So, the John St/Riddiford St/Adelaide Rd intersection has undergone a bit of a lights phasing tweak. It took this particular Wellingtonista by surprise when, last week, I confidently started to cross John St as the lights turned to red, only to discover that instead of my little green man, I was now the target for traffic coming down from Adelaide Rd.
There’s been some good that’s come from the change – the most obvious one being that pedestrians crossing John St (with the green man, that is), are no longer in danger of being skittled by right-turning traffic from Adelaide Rd heading up John St (it was a common trick for the first one or two cars in that queue to dive across the intersection as soon as the lights turned green).
On the other hand, pedestrians crossing at the same place now have to contend with traffic run the orange (or, even the red!) from Riddiford St and heading up John St. Every single morning I’ve had to cross at that point, cars have sailed through the intersection a good few seconds after the green man has gone off. It’s particularly bad if you’re crossing south-to-north, as the traffic is coming from behind you, out of your line of sight. It won’t be long before someone gets knocked over: mark my words!
How’s it working out for you? Drivers – any thoughts?
Alert reader Andy writes to inform us that it is free day Te Papa! (Today being Thu 7 March May).
…so if you want to go see the Monet exhibition you can do so without paying $15 entry. Te Papa is open until 9pm tonight.
Be warned though that there will probably be crowds.
Thanks Andy!
Update: As Andy points out in the comments, the offer is only valid for Wellington residents, so bring along some proof that you live locally. Because we all know what happens if you’re not local…
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOGAAlHzF4o]There’s an exhibition opening on at Newtown’s Spacething tonight (Thu 7 May), featuring new artwork from Helen McVey and Tania Price.
There will also be live music from (the excellently named) Public Toilet ltd, Chris Palmer and Dan Beban, as well as casual rock cocktail poetry by Eliot White.
Starts at 6pm. 171 Adelaide Road.
From the ‘Reclamation of Wellington Harbour‘ Wikipedia article, here’s an animation by Matt Lane that shows the various stages of the city’s expansion seawards over the last century and a half.
The reclamation of Wellington Harbour was a phased approach (starting in the 1850s) of land reclamation from the Wellington Harbour. The original goal of the reclamation was to increase the amount of usable flat land for Wellington City. The motivation of latter reclamations in the 1960s and 1970s was as a response to container shipping (containerisation) and new cargo handling methods. Today, reclamation has added more than 155 hectares to the Wellington
[Via Mirarmar Mike]
The ‘nista have been too busy hitting the town this week to actually make any posts. We’ll try harder next week. In the meantime, since it’s Friday, here’s some Conchords…
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnU62CUevn4]
So, Simon Sweetman’s live review of Fat Freddy’s Drop (he really, really didn’t like them) seems to have touched a nerve amongst some in the Wellington music scene. A few (actually, quite a lot) have come out in support of Sweetman – says Josef…
the perfect music for the iPod generation who wouldn’t know good music if it bit them in the ass.
And Hugh…
Thank goodness someone has seen the elephant in the room and had the courage to say it like it is. FFD as individuals may be talented, but the group sound is noise and inutterably boring. And the incessent chirping about how good they are is the ultimate sadness. Well done Simon
But, likewise, the FFD supporters are also out in force. From a guy called guy…
Your douchery has no limits. FFD are awesome. Regardless of what you think. You.. not surprisingly are not.
And Seb says…
How about realising the success they have had. They must be doing something right for them to do as well as they have. You just have poor taste in music.
So, what do you think? The Drop, hot or not?
[Updated – the poll, which wasn’t working for some users yesterday, should be ok now. Vote away…]
Man, we haven’t had any Flight of the Conchords for aaaages.
So, here ya go…
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtbQaJzZh1k]
Not particularly Wellington-centric, but useful nonetheless. Apparently you can get yourself taken off the directing marketing database.
Be interesting to know if this works. (Who knows? It may just be an underhanded ruse to gather even more names, numbers and addresses!)
From KnowIT, via Miramar Mike.
Translation probably not entirely accurate.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhRRB0WUrds]The new Phoenix Foundation video, directed and starring Academy Award®-nominated director Taika Waititi is a wee gem, following our energetic protagonist in a one-shot piece of filming that takes him around the western coastline of Lyall Bay.