A low morning

I tuned into 1035am this morning for some pre-breakfast junk food... and now I think I need some fillings.

They were broadcasting live from Coastlands in celebration of the malls fortieth birthday. Our national talk back station broadcasting from a fucking mall! Now maybe the absolute whorish-ness of this is down to individual taste. But c'mon, really? The live, chirpy hustle of consumerism in the background? Announcements of specials and sales every two minutes? This is the most poorly veiled attempt at mobilising an audience to buy I have witnessed. Coastlands is in incredibly poor shape. It is no doubt - visible even from its appearance - struggling financially. Could this have any relation to the number of ZB interviews with shop owners, security guards... the guy who handles Coastlands rent. "This is an important place, see? It's been here for forty years! Come buy!".

Sure Coastlands was the first indoor pig-fest in the Wellington area, but is this really where our priorities lie? Will there be a celebration when that consumer paradise Westfield Queensgate turns ten? And what exactly are we celebrating?

I understand that malls allow us to shop at seventy-five degrees for 363 days of the year, maybe this is something cool in Auckland. But not Wellington. Apart from the small town-centres, the entire Wellington region only has three 'malls': Porirua, Queensgate, and Coastlands. The Wellington CBD has none. We're not a mall city. Maybe we're a city of over-priced second hand clothes, under-performing sports teams, soy flat-whites, cultural capital, and as much short-term self-interest as any other city in the world, but a four-walled consumer hell-hole city we are not.

It's a deflating way to start the day.

Please leave the celebration of consumer culture in Devonport and Sylvia Park.

Is it just me ...

... or are S.U.V.s on the rise around town?

I swear I see them every time I turn around a corner, and not the modest kiwi off-road jap-import 80's models either. I'm talking big fuck-off European luxurymobiles. Is Wellington full of that many over-compensators?

Ridiculously Goodlooking.

You must have seen them. If not, you can at Wellington Zoo: Pygmy Marmosets!



Oh
my
GOD!

This Winter...

It's the dead of winter, and already I can feel the spring on it's way.

The city is sustaining remarkably well under it's sodden blanket. The wind shakes the hills dry after their morning shower, and with every fresh burst of chill the sun strives to even greater lengths to compensate for the cold.

As cliche as the topic is, weather and seasons are the forces which have the most understated impact on our lives. Our daily moods are swung between rain and shine, and - in the context of enduring the Canadian winter over Christmas - I am finding these rain soaked days somewhat shiney.

Despite the bad mood of mother nature, the sight of Karori is always lush and green in the morning. I am still woken by Tuis during the day and accompanied by Morporks during the night hours. The CBD is active, the familiar faces on the 6:10 bus happy and relatable, and the buildings of Lampton Quay smile a wry 'yeah, we think it's fucking cold too'. This strange little town has never so much character as it does while enduring this unpopular season.

With all the many moods of Wellington, it's good to see my home so content this winter.