The newest addition to Wilhelmina Wellington’s family-only Boxing Day lunch is sitting there, stunned. For Chelsea, yesterday, the mum who raised her teased her for wearing shoes at the Christmas barbecue. Today, the woman who gave birth to her, Karin Kapiti, is sitting beside her at an Edwardian rimu dining table, saying, “The entire arts […]
Entries Tagged as 'holidays'
Meeting The Wellingtons
December 28th, 2011 1 Comment
Tags: chelsea · helena · holidays · karin · Wellington · wilhelmina · will · winona
Mutton Dressed As Ram
December 14th, 2011 1 Comment
The mid-range pub where Wazzer wrangles the day staff is having a boom this recession Christmastide. Every office team is deciding to go for the $10 pub lunches to celebrate the season, and then, as the owner Nigel had dearly hoped, splashing out on drinks galore. Activist waitron Chelsea is visibly exhausted as she shunts […]
Get Outta Town
December 20th, 2010 Comments Off on Get Outta Town
For fifty weeks of the year, you can scarcely tear a Wellingtonian away from the steep bosom of their beloved city. Then there’s the last two weeks of the year. In a curious inversion, Wellingtonians are united by the holiday wish to spend Christmas and New Year’s anywhere that isn’t Wellington. If they can’t escape […]
Tags: holidays · social mores · weather
Final Christmas Drinks
December 17th, 2010 1 Comment
Friday at Wazzer’s bar, and it’s getting weird before Christmas. People dash in and out, double- and triple-booked for the evening. After-work drinks at work get further drinks poured on top of them. It can be fraught. Winona and Willow had been a peaceful oasis at one end of the bar, comparing office party notes. […]
Ready to Rumble?
December 13th, 2010 1 Comment
Sometimes, when you live in the Hutt, you have to be hard as. No nonsense. Rough as guts. This is one of those times. The black SUV circles the parking lot, then circles again, the driver spewing profanities. Finally, it wedges into a space and disgorges its passengers. One, two, three tough-looking blokes, in stubbies […]
Tags: food · helena · holidays · hutt valley
The Do
December 6th, 2010 Comments Off on The Do
This week and next, spare a thought for all the service staff and restaurants hosting Wellington’s annual “dos”. They’re playing to a tough crowd. As budget belts stay tightened around town, staff have often contributed out of their own pockets to these events. Wellington is the wrong size for falsehoods, and it’s too easy to […]