Curry Down Under

This morning was quite grey and overcast and turned into rain in the afternoon. It held off long enough for us to visit a car boot sale and a couple of garage sales we noticed on the way back. Alas there wasn't much on offer and I'm far from convinced that the Kiwis have fully appreciated the full range of sad old tat you're supposed to try and offload at these affairs. We managed to pick up a few plates and mugs which should tide us over until the container arrives.

For a change, we didn't look at any houses today. I say for a change but the the truth of the matter is that the real estate/rental sector seems to shut down at the weekend which is kind of bizarre as you might think that those who were working and thus able to afford houses would only have the weekend to look at things. Hmmm.

I suggested to Di that we tried the curry spot across the road, so we bought pizza and garlic bread for the kids. Rhiannon and I fell out over a single solitary mouthful of garlic bread which apparently I wasn't allowed to eat.

We wandered over to Mumbai Masala. The first culture shock was the poppadoms. In the UK they're the size of dinner plates. Over here they're the size of saucers. Argh! The usual assortment of chutneys and pickles was much the same as the UK, except for the "kechumber" which had to be ordered separately. The description of "Diced onions, tomatoes, cucumber with a touch of lemon juice & spices" didn't include the carrot that seemed to have taken the place of the onion, and it was indeed diced as opposed to sliced, rather coarsely. The other worrying thing was that having selected Kadai Chicken from the menu, I was asked how hot I wanted it. Not good. That's not something I've ever experienced in the UK, and rather blows any of the subtleties of the dish right out of the water if you ask for it to be laced with chili. I just asked that the chef season it as it was intended to be. The food itself was fine when it arrived, Di's korma meeting with approval and the Kadai chicken being spicy without inducing a torrent of sweat. Total cost including 4 Cobras was $84 (£35).

Following the curry we nipped across to the Rain Bar to watch the All Blacks hammer the Wallabies 33-6. I found this particularly satisfying as Di was unable to cheer for Australia as she was surrounded by bevvied Kiwis. She was just paranoid though, there were a couple of blokes sat there in Wallaby shirts, so she had no reason to keep quiet - although there was in fact nothing to cheer about as they played like a bunch of girls and never looked threatening at all.