Entries Tagged 'Out and about' ↓

Followed these guys pumping (yes from a nozzle on a hose like at the petrol station) vanilla lattes from a back pack tank on our way to Fuel this morning. It looked pretty awful and must’ve tasted pretty gross after sloshing around in that tank for a while.

In my 10th year of drinking Fuel I’ve just heard they’re opening their first site overseas – in a flash mall in Hong Kong! Due to open in September I think so will definitely have to stop by if any future trips require an overnighter there.

Oh! The Mister and partner have been invited on a flash card that arrived in the post last night to the launch of the Taittinger club! Not sure how that happnened – perhaps we’re on some watch list of champagne quaffer wannabes. And Mr Taittinger himself is going to be there – well the one that’s the director of exports or whatever Adjoint de Direction Export et Approvisionnements is! Yum yum off we go!

Superfino are now serving up date scones as well! Uh oh – can they beat Nikau’s? Ummmm, no. They’re from Aro Bake and compared to Nikau’s homemade ones – too much scone, not enough dates. Nice cinnamon sugar topping though.

After awful southerly winds and rain last night and a very cold morning this morning, the day cleared up to be one of those still gorgeous blue days with snow seen on the Rimutakas.

Bit of a buzz around the town about Tempt – a new cupcake station in the Old Bank Arcade. Someone bought me one – the orange one (duh!) and my god it was divine! 

The cake itself was not at all conveyor belt but tasted home made and very light. The icing was sweet and rich. Not sure what flavour I’ll try next. Maybe coffee and pecan. Mmmmm. My only *small* criticism would be that there’s probably a tad too much icing on them. It’s a common trap cafes, bakeries etc seem to make – perhaps it’s to drown the taste of substandard cake but in this case there’s no need. Unless you get a bite of cake on its own you can’t actually taste the cake.

http://www.tempt.net.nz/ And yep – it’s a stupid site made with Flash so I can’t link to the cupcake list, you have to go to the site then click on the ‘Products’ menu yourself.

Update: went by Tempt a few days later to find out when they’re open as our Blenheim friends want to go visit when they’re here – snuck my own photo of the rows of cakes in the fridge.

There’s even one (middle bottom) that is a cupcake version of the good old afghan cookie! With little individual cornflakes on it and everything!

Spotted a refurbished cafe down the other end of Featherston St last night when driving in from the Hutt – hadn’t spotted it before now that I don’t work down that end of town so went for a wander this morning for a closer look. With NYC plastered all over it how could I not?

Surprise surprise – it’s another Mojo.

Decided on an uncharacteristic trip out to the mall in Lower Hutt yesterday. I’ve lived all my adult life in Wellington so don’t really feel that I can join in on the Wellington vs. Lower vs. Upper Hutt banter with any experience or backing … however, to me the Hutt is a big old ‘burb and with that comes the ‘burb life that we like to compare to our own. Not in an awful way of course, just in the have-blog-will-commentate-on-society kind of way. The weather was pretty hideous and I thought picking up a friend who I needed to spend time with talking about non-work stuff and going for a wander was a good way to spend an afternoon. Plus she knew the way since it’s all changed around!

• Lots of Holdens


• Lots of mother/daughter combos


• Lots of people in Ugg boots with lots of bulging bags


• Lots of stuff that looked the same which meant in a London Underground kind of way I never knew which way to turn when we came out of a shop – lucky I had my shopping expert friend with me!


• You’ll not believe it but I stopped for a mall coffee. I know! It was a Mojo bar so after questioning the staff (hell yes I’m a terrible city snob) it turned out that they did know what a piccolo (a.k.a. ristretto latte) was so it was safe to stop a while. Coffee wasn’t too bad either! Wasn’t the super super strong mini latte that the girl described after all, well not by mall standards!

Topped of the mall visit with trip to the biggest Woolworths I’ve ever been in. Double wide aisles and a double set of aisles arranged in that slightly offset pattern normally reserved for restaurants and luxury coaches so that you’re not being stared at by a stranger which meant that when I’d finished with one ginormous aisle (where you think that seeing as they had every size, brand, texture and fat content of peanut butter that they’d have the one the Mister likes, but no) that I didn’t know where I was when I came out the end of it. And the trolley (‘cart’ for my American reader)! It was big enough to fit the Titanic in! Trolley pushing is not my job and it was rather daunting that it was big enough to fit my short dark friend in (no good asking her to push it as she wouldn’t’ve been able to see over the handle) as well as the groceries.  I felt like I was mistreating the $4 of shredded chicken when I pitched it over the side and there was this whistling/air rushing sound for a few seconds before it hit the bottom with a thud. The woman behind the deli counter who’d said [eyebrows raised, show incredulous look at small packet being so expensive] “Aaahh, that comes to 4 dollars?” certainly didn’t understand what all the laughter was about when the poor chicken finally came to rest! And so it went on … I have to say I was very impressed with the woman in front of me at the checkout counter who had coupons, and a special shopper card and bulk this-n-that who’s 6-bag shop came out at $42 and my 2 bags (when I finally retrieved my items from waaaaaay down there at the bottom of the trolley (I think I still have a bruise across my stomach from swinging over the side to reach the poor chicken)) came out at $45.

A fairly exciting afternoon all up!

The Mister finally got to take his new pixie umbrella out this morning as it was the first rain since his parents brought the umbrella back from the States for him. It’s some fancy hi-tech design that apparently doesn’t blow inside out … even when you stand behind a jet engine or jump out of an aeroplane with it. We’re now waiting to see if Wellington’s wind which never goes steadily in one direction like a jet engine is a suitable challenge for it!

(It’s not really called ‘pixie’, it’s Senza.)

Spotted this billboard in Cuba St yesterday – rather eye-catching and so appropriate for Wellington (in terms of hoping it’s windy so the concept works). I believe there have been some negative comments about it …