Month: January 2005

The Work Christmas Doo 2004

(Yes, January is awfully late for a Christmas function. The Work Christmas Doo 2003 didn’t happen until April.)

I went quad-biking (sorta – I rode with the guy who was leading our group) and clay-pigeon shooting (missed them all) and archering (I hit the target circle!) and petanque’ing today with the guys from work.

I hurt all over. But that’s the way things go sometimes.

We did stop off at the Paekakariki lookout, though; and that was pretty nifty.

roots

Ooh.

I’m going to go see the Kronos Quartet performing in March. I’d forgotten to tell the world, since I bought my Dad a ticket for Christmas, and didn’t want to mention it until after then…

From chambermusic.co.nz:
The Kronos’ programme is a selection of ‘eclectic and electrifying’ world music.

Hindi film music maker Rahul Dev Burman is known for introducing an era of electronic rock to the Hindi film scene in the 1960’s. Kronos performed one of Burman’s compositions, Aaj Ki Raat, on their Caravan CD released in 2000. The quartet will perform an arrangement of four of his pieces, ‘Suite’ on their New Zealand tour next year.

The group will also perform a piece by young composer Alexandra du Bois. Twenty three year old Alexandra was the first recipient of the quartet’s prize for up and coming composers, the Kronos: Under 30 Project.

The quartet are known as supporters of minimalist music, and will perform a piece by American composer Steve Reich (which includes pre recorded backing tracks by Kronos).

Other highlights of the programme include ‘Myself when I am real’ by the jazz great Charles Mingus, ‘Potassium’ by rock music fan Michael Gordon (written especially for the group), and ‘Oasis’ by Azerbaijan composer and pianist Franghiz Ali-Zadeh.

Coyote

I see Rouge

The lovely and charming Cyrus and I went out to dinner this evening. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that. He’d wanted to go to Maria Pia’s; but alas, they are closed for renovations at the moment. Instead, we went to the relatively new Rouge on the corner of Cuba and Vivian.

To start, we shared the bread+dips. This was more impressive than it sounds. First, the bread – there were all sorts of types of bread – lightly toasted, wholemeal, and a couple of types of white bread. The dips, on the other hand, were presented wonderfully – circular dishes of a pesto, a beetroot based dip, crushed olives, yogurt+cucumber and diced tomatoes; with a dish of olive oil balanced in the middle.

With the dips (and our main courses), we each had a glass of wine. Cyrus went with a Viognier (Shelmer ’03? can’t really tell too much from the receipt(!)), where I went with a Melbus Estate ’01 Merlot. The merlot was lovely and fruity.

For the main course; Cyrus had Chicken ‘n’ Tequila, which came with carrots and leeks; and a verjuice and lime jus. He seemed to be pleased with it. I had poached veal loin on a potato confit with a saffron and chilli vinaigrette. The veal was just delicious, as was the confit. The vinaigrette I could take or leave.

Between the main and dessert, we had cocktails. Cyrus went with a golden margarita which was very nice as margaritas go; but much too salty for my liking. I chose the Apple+Vanilla sour which was suprisingly sweet. As a nice decorative touch, both cocktails were served with rose petals floating on top.

For dessert, Cyrus had Kapiti ice-cream. You can buy it at the supermarket, so it’s not too exotic. I went with a Toffee Pop mascarpone cheesecake. Mmmm. The cheesecake had a really smooth texture; and was drizzled with a sticky caramel sauce; and decorated with strawberries and rasperries.

All in all, it was a wonderful meal, and would certainly go again given the opportunity.