October 30, 2011 by bettyscandretti

Karekare Beach adventure

Last week’s Thursday adventure was a trip to Karekare beach. It’s famous for shipwrecks, and for a film of an unseemly nature which was filmed there some years ago. Betty had never been there; she was ever so glad she went, because the beach was rather stunning. There was a short coffee run beforehand, and a somewhat leisurely afternoon tea in Titirangi afterwards, mainly because both Betty (who was driving) and the husband person were carsick on the way back, and had to stop and compose themselves. Nonetheless, it was worth it.

October 22, 2011 by bettyscandretti

Sweet things from London

Betty’s dear sister sent her a lovely package from London: a necklace by Lucie Ellen, and a starburst lens filter that fits the husband person’s iPhone. They’re both adorable!

Betty thanks her sister very kindly, and plans to appropriate said husband’s iPhone more regularly in the future.

October 10, 2011 by bettyscandretti

A pastoral adventure

After Betty’s usual dance class on Saturday, she and the husband person went to Cornwall Park. It was all looking very springlike, and dotted with people enjoying the sunny, if crisp, atmosphere…

This chap was extremely friendly, even though he’d been on his feet all afternoon posing for photographs.

All in all, it was a lovely chance to walk on the grass and ease out of winter.

September 28, 2011 by bettyscandretti

Sunset over Waitemata

Betty unexpectedly finished work before dark yesterday, and gentle readers will know what that means. Oui – adventures! It was the work of a moment to hop in the car and whisk the husband person off to Devonport, where they watched the sun set from Mt Victoria.

Hardly anyone else was there, fortuitously, so Betty and the husband person were able to eat grapes and frolic about in peace.

One really should adventure there more often – the mushrooms are lovely.

September 23, 2011 by bettyscandretti

Adventures all round

To kick off this Thursday’s mandatory adventure, Betty had her hair cut. Viz:

Bob’s your uncle! And then Betty and the husband person went off to Vinyl in the Eden Quarter and had a spot of lunch, with curly fries. Betty has developed a sudden sensitivity to coffee and is going cold turkey this week to avoid bouts of dizziness, so she also had a lemon toddy. It was very nice, Vinyl being quite the thing: it’s also next to the sweetest old-school dancewear shop that sells superhero costumes.

All in all, a most excellent adventure.

September 21, 2011 by bettyscandretti

A brief sit-rep

My new toothbrush is approximately the cutest thing in the universe. Like so:

September 8, 2011 by bettyscandretti

O popoi

Betty is laid on one side in a bed of sickness, relatively speaking: not a terrible one, just a bit of a sore throat and a woozy kind of feeling in the head. She has been gargling Himalayan salt, doing kaloba shots, upping the fluids, brewing ginger and lemon, taking paracetamol, and other such desperate and heroic acts to ward it off, and they seem to be working fairly well, considering. Other things Betty has been considering are as follows:

1. Flashmobs are the thing just now. What about this one: somebody coughs in a crowded train station. So does somebody else. Others join in. Within minutes, myriad commuters are hacking and whooping as if to shake the earth. A pertussis flashmob! Poignant and striking.

2. Tomorrow night, Betty must take several visiting Pilates teachers to the city and get them into a restaurant that doesn’t take reservations, while fifty thousand other people attempt to crowd into the area for the opening of the Rugby World Cup, an event which interests Betty very little, though there will be fireworks. This might be interesting.

3. There are no more considerations for this evening.

When the fever lifts, Betty will let you know.

August 27, 2011 by bettyscandretti

Army adventures

The Scandretti-Person household now adheres to a strict regimen of mandatory adventures, held biweekly: on Thursdays, which are Betty’s day off, there is generally a long sleep-in followed by a drive, and on Saturdays, after Betty finishes teaching, there is a dance class in the city followed by some sort of urban hijinks.

For example! On a recent Thursday, the plan was to drive up to the beautiful Shakespear Regional Park. It turned out to be closed, but Betty and the husband person were still able to get to one of the small beaches just inside the park limits.

It’s called Army Bay. Wanna know why?

It was lovely fun: Betty and the HP watched a great many black-suited men manoeuvre their inflatable boats out to sea (which didn’t appear to be as easy as it looks – but points for effort) and then explored the beach in detail. There were more departed starfish than Betty had ever seen. There was a pizza. There was fresh salt air. On the way home, they stopped at a mall and husband person bought Betty a copy of Brigadoon (Gene and Cyd, seventeen-minute dance sequence, four dollars). An excellent adventure, indeed!

August 25, 2011 by bettyscandretti

A happy milestone

The other day the husband person introduced Betty to a favourite fish and chip shop (just down from Karangahape Road, and with an excellent hygiene rating), and Betty had her first hot dog. New Zealanders, when they say hot dog, generally mean a battered sausage on a stick, rather than a frank in a bun with mustard. It was quite exciting for Betty to find a vegetarian one on the menu, and so she bought one with sauce, and ate it in the v. lovely park underneath the harbor bridge.

It was everything she’d hoped for. And the view was rather magnificent:

The chips were also good. Simple pleasures.

August 23, 2011 by bettyscandretti

Kraken

There are a number of blog posts in the works, but Betty is a busy man. Here’s a kraken.

betty scandretti

long walks, nice things, and odd musings

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