Anzac Day

Anzac Day. Baked Anzac biscuits. Remembered.

Spanish Degustation Dinner

Think Spanish wine and, chances are, you're not going to think very long. In New Zealand, we usually drink wine from New Zealand and Australia. In South Africa, we drink South Africa, French and Australian. In Poland, we drink vodka.

And yet, Spain is the third largest wine producer in the world, after France and Italy. Did you know that? I didn't. Just one of the many things I learnt at last night's dinner, a lavish 6-course affair with Spain's cooking, matched with Spanish wine.

My favourite dish was probably a goat cheese croquette with Iberico de Bellota ham (made from free-ranging black pigs fed on a diet of acorns). I liked the Chardonnay matched with it, but my favourite wine of the evening was Papa Luna Garnacha / Shiraz. There's just something about Shiraz, no matter where it's made...

All of this at our local restaurant, an easy walk from the house. Next time, we'll leave the car at home, even if it rains. Five small glasses of wine may not put me over the legal driving limit, but I certainly felt the buzz!

Go Forth And Hibernate

April in New Zealand means the first breath of winter. The air is still warm, the leaves only starting to turn from green to gold, but my body is telling me it's time to fatten up and go to sleep. For real!

The urge to lie on the sun-drenched sofa is overwhelming. With a strong cup of tea and a biscuit. And perhaps a book I've read before, so I don't mind if my eyelids get droopy and I... drift off... to Nap Land....

Yawn. See you next week. Maybe.

I do want to tell you about this thought-provoking novel, Save Me. But today, I'm a bear.

Operation: Genocide - the blurb

An inhuman agenda…

In 1982, Annette Pretorius lives a life of privilege afforded to those of European descent in South Africa, but when her husband is murdered, she discovers a shattering secret: he’d been commissioned by the whites-only South African government to develop a lethal virus aimed at controlling the growth of the black population--already oppressed under the cruel system of apartheid.

A clandestine organization…

The murder came with a warning to Annette from a secretive organization: keep our secrets or you too will die. Captain Trevor Watson, Annette’s former boyfriend, is appointed to lead the investigation. Watson’s loyalty is tested as the evidence stacks against his high school sweetheart.

And the killing isn’t over yet…

When the investigation points in a terrifying direction, Annette and Watson face a wrenching choice: protect those they love or sacrifice all to save innocents from racial extermination.   Operation: Genocide by Yvonne Walus. Coming out soon from Stairway Press.