Random wibblings

a fruit tree in our garden

Until a couple of weeks ago we had no idea what this tree was. We didn't even know whether its fruit was edible. So we asked around, and someone from one of the emigration forums told us that it's a tamarillo and yes, you can eat the fruit. When they're ripe they turn bright red, so this week, as soon as one of the fruits looked ripe enough, I tasted it. Tamarillos have the nickname 'tree tomatoes' and while their skin is red and they're full of soft pips, that's where the similarities end. They taste very bitter and unpleasant, so I think we'll be giving them away in a shoe box at the end of the drive. Our forum friends gave us a link to a website with lots of tamarillo recipes, but I can't see how any of the recipes will make the tamarillos more appetising (unless of course you substituted the tamarillos for another fruit entirely).

Since taking up running in February I've been in training for the Round the Bridges Fun Run, and with only two weeks to go before the race, I decided to run the actual course for the first time this morning. The course is 4.7 km (2.9 miles) and it took me 31 mintues to complete it. That's an average speed of only 9 km/h or 5.7 mph! Still, eleven weeks ago I couldn't even run for one minute without getting out of breath, so I'm still pretty pleased with what I've managed to achieve. The organisers have taken the bizarre decision to start the walkers and pram-pushers first, thus creating a potential bottleneck for the runners when they catch up with the pedestrians. At the speed at which I run I'm unlikely to be overtaking anybody, so getting caught up in the crowd shouldn't be a problem for me!

Iain has joined the local Community Patrol. It's a voluntary organisation which works with the police to make the town a safer place. The patrol has an unmarked car in which pairs of volunteers patrol the streets at night, alerting the police if they see anything suspicious. The police often ask the them to keep an eye on specific trouble spots. The patrols work on a rota basis, with each volunteer going out on an average of two nights a month. Iain went out on his first patrol last night, from 9 pm to midnight, and it sounds like he had a pretty interesting time. I'll let him describe it for himself because accounts are so much better when they're written from direct experience (and also because I was half asleep when he got back home last night and I can't remember what he told me!)

Next weekend, as part of the Maori language course Te Ara Reo Maori, I'm off on a Noho Marae - a 24 hour stay at a marae (Maori meeting house). Iain's not going, as he's dropped out of the course. It reminded him too much of being at work, and a three hour session once a week plus a couple of hours' homework is a pretty hefty time commitment, which he wasn't prepared to make. I'm keeping going with it, at least for the time being, because I'm enjoying it. The marae stay is bad timing, as it coincides with a yoga workshop I really wanted to go to. It also coincides with Pookie and Mo's 'big op', but I'm sure Iain will manage to cope with two groggy kittens for twenty-four hours. They'll probably cause a lot less trouble than they normally do!

Helen