We have a guest post for you by the vol­u­ble Anna Jane Wil­son who also likes hats, boots, coats and scarves.

My good­ness, it’s already July — I can’t quite believe we’re halfway through our Roman cal­en­dars, but all evi­dence says — 10 July 2009. July, albeit cold and windy in this won­der­ful city, is going to be a large one.

The four main things that keep me warm in win­ter are jazz, walk­ing, films, and dance. I’m new to Welling­ton, but appar­ent­ly this city has a lot of jazz, thus, my soul will be kept very warm.

con­tin­ues after the jump…

JAZZ

New Orleans Din­ner Club on Allen street has some tasty offer­ings.

  • Thurs­day New Orleans Jazz Nights — sax, trum­pet, gui­tar
  • Fri­day — live music from Char­lie Kurtz & Local Jazz Heroes — Ray Tamaira on drums, Rory McCart­ney on bass, Dayle Jel­ly­man on piano, Greg Rogan on sax, flute, clar­inet & Char­lie Kurtz of course on vocals
  • Twice a month — Welling­ton Heads blues on Fri­day New Orleans Din­ner Club, 25 Allen St, www.neworleans.co.nz

WALKING

As far as walk­ing goes, there are innu­mer­able wilder­ness walks not far from the city cen­tre, but these sound pret­ty fun as far as guild­ed walks go:

  • Botan­ic Gar­den Glow in the Dark glow-worm tour Fri­day 24 July, 7.30pm — Meet at the Founders’ entrance, Glen­more St $5 for adults, chil­dren under 12 free
  • Botan­ic Gar­den Walk — Ships and Trees Mon­day 27 July, 10am — Meet at the duck pond — koha/donation

Just found out there’s free com­mu­ni­ty yoga class­es if you have stu­dent ID or a com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices card. Yay! Wednes­days 10–11am Yoga in Dai­ly Life Cen­tre, 21 Jessie St.

FILMS

The New Zealand film fes­ti­val is run­ning July 17 to August 2 so buy your tick­ets before the films you want to see sell out. May I rec­om­mend book­ing in leave dur­ing this time? Hol­i­days spent at home in the warm are envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly, easy on the pock­et, and great for our local econ­o­my. Any­way, I want to see Ponyo and Coco before Chanel, and Four Nights with Anna, and, and…

The Japan­ese Fes­ti­val Day with food mar­ket, sushi work­shop, and tea cer­e­mo­ny will be held at the Town Hall Audi­to­ri­um, Sat­ur­day 11 July, 1.30–7pm. I am a huge fan of all thinks Japan-ey, there’s taiko drumming,a tra­di­tion­al and mod­ern Japan­ese fash­ion show, dance per­for­mances, Japan­ese pup­peteers, help make NZ’s longest sushi, or try writ­ing your own haiku! I am full of awe.

There’s also the Music Fair of Japan Fri­day 10 July-Sat­ur­day 11 July, 7pm‑8.30pm at the Town Hall, Ilott The­atre, and the Friend to Friend Exhi­bi­tion, Mon­day 6 July-Sat­ur­day 11 July, 9am-5pm at the Michael Fowler Cen­tre, Fletch­er Chal­lenge Foy­er.

Email Tom Yuan at tom.yuan@wcc.govt.nz for more infor­ma­tion.

DANCE

There’s the Roy­al New Zealand Bal­let’s Merid­i­an Sea­son of La Syl­phide to look for­ward to — with sets from the Aus­tralian Bal­let to recre­ate the Scot­tish High­lands. The sto­ry is about a young Scot­tish groom, lured away by a tree faerie (sylph) the night before his wed­ding. I was sold with the fairy idea, but appar­ent­ly there’s witch­es too! It fea­tures the Vec­tor Welling­ton Orches­tra. $36-$120 for tick­ets