4 January 2025

Okay. Having got up to date with my blog, now I’ve got to try to stay up to date. Wish me luck everyone.

This morning, I had to go to the toilet about 6.30. Does everyone remember those roller hand towels in public toilets? The ones that you had to pull on both sides so the wet & dirty towel was sucked up into the rear of the holding unit and you revealed the sterile(?) clean one to dry your hands on? They’ve got them here in the Jailhouse Accommodation. So, this morning, I washed my hands, pulled on the towel, and pulled the end out of the holding unit.

Okay. So this is a problem. Not a major, but still a problem. So I went down to the reception desk. Naturally, there wasn’t anyone there. There was a telephone with instructions on what to do in case of an emergency. This wasn’t an emergency, but it was important for hygiene reasons. If they’d had another way of leaving a note or something, I would have done that, but I rang the urgent line and got a very tired sounding “warden” on the line, who, for some reason, didn’t think this was urgent and said that the cleaning clue would change it when they did their rounds between 10.00am and midday.

I did feel bad about waking him up.

Except…

I went to use the toilet early this afternoon, i.e. after midday. And the towel hadn’t been changed. So I went back down to the reception desk and told the guy there. It turned out that he was the one I’d woken up and I was able to apologise again, but also tell him that the cleaning crew hadn’t done what he’d said they’d do. So he went and changed the roll.

I didn’t feel so bad after that.

These toilets are communal and seem to follow the jail ethic, whilst actually being suitable for modern living. They are stainless steel, but with plastic seats for comfort. And the cubicles are cramped with only just room there for you to sit. Except for the one just inside the door which, as it was dedicated to smaller people I used the first day. This one has the door recessed from the rest, which means that even someone my height almost has to sit side-saddle. I only used it the once.

Today was a quiet day, but it didn’t mean that it wasn’t an enjoyable one. Firstly, we were due to meet my friend, Mary, who’d managed to free up her very busy diary from 10am to 11.15. We’d arranged to meet her at a café that was close by and I, not wanting to hold her up or cut into our chatting time, was eager to get moving at 9.50. So much so that, when I realised that I didn’t have my sunglasses (they were in my raincoat, of course), decided that I’d better squint rather than go and get them. Pen, infuriatingly, kept on “mucking about” and doing things.

Finally, she was ready to go, and I started looking at Google Maps as we walked along the road to find out what direction we needed to be headed. That was until we got to the corner and Pen told me that the café here was the one we were looking for.

Mary was already inside, and we said hello and I was able to thank her in person for all she’d done for D.C. She said that she still has D.C.’s number in her phone and that, even though she has a couple of other Frances’ in there, she doesn’t want to delete D.C.’s number because she wants to keep thinking about her. Which was lump in the throat stuff.

We had a good chat, catching up on what we’re all up to and then Mary offered to give us a ride to the CBD and show us the highlights. This was great because I wasn’t expecting such an offer, since Mary had to get away, plus, it gave us the opportunity to get the lay of the land.

But all too soon our get together was at an end. Mary, having been on night shift, needed to get home and get some sleep. She dropped us off at the Jailhouse Accommodation, and we headed in to get some much needed laundry done.

This meant that we had to hang around the hostel for a bit, so we got photos of the building whilst the laundry was going through its washing cycle.

There are two cats here, Pumpkin the calico, and Onion. This one’s Onion.

Then, whilst the laundry was drying, we watched the new Aardman stop motion Wallace and Gommit film, “Vengeance Most Fowl” on the Jailhouse’s Netflix connected TV.

Lunchtime was after 1.00 pm and we went to a very nice café over the road and bought a sandwich and some kombucha back to the jailhouse to enjoy in the sun.

This afternoon, now that we had a better idea where we were going, Pen and I went for a walk back to the CBD. This was basically mooching and sightseeing – aside from when we went into the Riverside Market and found a chocolate shop, and then spent the next ten minutes trying to decide what to buy.

We walked along the Avon River and came upon the memorial to all the 185 people who died as a result of the 2011 Canterbury Earthquake. It was quite a sombre feeling, reading all those names, some of which were recorded in the victim’s native language.

Further on is a statue. Naturally, Pen had to get photos of Scott of the Antarctic alongside his namesake cast in marble. (Sir Robert Falcon Scott. Funny how the guy who failed is commemorated and remembered, but, in this country, you hardly hear about the guy who won. – Amundson.)

Then poor old earthquake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral is looking really sad, all propped up and with scaffolding and protective coatings all around it. I hope it doesn’t stay mothballed for too long.

Following this route meant that we also followed the tram tracks and trams rumbled past on occasion. We were keen to get have a ride, but it is $40 per ticket. Admittedly, you can get off and on as often as you like, but by this stage it was starting to get too late to get full value for the ticket. The Tramway Restaurant would be great too (D.C. and I did it last century and I think you do about three loops of the track whilst you have your five course meal), and at $149 per person, including welcome drink, in some ways was better value.

But we didn’t do that.

We came back to the hotel, offloaded our gear, and went hunting for dinner. We did a bit of phone surfing and decided that Maxine’s Palace sounded like a good (if odd) place to get Chinese takeaways.

I had a distinct sense of déjà vu as we walked in, and I wonder if that’s where D.C. and I had dinner after a trip on the TranzAlpine once.

We ordered a half-sized fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and chicken noodles (sadly, not with a lot of vegetables) and then brought them back to the Jailhouse. The three dishes were too much for us to eat, so we left them out with a note that anyone else was welcome to take the leftovers. When Pen went down to tidy them away at 9.00pm, the pork and noodles had gone – hopefully to a grateful “inmate”.

After tea, we watched more highly intellectual viewing. “Shaun the Sheep – the Flight Before Christmas” as I hadn’t seen it before.

And then it was blog typing time.

We’re doing the TranzAlpine tomorrow!

Steps = 19429

Kilometres = 13