Busy Day Catching up with old Friends

Tuesday 5 August

A grey day but brightened up by some lovely catching up around the motu. Took a morning wander around Beach Haven down to the outlook over the inlet then we got on with some chores before heading into town.

Louis dropped me off at K Road on his way to swim squad in Henderson. I had a consultation with Jacob at Killer Hair as I am finally transitioning to natural grey via some ashy tints and hopefully a few bleached highlights. Had a mooch around K Road’s fabulous pre-loved stores, crossed at the infamous Rainbow Crossing that Destiny Church tried to whitewash out of existence a few months ago, then wandered down through a million uni students to the Business School where I used to work. Lots of changes to the team since I left in last October - but so good to see many of my colleagues including a great catch up with Eimear (we went and sat where we used to have our team meetings with Ellen, just in her honour!)

Louis was still swimming so I strolled through the park to the Art Gallery and enjoyed the new(ish) exhibit about light & artists including Monet, Degas, Dali & Picasso. The beautiful details of the Lindauer portraits of 19th century Maori are always worth spending time with too. I was delighted to see that the crystal waka was back in all it's glory outside.

In amongst the various European paintings was Le Tasse by Braque - i was fascinated at how the cup on the table was almost camouflaged, it was a little like those magic eye pictures, where you had to let your eyes refocus to find the image in front of you.

The sculptures of the human form by Degas, Moore and Epstein (not that one) were quite intriguing too - mapping the progress of art through the centuries.

Realised it was 3.30 and I hadn’t yet eaten lunch so ordered Sumthin Dumplins and Louis swung by to take us back to Banjo.

A dumpling or two and a siesta later we headed south against the rush hour traffic, scooped up Helen and went round to the Brooks’ for whānau dinner - and the waggiest welcome from Albi 🥰. Sara had been given a new product to try out - dessert granola... sounds a bit healthy and dull, but turned out to be absolutely delicious!