A conversation with Bernard Beckett
If you went to a high school in Welly during the last couple’o decades, you may have been taught by Bernard Beckett, and if you were a smart, articulate student, you might have got to actively participate in his classes (too bad if you weren’t). Or perhaps you’re one of the many people who like […]
fabric-a-brac
It’s the third year for fabric-a-brac and demand is still as strong as when they began as a quirky little event for die hard fans of fabric. But now it’s a must attend day for anyone who loves making things. fabric-a-brac on Saturday features the usual fabric and sewing accessories gems, but expanded out into […]
Web devs welcome in Wellington at WDCNZ
WDCNZ is tech talks for web developers happening on July 14. You can tell it’s a proper tech talk, because there is only one female speaker in the lineup, and so far there are no females attending according to Lanyrd, except for the organiser. Sigh. Apart from the lack of female representation, it looks like […]
Food Show, Glorious Food Show
You don’t have to buy us breakfast to wax lyrical about the Food Show, but they did anyway. The Food Show launch breakfast at Hippopotamus was so delicious that it has made me determined that the next time I get to stay overnight in the Museum Hotel, I must do whatever is necessary in order […]
Welcome to May-lasia
As well as carrying out all my usual duties as Empress of the Internet and Editor of the Wellingtonista, I’ve also been doing reviews of local Malaysian restaurants for Malaysia Kitchen — a global initiative that aims to educate and inform consumers about Malaysian cuisine and restaurants. It’s a hard life, being forced to eat […]
Lamason
There are many many ways to make a decent cup of coffee. We are seeing some of these alternate methods returning to commercial use around Wellington’s more interesting cafés: the Swiss Gold; the Chemex; the V60; the cold drip… and the siphon. Dave Lamason, formerly Peoples Coffee’s barista trainer, is passionate about the siphon. So […]
Notional Significance: Reclamation
[See all Notional Significance posts] Kaiwharawhara is a node, a knot, a tangle of paths and histories. It’s where the eponymous stream meets the harbour, though quakes and reclamations have long since nudged the mouth seawards from its original position at the fault line, engulfing foreshore, shipwrecks and shellfish beds in the process. It’s where […]
The duchess’ nice frock
“Oh, look! It’s Kate Winslet’s wedding dress!” On the night of the royal wedding, while most of us were drinking gins and making snarky tweets about Princess Beatrice’s hat (or pointedly not), fashion designer Jane Yeh was hard at work furiously sketching and sewing a replica of Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, ready to go on […]
Flash mob, flashed up
The park in Courtenay Place sees a lot of action during the day — random interpretive dances, fucking annoying people with megaphones who are apparently trying to recruit people to their gym (but I’m sure they must have been hired by the competition because there’s no way anyone who works on Courtenay Place would want […]
Notional Significance: Skyway
[See all Notional Significance posts] The stretch of motorway that leaps out from the bluff was known in the Sixties as the “Kaiwarra-Thorndon Skyway”, incongruously combining the Jetsonian optimism of the term “skyway” with a mangled contraction of “Kaiwharawhara” that today would only be used by Pakeha blokes of a certain age. Both the skyway […]