This Sunday 28 March there is an international celebration of the beautiful game going on at Martin Luckie Park, Berhampore 9am – 5pm.

Culture Kicks is a multi ethnic football festival with five-a-side teams from Wellington representing countries from around the world battling it out on the pitch for a chance to take home the 2010 trophy.

There will be Columbian dancers, African drumming, music from Matiu Te Huki and Lion dancers from the Chinese Sports and Cultural Centre.

The day kicks off with Bella Kalolo singing the New Zealand National anthem (the woman has some pipes!) and prize giving will be at 3.45pm.

With around 40 teams representing over 20 countries you don’t have to pick just one team to support.  A few team names to give you the flavour of the day: Havana Hustlers, Tartan Army, Unity Arabs, Somali Eagles, Los Decadentes, Korean White Angels, West African Kiwis. 

There will be healthy foodstuffs on offer from the Hari Krishnas, so all you need are your chants and some sunblock (well let’s face it, you should probably bring a raincoat too, this is Wellington after all). 

So, right now there’s a whole lot of really good stuff being exhibited in Wellington’s galleries.

City Gallery

After the hugely successful Yayoi Kusama exhibition turned the gallery into a magical wonderland, the main gallery space has now been given over to three also wonderful artists.

More after the jump. 

I’m more likely to write about nightlife than wildlife, but I do like urban observations in general, so Project Noah caught my eye. It’s a website and shiny new free iPhone app that lets people track, record and find out about the species in their environment.

Not surprisingly, I’ve mostly recorded very urban species (that’s not quite what Baudelaire meant by "the botanist of the pavement"), but it could be very useful for mapping rare plants, spiders, invasive species or even neighbourhood cats, if you were so inclined. It’s all pretty new in this neck of the woods, so there’s only my lightly-informed spottings of scrappy roadside cabbage trees and frightened little penguins to look at, but if more Wellingtonians get involved it could become a really useful guide to local flora and fauna.

A few weeks ago we wrote about the proposed city-wide ban on "drinking and carrying liquor in public places, 24 hours a day, seven days a week." We don’t like to harp on this issue, but the nexus of booze, urban life and social justice is catnip to the hard-drinking city-living caring folk here at the Wellingtonista.

Mark your calendars for Tuesday the 30th of March — consultation will start then.

PS: when did we all adopt the Americanism "liquor?"

 This list was published in abbreviated form in the first issue of FishHead, which is having its launch party tonight. Here it is in all its smoking-promoting, Oriental Bay-enraging glory…

1. Wander aimlessly around the Cuba Quarter: window-shop, have coffee, sit in the Mall & people-watch, draw or photograph the buildings.

2. Go to the waterfront on a sunny day: Put your polaroid sunglasses on, then get something nice in a cone from Kaffee Eis on the waterfront, and go spotting eagle rays in the Frank Kitts park lagoon. Don’t forget to point them out to swimmers and people in small vessels.

3. Swim on the South Coast: Oriental Bay is for pussies. Any of the beaches near Seatoun are where it’s at, or if you’re hard enough, brave the surf and the cold at Lyall Bay.

4. Go bush, then go posh: Zealandia’s all very well, but take the #14 bus to Otari/Wilton Bush for free native bushery, waterfalls, tui and an 800-year-old rimu. At night, take the #14 in the other direction to peek into all the expensive real estate along Oriental Parade and Roseneath where the residents obligingly leave all their lights on, and imagine what it would be like to be rich.

5. Hide out: Go to almost any bar that’s tucked away upstairs, in a basement or down an alley; Hooch, Hawthorn, Library, Good Luck, Watusi, Mighty Mighty are all gems.

6. Get cultured: Te Papa and the City Gallery are obvious choices, but add visits to Manky Chops, the Adam Art Gallery and Museum of Wellington City and Sea and you’ll feel much more well-rounded (and sore-footed).

7. To market, to market: Head to Waitangi Park on Sundays for the City Market/Harbourside Market combo, plus fresh fish when the boat pull up to the dock.

You know there’s that cat you see on the way to the bus stop – the one that rolls around on the footpath and lets you tickle his belly, and you’ve nicknamed him Captain Choicepants? Well, that’s a neighbourhood cat.

Inspired by the Neighbour Cats zines, Petra Jane has created a public Google map of neighbourhood cats around Wellington and beyond.

So if there’s a furry rogue in your ‘hood, add it to the map!

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UPDATE: The Neighbourhood Cats map has been shut down. Could this be to foil potential catnappers? Oh well – you’ll just have to create a map in your mind.

Anyone who has been down to the waterfront this week would have seen a large rusty barge parked in the lagoon and a bunch of scaffolding and marquees going up.  You may well be wondering,  "what the hell is all of this in aid of?"

Well gentle reader, today for one day only, the area around the lagoon and Frank Kitts Park is being transformed into a slice of Asia (well about 10 or so slices of Asia) for the Southeast Asian Night Market.  The market opens with a cannon blast at 4pm and finishes up at 10pm.

This is only the second time the market has been held in Welly, and the big difference is this time they are cooking with gas, outside, live and direct.  Last time it was held in the TSB arena and lines snaked across Queens Wharf for hours so prepare yourself for Cuba Carnival style crush.  Get in amonst the sights, sounds, smells and not forgetting for a second, the FLAVOURS of a real deal night market.  Yes, I did just use caps.  I know that is bad manners but I have seen the menus on offer and I have to say both "whaaa?" and "nom" in equal measure, which is exactly as it should be.

Programme details and highlights after the jump:

 Wellington has a new magazine called FishHead and the first issue is out today. From their press release:

FishHead magazine will cover the full spectrum of life in Wellington including politics, opinion, wine, food, fashion, local issues, film, books, art, theatre, music and more.

I have yet to get my hands on a copy of it because I am waiting for the launch party next week, but I can tell you that at least two of the articles are awesome, because I wrote them – a paragraph on why I love Wellington, and the Wellingtonista’s Top Ten Things To Do in Wellington – albeit in edited form so as not to enrage the citizens of Oriental Bay.

I don’t think that Wellington has ever had its own proper magazine (remember UNO? hahaha!), so I, for one, welcome the new publication.

Autumn is upon us, and seasons changing means only one thing in the Wellington Craft World. It’s Knack time.

Knack time being this saturday from 9.30am till 2.30pm at Berhampore School.

Knack is a glorious seasonal market which also doubles as a school fundraiser. So you get to buy handmade from the artist which is grand and then know that you are also helping out a school. It’s like double doing good, with shopping .

Knack’s full of lovely handmade things, and is often where some of Wellington’s newests crafters make their selling debut, so it’s a great market for those of you wanting to be ahead of the trends.

There’s loads of parking at the school or catch the bus and amble up the hill.

When the New Zealand cricket team (note not BLACKCAPS™) first toured South Africa in 1953 they had never won a Test Match and were given no show against a ruthless South Africa, on pitches tailored to support their fast, mean quick bowlers.

The cricket was tough, and victory was ultimately beyond New Zealand’s grasp, but it wasn’t the cricket that ensured that the series became a NZ sporting legend. The 1953 Second (Christmas Day) Test is famous for the profoundly moving story of one player, Kiwi fast bowler Bob Blair, and his story has been brought to the stage by talented actor Jonny Brugh (Sugar & Spice) and it’s playing now at BATS.

During the rest day of the Test, Blair got the news that his fiancée Nerissa Love had been killed along with 150 others in the Tangiwai Rail Disaster. When play resumed on Boxing Day nobody expected Blair to play any further part in the game. Without giving too much away, the rest (as they say) is history.

Brugh’s play is a moving and beautifully acted treatment of the story. He plays dozens of parts (Blair & Love; cricketers Rabone, Reid, Sutcliffe, etc; Prime Minister Sid Holland) and imbues them all with fine detail and a sweet comic sensibility. He brings, not just the game to life, but the era – a different age.