Redeeming the time

Despite the eternal promise of a quiet start to the year, Betty’s 2012 has pretty much kicked off as it means to go on: most clients are back, noobs with resolutions flock to the studio, planning for university classes is well underway, and a whole evening was recently taken up with a year’s worth of invoicing. Last night, multitasking like a fiend, Betty packed the husband person into the car and drove over to the zoo, in whose general vicinity the husband person dropped off a pile of brochures. This task completed, they carried on to the circus school, which was suspiciously abandoned.

It dawned on Betty that it might have been an idea to check the timetable, because although there were open studio times over the last two weeks, the new term doesn’t start until next week.

Pro:
- An empty summer’s evening!
- Any number of beautiful suburbs, beaches, and parks on the way home!
- Cafes aplenty lining the streets!

Con:
- Betty was wearing a onesie

The husband person, in the end, bought a pizza, and they parked underneath the harbour bridge (a truly gorgeous spot) while he ate it. And then they went home, and Betty invoiced eight months in advance.

Never mind. Here’s something pleasing:

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This weekend is a long one, so the adventuring will doubtless take a turn for the better. Happy Friday, everybody.

Sheepish

Betty and the husband person paid a visit to some friends the other day.

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Going to Cornwall Park is lovely; there’s more than enough room to visit many times and never walk the same way twice. This time was all sheep and grasses, but if one wants massive fountains or flowerbeds or groves of trees or hills to climb they’re just as easy to come by.

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Last seen wandering vaguely

Betty’s almost entire family were up in Auckland this week to watch sister number five, Right-Angle Girl, have surgery. In between vigils, sister six (not a blogger) went out for breakfast with Betty and the husband person.

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They began with eggs Benedict at Revel, and wandered around Karangahape Road, and then took the bus to Britomart and walked through the train station. Baggins (sister six) sniffed Christopher Brosius perfumes, examined vintage dresses and perused Scandinavian stationery with the best of them. After much walking, they popped into Raw Power and had a bowl of soup. Civilised, no?

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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.

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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…

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

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

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Sunset over Waitemata

20110928-091843.jpgBetty 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.

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

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Adventures all round

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

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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.

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All in all, a most excellent adventure.

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.

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It’s called Army Bay. Wanna know why?

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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!

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.

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

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The chips were also good. Simple pleasures.

Practically perfect in every way

Betty and the husband person ventured out this fine Saturday afternoon – a rare enough occurrence, since once Betty has tottered home from work on a Saturday she seldom feels like going out again until Sunday morning – and it was a lovely day: first Betty went to a dance class, in the faint hope of meeting an old friend there, but she wasn’t. After that, Betty and the husband person went for a long-awaited lunch at Cosset in Mount Albert.

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Betty had an excellent soy mocha and a filo spiral filled with spinach, walnuts and caramelised onion, which was lovely; the husband person had homestyle beans and hash browns with avocado and grilled tomato. Take that, Pythagoras.

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And after that, they had a very quick sortie through Ponsonby and watched the sun set from one of their favourite miniature beaches. Isn’t it sweet?

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