Chinese Valentine's Day

You know how it is, going to England and noticing that you are the only sod on the island to actually know how to speak the English language?

It's pretty much the same with the Kiwis: some of them do speak nice and clear, but more often n's-en-kweer. Visiting a cafeteria the other day I actually had to ask the waiter to repeat himself twice, before I realized he was trying to say "Is everything alright, sir?", just failing to get any further than "Sivrthnreetsr?".

I went out on Valentine's day to hunt for some lunch and noticed this lovely advertisement in front of a whiskey shop near my apartment. A perfect present or The perfect present?























Right after the whiskey shop I was greeted by this:


















The local Chinese community had moved its Lantern Festival event to the weekend, creating a weird mix of pink hearts and bug-eyed dragons around the park they were celebrating in. This next picture has an interesting mix of Chinese and Maori stuff:


















Masks up in the trees. (The whole park was full of these and other kinds of lanterns, but by the time the sun set, I was unfortunately already a bit too drunk to care about returning for more pics ;) )


















The center of the city is full of Asian eateries, and mostly at very nice price, too. For example, I ate in a Korean restaurant a while ago, had a plate of sushi(kimbab), a bowl of miso soup, a sizzling pot of bibimbab (A stone pot filled with rice, veggies, meat and egg - you pour too much chili sauce on top and mix it all up before eating.) and a nice cold bottle of beer from the local Canterbury Brewery, all for about 10 euros.


















In the end of the Corridor of Homphen above there is a tiny Japanese bar of maybe 10 seats, frequented by random tourists and the local beer-loving Japanese. If you can entertain Aki the bartender by playing the piano in the back, you get a free drink. :)


















Riccarton House, the oldest(?) building in Christchurch. Well, at least it's surrounded by the oldest trees, some of them over 600 years old. Kiwis lovingly call their forests "bush". I suppose it is because the lack of indigenous veggie-eating mammals in the islands has in many places enabled the forests to grow into utterly impenetrable jungles. Nowadays the building serves as a cafe&restaurant that seems to go for the "fancy" look. The problem with achieving this goal is the staff. Though dressed impeccably, they don't seem very comfortable speaking "butler English", and as I was sitting close to the kitchen door, I got to listen them fighting over who was supposed to do what and what the hell did that old cunt in table 8 order again? Silly buggers managed to spill third of my cappuccino on the way to my table after they finally got around making me one after 10 minutes of arguing. Nice bush around the house, but meh.


















Speaking of no indigenous land mammals (there were bats), why are the walls of the house lined with deer and elk heads?


















One more pic. One of the buildings at University of Canterbury. Some call these concrete colossi ugly, but I really like them. Love walking around the campus. :)