I love being near the sea

Hi there

Below:  Worser Bay, Wellington

Below: Oriental Bay

I love that there's so many swimming beaches around Wellington.

I can walk over the hill to Worser Bay or walk along Cobham Drive to Hataitai Beach.  In the car, it takes about five minutes to get to either of these beaches.   At weekends, I can catch the return East West Ferry from Seatoun Wharf to take me across the harbour to Days Bay.  Oriental Bay is a hop, skip, and a jump away from the CBD.

going to the gym

Hi there

I've now been 30 years going to gyms.  I used to go to Aerobics and I got very thirsty.  Thirty years ago, however, it was considered sissy and weak and not-right to want to take a drink during an intense aerobic class.

I didn't care one bit.  I momentarily slipped apart from my centre-of-the-room class to gulp down some water.  I got lots of snobby looking-down-their-noses looks from other aerobicisers/

Funny, isn't it, how now in gym classes we're encouraged to take drinks of water between or during exercise?   Oh, yeah, I am such an innovator...

Valentine's Day at Hataitai Beach

Hi there

I was happily swimming at Hataitai Beach.  I looked over the road to see which flag a nearby house-owner had flying today.  I love it that often I see other countries' flags as well as the New Zealand one.

But today -   Hey, what the - ?  Which country's flag was that  - ?

Oh of course.  Today is Valentine's Day, February 14!  And NZ is one day ahead of the rest of the world.  Yay.

I love this house-owner...

My latest holiday

Hi there

Okay, yes, another holiday.  I mentioned to a friend, some time back, that I always seemed to be sick or injured when I was on holiday.  He looked at me as if I was completely thick and said, "Because you're always on holiday!"

Oops...

I went to Nelson, at the top of the South Island, this past week.  Two days before I left, I sprained my knee.  Again.   The doctor put me on ACC, which means we get cheaper or free medical help when we're involved in any sort of accident from something as simple as a grazed knee, up to a road crash (and in NZ no one can sue).

My worst bad-knee moment?  Outside the door at Nelson Airport, attempting to get into a shuttle car.   I screamed blue murder as I stepped up into the SUV.  Birds squawked in fright,  passengers heads swivelled towards me.  Air crew gawked.  The shuttle driver and me were both so embarrassed.

I went to a physiotherpist.  She gave me a crutch which didn't really work for my jaunty hiking image.  I'd gone down to Nelson to daily section hike the nearby Abel Tasman National Park, from Kaiteriteri.   Well, that was out of the equation.  I did go down to Abel Tasman but could only sit on Anchorage Beach.  I tottered down to the sea like a fragile baby turtle negotiating hazards.

below Kaiteriteri Beach

below: Tides Restaurant at Trailways Hotel in Nelson City.  A lovely place for a meal.

Those exotic foods in the 1960's

Hi there

Way back in the early 1960's we, in New Zealand, were learning about exotic foods.  I remember going into a bakery wth my mother.  She pointed to a cabinet  -

"Two of those bread rolls, please."

The assistant said, "They're not bread rolls.  They're croissants"

Mum and I, we both sniggered.  Someone was having us on, yes?  Silly pretentious shop assistant making up strange names for things. Talk about a rose by any other name still being a rose?  To us at the time, and I think probably to all of NZ, bread rolls were bread rolls, didn't matter what shape they were.

Also, in the 60's, yoghurt suddenly appeared on the shelves.   It was advertised as "an acquired taste".  With snobby noses in the air, we muttered to each other about this acquired taste, and how wonderful yoghurt was once you got over the first face-screwing-up awful mouthful.

And then, The French Bread Shop started up in town, beside James Smith's Department Store.  My mum raced breathlessly home, French loaf under her arm with instructions (from watching a demonstration) on the correct way to cut it and eat it.

Yep,  we were so trendy in the sixties with all our new high-end foods.   Aotearoa was such a gourmet paradise.

Chinese New Year

Hi there

It's Chinese New Year.  The Year of the Rat.  There are lots of celebrations around the counry.  Over the last few years I've shown you photographs of a BNZ Bank's decorated ATM machine celebrating the occasion. This time the bank hasn't decorated the actual ATM machine, but their window beside it-

I hate my photo being taken

Hi there

The younger generation love taking selfies.  And good on them!  But I loathe having my photo taken.  I'm the one in group photos hiding at the back.  I can honestly say I've never had a good photo taken of me in my life.

I remember the Lucille Ball tv episode where she was after a passport photo. She went to photographer after photographer, after photographer.   She had all her walls lined with photos, and still couldn't find a good one.  That's me-me-me!!

I do have one Calendar Girl picture.  Not because you'd confuse me with Marilyn, but rather more like those older Calendar Girl women who posed naked but with strategically placed items in front of them.  And it's still an awful picture.  Nice bears, though ...

I am wearing a sarong.