It’s finally happening, 2023 approached it’s last week and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Table of Contents
Weekly report
Summer is finally happening. After coldish and rainy weeks, we reached the near 30°C mark on most days and I won’t get any hotter than this. Moreover, I was assigned as driver this week and after 2 months only automatic I was a little bit worried, but everything worked out. It’s just unusual shifting with my left hand.
On Thursday I even had to drive a small truck, this was an experience… There is no suspension, only typical leaf springs. Therefore, you have to pray that the driver cabin won’t rip apart at every small little bump and New Zealand is not known for good streets… The clutch was in a horrible shape too, because you could easily drive away with the 3rd gear. The handbrake was random too, if you got lucky it will release otherwise you have to nearly break your arm. It was a real fun time driving this movable object!
Christmas
Temperature 30°C, no snow, no Christmas cookies, no gingerbread and there are no real traditions in New Zealand. Because of this depressing state I wanted to spice things up. Therefore, I baked a traditional “Sachertorte”. It was safe to say, that I won’t find the chocolate I normally use and was forced to try all the different kinds of chocolate of New Zealand, to elect good bars.
After this crucial step, which I definitely did not enjoy, I proceeded with my standard routine and was devastated in scrambles from the final result. After baking my dough, I only had around half the normal height, even though I didn’t change anything. Defeated, I gone to the shop for more eggs, butter and chocolate. During the second baking session I saw my critical oversight. Sadly, the quality of the seals from the oven is around minus 1.5; because that’s the open gap in cm after closing it…
Naturally the second dough was as low as the first, but now I had two halves and proceeded with the chocolate icing. I’m curious about the taste.
It is what it is, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Birth of Christ, Sol Invictus, Yule etc. and a Happy New Year!
