Library Wishlist (part 9)

 Where does S live? Maybe she's still at home and just forgot to come back to the library suggested Pablo the mouse.

Mr Muggs had no idea where S lived. Supposedly she lived somewhere, but he knew she didn't live in the North East, because she wasn't a teacher. T was now teaching up a storm and had already given out ten tiny teddies to ten tamariki who all said she was the best teacher ever. 

Perhaps she went to the Ranui Pataka Korero? Even though there was a slim chance she would be there, wasn't she a borrower there and would need to return her books eventually?

Pablo racked his nano brain and saw a map on the wall of the library in the reference section. T had completely forgotten about this part of the library in her room makeover because 'everything was online'. So she had left it as it was behind long bank of new computers and ipads that were left charging up all the electricity bills.   Look Mr Muggs this might tell us where she lives. 

Sure enough on the map of West Auckland there was a circle where S had helpfully written her Tuku Iho where she claimed she was descended from Heaven and just living temporarily in Henderson with her parents, who were all the way from Maungawhau (Mt Eden) and Hong Kong. Henderson was the next suburb over from Ranui. They would have to cross the stream. Helpfully there was a bridge over the troubled water. 

Are you sure she didn't go dumpster diving Pablo? Perhaps she was rescuing all the trolleys from Pak n' Save for books now that T has taken back her green trolley. 

I don't think so, T just said that but I'm sure S is too smart to be eaten by the Green Gorilla. 

Well, I'm still hungry for Fancy Feast Pizza, I can't live on Tiny Teddies. That's dog food! 

I agree. Let's go. 

What about the Lucky Pig?

The Lucky Pig will eat anything. 

Library wishlist (part 8)

 It was the first day back at school, or rather, the 8th day back at school for T as she had got there early to change all the H words to T words now that Principal H was no longer there. So instead of 'Happy, Healthy, Harmonious and High Achieving' T changed these to Trials, Tribulations, Tests and Tiny Teddies. She thought about using Tim Tams but decided that no, she would keep the Tim Tams for the teachers and just use the Tiny Teddies for the little people. 

Now there would be no excuse for not knowing alliteration and instead of pizza rewards for reading seven books that S did every week, T was going to now be the most popular teacher in school with her Tiny Teddy reward scheme. 

T loaded up her trolley with the Tiny Teddies in her tote trays ready to give out as a reward to anyone who told her she was the best teacher ever. T's room was now ready and the bell was about to ring. 

Whaea, where's S? 

She noticed a large year 6 kid walk in with a confused expression on his face. He was wearing the correct uniform, yes, but it now seemed too small for him and he was nearly bursting at the seams. He looked around. 

Whaea, what happened to the library? How come there's no books? 

T smiled. She pointed at the new decal. It said T's room.

It changed??

T nodded. 

But where's S? I'm the library monitor. I get to be in charge this year. And he puffed out his chest, to show he was ready for his library badge. 

I'm sorry but S went dumpster diving at the end of the year and nobody has seen her since. 

The boy gasped. The Green Gorilla ate her??

Library wishlist (part 7)

 Meanwhile S was busy, she had taken her summer reading holiday seriously and was up to her 45th book.

Every time she read a book, she recorded it on her reading log whether it was one she couldn't put down or one that she wanted to throw out the window into the recycling bin. Her latest challenge was reading book 16 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in which middle school hero Greg Heffley keeps going to middle school until author Jeff Kinney runs out of stories for him. 

This time, Greg doesn't go to school at all, in 'Diper Overlode' all the drama is suddenly focused on his rascally older teen brother, Roderick, who is in a garage band called 'The Loaded Diper'. Now The Diary of a Wimpy Kid is full of spelling mistakes, so S couldn't find the word 'diper' in the dictionary. She found out it was an American word for 'nappy' and it was spelt 'diaper'. Though having a band named 'The Loaded Nappy' probably didn't have the same ring to it. 

S plunged into the book which was again full of cartoony illustrations that the teachers hated, complaining it didn't have paragraphs or even chapters, although the entries were sort of haphazardly dated though on what year or even what planet Greg lived on didn't seem to make sense, as his parents seemed to not mind that their sons skipped school or were out getting into heaps of trouble, scamming gullible fans into parting with their hard earned pocket money.

What, thought S. I am very disappointed in this book. I give it a 1 star. There is no Manny in this book and he is my favourite character. He should be part of the band as the cute younger brother and show a talent like Michael Jackson did for the Jackson 5! And why is Greg always thinking of ways to scam people? Doesn't his parents earn enough to stop him from hustling all the time so he can concentrate on doing well at school and becoming a...

She couldn't really think of what a boy like Greg Heffley could become. He lived in the US of A where American dreams were still alive and everyone wanted to be a lawyer because Americans were big on suing people. There were references to a band called 'Metallicachuhuahua' in the book which didn't make sense either and she didn't think 12 year old Greg would really be bothered spelling that correctly either. 

Maybe I should give this book to T to read. But she told me she doesn't have time to read, and can only really be bothered with books about unicorns. However the children have the entire Wimpy Kid series in the library so it would be mean if we didn't buy them the latest one....

Libary wishlist (part 6)

 I hope there are more Dog Man Books!!!

I would like to see more cooking books.

I want more Do not open this books

I love you Mum and Bub 💜

I want more hot dog books

More Hot dog books Whaea

Whaea Selina I want a Dragon Diary with Dragon Necklace

Maybe add more anime books because people like anime and why bc year 5 and 6 likes anime books

More moning book geten books

I want to have a Bad Guys books

more Piggy books

More fun books

I would like a Wings of Fire

More hairstyle books

I wish for a lot of Book scary Book

I want more Geronimo S

Anime. i wish we had more hard word books

I wish there was more baby-sitters little sister graphic books :-)

More Piggy books

To have more mystery books

Better Work Stories - The Great Coconut Bun Hunt

 A long time ago, in Rathgar Road, there used to be a bakery selling...delicious juicy coconut buns. They came in a tray of half dozen and the white buns were swimming in thick, creamy coconut milk.

Now several years later, there are not one but two bakeries in that block of shops which includes a barbers, a chemist, a dairy, a former Four Square grocery, a laundromat, a Noodle Box,  a $2 shop and a fish and chips takeaway. My Uncle used to own that takeaway and, like all good Chinese children I  got a job for $5 hour making fish and chips and toasted sandwiches and burgers. However my brilliant career as Takeaway business owner never really took off. I think I just didn't see myself as top chef of the Takeaway world. It wasn't something I needed to stay in school for.

Even though, on the face of it, I could eat fish and chips everyday because I love fish and chips. At least with a takeaway job you never went hungry. When dad was at loss for what we could have for lunch in the school holidays, and because he didn't really want to burn down the house (we never deep fried our chips at home) he would order takeaways. One scoop of chips and four fish. And a sausage. Maybe they would throw in a potato fritter for free. The food was wrapped in paper and newspaper, back when we actually had decent size newspapers. There was no internet or online order or uber or eftpos either.

Fast fwd to 2020 when another of our interminable lockdowns ended and we'd run out of freezer food and it was MY birthday. All I really wanted was fish and chips from the takeaway. No cake.  Mum was non plussed, but secretly pleased she didn't have to cook or bake for me. 

Back to the coconut buns. Well this delicacy, also known as Panipopo, in Samoa, was something I found I missed and I had been looking for years but no bakeries were selling them anymore. They were like the elusive hot cross buns that cannot be sold past Easter Sunday. I thought I had found them at the TopWell Bakery on Swanson Road but they turned out to be the yellow Filipino type buns, and while nice, they were not what I was after. My cousin and I went on a coconut bun hunt and visited at least a dozen bakeries in the West Auckland area and none of them sold any coconut buns. 

I'm pleased to report that the Westside Bakery opposite Waitakere Gardens DOES sell these creamy coconut buns for $7 a tray.  They also do a good potato top pie, and that was how me and my gardening boss bonded. When I got told by my doctor my cholesterol was high I had to cut down on eating the meat pies,  my job was never the same. My meat pie withdrawal meant I no longer had the energy to mow those steep lawns and I lost my spark for being a garden nanny, and I wasn't about to bake my own meat pies because that would just cut into my gardening time. 

The moral of the story is. You need food to keep you going so you can do your work. If you find a good one, stick to it. Otherwise its just chicken and carrots sticks and plastic bag juicies for school lunch AGAIN. The Pasifika kids could survive on Hell's pizza, but what wouldn't they give (and do their school work?)  for panipopo coconut buns made fresh from the bakery??