I woke up before the Gentleman Friend as usual and spent the morning listening to some of the top songs of 2018 lists. It is remarkable how one falls behind with music as one grows older. Even leaving aside the 8 month period in 2005 when I was an indie music freak in Montreal, I always knew and cared about new releases (such as were accessible to me growing up in a not very musically literate environment). Now, not at all. Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed some of the new women singers out there: your Cardi Bs and Janelle Monaes, and of course Robyn, an old favourite with an excellent album out this year.
When he woke I had him listen to some of my favourites and then we went down to Parnell to visit the farmer’s market. The weather has improved significantly. It’s still windy, but less gusty than the last few days, and the sun was out all day. The farmer’s market is a long-standing one run by the Auckland equivalent of La Fromagerie in London, and we picked up some good cherries and other fruits and vegetables, as well as a large hunk of smoked fish, some local macadamias and a jar of honey. We breakfasted on oysters and then some whitebait fritters, these unfortunately turned out to be just a flavourless omelette on a slice of factory bread. Very disappointing from a farmer’s market.
This put us off more food from the farmer’s market so we took our purchases back to the flat and then continued the walk through the city to Ponsonby on the other side. This is the hipper part of Auckland, with slightly more interesting shops and restaurants etc, but shares with the east the very wide car-oriented roads. It struck me how few people there were in all the places we went. I don’t think I’ve ever spent time in a place where even the most happening areas, on a beautiful day, didn’t have at least a bit of a crowd. That, with the wide roads and fast cars, made it feel bleak and sad in the fierce sunlight, though maybe it was also my mood and not really having eaten. We did walk through a very nice park on the way back, running along a small valley and lined with trees. Auckland does a good line in trees.
There were new revelations from Mueller today. It is like watching the Man in Black slowly, inexorably catch up with the Sicilian, or perhaps if one is a Stephen King reader, the Gunslinger slowly catch up to the Man in Black.