OLD FOLKS' BOOGIE

 OLD FOLKS BOOGIE - LITTLE FEAT

"Off our rockers, actin' crazy
With the right medication we won't be lazy
Doin' the old folks boogie
Down on the farm
Wheelchairs, they was locked arm in arm
Paired off pacemakers with matchin' alarms
Gives us jus' one more chance
To spin one more yarn
And you know that you're over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill
Doin' the old folks boogie
And boogie we will
'Cause to us the thought's as good as a thrill
Back at the home,
No time is your own,
Facilities there, they're all out on loan
The bank foreclose, and your bankruptcy shows
And your credit creeps to an all-time low
So you know, that you're over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill
Try and get a rise from an atrophied muscle,
And the nerves in your thigh just quivers and fizzles
So you know, that you're over the hill
When your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill."

Marvellous - I love those lyrics.

Well we had our 'old folks boogie' on Monday.

The Old Girl and I were booked for our first Covid-19 shot at 3PM  in town. The plan was to do this, then do some shopping and finally the supermarket with an expectation that it would be about 6PM by the time we'd finish and then we would go to a restaurant to celebrate my birthday. The Covid-19 vaccinators were so efficient that we were through within a half hour and had been to Briscoes, The Warehouse, Rebel Sport and Countdown supermarket by about 4.15. "Never mind" said The Old Girl, we'll just have an early dinner.

My thoughts went to an old Seinfeld episode where Jerry was visiting his parents in Florida:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL

I asked The Old Girl if we could get an old folks discount. She gave me THAT look. 

We went to the Town Basin, parked and had a look around before going to a restaurant. The basin is looking good and soon will look a lot better when the Hundertwasser Museum is finished and open. It will attract a lot of cafes, boutiques and interesting retail.

This is a polarising project with about a 50:50 split between people who have embraced the project and the rest who are narrow-minded, pedestrian, soulless scrotes who wouldn't recognise art and culture if it bit them on the bum.  Yes, I know, I might be a bit biased in that observation.

Whangarei is a city in trouble with more than its fair share of unemployment, lack of cheap housing, crime and social issues which will be exacerbated with the closure of Marsden Point refinery (400 jobs disappearing). It is going to have to embrace the future in terms of new opportunities, tourism (initially domestic and, maybe someday, international) and to get over being a poor town with a hand out to government. That's been a disastrous approach by too many small cities and towns in NZ. Whangarei has a great opportunity to distance itself from all of the failed rural centres with nothing more to offer than big statues of cows, carrots, soft-drink bottles and  old rugby heroes. Let's move on.

Anyway, we went to the restaurant of our choice The Quay (a good one that we've been to many times) only to discover that, at 4.30 the 'dinner menu' hadn't started (5PM) and we would have to order from the 'bar menu'. No problem as, looking at the 'bar menu' there were a few things that we were happy with including our favourite wines.

But, problem.

We  waited at the table that we'd been directed to and no-one came near us. There were plenty of staff milling around doing stuff - setting tables, lighting heaters for outside, moving tables etc. but - totally ignoring us, We'd already decided what we wanted to drink and eat within a couple of minutes. We looked at each other and agreed, after 10 minutes, to leave. We got up and left. On exiting, finally, a staff member asked The Old Girl if there was a problem and T.O.G. said that if they didn't want our business we would go somewhere else. 

We wandered over to LOCO which is a Mexican-themed restaurant. We had no issues with service and the food was excellent. I had a Mexican style Caesar salad and The Old Girl had beef cheek tacos. Both were great.

We quickly ordered our glass of wine each as we knew exactly what we wanted. The wine list is identical to The Quay's list as both places are owned by the same restaurant group. We had already decided on our chardonnays before getting huffy and leaving the other place.

Sometimes you just have to make a point - don't you?

When we had finished and left I checked the time - ten past five!

We wandered about the area for a bit before going back to the car.

It's an interesting area - The Town Basin, with the restaurants looking over the marina, children's play area, craft shops including one that does glass blowing that's open to the public, and a clock museum. Yes, you heard me, a clock museum.

The clock museum on the right and the clocktower on the left.

Now the more observant reader, or indeed any reader still reading might notice that the clocktower reads ten to five. It was actually ten past five! Sheesh! You'd think that a clock outside a clock museum would be correct.

Maybe it's because, if all of the clocks in the museum were on-time, pandemonium would break out at the top of every hour.