Best of Malo

It was my last day at Malo yesterday. I've been there a year and a half and have plenty of adventures to remember it by.

There was the time I locked myself in the toilet while closing up alone. Faced with 13 hours of listening to Radiohead full bore on repeat, in a cold tiled room with flurescent lighting spurred me on to kick open another outside door (blocked outside by a ton of rubbish) by two inches, smashing the pane of glass in the meantime and yelling for help. Romie came to the rescue.

I've been asked out for a drink by two cafe regulars by the passing of notes while ordering coffee.

I've been caught out using the number stand as a microphone and dancing around to Bowie in the far room, by the Number 12 bus that stopped outside for the lights.

My first Wellington "gig" was at Malo cafe with Michaela. We called ourselves 'Self-Induced Crises', a name suggested by the most flamboyant of Front of House managers, Steve.

My puny coffees-in-one-day record stands somewhere above 200. And I can kinda draw ferns now.



The things I'll miss most are stealing chips, my favourite regulars, those "favourite" regulars and the general abusive banter/yelling that occured between the staff .. okay mostly John and I.

Buon giorno Malo!

Titahi Bay

Another spur-of-the-moment photography expedition to a beach.



This time it was Titahi Bay, which looked out to the sun setting over Mana Island.



For the record, it was really cold. And windy. Then I spent three days off work sick. Worth it?


Completely.




Photographer: Derek

Pencarrow Heads

Fine weather signalled the need for a photography expedition. Armed with a camera, two lenses, Derek, Annie and some dodgy directions (thanks Gitz), the afternoon was bound to be entertaining.



Pencarrow Heads was the original destination as there is a light house out there worthy of attention. The trip took a detour as we followed instructions to get there through Wainuiamata (just for the record, you go through Eastbourne).



Arriving at Baring Head, Derek wasn't about to waste any time bemoaning the fact we ended up in the wrong place. It took him all of three minutes to find the biggest rock around to climb up.





With half the afternoon still available, we decided to go to Pencarrow Heads as well. The walk to the lighthouse is a seven hour round trip. We stuck with exploring the beach.





Derek was the first to get wet (who would have thought that standing on a rock with waves breaking onto it will wet you?).





A small whimper alerted us to Annie's brush with a wave. Wet shoes .. not fun.



Example A: Technique that should be used when collecting treasures on a beach.



Hold all treasures in the left hand, walk in step with each other and talk at the same time.

As the sun went down, both photographers decided to experiment with silhouette shots. Do you know how difficult it is to do ballet poses on a big jagged rock when its windy?





The adventure ended with fish and chips on the Petone wharf (with extra taretar sauce thanks to some nifty work by Annie and Derek - it was an honest mistake), watching the sunset.