CBD by Miranda Spary
Bad luck, here I am again - they’ve tried getting rid of me, but I think some of the strange people who like my column have been bothering the LWB to let me have another turn. I’ve had to promise to be VERY polite.
I did get some very unpolite phone calls from my darling husband. He has gone to the Hong Kong Sevens and decided to have a night at the casino in Macau. Since Covid, Macau has been pretty well deserted. He asked his lovely wife to book him into the hotel he always used to stay in. Lovely wife did exactly as he asked but when he arrived, they had no knowledge of the booking. He showed them the email, and discovered I’d accidentally booked him into the Hotel Lisboa in Lisbon, Portugal, not the Hotel Lisboa in Macau. He still hasn’t seen the funny side of it.
There’s nothing funny about all the road works and I simply can’t see why we need all the orange cones AND the bored looking orange vested people staring at their phones. Given that there are robots that can take orders and deliver things, we could surely have some to trundle along the middle of the road stretching out how ever many metres of wire with bright coloured flags on for the hour or so that it should be needed. When I watch how long it takes the humans to set up all the cones and explain to angry thickos like me that it is all about safety, I feel like doing something dangerous. It would be so much safer and cheaper for everyone if they just put speed cameras up. I do wish Downer would get itself rebranded - the current name is uncomfortably apt.
Rose and Tom Barnett cycled the whole length of NZ on the Te Araroa Trail to raise money for the very nasty leukaemia that stole their nearly 31 year old son. Two years later, they’ve made a short video of their trip and are showing it at Dorothy Browns as a fundraiser on Easter Monday. It’s nearly sold out already, so hurry along to get your tickets.They’ve had masses of goodies donated for their silent auction, and there’s a specially poignant one - a magnum of Sam Neill’s wine signed by him. If you haven’t already read his excellent memoir “Did I Ever Tell You This?”, you may not know that he was recently diagnosed with stage 3 blood cancer himself. Given how unfunny cancer is, he’s done a fine and funny job of writing about his life.
A fun group spent the afternoon at the Barnetts making candles for the fundraiser. I must confess that I had absolutely nothing to do with the candlemaking - I am so hamfisted that the thought of pouring hot wax into a glass and trying to keep the wick straight was too terrifying for me. Instead, I was allowed to put jam on scones to feed the friends who were doing the difficult bits. It was tricky focusing on my jam application when the view down the Shotover River was so spectacular. It’s hard to believe we used to have the rubbish dump down that end of Tucker Beach Road - what WERE we thinking?
These recent chilly mornings have certainly perked up the autumn colours - friends from the North Island were astonished to see how quickly the trees turn bonfire bright after a frost. They were even more astonished that the bus from Arrowtown to Queenstown costs only $2. In their North Island life, they never use buses, but were very impressed with the service here. I bought my husband a bus pass for his 70th birthday and he hasn’t used it once. His bus pass is nearly 4 years old and still in perfect condition. Any takers?
