Art deco - warm up

That's right.. Art Deco has arrived again.... its started off quietly for me with a business trip up to Napier 2 days before the festivities started.

You know its a small town when this is the baggage claim area:


A quiet dinner for one after a long day seeing clients.



Its hard to believe how quiet this town can be normally.. in only 24 hours it will be completely different, as though the magic of movies has arrived and the filming is about to begin.

Who are your voyuers?

So I'm gathering that a more than just my mother is reading this at this point....

 




So as I disappear for a week to go play at the Art Deco festival (click HERE in case you need a refresher of what that is all about), I urge you to say hello... add a comment, send me an email, wahtever. I'm now just a bit curious who is boosting my 'absolute unique visitors' numbers, cuz well as unique as all my friends are, I had no idea THAT many were reading here.  

Anyone for tea?

This weekend was a rush of social activity.  I rather needed it.  I truly had brunch, afternoon tea, and tea-tea (as in dinner) covered ever day of the week.  Phew, what a lovely weekend.

One highlight was the Full Swing afternoon tea party which includes a heavy dose of clothing swapping.  As in, bring what vintage or just cool clothes you aren't wearing and sell them to friends.

One lucky find was this lovely pink dress.

Sally-Anne was wearing it and I asked where she had found it. She filled me in then mentioned that one of the ladies had the very same one for sale.  $5 later I was getting my photo next to Miss March (or is it February) of the Have a Heart Vintage Pinup Calendar.  Click through for details here and here.  Another lovely thing about Wellington is its FREE ambulance funded by all sorts of fund raisers, including this really nifty calendar.  

And of course, tea isn't complete until you are ask to 'come through' to the tea itself.  Bring a plate is a lovely thing!

Ah the joys of being loved

Today I enjoyed a proper cup of tea in my lovely new mug that my friend A organized for me. Even better, she enlisted her mother-in-law to make it and bring it over on her visit to NZ.

And so today I caught up on correspondence, paid some bills, read lots of blogs, and ate yummy banana cake with sun streaming in and a perfect shadow from the wall where my screen is so that there would be no glare while I was writing.

ah... much better then the day when my old favourite mug was smashed in an unfortunate accident.

A week of snap shots

As some of you know, I've been struggling with a few sad things in my life, which I don't really write about here. But I've been doing fairly well at filling my time with fun and reflective things. I went and saw the Jane Austin Book club movie – very good. And yes if you see it you should then go and read Ursala Le Guin – she is that good and she has some Portland ties if I remember correctly.

I did some great mountain biking in the bike park near my house. Too bad I forgot my camera. Amazing views of the harbour to one side and the straight/south island to the other. Incredible.

I did some some more baking – this time a lemon meringue pie to share with friends.
 
And some home made guacamole with a splurge purchase – a really magazine, to be read at home (instead of at the library).

And I really enjoyed the view on my recently busniess trip. I was traveling with a colleague that has a Koru club membership, so we started things right with lovely drinks and food in the lounge, all complimentary of course.

Then views of the harbour on take off

and some en route

and of course returning to land in Wellington... what a memorable airport. You'd be hard pressed to get confuse with which way to land here!

The opposite of snow is...

... summer peaches, outdoor dinner, and light late into the evenings.  As jealous as I am of the amazing snowfall back in my home town, I thought I'd take a moment to post what is lovely about here.




Scorching Bay has a way of looking suprisingly pleasant for swimming.  But the water was so cold I thought that these happy people in the water must be paid actors or something!