Tinui

I went away again this weekend.

This time to a 'cottage' in Tinui, which isn't very far away from the beach I stayed at the weekend before. The 'cottage' wasn't really a cottage, but a big old three bedroom house, beautifully restored with an impressively hot fire, an outdoor spa pool (which was amazing to sit in and look at the stars on a frosty night), and a 'walk' to the site of the first ever ANZAC ceremony.

We got a little off track on the walk, so instead of an hour, it took us about three hours of walking through mud, and climbing a very steep track. The view was worth it though.

We also went to Castlepoint (a different beach from the one I was at the weekend before) and walked up to the lighthouse and around the lagoon and tried to slide down the big sand dunes. The weather was very nice.

Now I have to endure the last three weeks of life as a policy analyst, before I start my new job at BATS. Exciting!

Also, I have made no progress on the Pebble vest, but the stitch markers I ordered from Holland Road Yarn Company arrived so I can take off the bits of different coloured wool I tied on and be all proper at Baby Knitters Club on Wednesday.

Take me to the beach

On the weekend I went to the beach. It was very, very, very nice.

Amongst going for a long walk, trying to form a biking gang of two adults to rival the biking gang of three small children we saw riding around, eating fish and chips, and falling asleep while watching March of the Penguins, I made progress on my Pebble Vest but failed to take a photo of it. It's pretty boring still. It's just 13 rows of 80 stitches with some stitch markers.

I decided I really, really like Norfolk Pines with their little stars at the top and admired them a lot.

I also made a still life with some flowers I stole from the side of the road, a shell I stole from the beach, and an eggshell blue tea tray and a Crown Lynn cup I wanted to steal from the house we stayed in. I made that coffee in the cup. In one of those stovetop percolators. I don't drink coffee, but I love those contraptions.

Also, I didn't set out to make a still life, just so you know. I put some flowers in a gravy boat on the tray and then put the shell next to it to look pretty and then decided I needed to take a photo and call it a 'still life' like a pretentious loser.

Also, also, it really annoyed me how March of the Penguins was all, 'Why do the penguins march? Because love.' And, 'Now the family get to spend some quality time together before departing, never to see each other again.' Stop projecting human emotions and concepts onto penguins. They don't do it for love. They do it for reproduction.

Bike helmets and poppies

Just when you thought this blog had turned into a floral tribute (and, let's be honest, it pretty much has - this post will not be without flowers), I actually make something. Granted it was only a card, but I was inordinately proud of it because I am terrible at drawing and I drew something that actually resembled the object it was supposed to.

It was a card for Alex and Cam, who had the best non-baby shower baby shower on Sunday.

There were so many cute and comedy presents and nice people (the booties and jersey above were knitted by Aileen and I was really jealous). It was at a 50s-style diner and the meals were HUGE. Then Alex and Cam and Kitty and I went home and watched Burlesque. I have now seen it three times and I'm not quite sure why.

Last night I cast on and knit six rows of my latest Baby Knitters Club project while babysitting a very cute almost three year old. I am knitting the Pebble Vest which I have seen a lot on a blog I read. It's knit across as one piece, which mean casting on 80 stitches. That is one long row.

And in floral news, the very nice florist at Bunches included some poppies in my weekly $10 bunch of flowers for my desk. So far only one has opened and it has been amazing to watch. I wish I'd had a time lapse camera taking photos of it.

How does it know to do what it does even when it's been cut off from its roots? It's actually incredible. I hope the other three buds open.

Spring has sprung

The Botanic Garden is actually making me later and later for work each morning. I'm usually already running late when I walk through, but now I'm all, 'Oh but look at that magnolia tree, I need to take a photo! Those daffodils have doubled since yesterday, I need to take a photo! Freesias in a little clump amongst purple-y blue flowers, photo! Tulips, photo! Poppies, photo!'

The tulips are amazing though. One morning there were a couple, the next morning quite a few more, and then yesterday as I drove past I saw there were HEAPS. Walking to work this week is going to be great. Unless this crazy wind ruined them all.

This week I saw a play I did not enjoy. But nothing else. I decided what I'm going to knit next for Baby Knitters Club. But I haven't actually started it.

Baby Knitters Club seems to be on a slight hiatus at the moment. However, Kate got busy in her own time and made these amazing bibs. They're like kerchiefs - they're square with a pointed bottom - and she put domes on them like a grown-up. Amazing! [I wrote 'put domes on them like a grown-up' while half-asleep last night before I gave up on finishing this post; what does it even mean? I think it means that domes seem like a hard-out thing and that only a grown-up, accomplished sewer could put them on something. Yeah, that's what it means.]

Here are two photos I took while passing through Carterton last time I was in the Wairarapa.

I think they'd need to add 'knitting' or 'sitting around drinking cups of tea, eating, and talking' to make the Club appeal to me. Neither of those activities seem crazy for a Senior Citizens' Club.

A mundane novella

Last Sunday I took part in Corner Diary at BATS, which was basically a group of us reading things we had written when we were younger and were, to varying degrees, ashamed of. I read from the diary I wrote when I was eight years old, and the diary I wrote when I was ten. I had the best time and I wasn't embarrassed by the younger me at all - I'm glad I was so precocious and self-absorbed and strange, it has given me the best comedy material possible. Anyway, a lot of my diary entries from when I was ten begin with 'Sorry I haven't written for so long' or 'I can't believe it's been three days/three weeks/three months since I last wrote'. Nothing changes.

That photo above was taken on my way to work one morning just over a week ago. We'd had a lot of rain and one of the walls that the footpath on Glenmore Street runs alongside had even more moss on it than usual; I didn't touch it but it looked much thicker and bouncier (I'm sure moss doesn't bounce, but whatever). And it had little succulent flowers growing out of it. I thought they were pretty cool.

In the last few weeks I have been doing the usual - eating, working, going to movies and shows, writing a Christmas show with Alex and Ed, and various other things. Have I written about the orchestra? I don't think so.

I went to the orchestra one Friday night in August. I asked for two tickets for my birthday because I hadn't been since I was much younger and I had pretty much forgotten what it was like. It was the NZSO and the concert was called Cathedral of Sound, with 'one of the most exciting and ground breaking conductors of our time' Simone Young conducting Mozart's Symphony No. 36 Linz and Bruckner's Symphony No. 5. This really means nothing to me, all I know is I really enjoyed it and I couldn't believe over two hours had passed when we walked out. Simone Young was very animated in her conducting, she pretty much conducted with her whole body so it was really interesting to watch. Which was lucky because we were right near the front so could only see the front part of the string section. The person I went with wore a bow tie. Which was pretty great.

Here are some pictures of food I have eaten in the past few weeks:

The main of the Wellington On A Plate set menu at Le Metropolitain, followed by dessert off the menu. Creme brulee for me and warm chocolate pudding with sour cherries for Kelly.

Tacos from QBT on the waterfront at lunchtime on Friday. A bit of a wait, but so worth it.

Scones with jam and cream (not pictured, obviously) at Martha's Pantry. Two days in a row. As well as the daffodils in that photo, there are blossoms and blooms and bulbs everywhere in the Botanic Garden at the moment. It looks and smells pretty amazing every morning when I walk through it.

Churros and chocolate sauce for dessert at El Matador last night. I drank the last of the sauce out of the cup when I'd finished the churros. So good. Kelly got pancakes filled with caramel, which looked quite crepe-ish and tasted yum.

As for movies and theatre, I went to West End Girls at Circa, which was as expected (the ending was particularly cringe-inducing). I went to Tiny Spectacle / Shitty Lyricism at BATS which was painfully hip. I went to Jerichow at the Film Society (anyone could go along for a donation), a somewhat bleak and sometimes ridiculous, but enjoyable enough German film. I went to One Day Moko at BATS which was beautiful and made me a bit emotional. I saw it in its first incarnation as a Toi Whakaari solo and since then Tim has developed it into an hour long show. He is very very clever and such a strong performer. It makes you think a bit differently about homelessness and people you see regularly on the street, but most importantly it just makes you think about those things and has some very funny moments. Rave over. I went to Moonrise Kingdom last night which was cute and funny and I loved the music (by composer Benjamin Britten).

That's enough.

Oh but I listened to the most beautiful and sad 'This American Life' podcast this week. 'Our Friend David', following the death of regular contributor David Rakoff, whose voice I love. David's life is explored through bits from stories he'd told on the show and it was just so funny and lovely. I love that show.