Archives for January 2007

Westport: low, wide and covered

Last week I flew into Westport on board a Beech 1900D. It’s a little 19-seater, narrow, with one seat on each side of the aisle. One of the nice things about it was that we didn’t need to do all the security checks before boarding. It was a pleasant flight, taking about 45 minutes. For […]

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Wet and Dry: a New Zealand geography lesson

Last week my partner and I holidayed on the West Coast. That’s shorthand for the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. A little geography lesson is in order to help understand the West Coast. New Zealand lies in the South Pacific surrounded on all sides by thousands of kilometres of ocean. Just take a […]

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Advance, balance, turn, stop

In the last few days I’ve been able to do some skating, after a long break. The weather’s been warmer, it hasn’t been too windy, and I’ve had energy, motivation, and time. As usual, it’s taken a few days to regain my balance and confidence, though I’ve noticed my weight is all over the place, […]

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Bond runs – a lot

I went with friends tonight to see Casino Royale, the latest Bond movie. It must be decades since I last saw Bond — I don’t even recall which one it might have been, or anything about it. Lots of people seem to have expressed high opinions about this movie, and it was certainly an acceptable […]

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A rare sunset in Wellington

I grew up in Canterbury, home of the Nor’west Arch.1 Sunsets there are often spectacular as the low sun shines up onto the bottom of the cloud cover, lighting the sky on fire. Here in Wellington, we sometimes have some really nice sunsets, with a bit of orange sky and all, but last night’s was […]

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Favourite author #1: Marcia Muller

I was born into a family of readers. As a young person I read loads of books, as an adult I read loads of books: some fiction, but lots of non-fiction. One computers and the Internet came along I pretty much stopped reading books. For one thing, there was a lot to read on-screen: manuals, […]

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The long of it – 2001, Happy Feet, Babel

I’ve always been a sci-fi fan. In my youth I read my way through a lot of sci-fi until it seemed only bug-eyed monsters were left, and then stopped for quite a while. I definitely read Arthur C Clarke, and indubitably 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I dimly recall really enjoying. I’m sure I also […]

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Not the summer we were hoping for

The view from the front window today. I guess this is just low cloud, but what a stink day! Where’s our summer!? This is the webcam view from the front window, near the top of Mt Victoria in Wellington. Looking roughly southwest, for all the difference it makes.

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Holiday cleanout

This summer has been a great opportunity for a cleanout. If you’re in New Zealand, you may be interested in the items I’m selling on TradeMe (there may be more to come soon), or the 118 books I’m wanting to swap. I also have a few items I won’t be listing there, including assorted computer […]

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Who owns the road?

I live near the top of Mt Victoria in Wellington and drive a small, low, aging, sports car, a Honda CRX Del Sol. There are three ways to get from the top to the bottom of the hill: through the Town Belt to Newtown, a comparatively straight road with a gradual slope, via steep, winding, […]

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