The Coolest Capital

Well, of course we have always known that Wellington is the coolest little capital in the world, but now everyone is talking about us Thanks Lonely Planet!

Purveyors of fine wine

Outside one of our large grocery stores.

Window shopping for a place to rest after window shopping

We do serious chocolate in the capital; you can go on chocolate guided tours.

Some of the most stylish shops inhabit our old bank

Modern sculpture meets Deco architecture

Time Travel Soviet Style

I grew up in the Brezhnev era – vicariously of course. My modern comprehensive school, newly built at the end of the 1960’s offered French and Russian as languages. I attempted both, but was sadly linguistically deficient – I still am. But it didn’t stop me having a lifelong passion for Russia.
Last week a packet of stamps arrived on my desk. They were a selection of postage stamps from the 1960’s and 1970’s, the decades when the History Department of my school was taking trips to Russia for the top students – I wasn’t one of the favoured few. So here were the little slips of paper I would have purchased through Intourist in 1973, to send a postcard to my parents, if I’d been on the trip. Here were drawings of a concert hall in Riga, battleships and space travel, Spartakiada and Picasso, the glass of Prague, International Women’s Day, Tashkent and a 100 year celebration of an anonymous theatre. And finally for forty eight kopeks I could celebrate the October Revolution a dozen times on one sheet of stamps.
There is a weird innocence about these sheets of poor quality paper with overworked illustrations. However abhorrent Soviet Communism was, it seems much more simple to understand than the strange Frankenstein politics of the 21st century. In the bad old days, “they” were the enemy, the pariah. Now they represent a cocktail of immense power, be that wrapped up in the oil oligarchs, the rebel Chechens, or the slick Novya Riche, sporting their Prada (or was that Pravda?), the chic Apparatchiks or the terrorists hiding in the former “Stans” of Central Asia. Churchill’s comment in 1939 "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest”, seems as relevant today as 71 years ago.
So tonight, remnants of an all powerful Russian Empire sit on my desk, neat little memory snapshots of an era, so far away, and yet so close to home. Oh, and as for treating them with respect, I will, once I can retrieve them from underneath a snoozing cat.

Wellington - Cool with a capital "C"

An article appeared in today's Dominion Post which I am reproducing in full, about my home town. The author is Stacey Woods

Move over London, Rome and Paris – Wellington is the world's coolest capital city.

Lonely Planet has named our capital the fourth best city in which to travel in the world, behind New York, Tangier and Tel Aviv.

It is the first time a New Zealand city has made it into the annual Best in Travel publication – a collection of the world's best trends, destinations, journeys and experiences.

In the sixth edition, released today, the publication refers to Wellington under the banner of "coolest little capital in the world".

Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive David Perks said sharing the top five with cities such as New York and Tel Aviv was priceless recognition.

"To have Lonely Planet – a global brand respected for frank opinions and having its finger on the pulse – come out and refer to Wellington as the `coolest little capital in the world' and among the top 10 cities you must visit for 2011 is quite simply incredible."

It is perfect timing for the city as businesses prepare for an action-packed calendar in 2011.

About 85,000 international visitors are expected in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup.

Other highlights include the third Visa Wellington On a Plate in August and an extended season of the Montana World of WearableArt show, which will lead into the World Cup kickoff. In November, the city is hosting hundreds of writers for the Society of American Travel Writers conference.

Prime Minister John Key said Wellington was a great place to live, and even put a positive spin on our notorious wind.

"Actually I thoroughly enjoy going around the harbour when it's blustery and windy. It has a kind of New Zealand feel to it.

"For all the hard time Wellington gets about its weather, I think it adds to the dimension of the place that it has quite a good feel to it in that regard."

However, asked if he preferred it to Auckland, he replied: "That's a big stretch."

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, who moved to Wellington from Britain in 1983, said she thought Wellington's strength lay in the combination of "wilderness" and city living.

"You don't have to choose arts or sports, or between culture or wilderness, because it's all there."

Lonely Planet, the world's biggest travel guide company, has sold millions of copies of hundreds of titles since it began in 1972.

Spice Travel

After using the final spoon of my cardamom coffee, and knowing my one supplier of the blend had given up trying to import it, I resorted to good old Kiwi ingenuity. Yesterday I haunted an Indian shop in search of good quality cardamom pods. They were located within seconds; but walking into an Indian spice shop is much easier than walking out. My poor husband had to tolerate my "oohs" and "aahs" as I wandered around the shelves, floating in memory heaven.

There sat Iglee flour to make the S. Indian doughy flying saucers - stuff that turns to wallpaper paste in inexperienced English fingers, Parachute coconut hair oil (guaranteed in Mumbai's atmosphere to transform your hair into polluted, grimy dreadlocks if you didn't wash it out properly), sandalwood talcum powder prompting memories of the crowded ladies’ compartment on the commuter trains, Gullab jaman, sticky gluey divine spheres bobbing in a bowl next to the cash desk, chappati pans and rolling pins, masala chai mix, incense sticks burning (just like my local grocer at Grant Road who also sold yoghurt “curd” in plastic carrier bags).

Squeezing into the crowded interior, I was propelled to Bahrain’s old souq. There at the back of the store stood towers of aluminium cooking pots, some enough to feed up to one hundred people – oh you know, the usual recipe, “Take one camel and marinade until tender….” A curtain covered a door to the store room – I so wanted it to be the Arabic version of Narnia – If I pushed through the fabric would I be transported to the Bab al Bahrain and Baraa’s uncle’s jewellery store next to the fabric souq?

All this just because I wanted to drink spicy coffee. Cheaper than an air ticket I suppose.

The flowers that bloom in the spring tra la!

Taken on our beach walk today.

Simply red on the bed

I love it when she "helps" me to make the bed (which actually means it is done in three stages) Part One, I take off all the sheets and she jumps on the bare mattress. Part Two I put new bottom sheet on the bed and tuck it in - a wriggly lump tries to find her way out. Part Three, she jumps down and snoozes indignantly on the duvet until she feels it appropriate to let me reapply the feathers to the bed.

The Red Capital

Yesterday evening we strolled around the capital and I took a few photos here and there. It wasn't until I got home I realised that I had been drawn to the warmth of the colour red all around me. Appropriate I suppose, as we are celebrating "Labour Day" this weekend.