Entries Tagged 'Out and about' ↓
May 17th, 2008 — Out and about
Following on from the excitement of seeing the little giraffe (since named Seun) transported through Wellington to his new home at the zoo, we went up there yesterday to see him. Haven’t been to the Wellington Zoo in ages and it was a lovely day for it – most of the animals were dozing in the sun (except for those in way too small cages who were pacing … like the poor cheetah – don’t they run something like 30 m p/h? – their cage was barely big enough for them to get up a trot) and we were rewarded with an excellent view of Seun and his big companions from a viewing platform on the new giraffe enclosure. At least he looked pretty happy. And actually not that little!
On the way to find the giraffes we were rather sickened to see the wild dogs getting their breakfast – bits of cut up fresh-killed goat. I mean there’s a certain amount of ‘it’s just a TV programme’ if you see a nature show where animals kill and feast but to see it right there in front of my eyes – the growling and tearing and dog running to with a head dangling out of its mouth was just a bit too educational for me. Unfortunately the crowds of people standing there with videos and cameras are likely to have an orange blur in some of their footage as I fled the scene.
May 11th, 2008 — Out and about
To The Manager,
I don’t know the name of the gentleman that helped us in your Kaiwharawhara store yesterday but I just wanted to report on some excellent service we received. We are apartment-dwellers and needed one of those draft strips with bristles on it to put on the bottom of our front door to stop the nasty southerly getting in. We found what we needed but as with so many things these days there wasn’t a range of sizes for different doors but rather one-size-that-needs-to-be-cut. With a hacksaw. Not sure who has a hacksaw in an apartment, but we sure don’t.
We approached a couple of your staff at help counter and asked if there was any chance we could get it cut before leaving the store. We explained our situation and the older gentleman was happy to oblige. He had a tape measure on his keyring and a builder’s pencil in his pocket, he marked the length we’d written on the back of our shopping list, grabbed a hacksaw off the wall and while his young colleague held the metal strip down he hacked extra length off right there on the counter. I was being very helpful reading out the instructions and when I got to the bit about cutting the brush with some tin snips the young guy ran off to get them from an aisle but instead came back with some bolt-cutters that were more suitable for cutting a lock to break into a shipping yard in the middle of the night rather than a size 4mm knitting needle. Obviously this was the most excitement they’d had in store all weekend! As an added extra service they used pliers to crimp the ends of the brush to stop the bristles falling out and creating more vacuuming for me, sanded the cut end and affixed the small plastic caps to make the ends look nice.
While all this was going on, 3 other people came by to see what was going on and got draft strips of their own so I hope our dilemma made you some extra sales that day!
Anyway, thank you thank you thank you for hiring staff that have made such a difference to our lives. People that live in apartments who’s fathers are either on the other side of the world or live 8 hours drive away don’t generally have great big tool kits or saw horses or sandpaper and it was so great to have someone help us out. Today our place is toasty warm and I reckon it’s definitely thanks to being able to buy a draft strip an afix it straight away.
Keep up the good work. We’ll be back!
April 14th, 2008 — Out and about
Paekakariki Town Council or Kapiti District Council or whoever puts up helpful signs alongside paths or on reserves will be confusing many a tourist with their latest effort.
Hmmm, one thinks you’ll need to use your own powers of observation to find the beach at Paekak … perhaps it’s near this nice blue pole …
… otherwise that carpark is the strangest beach I’ve seen!
April 10th, 2008 — Out and about
A giraffe! Camped out on the City-to-Sea bridge this morning for an hour and 10 minutes and was finally rewarded with a sighting of the baby giraffe Wellington Zoo was moving up from Christchurch. I had almost given up hope (despite the Mister listening to the radio station and sending me text updates that they still hadn’t been able to get hold of their man-on-the-spot to tell them that a) he’d seen the giraffe and b) where they were) when a man on his way to work stopped and said “Are you waiting for the giraffe?” Never realised I looked like a giraffe-watcher! He told me that he’d seen him get unloaded off the boat about 10 minutes earlier so that gave me fresh hope and sure enough 15 minutes later … along Customhouse Quay he came. And no sign of the radio station guy or any other journos – perhaps my photo is it!
Photo is not that fantastic but thanks to Jiff it’s brightened enough so you can see him looking around from the back of the truck!
Update: oh oh! Thanks to my blog readers here’s a story from stuff.co.nz and their journalist’s better photo of the little fella 🙂
April 5th, 2008 — Out and about
This Saturday’s search for breakfast took us to Chew’s Lane which has only been open a week and much to our delight one of the cafes there was open – Gotham. It has black cut-out skyscraper wall decorations and a bat light! And more importantly white bread toast, peanut butter and latte. It was REALLY good. Butter was spreadable, toast didn’t taste like it had been cooked over the same grill as the steak and onions and very surprisingly the Havana coffee was good. Very. Good. Even the Mister’s eggs were fried rock solid. Will definitely be going back there.
April 4th, 2008 — Out and about
Yes indeed there’s coffee being served behind the People’s garage door in Garrett Street. We called in there for a latte a couple of Saturdays ago after being served a cup of warm milk with a coffee bean waved over it that was being passed of as a latte Olive. So disappointing – Olive was a favourite back in the day – they use Supreme and one of their baristas was Barista of the Year once. But the People’s latte was fantastic! Only counter cakes and one table to share. Just a takeaway place.
March 31st, 2008 — Out and about
Chews Lane has just opened this morning (alley between Willis and Victoria Streets) – a couple of coffee places were open and it looks as though it’s going to be a very cool little haven. Kind of cosy looking on a grey day.
March 30th, 2008 — Out and about
What a surprise when we got to Nikau today!
Apparently blueberry season is over so dates are back! And just in the nick of time. I’d finally given in and yesterday gone into Finc upon hearing raves from friends and seeing the big sign outside their cafe proclaiming ‘best date scones in Wellington!’. Well. Not so. We sat quite near the counter in Finc and while waiting for our order I caught a whiff of hot date. At that point I said to the Mister that that didn’t bode well – microwaving a scone was just not right. And not how Nikau does it – they warm using an oven. When I got the scone it was scalding hot! Just scorching. Bad. Bad. BAD. I cut it in half and let it cool for a few minutes – even when the stodgy dough (yes dough – yes stodgy (told you it was a bad idea to microwave it)) was cool the dates had retained their heat – burnt my mouth. And actually they had a kind of burnt sugar taste that lingered – way too overheated. Couldn’t eat it all and practically left Finc in tears I was so disappointed.
Now that’s here’s date scone smile if ever I saw one.
March 24th, 2008 — Out and about
It’s true! People’s Coffee did open a place in Garrett Street – well, I assume that’s what’s hidden behind the garage door.
March 24th, 2008 — Out and about
Hrumf – bit grumpy I didn’t get to see the amazing balloons all lit up on Oriental Parade last night – they look amazing!
Didn’t know it was on! We went for a wander around the city part of the waterfront yesterday evening and saw one Red Bull balloon there but thought it was just something that had gone on during the day and didn’t think to check for beach events over the weekend. That’ll learn me! As reported by stuff.co.nz it was the Lift Off Levin balloon festival.
