Thursday Drinks

Today is the last day to send Christmas cards within Aotearoa so they arrive in time. I rush round dropping a few off, to say a personal thank you to people who in my orbit during 2019. By early afternoon I'm gardening. As anyone who has one knows, gardens require constant weeding, trimming, mowing and tidying. Two years before the demolition I started moving plants, plonking what I wanted to save in the back, and giving them away. The more I did this the more grew back. The land here used to be a swamp and most things flourish. I have peonies from my mother's garden, autumn crocuses from my Auntie Marie in the high country and various bits from other friends' gardens. I happily gave away what I could to keep the cycle going. I straighten up and drive off to drop in on Lizzie whose house flamboyant house radiates colour like a bird of paradise in native bush. She finished repairs this year and her colour choice, both inside and out, made her a finalist in the Resene colour awards. Although she didn't win, I'd class her as the Trelise Cooper of house palettes.
Tonight is the last Thursday night drinks of the year. A teacher based group of OE returnees, we started in 1997 based on our nostalgia for London pub culture. All of us had lived in this iconic city long enough to call it home and we missed its bustle and old world charm, not to mention the density of its ale houses. We became a loose group with one very simple rule- drinks out on Thursday night. Child raising put my attendance on hold and people have come and gone, often back to London. Several of us have become parents and we have lost Robyn to cancer. In an interesting twist of fate, Sherry, Chris and I, original members, are living together. Tonight's destination is the Retropolitan. We bus into town and walk through the CBD to the pub. Seeing the empty sites, derelict buildings and containers bracing building fronts takes me back to early earthquake days. The feeling of desolation and helplessness at so much destruction, not only from the earthquakes but also from the demolition. As the rebuild progresses, creative new architecture of varying degrees, brings hope that life will return to this neglected CBD and the city of Ōtautahi will reinvent itself.

Lizzie's house

Post drink cook up