When the moon hits your eye

Rich and I went on a very romantic stroll around the waterfront on Saturday night, and it left me feeling much amore for Wellington. Whoever came up with the 'You can't beat Wellington (on a good day)' slogan was so right. Sounds like a back-handed compliment, but we Wellingtonians are a hardy bunch and the bitter makes the sweet oh-so-much-sweeter. We are a city of contrasts, a city of surprise and change.

The song 'Four Seasons in One Day' seems to capture our fair city's essence, or perhaps the Shakespeare quote about Cleopatra's wonderful and 'infinite variety'. The predictable is not for us. Auckland can take its constantly good weather. How dull! How complacent you would become! If not the weather, what you find to complain about together?

So, with the gentle reverberating of the ACDC concert dancing over the harbour, and the gentle chaffing of my new jandals between my toes, we walked along enjoying the warm stillness of the night.

It was the fifth day of sun in a row. Glorious!

And today it's raining. Ah. What a much needed reprieve from the passionate throes of the summery week. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Take-Away Heaven

Hataitai now has a Japanese take-out shop. My world is complete. Teriyaki chicken bento box is $12.90. I might try the ginger chicken udon next.

I love a meal with lots of bits and pieces and even the little salads taste yummy. And they have free green tea for you to drink while you wait.

I love that my four year old neice admits when she's feeling shy. I wish I could still do that - but as a grown-up you have to fake it.

I was at a wedding yesterday where I didn't know many people well, and I'm not good at chit-chat at the best of times. I could understand my neice's sentiment. Early on she hid behind a couch in the house and and her nana found her there quietly crying to herself because nobody would play with her and she was feeling shy around the dozens of people.

Aww.

Aunty Kate looked after her for a bit after that, my little kindred spirit. She sat on my knee during the ceremony.

I'm stuck between generations in that family. My step-mother's kids are all late thirties early forties, with growing up kids. And the next generation are early 20s and below. I sat with the 20-somethings at dinner, and a few other stragglers joined us. Luckily I was sat next to a guy who reminds me of Richard and he was easy to talk to.

I have another wedding coming up where I suspect I'll end up feeling 'shy' as well. Hope there's a couch for me to hide behind.

Three things I did Last Year (of no particular importance)

1. Learnt to play the Ukulele

This is much, much easier than playing the guitar. And more portable. For the amateur musician (one who likes singing along more than actually caring about how the instrument sounds) I'd thoroughly recommend it. It's also really cheap and easy to self-learn. Not to mention how hip it is.

2. Used up a Loyalty Card

Traditionally I lose or don't use my loyalty cards. This year I actually bought ten books at Unity, so got a free one! I have entered a book buying phase - as an English teacher, I think it's appropriate. I also ordered my first books off Amazon last week.

3. Started Buying Fish

I have never really bought fresh fish from the supermarket. I started doing it every now and then this year. It's good. I like to cook it the way my dad did (when he had to take over cooking duties in my late teen years) - put a piece in tin foil, with tomatoe and onion slices and butter, pop in oven for 15 minutes or so.

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I like that I will have eaten dinner away from home 4 of the last 7 nights.

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Self Assurance

I'm trying to define that almost intangible quality that separates people I want to be friends with from people who annoy me.

I think self-assurance is attractive in friends. In most people, really. Especially if you can achieve it without having ego issues.

Maybe I'm straying into what I like in a colleague there - it peeves me when other teachers let their ego get in the way of kids' learning. Some teachers get really offended when a kid in their class seeks advice from a different teacher, or if someone else uses their resource without giving them credit. There aren't many reasons to really protest situations like those, other than 'it hurt my ego' and that's a selfish attitude for a teacher to have.

My attitude here is contenscious and it's actually senior staff at our school who I most often see these traits in.... Maybe one day I'll be more like that - I may still be naive about some things. Maybe it's a carry-over from the days of the bell-curve and Sixth Form Certificate, when you were actually competing with your colleagues for a finite set of grades.

I think in the NCEA era that this attitude is outdated.

Anyhow, it comes into friendship too. I like people who can handle a debate without taking it personally. For example, they're not going to take it as a personal attack if I say that they're right-wing scum for liking Act. It can also come into sports (and most of my friends play or have played sports... actually maybe in NZ that's not an unusual thing).

I think even playing a team sport takes a certain level of self-assurance, but you don't want to let any given performance define who you are or how you think people see you. Maybe self-assured people can have a crap game, and admit that without expecting sympathy.

I think what I'm thinking of here is a more complex set of traits and I've over-simplified it. I guess pride is a factor in there - what is the relationship between pride and self-assurance?

Actually, given my own definition I might not even want to be friends with myself. My self assurance disappears in sitations like dancing, or if I'm playing in a higher basketball grade.

Maybe I should limit that to self-assurance in at least some aspects of life, particularly intellectual areas. Most of my friends are smart in that way, and they know it. I've had friends who don't want to come to pub quizzes because they're self-conscious about not knowing enough, but the vast majority of my friends love such things.

And maybe those who come anyhow are self-assured enough to know that trivia-knowledge isn't really that important, and so there's no shame in being bad at it. But then, maybe competitive spirit comes into it too - some people just don't get a buzz out of that environment, but will happily have animated chats about random facts over coffee.

That's rather a ramble.

The wind never stops.

I'm excited about the Japanese takeaway shop that's opened down in the village. Most H'town eateries are closed this time of year (including both the cafes) - it's a ghost town.

Read another book - this one won a Pullitzer Prize, but I didn't love it. I found the end kinda unsatisfying, though the middle was good. That's two and a bit books so far these holidays - not bad. I have a few more to go.

I'm ok with people calling this decade 'twenty-ten'.

I went for a walk up Mt Vic yesterday and my lack of fitness was evident.