Monday the 21st of January is just coming to an end in sunny and extremely hot Wellington. This day has been a lazy day for most Wellingtonians as it is the city's chosen anniversary day and thus a regional holiday. However the temperature sored to the low 30deg C's so not much actually happened in the city itself, or at least it looked that way to me.
Coincidentally the 21st of January is known as a depressing day in the UK, something to do with the holiday being over and the longest period between it and the next one, plus cold weather and rain I expect. I am not sure if my 33 year old body knew this was coming, and in fact last year I was also in New Zealand on the 21st Jan, however by mid morning today I did kind of feel a little mellow in mood. So wanting to tackle this head on I decided that a trip to Tawa and its outlet mall was on the cards!
The minor problem was when I arrived and spent a few mins window shopping, I remembered that spending on items I do not really need is best left until I get a job...still Caroline has money in the bank and was able to exercise her credit card a little. So returning to Wellington and having a conversation along the lines of 'What is this all about?', 'Did I do the right thing?', and 'I feel like I am living in a care home*' (this is a long story I may go into later), I decided that a cinema visit would be beneficial.
Wellington has a number of cinemas, and you may remember be talking about the experience I had in the Reading Cineplex on Courtney Place. Well this time I decided that a 2nd visit to the Paramount cinema, also on Courtney, was overdue and hopefully a film called 'Darjeeling Limited' would still be showing. Sure enough, after parking a few yards away on Allen Street, we strolled into the cinema at 3pm to discover a 3:15 showing of the Darjeeling Limited was up. Now this cinema has a delightful atmosphere which includes some of the most comfy seats, or more correctly sofas, you will find anywhere, and the cakes 'n coffee on proper plates etc - combine this with air conditioning and about 6 people watching the same film and you have bliss in my book!
The film itself was a delightful cinematic piece, mostly filmed in the natural set of India, embracing the comedy and tragedy genre all in one. The plot had some enchanting aspects and was pivoted around the relationship between three brothers after the death of their father. Each of the brothers took on a stereotypical role, the organiser, the stud and the 'neither one or other', with all scoring points in the 'feeling for them' and 'how must they feel' areas. But this blog is not meant to be a film review thing, so I will finish by simply saying see it if you can, oh and book a seat at a local Indian restaurant for afterwards.
As mentioned above I was treated to a curry after the film, and followed this with drinks in a bar on Courtney place called 'The Establishment' - where a curious uniform of combat style dress seemed to be the thing to ware for the evening, unfortunately my combats were on my 'most unlikely to need' list and therefore will not be shipped out here for several months. Still watching the clientele dancing to some of the most, erm, dodgy music being played in Wellington that evening (Spice girls, Robbie Williams?) was possible without being conscripted.
After that Caroline and I wandered back to the apartment, stopping for a chat on a well placed bench along Oriental Parade. You could say this was a chance to discuss the future of each of us in this wonderful country of New Zealand, or you could say it was a chance to catch a breath before the bloody steep hills leading up to the apartment - having been there I would say it was more of the later!
I have not mentioned it before, but a taxi driver has confirmed a story our neighbours gave us just before Christmas about the area where this apartment is built. You may have noticed some scaffolding out side my window in one of the films, this was erected to mark the location of a building which once stood next to here and was actually a, if not the, brothel of Wellington!
Apparently all of the taxi drivers know this location because of the brothel and the business it generated! There was I thinking this was an upmarket location, but you can never tell I guess. Still the actual building, and clients/staff, have long since gone - being replaced later this year by multi-million dollar apartments - but its history does add a salubrious air to the place in some way to and I am glad to be living in such a quirky place. A quick check of the Internet does not reveal much about the brothel, but it does show that in 2005 a government bill was passed by one vote that has since made brothels and prostitution legal in New Zealand, this explains the bordello I saw advertising for ladies down on Vivian Street! Not sure if this counts a essential employment under the immigration scheme though...
Well it is getting late here and I am due to rework my CV tomorrow for a service desk role that one of the agencies has for me. I have also been contacted by the publishing director for Penguin books (NZ), so I be ringing him tomorrow about my bench book. Hopefully by the end of the week I will also know if I have an interview with any of the 3 jobs the agencies have on the go for me at the moment - and there are a couple of government IT jobs coming up now that I suitable for. So Christmas and its employment lull are well and truly over now...no rest for the wicked I guess ;)