Last year, for the second time in a row, Team Wellingtonista won the Webstock Pub Quiz (we intend to win it this year too, by the way). Our prize was a $300 tab for Lagerfield at 21 Blair Street. Having been there late at night when it was full of munters, I was not overwhelmed with enthusiasm, but as it turns out, it was a lovely experience.
On a horribly rainy night, perching at a high banquette table under a heater was a good place to be, especially as the lovely staff told us to let them know if it got too hot. The circular booths that were a key feature of The Last Supper Club may be gone, but the wavey ceiling remains to make the space more interesting, with dark wood adding to the warmth. It’s a shame that there were TVs on, featuring polo, and the music was from the ’80s, but not unbearably so, especially after a little wine.
We started on a bottle of Akarua Rose ($40), and an OldRoaring Meg Pinot Noir ($55), we happily discovered an St. Hallet’s Gamekeeper’s Shiraz which at $35 was one of the cheapest on the list, but was fully flavoured and yum, and so we got through quite a few bottles after that. It made for very happy mouthfuls when paired with the blue cheese and crispy proscuitto entree ($12). Fries and gravy weren’t amazing, but the Drinkers’ Platter of dumplings, prawns, spring rolls, samosas, bread and four dips at $15 was exceptional value. The cheese gratin was a solid hotpot in which to dip crusty bread, and I’m told that the chicken liver parfait was very tasty too.
In fact some of us right now are celebrating those awards, at the most lovely of locations, the Mighty Mighty.
But if you were unable to make it to the TAWAS here’s how you all voted.
Expect a review of the night later on tomorrow, and by later on I mean after afternoon tea.
For right now many of the wellingtonista are shaking their thing to the sounds of the Klezmer Rebs.
Also hopefully Hadyn who is the king of stats will offer up some analysis of the way you voted.
And if you havn’t already why not head over to the DCM and give a little. As I write at this very moment $10 has been donated to DCM. If everyone who reads this blog dontated $5 each, together we will make a serious difference in the lives of Wellingtonians who are most at risk and in need this Christmas.
Best Cheap Eats: Sweet Mother’s Kitchen
Best un-Cheap Eats: Matterhorn
Best Drink in Town: Castlepoint at Mighty Mighty
Best Late Night Hangout: Mighty Mighty
Best Suburban Destination: Maranui Cafe
Best non-Drinking Destination: Wellington Central Library
Best Place to Shake It WINNERS: Mighty Mighty & San Francisco Bath House
Best Public Space: The Waterfront
Best Art Experience: Yayoi Kusama at City Gallery Wellington
Best Apparel: Mandatory
Best Shop: Slowboat
Most Needed: Bike lanes
Best Service: Matt at Mojo Old Bank
Best Coffee: Mojo Old Bank
Best Contribution to the Internet by a Wellingtonian: The Webstock Team
Best Regular Entertainment: The Wellington Phoenix
Best Live Performance: Question Time at Parliament
Best Wellington-based Event: The Cuba Carnival
Wellingtonian of the Year: Martin Bosley for the City Market
Voting in the Fourth Annual Wellingtonista Awards is open from December 1-15. Then come find out the results at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on December 17!
To vote, visit this page.
As a website, we know that we are not alone. There are many other fantastic people in Wellington doing fantastic things online, and they make our internet world a much better place with the things that they do.
We’ve talked about Twitter before – we’re on it, of course, as over a thousand of you already know. Over time Twitter has evolved from a WTF? (back then at the same stage in its life as Google Wave is now) to an indispensible part of our social networking landscape.
If you’ve logged on to Twitter recently you’ll have seen their newest feature, Twitter Lists. These are a way to group up other Twitter users, both among the people you follow and the people you don’t. You might want to group up some of your friends; or make a list of your favourite bands; then you can conveniently view just those tweets from those people.
Where this becomes interesting is that it’s possible to follow other people’s lists. A nice example of this is @webstock‘s Speakers List – a List of speakers at past and future Webstock events. Following this list allows you to immerse yourself in the whole Webstock vibe, months in advance of the event itself! Very handy.
Of course The Wellingtonista is not to be left out of this action. It can be quite hard to find the best people to follow on Twitter – so let us do it for you! We have compiled some must-follow Wellington-themed lists for you to follow, with more on the way.
Clearly these lists could do with a little fine tuning, as well as additions. So let us know!
So you’re not attending Webstock or you’re willing to skip lunch tomorrow? From the Creative Freedom Foundation:
In Wellington on the steps of Parliament on Thursday 19th at (edit) 12pm with a petition handover at (edit) 12.30pm. This is a postive event where we will hand out hundreds of CDs and thank the politicans that support us – so please keep it friendly and polite. While we appreciate people arranging their own demonstrations it might be best if we don’t dilute our numbers with multiple events.
We want everyone reading this to email everyone they know in Wellington about this. We can’t let this be another internet protest that results in few people turning up. This is important so we need to prove it in numbers.
NOTE: Please don’t wear all black as that has negative associations with other demonstrations but instead come along with bright clothes and BLACK PLACARDS!
—
No Guilt apon accusation!
http://creativefreedom.org.nz
No wearing all black? Are they aware that this is Wellington?
You will of course remember how last year the Phoenix Foundation’s gig in Frank Kitts Park was voted Best Live Performance at the TAWAs? Well this year, the Starry Nights concert on February 19 (during Webstock!) will feature the magnificant Fur Patrol, and of course since Miss Ratpony is such a fan, we have this gif as a gift for you:
1. Have you registered for Webstock yet? Only 33 more sleeps left to go and we are very very excited!
2. Have you checked out the programme for Summer City yet?
Wellington City Council’s three-month festival of outdoor activities. Events include music festivals, extreme sports, cultural celebrations and children’s entertainment. This year, Summer City’s music performances focus on Wellington bands.
There’s a giant display of info about it at the corner of Manners & Cuba Malls, or you can read their event info PDF (because Summer City is not accessible for everyone?)
3. Brenda has emphasised again why she was nominated for Best Contribution to the internet, with this revealing photo of the portrait of former mayor Mark Blumsky, standing outside Mermaids Strip Club. Nice one!
So tonight we’re going to party like it’s 2008 at The Annual Wellingtonista Awards (come along from 6pm, presentations kick off around 7.30), but before we have too many of the Wellingtonista Cocktails that Mighty Mighty have designed for us, we want to take a minute or two to give much respect to the delightful lovely people who’re helping us to make such a great event with their donations of swag and spot prizes. In alphabetical order, mad props go out to:
Adidas New Zealand: You know who else is from Wellington? The Hurricanes. And we know that because Adidas have given us a brand new 2009 Wellington Hurricanes Super 14 jersey with the new embossed print to give away to one lucky ticket holder.
Aimée McLeod: Aimee is a local potter who has made our fabulous trophy tiles that the winners will be receiving tonight. Her works are for sale in a whole bunch of places, she’s been exceeding generous and supportive with her time and materials, and just quietly, she’s also a pretty choice mum too.
The Back Bencher: The Back Bencher Pub is somewhat of a famous destination eatery across the road from the Beehive with its political-inspired puppetry, menu and broadcast show and the service isn’t half bad either. We’re happy to be giving away three vouchers so you too can dine there, but we must warn you – talk to your companion quietly if you’re a public servant, because the enemy is sure to be all around you.
Craft2.0 springs into the shopping season by returning to TheNewDowse on October 11th with a Craftastic Craftacular
(don’t ask us what that means, but pretty much beyond fabulous is a good definition)
There are over 60 crafters this time round and as always there is a mix of returning favourite crafters and brand shiny new ones.
We guarantee you’ll find presents for all the family, and more importantly some special treats for yourself. Plus you can feel good about spending money on 100% original NZ made hand crafted creations instead of imported mass produced stuff.
Everything sold at Craft2.0 is 100% New Zealand made.
Everything sold at Craft2.0 is made by the person selling it.
Most items are unique one-off or limited edition creations.
This time round there are free making activitites. In association with Hutt Valley Community Arts, kids little and small young and old can create floral bouquets from buttons, cardboard and pipe cleaners.
everything is supplied all you need is your creativity. this is a great activity for all the family, but we warn you it is addictive.
Special Treats
the most awesome gift bag ever in the history of craft2.0 , courtesy of those amazing folks at Cafe reka are being handed out at 10am.
inside you’ll find, badges, crafty things, fudge and some other treats that we are keeping secret for now, but will probably gush about on the website www.craft2.org/blog the night before the fair.
Because we know that everyone loves Crafts so much we also have a prize draw, where you can win over $200 of Crafty creations and other special things.
Okay, you know how the Wellingtonista have a twitter account that you can sign up to in order to receive updates to your phone about what’s going on in the city? Yeah, I suppose I should be the first person to admit that doesn’t go so well. You see, despite the fact that all Wellingtonistas know the login and password for it, there are only a small handful of us who use Twitter, and all of us therefore have our phones configured with our personal accounts, which means any updates to the Wellingtonista Twitter have to come from online, which means we’re tied down to a computer.
Well, clever people have come up with solutions to let everyone use their own personal accounts to update one main twitter. I first experienced this at Webstock, with the Webstock Twitter bot which ran hot during the conference. Now there’s the Free Wellington account, which will send you updates on things to do for free or under $10 in Wellington. But here’s the trick: you can update it too. Just follow FreeWellington on twitter, and preface your updates with an FW, and everyone will be able to know what the water’s like at the beach, or why they should be staying the hell away from Waitangi Park…
It’s a genius scheme. Now we’re just hoping that the Wellingtonista will get a bot of its very own for Xmas!