It Looked Like The World Was Covered In A Cobbler Crust Of Brown Sugar And Cinnamon.

2 ripe bananas
2 free-range eggs
1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup broken walnut pieces
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 180oC
In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, pour into a silicon muffin tray, and top with some sesame seeds (for extra pizzaz). Bake until nice and golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Makes 12 littlies. (Mom’s recipe BTW)

What is it they say? Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life! HASHTAGblessed. 

Playing pizza pretend at work.
For my next DYKWTI (Do You Know What This Is?) Savvy Tokyo article: kinako smoothie bowl – stay tuned! 
Every guy thinks that every girl’s dream is to find a perfect man…WRONG, every girl’s dream is to eat anything she wants without getting fat!


Guess what? Mandy says vegan waffles coming to Utopia Hot (Christchurch Farmer’s Market) very soon! Though these regular organic waffles were the shizz as well – served with Black Boy peach and blueberry compote, whipped coconut cream, caramelized walnuts, and melted dark chocolate – yes, I may or may not have requested everythang.

Mona Vale is so beautiful. Thanks to my amazing brother-in-law for suggesting we walk it after the market. So lovely. So autumnal. So romantic.

Speaking of Autumnal, here’s a super easy seasonal activity for your little munchkins: collect leaves, decorate! 
And for Mother’s Day? An easy peasy tea-riffic (see what I did there?) 3D tea cup card made from a corner piece of a round egg carton and a curled pipe-cleaner. 
“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” (Washington Irving)

The Best Thing To Hold Onto In Life Is Each Other

Today I went to the Lyttleton Farmers’ Market with my mother. And she tried everything. She ate olives and smoked salmon (not together). She tried a piece of a Brussels waffle, a chunk of a cookie and a slice of apricot. At one point, her eyes failing her, she reached INTO a bowl of creamy hummus, which she mistook as the creamy interior of a clay bowl and picked at its garnish! Eventually God saved me (and the testers) for her precious legs began to hurt and her head started craving coffee. After our coffee break which also turned into our lunch break because all the sitting and relaxing made her empty stomach super hungry, I suggested we visit the beach. At the beach, we took a 20minute trail by the water and all I thought about there and then was how badly I wish Soroosh were with me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be ungrateful or anything but this long-distance thing is killing me.

Trust That All You Did Not Receive, All You Need Will Come To You In Time.

Dear readers, I apologise for my absence. I’ve been busy. Mostly catching up with old friends, helping out here and there and working on articles, job applications, short-stories and poetry! Gosh, I get myself so busy. And you? What’s new? Won’t you write to me? I’m getting sick of my own writing!

Look who it is!!! Come to visit their one and only beautiful daughter (Anita not me hehe). 

Mediterranean Food Company. If you haven’t been you’re missing out. The pizza is GOOD here and also the Mediterranean groceries! Including a large variety of sweets and gherkins from Turkey and of course, everything your stomach desires from Italy: fresh and dry pasta, olives, cheese, tomato sauces, and much more. 
Mmm salted chocolate and pistachio torte.

Walking in Victoria Park with my bestie.
Why she is my bestie.

Taking photos of Christchurch’s new Adventure Park. 
More to come once I sort my shizz.

Updates

Figuring out that being an adult and living the “adult life” isn’t easy. Or rather, when we reach a certain age, we tend to begin complicating things. Life is simple. Why do I allow myself to become so attached to society’s expectations of me? In the short space of a little over a month that I’ve returned, I’ve tried to do everything including: returning/creating a normal/non-traveller lifestyle, finding my dream job and planning for my future. Okay, so our visitors and our planned family-holiday in the mix were out of my say but everything else, I have personally cultivated. Don’t get me wrong, productivity is great but in the thick Persian accent of my mother, “mo-de-ration iz im-portant.” Life is percious and life is fleeting but like my brother-in-law once said, life is actually really long, too (if we’re lucky). Which means, I don’t have to find my dream job before a certain age. I don’t have to justify my life decisions. And making memories with my family and friends, looking after my well-being  and enjoying the day to day is what comes first. Currently trying to calm the frick down and do what makes my heart sing. Some of which include, baking delicious muffins, writing for Savvy Tokyo (new article HERE), and pursuing my “book a week” challenge.

2 free range eggs
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp sugar-free Barker’s apricot jam
1 cup almond flour
1 cup self rising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup unsweetened yoghurt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Handful of raw walnuts, chopped small
Some dark chocolate, chopped small
4-5 small apricots, chopped small
Mix everything together, pour slightly thick mixture into a greased muffin tray and bake at 160 degrees until fork comes out clean (about 25 min)
Book two, week two!

Our Japanese Guests’ Last Day

Breakfast at Strawberry Fare, walk at Taylor’s Mistake and afternoon relaxing at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. And just like that, we said sayonara.

Has the owners of Strawberry Fare changed? It wasnt as good as I remembered it…

One of Juri’s 10000 selfies.
My brother in law living on the edge. 
They said this pig reminded them of the Studio Ghibli animation, Spirited Away.Monkey love.

Leap And The Net Will Appear

Look auntie Pouneh(France), Dave and Maria(Spain) who love bicycles! This is my new ride for the summer.


Sweet strawberry picking with my sweet mama (and sweet family) in sunny Pleasant point.

That’s how you know you love someone, I guess, when you can’t experience anything without wishing the other person were there to see it, too. (Kaui Hart Hemmings)

Walnut flour crackers, Akaroa salmon and lots of Puhoi Valley NZ cheese. A throwback from our Persian-Kiwi Christmas lunch.

Much needed coconut water after a 9km ride after an 8 hour shift on a 30 degree day.


These last two are for baby Mia: Lifa and Aki’s beautiful newborn. My heart is overjoyed for you (especially OZ-kun).

Deep In My Soul I Know That I’m Your Destiny

Illustrations from Puuung.

Happiness [is] only real when shared. (Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild)

I look at you and a sense of wonder takes me. (Homer, translated by Robert Fagles)

What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary. (George Bailey, It’s A Wonderful Life)

He was my North, my South, my East and West, my working week and my Sunday rest. (W.H. Auden, Stop All the Clocks)

It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.” (Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita)

I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.  (Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood)

Because when I look at you, I can feel it. And I look at you and I’m home. (Dory, Finding Nemo)

Deep in my soul I know that I’m your destiny. (Mulan, Mulan)

We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright. (Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast)

If you’re a bird, I’m a bird. (Noah, The Notebook)

I wish I’d done everything on earth with you. (Daisy, The Great Gatsby)

But the heart’s not like a box that gets filled up. It expands in size the more you love. (Samantha, Her)

You will never age for me, nor fade, nor die. (Will, Shakespeare in Love)

I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. (Harry Burns, When Harry Met Sally)

The Brussels Waffle

I’ve eaten a lot of things this Europe trip. Like, a lot. My jeans can attest to that. But even with the tighter jeans, I am glad and grateful to have been able to consume so much deliciousness. Especially when there are literally billions going without food every day.

I ate in Spain, France, Switzerland, and Belgium (Italy and Greece will have to wait for me and my future husband).

Food is just incredible in this continent. This is because, the majority of our favorites derived here: fries, waffles, pizza, crepes, etc.

Though I can write pages upon pages listing the delicacies I gobbled up here, only three of these have actually blown me away. As in, whoosh and into dreamland where my only wish of my sparkling fairy godmother was that my real mother could also taste this or that.

1. Ham, cheese, and lettuce French baguette.

2. Brussels waffle topped with strawberry and Nutella.

3. Handmade pistachio macaroon from a local market.

Forget Spanish churros, Belgian fries or Swiss chocolate. Forget cheese, olives, paella. Godiva? Lindt? Who needs them! My three, those are the ones I vouch to never forget. If I could marry one, well, let’s just say I’d have to first change gender, second religion and third, get used to pampering three women.

Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once. (Anthony Bourdain)

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The Wheels Of The Bus Go Round And Round

The time has come to move on. I will miss Galicia a whole lot. Jose, Bea, Hector and Sara have been a joy to be around. They have treated me “like a daughter” (as 4 year old Sara once said) and have given me all the love and more. I will never forget this experience. Don’t forget me and a thousand times thank you.

Santiago (part one)

Jose says Santiago is like a perfume, small but charming.


Lovers in Santiago:


Sisters in Santiago:





My love in Santiago: