Feestpaleis/Wellington blog

Time really does fly…
Exactly one year ago today, at 12:20pm, we arrived in Wellington on our one-way flight from the Netherlands. I won’t say “it seems like only yesterday”, but it doesn’t feel like a year has passed. Maybe a very short action packed rollercoaster ride that lasted a year. We celebrated tonight with a pot-luck dinner and our new friends, who have made us feel very welcome and at home this year.

Readers of our blog know we’ve been having heaps of fun, and our closest friends know it hasn’t been non-stop fabulous fun all the time. But overall, we can say it has been a good and very exciting year for us. Some of you have asked us if we’re planning to stay. We always say we’re not sure, which is true, but we’re fairly sure we would like to stay for a little while longer, even though we do miss our dutch friends and our families. Thankfully, we use text and video chat all the time so we can keep in touch.

Last year was about getting settled in, learning our way around Wellington and meeting new friends. Next year will be more of that, but also finding a new Feestpaleis, since our little house on the hill is only temporary, and another round of paperwork to extend our current visa. And more surfing, playing ultimate, tramping, planting, pubquizzes, yoga, tinkering, carving, cooking, mixing drinks, designing graphics, cycling, hunting for treasures in second hand stores, playing cardgames in a bar, working, travelling, making music, and trying out new things that we don’t even know about yet.

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It’s officially Spring since 1 September, and that means it’s windy as most of the time. On my way to work I count the number of wrecked umbrellas sticking out of rubbish bins. I thought everyone knew by now that umbrellas are useless in Wellington…

Anyway, brisk southerlies and rain today, looking out from my 7th floor office I saw rain going in all directions. A brief clear period coincided with me leaving the office, but when I arrived home fresh showers were rolling in:

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Random attempt at photographing tonight’s lunar eclipse with looong exposure but without a tripod, in very strong southerlies:

Wellington by Night, as seen from our hill:

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Aloha all!

Spring is nigh! Sure, the winds will turn tonight and we’ll get a few days of brisk southerlies and some rain, but after last weekend, the Feestpaleis Board of Directors declare winter officially gone. history. see ya next year. Why? Because we had such a great weekend.

Friday
In the afternoon, I joined Willemijn and our friend Shelley on a great little walk in the hills over Days Bay, on the other side of the Wellington Harbour, which we crossed by ferry.

Stunning views of our beloved little city.

Clear blue skies, bright and warm sun, hardly any wind, and native birds: Tui, Pīwakawaka (fantail) and Kererū (native woodpigeon).

Saturday
I took it easy and woke up slooowly with coffee, my laptop and some relaxing music, while Willemijn was extremely busy planting natives, doing grocery shopping, playing ultimate, swimming and enjoying a sauna.

The weather was friendly and we sat outside on our lawn, soaking up some rays, before The Feestpaleis Liquid Chemistry Department (consisting of Willemijn and myself) headed over to our friend Cedric who celebrated his birthday with a cocktail party.

As I was driving that night, I drank only water, but had heaps of fun mixing Cosmopolitans, because they were so enthousiastically received, especially by our lovely friend Kat:

Sunday
Hmmmmmm…. late breakfast in the warm sun, with the best views in the world. What more do you need?

While Willemijn went to play pickup (ultimate games where anyone who shows up can join in), I went surfing. YES YES YES! The south swell was still rolling in, and it had eased down to friendly longboard waves, highly suitable for feeble old people like me. It was fantastic to be out there again after almost two months. I had a few very fine rides and with a huge grin I cruised back home, where I found a note telling me to hurry up to Belgian cafe “Leuven” where a bunch of friends were enjoying mussels, Hoegaarden and Duvel.

After this weekend, we can handle even the strongest southerlies. bring it on!

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Golden Elvis was a present from our close friends in Utrecht who found it for us a few years ago on the local Queensday Vrijmarkt. We set up a special place for him in our kitchen:

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Since February, I have been involved in the Island Bay Coastcare Group, replanting natives on the exposed dunes on the beach of Island bay. Yesterday, we have been awarded a Conservation Award by the regional council!

“… In recognition of a meritorious contribution to conservation – for energizing the community to care for and restore the dune remnants at Island Bay Beach”.

Two of the founders of the Island Bay Coastcare Group, Nick and Ted:

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Crazy Al, one of my heroes…

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We saw David Lynch’s Inland Empire yesterday. Strange, bewildering, scary and exciting. And weird! I’m not going to write a review, there’s plenty of those on the web. But if you like Lynch, make sure you go see it. It’s amazing that you can watch a three hour movie, have no idea what it’s about and still be on the edge of your seat during the entire film. I’m not even sure how I rate Inland Empire, compared to other Lynch films. I really have to see it again.

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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!

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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!

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