digitaldust

Finally I’ve gone to Horsell common and found evidence of the Martian invasion. There’s nothing much left except a few pieces of scrap metal and some burnt trees. There’s a lot of regrowth and any pits and craters must have been filled in. Of course no one wants a reminder of those horrific events left lying around. The local residents seem blissfully unaware of the exact location of the landings and happily go about their business on the common. Though some are known to be scared off by strange white apparitions that can sometimes be see bobbing around in the midday sun.

On an entirely different note there is also a Melbourne band called Horsell Common. They have never knowingly been invaded by Martians.

I went to Venice a couple of weeks ago and have just gotten round to writing down a couple of handy tips for the tourist of Venice. All the tips revolve around food and drink. Generally food in Venice is crap. 200 years of being a tourist destination has beaten the Italian love of food out of the Venetians so they’ll happily take a big stack of your money then serve you terrible food.

First… Food. The best restaurant was a tiny little four table place called Anima Bella. Located by a canal on Calle Fiubera. Try the risotto, its one of the best I’ve had. The lady who serves was very friendly, helpful and spoke about a dozen languages.

Secondly… Bars. The best place we found was the Enoteca Mascareta, on Calle S.M. Formosa. I did a quick google for it and unsurprisingly gets good reviews from a whole bunch of people.

Lastly… Gelato. The little gelati bar outside the Hotel Noemi (where we stayed), is excellent. It’s on Calle dei Fabri. However it’s only open till about 9 or 10. So get in early. The tiramisu flavour is wonderful, the rum and cherry gets my mouth watering now just thinking about it.

… is confused geographically. Fitzroy Street is in Saint Kilda, Brunswick Street is in Fitzroy, and nothing as far as I could see was in Brunswick when I hopped off the tram, starved and decaffienated, looking for a nice cafe. I didn’t find it but there is either a St Kilda street in Brunswick or maybe just more links in a long chain of cartographic confusion.

I was helping my brother move this afternoon. Well, move is probably too kind a term, mostly being strong for him and filling plastic bags with rubbish. I had forgotten what Auckland student-type hovels look like after even the rats have moved on to more salubrious surroundings.

We were carrying some stuff up to the car when we started talking to this slightly older guy next door. He must have been in his 50s, probably late 50s. I could tell he was an ex hippy by the tibettan hat he wore, the japanese mon prints on the front door and the jungle of beautiful plants that were threatening the sidewalk.

Anyway he was cleaning and sanding in the lower flat next door (it was a converted bungalow, flat up top, one built underneath), painting too I think. Generally tidying up. We chatted about this a bit. He said he he lived upstairs and that he was doing this so he could get some nice people in. The last ones had just moved out and he was spending a couple of weeks fixing up.

Now I immediately thought that he had just bought the place and was fixing it up. But no, he was even renting upstairs and had been there (with no rent increase) for 10 years. He was cleaning and painting just so that he could get nice neighbours.

A true NZ moment. That’s what makes me want to come home.

There’s a full on tiered amphitheatre for watching arrivals at Auckland airport. None of your hustling for position behind the storm fence, or being held back at sub-machine gun point by black dressed security. No, this is very civillized. It’s a pity its all stalls and no balcony. But there is a big screen that shows what’s going on in customs so you can see your loved one get busted.