The Anniversary Express.....................

It's our 44th Anniversary today. (written 9/01/17) We've been married for 44 years and I've known Jeanne for about 46. How is that possible? 

And here we are sharing our daughter's and grandsons' lives in New Zealand, for almost six years!  It's incredible. 

My plan for this post is to share our interesting day with all of you. We changed our plans to suite the whims of fortune, then filled our day with walking and shopping, and had a great time through it all. 

Come along with us...

This first picture might appear to be rather boring. It shows an almost empty train, right? But it's a very special train. It's the 'Anniversary Express'. Let me explain... 

We had planned to take the 9:55 a.m train from Sturges Road. When we arrived at barely 9:50, this train was already arriving. Although I wondered how I could had misunderstood the train schedule that I had just looked up, we naturally hopped aboard. At the very next stop, in Henderson, the conductor got on the PA and announced that this train would not be stopping at any station until Newmarket and that all passengers who wanted to get off at any stop before Newmarket must get off now and wait for the next train, which was due in just five minutes. Most people got off. We stayed. 

I asked the conductor if this was going to be a daily occurrance or if this was a special occassion. He told me it was a one-time event. He said this train had had a problem at the end of the previous run, and had missed it's return run. It was however, required by the schedule to catch up and be ready to make another run from Britomart soon. Therefore, it would made a non-stop run to Newmarket. Woohooo! 

Here it was our 44th Anniversary, and we were being treated to an express train ride! (and for free of course) Jeanne felt that this little bit of good fortune meant something and that we should 'go with the flow' so to speak. Our original plan for the day had been to go to the Federal deli in Auckland for lunch, but we altered that and now planned to go to the Russian deli Skaska in Newmarket first, to search out interesting treats, and then on to Maison Vauron for lunch. 

We had a great ride. Normally, the trip to Newmarket would have taken about 45 minutes. Today, on our express, it took only 20. It was so much fun sailing past all those platforms along the way at speed. 

Off the train now, we went to the deli by way of the Asian market block where we stopped at a fruit stand and bought a bag of longans. 

More about these later...

Look what I saw just outside the deli. I've never seen an Alfa Romeo before. (Fiat is now the parent company of this Italian sportscar.)

Cool

There are some foods that I never thought that I'd try. This next item was one of them. Now, it's not as though I ever consciously thought about wanting to try it. It's just that, come on, what are the chances? Whales eat that stuff. Not Yoopers.  And yet...

Here is a container from Skaska, of krill in a cream sauce. It turns out that many countries do harvest krill, under licenses issued by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic  Marine Living Resources, CCAMLR. Norway harvests the most. The cream sauce is very slightly sweet and smokey and quite good on a cracker. The krill themselves are chewy and shrimp-like in taste. 

 We stopped next at a wine and liquor store and look what I found. A bottle of scotch that costs $1,120.00. Unbelievabel. 

We've been walking for a while now and deserve a chance to sit down and have some lunch. As you see, it's a nice day and the windows of Maison Vauron are open. Should we sit at the shelf-like table in front of the window for our lunch? The spring-like weather makes it tempting. Nah, we'd have to sit on stools with no back rests. Turns out that our 'regular table' was unoccupied, so we settled in to our accustomed places. 

Mmmmmm, Jeanne breathes a sigh of relief as she settles down into her chair. What's for lunch today I wonder?

I wanted something I had never tried before, so I settled on the black pudding with foie gras. It's way too pricey for an 'everyday' sort of lunch, but today is a very special one. And I  have always wondered what foie gras was like.  Jeanne decided on a sandwich and salad. 

Hmmm. The serving is miniscule. Well, it was tasty, and the foie gras was very good, but I don't think I'll order this little bitty bite again. 

Jeanne's grilled sandwich was more like it. 

Back at home again, we looked at the treasures we had brought home to share with Allie and the boys. 

We brought home, as we always do, some bread, brie, pate and sausage. Both boys will probably try the bread and cheese. I think Amiri will like it. Arram may find the cheese a little weird because it is soft. We adults will enjoy the duck pate and sausage. 

The boys are united in hating any sort of mushroom and will not eat them. When I saw these at Skaska though, I knew I had discovered the one mushroom they would make an exception for. Turned out later that I was right. There was also a white chocolate version that I brought home as well. 

The longans have a very thin shell that you can tear open with a finger nail, but it's quicker to snip a bunch of them with a scissors, then peel back the shell with your fingers. They remind me of a peeled grape, but one that is rather crunchy and with a different sort of taste. It's sweet, but like nothing else I can think of. Good though.

In Cantonese they're called 'dragon eye.' 

Finally, to round off our day of celebration, we took the family out to eat at Sal's Pizza. We had a cheese pizza, chicken wings and knots, Sal's garlicy little balls of happiness. (the boys think so) And later an order of deep-fried cheese sticks, just to finally top off the appetites of our two young eating machines.

What an amazing day it was. I found myself almost pinching myself twice. The first time, as I shared a very unique lunch with Jeanne, my best friend for most of my life. And the second time when I got up to take this picture at Sal's and realized how good it felt to be here.     -djf