Quote of the night

James, whilst walking through Cuba Mall with us all: “Hey, that bollard (covered in posters) looks just like our site!”.

Also, James gets super large bonus points for coming swimming tonight.

(And also: I heart Wellington.)

Where we’ll be

If you’re trying to stalk the Wellingtonista, and/or find something to do this weekend, here are our hot tips:

  • The City Art Gallery tonight because Luke Buda is adorable and Aspen has a good track record
  • The Aro Valley Fair. Perhaps you can find out for me why it seems that everyone in Aro owns a dog and/or a baby.
  • Trying to find the Wellingtonista on our big night out on Saturday – it would be cheating to tell you where we’ll be, but there may be clues in these posts here.
  • If the poster’s this good the Voom and The Sneaks gig should be good as well. Voom used to be the laziest band in NZ – their songs are so effortlessly pop perfection – but it seems they’ve finally got their act together after many line-up scandals.
  • The Festival Italia on Sunday. Perhaps you could adopt a bad accent and try the “Do you have any Italian in you? Do you want some?” line you neglected to use on St. Patrick’s Day.

Putting out feelers: the Wellingtonista Cup

Not that we’re trying to get all Gawker on you or anything (or are we?) but the Wellingtonista would like to set up a league. A bowling league, if you will. Details will be confirmed later, but there would probably be a round-robin of sorts, and much booze would of course be involved ( because have you ever seen any of us out in public without a drink in our hands?), and as we’re not famous for our love of the ‘burbs, chances are the venue will be right in town at The Lanes.

This post is going out to see if anyone would be interested in taking us on. It would be great if teams had some sort of affiliation, no matter how loose it was (although ring-ins would be fine) and it would be best if teams had a place on the web in which they could let their fingers write cheques that their butts couldn’t cash in terms of trash-talking about their opponents. We’re envisioning competing against teams from other blogs (or blogs + notorious commentators), or web companies, or media outlets. Are you keen?

Plenty to wine about

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they feel the need to leave Wellington, even if it’s just for one day. No really, it happens! And a particularly good day to get out of town, if you don’t like the colour green, or potatoes, or Guiness or drunken fake-Irish louts, would be this Saturday. So where to go to get away? How about a wine festival – after we all know, that wine drinkers are a better class of people than beer drinkers – somewhere out of town but still nearby?

Well it just so happens that March 17 is your lucky day, with not one but two festivals taking place nearby. There’s the Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival in Gladstone (as well as the International Balloon Fiesta and the day before Round the Vines, and also the Great Wellington Wine and Food Festival in Paekakariki. So how do you choose which one to go to when they both cost $25 for an entrance fee? Take our quiz to find out.

Not-so Breaking News

stolen from flickr

  • Tupelo has moved its beer menu to all boutique styles, with only Heineken remaining on its menu as a mainstream drop. They also have the very tasty Nelson Bays Gold and Nelson Bays Pilsner on tap, with (classy glass) jugs for just $10.
  • Meanwhile the Wellingtonista’s semi-tiki bar of choice, Imbibe is now offering brunch on Friday-Sunday. While there was no obviously displayed menu on the windows, the people sitting contentedly in the sun appeared to be tucking in to large plates of eggs. Hopefully they’ll have more on offer for those of us less eggily inclined, because it’s a gorgeous space and looks very nice and chilled out for a hangover breakfast.
  • And finally, the Dominion Post can as usual be relied on to run front-page stories about the weather in exact reverse of what’s going on that day, so today’s rain brings a ‘Drought!’ cover story. Hurrah!

[photo by AndrewNZ]

We ask: why are you here?

The Wellingtonista would like to know why so many goddamn black-legged jellyfish decided to hang out at Lyall Bay over the weekend. Sure, it was hot, and swimming was a great idea, but for me, not for you creepy wobbly things! And it didn’t make a difference how calm it was on Saturday and how wavey it was on Sunday – you were still there! Bastards. It ‘s not like you were put on Earth first or anything, and yet you act like you own the place…

More web events = more stalking

So, remember how much fun we all had at The Great Blend? Or how much of a crush you have on Martha? How about you combind those two things into one event and come to Webstock Mini on Tuesday night? There are, after all, few venues nicer than the Paramount, and if it’s good enough for the Queen of the Bloggers to pay her own administration fee rather than trying to do the paperwork for the Wellingtonista to cover the $75 cost (it’s amazing how quickly the thoughts of an open bar will get her to pony up), it should be good enough for you too.

We ask: Boy and dog?

The Wellingtonista want to know what is currently shooting in Wellington that would require a large truck towing a boy on a bicycle with a dog perched happily behind him to film down Lambton Quay.

Someone out there must have the answer. And also: how did they get the dog to hold on?

Wellingtonista boos: ads on our sacred space

Adjusting to the new offices on Lambton Quay hasn’t been easy, and a huge part of the problem has been trying to get into a new coffee routine. That is why it’s so distressing that Fresco*, which sells Mojo coffee, is now using takeaway cups printed with Telecom advertising. How many minutes will I spend thinking about coffee over the next two years? A lot more than I’ll think about switching to Telecom, you punks. Even if I hadn’t had my vodafone number since it was Bell South, there’s no way I’d switch now. Leave me alone and stop hounding me when all I am trying to do is wake up!

* Yes, their takeaway lattes are $4.50, but their muffins are $2.50, so breakfast is only 20 cents more expensive than getting a cheese scone and coffee from Kyrani.

Let’s all shut up about the weather now.

Dear Wellingtonians,

I’ve become so sick of you whinging all the time that tonight I made this for you:

Sunset at Lyall Bay
Sunset at Lyall Bay