Feestpaleis/Wellington blog

Five weeks ago, I returned from a short trip to Japan, where I gave talks at a workshop and a conference. First, I spent a few days in Tokyo. This enormous city has a really good subway system that quickly brought me from one suburb another. The subway map looked a bit daunting at first, but it wasn’t hard to figure out, even though most of it is in Japanese.

Tokyo is an interesting mix between old and new, past and future. One moment you’re staring at a shrine or standing in a tranquil garden with beautiful old trees and the next moment you’ll find yourself surrounded by skyscrapers, luxurious shopping malls or hundreds of brightly lit signs. Although Tokyo has 14 million inhabitants, it is quite pleasant to walk around in, because for a city that big, there aren’t a lot of cars and public transport is excellent.

After 5 days I flew from Tokyo to Miyazaki, a prefecture in the South of Japan, to attend a conference. Flying past Mt. Fuji was very impressive. The conference was held in a luxurious holiday resort with golf courses, the world’s largest indoor “ocean” (even though the actual ocean was just 500m away), sauna and more entertainment. Sounds great, but the whole resort was had a pretty run-down 70s feel. Think “Sporthuis Centrum” if you know what that means.

The conference itself was nice, both academically and socially. A few of us went night-swimming in the sea one time, amidst fluorescent algae! Furthermore we played pachinko and had dinner in a traditional Japanese cafe.

Back in Tokyo, I had one more day to buy heaps of presents and try all the exciting new food I hadn’t tried before. The food is great! I’ve never tasted so many different new things; I still don’t know what all of it was.

Check my photos!

link to this post

The fabulous folks over at Wellingtonista organised The Wellingtonista Quiz League: a series of weekly pub quizzes, to be held in a different pub each week. We kicked off the WQL yesterday at The Southern Cross bar and our team, The Alohas, scored a whopping 61 points, which puts us in fifth place! That means we only have to beat the other four participating teams and we’ll be The Best!

Ok, so we didn’t do that good trivia-wise but we did get a bonus point for our flower leis and we had a really good time. Looking forward to next week!

link to this post

It’s Te wiki o te reo Māori this week - Māori language week. Liz Barry celebrates this fact with a special episode of her excellent NZ Music podcast:

Nau mai, haere mai. July 23-29 is Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori (Maori Language Week) in New Zealand. In this special podcast we celebrate Te Reo Maori by featuring four contemporary artists whose music reflects their Maori ancestory.

Listen to NZ Music with Liz Barry - Te Wiki o te Reo Maori.

link to this post

The Wellington Film Festival is on. We’re not taking leave to watch every film possible, but we’re going to see a couple. I left work early today so I could attend a screening of the fantastically quirky, awkward and funny Eagle vs. Shark by kiwi director Taika Waititi. The film was great and shot right here in Wellington. Taika Waititi and lead actress Loren Horsley were in the theatre to answer questions and mingle with the crowd.

link to this post

NZ driver’s license

Yes, I’ve got it! Scored 100% on the theory questions. That wasn’t too hard, as you can rule out three out of four answers on most questions:

If you miss your exit on a motorway, you should:

1. reverse back to the exit.
2. make a U-turn back to the exit.
3. drive on to the next exit.

or the following question:

You see a pedestrian carrying a white cane crossing the road. Do you:

1. rev the engine to let them know that you are waiting?
2. take extra care and allow them to cross the road in their own time?
3. turn on the vehicle hazard lights and drive on?
4. speed up and pass in front of them?

With my kiwi license, I can finally drive like a kiwi:

• I can stop and drop off passengers at bus stops
• cross the centre line of the road to cut corners - especially blind corners
• park my car on footpaths
• cut corners at intersections, barely avoiding other cars
• don’t need to indicate at intersections or roundabouts
• don’t need to use headlights when it’s dark
• don’t need to watch or stop for cyclists or pedestrians
• am allowed to drink 4 glasses of alcohol at the beginning of the night, and 1 drink every hour and still drive home!

link to this post

There are two possible answers to the sheep-related road code question. In theory, answer 2 (slow down or pull over to the side of the road) is the right answer, although in practice I suspect most people follow 1 (sound the horn on your vehicle to move them).

The road code is a strange thing. Before we read it, we distilled the road rules from the way motorists behave in reality, so our idea of the road code was very different from the official version. We thought, for example, that a car exiting a driveway had right of way over pedestrians on the foot path, since nobody ever lets pedestrians pass before blocking the footpath with their SUVs. Turns out that according to the road code, pedestrians really do have right of way in this situation.

Anyway, today’s post is about one aspect of kiwi slang:

Surfie - a person who likes surfing
Truckie - a truck driver
Boatie - a person who likes boating

Determining the meaning of the term “Sparkie” is left as an excercise for the reader.

link to this post

Sunday 24 June, 12.05pm, cold southerlies, but clear blue skies:

Monday 25 June, 10.00am, warm northelies (15/16 degrees) but rain (and rainbows!):

link to this post

When a flock of sheep are coming towards you on a country road, you should:

1. sound the horn on your vehicle to move them.
2. slow down or pull over to the side of the road.
3. turn on your vehicle hazard lights and drive on.
4. turn on your vehicle headlights and then drive on.

What do you think is the right answer?

(New Zealand road code)

link to this post