Messiah, Baby!!

Acting on a tip from one of Lee’s colleagues (front row chorus near the right), I got a last minute ticket to see the Auckland Choral Society’s annual Messiah concert. I paid a hefty price but got a front row balcony seat, in fact just a few seats away from Sir Somebody or Other, who was singled out for his patronage over the years. It was my first time at Auckland’s Town Hall, which is a lovely venue.

This was the 100th consecutive year they’ve done the Messiah, and a few of the choristers have done 50. They have actually been at it for about 150, but missed 1914 (WWI) and 1918 (flu pandemic).

In honour of the centenary, they pulled out all the stops… three choirs, big-name soloists, a commemorative program…

It was great, and helped me into the Christmas spirit for sure.

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En route to La Cigale

We wandered down to the La Cigale weekend market with Astrid last weekend. We don’t go to that market as often, as it’s further away than the Parnell farmers market, bu La Cigale certainly has a lot of nice stuff.

The pohutukawa are in full bloom this time of year, lovely! This little park is on the route, and it was our first experience of the NZ jungle, even though the jungly part is only an acre or two.

And they are redoing the porch on this house, but they left the old car in place under there.

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Christmas in the park

For the second year in a row we walked over to the Auckland Domain for the Christmas in the Park concert.

Sponsored by Coke, by the way.

Again a showcase for people who want to be on the Voice, and again with the horrifyingly bad announcers. But not quite as horrible as last year.

And then the fireworks, our real reason for going, were choreographed to Bohemian Rhapsody, and that part was AWESOME!

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Auckland Zoo

We went to the zoo last weekend, not because we so love zoos, but more because it’s an Attraction, and while here we should see the Attractions.

The baboons were playful, but many of the other animals seemed pretty sleepy, and who could blame them? It was a warm day, and napping in the sunshine was definitely a savvy option.

We glimpsed an elephant getting a bath…

and pregnant zebras munching apples and carrots…

And by the way, once you’ve had the chance to say zebra with a short e, you’ll never go back to zeeeeebra.

There were lots of cool birds, although I didn’t get any really inspired pics of them, they were mostly too far away or moved too fast. But the tortoise was obliging of my slow shutter finger…

It’s a pretty big place and we were definitely tired by the time we got done. Would be fun to go back at dawn or dusk sometime when the critters might be more active.

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Airplane on a stick

We went to the zoo last weekend, which is near the Museum of Transportation and Technology, which has an airplane on a stick out front. Ever since working on the ex-navy-base in Alameda (20 years!!!) I have a fondness for such things.

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Sing we now

Coming home the other night we happened across a carol sing in the Cathedral courtyard. Fun! But warm weather Christmas still feels funny.

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Booze Cruise

The company Christmas party was a harbour cruise again this year. I missed last year’s edition, so it was a new experience for me. It was a nice tidy experience: chat, dinner, drinks, dancing, and back to the dock by 9:30.

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