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