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Well, it looks like winter is finally here! The summer has long gone and left us, the autumn but re assured us that we have better weather than the likes of Britain and now the winter.... Mmmm yeah I know what you are thinking!

For this blog I’ve put together a few classic examples of how best to survive the winter, inspired by behaviours of our friends, if not cousins in some cases, in the animal kingdom!

On the bright side the crickets die! Pussies! No “calming” croaking for a while, mmm quiet nights sleep!

Bears Hibernate. (Stupid bears) This is a certain attribute that is adopted by a few humans too. Leaving the house for as little time as possible and spending a large majority of time in a pyjamas "onesy" buried deep under a duvet! This is ill advised as it will only insure a longer winter! Television just isn’t that good and winter in Auckland isn’t that bad!!

Birds Migrate. Again another attribute adopted by humans and one that I’m taking advantage of myself this year! Winter holidays are a brilliant idea of breaking up a long cold spell; whether they take you to one of the pacific Islands, the tropical part of Aussie, the other side of the planet or even a winter Holiday on the ski slopes, migration is defiantly something to look into.

Mountain Hares change colour to camouflage into the background and get bushier coats, arguably we do the same by changing the colour scheme of our wardrobe and put on an extra few layers. For the shopaholics a change of season is a great excuse to get back into their natural habitat.

Another example of adaption is the common P.O.M; I of course refer to the Brits! They have been growing in numbers and multiplying in New Zealand for a while now, and although seem to have adapted to a Summer Christmas, they also decided to have their cake and eat it too by having a Winter Christmas to boot, usually hosted on the shortest day of the year. Some are even known to pull the Christmas decorations back out for the event, displaying some colour and sparkle in the dull days and early nights!

Shrews change their diet, to adapt to what is available. Now we are talking! We make heart warming food like lamb shanks with lashings of gravy, traditional Coq Au Vin and Bread,  butter pudding and conveniently enough all of which are now available at Degree as part of our exciting new Winter Menu.

Now before I give all credit to the animal kingdom for inspiring how we squander away the winter Humans have a trick or two up their sleeves and Degree has a whole new range and a couple of brand new  weekly rituals. This Tuesday we welcome Tapas Tuesdays, ideal for huddling together and sharing a snack and on Thursday we see and launch into “Thawed out Thursdays”. We will insure you have Mulled wine and Hot cider for $9.50. This is even better enjoyed outside with the view of the boats wrapped in a blanket. Hand in hand we also have a new range of liquor coffee and flavoured hot chocolate to warm you up.

So we actually do have the ticket to defeat the winter blues down on the Viaduct. Don’t be a stupid Bear (or a cricket for that matter) but take some advice from some of the other animals and before you know it we’ll have summer around the corner again. (Better one this time I hope!!)

Pavlova, Paeroa and Pineapple Lumps

Degree very often get’s accused of being too English! This is something we can’t really help, we are guilty of and unfortunately it is the case of you have the foreign accent, we don’t. So when it comes to national days such as Waitangi treaty day, ANZAC day even Auckland anniversary day last weekend we find ourselves as managers having to explain the root of the story and an explanation of why we celebrate these days.

Now if you put the team to the test and asked exactly why we celebrate St Georges day or even the mass celebrated St Patricks day, 9 times out of 10 they wouldn’t be able to tell you! Let alone the lesser know St Davids day or St Andrews day OR what dates we are supposed to celebrate every year! I think it’s because they are not celebrated as a national holiday. Everyone still goes to work.

I have a scarred Childhood memory of when we lived in South Wales. My mother who had just previously exported us both from New Zealand and clearly had forgotten the importance of St Davids day until she dropped me into School. Every other Child was in fantastic traditional dress or Welsh Rugby Uniforms. I got whisked promptly home and forced kicking and screaming into a pair of hand me down red trousers and a Super Ted T shirt. She even pulled over to the side of the road to steal a newly grown daffodil and prodded into my pony tail. I would have rather been in my school uniform and still believe to this day it was a form of child abuse! But in New Zealand Waitangi day is celebrated on the 6th of February to commemorate the first signing of the treaty at Waitangi in 1840. As discussed in last weeks blog, we bow our heads, say thank you for the long weekend and plan how exactly we are going to celebrate it.

Degree went for the Whanaunga (Family fyi) feel and we became the Disney land of Waitangi day. We had bouncy castles, face painters and more L & P than the New Zealand navy could have shipped out! The kitchen was throwing out Green lipped Mussels and Canterbury lamb like it was going out of fashion (which is weird for New Zealand because nothing really goes out of fashion) I discovered Pavlova Ice cream and proclaimed Feb 6th as a official cheat day for anyone on a diet! Now with all that’s going on you could probably predict what would happen as soon as you saw the words bouncy castle, L & P and pavlova! These three things do not mix well and one poor child did suffer despite trying to show us all his brilliant bouncing skills, we also had the pleasure of seeing his Chicken nuggets for the second time that day. Hands down to Chris (our resident dogs body, don’t ask him any work related stories while you are eating!) got straight in there to clear up the mess and let the rest of the kids bounce again! Perhaps a little too hastily actually and found himself in the said remains of chicken nuggets. ( I know I’m sorry) Some days you just wish it was a banana!

Lastly before I leave you again for another week I want to say welcome back to one of our most loyal long distance customers. After a harrowing 2 weeks in China ( as yes I’m sorry to say we did laugh at most of the stories Peter told us, knowing full well that laughing at another’s miss fortune will earn you a one way ticket to hell) but Jason it’s good to have you back on 2012. (There will more blog referencing to these two. Never a dull moment when these two darken doorway!) And Auckland! How are you going to get used to a 5 day working week again? Good luck x

Did you forget our anniversary?

Gulp! Even if you’re not actually married, you could have forgotten an anniversary for a never ending list of occasions.  Due to the power of Facebook we hardly ever forget birthdays but it would be pretty handy if it also flagged anniversaries.

And then the anniversaries hold importance on different levels to different types of people. For example every single one of my Dog’s birthdays ....7 per year.... are important. They require balloons, a cake and at least one bottle of bubbles.  A couple of my best friends have 3 anniversaries with there significant other. Firstly to mark the first time they locked eyes across the dance floor, drank too much tequila and enjoyed that inappropriate snog, secondly to celebrate the first time they hooked up and did the bad thing and finally when they actually made it to an official 1^st date.

Anyway, Auckland anniversary celebrates the day that William Hobson arrived in the bay of Islands.  I’m not going to go into the entire story of William Hobson, but if you are interested you can find much more detail at his grave site located right by K road!

We do like to celebrate this most memorable of occasions and it certainly kicks Auckland into life again! Down on the Viaduct we enjoyed three separate festivals. The Seafood Festival brought all the culinary delights from the sea on to the Wynyard quarter as well as awesome live music and the all important wine matches. You can’t have seafood without wine!

Auckland also hosted the Busker’s Festival. This boasted an interesting collection of characters scattered throughout the city streets bringing with them all the variety and free entertainment you can imagine! Everything from football tricks to great music! Brilliant for the family and for us at Degree due to our perfect location, you could watch all the entertainment from our cider lawn!

Lastly on Anniversary day Monday we were graced with the presence of Laneway Festival.  A full day of live music from three different stages in the Wynyard quarters Silo. At $127 per ticket though I have to admit this festival was a little out of my budget. Although it did encourage great spontaneity and bravery only found with youth!

 My favourite story came from a young Welsh customer who looks at gates and fences designed to keep the rest of the un paying public OUT as small challenges. (Can I also say now he has never paid to get into England’s famous Glastonbury festival despite having the highest security known to man) His first step was to locate a used bracelet from a festival goer that had had enough already. With a little Welsh charm and 1 fantastic smile, mission accomplished in under 60 seconds! Opting to go under the fence instead of over it he found himself in the back stage area and when he was asked “what are you doing here?” he simply explained that he was trying to find the toilets!

I enjoy the stories of the underdogs and their “he who dares wins” attitude to life. But I wouldn’t let my 16 year old niece within a 10 mile radius of them!

In my opinion Anniversaries are simply a great excuse to celebrate and be proud and Auckland did us proud yet again.

Everybody wants to be a rock star and we, at Degree, generally think we are. The Degree restaurant floor is often mistaken for the cat walk and the Ice bar on a Saturday night for a headline stage. We flick our hair as we strut, we got the moves like Jagger and as we glide around the room we know you’re watching us with anticipation and adoration! (But really we know it’s got more to do with the food or beverage we’re carrying to your table so we do it quickly)

This week however we’ve had to contend with real rock stars. As the ‘Summer of Love’ finally arrives and with it the festival fever, the Viaduct suddenly fills with fans and bands alike. The very last Big Day Out has brought us the likes of Noel Gallagher strutting his stuff down the Viaduct on a cloud of adoring screams and unrequited love and even managed a wink to one of our star struck waitresses. Foster the People were kicking it with the little people and enjoying a quiet cider before heading to Mt Wellington for a very noisy one! And we’ve heard enough rumours concerning Kasabien’s whereabouts to last a lifetime, none leading to an actual encounter of course as they seemed to slip through our fingers like rock’n roll ghosts rather than gods.

But we’re not quite strangers to celebrities in Degree....the Vaccines popped into say hi to Rachel our London socialite duty manger and Jen our friendly Irish bar wench was greeted like best friends by the majority of the England Rugby Squad upon their visit with us.

New Zealand is one of those rare countries where the rich and famous can mingle with the mere mortals of Auckland and not be hounded. Every time the Vector Arena pulls in a new act we take delight in louring in the crowds of hyped up fans, but we to are always hoping for a quick glimpse of the star of the night themselves.

The All Blacks were as good as regulars during the run up to the Rugby World Cup and we had the pleasure of playing host to a number of the international teams too, including Ireland, Wales and France. We were just flattered when they came back to visit (and eat!!!!)  throughout the tournament.  Although, well chizz led sportsmen aside, out of all the star struck customers I’ve ever witnessed, nothing compares to a table of 4, mature, ladies from Cambridge who spotted Sir Cliff Richard himself as he strolled casually down the Viaduct. Not only was I shocked by the outrageous comments thrown in Sir Cliffs direction regarding his “nice bum” but I think, in my experience only a table of 18 year old girls who I recall had just spotted Justin Beiber could have rivalled the sheer excitement displayed.

A lot of it is not just the celebrity spotting or hoping we get the ‘BIG NAME’ inside. It’s the buzz that’s created and the atmosphere on the Viaduct which is nothing short of electric. This week I was even surprised by some out of towners from Oamaru who managed to hold back the ‘JAFA’ jokes as they were forced to come to ‘THE BIG SMOKE’. Once we managed to convert them from handles to pints and established where Oamaru was (south of Timaru north of Dunedin FYI) I thought I had finally cracked the Auckland V’s the rest of New Zealand’s 200 year old feud. Unfortunately one wise crack about tartan clad shirts reverted me back to my place as just another flipping Aucklander and the conflict was not resolved that day.

We have our next session already lined up next weekend as Laneway festival arrives for its debut year in the Wynyard Quarter as part of the Auckland Anniversary day Celebrations. The Summer of love will continue and we will keep on truckin’ to lavish you all with mussels and sauvignon blanc or fish and chips and a pint. Whatever floats your boat as you watch the boats float by and feed on the buzz of the rock’n roll and sunshine cocktails.

Dear Degree,

My Husband and I were fortunate to have had the opportunity to enjoy much of the Rugby World Cup and as such spent some or the whole of the 7 weekends during during the 2011 RWC Campaign in Auckland. We decided to make Degree our second home and felt it appropriate to write and let you know of our experiences.

The opening day (Friday 8^th Sept) was amazing. I don’t think anyone could have anticipated just how many people would turn up at the waterfront and we all blown away the volume of people and we had a fantastic advantage point while sitting at our table at Degree. How absolutely incredible were your staff that day. We were able to witness bedlam that the sheer number of patrons brought and how amazingly calm and friendly your staff remained in the face of some pretty brutal and at times ridiculously rude and impatient patrons. Both the floor staff and those behind the bar were brilliant, your security personnel were professional and friendly – It made us feel extremely proud of being the host nation and the friendliness and professionalism and courtesy extended by your staff to locals and visitors alike.

Over the next 6 weeks, we really enjoyed the considerable time we spent at Degree, ate many of the reasonably priced (thanks for that) and substantial breakfasts and we also had several really nice meals. The floor and bar staff got to know us and we were just so welcoming and hospitable every time we arrived that we truly felt special. There were a number of times the bar was just heaving with people and I never once witnessed any if the staff get flustered or rattled.

On the night if the final, again the bar was choc full and your staff were just as polite, professional and friendly as they were on the first day and the reality is that they must have been ‘over it’ and I would guess pretty exhausted after what was along 7 weeks for them.

Thanks to all the team at Degree for enhancing our RWC experience.

Yours faithfully

Bridgette & Charlie Silcock.