Day 16

Sunday, April 5: Every Sunday morning – in the previous life – I walk around Hamilton Lake with Venetia and Rosemary and we meet their respective husbands, John and Neville, for late breakfast at Grey Street Kitchen in Hamilton East. I’ve recently become addicted to GSK head chef Ashleigh Brodie’s terrific Chilli Scram, spicy scrambled eggs topped with buffalo mozzarella, toasted seeds, herbs, and homemade chilli jam.

Today I recreate the Sunday ritual, with a cast of one. A long, looping walk River Rd, acorns from Hamilton East’s oaks crunching underfoot. Nostalgia moment: a detour down Von Temsky St, where I lived when I became a cadet reporter at the Waikato Times. Back then – in the late 1960s – my mother decreed that nice girls didn’t go flatting in their first year out of school. (They didn’t have pierced ears, either). So I found private board for a while with a family in Von Temsky St and walked across Victoria Bridge each morning to the Waikato Times office in the CBD. The old house is still there, screened by two flats.

Back home, I cook Ashleigh’s scrambled eggs, substituting feta for buffalo mozzarella and crispy fried shallots for toasted seeds. It’s creamy, spicy and crunchy. The missing ingredients are my friends, the GSK staff, and Dove Chen’s excellent coffee. Venetia says front-of-house staffer Celine has sent a message asking if we are all doing okay.

Also missing:

1. Daylight saving. The shortened evenings signal that winter is on its way. May the sunshine stay constant while we are in lockdown.
2. The French Film Festival, scheduled March 19-April 5. I put the programme in the recycling tonight, the pages still stickered with movies I wanted to see.