Good Morning New Zealand

GOOD MORNING NEW ZEALAND

When you are up to your neck in cows and calves at the beginning of spring, the last thing you can do is down tools and pop off to Wellington for a day of filming at Avalon TV studios.

However, thanks to some clever flight  scheduling and the help of my  good friends and former farmers  Jim and Katherine Watkins, that  was exactly what I did last  Friday. After all, it is not every  day the Good Morning show  (TV1) invites you to be a guest  and when it does happen, you  don’t want to say no.

So I scrubbed as much green stuff off my hands as possible, chucked on the new outfit hastily purchased the night before and boarded the plane to the capital. Raxa, the show’s driver, collected me from the luggage area and 40 minutes later I was in make-up, getting sorted out for my on- screen experience.

The make-up technician managed to off-set the ruby hue of my wind-burnt farming face (clever lady) and within minutes I was on the couch with Steve Gray, elaborating on the ups and downs of surviving on $100 a week worth of groceries. Six minutes of filming went by in a flash with no major muck-ups, then a quick change of clothes (to pretend it was another day) and I was demonstrating on camera how easy it is to make your own cleaning products at home. Steve was amazed how easily I whipped up a kilo of laundry powder for less than 5 cents a load, the same amount of automatic dishwashing powder for the same low, low price, and then I showed him the Yuk Home-Made Toothpaste.

Steve is a brave, brave boy, boldly sticking his finger into the unknown white paste and – aaaagh – licking it. The cameraman noted that Steve’s face said it all – that toothpaste packs a punch! However, after the initial shock, he was pleased with how fresh and clean his mouth felt and all for less than 10c a week.

He also commented on how white my teeth are (I’ve been using Yuk for about three months now). Filming was over and I was suddenly surrounded by the entire Good Morning crew, who were fascinated by the home- made products and their ease of making. I packed up samples of the products I had made and everyone went home with some to try. Steve commented that he had never seen the crew take such an interest in a product demonstration before. One camera guy even gave me $10 on the spot and I emailed him the recipes when I got home. I hope the rest of New Zealand reacts with similar enthusiasm.

If you missed out on yesterday’s show, my demonstration will be shown on August 7. Otherwise, check out the Good Morning video posted on my new website, www.pigtits andparsleysauce.co.nz

* If you want to get in touch with Lyn, you can email her on pigtitsandparsleysauce@gmail.com.