Sky City...Sky Tower

I told you in my Elliott Stables post that I'd be showing you around the Sky Tower soon. The time has come. 

I decided not to take the elevator up to the top. It was tempting, but just too expensive. You'll just have to wait until I turn 75 and can jump from the top of the tower for free. I wonder if I'd be able to do it? I wonder if I'll still be around? Only one way for you to find out. Keep reading my posts. 

The Sky Tower is part of Sky City, an entertainment complex and event center that features the hotel, a casino, a bunch of restaurants, cafes, theatres and other opportunities to spend lots of money. I just walked around the area close to the Sky Tower. 

Take a look.

 They are busily adding on to Sky City. You should see the building going up on the next block. 

 Let's go in.

 We'll go down to the basement level. That's were there is a gift shop and the venues for the attractions at the top of the tower. 

 The Sky Tower gift shop

 Look what I found. I didn't know until now that NZ grows tea. 

 Back up from the basement.

Let's keep climbing.

 It's nice here.

 Casinos don't interest me. I worked too hard for my money. Don't want to give it away. 

 This is a buffet restaurant where we had dinner not long ago. Definitely the best buffet I've seen here. 

 That tube leads to a small bar in the tower.

We'll go outside now.

It doesn't really look like 636 feet to the jump platform.

This is where you will lightly touch down after making the jump. 

Tours leave constantly. 

This is the view toward Prince Albert Park on the next ridge.  Queen Street runs to the right and left at the bottom of the hill.                       -djf

What's in a name?

Today I offer you a short look at some buildings around Auckland. The buildings I have chosen to show you all share a common feature. They were named.

Each owner was justifiably proud of his/her place of business and wanted his name to last far into the future.  

William Shakespeare was the one who penned, "What's in a name?" He added, "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  

I think we all agree with his logic. 

But I think the owners who financed these buildings would disagree when referring to their life's work. What's in a name? Well, there is a heck of a lot of accomplishment in Their names and they wanted everyone to know it! 

Take a look.

This one is hard to read. It's the Achilles Building

There could have been a Mr. Imperial. 

This is the building that was featured in Taeyeon's music video that I listed on my post of Music on Bethells. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OrCA1OInoo

Okay, this one is cheating. It doesn't really have a guy's name up there. 

Nor does this one. I just liked the way these last two look. 

As you can see, the range of buildings runs from impressive to modest, but each is a page out of history. There is a personal story behind each of these structures. We pass some of them each day without giving a thought to what that story is. Let's take a moment to appreciate the people who helped to build this city, and left their mark.        -djf

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I learned something recently that I'd like to pass on. Allie told us about it during one of our trips to the Pop-Up Globe Theatre to see a Shakespeare play. We don't know if it is true, but if you do any research at all, you'll find a number of sites that report it, so....

London, in Shakespeare's day, was filthy. For one thing, there was no sewage system and as a result, the city and Thames River were putrid to an unimaginable degree. 

Shakespeare's plays were performed at the Globe Theatre. There was a another theatre, a competitor of the Globe, called the Rose. It apparently had some sewage problems.

The story goes that Shakespeare, when he wrote his famous line for Romeo and Juliet, about a rose smelling as 'sweet' by any other name, meant it also as a dig at the rival theatre and their odor problem. The crowds at The Globe must have loved that, if it is true. 

Of course, The Globe Theatre was next to the river and could not have smelled all that great itself. 

It's a good story. I hope it's true. Double entendres are fun. Any Shakespeare scholars out there? What about this?  
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I've got to tell you how we start each month here. It's a tradition in our house for the boys to approach each of us adults and give us 'a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month.' 

Very gently of course. Sweet kids.  

Met a new friend the other day....

On June 24th, a parrot came to lunch at our house. Well, not actually at our house of course. It chose to dine in our front yard.  We have a tree (Rademachera sinica) there that is commonly called, depending on your background or preference, china doll, emerald tree or serpent tree. It grows enormous, long seed pods that clearly, parrots like very much.

At about 2 p.m., as Jeanne was descending the stairs from our room, she spotted this bird in our emerald tree. Most of the seed pods on the tree had already been either opened by other species of birds that eat them, or had simply matured, dried out and split open. 

Fortunately for both the parrot and us, there were enough unopened pods still available that the bird was able to make a very hearty meal from our tree while Jeanne delighted in its antics and I happily 'clicked' away beside her.  

Here is my record of its short visit with us. 

This is the tree it was in.

The seed pods. Easy to see why it is sometimes called the serpent tree. 

Empty, dried out pods...look like shed snakeskins. 

There it is...

Because I was only one step down from the top of the stairs to our room, I was in place to get some good pictures of it from its own level. These turned out pretty well for having been taken at an angle through the window glass. 

What a bird, huh?                

Are you curious about what sort of seeds he's eating? It's hard to tell positively from the photos.  I wanted a better look and so opened one up. It was a surprise. (But it explained the picture just above.) 

I had imagined that they might look something like bean seeds but I couldn't have been more mistaken. Here is a photo of one I opened up on our kitchen table.      -djf

BTW, today's visitor reminds me that 'Talk like a Pirate Day' is coming up. September 19th  is the date.