Last week I represented the Wellingtonista at the New Zealand Open Source Awards. The Masked Barfly had been whispering in my ear stories of organisational failure in an attempt to make me worried that I wouldn’t get anything to eat, but apart from a press release announcing “Annie McCarron” as the winner of the People’s […]
We offered to publish the answers from any candidates in the local body elections and Simon Marsh who is standing in the Eastern Ward has stepped up.
1. You have 30 seconds to convince someone to come to Wellington. What’s your pitch?
It’s a city with a beating heart and good people. You’ll love WOW, The Sevens, Te Papa, City Gallery, shopping and business opportunities.
2. How do you think traffic flow to the hospital and airport could be improved?
Safer cycling routes, wider roads, convenient and reliable public transport, progress on Basin Reserve/Mt Vic bottleneck.
3. Where do you stand on the issue of opening up government data?
All data? We compete in a global market, why tell the world our plans before we implement them.
4. What plans have do you have to improve recycling/composting facilities?
Roll on household recycling wheelibins. Offer each household one annual free dump pass for green waste only.
5. What is your policy on street alcoholics?
Support the Salvation Army and others that have the skill but few funds to help.
6. Do you support pedestrianisation of the Golden Mile? Why/Why not?
No, it’s impractical for an ageing population and also will incur major flow problems with public transport on the adjacent roads.
7. What’s the last local market you went to? What did you buy?
Chaffers, Broccoli.
8. Describe your bicycle, or your favourite bus route?
Two wheels, grey and No 11.
So y’all asked for more food reviews with pics, so today I am going to do short reviews of the following places:
I hope you don’t mind that I’ve put them all in one post.
Sunday would have been a lovely day to have brunch at Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, except pretty much every other person in Wellington had the same idea, and we were told it was going to be a 45 minute wait. We decided we’d venture further afield, and made the mistake of heading out to Oriental Parade, and Beach Babylon.
When we got there, it was really busy, but we thought surely it would be less than the 45 minutes wait at SMK, because there were free tables outside. It was a bit breezy, so we were keen to sit inside – since there were no free tables they offered us one outside and told us they’d give us the first free table inside. So we hopped up on stools crammed in the corner, and consulted the menu. Lots of things sounded tasty on the menu. K was happy that they had Foxton Fizz. I contemplated ordering a Pink Princess, which was fizzy raspberry and vanilla ice cream, but I decided to pretend to be a grown up and order a latte bowl instead. So we waited for a waitress, and waited, and waited. Eventually one came up and told us that she couldn’t take our food order right now, because the kitchen was slammed, but she’d be back to take our drinks order. Seriously? I appreciate the place was busy, but surely it is the job of the staff to manage the workflow. If the kitchen wasn’t ready for our orders (which seems strange), the wait staff should still take them, and hold onto them, and let us know approximately how long a wait we could expect.
It may not be what we were expecting from a "West Hollywood lounge experience", but all that money certainly has ensured that Foxglove is a vastly more impressive visual experience than the ol’ Loaded Hog. But a bar is not just about the pretty, so how does it stack up? See what the ‘fly thinks after the jump.
Earlier this month we read about an octopus off the South Coast that mugged an innocent diver and took his valuable new camera. The news flashed around the world and everyone had a bit of a chuckle at the diver’s expense.
Not so fast, laughing boys (and girls).
It turns out that this is but the latest episode in a long history of criminal behaviour by the city’s cephalopod citizenry.
We need only look at another, earlier encounter between a Wellingtonian and a rogue octopus to prove the point. An encounter that, just like our earlier story made world headlines… but back in 1888.
Read on, after the jump.
Beans (aka Mr Ballbeam)- MC, worldwide maverick and global raconteur, is set to soon be shakin’ our minds, asses and possibly tectonic plates later this month of October.
A restless shifter, finder and pusher of boundaries — artistically, lyrically, sonically, Beans has been creating and perfecting his own style for over a decade, solo and as one quarter of seminal (and recently reunited) New York hip hop group The Antipop Consortium. Ever relevant, Beans teeters on the edge of the hip hop avantgarde, leading the charge against mediocrity wherever it exists. Inquiring impulses and relentless questing lead him to find others also seeking, collaborating and touring with kindred spirits as varied as they are amazing – Holy Fuck, Battles, Radiohead, DJ Shadow and Public Enemy to name but a few in a long list.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7oMG81awEY]His most recent album, Thorns (2007) twitches, glitches and snaps with beats that run the spectrum from minimal growl to tongue-in-cheek cheesy, sweetly sleazy, while his words are angular and confessional, going for the jugular of reality — politics, sex, death, love, and music. The stuff that matters, that moves.
Prepare yourself to be moved, and in a pioneering spirit venture forth to listen, watch, shuffle, nod with arms folded, and maybe, just maybe even dance to Beans.
Sunday 25th October – Wellington – SFBH – $25
Support from Eru Dangerspiel & Alphabethead!
Tickets are $25 and available from Slow Boat Records or Under The Radar… updates and more info from Galesburg.
In the 2009 Budget, the National Government announced an 80% cut in the funding provided to schools throughout New Zealand to run night classes or Adult Community Education (ACE).
In 2010 all school ACE funding will be replaced with a new approach that reinvests approximately 20% of current school-based ACE funding to re-focussed priority areas, such as literacy and numeracy. It is likely that there will be only a small number of schools receiving ACE funding for 2010 and beyond.
– Budget 2009 Fact Sheet [PDF, 42 Kb], available on the TEC Website
In essence, this decision will spell the end to over 100 years of night classes in New Zealand, and somewhat unsurprisingly the Community Learning Association through Schools organisation has organised a march tomorrow (Tuesday 4th August) in protest.
(unrelated protest photo via KiwiFrenzy On Location)
Join the march against the funding cuts to ACE, leaving from Wellington High School (from Gate 4 at 249 Taranaki Street) at 2.15pm. March down Taranaki Street, along Dixon and Victoria Streets, through Manners Street into Willis Street, down Lambton Quay, and arrive at Parliament around 3pm.
Wellington’s "ol’ faithful" taxi-cab company Combined (or Wellington Combined Taxis to give them their full title) have gone through a bit of a transformation in the last 12 months or so.
With the arrival on the scene of new "green" player Green Cabs (about whom we have written — and been witness to some controversy — in the past), I guess they were faced with the choice of adapting, or get added to the bottom of the endangered species list.
Happily (for them, us, consumer choice AND the planet that we share) they chose the former.
Read on after the jump to find out what they have been up to..
It’s a Tuesday night. Rather, it’s 5.55pm, approximately. You walk into a restraurant that has its ‘OPEN’ sign up. The man behind the counter talking on the phone that gives you a "I am on the phone" look. You nod politely and look around the restaurant. It is totally empty. When he finally pauses his phonecall, he gestures you towards the six-seater right in front of the door and disappears again, apparently to finish off his terribly important phone call. You retrieve a bottle of wine from your bag, even though a glass of water first would be nice. The wine is a screw cap, but it takes you a couple of minutes to crack. No sign of water or menus, so you pull out your copy on NW and start the sudoku, even though you’d really rather order an entree before the rest of your friends arrive because you’re totally starving. and the intense heat in the restaurant and the HI NRG Bangra is really really offputting.
However, even though you’re not particularly fast at Sudoku, you manage to complete the entire thing before the waiter returns with menus for the whole table. You order some samosas, and turn your attention to the smaller crossword, which you plow through before your little pastry parcels show up. The crust of the samosas is not melty, the cabbage scattered on the plate has definitely seen better days, and the tamarind sauce seems unusually concentrated. For $5.50, it is acceptable, but not with that kind of service.