202 posts tagged “wellington”
Who knew that there would be an Already Ghosts group right here in Wellington?!
Vox was dead again for the last couple of days. Daisy has been very good and has replied to my messages, though it’s a bit annoying that no one else at Six Apart has. It still seems this problem is unique to me, but it can’t be if I can’t compose messages on Vox on any one of three different computers. (I’ll be trying from another office shortly, too, and we are both on the same ISP.)
Complaining about Vox interrupts the flow of these posts a bit, especially when I just wanted to share these Wellington images with you. Christchurch seemed to have better weather when I visited.
For overseas friends who would not have seen it live, here is the link to my TV3 appearance this morning on Sunrise. Props to Helen Baxter, to Ali Ikram and Carly Flynn on the programme itself, to Lars and Frankie at the Wellington studio, to Claudine for my make-up, and to Alison for the contact. Only one quip about the mayoralty; the rest was about Facebook and the dangers of having your photographs uploaded to it.
While I wouldn’t consider myself a “birther” (I am far too left-wing, relatively speaking, for that), there’s a part of me that wishes the American president would show his birth certificate, just to silence a good group of his critics and get them focusing on more important matters. I publicly said so at the time when the matter first came up and yes, it did seem odd, even if his challengers in the courts’ system had fairly ill-prepared cases.
However, I remember how John Major, then PM of the UK, resisted showing his O levels, which he also had sealed, because he felt they weren’t important. Eventually, he released them, and his marks were unremarkable. They made absolutely no difference to his authority and it was a “nothing” story that the British media were good at pushing. Maybe President Obama is taking a lesson from a conservative politician: showing it would be a waste of time.
I imagine in the US, things are so divisive politically that if President Obama were to show his (original, long form) birth certificate, there would still be people saying it was faked. I have read some comical criticisms even of his certification of live birth, pointing out the colour differences between ones they had seen and the one on the President’s campaign site. I guess those people have never used more than one scanner, or more than one digital camera.
The political right, even if its case had merit, kept shooting itself in the foot with some of the less thought-out theories. I admit there is a question that could be easily cleared up, but Obama’s own critics are clouding the issue. While they’re doing that, then the President and his allies can sit back comfortably.
Still, just to get a bit of closure as I potentially enter local politics, here’s a 37-year-old piece of paper (in fact, it is 37 years today that Dad had my birth registered):
Remember last year when I took the mickey out of these in the City Life newspaper?
The question one has to pose is: did they get it right in 2009? Let’s see:
Let’s see how the second one went:
Any bets on the 2010 edition? Will the apostrophe for Winners’ be there? Or is there only one winner, in which case it’s Winner’s? I remain none the wiser.
According to a friend, I wound up with a tiny mention somewhere inside the newspaper on my mayoral candidacy, which is slightly different from the front-page story my rivals got a couple of months ago.
But can I find a copy as a souvenir? Having missed out last Thursday at both my addresses, I went hunting for one yesterday—and I could clear my head a bit as I needed to buy a few things. On Twitter, Graeme gave me a lead: hotels. And I went into my local bookshop as well.
As Press House (Fairfax HQ here) was closed by the time I began my search, I tried places that might have this publication. After checking several hotels—at three of them, people had no idea what I was talking about—I had a zero strike rate.
I decided to visit my friend Devin en route home and asked her if she had one. She never had it delivered.
Most places offered a Capital Times in lieu.
Well, folks, finally I got one in the letterbox today, three days later. Either the paper winds up outside the property or it comes three days later. It was a tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it footnote, which only redoubles my intent to get out there. Let’s hope that when they do another candidate round-up I might get a wee bit of a promotion coverage-wise—but I won’t be holding my breath.
Current transport: BMW Z4. At least it’s more butch than the prissy Z3 (too “Pierce Brosnan”) but one cannot help feeling one is compensating. Long hood, short deck.
These are plastic chopsticks from the Yangtze Restaurant on Willis Street, which were obviously done many years ago: they feature a six-digit telephone number and a non-Linotype version of Helvetica Italic, which I enjoyed.
I ate there Thursday night to celebrate my friend Nick’s 40th birthday, and want to give them one plug: this was the first time that I can remember, when eating at a Chinese restaurant that didn’t make ‘no MSG’ one of its claims, where the chef respected a customer’s request for the additive to be omitted from the meal. (There is a chain, whose name I forget, but it is something like Noodle Wok or Noodle Box, that has MSG-free as one of its claims; it is the exception and not the rule.)
So often, MSG is still put in regardless of the customer’s request, which is dangerous: I have a friend who is so allergic to it that she carries around an adrenalin shot in her handbag. If she has MSG, she risks dying. When a customer says no, respect it.
Just to put this bad stereotype at rest: MSG is not a must in Chinese cooking and I have not known a single Chinese person who uses it in a home-made meal. It is, however, used by second-rate chefs who can’t get the traditional flavours or the wok heating the way it should. And those folks don’t deserve the title of chef.
So a major thanks to the Yangtze for understanding that ‘no MSG’ means just that—hopefully we can begin getting other Chinese joints doing the same. (And the meal was delish, thank you very much.)
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