So much to do and see

Last weekend was a social one. On Friday night Will & I went out for dinner with Neal & Nicky. They were in town as Neal had a course in Wellington for a few days. We ate at One Red Dog on Blair street & it was very good. On Saturday night we attended a dinner party hosted by Will's head of school at the Uni. It was a most enjoyable night. The hosts had also invited another two colleagues & their partners from the department. The food was superb, & the wine & conversation flowed ( with one probably helping the other!). I was the nominated driver for the night, as Will had driven home from the dinner party at Brendon & Keryn's the previous Saturday. On Sunday we did the usual round of open homes, but they were quite disappointing this week.
Tuesday night we attended the Acoustic Church Tour at St Johns in the City. We met up with Keryn & Brendon & had a drink in a pub before grabbing a quick bite. We got to the church before doors opened & managed to get some amazing seats in the second row of the church! Lydia Cole opened up proceedings & was very good, not to mention very cute! She is tiny!!! She's got a great voice on her. Next up was Nathan King, ex lead singer with Zed. Again he put on a very good show. As you can see below, Lydia came out & joined him for his final song.
After a short interval we were ready for the main act; Greg Johnson & Boh Runga. They played a mixture of both of their songs, as well as a couple of new tracks they have worked on together. I absolutely love Greg's music, so was happiest when they were doing his stuff.

The acoustics in the church were amazing, we could hear everything clearly even though we were so close to the speakers. I hadn't taken my camera, but remembered that there was a pretty decent camera on my new mobile. The pics didn't come out too badly for a camera phone in low light...

Wednesday was free day at the City Gallery so I went to see the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years exhibition again. There was bit of a queue so I waited in it & then Will came down in his lunch break & joined me when I was at the front. It really is an incredible exhibition. My favourite was 'Fireflies on water' pictured above. It's a small mirrored room with shallow water on the bottom & thousands of LED lights. You walk out on a small platform & the effect is amazing. Only 2 or 3 people can fit in the room at once, & they only shut you in for 40 seconds or so. I read in the Dominion Post today that several people have got dizzy & disorientated & have fallen into the water!
I also liked the Dots, Obsession day as pictured above. You are free to wander around the room, & again it can be quite disorientating. There is also an Obsession night version which is yellow dots on a black background. My final highlight was 'I am here but nothing' which is a 1950's living room with absolutely everything covered in fluorescent dots, & lit by UV light. Very very cool.

Most days this week I've made it to the gym. I have finished a '21 days for $21' trial at Les Mills which I really enjoyed, & have just started a '30 days for $30' trial at Exodus. It's great having the opportunity to try the gyms out, as when you do sign up, it has to be for 24 or 36 months to get a reasonable weekly fee. You'd want to make sure you were at the right place! It is taking up a decent chunk of my day as often I've been walking into town (35-40 minutes), doing some cardio (30-40 minutes), doing some weights (30-40 minutes) then having a leisurely shower before catching the bus home. I am enjoying this life of leisure!

This morning I was up early as my mate Marty was in town. He had been in the South Island on business, & was driving back to Hamilton that morning. I met him for breakfast at Sweet Mama's Kitchen on Courtenay Place. A guy Jake who also used to work at the Warehouse & now lives in Wellington also joined us. After breakfast I had a look around Te Papa for a couple of hours, before a session at the gym & then walking home.

That's about it from me. We don't have much planned for the long weekend, apart from looking at a few houses on Sunday. It will be a treat spending a week day with my lovely husband on Monday :-)