Short bits
1. If, like Tom, you’re planning on making the month of August all about whisky, there are worse things you could do than sign up for Wineseeker’s Whisky Tasting on August 21. Sure, it’s $45, but it sounds like very good value for money.
2. While we don’t consider the Wellingtonista to be an exclusively hetrosexual site as such (you don’t have to have a particular kind of sexuality to love bars and hate the bypass, and who you’re doing doesn’t matter nearly as much as where you’re doing them), and I haven’t done a straw poll of how each contributor identifies, we don’t have very much (or in fact any that I can think of) coverage of specifically queer culture. And it’s Proud 07 right now, so in the interests of wider coverage, we’d like commenters to fill us in on the various scenes a little more. Who goes where? What’s hot and what’s not? Are there still monthly lesbian nights at Blondini’s? Is the ‘Lebanese’ restaurant beneath Spicehammer really just a spelling mistake? Enquiring minds want to know!
WQL Results: Round Three
So, a lot of stupid decisions were made last night. Over a pre-quiz dinner at Tulsi, the Wellingtonista thought that as well as drinking the wine they’d won at the Bristol last week, it was a good idea to drink two cans each of Kingfisher Strong, and then build a tower out of the cans. We’re paying the price for that today. Then, deciding to do the quiz at JJ Murphy’s was also a stupid idea, because it took forever. And most stupidly at all, we forgot that when you do anything with hubris, there’s that whole pride goes before a fall thing, and so Xero beat us. By one point! Oh god, the humanity. Silverstripe, the Alohas and the M team all get 69 points since they weren’t there (why oh why do you hate us so, Silverstripe?). So the scores look like this:
Alohas: 209
Click Suite: 213.5
M Team: 201
Silverstripe: 205
Wellingtonista: 264
Xero: 227
Three nights of drinking on a school night
It’s a busy week in Wellington, so we hope you’ve got your hangover cures sorted.
- Monday is Hustle for Autism at the SFBH — you can read more details about it over at Public Address. We think you should go along, some of us will be there if you needed any further prompting.
- Tuesday is the Wellingtonista Quiz League. This time we’ll be playing at JJ Murphy’s in Cuba Mall, which apparently starts at 7.30, so make sure you get there early to secure a table, and see if you can beat us (you probably can’t).
- Wednesday is Gadgets, Games & Geeks 07 at the Michael Fowler Centre. To quote their blurb:
Join us for one whopping great big geeky networking fest. Hear and network with some awesome speakers and exhibitors who are passionate about their gadgets, games and geek status.
And it is heavily implied that there will be free drinks — which are two of the Wellingtonista’s favourite words. See you there then?
What’s for lunch?
Remember when we asked you for hot tips about where to eat on Lambton Quay? Well, the Wellingtonista Towers has opened up yet another branch office, this time temporarily on Mercer Street, so we want to know where to max out our expense accounts. We’d also like to know where the best coffee is, keeping in mind that our definition of best coffee generally includes the ability to purchase something yummy like a muffin or a scone to have with it. And, because we always Push Play and have managed to find a branch of our gym up this end of town, hurrah, we’d also like suggestions for takeaway lunches, because we’re really really going to miss Kapai.
Wellingtonista Quiz League results: Round two
Last night the WQL hit the Bristol, where the quiz had the advantage of ever-so high tech computer graphics on screen, and the opportunity to win an ice machine and waffle-maker in the jackpot draw, but the disadvantage of a quiz master who refused to pronounce ‘Quizingtonista’ properly. Because we couldn’t book, the bar was stupidly full, but luckily ClickSuite are bolshy enough to ask people to leave to give them tables. The Alohas were wearing their leis again, but didn’t get extra points for them this time. The M team almost lost points for trying to steal one of our players (we swear that most of them were purely ornamental!) but escaped because it was lovely to meet the Americans for the first time. But you know, if I wasn’t so damn hubristic and full of myself, I’d be starting to worry that I smell bad or something because neither Silverstripe nor Xero showed up for quiz last night. So we’ll award them 72 points each, and I will comfort myself with the bar tabs that we keep winning.
Points so far:
- Alohas: 140
- Click Suite: 144.5
- M: 132
- Silverstripe: 136
- Quizingtonista: 179
- Xero: 141
So it’s looking like a pretty close game right now, and anyone could take out second and third places…
Turning Chinese
Longxiang Restaurant, on Dixon St opposite the cowboy (or where the Cowboy
And if real Chinese people from China like it, it must be good, authentic, and tasty, right? I decided to test it out for myself, having previously only tried takeaways that suffered from long delays before we got to eat them, which is hardly a sporting chance.
So after the Beckon VIP night, I grabbed my constant restaurant buddy/sister Karen, as well as the Wellingtonista’s Hadyn and the delightful Amy and set out to give it a go.
Review after the jump.
Wellingtonista Quiz League results: Round one
So, tonight was the inaugural round of the WQL, and I reckon it went quite well, really. Quiztron and the M‑Team were no-shows (I understand why the M‑Team weren’t there, but I really missed Quiztron), so if they can make it next week they’ll start out with the same points as the lowest-scoring team tonight. Which happened to be the Alohas, even though they got a bonus point for their costumes (dude, they all totally got lei’ed). Silverstripe almost lost a point because Matt tried to make me cry (I can’t remember the context, except that they kept trying to sit at our table), but ultimately they earned a bonus point for their can-can.
Points so far:
- Alohas: 61
- Click Suite: 71.5
- Silverstripe: 64
- Quizingtonista: 85
- Xero: 69
Woo haa! Stayed tuned for the announcement of next week’s venue. If you want to join us, let me know, you’ll be starting out on 60.
The Wellingtonista Socialite Part I
It’s been a banner week here at the Wellingtonista Towers for drinking networking opportunities. Yesterday was the VIP night at Beckon, tonight was a Ponoko showcase at the Paramount, and tomorrow we’re meeting up to discuss our evil plans for world domination.
Find out what we’ve been up to after the jump.
Sex in the city.….carparks
Today I parked in the Tournament car-parking building on Marion Street and made the mistake of walking down the stairs to the street. Along with the delightful smell of urine, the stairs were also littered with used condoms. Now, I’m really stoked that people were practicing safer sex, especially because I’m going to assume there’s a connection between the number of sex workers on Marion Street and their proximity to that building, but really, isn’t there a more ummm enticing place people could go? I’ve also seen people having sex in the Lombard parking building as well — what’s up with that, Wellington? Is it the smell of petrol and urine that’s such a turn-on? Or are all Wellingtonians just so horny that if you’ve gotta get off, you’ve got to get off wherever you are?
Announcing the Wellingtonista Quiz League
It’s oooooooooooooon! We are very happy to present you with a starting date for the Wellingtonista Quiz League — Tuesday July 24. We’d love you to participate. Not only will you get to flex your brain muscles and check out the quiz nights at four different pubs, but you’ll also get to network with likeminded people and have a lot of fun. So now you need to find yourself three friends, send us an email to wellingtonista @ gmail.com or leave us a comment here with your team name, and sign up to the mailing list for Quiz League announcements which may look suspiciously like the Bowling League mailing list. We’ll let you know which inner-city pub we’re starting at closer to the time.
After the break, the rules. Any questions?