Waterworld

As you may have noticed from my weather icon on the right, it’s been raining here in Wellington. What you may not have noticed, however, is the direction of the rain, which has changed to a warmer northerly. Unfortunately, this seems to have highlighted another issue with the flat…the bedroom window appears to be rotted through, and water is coming in through it. Once again, we’ve alerted the rental company’s property manager, who will be sorting it out. It’s not as catastrophic as the previous flooding, but it needs to be fixed.

They do like their buildings leaky here! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_homes_crisis

I hope it stops raining soon.

A Chorus Line

Nicola has joined the Wellington City Chorus http://www.wellingtoncitychorus.org/ Last night we went to a concert where they were singing – Nicola didn’t sing as she had only just joined and wasn’t fully conversant with their routines, so we were in the audience until the end, when she joined the ensemble renditions of How We Sang Today and Te Aroha.

The concert was being held at Hutt International Boys School, in the Hutt Valley. Geography digression: the Greater Wellington conurbation is made up of four centres – Wellington, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt. The Hutt is the river that flows into Wellington Harbour. This was my first trip outside of Wellington “proper” since I’d arrived here.

We checked the train times, including last ones back in the evening, and set out for the station – which is on Bunny Street. Well, I found it funny. We got tickets, then found out that the trains weren’t running – they had weekend engineering works! So, not much different to the UK, there was a bus replacement service. We got on, after having been passed back and forth between the two buses because they couldn’t decide which one would be stopping at Heretaunga.

Guess what? The bus we were on didn’t stop at Heretaunga – it went straight on to its final destination of Upper Hutt. We (and several other passengers) complained to the Tranz Metro guy on the bus, and he, to his credit, apologised and sorted out an immediate return bus to Heretaunga for us. So we eventually arrived at our destination, fortunately with enough time to spare to get us to the venue.

Women’s barbershop singing seems to be a big thing in New Zealand. As well as the Wellington City Chorus there was one other large choir at the concert, and a number of quartets performing. Some of these choirs compete internationally, mainly in the USA, as well as in the domestic competitions, and New Zealand has a growing reputation in the barbershop world. Who knew?

Wellington City Chorus performing "One"

The concert was a great success, and we managed to beg a lift home with one of Nicola’s choir colleagues, so didn’t have to worry about watching the rail replacement bus whizz past us as we stood waiting disconsolately at the station bus stop.   

Nicola - front & centre

Summer Time

New Zealand moved on to Summer Time this weekend, so those of you who wish to call us from lands afar, take note of the change in time difference. I’ll let you know when actual summer weather kicks in – it hasn’t yet.

Ballroom Blitz

We went back to ballroom dancing lessons for the second week. I’d remembered what we’d learned the previous week, and managed not to stumble about too much. So then the instructor hit us with some additional steps so that we could advance our foxtrotting and rock’n’rolling skills. It’s all a bit complicated for a bear of very little brain, but I’m just about keeping up. We need to practice more between lessons, I think, as he’s going to add even more next week, I’m guessing. There’s a dance on 9^th October so I’m hoping that I’ll be just about competent in time for that!

Scrutiny

We went out for dinner last night to the Boulcott Streeet Bistro http://www.boulcottstreetbistro.co.nz/ for Nicola’s birthday. The food was great – we both had venison for main – and generally enjoyable. At the end of the meal, however, we found that they’d added a bottle of wine to our bill which we hadn’t had. This is the second time this has happened since I’ve been in Wellington, so we now scrutinize every restaurant bill carefully. Coincidence or incompetence? These are high-end restaurants, so I expect them to get it right first time.

The Cake Tin

The last time I went to see a rugby match was a couple of weeks ago, and the time before that…I think I was playing in it! The Cake Tin is the affectionate name given by Wellingtonians to the Westpac Stadium, home of the Wellington Lions RFC team. We went along there for the first time to watch Wellington Lions play Hawke’s Bay. The league contains 14 teams, and we’re about halfway through the season; we expected it to be a fairly one-sided match, as the Lions were 3^rd in the ITM table, and Hawke’s Bay were near the bottom, having won only two games so far.

Westpac Stadium - the "cake tin"

Wellington, and indeed the whole of New Zealand, is in the grip of a storm “the size of Australia” at the moment, which has caused everything from power cuts in Auckland to heavy snowfalls in South Island – enough to close the ski resorts. In Wellington, of course, due to the geography of the place, the main feature is severe winds. This will naturally affect the kicking game in rugby.

15 minutes in, and Hawke’s Bay are 10-0 up! What’s going on? Fortunately the Lions got their act together, and scored 3 tries in fairly quick succession, although only converted one due to the wind. It was fairly clear from where we were sitting how the wind was affecting the ball, so why it didn’t occur to the teams, I don’t know. There’s no way that they should have attempted some of the penalties they did under those conditions.

I caught the moment of the Lions’ second try:

Clearly there’s more to this sports photography than I thought!

Lions finished the half 17-10 up. At half-time I went and bought a hat, cos it was getting pretty chilly up in the terraces!

The second half wasn’t quite as exciting, and only 3 points were added by Hawke’s Bay, with a penalty after a sustained period of pressure in the Lions’ 22. The game finished 17-13 to Wellington – not a good result by their standards, and due to other results within the league, they’ve dropped down to 6th. There are four more matches before the play-offs, two of which will be played at home; so seeing as we had a good time tonight, we’re planning to be back for their remaining home games.

Visa

I have a visa! Woohoo!

Strictly Ballroom

A few weeks ago I signed up to a website called The Daily Do www.dailydo.co.nz who send you a daily email with a special offer in the city where you live. The deal with these offers is that they are usually only available on the day that you receive the email, or are limited in number, so you need to make an (almost) instant decision.

Last week, one of the offers was $10 for three weeks’ tuition of ballroom dancing. Well, obviously we went for it, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this blog! We had our first lesson last night. The class had been running for two weeks already, so some folk knew what they were doing, although we weren’t the only first-timers there. The hall was almost full with people of all ages. I stumbled through a foxtrot, and almost, but not quite, got the hang of rock’n’roll.  

So next week we’ll be back, and hopefully some of what they’re teaching me will rub off, in time for the Social Dance in October.

Radio Ga Ga

When we arrived in Wellington I searched around to find a radio station to replace my normal UK listening of XFM. I wanted a station that played contemporary music, but excluded all the Lady Gaga-type rubbish.

Sadly it was not to be, but I did find a station, X105, who seemed to be not quite as trashy as modern pop radio. Of course, they had the standard “zoo” format for the breakfast show with the newsreader and sports presenter chipping in with their inane nonsense, but it was generally OK.

You’ll have noticed the past tense in the above paragraph. When the alarm went off this morning, it made no noise. X105 has gone off the air. So far all I’ve been able to find is one tweet which said “Sadly X105 is closing today. Thank you so much to all who listened, contributed and sent messages of encouragement. Least we forget.” Do Wellingtonians only like their radio trashy? Or are they so hardcore that they listen to heavy rock of a morning?

So, farewell then, X105. Now I’ll have to find another radio station. 

Stuff


Meanwhile, our furniture and other stuff has arrived in Wellington. All we have to do now is free it from the clutches of Customs and the Ministry Of food, who take an interest in biosecurity.