Armageddon – down to the event centre…
Wow! Want to meet… Kaylee from Firefly? The very hot Ivanova from Babylon 5? One of the (original) Dukes of Hazzard? and the General Lee? Not to mention this person (no idea who, but I think you’d like to meet her, no? All you have to do is dress up like your favourite sci-fi character, […]
The Library Elf
Here’s a handy online service for those of you who use Wellington’s excellent Public Libraries. Create an account over at Library Elf, enter your library card details, and they’ll create a customised RSS feed that tells you what books you’ve got out that are nearing their return date. Very handy for those of us who manage to lose the paper issue slip somewhere between the library exit and home.
The Hutt and Porirua libraries are also on the system, as are a few other NZ-based libraries.
[hat tip: fraser, via chch-changes.]
Nicest City in the World
Our post on Wellington’s 12th placing in the recent Mercer HR Quality of Life table has had the pleasant side-effect of catapaulting Wellington (and the Wellingtonista) to the top of the Google rankings for a search on ‘nicest city in the world’. We’ll take Google’s word over Mercer’s any day.
Wellington Film Society for May
Whoa… it’s May already & I have neglected to mention the wonderful Wellington Film Society even once this year! So… without further ado, here is what is coming up next month. In the words of the illustrious president, David Lindsay… Hi All, May sees the conclusion of the Jean-Luc Godard retrospective, made possible by the […]
Test your knowledge
I’m writing questions for a work Quiz Night that we’re going to be having tomorrow, and decided that it would be good to have a ‘Courtenay Place and its surroundings’ round, given the location of this particular branch of the Wellingtonista. How well will you do at answering these questions in the comments, without googling, […]
The odyssey of Mr Reasonable
Local blogger Mr Reasonable plans to combine his whizzo geek toys and dangerously obsessive love of coffee into an caffeine fuelled odyssey of live blogging from cafés in the besuited end of town: I am going to visit a different Wellington Cafe every day next week, order a decent Latté, take a photo of said […]
On the Grid
It’s official: after a hard-fought campaign, Wellington has beaten Baku to be included on the rounds of the “decadent travel guide” Gridskipper. They’re looking for tips, recommendations and “kiwiphilic thoughts”, so feel free to send in your rants and raves about the coolest, dodgiest and craziest things going on in town. Things like itinerant fractal […]
Are you game?
Next month, there will be an unusual collaboration between urban gourmets and huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ types. The Fish & Game NZ Wild Game Bird Food Festival, which runs from the 8th to the 28th of May, encourages hunters to bring their prey into participating restuarants where their catch can be transformed into gourmet dishes. The […]
Bunny boiling
Shadows grow longer, leaves turn to russet and fall to the damp earth, and an autumnal chill settles upon our fair city. So what better time to celebrate the new life and fruitfulness of spring?
Yes, Easter is upon us, so we should prepare ourselves for serious contemplation of the greatest miracle of all. Chocolate.
The good people at Truffle are always ready to help celebrate the abundance of nature, or at least the edible portion of it, and they have some special goodies for the season. Bags of Piedmontese chocolate eggs by Venchi are a snip at $14.95 for 135 grams, and they’re also stocking some special items from Wellington’s favourite alchemists of confectionery, Schoc. Those with a farmyard fetish can pretend that they’re in a Cadbury’s ad and gorge themselves on chocolate rabbits and poultry, while aesthetes might prefer the one-off hand-painted hollow eggs. In the same vein as their Christmas bars (real gold, frankincense and myrrh), they offer Easter chocolate bars flavoured like hot cross buns. What sorcery is this?!?
Of course, when one thinks of Easter, one thinks of cabaret. No? Must just be me then. But it seems that others think the same way, since on Good Friday Sandwiches will be home to “Sheba’s Dirty Thirties Cabaret”. Anyone who’s seen one of Sheba’s cabaret performances (such as at last year’s Midnight Burlesque) will know that “dirty” won’t be an exaggeration.
For those who prefer a more sedate cabaret experience, Eateria de Manon (by all accounts the best French restaurant south of Majoribanks St) is having a tribute to Edith Piaf on Sunday night. For $55 you get a three course meal and live music from local Piafophiles Sans Souci. I’m not sure what will be on the menu for the night, but they are known for such dishes as squash and pork trotter soup, brioche-crumbed lambs brains and squid stuffed with wild goat. While those of a sentimental persuasion can ooh and ahh over cutely gamboling easter lambs, isn’t it nice to think that some of us will be eating their brains?
Wellington: the world’s 12th nicest city
A new survey published by Mercer Human Resource Consulting rates Wellington as the 12th best city to live in, based on the quality of living offered to residents. Auckland comes in a very respectable 5th, with the rest of the top 12 filled out by Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bern, Sydney and Copenhagen.
American cities don’t get a show-in until Honolulu gets them off the mark at 27th (much to the delight of the Canadian press, who aren’t shy about pointing out their southern neighbours lower placings).
Can’t say the presence of Dusseldorf and Bern in the top 10 fills us with a great deal of confidence in the accuracy of the survey, though.