Hello

Here I am blogging all the way from the Flames Hotel in Whangarei. I’m very pleased to say they have done a bit of renovation since I was last here and the rooms are actually quite nice. The pool looks very inviting – shame it’s far too cold to use it.

This is my second time to stay here, I was up here about two years ago and I really wish I’d stayed somewhere else, don’t get me wrong the hotel is lovely, the food is great and the service is the best I’ve ever experienced anywhere. The problem is – it’s a bit isolated from everything and there’s nothing to do around here.

I’ve looked through the Guest Directory to find things they recommend to do and there is a tiny mention of a 30 minute walk around the base of some hill through the mangroves. Apparently there is even “small snapping creatures” that can be seen amongst the mangroves! Well I’m sorry but that just doesn’t really get me very excited at all – plus by the time I get back here after work it’s almost dark and NO… walking through the mangroves in the dark while trying to avoid stepping on some small snapping creature all on my own terrifies me.

While looking for something in the directory to do I came across a page dedicated to warning you not to cook toast. Not sure who would actually bring a toaster with them to a hotel, but if you do and this upsets the flash new heat protection system they have installed, causing the fire alarm to go off, you will be fined $1,000 to cover the cost of the fire brigade call out fee. Now that’s a very expensive piece of toast!

I had to pick something up from Mt Eden today so while I was there I went for a wee trip down memory lane. The first school I ever went to is in Mt Eden – Maungawhau School.  The school is still there but none of the original buildings are.

I went for a walk through the school hoping to have some little flashbacks of my time there, but mostly I got a big blank feeling something like what I imagine amnesia must feel like.

The swimming pool is still there and that looks the same, the field where we used to have a Xmas parade hasn’t changed much either and then I found the old tennis courts – that did it!  I got a really weird feeling of deja vu there and these very distant memories surfaced of marching in formation in the hot sun. I wonder if the marching was preparing us for the Xmas parade, or was it preparing us to grow up to be soldiers?  Do kids these days still learn to march in formation like that?  If they do I guess they get to wear sun hats while they are doing it.

On the way back to the car I walked past an area that used to be where my first year class was and I remembered ridiculous 2:00 naps on horrible plastic mats which took place after learning to count using coloured blocks of different lengths, I think they were called quisenaires or something like that!   (Edit…I just googled them and found out they still exist and are actually called “Cuisenaire Rods” named after the guy who invented them in 1952.  Click the name to see them in Wikipedia.)

On the way home I drove past a street where a friend lived, which reminded me of playing at his house after school, but it was all dark inside and his Mum was very glamorous, she was dressed up like the dancers on the “Happen In” TV show – mini skirt, long boots & “Bob” haircut. And she was smoking, plus I’m sure she had a big glass of gin or something like that in her other hand.  Thinking about it now… she was probably drunk (ladies in those days did a lot of early afternoon drinking) and not at all happy that her son had dragged some strange kid home from school without permission – she wasn’t very friendly and sent me straight home.  I’m sure that was the day I told him and some girl we were walking home with that I was from Wales!!!  When they asked me what it was like I said it was great coz it was next to the sea and you could see huge whales swimming right by the beach every day. They were so impressed they told everyone at school the next day, thank goodness my parents bought a house on the north shore after that & I didn’t have to keep up that charade for too long – I probably told them we were moving back to Wales LOL.

Wow – that was a very cool trip down memory lane.

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!

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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?

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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?

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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.

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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?