I got a call this morning from “Fluffy” to tell me Devonport Chocolates had opened up in the Queen’s Arcade. So guess where we went at lunch time for a quick look!
It was fabulous. It’s a very cool shop with very old style chocolate boxes on display just like what you would find in a museum. And they have cherry liquor chocolates too. So I’ll be back.
On my way to see a play tonight near the Town Hall I caught a very quick glimpse of an amazing exhibition displaying incredible images of both nature and modern technology. Not sure what the exhibition was all about, but I will definitely be going back hopefully if it’s still on when I return from Rotorua. Yup I’ll be down in Rotorua for work this week.
Look what I spotted on my way out to get an ice cream at lunch time today. Seeing the huge Santa always reminds me of being a kid and Dad taking a big detour on the way home form wherever to drive us past the Farmers department store to see Santa wiggling his finger and winking… great memories!
I’m very excited about Xmas now.
A good friend of mine tried to get me to read this book ages ago saying I’d love it. Another friend of mine also said the same thing, so begrudgingly I took the book and thought one day I’d give it a go. I’m not a fan of war stories and this certainly looked like that’s what it would be about, BUT as they say… “you should never judge a book by its cover”… and that couldn’t be more true in the case of this fantastic story.
I loved it. It’s incredibly readable and as it’s set in Auckland it has the bonus attraction of making me want to drive to where the book is set. It was a wonderful insight into life shortly after the war and it sure made me feel incredibly grateful to be enjoying life as we know it today. I rate all the books I read and this one gets the highest rating of 5 stars!
Originally uploaded by beejayge
I thought this was kinda cool; it’s a clock tower in front of a sky tower. Also… I didn’t notice this at the time, but once I downloaded the pic to my computer and got a closer look, I could see that there are people in orange overalls walking around the sky tower. This is known as the SkyWalk. If you click on the image you will go to my Flickr, where you can view the image in larger sizes and see what I’m talking about.
This clock tower is in the middle of a courtyard area at the back of one of Auckland’s largest office towers. Competition question number eleven: What is the name of the office tower?
Originally uploaded by beejayge
On the corner of Victoria and Elliott Street used to be a grand old hotel. I attended a conference there in 1986 and even enjoyed a few drinks in one of the hotel’s bars. I don’t know when it was pulled down to make way for … a car park! A big old ugly car park!
Every time I walk past here on my way to the chocolate shop I think how wasteful & sad this prime piece of land is.
Competition question number ten: What is the name of the hotel that used to be here?
Originally uploaded by beejayge
It was far too wet and awful to go for a walk today, so this pic is one I took on the 9th of April.
Competition question number nine: What is the old official name of the building this is the roof of, what is this building currently known as and have I ever worked here? This question is worth 3 points.
Originally uploaded by beejayge
Very cold and windy today. I think spring is over and it’s winter again.
I was going to climb the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Friday but the weather was too unpredictable and I was worried the whole experience would be a waste of money if I couldn’t see anything because my glasses blew away in the wind. Or if they got big rain spots on the lenses making it too hard to see anything it would be worse.
Hopefully the weather will improve soon and I’ll be able to go. I have to go before the end of October or my ticket will expire, so the weather better hurry up and improve!
Today’s competition question: This is the rear entrance to a very well known building in Auckland City. What building is it?
Originally uploaded by beejayge
Today is the first day of spring and almost like it was planned, the weather couldn’t have been any better than it was. It was much lighter in the morning when I got up and at lunch time the sun was shining and it was warm enough to walk around in town without a jacket.
When I got home it was still very light and warm so to celebrate the start of spring I went for my old bush walk. I’d been missing it. Haven’t gone for a walk through the bush since it got too dark at the beginning of winter.
The walk started out lovely but quickly became a muddy mess. I had walked too far to actually turn round and go back, so I kept on going, but it kept getting worse and at one stage I had to do a Tarzan impersonation and swing across a particularly wet & muddy bit, by hanging on to some vine thing.
There were enormous bags of gravel at several points along the track, waiting to be spread along the path making it walkable again, which was nice to see, but I’m wondering how the bags got there, honestly they were huge and would weigh a tonne. Two bags next to each other were about as big as a car. At one point I had to climb over the bags coz I couldn’t walk round them. The only possible explanation would be having them airlifted in, but surely the cost would be huge. Or maybe that’s why the path was so musshy… 50 big strong men must have carried them in one by one! Yes they were that big, it would take at least 50 men to just lift one bag. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll try that walk again for a couple of months.
If you have been following my blog for a while you will remember the reason I started walking seriously and got brave enough to walk through the bush at the start of this year was because I entered a competition at work called the biggest loser. Which brings me to today’s competition question: How much weight did I lose in the biggest loser competition and did I win?
Originally uploaded by beejayge
These churches look like they were built right next to each other. But they’re not! The photo is taken from quite far away, but I’m thinking the street they are on should have been named Church Street coz there’s at least three of them in very close proximity.
Competition question number six: Where was I standing when I took this photo?
New Horizons 