Since the rest of the Wellingtonista are doing it, here are a few things about Damian Christie’s article about Wellington that I disagree with.

• He advocates avoiding Courtenay Place. Don’t do that. Yes, it’s horrible on Fridays and Saturday nights, but without Courtenay Place there would be no beloved Wellingtonista institutions Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, the Paramount, Arashi, or access to Boulot on Blair St.


• He says “A real city should have at least one bar that stays open 24 hours a day.” Well, The San Francisco Bath House is often open until 6am, and Sandwiches until 7am, and after that, you can jump in a cab and go get a pie from the Hataitai Bakery, and eat it in the laundromat, both of which are open 24 hours. Perhaps you’ll find some anonymous sex there while you’re at it.


• He mentions that Wellington lacks celebrities. Hello, don’t you know who I am? The Wellingtonista are socialites. Llew in particular bears a striking resemblance to Glinda Kirkpatrick.


• Damian’s mentioned before how all the girls in Wellington wear skirts over their trousers. I know I do every day, but I don’t know anyone else who does. And I know everyone.


• Seriously, talking about Fat Freddy’s and Fly My Pretties? Yawn. It seems like he just googled ‘Wellington Music’ and took those names from a Wallpaper article. For someone seen around town as much as he is, you’d think he might have realised that there’s a lot more going on in our music scene.

The final question that ends all discussions or post mortems of Wellingtonista events:

also, did someone pick up our bar tab?

I like it for its simple, if plaintive, optimism.

Bret and Jemaine channel the Pet Shop Boys circa “West End Boys”…

Real Art Roadshow is a mobile exhibition of original work by more than 60 leading New Zealand artists. It’s currently parked right outside the Beehive.

More details, incl. list of artists, after the jump.

This years’ Cuisine Restaurant awards have seen three Wellington restaurants receive gongs, including the supreme title for Martin Bosley’s at the Port Nicholson Yacht Club. Bosley’s restaurant also took out the Best Fine Dining Award.

Other local winners were Pravda, who won the Best Casual Dining, Metropolitan award, and The Martinborough at Peppers Martinborough Hotel, which took Best Casual Dining, Regional.

There’s plenty of room at cuisine’s top table – Stuff.co.nz

Wellington gets a chance to say a fond farewell to All Black legend Tana Umaga on Saturday afternoon when he plays his final first-class game in New Zealand before heading off to start his coaching career at Toulon in France. The Wellington Lions play Manawatu at 2.35pm hoping to put their atrocious performance of last weekend behind them and give Tana the send off he deserves.

I was at Christian Cullen’s farewell, as well as the Auckland send-offs for Michael Jones and Zinzan Brooke. They were all amazing occasions and this one probably will be too.

My prediction (and feel free to ridicule me for it in the comments): Tana to be New Zealand’s first Samoan Prime Minister within 20 years.

An unanticipated great result in Melbourne on Saturday night has kept the Phoenix in the hunt for early scalps and, perhaps more importantly, given them another warm-up game to prepare for the forthcoming A-League campaign.

The late goal from Brazilian import Daniel that surprised last year’s champions Melbourne Victory means the Phoenix play the Newcastle Jets at the Stadium tomorrow (Friday) in a playoff for 5th or 6th place in the Pre-Season Cup. It will be the first time the team have played under lights at the Stadium and they’ll be hoping for a turnout that equals or exceeds the 6,000 that cheered them to their first win less than three weeks ago.

Tickets are on sale from the Stadium only (from noon at the kiosk on the concourse; all the booths will be live from 6.00pm) and the game kicks off at 7.30pm. Adults pay $10 and kids and students get in free. Let’s make some noise, people.