wellington # 3 - last week

 

Yesterday was conference, conference then we went to of all things the theatre - the Gryphon theatre - this was Laura's idea and I can't say I didn't love it as an idea 

Soon I will remember what the play was called.* It wasn't a very old play though it was set in a very old place. It was a farce I suppose and it had a lot of loose ends which I kind of liked. What we have noted in our time in Wellington is that no-one will shut up, which I am not per se against although over time it might get wearing. There are just a lot of people talking a lot of the time. Even in one of the conference sessions yesterday the people behind me talked all the way through two of the (5) papers, and I was flummoxed as I often am by the unexpected, I was thinking - I wouldn't tolerate this from students in a lecture, how do I tolerate such appalling rudeness from two men who don't have to be in this session, in this kind of environment? Ultimately I did nothing and ultimately - about 20 minutes in - they shut up. I should have said something or done something, I know that now, but I am a slow responder when it comes to outrageous behaviour. Anyway, in the play, there was an odd dynamic of a young girl I guess and an older American man (I didn't look at them) and she was there with her family but what her relationship was to him was completely strange, and she kept saying that one of the lead women in the play was like Charlie Chaplin, which... yeah, maybe, start of, referencing silent film comedy perhaps but probably more in the way that silent film comedy references vaudeville. 

Earlier than that we went to the Wellington Museum which had its moments but probably a lot of lost opportunities too. One of those situations where there are few museum itches scratched by the national museum and then there's also a city museum and it has to cover that stuff. I mean Wellington is not Canberra - it was not created to be the national capital and it has/had commercial functions besides - but it's still not a place where tourists come to learn about Wellington the city, you know. This anti-freeway demonstration was not uninteresting. 

Today will be fun though, we are going out of town on the train. 

*Lady Demands Satisfaction.