Typical Te Aro cottages
Park across the road
Coffee with the locals
Well today is recovery day, not! I am up not too late with a couple of emails and text from J saying that Jean's Memoirs are up and running and she wants a contribution from me about Jean's last Chistmas day at Beth's. I will be happy to help out as I do have a little story to tell, similar in vein to when I was published in Kelver Hartley's memoirs. I will give it my best effort.
Next step to have brunch at Vista with the boys from yesterday. They are all well established when I arrive late but I have a nice talk with a Liverpudlian man about his moving to Wellington. At the end there is just me and Chairman Ashley with whom I chew the cud about BP and its future. Am I getting in deeper or what?
A quick trip to Victoria Street market for some fruit and veggies, where I overpay the car keeper by two dollars (the larger coin is worth more have $2, whereas in OZ the larger coin is worth less $1). He later refunds me $2 when I tell him, he knew anyway but was OK in the refund!
As I have a couple of hours before our dance workshop where I am supposed to guide the new ones, I decide to visit Te Aro, the former home of Jean Watson, about which she writes so poignantly in her books. She had really brought to life this quaint inner suburb which is such a small village it is hard to believe it is with in coo-ee of the city. I stop for one more coffee and friand and wonder if I can consume it, after the rather nice Eggs Benedict I had at Vista cafe, but it is Summer Holidays I tell myself. I feel very connected with Wellington today, what is happening to me? Everyone is so friendly and I am enjoying the indolent life and also doing something.
My cafe is opposite the Te Aro famous video shop, the first of its kind in Wellington and much written about. It is time to have a visit to see what strange wares they stock. Is it true they have the most sought after movies available to discerning customers?
A cyclist whizzes down the slight incline, the cool breeze takes the temperature down a few important degrees, the retro music plays quietly in the background, the day is perfect. Where else could I find this in the middle of summer in a city?
The Aro St Video Shop
A little old lady with a plastic bag stuffed with it seems like cat food hobbles by, alert in expectation of giving her beloved pets their meal. She looks to be in her eighties, at least. Wellington is full of such people, living at home alone, mostly women, their menfolk having long since passed on. It is the country of longevity there's no doubt, and I am about to quit this gift which has been offered to me on a plate.
The near-naked bodies will be strewn along the beachside on Oriental Parade beach, all soaking up the sun and some will attract the deadly hole in the Ozone layer which my friend Norma in Waiheke Island is so aware of. Keep out of the sun, skin cancer beckons!
My coffee and tasty friand all consumed, it is nearly time to move in, to my next event of this busy weekend in Wellington's unusually hot summer season.
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