I had a rather mixed day yesterday. In the morning we decided to walk along the coast, from Island Bay round to Lyall Bay. It was a really beautiful walk; the sea was the most amazing shade of dark blue and there were sandy bays, rocks and islands to look at. It was only 6 km to the Spruce Goose at the airport end of Lyall Bay, where we stopped for coffee. This is where things took a bit of a downturn for me. I have a cold, always annoying, but I started to feel really nauseous and I wasn’t hungry for a cake, a bad sign for me! James was happy to walk back along the coast while I hung about the café watching the planes take off from the airport and surfers catching the waves in the bay. James collected me by car and we returned to the apartment where I went for a sleep while James took our lovely Whisky for a walk. However when I woke up later I still felt really unwell and sorry for myself, so reluctantly I messaged Kerry to say that I would stay in bed in the evening and James would come round alone. I was so sad about missing time with Jamie and Kerry but I think that it was a good call because after getting myself ready for bed I slept from about 8 p.m. right through to the morning!
The good news is that I awoke much refreshed this morning and James and I walked round to the Beach House Café at Island Bay for breakfast. It was a windy day and the sea was covered in white capped waves, with spray being whipped off them by the wind. But it was sheltered enough on the café terrace to sit outside and watch the ferries go past in the distance. I love it there.
James and I then drove to Katherine Mansfield’s house in Thorndon, which used to be a Victorian residential area of Wellington but has been partially bisected by the motorway. Katherine was born here in 1888 and lived in the house until she was five years old, when the family moved to the countryside suburb of Karori for a while. Although she left New Zealand when she was in her teens and did not return apart from a brief visit when she was nineteen, many of her stories reflect her childhood experiences, and the first short story that I read by her was “The Prelude” based on her family’s move to the countryside when she was a small girl. I loved that atmospheric story, which I felt captured an episode of family life really well, and I went on to read much more of her writing. Her life was uncompromising and exciting and was tragically cut short by tuberculosis when she was only thirty-four. Needless to say I had a wonderful time looking around the house and James won a lot of brownie points for coming with me even though he has hardly heard of Katherine Mansfield. He did once read “The Daughters of the late Colonel” on my recommendation, but he didn’t enjoy it, I think that it’s excellent but was perhaps not the best one to recommend because it’s very downbeat.
We moved the car to the harbour front and went for a pleasant walk and a coffee, then later we went to the Sprig and Fern with Jamie and Kerry and Whisky, where we got delicious Greek food from the van outside and ate it with the drinks from the bar.
The good news is that I awoke much refreshed this morning and James and I walked round to the Beach House Café at Island Bay for breakfast. It was a windy day and the sea was covered in white capped waves, with spray being whipped off them by the wind. But it was sheltered enough on the café terrace to sit outside and watch the ferries go past in the distance. I love it there.
James and I then drove to Katherine Mansfield’s house in Thorndon, which used to be a Victorian residential area of Wellington but has been partially bisected by the motorway. Katherine was born here in 1888 and lived in the house until she was five years old, when the family moved to the countryside suburb of Karori for a while. Although she left New Zealand when she was in her teens and did not return apart from a brief visit when she was nineteen, many of her stories reflect her childhood experiences, and the first short story that I read by her was “The Prelude” based on her family’s move to the countryside when she was a small girl. I loved that atmospheric story, which I felt captured an episode of family life really well, and I went on to read much more of her writing. Her life was uncompromising and exciting and was tragically cut short by tuberculosis when she was only thirty-four. Needless to say I had a wonderful time looking around the house and James won a lot of brownie points for coming with me even though he has hardly heard of Katherine Mansfield. He did once read “The Daughters of the late Colonel” on my recommendation, but he didn’t enjoy it, I think that it’s excellent but was perhaps not the best one to recommend because it’s very downbeat.
We moved the car to the harbour front and went for a pleasant walk and a coffee, then later we went to the Sprig and Fern with Jamie and Kerry and Whisky, where we got delicious Greek food from the van outside and ate it with the drinks from the bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment