morning greeting

Daing, he's cheerful!

Wet and windy Welly

The annual New Zealand Tango Festival was held in Wellington a few weeks ago.  I haven't danced in way too long, thought this would be a nice way to segue back into it----take a few workshops, meet like-minded folks, listen to the music, dance til my feet hurt and I limped home.
Yeah, right.  I was a fool to think the tango scene here would be any less snobbish and clique-y than anywhere else---especially for someone who hasn't danced in ages and is a stranger to this town. I was also a fool to think that I would remember how to dance.  Sad to think the tango days are over for now, but I'm not up for teaching and creating a dance scene here in Gizzy---and if I had been, my experience in Wellington stomped it out.  Keeping to the positive---many thanks to Sanjay for his welcoming kindness and dances. To the lady lead from Nelson, thank you for asking me to dance each night.  Very brief thx to Damien and Laurence.  Big shout out to the dentist from some quarry in Aussie---total beginner and all around nice guy who reminded me of the more important stuff.
Must say, I had a friendlier (and of course warmer) welcome at the Bikram yoga studio, where I took 3 classes over the long weekend.
 
There are no photos of tango dancers.  But here are some shots of Wellington.

Windy and wet, those clouds are racing past as I tried to walk along the harbor

Above: views of Welly from the botanical gardens

Below: a walk in the gardens

More interesting in person, this is part of a living sundial---can't remember exactly how it works but it was cool when I was there.  It's part of Carter Observatory, a sweet little planetarium where I learned something about the southern cross and other constellations in this hemisphere.

Sunrise as I walk to early morning hot yoga

But really, Wellington is a nice city---small enough to get around without too much hassle, semi-big city feel---gritty, dirty, not so nice.  My kind of town.  I'll go back for a non-tango weekend in the spring, hopefully can give a more glowing report of the place, plus remember the name of the restaurant where I had that delicious jerk chicken. 

catching up

Okay, okay, it's been almost 2 months, I know---isn't it good to know I have better things to do than post on the blog constantly?

Just in case you forgot, here's what I drove home to this morning

most of you will get to see this sunrise in another 12 hours.  It's a nice one, you can come back here anytime if you miss it from where you live.

the backyard orchard---tangelos to the left, bee boxes farther back

yes, we have trash here too---but it's called rubbish

view as I pull into the driveway

though I'm getting used to seeing them all the time, I still love the rainbows

Next installment....Wellington

(don't get your hopes up for the tango scene)