Living in New Zealand: The Dairy

What Britscall a newsagent and the Americans call a convenience store, New Zealanders called a dairy. It is where you going to get the paper, a loaf of bread, a pint of milk and in New Zealand’s case, ice cream. We used to have a fantastic dairy in London Street, Lyttelton, called the Empire (it was also a pub/hotel and had excellent drinks deals at happy hour, which was a good time to meet up with people.).

Click to see options for using the image

In 2011, like many old buildings in London Street, the Empire Hotel was badly affected by the earthquake. It had to be demolished and it was sad to see it go, though the owners at the time of the massive ice creams had moved on. Now there is empty lot where's the Empire Hotel used to be. It is called Collett’s Corner and they are crowdfunding to try to finance a community building. They need is nearly $10 million dollars, so it will be a hard ask.

The owners in the Empire’s heyday.

One month after the February 2011 earthquake, the poor Empire was being held up by some serious steel scaffolding.

Social Media Free February: Quitting Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn

Inspired by the book, Deep Work by Cal Newport (I’m inking while listening to the audiobook. Oops. I think that may be against the idea of the book…), I’m taking a social media break for the month of February. I don't actually use Facebook and Twitter as much as some people I know, but I do think that I need more time to be focused on some important things this year. I need to do a lot more drawing and writing, as well as get to grips with the garden and learn some new software so that I can migrate away from the iron grip of Adobe.

I will still be updating this blog and you can sign up to my newsletter if you want to know what Is going on with me each month. If you wish to contact me, there is good old-fashioned email (write to me at alexhallatt.com).

Living in New Zealand: Fire Danger Signs and Warning Wheels

Click to see options for using the image

Fire danger signs are commonly seen around New Zealand, particularly in rural areas.

They have been around for so long they have passed into popular culture and/or and have been adapted for other uses.

Click to buy image on Glenn Jones’ website

We saw this checking in for the Interislander ferry (I did pay attention to this - I get sea sick easily!)

Unfortunately this means that they probably don't have the impact they once had. We were away when the Port Hills fire happened in 2017, but the images we saw (the following are from the Christchurch City Council website) were horrifying. We are having another hot, dry summer and it is worrying to look around the Port Hills and see so much tinder. Though I am sure any response would be managed better this time around.

Reasons to Be Cheerful - Our Insurance Company Paid For the Laptops That Were Fried in a Hot Room

Click to see options for using this image

I've had contents insurance for years and (fortunately) never had to make a claim until now. And it was a good one: we had Macbook Pros from 2012 and 2010. Mind you, none of my software will work on the new macs and we have to get a ton of adaptors for the new USB-C ports, but I’m looking on the bright side!