almost every block in wellington has an example or two of great classic architecture.
lots of great art deco
and turn of the century victorian
Monthly Archive for August, 2007Page 2 of 3
i spent most of yesterday and today walking around the city. the weather had been great, with lots of sunshine, and temps in the 50’s. haven’t had anything yet that i needed a car for - and that is huge since one of the things i wanted to most of this move was to lessen my dependence on a car. in the framingham there wasn’t a thing we could do (save walking in the park) without first getting into the car. groceries, cup of coffee, movie, dinner out, bank - car, car, car, car, car.
no problems with jet lag so far, although i am getting up a bit early. that works well with boston 8 hours ahead (actually 16 behind).
the view from the kitchen window when i got up.
i have arrived at my home for the next month - 156 willis street, wellington cbd, 6011
very nice - especially compared to the drab place i had last time.
entrance and bedroom with my one small closet.
family room and living room. actually the same room but naming each half makes it seem more spacious.
views our my window. left then right.
dining room, office & kitchen and my bath with combo washer/dryer.
upon arriving in auckland on a flight from sydney the australian flight attendant announces:
“welcome to new zealand where the local time is 3 hours ahead and 40 years behind”
quite uneventful trip from saint louis to wellington - although there was one moment when i thought i was in for a treat. i always ask for an aisle seat but there were none available so i was assigned a window. i was one of the first to first to board and settled into my seat. then the mom with the sleeping one year old sits down in the aisle seat. not good but what can you do. then a gigantic rugby player looking dude asks “is this row 37?” oh no. so the mom gets up trying not to wake junior and gigantor tries to squeeze himself into the middle seat and then mom sits back down. i am now hermetically sealed into my seat - pressed up against the window. fortunately the purser felt pity on me the mum and offered her a seat further back that had empty adjacent seat for junior. this allowed the hulk to move over to the aisle and for me to exhale. from there it was easy.
while i was waiting for my luggage in auckland i watched nz maf patrolling for quarantine items with one of their dogs. it was amazing and quite entertaining. the dog was a small beagle with a maf vest. he would wander sniffing at each bag and then when he got a hit would sit down with his rear legs spread wide (hard to describe - gromit does the same and it cracks me up each time) and brush his nose against the offending bag and then seem to stop paying attention. the conversation between the maf officer and the passenger would always go like this:
“excuse me sir, do you have any food items in your bag?”
“no, but i had a banana in there yesterday. that must be what he smells”
“do you mind if i look?”
“no, of course”
the officer then starts digging. the dog is still sitting but looking all around having a great time and you’re sure that he is no longer paying attention, but when the officer gets near the item the dog leans over, quickly touches the bag with his nose again, and then resumes his looking about cheerfully. the officer then always pulls out a piece of contraband.
“oh!, i forgot about that half eaten snicker bar. sorry about that.”
“can i see your biosecurity form, please”
the form then gets marked with what i can only guess leads to a quite thorough search by the biosecurity agents.
here’s the only picture of the dog i could find.
i did get pulled aside by biosecurity to have a look at my hiking boots but was quickly sent on my way.
day 4, saint louis, mo. 105°F.
it truly feels like you have opened the door to the oven. of course the sad irony is all the air conditioners running full blast just heating up the planet even more.
i had a short list of things i wanted to do in saint louis before i headed off. happy to say that i was able to cross off everything on my list.
white castle.
you either love them or hate them. always a treat for me. with an order of cheese fries and a mix (half and half mix of pepsi and orange drink - even better since it is not listed on the menu and only old hard core patrons know to ask). not quite the classic experience since the women in their 50’s with beehives and blue massacre disappeared from behind the counter.
ted drewes.
a small frozen custard stand in the city on watson road. definitely the best frozen treat and there is always a crowd spilling out into the street. one of the few things that still pulls the escalades and navigators from the burbs back into the city.
steak & shake
*in sight it must be right*. the slogan since they cook the food to order on a grill behind the counter in sight of the diners. when i was growing up they had car hop service with the menu painted on a billboard. my order is for a steakburger platter with fries (the fries are tiny - the size of match sticks) & baked beans and a chocolate shake. hard to beat.
[ed. massive update. updates back to 03-AUG]
There are three tomatoes, Papa Tomato, Mama Tomato and Baby Tomato.
Baby Tomato drags behind, so Papa Tomato becomes angry and squishes him and says: “Ketchup!”
- Mia Wallace
day 3. 3 pm. saint louis, mo. 99°F.
we started early with the goal of unloading the truck into the storage unit before it got unbearably hot. our storage unit is on the third floor so we had to unload an elevator’s worth of items from the truck, wait for our turn with the one shared elevator, load the elevator, slow ride in the hot box, and then walk the items to our unit a bit around the corner. thanks to brother in-law and step-father for helping out on a thankless task we got done before 11.
so one more pile of our stuff that is increasingly getting scattered around the world.
now i started making my rounds dropping off the thank you gifts to my loyal underwriters. no problems and i was done with truck returned by mid afternoon.
man is it hot.
day 2. 10:45 pm. saint louis, mo. 95°F.
we formally started day 2 at 6 am with breakfast at the denny’s next door to our overnight accommodations truck. i felt surprisingly good. just think of all the cash we can save from now on by skipping on the pampered lifestyle of hotel patrons. no sir, the parking lot is just fine for us thank you. “does the hose out back work?”
on the road by 7:30 and a clean shot to saint louis, arriving before 5 pm.
not much of note now that we were pros behind the wheel of our rig. swapping trucker stories with the other drivers at the rest stops. pimping our ride with yosemite sam “back off” mud flaps.
(one big truck)
a quick dinner and i fell asleep watching a movie (had to be a first time for that to happen).
oh - and did i mention that saint louis is an oven? 98°F when we arrived. supposed to be over 100 tomorrow. great moving weather.
…or any inn from rochester ny to cleveland ohio.
day 2. 3:40 am. outside cleveland, oh. 78°F.
uneventful drive through mass and most of new york. it is about 10 pm, we’re coming up on rochester and we’re starting to think about where to stop for the night. buffalo seemed about right. i use google sms (great tool if you haven’t used it before) to find the 3 red roof inns in the area. i call the first one and they say that the don’t have any rooms. hmm - didn’t expect that. so i ask if they can tell me of a red roof in the area that has rooms. “no rooms from rochester to erie” whut? so i call jackie and ask her to give me the number for some other red roofs and every one i call same thing - booked solid. now jackie is calling other chains - super 8, hotel 6, days inn, marriott courtyard, fairfield inn. booked, booked, booked, booked, booked. she is now using orbitz. one room - buffalo area - august 11th. “no rooms are available for this date” try rochester. same thing. erie pa. nuttin. you have to be kidding. not a single room for over 300 miles? you have to understand that as we are driving down the highway both sides are filled with a sea of hotels. how can it be that every single one is booked up? oddly every parking lot did look packed so it was believable that they were full.
so down the road we drive.
at 3:30 am we’re are just past cleveland and we’ve both had enough. at 3:40 we pull into a hotel 6 parking lot, kill the engine, grab a water from the denny’s next door (the 3:40 am crowd did not disappoint) and sleep best we can in the cab of the truck.
.
Recent Comments