An Ice Cream Parlour

Lego models needn't be large to have interesting details. In fact, some of the smaller models are the more inspired ones. Here is one that meets those criteria nicely, by user Mariko.

The Porch at Waihi Beach

Beachside towns can be hit and miss when it comes to food, but the Porch in Waihi Beach is certainly a hit - having been there numerous times I'm happy to say that.

Saturday's effort involved a beef salad with horseradish dressing ... 8/10 - certainly nothing to complain about.

Orokawa Bay

At the northern tip of Waihi beach is a neat walk - which is still reasonably negotiable in winter, which takes you accross to Orokawa bay in about 45 minutes.

Once at Orokawa bay you are away from anything obviously manmade, and in a nice secluded spot, which you share only with Pohutukawa trees, birds, fish and fishermen.

Santa Isobel House

Certain materials get a hard time in architecture. Concrete in particular. Many people think of uninspired tilt slab construction or cheap tower blocks with no character.

The thing is, concrete can well have character, as this effort by Ricardo Bak Gordon shows. By casting concrete in wood, you get grains and interest, and create shadows and creases - the perfect startpoint for a patina of moss and the like to adjust the colour.

Hotel Chat Noir

A 1960's modular this time - a french hotel even - Hotel Chat Noir by hoexbroe

The Lion Gate hotel

This lego model is an intriguing story of scale - it isn't quite the same scale as modulars, and is in fact almost a smaller scale than regular town sets, but nevertheless, it works very well.

Bridesmaids

Winter is a pain - you can't do half as much outdoors.

For that reason, I seem to be at the cinema more often than perhaps I should be - in this case at the insistence of my wife.

So, a chick-flick it was - bridesmaids - think the Hangover, but with women. Well, maybe not that bad, but certainly the two movies share a lot of similarities. There are many times you are cringing at cliches, but thankfully there are a few laughs too.

Not too bad all round, 5/10.

A 'chinatown' for Auckland?

It seems as though Auckland has been comparing itself to others again, and realised it doesn't have a Chinatown.

I don't necessarily consider this to be a bad thing. A genuine "chinatown" is a great thing to visit, I agree, but all too often once it becomes a tourist attraction, pride goes out the window and quality deteriorates. This is certainly true for many outlets in Melbourne and Sydney.

Of course, "thown out the window" is exactly what should apply to Auckland's Chinatown. The article on stuff seems to forget there was a Chinatown in the past, which was gentrified into oblivion.

That chinatown lay on Grays Avenue in the city, Grays Street as it was then known. The upper Grays Avenue area was razed in the '40s for multi-storey state apartment blocks (which still stand), and last vestages of Chinatown disappeared in 1959 to make way for the Auckland city council buildings.

An article here outlines a little more of the history of the area. Below: Gray street flats.

A more interesting box

In architecture, the box shape will always exist - it's one of the most economical forms to build after all. That fact alone makes it particularly prevalent in commercial architecture.

That being said, there are more and less interesting ways to adorn the box. What gets me is dull tilt slab buildings. Moving to wood and glass is always a good bet, which is certainly what makes this one work: (SAC Federal Credit Union - Leo Daly).

The Green Lantern

Another day, another Marvel story turned movie.

This one I didn't have all to high an expectation of - really the main reason for watching it was to blob out without watching a movie I had already seen, or one I wanted to see at a later date.

The casting for this movie at first glance seems terrible, Ryan Reynolds belongs in comedies, and Blake Lively is not the person to play a serious businesswoman.

Having forgiven that, the movie was better than I'd expected. It wasn't too bad. The story was 2 hours long, yet didn't feel dragged out, and the soundtrack was quite decent too. Overall, 5/10.

4555 in a better form

One of the things that I would like to do in terms of Lego is to rebuild the original sets that I know and love in a form that is better than the original - larger scale and more detail.

Here is a good example done by builder fistach, inspired by set 4555.

Domaine

No, not a domain as in a park, but Domaine the restaurant on Victoria street in Hamilton. One of my favourite restaurants, which I unfortunately don't frequent as much as I'd like.

Fortunately, they are open on a thursday night, and despite the Fieldays, we could still get a table.

The eye fillet was pretty good, but the prosciutto and kikorangi rosti was a true winner. An excellent tasty meal, with room for brulee. 8/10.

The Park Avenue Brownstone

This modular reminds me a lot of the buildings that have disappeared so much from our streets over the years, with it's cuppola and ornate features. Just the ticket.

Pine beach jetty though to the Fairfield esplanade

In the opposite direction from yesterdays post lies the newest and least known part of the Waikato River walk. From the starts of the Fairfield Esplanade opposite Riverview Terrace, turn left. Walk over around 10 meters of grass, and you'll find a gravel track that leads though to pine beach.

The Fairfield Esplanade

Alongside the river, and passing under the Fairfield bridge is one of the newest parts of the Waikato River walk - the Fairfield Esplanade.

The main walk starts opposite Clarkin Road, and can be accessed from River Road near the bridge, or opposite Riverview Terrace, and takes around 15 minutes each way.

Super 8

Want to see a new version of the Goonies? Super 8 is just that. Except with a little Cloverfield thrown in. An eclectic mix of JJ Abrams and Speilberg.

The plot centers around a group of youngsters making an amateur film for a cleveland film competition, and happen to film a train "accident". From there it becomes clear that there is more at hand.

The airforce, a monster, and a mystery - all combine together to create a relatively suspenceful yet PG plot. Overall, I'll give this one a 7/10.

Catalina

I've been attending the Ping Zero lan parties at Hobsonville Air Base for nigh on ten years now, and have watched the base change at a rate of knots.

In the early years, we would enjoy a military breakfast in the mess. Now that, along with most of the base is no more.

Having said that, a phoneix will rise from the ashes. One sign of something good is the cafe Catalina - a hip little cafe that knows how to make a coffee and eggs benedict - no gilmours hollandaise here.

Over all the times I've visited this cafe, I would rate it 9/10 - definately amongst my favourite Auckland haunts.

Wagamama - fast food I appriciate

When I want food fast because I'm travelling, I cannot go to a McDonalds or Burger King like many do. Those places make me sick, literaly.

So where do I go that is reliable and available in most australiasian cities? Wagamama of course. They offer quick asian food that is pretty consistent - as a general rule I'll go for the Cha Han.

The only annoyance is the variation in the menus. For example, my favourite entree, the sweet potato kusabi is not available at all in New Zealand, and the peach iced tea option seems to be available on a hit and miss basis too.

Overall though, pretty good and reliable. For today's effort at Sylvia Park, 8/10.

Lastly, they also give a discount if you pay by Amex, which is all good too.

A non-descript building

Well, maybe not quite non-descript, but the architectural type cannot easily be described. Never the less, this one does look like a few buildings I've seen in the real world. A good wee interior too, with a barbershop downstairs and a nightclub above.

Brighton Rock

Why is it that so many new movies are rehashes of old ones. In this case, the original Brighton Rock came out in the '40s, and the new one last year.

The story is (apparently) much the same as the last movie, and set around a key character Pinkie, who has recently taken over leadership of a gang in Brighton.

His newfound leadership starts just after the start of the film, as the original gang leader, Kite is murdered in cold blood. Soon, Pinkie returns an eye for an eye, and Fred, the murderer is murdered.

Unfortunately, Rose, a naive waitress happens to know just a little too much to be good. Pinkie takes more and more control over the poor girl's life during as the story goes on, and his gang leader life starts to unravel.

The story doesn't end nicely, but explores themes of crime and redemption very well. 8/10.

Bracu

Bombay is in my mind the home of market gardens. Potatoes and onions in particular. Of course, there are other things there too. Like Bracu - an upmarket restaurant set in the middle of an olive grove.

Being upmarket, of course, portions are modest, in anticipation of your enjoyment of multiple courses and accompaniments. That is all good though - you don't want to miss out on the oportunity to have several course. In my case pork belly followed by an almond tart. There efforts where highly commendable - 10/10 even.

Anne Frank - A history for today

The Waikato Museum isn't particularly known for drawing in big name exhibits, so I was surprised to here that an Anne Frank exhibition was on.

So, of course, I went. The exhibit comprises a series of information boards with a timeline of Anne Frank's family's life, and the war in general. Secondly, a video documentary on Anne's life, and lastly a series of video 'survivor stories'.

Sadly, there were no artifacts or the like, and certainly not the diary itself. Being free admission, I'm not going to complain, but there really wasn't anything that a History channel doco and a book couldn't have told you.

Never the less, it was a good way to kill an hour this morning.