Tacos and margaritas… muy bueno!
Chairy Red
We found this great old chair at a garage sale last weekend and brought it home for $20. Sadly, however, it turned to be the dachshund of armchairs…
Not sure why we didn’t realize that before buying…
But just a few days later Isabella came over and loved. She’s got this little landing at the top of her stairs and it will be perfect there. Happy ending!
Oops! there goes another
The rubber tree continues to thrive. It was part of that first big load of plants we bought, potted in an old washing machine tub.
It’s not cold enough here for tapping maple syrup… maybe latex?
The Royal Wave
We only missed the Queen’s visit to Devonport by about 70 years…
Matakana
Fortified with dawn’s early Korean fried chicken after our Eta Aquarids viewing, we took advantage of being in the area to visit the well-known Matakana Market.
We parked at the entrance to the village, overlooking a pretty little park, which was crowned with these impressive public toilets. The north of New Zealand seems to have kind of a thing for its toilets.
The market really is cute, although I didn’t really get good pictures. We ended up buying more vegetables than we needed. Not because the prices were so good, but because everyone there was actually an extra from the Lord of the Rings movies. Well not actually but OMG… they could have been. We couldn’t bear to leave. The wizened little hobbit man selling apples. Elf honey girl. A knife sharpener with a long beard and a leather apron daydreaming of the day when his people will recover the Arkenstone from Smaug.
The Eta Aquarids
Lee read about the Eta Aquarids meteor shower last weekend in the paper. Better in the Southern hemisphere (finally that works for us!), a new moon for an extra dark night, and a clear sky forecast.
We got up at 2:30 AM and drove a long hour north to one of the recommended viewing spots, Tāwharanui Regional Park. We parked right near the beach, which is probably a really nice beach in daylight.
We sat in the chilly air under a blanket for about an hour and a half, listening to the waves. We certainly saw some shooting stars, but we kinda hoped for more, and more dramatic. We saw almost as many satellites, actually.
But after the sun came up we went into town and ate fried chicken for breakfast. And a danish. And a scone. So that was actually really awesome.
A few bumps in the road
They recently took Parnell Rd., which is the main way to get from here to there in this neighborhood, down to one way for about three weeks so they could install these big pedestrian crossing / speed bumps. I guess it’s better this way…
Rainbow Warrior Memorial
This mosaic commemorates the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. I’d been by it many times but never really noticed it till the other day. Nor did I realize the whole thing took place just down the road from me. One of those events we’d do well to remember.
On top of Mt. Eden
We got out on the tandem on Anzac Day and rode up to the top of Mt. Eden. Actually we had to walk up the last part.
It was a gorgeous day, perfect for Prince William’s appearance at the big ceremony later. We rode by the venue, which was heavily guarded, at least by NZ standards, in the wake of the Christchurch attacks. Weird to see the relatively scruffy and usually friendly NZ police with rifles in a ready position. Probably even weirder for the cops.
Rebirth
On Easter weekend the Holy Trinity Cathedral added a French flag to show solidarity with Notre Dame. I suppose the world of cathedrals is small, but these are linked at least through Notre Dame organist Olivier Latry, whom I saw play here last year.
Sydney!
Got to go to Sydney a couple weeks ago for an HL7 meeting. Here’s a few shots. It seems like I always get to make a scenic approach over the Harbour.
The meeting was held in the very rarefied air of the KPMG offices.
Random morning run pictures. It was very beautiful. There are some parts of business travel I miss, for sure.
But 48 hours later… home again. And I stop missing those parts.
Play Misty For Me
A week after getting the landlord’s OK to have a cat, we met Misty on our second trip to the SPCA. Since Misty happens to be one of my clarinet tunes, it seemed like fate.
She’s about two but when she got home she acted like she was 12… friendly and cuddly but really listless.
Besides being stressed from all the upheavals in her life, it turned out she a cold or something. After 10 days and some antibiotics she has completely come around.
Yay!!!
HealthLink 25th Anniversary
I was selected to be the emcee for the big anniversary gala celebration we held a few weeks ago. My qualifications included my sexy American accent and the perception that I could hold my liquor responsibly enough to get all the speakers up and down in order and on time. Success, but I’m not giving up my day job. There are some professional photos and videos on the HealthLink LinkedIn page if you care to look.
Some of my team looking sharp. Our normal dress code is pretty relaxed so it was great to see them all dolled up. There are five countries represented in this shot, but if we had a tug of war, India would win.
The event was held in the grand lobby of the Auckland Museum, and every detail was planned by our marketing team… amazingly well done. We had a powhiri and haka done by the museum’s in-house Māori group.
The party was also a farewell for founder and former CEO Tom Bowden, who has become a great friend to us.
But it was also a coming-out party for new CEO Michelle Creighton, who was an inspired choice to lead the firm into a new era that will see greater competition and a need for lots of diplomacy.
Tom’s partner Isabella, his daughter Catherine, and Lee. It’s possible that one or two drinks had been served by this point, meaning that getting all three to focus on the camera was a challenge.
It was a great evening, I was proud to be part of it.
Rent
As we get ready to start our third year in Auckland, it’s time to think about whether we might want to move or not.
Buying is probably unwise at this time for various reasons, and besides we really couldn’t afford anything we’d want to live in. So, renters we remain.
Our place was an amazingly lucky find… it could be a little bigger, maybe on a quieter street, but it checks almost all the boxes for us. Of course, lower rent would be great… and we really miss our kitties and would love to have one here.
So when the landlord sent us the lease for next year, with “only” a $25 per week increase, we had a tough choice.
We looked at a lot of ads. Pet-friendly is the hard one… landlords can be picky on that front without it being considered illegal discrimination. We finally found a house that seemed like a real possibility, and got a nice walk-through, shown above. There were some quirks, but it seemed like a real possibility. The ad said “pets negotiable” but it turned out that meant “no pets”, so “no deal”.
So, back to our own landlord… we offered to stay another year if we could have a cat. He agreed!
Stay tuned…
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 