This photo was not a set-up. I was driving into town today and around 200 metres from home I passed some road works. When the lovely men from the city council do this type of work they forewarn the residents and ask them to park their cars outside the work zone. In almost all cases the residents comply. When they don’t …
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Today Wellington will come to a standstill for the world premiere of Peter Jackson’s movie The Hobbit. There will be stars, screaming fans, air kisses and autograph signings by the thousand. This morning I had a meeting in that part … Continue reading
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One afternoon last week I took a walk along Wellington’s waterfront. It was a glorious day and it seemed like most of Wellington was out to enjoy it. When I say I walked along the waterfront, in actual fact, I … Continue reading
Five years ago we had never seen a Tui in our back yard. We thought of them as birds of the bush or forest, certainly not visitors to our suburban home.
These New Zealand native birds have a distinctive white ruffle under their chin and a call which is a mix of ringing bells, clicks, whirrs and buzzes – with the sound of someone gargling mixed in for good measure.
About 3 years ago Tui just started to appear around the house and now their annual arrival is a mark of spring and the arrival of the warmer weather.
Their resurgence in numbers has been quite significant and is due, in no small part, to a successful breeding programme at our local wildlife reserve.
Nice.
In the last few days Wellington has been plagued by an outbreak of humming. Not your run-of-the-mill, can’t remember the words humming but rather humming on a city-wide scale. As our local newspaper put it on Tuesday:
A mysterious low-pitched humming sound has been troubling some Wellington residents for the last few days and it seems no-one has any idea what it might be. The Wellington City Council has had several calls over the past few days with the most recent being about 5am today. Spokesman Richard MacLean said the complaints had been coming in from Mt Victoria, Newtown and Mt Cook residents. “We are interested to hear if this starts to become a constant thing. We are keeping our ear to the ground.”
One Mt Victoria resident said he and his fiancee had noticed the noise on Saturday and it hadn’t stopped since. He likened it to a low to medium pitched humming sound and said it went all day and all night and was “doing his head in”.
Of course the source is a mystery but there have been many suggestions made in the local paper. Some rational and some not so:
“Maybe it is the 50Hz hum that comes from a transformer feeding electricity to the area. If the transformer is overloaded it will hum louder, or maybe something on or near its enclosure is vibrating at 50Hz.”
“The Mothership is preparing [to] leave. Because Mt Victoria is actually an ancient alien spaceship. It would be a bit annoying for the suburb’s residents, though it would make the commute between Te Aro and Hataitai substantially quicker once it left.”
But this comment is my favourite: “Why is Mt Victoria humming? Simply because she doesn’t know the words.”
Poppie went for her groom today. It was a bit overdue so we delivered a shaggy little scruff to the lovely Calley at Smoochpooch. We picked up, what looked like, someone else’s dog!
With winds whistling through Cook Strait at up to 140km/h today our place reminded everyone why it’s called Windy Wellington.
The normally peaceful view of small boats moored in the shelter of Evans Bay looked a little different today.
Yesterday we lost our wee girl Daisy. After fifteen years and seven months her big heart finally gave out and she slipped peacefully away. We will miss her terribly but we will always remember the stubborn and determined, but intensely loyal and devoted little girl she was.
Our lovely vet Laura has, for the last year or so, referred to her as our medical miracle – which she was.
We will think of her simply as our Daisy, our little girl.
Daisy 1997 – 2012.
Daisy asleep in the cottage on our clothes – Tuscany, June 2011
The post about the sign Wellington Airport recently installed on the hills beside the final approach (There are times I worry about Wellington) has certainly got my wonderful readers thinking. And they’re coming up with new and creative suggestions for the sign.
To show you what I mean, I’ve mocked up a couple of the suggestions. Keep them coming.
Two in a basket beside the desk
Yes gentle reader, another gratuitous dog shot makes it’s way into the blog.
Our old girl Daisy (on the right) has now reached the unlikely age of 15 years and 6 months. Despite her heart condition, her deafness and her bad eyesight, she continues to battle on. In recent weeks she decided that all the old foods she used to eat and enjoy are boring and unappetising and she effectively stopped eating. Now she will only eat all the things that are bad for her. If it’s high in salt and low in vitamins and minerals, she’s into it.
That means McDonalds McNuggets, Cherrios (cocktail sausages to all non-kiwis), store bought meat pies, pretty much everything that we would have been horrified feeding her before. But after talking this through with our lovely vet Linda the general feeling was – if she’ll eat it, then that’s good. Because if she stops eating, well, that’s very bad.
Having said that, tonight, along with Jean and I, Daisy enjoyed fillet steak – medium rare – cooked in garlic butter.
Daisy spends most of her time sleeping these days, in her basket, next to my desk in the study. It’s a safe, warm place and a friendly pat is never far away.
Yesterday I came into the study to find Daisy at one end of her basket – and our other girl Poppie curled up at the other. Poppie has been watching the extra attention being lavished on Daisy and maybe this is her way to remind us not to forget her.
Mental note – fillet steak for 4 tomorrow night.
Last week a sign was erected on the hills above Evans Bay. It has been the result of 2 years of local debate and controversy and has involved everything from a petition from the public through to the involvement of some of Wellington’s finest business and political minds. All to develop a sign to welcome those arriving by plane at Wellington airport.
The sign says – wait for it – Wellington.
This story began when Wellington Airport – which owned the site – decided to pay homage to Wellington’s fabulous film industry – you know, Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings, Weta Digital, Stone Street Studios and now the two, sorry, three Hobbit movies – by erecting a copy of the famous “Hollywood” sign on the hill overlooking the harbour which would say “Wellywood”. I’m not sure where this piece of creative genius came from but it’s fair to say everyone, except the airport company, thought it was naff, silly and, lets be honest, a bit “try hard”.
The airport company stuck to their guns, the sign was going up, end of story. But after protests, hours of angry talk-back calls, comment from many distinguished Wellingtonians, and the aforementioned petition, they backed down. A committee of prominent locals was set up to oversee a contest. Anyone who wanted to, could submit a design and the best one would be selected to go up.
It turned out that the best was a “Wellington” sign being blown away. An idea that came from an Auckland advertising agency. Yikes.
That sign with the airport to the right
And yesterday the song lyrics were pretty much right. We had strong winds and rain, and the view from our front window was less than idyllic. But it was Sunday, a chance to hunker down and to do nothing much in particular. It was a challenge we were happy to take up.
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July 12 2011 – we were staying in the lovely Villa Greta in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. It was a scorching hot day with the temperature hovering in the low 30’s (celsius) with hardly a breath of wind. The … Continue reading
Every time Jean and I feel homesick for Italy we make the pilgrimage to MariLuca Ristoro. It is owned and run by a friend, Guiseppie, and stepping through the door feels like stepping back to Italy. It’s all warmth and friendliness and excellent Italian food, all in the heart of Wellington.
Bellisssimo.
Note: photos are courtesy of MariLuca Ristoro
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Every so often, as we sit here in the middle of Wellington’s winter, there is an echo of our time in Italy. Over the weekend we hung a picture on the wall. It was painted by our friend and talented … Continue reading
