Affogato, my favourite dessert at present
It’s now Sunday February 18, 2024. Kia ora!
Yesterday was momentous – a whole lot of interesting things happened, and there were interesting events on Friday too, which I did not write about.
On Friday Fani Wills, District Attorney of Fulton County, testified in a fiery manner with regard to her alleged (by a Trump supporter) conflict of interest with a male prosecutor with whom she had an intimate relationship. While this does not look good, the consensus it that there wasn’t a conflict of interest. Many people are hanging on DA Willis’s RICO case as being one of the most straightforward and interesting indictments of Trump and some of his associates, some of whom have already pled guilty. And when exactly does an intimate relationship begin? At the first date? Before that? When the couple first have sex? When they decide to live together? It’s complicated, and the two people involved may well have different ideas about just when the relationship began.
In the case of Republicans in the US Congress wishing to impeach President Biden over shady dealings with his surviving son, Hunter, an FBI whistleblower has been arrested and accused of lying.
Overnight, that would be Friday/Saturday, there were by-elections in two English electorates, which were supposedly “safe” Tory seats, but they were won by Labour. The Rest is Politics did an emergency podcast about this result, but I have not had time to listen to it yet.
Locally questions are being asked as to whether Nicola Willis can fund the tax cuts she promised.
On Saturday I woke up to the news that Alexei Navalny was dead at 47 years of age. This is regarded as suspicious – there’s been no reasonable explanation for it yet. There’s been an outpouring of grief around the world, and many, including Biden, are blaming Putin directly. Ater all, Navalny was poisoned, presumably by Putin, and yet he chose to return to Russa, where he was being held in a maximum security prison in the Arctic circle.
The next big thing was that the judge in Trump’s fraud trial in New York released his ruling, that Trump is fined over $350m and not allowed to do business in New York for three years. His two adult sons are also fined. They’re not best pleased, of course: will Trump appeal? IF so, he’ll have to stump up much of the money. And looking at sources of funds, Ronna (Romney) McDaniel has resigned as chair of the RNC, at Trump’s direction, and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is looking to be appointed to a senior position. Every dollar raised will go to Donald Trump’s re-election, she promises. I wish she wouldn’t sing! Has no one told her she’s out of tune, and sounds awful?
We also learnt that Trump’s hush money case to go ahead on March 25. This would be Alvin Bragg’s case where Trump has been indicted for paying off Stormy Daniels, in a complicated way using Michael Cohen for his just before the 2016 presidential election. By the way, Michael Cohen has spent two years’ time in jail for his part in this scandal. It’s useful to be reminded of the sordid details of this case, which has been minimized by many as being not such a strong case as the other indictments.
Meanwhile, there’s been a huge fuss about Biden’s age and his supposedly failing memory, as reported by the Hur reports. It says there are no grounds for prosecuting Joe Biden, but manages to imply that he’s a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. This five hour interview took place immediately after the crisis in Israel, so undoubtedly Biden had his mind on other things. Nevertheless, this report has done enormous damage. Never mind Trump’s obvious cognitive difficulties, the spotlight is again on Joe Biden. Yes, he’s old, but to many he’s the best American president in their lifetime. The podcasts I listen to have been focused on this – frustratingly, since they were already just a tad obsessed with the issue.
In Israel, the IDF is now attacking Rafah, the city to the south of the Gaza strip, near the border with Egypt, despite ongoing calls for a ceasefire. Biden has even expressed publicly his frustration with Netanyahu.
It’s now Friday February 23.
We just got back from Hawkes Bay. We headed north on Monday, to spend JD’s birthday in Hawkes Bay (after the Art Deco festival), see our daughter, and I had a few other things on my list. It was very windy in Wellington, but we ghad a good trip north with little traffic and few road works.
On the way, there were phone calls to say that she wasn’t well, with cold and flu symptoms, and had been on contact with someone who subsequently tested positive for Covid 19; we also had a call from the lawyer handling my guardianship application. He’s proposing to make it for five years, not three, which would be appreciated! We agreed we’d see how our daughter is on the Tuesday.
Well, she continued to test negative for Covid 19, so we had morning tea with her (and picked up some delicious organic plum jam); as she didn’t seem too bad we took her to lunch at the lovely Birdwood’s Café. It was quite windy, so we were very happy to be seated inside.
They were very busy there, but we had a delicious lunch: JD had avocado with lavosh crackers, our daughter had a hamburger, and I had a smoked salmon flan with salad. I had an iced tea to drink, which thankfully wasn’t too sweet.
Afterwards I had the caramel rhubarb layer cake, she had chocolate brownie, and JD had the special cake (with plum and mascarpone), and affogato.
The next day we had various meetings, and went to the lovely shop at Hohepa Clive, where I bought more Danbo cheese, a jar of relish for a friend, and another Weleda deodorant. That evening we took our daughter out to dinner, but she really wasn’t very well. She coughed a lot on the way there, and just didn’t seem well, although her appetite was unaffected! For dessert she had a churro sundae. She let me eat one of her churros, and it was much larger than I expected! There were three more, so she didn’t go without.
JD’s brother was coming to Napier with some of his family members, so we decided to stay an extra night. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay at our lovely Havelock North motel, but had to move into Napier itself, to the Edgewater Motel. There was plenty of room here (an extra bedroom, but no spa bath), but it was very dated and none too clean. Still we were only there for one night.
On Thursday evening we had dinner at the Thirsty Whale pub, where the food was very good (and plentiful). Everywhere was really busy! Wisely, I had an entrée, whitebait fritters with salad, instead of a main course. We had ordered cheesy garlic bread and toasted ciabatta bread with dips to start with, and I quickly found myself quite full. But I still had room for dessert: affogato (a small espresso coffee, vanilla ice cream served in a tall crystal stemmed glass, and a glass of Kahlua. It was so good – we all had affogato, although with different liqueurs. The Thirsty Whale does the best affogato that I’ve encountered so far.
Today we drove home, getting away from the Edgewater Motel at 10 am. I decided not to go shopping at Farmers in Napier, much as I had wanted to, I just wanted to get home. But sadly there were lots of road works, and lots of hold ups. Everywhere was really busy! We decided to stop for lunch in Woodville; otherwise it was a case of going on to Shannon. But we couldn’t find a carpark! JD turned around, twice, and eventually we found one. We went to Café 88, where we’ve been before, and joined the queue! They were really busy here, too! I had scrambled eggs, which wasn’t actually on the menu, but previously they’ve made them for me. And they did today, too, and they were very good.
The Saddle Road was closed (still), so we had to drive over the Pahiatua Track road, as did much other traffic. Still, we got back to Wellington in good time, where it’s actually finer and warmer!
Well, I did not get to go to Farmers in Napier, but I did get the things I wanted from the Life Pharmacy there, and I did get a beautiful dress from the Annah Stretton shop in Havelock North. I also discovered the Paper Plus Select store, and the Wardini Bookstore nearby – both great for a browse!
That’s if for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.
Classic Barbarian 