Day 21 - Tourist in the Central City

So my ethics approval has yet to go through still. I have other research to accomplish without it, and so I delved into that. Other than doing more secondary research, I have been trying to get information on bylaw infraction statistics from city councils, and I often have been spun around in circles, trying to find out who would have that information. And this is the reason why I went to the central city today...

I took the bus downtown a little late today, but my goal was to find the town hall to get information and probably just go back home. As you will see, that proved a little too optimistic.

So I quickly walked over to the city hall after asking for directions once and then realizing they moved, so I had to walk some more. As I was walking though, I saw that the New Zealand International Film Festival is on at an old theatre in the center of the city. So I thought to myself:

"Well, I am going to busy the next couple of months after this, so I might as well do my sight-seeing and touristy stuff now rather than later. I will come back." (As you can tell I think a lot, just not before I speak)

I found the city hall information centre and I asked them my standard question that I have asked plenty of times before. Of course the individual was not aware of who would have this information, but she was able to direct me to an information request, to which I already knew about online. I just have been told many different things, I wanted to know my facts before I submit a request.

Well, once that was done, I strolled over to The Civic Theatre (shown below). I marched in there and bought a ticket for the very next show. Well that was in two minutes. No popcorn I guess.

I went in and sat down in my assigned seat, right next to two lovely ladies. I wanted to take a picture but the movie was starting and I didn't want to disturb people while watching the movie. Because that is the thoughtful thing to do, right?

So, the movie I ended up watching was called The Handmaiden. It was based in the 1930s when Japan controlled Korea. It was in Korean and Japanese but had engllish subtittles, delineated by different colours. It was certainly not what I expected, considering I never looked at the synopsis prior to paying for the movie. I guess I was naive enough to not really understand an international film festival.

There was a lot of nudity and humour mixed in to a romantic mystery, full of intrigue and twists. I really enjoyed the film. However, what was kind of awkward, the lady next to me kept touching my leg with her hand. Like there was an arm rest there but she blatantly failed resting her arm, on it I believe ignoring the entire purpose of any arm rest. She kept resting her hand on my thigh. I kept moving, but it always seemed to be resting on or around my leg. She had breathing issues, so perhaps resting her arm on the arm rest would be too much.

After the watching the really good movie (I suggest trying to watch it), I went out for a walk to enjoy the night life of the city (it was around 5:30 at this time. I went to buy some type of fries I never heard of and walk around. I ended up reading more movie synopses to maybe go and watch another day. After I was down munching them down, I left to walk the streets.

I thought, well I had an adult-dinner, so I should be having dessert. Well I walked past an ice cream place and it appeared to be very high class. Well you only get to visit New Zealand once when you are 29, so I got two flavours and it had really rich dark chocolate (see picture at top of page). Too refined for this child's plain palate. Never again.

In my travels I found some stairs that are designed to make piano noises as you walked up the stairs. I was the only person to see the sign I guess, because as soon as I walked on it, there was a murder of children jumping around the stairs attempting to be Little Mozarts.

Right across that, though, was a skating rink. How often do Kiwis go skating, they do not even have a real hockey team, and the hockey they play is on the grass (I have not seen any mention of ice hockey even though five teams exist in the country). So I went skating. I have not went skating for like 3 to 4 years. Needless to say, I fell three times. In my defense the surface was full of bumps and snow. I guess I shouldn't expect more for an ice in the middle of the city. I still kind of represented Canada well because I was probably the top 4 or 5 skater there...

#Daily