It is now cold i.e. autumn proper, & Erola’s house has no heating apart from the wood-burner, which I am not allowed to light till 4 p.m. So we both stayed in bed Sunday morning, I read a complete book, fortunately I went to the library again last Friday. I think this is one reason Erola spends a lot of her free time in bed, it’s cheap!
Went to a barbecue at Gordon’s apartment in the city (Hilary’s ex, they are legally separated, but it’s all very amicable). All the family went, which was nice, it was sunny, but too cold to stand outside. The flat is lovely, it’s in Thorndon, the ‘posh’ part of downtown, just down the road from the Prime Minister’s residence. It is over 2 exclusive shops, so it is unique, it has high ceilings & elaborate cornices and ceiling roses, quite unusual for NZ, I think it is Victorian. It cost over 500,000NZD 2 years ago, which was expensive at the time, not sure how much profit he’d make now though. He has a mortgage, unlike my sister on her property, & is being affected by high interest rates, their mortgage rate is over 9% so think yourselves lucky!
Went back for coffee to Hilary’s and had a long chat about her thoughts on living in NZ & my experience so far. It is clear to me now that although Kiwis look like Europeans, and talk English, the culture is very different from ours. They also have a very different sense of humour (I think the English are more witty, the humour is more language based rather than slapstick). Kiwis have very little respect for authority, they consider themselves over-governed already apparently, but it is nothing like as bureaucratic as in the UK, a good thing! Huge generalisations of course, but they are pioneering in nature, and will do much more for themselves, it is a ‘can do’ society. I guess there is no veneer of sophistication at all, it’s all very down-to-earth. Just something we Brits have to get used to.
Monday was really the first cold day so far, see photo above for the change! The plan is to get my sister’s old gas heater from her son Adam’s flat next weekend & I can fill up the gas bottle & use that whenever I want to.
I went on the train to Wellington on Wednesday, to visit the Museum of City & Sea. It was such a beautiful day, in contrast to Monday, that I walked along the waterfront for a bit too. Lots of office workers were out, sitting everywhere & anywhere in order to take advantage of what might be one of the last warm days of Autumn. After all, it is nearly the end of ‘October’. The museum, though small, was very interesting, & I spent over 2 hours there, well worth a visit.
A couple of comments re the trains: they are a bit unreliable, the timetable doesn’t seem to have much relevance, BUT, car parking is free at all stations, they are relatively clean and they have a great system of ticketing which I don’t quite believe, all part of the NZ trust thing I suppose. You can buy tickets at the large stations, but otherwise there are conductors on the trains, who watch who gets on at every station & then go down the carriage asking who got on at the last one! It must be possible to travel without paying, particularly in busy times, but of course most people pay up. Also, I guess it would be possible to pay for a shorter journey than you intend to take, since the conductor can’t possibly remember where everyone is going to. The fares are not cheap though, so perhaps they allow for cheating.
The other thing I learnt this week was that brothels are legal in NZ. Gordon met the ‘madam’ of a famous one at a party he went to last week. Must cut out on quite a bit of crime I guess.
Friday was ANZAC day, a public holiday, a bit like Remembrance Sunday, but celebrated by lots more people here, a really big thing, it commemorates the NZ/Aussie action in Gallipolli in the First World War, when thousands died because of a mistake (by the British apparently) who gave them the wrong coordinates and they were simply mown down. Very sad, we watched a couple of films about it on TV, didn’t make the local parade because it was at 8.30! Went for a walk later, see the ‘wood’ photo above, very clever to stack it like that, practically a sculpture, but it will get wet!
In the evening Hilary, Adam & I went to an improvisation show by the ‘Improv Divas’ in BATS Theatre in WLG, which wasn’t very funny unfortunately, part of the Comedy festival taking place here now. Apart from the one American girl comedian, they weren’t quick enough to pick up on each other’s ideas, a bit of a problem! We have booked another show next weekend with 3 lady comedians, not the same ones, so hope it is better. WLG is really buzzy at night though, it’s a great place.
Went back for coffee to Hilary’s and had a long chat about her thoughts on living in NZ & my experience so far. It is clear to me now that although Kiwis look like Europeans, and talk English, the culture is very different from ours. They also have a very different sense of humour (I think the English are more witty, the humour is more language based rather than slapstick). Kiwis have very little respect for authority, they consider themselves over-governed already apparently, but it is nothing like as bureaucratic as in the UK, a good thing! Huge generalisations of course, but they are pioneering in nature, and will do much more for themselves, it is a ‘can do’ society. I guess there is no veneer of sophistication at all, it’s all very down-to-earth. Just something we Brits have to get used to.
Monday was really the first cold day so far, see photo above for the change! The plan is to get my sister’s old gas heater from her son Adam’s flat next weekend & I can fill up the gas bottle & use that whenever I want to.
I went on the train to Wellington on Wednesday, to visit the Museum of City & Sea. It was such a beautiful day, in contrast to Monday, that I walked along the waterfront for a bit too. Lots of office workers were out, sitting everywhere & anywhere in order to take advantage of what might be one of the last warm days of Autumn. After all, it is nearly the end of ‘October’. The museum, though small, was very interesting, & I spent over 2 hours there, well worth a visit.
A couple of comments re the trains: they are a bit unreliable, the timetable doesn’t seem to have much relevance, BUT, car parking is free at all stations, they are relatively clean and they have a great system of ticketing which I don’t quite believe, all part of the NZ trust thing I suppose. You can buy tickets at the large stations, but otherwise there are conductors on the trains, who watch who gets on at every station & then go down the carriage asking who got on at the last one! It must be possible to travel without paying, particularly in busy times, but of course most people pay up. Also, I guess it would be possible to pay for a shorter journey than you intend to take, since the conductor can’t possibly remember where everyone is going to. The fares are not cheap though, so perhaps they allow for cheating.
The other thing I learnt this week was that brothels are legal in NZ. Gordon met the ‘madam’ of a famous one at a party he went to last week. Must cut out on quite a bit of crime I guess.
Friday was ANZAC day, a public holiday, a bit like Remembrance Sunday, but celebrated by lots more people here, a really big thing, it commemorates the NZ/Aussie action in Gallipolli in the First World War, when thousands died because of a mistake (by the British apparently) who gave them the wrong coordinates and they were simply mown down. Very sad, we watched a couple of films about it on TV, didn’t make the local parade because it was at 8.30! Went for a walk later, see the ‘wood’ photo above, very clever to stack it like that, practically a sculpture, but it will get wet!
In the evening Hilary, Adam & I went to an improvisation show by the ‘Improv Divas’ in BATS Theatre in WLG, which wasn’t very funny unfortunately, part of the Comedy festival taking place here now. Apart from the one American girl comedian, they weren’t quick enough to pick up on each other’s ideas, a bit of a problem! We have booked another show next weekend with 3 lady comedians, not the same ones, so hope it is better. WLG is really buzzy at night though, it’s a great place.
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