s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Last weekend was cinco de mayo. In celebration there was a big Mexican food feast. Emily was our lovely and very skilled cook. The event was hosted at her friends house in Newlands, as while Emily has mad-keen cooking skills, she also has a small apartment that would explode if we put 12 people in it.

We picked up fixings for Sangria on the way over, and it was most appreciated. Also thematic and festive.

Emily has dicovered a Mexican food supply store (in Dunedin I think) that provides great tortillas, and a pre-made Mole sauce that was fantastic. We may try ordering some tortillas from them, as they are better than any of the store-bought variety.

Many of the people there were employees (and partners thereof) of CYFs. That is the government agency Child Youth and Family. The power of immigration was also well represented, as only 6 of the 12 there were native-born Kiwis. The rest were mainly american (5), with on Brit. Justin was the most recent arrival, having come from the States only 10 weeks ago.

When we told Justin that we raise llamas and alpacas he had a very amusing anecdote. “I met a llama once before- it ate my cellphone.” This required more explanation! Apparently he was out in the paddock back in the States, cellphone in had. The llama decided that it looked tasty, grabbed it, and took off. After much low-speed chasing (a llama can prevent you from getting close at a walk quite comfortably) the llama eventually got bored and spat out the phone. A combination of camelid mastication and drool killed the cell phone most completely.

The next amusing element to the story was Justin explaining the call for the insurance claim. “No, I am not making this up! If I were going to make up a story, would it be this one?!”

Always interesting to know what peoples first encounters were like! :)