Entries Tagged 'Out and about' ↓

Word from the Fuel peeps is that the olde worlde bells along Willis Street today were part of the Civil Defence Awareness week that’s on at the moment. They’re working bells and many passers by were grabbing their robes and giving them a ding. They’re representing bells that originally used to hang along the foreshore – yes the tide line used to be up in Willis Street before the big earthquake and land reclamation – and the bells were used to warn of rising waters.

They were gone by the time I walked home tonight – apparently part of an art installation and the poor artist patrolling the street received many complaints of too much clanging from various store owners along Willis Street.

Ahhh, the October/November gale-force winds have arrived and the Mister is finally getting a chance several times a week to get out there and laugh in the face of the slapping wind and rain with his Pixie Hurricane umbrella. He finds the windiest spot on the street and stands there holding tight with two hands almost shouting into the wind “c’mon is that all you’ve got?!”

Obviously my quest to get video or picture footage of this is somewhat hampered by the fact that I am usually blown back down the street somewhere hanging onto a lamp post! By the time I get a photo nothing looks out of place – you’ll just have to believe me that this photo was taken in 74km/hr winds (honestly! www.wunderground.com, and it’s been up to 99km/hr since!) on Willis Street and at the time the trees were creaking, the lamp post flags flapping and a rubbish bin was blowing down the road.

I think this ‘under repair’ sign in Cuba Street at the moment is quite funny – especially to locals who know what’s been taken away for repair:

Quite amusing that they’ve used ‘kicked the bucket’ to let us know that the beloved old Bucket Fountain isn’t gone for good.

Very VERY sad news. Nikau is closing. And soon. Something to do with the gallery closing for a year for refurbishment and a lease and the timing and something. Either way it’s a shock for the owners, staff and regulars.

4.5 years of Sunday lunches and there’s now only 3 or 4 left. What a hole it’s going to leave in everyone’s lives involved with that place.

We like shopping for our nieces (or other baby/kid friends) at Borders. They’re pretty helpful to people like us with nice big signs showing books for age ranges. If you’re not up with the play on the latest ‘reader series’ for a particular child or know their favourites it can be quite daunting trying to choose something age-appropriate.

Yesterday’s plan was to get a book for Sarah, who’s turning 4, that features a penguin. Well. There actually wasn’t a section for 4-8 year olds, and we figured that 4 is no longer a toddler, and board books are for babies so we were at a bit of a loss. We know that Pingu is on the right track so went to the ‘Characters’ section but couldn’t find Pingu anywhere amongst stories of Maisie, Miffy, Thomas and friends.

So we headed to the ‘picture books’ bit. It soon became apparent that there we books about every kind of animal except penguins! We even sectioned up the shelves and systematically scanned, calling out to each other the animals we found – at one stage I was crawling along the floor reading out the animals I came across in books along the bottom shelf (god only knows what the other shoppers thought of us) but honestly, no penguins? Dogs, cats, dinosours, gruffalos (what?), wombats, giraffes, bears (lots of bears), tigers, wild things, alligators, bunnies, possums, monkeys, fish, kiwi, ducklings, mice, elephants and a potty (!!). We did find one adventure story about a penguin at sea but it was a bit scary and then the Mister stumbled upon this fantastic book – which we read aloud to each other to test it out, yes in the store where everyone could hear.

How big is a million? We figure it’s got penguins in it AND is educational so hopefully can’t go wrong. And the poster in the back which supposedly has a million stars on it is actually amazing, even through an adult’s eyes.

Gotham was decided less ‘batty’ when we were there for breakfast yesterday. Apparently a bunch of batman lawyers stomped in for a visit and said that they had to tone down all the bat stuff because they were breaching copyright or something. So the bat light has gone, the batman photo show, the bits of batman merchandise and the batman and friends-themed table numbers. I think there’s still a wee sign saying ‘Batman is currently in: Austin, Texas’. Hmmmm, seems a bit rank really.

If you happen to be passing Superfino this week at breakfast time, and indeed decide to stop in for breakfast, and order toast with raspberry jam – it’ll be the Mister’s jam! He gave a jar to Amy yesterday as they’ve just started serving breakfast there and she showed us their range of specialty jams. The Mister thought his deserved a place in the line up. He can’t wait to hear stories from her next week of diners who said “Gosh this is great jam, what is it?”

I didn’t have a date scone for lunch today – I know I know – something must be wrong! Well, it is … my niggley throat thing hasn’t gone away, well at least it’s not getting any worse but I am sticking to a regime of honey on toast whenever I can get it so I had that instead. While a Nikau we had the displeasure of sitting next to a rather haughty woman who definitely expidited our departure … she ordered the green salad off the menu and when it came decided she was not happy with her choice:

Friendly waitress: here’s your salad m’am.
Woman: oh. It doesn’t have any beetroot in it.
Friendly waitress: I’m sorry m’am, did you order a side of beetroot?
Woman: no. I ordered the Salad of the Day off the menu. It should have beetroot in it.
Confused waitress (taking a menu being handed to her) and pointing: our Salad of the Day today is a Green Salad m’am. Would you like a side of beetroot?
Woman: no! I want a salad with beetroot in it. Why would I order a pile of green leaves for lunch? That’s not a very substantial lunch.
Poor waitress: would you like me to pass it back to the kitchen to have some beetroot added to it?
Woman: yes. Then I would get what I was expecting.

WTF? She ordered a green salad and then had the audacity to tell them a ‘pile of green leaves’ was not satisfactory? The whole mood around the bar was decided grim after that so we left. Sheeesh.

Father chopped a few warratahs for Mother to give me to bring home on Monday. They’re stunning.

And in Moore Wilsons they’re going for $6.95 per stem and at the florist down by the post office $10 a stem!!

Finally managed to get to the Supreme Factory in Hopper Street, beyond the upper end of Cuba Street – I guess it’s not such a new location for them any more – it’s just taken so long to get there. Actually that’s a lie – they have a cafe attached and we’ve tried to go there a couple of times but they close at 3pm weekdays and aren’t open weekends. I thought I’d stroll up there today to get the beans instead of the usual jaunt to the Woodward Street store. Quite a cool little cafe there – definitely an interesting walk to take the parents on when they’re next in Wellington.

It’s at that end of Cuba street that you find the darndest things. Today I had a nosey around a new shop called Minerva – turns out it’s a textile book shop – every kind of book on quilting, sewing, patchwork, applique, making new clothes out of old and a few knitting books. I think they’re a distributer for a quilting magazine as they seemed to have quite a production line of envelopes going on out the back. I even found a book on tatting – I didn’t realise people still did that! However, it seems they do because the book was first published in 2002! Tatting is that stitch knotting thing you do to make doilies and lace like my grandmother used to.

Just went for a wander around the harbour after Nikau. Everybody was outside at the first site of sun that has some warmth in it, although not enough warmth for what some people were wearing – way too early for shorts and jandals.

It’s Father’s Day today as well and we saw a bunch of fathers and their kids, out in their urban backyard riding bikes and scooters though for the most part the kids were trailing along whining and the fathers were carrying anything up to 3 bikes/scooters/roller-blades and one was managing to juggle a flat white in there as well. Hope they were having a nice day with their kids!

I love sitting on the balls dotted around the waterfront and watching everyone go about their business.

And I thought this picture the Mister took of Mt Vic was very like that iconic Wellington photo/watercolour/oil on canvas that’s on many postcards, gift cards and in art shops around town. Perhaps we can make our own now we’ve got this great photo.