Part I from our guest writer, Rhiannon Davies. Her name is Jones. Persephone Jones. Perry to her mates. She’s the Queen of the Bar. It might be that a bar-is-a-bar-is-a-bar, and the building is just made of paint and wood and furniture. But it’s the PEOPLE that make the bar the place to be, and […]
Entries Tagged as 'shortfic'
How’s Rosie? Ask Our Guest Writer This Week!
August 29th, 2011 1 Comment
Wazzer’s leaving work in the evening when a familiar Justin Bieber haircut goes by. “Rosie! Hey, Rosie!” Rosie jumps as Wazzer runs out into Cuba Street and grabs her arm. “Hey, how’s it going? Did they take you on over there at Perry’s? They called us…” “Oh! They did, yes! Perry’s just amazing. Thank you […]
Tags: guest writer · jobs · nightlife · wazzer
Self-Made Beauties
August 26th, 2011 2 Comments
Ulrika is quivering with excitement as she waits to go on stage. It’s such a cliche that a dance class changes a single woman’s life, but it happened to her. Her great and good friend Angela from Auckland suggested over Skype that she take a burlesque class, to shake her out of moping over the […]
Tags: social mores · style · ulrika
Snow Business
August 16th, 2011 1 Comment
The lovely weather break in August is cancelled. School is cancelled. Every discussion that is not about the phenomenon of snow in Wellington is cancelled! Fingers fly over phones throughout the region, sending updates to friends and family. Helena Hutt is snowbound on her scenic Hutt Valley hill. She bundled her children up and sent […]
Largeman’s Run
August 9th, 2011 2 Comments
If a broken-in cricket glove could speak, it would sound like Largeman, Winona’s old-school-Kiwi uber-boss at the Department of Stodge. He has a baritone that evokes the plummy newsreel voiceovers of yore, slightly muffled, rumbling with deep, slightly indistinct amusement. He understands why she’s moving on. She’ll do grandly in Marianne Swatch’s department. You go […]
Tags: government · jobs · old city · winona
Their Home Away From Home
July 26th, 2011 1 Comment
At Wazzer’s pub on Cuba Street, Nigel, the owner/operator, is over the moon. Absolutely delirious. “We’re booked! One of the rugby teams booked for the Rugby World Cup! Yessss!†Cutlery clatters down, staff spill out of the kitchen. This is what every pub in New Zealand has hoped for – and it’s happening to them! […]
It’s A Cat’s Life
July 19th, 2011 Comments Off on It’s A Cat’s Life
Wazzer slinks back to her place at nine on Sunday morning. If her flatmate/landlady Willow hasn’t sealed the deal with her new boyfriend by now, well, that’s her problem. She did her part as the tactfully absent flatmate. Loping up to the door, several of the neighbors’ cats observe her passage, calmly. And inside the […]
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The Golden Ticket
July 14th, 2011 1 Comment
While Wazzer has her misadventures, the party continues. Among the IT geeks and policy wonks, two ambitious women talk to each other. The pretty retro one says to the sleek and heedless tomboy, “…so I applied for the writer job at that internet discount coupon place – the cool one!†“Oh! I applied for that, […]
Tags: jobs
Fancy Meeting You Here
July 6th, 2011 2 Comments
Wazzer is holding up the dark corner of a friend’s bar, sculling from a pint glass. Of water. “I gotta drive tonight, and I wasn’t planning to,” she tells the friend, who is keeping the water coming. She’s going to be holding the bar up for another hour or so, at least, giving her plenty […]
The Promised Land
June 21st, 2011 1 Comment
At Wazzer’s work on Monday morning, the waitrons are bundling cutlery and paper napkins together, using water so that the paper napkins stay wrapped. They’re supposed to use just a dab of water, but these bundles will be mummified like papier-mache, they are all so distracted by one raconteur. “So she’s moving to Australia next […]