Neil Diamond. Even scarier if you can't hear what he's singing.The power­boaters, women cyclists and drag­onboaters must have been ruing the choice of Welling­ton as the choice of cham­pi­onship venues as a, er, ‘brisk’ norther­ly blew in from the Hutt and across the har­bour over the week­end.

The wind also caused hav­oc with the Sat­ur­day night Neil Dia­mond con­cert at the Sta­di­um, where the poor acoustics of the sta­di­um com­bined with the swirly winds to blow most of the ancient pop-star’s dul­cet tones out of the Sta­di­um before any­one had a chance to hear them. We can report there were many out-of-town souls com­mis­er­at­ing with each oth­er at the Cuba Street cafes on Sun­day morn­ing. $100 seats! To hear the Welling­ton norther­ly! Ah well.

How­ev­er, there seemed to be lots of per­fect­ly enjoy­able inside and out­side action to par­take in, with the Fringe Fes­ti­val wrap­ping up while the Nation­al Arts Fes­ti­val for Chil­dren got under way. The Greek Food and the New­town Fes­ti­val were both on, and, to cap off the most per­fect of windy Welling­ton week­ends the Hur­ri­canes won.

And, final­ly, what is the coun­cil up to with height restric­tion bylaws?