Last night we went for dinner to the home of a storied aunt, one who suffered an unspeakable tragedy when she was in her late teens and, according to all her relations, has not been the same since. There was something not quite as usual about her, but after a stilted start to the evening […]
Curly hair
Last night we decided to stroll down to town for dinner. While the net strolling was downhill, a lot of it was very steeply upwards, to the top of the hill where the cable car (funicular, to be more accurate, I think) ends. Then there was a way downwards between tall hedges. At the foot […]
Sabres rattle
The jangling of metal against metal is deafening. It does make one sceptical about any form of government, really, when one has de facto army rule on one side and a least common denominator Hindu nationalist democracy on the other. Yesterday we had a visitor, the GF’s uncle who accompanied us to Thailand about a […]
Change of weather
A cyclone grazed the country and cold southerlies began to blow. The temperature dropped 10 degrees or more, the skies turned steel grey and it poured with rain all day long. We went out with the Doyenne to get some groceries from a magnificient city centre warehousey sort of place and then drove a bit […]
Uptown
Dinner was an immense success. I baked the side of salmon after marinating for a bit under a paste of minced garlic, mustard, lemon and tarragon, and it turned out flavourful and tender. With it I cooked one of my usual things, courgettes on high heat with sliced chilli and garlic, then tossed with mint […]
Into the hive
In the morning we went to the farmer’s market which was very good indeed, the best we’ve seen in this country by far. It had a very rural air to it, being held in the A&P ground with a fiddle player but the produce was very good and our haul included delicacies such as pine […]
Not as bad as it looked
We are in Blenheim. This morning the Gentleman Friend’s cousin Bloddeuwydd and her husband the Winemaker, picked us up from Picton and drove us the 20 minutes to their house. We had passed through Blenheim but it had all been warehouses then; now we went off the motorway (so to speak) into quite a pleasant […]
Golden Bay
Today we went to Golden Bay. We left at around 9.30, with our hosts the Lady Scandalous and Grumpy Knight up front, driving, me and the Gentleman Friend in the back. Along the way we drove through the little town of Motueka which is tipped to be the next big thing in the region. The […]
Down south
Yesterday we finally checked out of the tomb-like hut. I was not sorry to leave it; aside from the tomb-like bedroom and the remnant distaste from illness, it was very grimy feeling. We left Waihiki – for the first time I saw many places in daylight – and took the ferry back to Auckland, and […]
Global suburbia
The GF’s mother put it like this, and it seems accurate. So safe, so clean, so faraway. Today was the first day I felt well, afer the first full night’s sleep. But I was very tired with work. In the evening I strolled down to Onetangi beach where I was to meet the Gentleman Friend […]