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Mexican Restaurant in Miramar


A couple of years' back, a Mexican cafe opened in Miramar, Wellington, where I live.   It's called La Boca Loca and is a casual dining place.  It is extremely popular with workers from the Peter Jackson empire - Weta, Post-Production, Workshop, Admin,  studio, etc.  There are a lot of American workers at Weta and they have probably been starved for good Mexican food.  Up until about 5 years' ago there weren't any Mexican places to eat in Wellington.  Now, there are a few.

I believe a guy who worked at Weta convinced a Mexican chef/friend to come over from America and, together, they started La Boca Loca.

La Boca Loca is a hop, skip, and jump away from the Roxy Theatre owned by Oscar winners Tania Roger and Jamie Selkirk.   Lots of folk go to La Boca Loca for a meal before the movies.

Here's a little secret:  I've never tasted Mexican food. How embarrassing. Even when Mexican food weighed down the buffet tables in Las Vegas, I bypassed it.  Old stick-in-the-mud me stayed with the same old tried and true stuff that I was used to.  I am so silly.  I promise I will try out La Boca Loca ..... one day.   Oh, and I'm off to Las Vegas again at the end of the year.  I promise-promise-promise to try Mexican food.

P.S.:  J and I have now done 11 swims for April.  About 25-minute swims all through the month.  We notice in the newspaper that there is a picture of people swimming at Oriental Bay in Wellington, and we're quite miffed over this.  Darn this almost-summer weather, J and I wanted to stand out as The Brave Ones.

Posted by retired and loving it at 9:38 PM No comments: Labels: Jamie Selkirk, La Boca Loca, Mexico, Miramar, Oriental Bay, Tania Roger, Wellington, Weta


Eighth Swim for April at Hataitai Beach


J and I did our usual debating about whether we should go for a swim.

"It's extremely low tide," said J.  None of we Hataitai Beach regulars care for low tide.  We seem to walk forever before the sea even gets up to our waists.

"But it's not raining," I said.

"We've already done 7 swims for April, said J.

"Wouldn't it be neat to do 8?" I said.

J"s eyes lit up.  If there was the slightest hint of a challenge, she would be onto it.  I only hoped J wasn't thinking of  another nice round number like ... 10!

We stood outside the gym and peered up at the sky.  "Let's go and look at the water," said J finally.

That did it, of course.  "Looking at the water" usually means we're going for that swim.  As we left the gym, we banged into 'Galveston'.  He's a guy we've chummed up with at the beach over the last month or so.  He got his nickname because J and I were sitting on the deck trying to work our way through the alphabet with place name songs.  We were stuck on 'G'.  Out of the blue, this guy sunbathing beside us came up with 'Galveston''.

'Galvesten' said he'd go for his swim later in the afternoon.  It's great to meet new people at the beach.  They become real friends after a time, but it is so sad when winter comes and we don't see them again until the following summer.  In some cases we never see them again.

J and I leaned over the deck railing at Hataitai Beach today to look at the water.  It was clear and clean.  And the sea was flat, glass-like.

We had a beautiful swim.  Our eighth for April.

Posted by retired and loving it at 11:52 PM No comments: Labels: Hataitai Beach


ANZAC DAY - New Zealand


Lest we forget. Posted by retired and loving it at 8:35 PM No comments: Labels: ANZAC day, Gallipoli, Willie Apiata

Seven.... I'm in heaven...


Seven swims for April.  Done.  Hataitai Beach, you rock!
Posted by retired and loving it at 12:12 AM No comments: 
Rack Up 6 Swims! - Hataitai Beach

Tuesday 4.45 pm New Zealand time.


This morning J and I notched up our 6th swim for April at Hataitai Beach.  That's two above our monthly-four quota that we set for ourselves for the cold months.  When we get out of the water in the colder months, we both get such a buzz of triumph over a job well done.

J insists that we not put a light t-shirt on top of our bathing suits until, at least, May.  We're not wimps, she insists.  At least, she insists that she isn't a wimp.  I'm not too sure about me.

When J and I swim, especially in the winter when we sort of just lazy breast-stroke swim side-by-side across the bay and back again (and again, and again), we conduct what we call 'committee meetings'.  In other words, we talk.  About all sorts of things.  J has a collection of hilarious stories and happenings that have happened to her.  I try to rival her odd and weird anecdotes, but I just can't compete.  I spend most of the swim in hysterics, chortling so loud at her stories that I can surely be heard across to the footpath.
Posted by retired and loving it at 9:57 PM No comments: 

Kiwi fruit Here's an actual baby kiwi.  They are endangered birds. Posted by retired and loving it at 1:57 AM No comments: Labels: kiwi, Kiwi fruit, Las Vegas


5 swims down for April!

J and I have now completed 5 swims for April at Hataitai Beach, Wellington, New Zealand.  It's obvious that there's to be no more sitting in the sun on the deck outside the changing sheds and chatting for a half an hour or so after our swims.  Brrrr...  It's getting colder (and wetter - the farmers will be doing happy cartwheels).

Hataitai Beach is right next to the Sea Scouts training facility.  Here's a pic I took from across the road.  You can just make out, in the foreground, a batch of kids in their Sea Scouts boat. I went and saw the movie "Olympus has Fallen" today, about an attaack on The White House and the American President.    I don't know how knowledge of this picture had previously escaped me. Over the past month, on America's show "Entertainment Tonight" we've been seeing all about "White House Down" which is to be released soon, but nothing about "Olympus Has Fallen".  I'm telling you, by the end of this movie I was a completely worn out exhausted limp rag.  I'd been up on the screen battling away with Gerard Butler for two whole hours.  It's the best action film I've seen since "Air Force One" which, okay, let's admit it, has practically the same basic plot.

The movie was a bit close to the bone about the Korean baddies, however it was noted that they belonged to a stand-alone baddie organisation and weren't really pledging allegience to either North or South, but to Korea (and the world) as a whole.
Posted by retired and loving it at 8:59 PM No comments: Labels: Gerard Butler, Hataitai Beach, New Zealand, Olympus Has Fallen, Wellington, White House Down. Entertainment Tonight


The terrible, terrible time at the Boston Marathon

Tuesday, New Zealand-time, 12.30 p.m.

Oh, Americans, I am so very sorry for you.  I slipped my hand out of the bedclothes this morning at 6.30 a.m. to turn on the radio and it was just normal morning stuff.  I turned on the t.v at 7 a.m. to find the horrendous state of affairs at the Boston Marathon.  Every other type of scheduled tv programming has been dropped so as to concentrate on the happenings in Boston.

How can there be some people in this world who can be so horrible to each other?

There were 45 kiwis taking part in the Boston Marathon.  I hope they are safe.
Posted by retired and loving it at 5:36 PM No comments: Labels: Boston Marathon


The joys of polystyrene.


A standard lamp gave out on me the other day.  The 'pop'  took out most of my lights and electrical equipment.  Like a good little wanna-be electrician, I went to the electrical box attached to the side of the house, armed with a screwdriver and a stool (I hate being short.  Why wasn't I born tall and ever-so-statuesque?).  I pressed down a couple of switches and the house was back to normal.

Except my standard lamp which now had a sort of burnt-appearance up its whatsit.

I had to buy a new lamp.  Instantly.  Otherwise I couldn't read.  And reading is pretty much up there as one of the main passions of my life...  awfully boring, hmm?

"Does the lamp come ready-assembled?" I asked the guy in Lighting Direct.

We both peered at the tall box.  "Seems like it," he said.

It didn't.  When I got home and opened the box, all I could see was a large sheet of polystyrene, jammed in tight against the outside packaging.  I gave the polystyrene a tug. Uh oh.  I had a fistfull of it.

Another tug.  Another fistfull of the stuff.  I angrily clawed at it, like a demented gorilla. Curse you, standard lamp, and curse you polystyrene manufacturers.   White 'snowflakes' flew around me, clinging to my clothes, and just-vacuumed carpet.   As I tend to vacuum my carpet on rare occasions that are so prized and, yes, gloated over, I was devastasted that I might - no, I would have to vaccuum again.   I'd cleaned up most of the stuff before I thought to take the above photo.

It took almost as long to get the polystyrene out of the box - so wedged in tight was it -  than it did to assemble the  darn lamp.  And the lamp-assembly seemed to take forever.  The instructions were hopeless.

But, finally, job done.  Not very well - the lamp is a bit wobbly and leans a fraction to the side, but I can live with that.  I guess ...

Oh, on another note, J and I have completed four swims for April.  It's our minimum monthly goal for winter.  Yaaaayyy!

Posted by retired and loving it at 2:04 PM No comments: Labels: Lighting Direct, polystyrene


Wahine Disaster (Happy Wahine day, Lorraine)


Yesterday, 10 April, was my birthday (happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me).  Every year I wake up on my birthday, bleary-eyed, turn on my radio and immediately hear the announcers going on about "today is one of the saddest, most tragic days in New Zealand's history".  A bit of a let-down for a birthday girl.

All through the day on radio and television there is talk again of what a tragic day it is.  Listeners ring up Talkback, television has retrospective looks, memories are dug out, newspapers print special pages....  It's all too depressing, really.

It's the anniversary when the New Zealand inter-island passenger ferry, Wahine, sank in Wellington Harbour - 10 April 1968.  With loss of lives.


The terrible thing about the whole episode was that the ship was so close to shore.   Wellingtonians could only watch and not do anything.  It was the worst storm Wellington has ever had, two big storms clashing together over the city.    Hundreds of roofs were blown off, trees blown down, roads blocked.  The ship was so close to berthing and it still couldnt combat the fierce waves, wind, rain, and the rocks of Barrett's reef.  I can remember my father telling me about so-called "Wanganella weather".  In 1947, the inter-island ferry, Wanganella got stuck on Barrett's Reef as it entered Wellington Harbour.  Passengers were rescued but salvagers needed at least 18 fine days - without any sort of bad weather - to get the ship off the rocks.   And they got those fine days, henceforth any good period of weather became known as 'Wanganella Weather'.

I was a junior typist at the time of the Wahine disaster, working in Government Buildings, (the largest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere), at the bottom of Lambton Quay.  From my third floor front window, I could see the devastation all around.  Anything that wasnt tied tightly down was blowing madly down the streets in the gale-force winds.  There is a big wide tree beside Parliament Buildings gates.  I can remember a woman with her chest tight to the tree, arms out-stretched clinging tightly to the tree-trunk, lest she be blown away. Labels: 10 April, Government Buildings, Lambton Quay, Wahine disaster, Wanganella weather, Wellington


Solo swimming at Hataitai Beach

Here's a nice cloud formation above Hataitai Beach. Posted by retired and loving it at 6:10 PM No comments: 


Swimming at Hataitai Beach


Posted by retired and loving it at 3:35 AM No comments: Labels: Cricklewood, Hataitai Beach, New Zealand, Wellington


My Taupo trip - with Mts Ruapehu and Tongariro
 Mt Ruapehu Mt Tongariro
Posted by retired and loving it at 3:17 PM No comments: Labels: Mt Doom, Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro, Taupo, The Desert Road, The Lord of the Rings movie, The Tongariro Crossing
