forget the queen, the king rules here in island bay.
in the too good to be true category this portrait of elvis is featured prominently in our local grocery - the island bay new world. not sure you can see the detail but each bit of the image is made up of a tiny piece of toast. yep - that’s right. toast.
so how did this come to be? someone is sitting watching telly and all of sudden says “i think i should make a giant portrait of elvis. and i’ll make it entirely out of toast. and then when i’m done i’ll talk to the owner of the local grocery and see if they want to mount it on the wall over their delicatessen. yep. i’m going to start right now. honey - where’s the bread…”
and you thought i chose island bay for the ocean, the views or sense of community…
88 days after our container left our house it framingham it has arrived in wellington.
| Container : |
MSCU5003138 |
| Type : |
40′ DRY VAN |
| Status : |
IN TRANSIT |
| Shipped To : |
WELLINGTON, NZ |
| Shipped On : |
30/08/2007 |
| Location |
Date |
|
Description |
Vessel |
Voyage |
| WELLINGTON, NZ |
26/11/2007 |
|
Discharged |
|
|
| SYDNEY, AU |
20/11/2007 |
|
Loaded |
MSC CLORINDA |
C7143 |
| SYDNEY, AU |
12/11/2007 |
|
Discharge |
|
|
| ANTWERP, BE |
24/09/2007 |
|
Loaded |
MSC HAILEY |
23A |
| ANTWERP, BE |
17/09/2007 |
|
Discharged |
|
|
| BOSTON, US |
07/09/2007 |
|
Loaded |
MSC JAPAN |
634R |
| BOSTON, US |
30/08/2007 |
|
Gate In Full |
|
|
| BOSTON, US |
27/08/2007 |
|
Empty to Shipper |
|
the careful reader may note the journey was not exactly the most direct route. we were told the container would travel by rail to long beach california and then travel by ship to singapore before a quick hop over to wellington. the expected travel time was 45 to 55 days. for reasons that no one will admit it didn’t take this route and instead first headed east (the wrong way) to antwerp belgium where it enjoyed a week basking in the summer sun before heading off to sydney australia. that route takes it through the straights of gibraltar, the mediterranean sea, through the suez cannel, the red sea (hello saudi arabia) and across the indian ocean before arriving in sydney.
our stuff is now seen much more of the world than we have.
our ship - the msc hailey
island bay beach is closed to dogs from 9 am to 7 pm during daylight saving time so our new weekend ritual is to head off a bit before 8 and spend the early morning at the beach. at 9 it’s time for everyone to wash their feet / paws. we then stop for a coffee and egg&bacon pie.
a bit east of island bay beach is princess cove. a really fantastic place to spend some time. you’re on a bit of a peninsula with lyall bay to your left and the cook straight directly in front.
today we shared all this with one family + dog and a classic group of pensioners having a picnic out of the trunk of their car.
but by far the highlight of the day was clear sky giving us a clear view of the south island and the snow capped peaks of the southern alps. unfortunately my pocket camera that has served me so well didn’t capture the view very well.
what i did today:
- got up at 0545
- put the kettle on
- took the dog out
- made the coffee
- showered & dressed
- walked to the 0651 bus
- rode into town with the other worker bees
- work, work, work
- came home to a simple meal of pasta cooked in our 1 pot
- watched some old us reruns that are shown here in primetime
- went to bed with the sight of the ocean and the lights of island bay out the window
what i didn’t do:
- have the day off
- watch football
- enjoy turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie
- go to bed early so i could get up for the 5:00 am sale at walmart
bit of a bummer
it will always be quite a challenge to have a proper turkey day here but this year was particularly difficult since we only have our very basic kitchen gear that a kind work colleague has loaned us and we don’t yet have any american friends (although that is a bit by choice - i didn’t come her to hang out with yanks). the jboss searched a bit for a hotel or restaurant that was targeting expats with a turkey dinner but came up empty. the local upscale grocery was offering turkeys for order (thanks for that) but without anything to cook it in/with it didn’t seem to be a good idea. pumpkin pie may be the biggest challenge. no signs of pumpkin pie here on a regular basis (it is a bit odd if you’re not used to it - who would have thought of making a pie out of a pumpkin?) and even finding the ingredients is proving to be a challenge.
we will start our research now so we will be better prepared for next year.
maybe a kind reader can record the football for next year and send a dvd our way?
one of my former london based orange colleagues posts occasionally to his journal - usually focusing on design topics. recently he reflected on some of his favourite words that were disappearing from common use in england. no surprise that many of the words that his misses are in full use here in nz. (the ones in bold red i hear or see most days.) it seems due to it’s isolation nz is serving a bit like a seed bank - but for language. once the uk has fully become usa-east they can send a ship to nz to and retrieve a few inhabitants to bring their language back from the brink.
A list of words that are disappearing from the English language, most of which will be dearly missed. I’ve been noticing language and word choice more as Tallis’ vocabulary grows.
- pram - they’re all strollers now
- hire car - rental car seems the fashion
- children - being replaced by use of the vapid “kids” instead
- serviette - now napkin
- panache - too 70’s by half
- nappy
- infant - once common over all school entraces for younger children, now defunct
- deliver - companies will ’ship’ products, actually ‘delivering’ is too boring
- film - movies instead
- medley - those pesky 70’s again, though I did see a melon medley for sale in M&S last summer
- pushchair - wheelchair
- diary - now journal
- holiday - vacation
- cardigan - sadly dissapearing
- jumper - as above
- shop - I hear all shops quietly turned into stores at some point
- cake - maybe this one’s just me, I don’t hear it enough
- lorry - now truck
- lolly - the decline of this one is a real shame as it’s one of the English language’s finest words
- flat - as in “do you want to go back to my flat”
- moped - now scooter, though apparently a moped has pedals to distinguish it from a scooter
- torch - another great English word
- lamp - both this and torch are replaced by the mundane “flashlight”
- dislike - sadly the fashion is for the extreme ‘hate’ word instead.
- properly - being replaced by the more ponderous ‘correctly’ or lazy ‘right’ instead
- football - now this one’s odd and needs some explanation for its inclusion. Everyone *not* on television or in print calls the game of kicking a ball around ‘football’. It’s close to being a ‘world word’ in that it means the same to the majority of people in the world who have heard it. When written down in magazines and on television it seems to be increasingly called the weird and forced-sounding ’soccer’. This one is particularly odd as a disappearing word as its usage or lack of seems to be transport-dependant.
- programmes - the ones on television at some point became ’shows’
remember when kids walked to school?
before the school bus stopped at every block. and before the kids sat with their parents in their idling suvs at the bus stop?
the local take on how to get to school.
[jboss photo]
santa that is.
today was the santa parade. if you were looking for a cute small town parade that you hadn’t seen since the 50’s then it didn’t disappoint. it will not be confused with the rose bowl parade or spectramagic - but i enjoyed it more.
(everyone lined up ready for santa / the royal marines marching band)
bring out the yorkies
(recent immigrants / not so recent immigrants). scots are the biggest ethnic group in nz.
polar opposites on the commercialization scale
there was a big hubbub over the request of the falun gong church to participate. ultimately there were allowed. i suppressed the irresistible urge to join only be avoiding direct eye contact.
and then comes the romanians. i’m enjoying the parade and then - whoa! - i’m pulled out into the street to dance with the romanians. [ed. the photo is not up to the usual fryphone standards, but with the main staff photographer out in the action the shot was taken by an occasional contributor to nzblog]
the parade was sponsored by the wellington city council and farmers. farmers is an nz department store chain that reminds me of sears or jc penneys from the 60’s - they will have larger stores in cities like wellington and little storefronts in the smaller towns.
fryphone is in the news quite a bit this week.
unfortunately (fortunately?) it has nothing to do we me.
stephen fry - likely one of the most famous and popular members of the british empire has written a piece in his blog about his new iphone, which he has named - the fryphone.
(stephen fry with his fryphone)
maybe some day when i get my own iphone fryphone mr fry will - in celebration of my move to a commonwealth nation - sign mine.
yesterday marked gromit’s 30th day in quarantine - and after a final check by the maf vet he was cleared to go.
one more big milestone. we’re all together again.
2 weeks until final milestone - container arrival.
(let’s go!)
after we arrived home gromit gave the place a thorough inspection and declared that it would do. an hour after arriving he was asleep on the bed.
(surveying the new neighborhood)
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