A short movie showing Bella on the couch in the study yesterday afternoon. After filming she was off to make mischief elsewhere – pretty much what you would expect from a 3 year old.
Category Archives: Wellington
It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas – at our place
The tree is up at our place and, for the first time, the front balcony is festooned with sparkling lights. It was a little concerning when Jean, standing and admiring her work, mentioned in passing “we really need to do the upstairs balcony as well, and the gutters”.
Who knows where this will end?
Farewell to a legend
It was the last thing anyone expected. The passing of a legend, the passing of Jonah. I vividly recall that game in South Africa in 1995 when he steamrolled the English. Four tries and the, now legendary, flattening of Mike Catt.
On top of his rugby prowess, in the last few years he struck me as a thoroughly good guy, father, husband and kiwi.
Jonah, you will be missed.
It’s been a while since my last post …
I’ve just realised it’s been around 6 weeks since my last post. Clearly life and work have got in the way of blogging. That and the Rugby World Cup and all the stress and tension that generated. As far as I can work out almost every kiwi was up at 5am on finals day to watch the match. At half time with the All Blacks up by 20 odd points there was humour and a feeling of “job done”, but 20 minutes later when the gap was 4 points things got serious. Ultimately the ABs despatched those we love to beat – the Australians – and the celebrations began.
And the champagne flowed. It was quite odd being drunk at 8am on a Sunday but I suspect we weren’t the only New Zealand household in that state.
Echoes of Italy
It feels like we’ve been home for ages but every so often something reminds you of holiday times.
Like the photo above. We were having breakfast at the villa one morning and two ladies arrived to clean up the madonna next door. It was our madonna apparently – because it was on the villa property – but locals take the responsibility to sweep, clean and polish it.
It was also a useful landmark if we needed to describe which vila we were in – the one next to the madonna – ahh, si la madonna. Bene.
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- Cleaning around the madonna
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- Madonna in her glass cabinet
And now we are home
After 3 weeks of rest and relaxation we’re back home in Wellington and back into our routine – including the daily commute to work. And despite it being spring we were met with a pretty good impersonation of winter. Sigh.
The house on the cliff
Every time we walked from the villa to the village of Positano we passed a house that simply had to be photographed. It is actually three apartments that are built, quite literally, on the side of a cliff overlooking the sea and above a private beach.
The setting is stunning and the way the house is fitted into the hill seems to sum up the relationship Positano has with its surroundings. They work in harmony, like that’s the way things have always been. The Italians have a word for this – simpatico.
Si, simpatico.
Two days in Rome
At the end of our holiday we had two days in Rome. It was a chance to visit some favourite places of ours as well as some new places. We stayed at Hotel Barocco in one of their junior suites – which meant we had an outdoor patio to relax on – four floors above Piazza Barberini. It was a real luxury.
As always we were looked after superbly with nothing being too much trouble. Which made it even harder to say goodbye and start the long trip home. The good thing is that we threw a coin into the Trevi fountain (well sort of as you can see from the photo) so we’ll be back.
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- Piazza Navona
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- Roman windows in Piazza Barberini
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- Fountain in Piazza Barberini
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- Trevi Fountain being refurbished
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- The Pantheon
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- Resting in Pizza Navona
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- Open top tour bus
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- Barberini fountain
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- Street vendor – selfie sticks for sale
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- Street vendor – “roses for beautiful ladies”
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- The almost invisible entrance to Hotel Barocco
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- Barocco guest book
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- Our bedroom
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- Our patio on a rainy afternoon
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- It’s the little touches that make the difference
Cheese glorious cheese
In New Zealand buying Parmigiano Reggiano usually means buying small pre-packed slices, at great expense from the super market or deli. In Italy it’s different – as can be seen from the Parmigiano available at our favourite alimnetari. You give an indication of how much you want and it’s sliced off the round – right there in the middle of the store.
These were also the rounds that Poppie and Daisy used to sit next too when they were in Positano waiting patiently for the shop keeper to cut off a wee slice as a treat.
Poppy still enjoys the taste of Parmigiano – she obediently sits and waits for a taste every time I use some in a dish at home.
A week on the Talitha anyone?
One of the more graceful super yachts that has visited Positano during our stay is the twin funnel Talitha. She was built in 1929 and extensively upgraded a few years ago but still harkens back to a more traditional era. She is just under 80 metres long and can accommodate up to 12 guests with a crew of 17.
If any of our gentle readers are interested in chartering her for a week, we’d love to come along. Currently a week will cost around 280,000 Euro – or around $NZ496,000 at the current exchange rate. Let’s call it a round half mill once tips are included.
Once we stopped laughing, we looked around the bay for yachts that we could afford. There was a sloop that would do us nicely which would cost about the same as a month on Tailtha – still a bit out of our price range – and then a single master caught our eye – not ideal for a long stay but more within our price range.
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- Talitha – yours for just $NZ496,000 a week
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- A nice alternative but still pricey
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- Finally the one for us
At the request of my editor
Apparently this blog never features a picture of me. So says my editor who insists that I include a photograph of me just to prove that I’m actually on the trip and not sitting at home making all this up.
And if you’re wondering why I’m looking so damn smug it’s because I’ve just finished that most Italian of breakfasts – bacon and eggs – at Buca di Bacco, on the beach at Positano.
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- Sitting in Buca di Bacco
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- Uova al bacon – a most Italian breakfast
“Do you ship to New Zealand?” – Part 2
Thank you to all the gentle readers who made suggestions as to which ceramic piece is, as I write this, winging its way to New Zealand.
Sadly, neither those who know Jean well nor those who have only read about her in this blog managed to pick the correct piece – and I can’t really blame anyone – it’s a bit of a wildcard choice, as you can see.
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- Second shelf from the top on the far end
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- The Gecko Ball for sale
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- On the counter
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- Sold!
A day in the life
We’ve slid gracefully into a daily routine here in Positano helped by some warm temperatures and sunny days.
If there is no pressing urge to sightsee then our day consists of a slow start at the villa, a quick trip to the shops if anything is needed and an afternoon spent around the pool at Eden Roc. On the way back to the villa we stop at the Galli Bar for a drink and a stracciatella gelato for the walk home.
The evening means a dinner out at Chez Black or Bruno, or if we can’t be bothered going out a quick cena (dinner) at home looking out across the bay.
Simple.
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- Some swimming
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- Some sunning
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- Starfish
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- Lunch on the terrace
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- A vino with lunch
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- Persols are a must have
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- After lunch, back to the pool
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- The view over lunch
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- A drink at Galli Bar
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- Dinner at Bruno
Goodbye slide, hello helicopter
In a recent post looking at the array of super yachts that come and go in Positano, we decided that a slide seemed to be the latest “must have” accessory for any self respecting millionaire boat owner.
We were wrong – based on this shot of a yacht moored in the bay a few days ago it’s clearly a helicopter.
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- The ultimate super yacht accessory – a slide
Colazione like no other
We ventured to the hotel for breakfast last Friday. As always we were made welcome by the effervescent Tony.
He told us that Thursday was “his day off so today he was relaxed”. As a result we were spoilt – special pastries to start, four types of quiche all of which were delightful, scrambled eggs and as many cappuccinos as we could manage – all delivered to our table so we had no need to use the buffet. The meal was topped off with small slices of chocolate gateaux.
Now, gentle reader, I hear you say – gateaux for breakfast? Well why not – it complimented the coffee superbly and after a few minutes very little of it was left on the plate.
Many thanks to Tony – it was a colazione not to forget. Grazie mille.
Toscanakiwi 