Well worth getting out of bed for

It has been a beautiful day weather wise and i had the day off. I lunched at Astoria at high noon, went shopping, visited the film archive, and wandered the streets soaking up the rays.

While in my travels a bus that was out of service slowly smoked past me. The electronic destination display was too small to fit the whole message in, so it displayed "Driver Under", for 10 seconds, before scrolling to finish the statement. As I waited for the screen to change i had a wager with myself over what the next word would be. Being a Stagecoach bus i thought there was about a 50/50 chance the next word would be "Influence". It finally revealed itself to be "instruction".

I bought the coolest Christmas present, something i have been hunting down for years. I finally found it in a shop a couple of days ago, but thought i would come back and buy it the next day. When i went back to buy it yesterday, the shop was nowhere to be seen. I had totally forgotten where it was. Sometimes i think i walk around and i am not fully conscious. I'm not even blond. I went back to where i thought the shop was, and it wasn't there. However, today i stumbled across it again. Unfortunately i cannot reveal what the item is as the intended recipient may be reading this blog. All you need to know is that it is the ultimate cool.

At the film center i watched a doco about the commercial building boom of the 1980s. The doco was made during the boom as well so it was a really interesting perspective. The boom began when the council wrote off the majority of the buildings along the golden mile as earthquake hazards and gave the owners 15 years to either strengthen or demolish. Baring in mind that the owners and developers of the time were the likes of Sir Robert Jones, not many of them were interested in spending money on low-rise high maintenence historic buildings, and so these buildings were demolished by the dozen. Hundreds of them met the wrecking ball before being replaced with the high rise glass towers of today.

It was an interesting perspective because it pointed out that the council was using earthquake safety as a guise to ignite the largest commercial building boom in New Zealand's history. The film quite correctly pointed out that the building styles used during the renewal create a new hazard: glass. When 'the big one' strikes (which the film said was overdue and it was made in 1983!) it is predicted The Terrace and parts of the golden mile will be about a foot deep in broken glass.

It is also interesting because one of the arguments against the renewal was all the inner city residential suburbs that were lost to all the commercial construction, and the construction of the urban motorway. Inner city residents, it was argued, are the lifeblood of the city, and that rigid commercial and residential zoning rules were to the detriment of the city's unique character. Today the city is in the midst of another building boom - this time almost exclusively apartment construction. Is this the best of both worlds? I think maybe. (Except i wish the apartments were cheaper...)

Regardless i mustn't be thinking too much! Today, if nothing more, has been a magnificent day to kick back, relax in the sunshine and take the lid off that first summer ale of the season.