I tried marmite... meh... 8/30/2011

Tried marmite. Not very good...

Tuesday morning began with a visit from Win, a family friend of the Robson’s. Win is a unique elderly lady with lots of personality. Before she even presented herself we heard from outside on the patio, “So where are those Yanks!?!” It was pretty great. Win brought some New Zealand apples for me and Julia and took a couple of pictures with us. She then told us stories while we had hot drinks. When asking Ellie’s mom what the agenda was for the day, and hearing that we were going to visit the clay brick factory, her response was, “Shiiit, Can’t you take them somewhere more interesting?” Personally, I thought the brick factory was pretty cool, we saw the last batch of bricks being cut for the day and the best part was the brick moving machine named Luigi. Luigi wore sunglasses and a sombrero.

Luigi

Pile of reject bricks

After the brick factory, we went to have a late lunch, where I had a butter chicken pie and apple pie. Both were delicious. I also got a ginger beer (ginger ale) in hopes that it would help my aching throat. It did, after much fizzy pain. Then my throat went numb for a while. We then went grocery shopping as we were having a family dinner that night.

When we returned, Ellie’s dad had come home from work and after introducing ourselves he took us on his tractor to go feed the cows. This was where all the fun began. We rode on the back of the tractor while we went through their farm to the cows. I learned that Ellie’s family is considered “hobby farmers” because they have a relatively small farm, something like 25 acres. To me, this was the biggest farm I had ever seen. Also, it was the most moo cows I have ever seen up close.  We threw bundles of hay for the cows. Then Julia got to drive the tractor. A little while later it was my turn to drive. Joy! There is not driving on the left or the right or anything, it was driving in the CENTER! Also, tractors are much like driving manual and I have only ever driven automatic, but it wasn’t too bad after the initial lurch. I got to drive back to the house where we then met Ellie’s sisters, Rachel and Venita, and their husband and boyfriend. We then had a lovely dinner with beef and veggies, and blueberry and apple cake with boysenberry ice cream. After they left, Ellie’s mom made me some Lemsip tea and we headed to bed soon after.