Breakfast at Memphis

A short break in the weather results in blue skies over Memphis and after a rather late sleep-in today, (last night's birthday bash at St John's needed some extra sleep!) I am having a welcome breakfast at Memphis. The news in the Dom Post however is not at all good.

Below another shopping centre in outer Wellington going bust....

These past few days have been stormier than most around the bay.....

My savoury breakfast with versato coffee..

Yet another report of total inadequacy, say incompetence, by the Kiwi police force. It exposes what I see of the nice guy police commissioner who seems to be more a career diplomat that a tough law enforcing officer. You can see what's wrong when the top post is a sinecure and seems to demand little or no accountability.

Good on Desmond Tutu's daughter, we need more high profile gays showing their stuff, especially in countries in Africa where it is still illegal to be gay.

More serious strikes in the petrol industry in France where fossil fuels still reign supreme it appears. Manuel Valls, the PM, is under severe fire, not an easy job...

Weta Workshop, still a place I have to visit, but it is obvious they certainly know how to keep an industry afloat, with these two young creative men at the helm.

Last night at St John's Hall, Basin Reseve, our teacher Katherine cuts the Island Bay birthday cake

Below at the Empire, instead of swimming tonight, I am going to a movie can you believe. It is one I normally don't see, a popular move on the big screen with lots of special effects, à la Sir Peter Jackson. Called 'Apocalypse - the X men' it received a five star rating so I will let you know what I give it after the viewing tonight. 

I had a depressing afternoon battling with Australian bureaucracy only finally to discover they are probably right, not allowing me to vote in the coming elections. Apparently I missed the overseas cut by two days - had I not been sick last week I would have discovered this in time. Oh well, I didn't vote in the Abbott disaster, let's see what eventuates this time. The Australian Electoral Commission told me that after three years absence I am automatically taken down form the electoral roll, and functionally do not exist. It was a telling moment, especially as I have only just fervently decided to re-embrace my country, and am feeling very homesick at the moment, without any country to speak of. It is a lesson in really dotting one's i's and crossing one's t's, but to be honest, I don't think there was anyway around this one as I hadn't made an early enough application to vote. Australia considers me a non-person.

Above the Empire Eatery, as it is lovingly called, in Island Bay. I had a passable banana cake which had it been accompanied by some yoghurt, would have been much better. It is a lonely place tonight and I may be the only one in the cinema, again!

My two lovely neighbours having a very engaging conversation over their coffee and cake. The white tile decor is very 1950's butcher shop style.

 I discover this excellent program for the Italian Film Festival starting next week...more great movies to see and I feel they will outshine the French Festival which I greedily consumed last year. 

This festival is on only at the Cuba Lighthouse and the Empire, so there will be many visits for me I hope. The program looks very tasty indeed, covering a lot of cinematic genres and even showing 'The Conformist', the 1970 classic by Bernardo Bertolucci which I saw while living in Paris and didn't fully comprehend its political implications at the time. This time, hopefully, I will. It was a great vehicle for the star of that decade Jean-Louis Trintingnant.

Btw, my estimation of the 'Apocalypse' was never five stars, but then each to his own. It just was not my cup of tea, although well made but full of visual effects which gagged the mind a little too much.

I have also seen too much of Jennifer Lawrence but Michael Fassbender never disappoints, even in a tame role like this one. He is a great actor, he and Tom Hardy, my other favourite Brit actor..