First full day in Rome and we try to be kid friendly

This is the first trip we have taken without a trusty buggy for Teagan. Our travel style is very much of the wandering style, absolutely unsuited to small leg - especially as we do hours of it! For this trip we decided to not 'wander'; we aimed to get to our destination with public transport and then explore the target. This objective was NOT achieved, neither Ross or I could pull ourselves away from the wander and we did it for 10 hours! And yes, Teagan could not manage it!

Our highlights were making it through the Forum and the Colosseum. The immensity was what took me. For Ross was the bringing to life of schoolboy Latin and classics and for Teagan is was the apparent viewing of the Pope and riding the streets of Rome with a long mum cuddle (my Kathmadu jacket turns in a fabulous child carrier if tied on the right way, discovered a couple elf years ago as we walked the Cornish coast in the UK).

As for other points of note; yet again our NZ passports saw us right. Not only are they admired for their security features in many airports, in Rome, they were not admired, touched, opened, inspected at all. As soon as the immigration saw they were NZ we were directed through without even placing them on the counter! And credit were credit is due, the disorganized airport in all ways was our fastest exit ever!

Now I had better sneak back up to the room. Ross and Teagan are still sleeping and my cup of tea is nearly cold.

Location:Rome

Lunch box battles...

Lunch has been a battle for Teagan.  It is not about being fussy and not liking food, rather, it is a time issue.  It seems that she just can't finish her food in the super duper absolutely short time they are given to eat their food; thirty minutes is just not enough!

After quite contemplation and web search ideas, I came up with a plan.  Essentially the same lunch as previous but a bit more incentive provided and rules outlined.  As a side, I was not too impressed with many of the packed lunch boxes displayed via USA based blogs: the boxes seemed to contain plenty of processed meat, cheese and other items that I am not so keen on.  Hence, we have agreed that Teagan likes the current food, she just wants more pasta!

The rules are: eat the main item (sandwich or pie etc) at least either the fruit or vegetable serve before eating the "sweet" serve.  If it is eaten for both days prior then the choosing day is earned in full, if not then she either gets half of her item choices or none.  The same goes for pasta day, she only gets it if she eats the pie day according to the rules.

Success?  Mostly.  We had one slip up where she skipped her Monday fruit and vegetable serve due to not having enough time, accordingly she didn't get all of her choice items for the Tuesday.  But for the other four days she has eaten everything within the time allocation. It seems she is not mucking around as much!!

Note: the box displayed is ONLY for lunch.  The children eat their lunch at 11.00am (school starts at 7.20am).  At 9.30am they get to eat a morning snack that I pack separately and is merely a variation in miniature of the lunch (mini sandwich and piece of broccoli, or cheese and fruit etc)

The menu: Tuesday is "you choose day".

The new lunch bag: Dad has inherited her old one: this way her lunch stays upright as she carries it over her shoulder.  This way she can have her silly sandwiches and other bits and pieces and they "don't get broken".

Sunday: Meat sandwich day (wholemeal bread with roast beef leftovers rolled inside) with a small banana muffin (thanks to a very old recipe), small cut banana with the ends wiped in lemon juice to stop them browning and of course the trusty steamed broccoli.

Monday: Tuna sandwich day

Mayonaise: 1 egg yolk to 120 ml of sunflower oil plus salt and mustard

Brioche: the easy way

Rice bubble slice (NZ honey, butter, sugar and ricies)  instead of muesli bars (cut quite small)

Tuna sandwich: brioche with homemade mayonaise, lettuce and tuna

Tuesday: you choose day so she chose pumpkin soup and a sandwich!!

Wednesday: pie day (bacon and egg).  The pastry is homemade using butter - no palm kernel oil anywhere near it, we are saving the orangutangs by saving their jungle!

Thursday: the highlight day with pasta YUM a dish of cold pasta with some small beef meatballs, rice bubble slice and steamed broccoli (a favourite)

The cat did it !!

Once upon a time there was a plate of Peppermint Creams on the bench.  Apparently, Raisin the cat ate most of them.  Teagan claimed it was the cat (meanwhile the evidence remained on her face) and Ross claimed the same thing.  Never mind, I was told, "you can make more because they taste really good".

Welcome to Simon Rimmer's (BBC food) Peppermint Creams (click here for the recipe).  As good, if not better than, Cadbury's After Dinner Mints.

Oh, and yes, there is now peppermint food oil available at Mega Mart!

A week at home...

"Normally" (for Qatar) you would leave the country if you had a decent break from work or school.  We have decided to stay in Qatar for our shorter breaks primarily because Teagan LOVES just being at home.  


The week had quite a few activities in it.  For me: de cluttering (I do hate shifting house so if I am permanently low on extra items then surely I will be problem free at some point in the future), and rejigging the my active company (of which, I am the Director, oh, yes, the only employee so also the tea lady and general dogsbody). For Teagan, it had a set of "challenges", copious amounts of art, sleep overs / play dates.  

The company is quite a chunk of work.  For the properties, the week has been challenged with balancing the increasing rental market with improvements.  We are putting down new carpet and repainting the interior of the central auckland property.  I have been choosing carpets (demanding 100% wool, thankyou very much) using swatches on-line.  Our property manager is just fabulous and so in touch with the central auckland relocation/executive market that it does make choices a bit easier.  And then, as usual, I have been burying myself in spreadsheets and interim company reports as the reporting season opens.  Not to be forgotten, the NZ tax year finishes at the end of March so I dread the pulling together of material for the accountant and off it all goes to our friendly IRD for the NZ properties.


Ross and I have been at a wits end on what to do with "The Kid".  Living away from close friends and family means you loose the wisdom of those who have tread there before you.  It seems we lost the instruction manual geared towards 6 & 7 year olds and we have vague memories of Nigel Latta's, Politically Incorrect Parenting Show.  I am sure that Nanny 911 would be proud of us as we combine the negative reinforcement with the positive reinforcement but in reality, the only success we get is from the negative angle; Teagan seems to be fairly well self-motivated so she just gets on with doing it herself.  Money, praise, outings etc make little difference to her drive; that said, challenges do work for a visible reward.  We now have a girl that can tie her own shoelaces!


Safety in cars has been a constant battle for us.  Teagan remains a small but proportionally balanced child; technically this means she is best in a 5 point harness.  We did move her into a lap sash belt in a full backed booster in our car and two weeks ago she graduated out of the "baby seat" in Claudio's car.  She now weighs in at a tad over 16 kg and has successfully grown out of many of her clothes including casual footwear.  So we have a big girl in our midst wearing her lap sash belt and wearing some new clothes!


During the week I managed to finalise many of our travel details for the next six months.  Italy has been prepared featuring (only) Rome, Pompeii, Capris and the Amalfi Coast.  And New Zealand is a near repeat of last year with a final week in Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast Australia.  Thankfully we have time now to recover the credit card from its state of airfare decimation!

Then on to the quiet times.  Knitting has been prevalent in the house along with some historical documentaries.  I am forever thankful that I persisted with learning the continental knitting method as my (well actually Teagan's) current fairisle design is progressing rapidly.  That said, I am not sure if the colours are the ones I would have chosen - but I am not the designer!  I think progress has  also been fast as Ross and I are embedded in a BBC series called "Empire of the Seas".  Surely, we must be becoming experts in some areas of world history!  


So now, it is on and off.  A chicken roast dinner calls and I think whilst doing that I may reproduce one of the recipes found within a Thinking-outside-the-lunch-box article featuring a very dear family friend preparing school lunches with her three delightful children.

Fish and chips anyone?

Fish Balls and Buffalo chips

A lovely sky out walking around the compound

Thursday nights are fish and chip night at our house.  The food for this was easy for quite a while as I could source really good "fillet" fish fingers from Megamart (Sainsbury brand).  Haddock was the favourite.  But these fillets are now looking so hard to find and the alternatives are American and other brands that contain an element of fish; not fillets.  I set to for a few weeks battering fresh fillets.  This was a rather messy job with somewhat marginal results: just not worth the effort.  Finally, I have sorted out a fish meal that has been eaten with relish; plain and simple fish balls!


Last nights meal had buffalo chips rather than my normal straight cuts and again they worked well.  I cook the chips on a lightly oiled tray in a hot oven - keeps the fat content low!


P.S  excuse any poor spelling...I am over it and any good spelling I did have once has been sadly destroyed by my more youthful family members (yes, Kara, I blame you!)

Simple happiness and a recipe....

Sausage rolls for dinner

Simple happiness is what I have scored this week.  I sometimes wonder why I do not "want" to go back to the corporate life and often ponder on the conundrum.  In reality, my career was fun and it did have its challenges, its travel and its money but it did not give me anywhere of the creative, loving  and intellectual rewards that I have achieved in my current role.  My career gave me great preparation: yes, I can work the international financial markets, yes, I kind of have, sort of, have gripped a concept on the world of food and I can organise us within an inch of "not cleaning the oven".  Heck, we get to eat butter based puff pastry sausage rolls with cheese thingamies made by Teagan - beat that!

Mates!

Helping with the sausage rolls and her own pastry creation

Sausage rolls

Creating

Teagan's creation tasted fabulous!

Best uniform for photo day (skort now above her knees and shoes still too big!!)

Ahhhh, normality

Vienna Boys Choir

There is just no way, no way at all that I can possibly not go to see the Vienna Boys Choir.  Yes, it is a school night but surely...so yes we did!  Great seats, a nearly packed house, a well behaved child, and a mere NZD50 per seat - what else can I say!

Those that know Teagan will be well aware that she can sleep anywhere.  Sleep she did, three quarters of the way through the programme the little madam settled herself down on the exceptionally comfortable seats, only to wake up in protest at being placed in her own bed and not in the warmth of ours!