Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing.
Positivity is a real booster to well-being
When I started putting together this In reviews blog over a year ago I thought it would be great to look at news stories, good and bad, and put a spin on them and give each one a score of zero to five stars. After a while I ditched the bad because in all truthfulness it’s too easy – there’s just so much of it. As I research online each week I spend scores of hours reading online news across various platforms and some days it’s too much. Death, guns, kidnapping, war, fraud, thievery, hypocrisy, lying, swindling, deception, politics, inflation, house prices: you get the idea.
The reality is that negativity dominates online news and we spend so many hours each day ingesting it and it matters. It has an effect. So I then search and search for tales that I hope will raise a smile, lift a spirit, because I really believe that positivity is contagious. I used to think that was a myth but now, if I feel down I know the people to call or contact who I know can supply a germ of wisdom or encouragement that can help me find a positive perspective. Refusing to read all the negative news stories also helps, trust me.
Positivity – 5 stars, always!
Custard square champion revealed
When I think back on my childhood, like all of us, I have to think of just how much the world has changed and how much, at the time, we never thought that it would. The 1970s in my mind were an easy unfettered time of freedom, and more than that, home baking.
Now I fully comprehend that not every mum filled tins with caramel square, mint slice, afghans, belgian biscuits, melting moments, and lolly cake. Not every mum baked, maybe some dads did. Though to be fair, I never witnessed that. What I remember and it may not be accurate, were after school times at pals houses raiding their baking tins that were always filled with the very best that Kiwi home baking had to offer. Top of the list and rare to find were chocolate eclairs and the holy grail – custard squares. Obviously they would be in the fridge because of the dairy components, right? Well, think again. In the 1970s before food hygiene was invented, all you needed to ward off foodborne diseases of any kind was a damp rag of some sort to drape over the top of your dairy filled treats.
I digress and this really is the longest segue in to the point I wanted to make. New Zealand’s top custard square has been crowned. I knew I’d get there at some point. This year’s top gong was shared by two bakeries – New Plymouth’s Piccolo Morso’s and Waikato’s Volare Bread. You can read all about it here and there’s even pictures of very, very impressive custard squares.
However, I can now justify my rather wordy initial segue. To my mind nobody will ever beat the custard squares my mum made for us when we were kids. It wasn’t a usual offering but it was surely appreciated when it was made.
5 stars – baked at home or professionally – Kiwis are fantastic bakers.
Pub saved from fire by quick thinking locals . . . and beer
When I read this tale I was convinced I’d heard it before, in a country song. Maybe there’s a song about it, maybe not. if not, there definitely should be. So, fire broke out at the Seddonville Hotel, on the West Coast of the South Island yesterday and while the publican raced to alert the local fire brigade. ingenious locals opened up bottles of beer and started to tame the fire themselves.
“By the time the firefighters arrived back on site, the fire was almost out thanks to quick thinking from locals. ‘Our industrious locals actually got bottles of beer… actually opening bottles of beer, shaking them, and putting the fire out.’ Granity, Waimangaroa, and Westport brigades also attended the blaze. Before they arrived, Seddonville firefighters doused the hot spots.
“Dean White, who manages the Seddonville Hotel, told Checkpoint the fire started after a gas fault. He said they used about half a dozen crates of beer to douse the fire in the corner. ‘But the poor bugger that was grabbing them from the chiller, I didn’t like the look on his face, he was a bit sad every time he passed a full beer out, he wasn’t too happy but we got the result we needed. ‘If they had not done it, they would have lost the pub,’ he said.” (Source: “Locals use beer to help put out fire at Seddonville Hotel,” 16th July, www.rnz.co.nz).
5 stars – a great story and an even better song, one day!
