some smoked paprika, garlic, red wine vinegar and olive oil all afternoon, should be a worthy first dish.

I've noticed a degree of curiosity people have over here for the relationship between the English and barbeques. I suppose it's the same intrigue we have for an African who's never seen the snow - a sort of 'have you ever used one of these before' attitude and a slight puzzlement that someone could have attained the age of 31 without using one regularly. It's true - I wasn't brought up with one and I'm still getting to grips with it, and it's always irritated me that there's a whole school of cookery that I've never really been anywhere near, so it's good to have the opportunity. One of the things I'm keen to try is ribs - cooked under the hood (once we get one) for hours until they're meltingly tender.

I've also noticed that in the time since we've been here, I haven't noticed one female going anywhere near one. Barbeques is men's business.

So that's where we are right now. Oh - I'm currently reading Brillat-Savarin's classic 'The Physiology of Taste', translated by the amazing M F K Fisher. I don't think I've had this much fun reading a book in quite some time.