Tunnel

I was walking home at 2am on Christmas night through the Mt Vic Tunnel. (About four Rosebuds and four Mojitos and a fruit cocktail and a wine.... )

It was so quiet. Probably the whole time I walked through only half a dozen vehicles came (and that's a 6 minute walk or so). I liked it. Oddly peaceful. And I had on my comfy sneakers and my summer dress that swishes as I walk. What is usually the nosiest place in town was the quietest.

I could actually hear noises in there I'd never heard before. Trickling water and a humming noise. I saw a plastic bag floating very American Beauty-esquely down the empty road below.

Three fire engines sped through, no sirens but flashing lights. I wondered where they were going. I suppose it was to the gymnasium fire at Rongotai (as I heard on the radio the next morning).

Today I was walking through again, just after lunch and it was was noisy. I tried singing, really loudly (The Lion Sleeps Tonight, for some reason), and I could barely even hear myself. Kinda liberating singing at the top of your lungs in public without anyone hearing a note of it.

Quite a contrast though. Christmas day is the eeriest time in Wellington city.

It's like the whole populace have had a mass exodus back to their turangawaewae (or at least to the Hutt). Back to their secret home towns that their new urban identities have tried to hide away from public view.... where their labels mean nothing......

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Today is one of those days where I like my friends. Not that I don't always like them, I just had a really nice time with two separate bunches of people. All fairly spontaneously planned. Nice.

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And I won Trivial Pursuits (with Fishy). The point is that we beat Sam. It is worth noting any time we do that. My knowledge of mid-90s All Blacks trivia was surprising, given I couldn't name more than three players in the team nowadays.

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My friends are smart. That's the way I like them.

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Nice to see Charlotte using presents I gave her as a babe. Hungry Caterpillar DVD (and 'Catch the Moon' - cute). I liked that a lot because Roger McGough was the narrator, I think.

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And a music box thingie that I thought would break after a day or so is still going strong. Woohoo!

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I tried to explain to her that I'd bought them for her last year, but her 2 year old mind did not comprehend that and she looked at me like I was a crazy person and she snatched them back off me, saying 'Charlotte's!' emphatically.