Cruel and Unusual Geography

Half our household is on a hardly-ever-have-gluten diet. It probably should be a gluten-free diet, but once in a while it’s a treat to have “normal” fish and chips, or have a bowl of breakfast cereal that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

While it’s possible to buy all sorts of gluten-free breads these days, it is expensive, and other (more severe) allergies make many breads unsuitable. We often bake our own, and have tried a number of different recipes and pre-mixes. Recently I’ve been experimenting, and have come up with a recipe that my son describes as “weird, but really nice”. It is a moist loaf with pretty good (for gluten-free bread) keeping qualities and a mildly nutty taste. (My son is anaphylactic to several types of nut, so never gets to taste them. That’s probably why this bread tastes odd to him.)

Here’s how I make it: Continue reading

Yes, I know it’s not a competition, but it’s still nice to hear when one’s kids do well. My kids raised over $300 dollars for World Vision each in the recent 40 Hour Famine.

I’m especially proud of my 7-year-old daughter, who raised more than any other child at our church, and was 4th overall. And at something over $8600 we apparently raised more than any other church in New Zealand.

But I’m not competitive.

I like maps. Especially old maps. Especially old maps of places I know.

Just the other day I came across an old book of maps on TradeMe. It was issued by the A.A. quite a while ago — long enough ago that it predates publishers annotating maps with the date they were drawn. The maps inside are in good condition, although the cover shows evidence of a life in a grubby glove box.

Although there’s no direct evidence of the date of publication, there are enough clues in the maps themselves that I could probably pin it down reasonably well. These are artifacts that someone from New Zealand, especially the areas I’m familiar with, will be aware of. Here are some of the things I’ve noticed:

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