Dream weekend

I am having such a good time at the moment. I just spent the weekend in Auckland with Alex and Ed. We went to check out The Basement, where we'll be doing our show in the Auckland Fringe 2011, and generally have a fun time. We saw Toys at The Basement which was invaluable for getting a sense of the theatre space (very different to BATS Theatre), although the iPhones (aka iPhads - their size makes them more like a cross between an iPhone and an iPad) Alex made for us so that we would fit in in Auckland didn't seem to impress all the Shortland Street and C4 people sitting around us. What a surprise.


While our unanimous verdict was that Wellington is a million times better than Auckland in almost every way, we did prefer the Christmas window display in Smith & Caughey's over the one currently in Kirkaldies and Staines down here.




It's a 1920s Cinderella story based on a book they're selling in the store. There were such cool details in all the window scenes - the furniture, clothing etc and the marionettes moved so cleverly.

I got to go to one of my favourite things in Auckland - the French-style Farmers' Market in Parnell and eat yum food.



And we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum to see the Outrageous Fortune exhibition - which we were a week too early for, but spent a couple of hours looking around the museum anyway. There are some really cool permanent exhibitions, like New Zealand Design and Decorative Arts, which showcases furniture, clothing, and decorative items from the past 100+ years. I haven't been to the Auckland Museum since I was quite young so it was nice to be able to pay it a visit.




Then, because we were right next to it, we went to another of my favourite Auckland spots - The Winter Gardens at the Auckland Domain.



We happened upon a hip wee craft market back in the centre of the city on Saturday afternoon, Cassette's Supermarket, which is apparently held every Saturday in the Cassette bar. I loved all the bunting - which reminds me I need to get onto sewing mine for the Royal Garden Party this weekend!



On Saturday night we went to the Auckland Theatre Company's production of Cabaret. SO AWESOME. It was in the Salon Perdu - a travelling European Mirror Tent (spiegeltent) that they've erected on the Eastern Viaduct for the show. The venue was so freaking cool and the show was also amazing. Very very sexual but totally appropriate for Cabaret. Great performers - the woman who played Fraulein Schneider was my favourite, exactly how I picture the character when I listen to the original cast recording - and suitably chilling towards the end. I am so glad I went.



That night we saw some random street art that tickled my fancy...


When we got back to Wellington we had the 2010 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards and while we didn't win in either of the categories we (/Alex) were nominated for, our friend Lucy did for her play Katydid so we were very happy. And we had a great night that involved a lot of dancing and everyone looking like total babes. I wore a black dress shot through with silver I bought from Frutti that made me feel very Audrey Hepburn, unfortunately my camera was not enjoying the low light inside the Opera House so I hope someone has a good photo of it because I don't.

I took today off in anticipation of the very late night so I have managed to stretch the weekend out as much as possible; even still, I wish it wasn't back to work tomorrow...