We did­n’t have the TAWAs this year, but lots of awe­some­ness still took place. Here’s a very self-indul­gent look at what I par­tic­u­larly loved and did­n’t – hope­fully oth­er Wel­ling­tonis­tas will add their own posts too.

The single best meal I have had this year: the Ambeli takes this one out. Simply stun­ning food and sub­lime ser­vice. I only wish I was rich enough to go here more than once a year.

The single worst ser­vice of the year was at Mon­soon Poon.

The place I would be pho­to­graphed at if I was going to be in the Domin­ion Post’s “My Favour­ite Table” column: Monterey. Espe­cially now they have a pulled pork bur­ger on their menu. Always a lovely place to loiter in, except on $10 Tues­days when it is crazy busy.

Where every­body knows your name and what you drink: Oh Mighty Mighty, I love you so. I love Sally in the tequila shack, and the bar­tenders who tell me that they haven’t seen me in ages, mak­ing me feel vir­tu­ous. I love the Wed­nes­day quiz with its ridicu­lous prizes, I love the toasted sand­wiches and the extra olives in my dirty dirty mar­tinis, and I love that the staff don’t judge you for any indis­cre­tions. I love the ran­dom con­ver­sa­tions you will have with ran­dom strangers, and the friends you make in the toi­lets. My Xmas wish for you is that you get some air con­di­tion­ing.

Where every­one ats your name: It should come as no sur­prise, giv­en that Dom is down with the inter­nets and all, but it seems like every­one you ever meet at Hashigoza­ke has an @ in front of their name. Don’t let that dis­tract you from the deli­cious beers and lovely ser­vice.

The best place for product launches and cel­eb­ra­tions: Oh Bettys, you make me [sic] but you’re still so purty with all your great screens. And your punch is del­ish. And that Wel­ling­ton on a Plate meal was one of deli­cious things I’ve eaten this year. 

Things that sur­prised me: I sup­pose it really should­n’t have sur­prised me giv­en how pop­u­lar they are, but the Ruth Pretty cater­ing for the Wel­ling­ton on a Plate launch was so good. Her columns in the Dom Post annoy me, so I was­n’t anti­cip­at­ing that.

Also sur­pris­ing after a lack of ser­vice so bad we walked out after going in for drinks once: the really great ser­vice at a din­ner at Ances­tral. Not only were they lovely with their food and wine recom­mend­a­tions, they also phoned the bar we said we were off to after­wards when they found I’d left my coat and good­ie bag behind. Which brings me to…

So many great good­ie bags! It’s a hard life edit­ing the Wel­ling­tonista, I tells ya. Forced to find a home for gun­powder rum, Whit­taker­’s Chocol­ate, deli­cious Bee’s Bless­ing cor­di­als – not to men­tion an ever-grow­ing col­lec­tion of com­mem­or­ative tea tow­els!

Party of the year: Fish­Head magain­ze’s one year anniversary. Any party where you can go swim­ming after a glass or two of wine and look down on Cuba Street while you’re doing it is just some­thing super spe­cial.

Thing that makes good events great: Pho­to­booths! And my pick, based on the love­li­ness of Dion, is the Amaz­ing Trav­el­ing Pho­to­booth.

Asi­an food galore! Obvi­ously I went to a butt­load of Malay­si­an res­taur­ants, but this year (I think) has also seen Wel­ling­ton finally get­ting some more Viet­namese food as well, with Nam in the Wil­lis Street Vil­lage offer­ing three courses for $25 (do it!), and also Sai­gon Taste on Mar­joribanks Street hav­ing an extens­ive menu. In addi­tion to those, I’d like to throw mad props at Asia Kit­chen on Vic­tor­ia Street – as well as super tasty mains and a nice atmo­sphere, they also offer CHOCOLATE WONTONS.

Sad thing: the clos­ure of the retail side of Cul­tured Petone makes me sad. I know Wendy will con­tin­ue to do amaz­ing cheese-related things (like private fon­due parties? YES PLEASE!), but I will miss being able to pop in and chat and sample and buy. Petone is still totally worth a food­ie day trip though, with Ontrays, and La Bella Italia, and the Dutch Shop, and the Indi­an place where you can load up on Limca and veget­ari­an pack­et cur­ries to put in your sur­viv­al kit.

Oth­er sad things? I’m pretty sure that most of the Wel­ling­tonista wear their bleed­ing lib­er­al hearts on their sleeves, so Novem­ber 27 was a pretty sad day. Can we get anoth­er fuck you, Churton Park? On the bright side, there was a great res­ult for the Greens, and former TAWA presenter Grant Robertson is now deputy Labour lead­er, so there’s that. And our ques­tions for can­did­ates did make for some lols, like Paul Foster-Bell’s solu­tion of BUILD MOAR ROADS to improve Wel­ling­ton’s envir­on­ment.

The per­son­al is polit­ic­al: the Queer the Night march envir­on­ment was lovely made me feel all warm inside. Slut­walk was import­ant but really hard.

Snow! Not so much fun if you live on an insanely steep street as many of us do, but it sure was pretty in this video.

A Wel­ling­ton memory: On Decem­ber 3, most of my friends were at the TSB Arena for roller derby but I did­n’t go because it angries up my blood too much. After the earth­quake, every­one was a bit shaken (ha!) so they all piled into my lounge for dump­lings and wine, like they had piled into my lounge to hide from #RWC (or as it was prop­erly titled #win­teriscom­ing). It was a big Wel­ling­ton hug after a hor­rible scare. Yay.

Things that oth­ers may touch on which were not for me: the film fest­iv­al, all the new beer bars, sport, that sign, Basin Reserve & road­ing issues.

And finally, in the spir­it of giv­ing:

My cur­rent char­ity to sup­port: Wel­ling­ton SPCA. Also, someone should adopt these cats please.

For 2012, I hope that noone falls down the stairs at Hooch (again), and that we get a donut shop. Please can we get a donut shop?